Ivory Madison's Blog
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Mar.05.2013
This post was written while wearing my internet CEO hat (sounds attractive, no?). I welcome questions from Red Roomers about what does or doesn't apply to authors and publishing houses. For example, authors value self-expression, and some publishing houses, like Red Room Press, value the spread of...
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May.07.2012
You know how sometimes you read a book and it changes your entire perspective on the world? I want to introduce you to the author of a book on my personal list of those books. The book is Tribal Leadership and the author is Dave Logan.
Dave and my husband, Abraham Mertens, became friends over the...
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1 comment
Nov.08.2011
Here in San Francisco, today is Election Day. I received an email from Bay Area NOW, the local chapter of the National Organization for Women, reminding me how recent of a phenomenon women voting really is. Here's what they wrote:
A Short History Lesson on the Privilege of Voting
...
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3 comments
Oct.24.2011
I have what may have the best news for traditionally published authors ever. In addition to what your publisher pays you, Red Room now pays you more than your publisher does on your existing books, and we’ll introduce you to the people buying them. This is going to change everything.
Okay,...
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Aug.13.2011
Our team has been working behind the scenes for more than a year to launch what you're looking at now: Red Room 2.0! It's exactly like the pilot for the Six Million Dollar Man. No, nothing like that, but as I said in my "Latest News" (a new feature on Red Room for Premium Members--it's like a tweet...
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11 comments
Jun.29.2010
I've been asked to speak at Stanford University lately, first for their Publishing Course, then for a writers conference, and then I was asked to speak at their Graduate School of Business, where I got to meet and lecture/train some of their writing coaches and faculty. (Apparently, I am an expert...
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2 comments
May.09.2010
On Red Room, we probably have more feminist writer moms than any other online community, so happy Mother’s day to all of you! In 1870, Julia Ward Howe, the famous writer, poet, and suffragist made her famous Mother’s Day Proclamation:
“Arise, then, women of this day! Arise all women who have...
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8 comments
Jan.16.2010
(If I followed this checklist below, I'd never make mistakes.)
In addition to being CEO of Red Room, I do writing coaching with private clients, and sometimes do larger trainings and teaching, which includes traditional editing. I charge on the high side of what writing coaches charge, so often,...
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15 comments
Jan.11.2010
Abe and I recently hosted a thank-you afternoon tea for Huntington and Jennifer, a small gesture that doesn't even begin to express how grateful we are for their devoted service to the Red Room community. They know everyone on Red Room and provide incredible support and assistance. So we tried to ...
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20 comments
Dec.09.2009
Wilson Bentley was born near end of winter in 1865. He was schooled at home by his mother, on a farm in small-town Vermont. His mother encouraged his interests, and against her husband’s wishes, she bought their son the tools he needed—a microscope and a camera—to make one of the most profound and...
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5 comments
Aug.27.2009
Last year, my husband and I were in Washington, DC, on inauguration day. As we were driving to a friend’s house, out of the car window, I saw Judith Martin, also known as Miss Manners, walking down the street in the opposite direction, wearing a huge white winter coat and pearls.
Her advice column...
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6 comments
Aug.23.2009
While most spam—the kind you get via email, not at the Piggly Wiggly—is a horrendous and offensive waste of human endeavor (for both the spammer and the recipient), some is so obtuse and indelicately mined from the collective human cultural archive that the reader may regard it in the same way you...
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2 comments
Aug.23.2009
[Like my earlier blog post, "Democrats Eat Babies on Christmas, Institute Says," this is a satire I wrote out of frustration at how absurd and "even-handedly" the mainstream press handles propaganda offered by the Religious Right. My earlier blog was picked up and reposted by...
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1 comment
Aug.17.2009
Here is a link to a really amusing and original short story I just read on Guernica, an online literary and cultural magazine you may not have heard of: http://tinyurl.com/r2xja9.
The story, by Elizabeth Crane, who has written several collections of short stories, is about a group of "...
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3 comments
Aug.14.2009
[I'm joining the entire Red Room community in writing a short blog post on this week's topic: “Heroes.” The form and the content of the blog entry are up to you. Our editors will choose at least one of these blogs to be featured on Red Room's homepage next week, and three blog writers will receive...
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5 comments
"Never give in...except to convictions of honour and good sense."”
—Winston Churchill, 1941
About Ivory
Chief Executive Officer and Editor in Chief Ivory Madison founded Red Room. Madison is a writer, editor, and entrepreneur living in her hometown of San Francisco. A former management consultant to startups and Fortune 500 companies, Madison combines...
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