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“Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.” – Cesar A. Cruz You’ve written your masterpiece, your crown jewel, your opus magnum (Latin for “great work”), your opus maius (Latin for “greater work”). And intentional or not, with 8.2 billion people on Earth as of 2025, you simply cannot avoid offending someone, somewhere. So…

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“Marketing is telling the world you’re a rock star. Content Marketing is showing the world you are one.” – Robert Rose Congratulations on writing your book. And as many authors quickly discover, completing your manuscript is just the beginning of your journey. Both new and experienced authors face a spectrum of challenges after writing a…

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“The beautiful part of writing is that you don’t have to get it right the first time, unlike, say, a brain surgeon.” – Robert Cormier If you’re a new writer hoping to find your authentic voice without writing half a dozen books first, this article is for you. It’s funny how a simple question in…

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Reading Scores Have Declined to Early 1990s Levels Three Decades of Educational Progress Erased “Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning.” – Benjamin Franklin The Crisis Reading scores have declined to Early 1990s levels. Students today score approximately where students scored in 1992. Three decades of educational…

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2024 = Lowest 12th Grade Reading Scores Ever Reported The Crisis: The 2024 average 12th grade reading scores represent the LOWEST EVER REPORTED in the entire 32-year history of the National Assessment of Educational Progress. This isn’t a continuation of decline. This is the worst performance on record. Current high school seniors are the least-prepared…

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“Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.” – Eleanor Roosevelt Go to Hollywood and everyone you meet has written a great script, so that goes to show you fantastic story ideas are a dime a dozen, but not anything that should concern you. When two or more writers tackle the…

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The Average 8th Grader Scores 258 Out of 500 Points on National Reading Tests The Crisis: The average 8th grader scores 258 out of 500 points on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reading test. The proficiency threshold is 281 points. That means the average middle school student still falls 23 points short of…

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