Archive | August, 2011

Alley Profile In VC Reporter

25 Aug

Last Thursday Michel Cicero of the VC Reporter contacted me to ask for an interview. I’d dropped off a copy of my book Middle of the Night Poems for her to review but she said she wanted to do more than just write about the book, she wanted to do a feature on me, my wine blogging, the ArtRides I lead and more.

Of course I said yes. We had a great time conversing on the phone and before we knew it, we had talked for almost two hours and she had more than enough material for her interview.

All she needed was a photo. Hmmn. I knew I needed professional photos but I still hadn’t made the time to get some.

What was I going to do?

The next night, on my friend Lucy Williams suggestion, Brooks photo student Gabriel Romero (http://GabrielRomeroMedia.com) called wondering if I’d be willing to sit for a portrait assignment. Sure, I said–but could we do it right away so I’d have something for Michel?

He came over that night and I showed him the house my grandfather built in 1961 complete with a wine cellar that everyone thought was a bomb shelter.

I wanted to take some portraits for my wine blog Wine Predator in his wine cellar and I thought they’d be fun for Michel’s article too. It would be cramped but he figured he could do it so we made plans for the next night to shoot.

It took about an hour to set up the lights in the cellar and then we shot for another two hours trying different poses, wardrobe and lighting. It was strange but fun too.

In the end, he submitted the photo at top and middle to his teacher for the assignment and the bottom one to show his lighting set-up; I submitted both to Michel and the one on top she used–which was one of the last ones we took!

Here’s a link to the article: Gwendolyn Alley: creative types by Michel Cicero VC Reporter Aug. 25, 2011.

So here’s the take-away–if you haven’t yet, get professional photos done! You never know when you’re going to need one! My only regret is I didn’t make time to have someone do my hair and make-up!

PS The golden liquid in my glass is a sherry from the silver bottle to my left. It was a gift to my grandfather from the year I was born…and I am drinking it while I write this.

Also, I will be reading and signing books Th. Sept. 15 at 7:15pm at Bank of Books on Main just east of downtown Ventura. You can also buy a print of ebook from Amazon or the publisher en theos press.



Tuesday Tips: Network, network, network!

23 Aug

Last week, I joined the No More Nylons group for a Women’s Business Social at La Fonte in Ojai and I took some pictures (that’s Jodi in red).

The evening weather was glorious, the pinot grigio (pictured) cold  and excellent, my ceasar salad crisp and refreshing, and the several people who ordered pizzas were very happy (mmn the pizzas smelled so good! I’ve eaten there before and highly recommend it!)

While the location, the staff, the wine and food were all top-notch, we all really came for the company–to be in the company of a group of dynamic women in business who came to meet each other and help each other along.

I had a great conversation with Lisa Casoni who I had recommended to someone looking for a videographer. We talked about that project but then we got into discussing some other ideas. We finally had to drag ourselves off to other commitments!

Tomorrow the Women’s Business Social meets in downtown Ventura at Tutti’s just off Main at Palm. They have a courtyard also and it should be a nice warm summer night.

Tuttis off main
34 N Palm Street
Ventura, California

Women’s Business Socials always meet from 6-8pm. The next one in Ojai is Tues Sept 6 at

Ojai Beverage Company
655 East Ojai Avenue, Ojai, CA 93023
Ojai, CA

They are held monthly locally and less often in places including New York and London.

Green Drinks in Ventura is getting off the ground again; they meet this Friday from 6-9pm at

The Refill Shoppe
1068 E. Main St.
Ventura, CA
This network gathering is also social and for people in green businesses or with green interests. Here’s the facebook event link.

Heather Gold’s Tools for “Tummeling” at WordCamp SF 2011

14 Aug

So I’m still writing from WordCamp SF 2011 where, following Matt Mullenweg’s “State of the Word” presentation and feasting at lunch, now I’m at a workshop titled “Tools for Tummeling.”

Tummeling? What’s tummeling? I asked at the WordCamp registration desk.The young man looked bewildered. “I don’t know,” he answered. “Have you checked the program?”

