My heart is open
My heart is free
It thinks of you
Your warm embrace
It aches for you
Your loving touch
It remembers you and the secrets we share
It touches me in a way nothing else can
I love how my heart misses you because it means I will always return

Written for my new love Dominica

You can checkout their YouTube page which is getting more and more visits from around the world.

What a blessing it is to be alive…

Music & Lionz

This is almost an aucoustic song and I love it…

YouTube Channel

http://www.youtube.com/user/lapwetpointemichel

My sights are on 2012 being my next visit to Dominica – this time with the kids rather than on my own – unless someone wants to invite me back to speak of course which is always a pleasure to do on any Caribbean island.

This is the talk I gave on the day.

My visit to Portsmouth with a whole bunch of family that I had only just met

I was always obsessed with the view and took loads of video of the moutains and surroundings – great for me – boring for anyone else!

Next time I will make sure I take loads of photos too because I didn’t get any and I still have a few more videos to put together which show Fond St Jean – the place I will be setting up home in Dominica.

You can buy the album here

http://www.reverbnation.com/cameronpierre

Our favourite songs – Room 115 and Another Star

Find more videos like this on Dominican Diaspora

http://www.dominican-diaspora.com/profile/Caesarina

I was listening to her poem ‘I am David’ which is on Youtube

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNQ99puqSxY&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

Ceez has done an excellent job at getting herself online. Here blog is here

http://ceezpaul.wordpress.com/

and on her blog you will see that she has promoted her book on Facebook and Twitter – as well as selling the eBook version of her book through SmashWords

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/93862

She is doing all she can to promote herself and with consistent effort and continually connecting to people I have no doubt she will be able to sell them. The key is to do A LOT of work at the beginning so eventually you can slow down as the book sales start to come in but I am telling you it really is A LOT of work to promote yourself online.

I know people get online and think it will be easy because there are thousands of people but there is an old advertising rule that says people need to see something seven times or more people they take action so if you think of all those thousands of people you need to try and be in their mind and eye level at least seven times – that works out to be a lot of work on promotion!

Is it worth it – of course! When you receive emails knowing people around the world are buying your book one after another. You just need to be patience.

What can help is if you give a free copy to influencial people you know and ask them to write a review on their blog. Of course there is no guarantee they will do that but if they have a lot of people reading their blog already it can make a difference.

You can also think about trying to get yourself interviewed on online radio stations. People are always looking for material and it can really make a difference.

I will be promoting my own eBook soon which will be on Amazon Kindle. I already have one on their that covers the online marketing work I do but this one will focus on the work I do helping women raise their self confidence… will talk more about that soon.

In the meantime check out Ceez’s book

What’s On Your Mind – Diary of a self-esteemed woman

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/93862

If you pay using paypal it doesn’t show you that you are paying for the book as you checkout but then you get taken back to the book once you have paid.

I read this great article by Ayeola George called “If I were in Dominica for Independence 2011″ that I thought I would share – you can click here to read it.

I haven’t had the pleasure of being in Dominica yet at this time of the year and until my youngest isn’t in school I guess it is not going to happen but it is only another 4 years to wait before I can be at my first and as my birthday is a couple of days later it will be a great way to celebrate. By then I will be close to 50… what a thought

There is music, food, dance, good company and plenty of people around – all the things that Dominica do so very well.

I need to get myself back there in 2012! The video below isn’t from independence celebrations but from when I was at the literary festival in 2010…. just remembering….

If you are not a member you can join here at

http://www.dominican-diaspora.com

Do you have a connection with the Commonwealth… by DianeCorriette

Not sure how many members it has now but it is definitely over 8,000!

“don’t worry man… you just defrosting….”

The first time I heard that was on my arrival at Portsmouth where I stayed at the beautiful I laughed out loud. That is exactly what you feel like – as if you are sweating out everything you left behind…. work, bills, things to sort out… it is holiday time and while relaxing my body was also releasing.

So I embraced my defrost and I was only in Dominica for two weeks yet it took one and a half to defrost so that tells me next time I need longer!

He’s from Dominica and he rang me and asked me something that inspired me to write this blog post. The question focused on what would get me back to Dominica. Now it is my intention to go back and stay during the England winter months but I could actually go anywhere hot in the world – or any other island in the Caribbean. So why go back to Dominica? Well because of something very important….

As human we have two sets of needs that must be met.

The first and most important set of those needs are the survival needs – air, food and shelter – assuming those needs are met we then have a very important need that isn’t necessarily a survival one but it could sit in that batch and that is belonging/love.

Without love and a sense of belonging let’s face it life would be extermely lonely and it is this “need to belong” that could bring many of us back to Dominica because the government are eager for professionals to return. To be honest it is the ONLY reason I will return to Dominica. If I was someone without connection to the Caribbean I may choose one of the more established islands with a stronger infrastructure but for me Dominica is a place where I can say I belong – because of my family heritage I have a place I know is part of me. I also have England and my children are here so I am blessed with having two places of connection but despite growing up here I have always felt a little like I am here but I don’t really belong here. It is better now than it used to be but I always felt like a “visitor” – especially if I went to the seaside or to places where people of colour were not in abundance!

So, if the government does want to attract professional people from the Diaspora back to Dominica they can offer incentives, they can do things to make the roads better they can work on things like that or they can focus on making it an emotional pull – and we all know emotion sells far more than logic!

Reconnecting us to our roots and letting us know that we are wanted and belong to Dominica is – in my humble opinion – one of the best ways to get us taking a look at whether we want to return.

What do you think of that? Maybe people don’t want us back? Any opinions on that.

He let me know that he is playing alongside Courtney Pine at Ronnie Scott’s on 3-4th March 2011 – so I am going along on the 4th March to watch them. I have always wanted to go to Ronnie Scott’s and never managed it plus I don’t normally go out alone but I have been to see Cameron a couple of times on my own and it’s not that bad.

So that is something to look forward to that’s for sure. You can find out more about Courtney Pine at Ronnie Scott’s <== click the link