Simone Collins

Huffington Post — We live in an age in which our personal interests and activities can be tracked at scale. This enables us to understand our cultural values with a level of accuracy that would before seem unfathomable. Using Facebook, for example, we can garner a surprisingly accurate view of the causes most Americans support, and our most popular charitable interests might surprise you.

Huffington Post — A previous colleague shared with me a five question test designed to help one determine whether grant a second date with a potential partner. As this advice came to me as I just began dating (I could not be bothered with romance before age 24). As I was overwhelmed by the mountain of judgment calls required, this heuristic proved to be invaluable. Having little use for it myself these days, I would like to share it with you.

Huffington Post — I recently spotted a beautiful blonde woman sitting on a beach in Puerto Vallarta, her brows furrowed with concentration. Rather than reading the Stephen King novel that lay neglected by her side, she was gazing at her iPhone, contemplating the condemnation of a Facebook post she had made featuring a recent vacation photo. "If it gets less than 25 likes, I have to delete it," she explained to a friend, before wiping it from her Facebook profile. "Anything less would make me look pathetic." How could this attractive young woman be getting a low number of likes?

Huffington Post — While the classic choices, such as placing a ring in a champagne glass at a fancy restaurant, proposing at Christmas or New Years, and getting down on one knee in a beautiful park, are lovely, why not save "tradition" for those big life events that don't offer flexibility? As you make your engagement plans, I urge you to veer off the beaten path and consider these unique marriage proposal ideas.

www.writersfunzone.com — I wrote a previous guest post on the foundations of a compelling book cover, which I boil down to strategic use of coloring, emotion, faces, and unanswered questions. Also worth consideration is what one should not include in a book cover, as many mistakes are made by first-time (and sometimes seasoned) writers that can easily be avoided. What follows is a select set of key elements to avoid.

Huffington Post — In an age in which we have immense control over how we appear (in social media, at least), we have developed increasingly-skewed self images. Along with our love of using filters and effects to manipulate our photos, we have developed a taste for caricatures and cartoons over realistic portraits. We are stepping away from reality and entering a fantasy world.

www.writersfunzone.com — Having spent years working with an interviewing authors, working with artists, and creating graphics for a wide range of professional projects, I can share with you five straightforward paths leading to high quality and memorable cover art.

janefriedman.com — My job is to help people commission original art from up-and-coming artists via ArtCorgi, a company I started earlier this year. Though the art I help people create consists of everything from romantic gifts to mobile game assets and painted scenes for wall art, I have seen a significant uptick in the number of authors approaching me for portraits and book cover design. As a result, I have discovered a handful of advantages they offer.

Huffington Post — To celebrate Disney's fun female characters, Canadian animation student Miranda (aka @snarkies) created a collaborative ode to them, inviting nearly 100 artist friends on Twitter and Tumblr to choose one of their favorite ladies, illustrate her, and send their drawing to Miranda for compilation on one, large, beautiful poster.

Huffington Post — Though the community simulation game Animal Crossing has been around since 2001, it saw a surge in mid-2013 and is seeing a fresh influx of love from the online community this year. To have some fun with the game's various characters, Nina B created an Animal Crossing collab (an online artist collaboration, whereby Twitter and Tumblr's artistic denizens are invited to contribute illustrations to a themed project) that has grown quite popular. It should go without saying that participants' contributions have been dreadfully adorable.

Huffington Post — If you would like a succinct peek at the present online art scene, sit down for a chat with California-based comic artist and animator Andrew Stewart. Stewart (also known as @Viruul), like so many of his colleagues, is knee deep in an artist renaissance, which, unlike previous artistic blooms that were typically tied to specific neighborhoods and cities, is moored within the social media world -- specifically sites like Tumblr, Twitter, Instagram and deviantART.

Huffington Post — For nearly ten years, Katamari Damaci, a Japanese puzzle-action video game (whose name literally translates to "clump soul") has captured the attention and hearts of millions of gamers. As an ode to the game, Renee P. (aka Rolos or @gelatobear) decided to use it as a theme for an online art collab (short for collaboration), inviting her artist friends to choose their favorite characters, illustrate them, share them via Twitter and email them in for assembly into a giant, Katamari-loving poster.

Huffington Post — As an ode to magical girl characters the world round, Toronto-based animator and comic artist MK Harris (@hospitalvespers on Twitter) organized an artistic collaboration (aka collab) encouraging fellow artists to choose a magical girl character, illustrate the character in their own style, and submit their illustration to MK Harris, who would assemble everyone's contribution into a big, colorful collection.

Huffington Post — One of the latest creative artistic collaborations online is Moon Animate Make-Up!, a group animation collaboration to re-animate an episode of Sailor Moon shot-by-shot in each artist's personal style. Headed up by producer and illustrator Kate Sullivan, this project (which has over 250 contributing animators) will release an entire re-created, twenty-two-minute episode, this summer. Leading up to the final product's debut, you can follow the re-created episode's progress on Tumblr and Facebook.

Huffington Post — In anticipation of this month's debut of Muppets Most Wanted, many are declaring their Muppets love -- some more creatively than others. Earlier this month, Zwoltopia, an artist based in Belgium, invited his social media followers to illustrate their favorite Muppets.

Huffington Post — While there were plenty of royals and nobles who commissioned work depicting themselves in expensive clothes they owned, there are even more common folk who indulged their fashionable passions through less expensive artist means. Four particularly fun examples can be seen with portraits, fashion prints, fashion dolls and porcelain figurines.

Huffington Post — Immortality is typically associated with expensive ventures: Expeditions to the ever-elusive Fountain of Youth, life-extending surgeries and medication and cryogenics. But we're all on a budget these days, and throughout history, people have found creative ways immortalize themselves on the cheap -- mostly through creative works of art.

litbloc.com — If you like art, creativity, and expression, you should give these under-appreciated artistic niches a gander.

Huffington Post — Whether in the midst of email correspondence, Twitter and Facebook chatting, or online background checking, people are judging your online profile photos -- and they might be saying more about you than you'd like.

www.businessnewsdaily.com — This is the story of two startups: One is practical; the other is compelling. Which one do you think did better?

www.vmdecor.com — A guide to commissioning original art online through a variety of different websites.

www.gpb.org — Georgia’s college and career clusters, which help students develop a practical career plan, puts the state’s young professionals at a tremendous advantage. That said, even more can be done to prepare students to enter the workforce - whether they intend to attend college or not.

Huffington Post — Hugh Howey, John Dumas and Danny Iny all have one thing in common. The bestselling author, top-ranking podcaster and profitable entrepreneur have a habit of giving their books away for free.

Huffington Post — Should you occasionally update your wardrobe and have your hair trimmed, you may also want to periodically polish your digital footprint. Ensuring that your online identity reflects well upon your reputation is just as important as maintaining an upstanding outward appearance in the physical world. Auditing your online presence every three to four months, then tweaking a handful of profiles and posts as needed, requires no more than some organized strategizing and simple Google searches. Making the minor effort will help you build a robust, valuable online reputation that can introduce you to new opportunities.