So I did: there I learned that “Tummeling” is the Yiddish word for the act of engaging an audience. The presentation is by Heather Gold an “artist, comic, speaker and talk show host best known for her ability to work the room.” (more…)

Jeff Veen’s Brief Explanation of the Web: by way of a narrative about ice & gold

14 Aug

Jeff Veen

“How the Web Works“ Jeff Veen, along with Greg Veen, is a co-founder of Typekit.

“The web is going to be more like the way that we live and not just the way that we work” @Veen #wcsf

Back in the day, no one had cold drinks–except in winter–until someone, a doctor, figured out how to make ice which helped people. But it was up to an entrepreneur to figure out how to get it to people–how to  store it, and market it. Not to make cold drinks but to repserve food and thereby to make it safer and people healthier. (And the really brilliant idea wasn’t to deliver ice to people but to deliver a way to make your own ice to the people–good health and cold drinks!

You might have noticed that gold is heavy. (Well, maybe you’ve never been lucky enough to hold enough gold in your hand to notice its weight!) The race was on to ship it, move it quickly and safely from point A to B. The brilliant idea that changed how we deal with gold was when someone realized that you didn’t have to physically move the gold. You could keep ledgers of the gold and transfer it. Wealth became data and the industry transformed.

The web, Jeff Veen argues, is no longer about selling assets but providing services that makes experiencing what’s on the web seamless.

How can we make sure that we are looking at the web in a way that will keep us relevant as the race =for tech change increases?

The qualities that contribute to the web are what will make us users successful.

He tells a story about how competitive the web was and how showing running code built consensus. His story concludes with the lesson to listen to and work with your user base. You might want to get it out as soon as possible–so do it! And get feedback. And when you do, don’t apologize.

The speed of iteration beats quality of iteration.

Here are some quotes he shared during his presentation which support this concept:

Be liberal in what you accept and conservative in what you send. Jon Postel

Small pieces loosely joined….can accomplish amazing things. (?? will find out)

Information wants to be free. Stewart Brand.

We put everything, even our most previous memories, our photos on the web. We trust the web. It’s available, it’s democratic.

And it’s about to spill out of our computers.

All of the data we’ve been aggregating everywhere together is going to be available everywhere.

The web works best when it’s free and available for everyone. People are selfish. But those selfish people will lose out in the end.

Well that’s it for the first session! Food blogging is next! I’m going to post that over on Wine Predator–share the wealth…

Sorry for typos –just trying to get it out! (Oh, wait –what was that Jeff said? Don’t apologize?? Just do it! So here it is!)

Welcome to WordCamp SF 2011!

14 Aug
Time Here’s the program–and what I’ll be doingand blogging about today!Information and Inspiration How-to, Tips, and Tricks
9:00am
Opening Remarks
9:05am
9:45am
10:25am
11:10am
State Of The Word
12:45pm
Lunch! BBQ Buffet on the Terrace
2:30pm
Lightning Sessions
Lightning Sessions
3:00pm
3:45pm
4:30pm
IRL FTW! Organizing Meetups and WordCamps
5:15pm
Closing Remarks

WordCampSF 2011 Arrives!

13 Aug

WordPress sponsors WordCamps around the world but the granddaddy of them all takes place once a year in San Francisco.

And that event is this weekend August 12-14, 2011!

It’s a lot of fun as you might guess from my WordPress tattoo which earned me a WordPress moleskin journal in 2008!

This year on Friday WordCampSF offered a new users workshop. If you missed this full day of learning how to blog, and you’d like me to tutor you, let me know! I can teach you!

Saturday is for developers and Sunday is for content creators.

It’s all sold out but you can still attend by joining the livestream and following along the conversation and main points on Twitter. Check out the hashtags #wordcampsf and #wcsf. You might also check out @kashaziz suggestion that there’s a crowdsourced collection of slides from #wcsf here – lanyrd.com/2011/wordcamps…. People can sign in with Twitter to add more.

I attended and “live” blogged sessions at WordCampSF in 2008 and 2009 (plus WordCampLA 2009); it’s just worked out for me to go tomorrow for Sunday’s session, so subscribe to this site (and Art Predator!) and you’ll get what to me are the most important highlights.

