One hates an author that's all author.  ~ Lord Byron

    In April of 2011, Amazon sold 105 Kindle books for every 100 printed books sold, and that fact raises an interesting question for most authors. How does a writer get to know the reading public, and get those readers interested in purchasing, without the old stand-byes like book signings and readings? Those type of events also get people seeing our names and people talking about us. So, I think writers need public interaction with their readers, but that can be accomplished in venues other than bookstores which may be on their way out. Today, writers must also have online connections with readers. But, it doesn’t matter whether the interaction is in physical reality or virtual reality, approachability is the key.

   Approachability requires a number of characteristics from an author. The first requires reaching out to other people in a human or equal manner. Often I’ve seen authors with what I can only call a superiority complex because they’re writers. In the virtual world, I see that attitude a lot on FaceBook and Twitter with writers expecting “followers” and “fans,” but they never “follow back” or interact on a personal level with “fans.”  In the physical situations such as signing, writers must also remember that the fans who come to buy their books are also people of value with their own talents and very much worth individual attention.

   Welcoming new faces, experiences, and different perspectives adds to each of our lives — and, for writers, adds more material in our brains to draw from when creating, which brings me to the next characteristic of approachability. Our willingness to simply let our passions show, and all writers have a passion for writing or they wouldn’t be writers! I know many writers worry about talking a lot about their passions for fear of being thought “weird.” Face it, we’re writers and we are weird, but showing passion is one of the best ways to make new friends!

   It might seem obvious, though it appears not to be, but smiling is the most powerful characteristic of being approachable. Whether a writer is posting a picture for a bio online or at a book signing, a sincere smile on the face makes other people comfortable. If we think about our own experiences with new people, we’ll realize that genuinely happy people are much more approachable than unhappy people and we instantly feel friendlier around them.

   When we have our own inner happiness, we attract others without even trying. It's that smile thing, I think.  Sure ways of carrying such happiness around inside ourselves are to reach out to help someone who needs it, volunteer our services, or just pay attention when others speak with the sure knowledge that what they have to say is important to them. We can do many of these things in the virtual world with just a few words, a re-tweet, sharing a post, or answering a message. It only takes a minute or two of our time to let others know they matter to us.

My second rule was "Keep positive beliefs and free yourself from stress." So, what do positive thoughts and eliminating stress have to do with staying young? Well, the answer to that makes this a very scientific blog about telomeres, DNA, and main stream medical research.  It’s pretty dry stuff, I guess, so I’ll keep this one as short as I can.

It seems that every cell contains a tiny clock called a telomere, ticking down to the end of cell division.  The telomere shortens each time the cell divides, and short telomeres are linked to whole list of diseases -- and aging. Cells do, however, have an enzyme, called telomerase, which keeps immune cells young by preserving their telomere length and ability to continue dividing.  But according to UCLA scientists, the stress hormone cortisol suppresses immune cells' ability to activate their telomerase, which helps us understand why the cells of persons under chronic stress have shorter telomeres and at least one part of the mind body connection.

The question is do positive thoughts affect stress enough to prevent the stress hormone cortisol from stopping our telomerase from activating to protect our telomeres?   It seems that the answer is yes.  A seven year study on the level of positive thinking in relationship to the level of frailty in older adults was recently conducted through the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston.  The final report concluded that people who scored high on positive affect (or positive thinking) were significantly less likely to become frail.  Researchers speculated that positive thinking may directly affect health via chemical and neural responses that help maintain an overall health balance and that positive thinking can have a beneficial effect on people’s health by increasing a person’s intellectual, physical, psychological and social resources.

Some Institute of HeartMath researchers conducted tests to determine if human emotion actually physically alters human DNA at a cellular level. Those researchers concluded that emotion causes the DNA molecule to either “wind” or “unwind.” This altering either does aging type damage to the body or healing of the body: “Oh, he was so young to have a heart attack!”  “Isn’t she looking younger and healthier these days?” The change can be negative or positive to the body, depending on the thought that creates the emotion combined with the power of the emotion.

Many studies have shown the effects of stress on people’s health. Being stressed or extremely negative can bring on high blood pressure, ulcers, and many other problems that can lead to life threatening conditions. One of the primary ways to handle or eliminate stress is positive thinking. How do we think positive when stressful situations come along? Here’s an example: I get laid-off and immediately start thinking about all the negative things that could happen as a result, so I start feeling high levels of stress. STOP. I immediately change those thoughts to how to solve immediate problems and search for a job where I’ll be much happier with my work and maybe make more money and feeling of stress decrease. I envision a positive outcome.  Usually, I have to do that STOP step over and over.

Other than the medically proven physical benefits of positive thinking and stress elimination, here’s a final thought.  Positive thinking keeps us on focus to do the other things needed for staying young, such as eating right, drinking plenty of water each day, moving our bodies, getting enough sleep, etc. I know without those positive thoughts, I start to wobble on my commitment to healthy living. So, we all have a choice: think about the negative or think about the positive. If we just give positive thinking a try, we may find that it really does help us stay healthier and younger in physical age even as our chronological age keeps getting higher.