Here are some of my blog posts from previous WordCamp Sessions as originally posted over at Art Predator. As I review them, I realize how much I’ve learned from going to WordCamp and I’m excited about learning more tomorrow!

WordCampLA 2009

September 12, 2009Live Blogging From WordCamp LA 2009

September 13, 2009Ben Huh: guess some lol cats thought my blog post was a cheezburgr & ate it

September 12, 2009Andrew Warner: Using video instead of relying on text to convey your message

September 12, 2009Jim Turner: Never Fear, Genuine is Here! Or how to pay your mortgage by blogging

September 12, 2009Ben Huh: your best bet is just to google my name

September 12, 2009Failure is Job One: Micah Baldwin says “Go to the SEO panel”

September 12, 2009I’m Shayne: WordPress MU & WP ecommerce

September 12, 2009Live Blogging From WordCamp LA 2009

WordCampSF 2009

WordCampSF 2008

Tuesday Tips: 12 Tips To Get More Traffic aka Readers

9 Aug

Bloggers come in three camps:

1. those who are terrified of having readers (this includes many of my college students!)

2. those who are actively searching for readers, and

3. those who are sincerely really writing for themselves (or their friends/family) and if readers come, they don’t really care.

Most people are in camp #2 especially if they’re trying to draw attention to their business, their brand, the goods and services they offer.

Lots of people charge big money to help you get traffic. Don’t do it! (Don’t pay people to get your twitter followers either. Here’s Peter Shankman on why.)

But what do you really need to do to get readers to come to your website to blog?

The following blog post from WordPress offers 12 great ideas. Some of these suggestions are specific to WordPress users, but many are not.

And of course what’s most important? You must have something worthwhile to say, you must say it regularly (at least once a week–Gary Vaynerchuck says at least daily!), and you must say it well! (If you’re on WordPress and you want some feedback on a draft, remember you can always request feedback from me! I’m a writing coach, remember, and that’s what I’m here for!)

While I do my best to post here at least once a week, I am also posting several times a week on my other blogs: Art Predator, Bikergo Gal, Compassionate Rebel, and Wine Predator. I’d love to follow Gary Vaynerchuk’s advice and blog daily every where but it’s just not possible. I used to post EVERYTHING on Art Predator (25-45 posts a month!) and periodically I consider going back to one blog meets all but this way people who have interests in one area can subscribe and just get those posts.

As soon as a blogger publishes their first post, their first question is: Where’s all my traffic? Everyone assumes they’re the only one seeking attention, when in truth nearly everyone is. It takes time to build an audience and no one gets much traffic without putting in the effort. Here at WordPress.com we want you to get more traffic, and we build features and services to help. … Read More

via WordPress.com News

Tuesday Tips: PS I Love You

2 Aug

A huge benefit of being a writer is being invited to write about topics you love. This summer I get to research and write about wine!

Which leads me to today’s tip: if you’re struggling on a writing project, find what it is that you love about it and start from there. Be effusive! Start with what’s easy, warm up and go from there. You don’t have to begin at the beginning!

For the past three weeks, I’ve been traveling in Idaho, Washington, Oregon, and California doing research for my project about wine and family and sustainability (and I sure am coming home with some great stories!).

Last Monday I attended the 80th birthday dinner for Jim Concannon at Concannon Winery in Livermore. Last Tuesday I attended the 9th annual Petite Sirah Symposium and tasted through dozens of amazing wines. During last week, I did a lot of writing and some tasting in Sonoma and plan to do some more in Santa Cruz. Read more about it all over at Wine Predator.

I head home tomorrow! I hope you are having a wonderful summer!

PS I Love You: Let me count the ways! It is unfortunate but true that people are typically unfamiliar with the marvels of Petite Sirah. Hence the need for a Petite Sirah advocacy group like PS I Love You and for events like Dark & Delicious. I’m fortunate that I was turned on to Petite Sirah back in my days working at Ridge and that I put a bottle of Storrs PS away in th … Read More

via Wine Predator

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