Marta's blogroll

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 23 Jun 2014 14:49:00 +0000

My Writing Process : A 'Blog Hop' Tour

First and foremost, I’d like to thank P.J. Royal, a most sensitive, talented historical fiction writer whose Humble Musings of a Literary Kind you can enjoy here : http://pjroyal.blogspot.com. for inviting me to participate in this blog tour.

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What are you currently working on?

I am working on my fourth novel, something like a prose version of Eliot’s Gerontion, if you wish, with all due respect for my favorite poet. An elderly woman looks back on her life, focusing on her relationships with men. The novel explores how parental and societal mandates can affect lives, the impossibility of love unless we accept that we don’t all love in the same way, and the ways in which memory distorts fact as a defense mechanism against excruciating suffering. Perhaps it should be noted that, in the face of the horrible experiences many women have undergone, my protagonist has had quite an ordinary life. However, another aspect of this novel highlights that it’s all about subjective perception, so my main character responds to her perceptions rather than to what she actually experiences.

How does your work differ from others of its genre?

The notion of genre makes me uncomfortable. Many of the works we are now writing and publishing break every single rule of the genre, and we call them ‘novels’ through lack of a better name. In all honesty, it’s not for me to say how my work differs from others. It is true I do not write in borrowed voices, nor have I seen other works dealing with the same subject matters. Other than that, readers are welcome to point to the differences.

Why do you write what you do?

Much of our contemporary literature concerns itself with the horrors and atrocities inflicted by man on his fellow beings. To a large number of people, such horrors are distant. I write about such dark aspects of human nature as could be familiar to practically everyone: suicide, the neglect of the old and helpless, the cultural clash not triggered by the need to escape a war or persecution, lives ruined by wrong choices. My purpose is to provide readers with an image of their own lives or of the lives around them and force them out of their comfort zone. In a way, and from another point of view and with different resources, I do the same in my fiction as I do in my self-help books.

How does your writing process work?

If we talk about non-fiction, there’s a long period of thorough research, comparison and contrast, note-taking, and personal synthesis before the actual writing starts. When we come to fiction, the story, from beginning to end, first develops in my mind. I create a comprehensive biography for all my characters, even though probably very little of it will go into the book. The point is, characters should stay consistent even in their inconsistencies, something that can be achieved as long as the writer knows who they are and where they come from. This can take a really long time. Once this mental process is over, I sit down to write… and this is the hard part :)

If curious about my work, you can find it on http://www.amazon.com/Marta-Merajver-Kurlat/e/B009TC8C5A/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_pop_1

I am tagging author Bryan Murphy, someone I very much admire, to continue with this tour. You can read his answers as from Monday, July 30, on http://www.bryanmurphy.eu

My Writing Process : A 'Blog Hop' Tour

----------------------------

What are you currently working on?

How does your work differ from others of its genre?

Why do you write what you do?

How does your writing process work?

If curious about my work, you can find it on http://www.amazon.com/Marta-Merajver-Kurlat/e/B009TC8C5A/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_pop_1

I am tagging author Bryan Murphy, someone I very much admire, to continue with this tour. You can read his answers as from Monday, July 30, on http://www.bryanmurphy.eu

Bio:

Bryan Murphy is an Anglo-Irish globetrotter. He recently retired from a job within the United Nations system and now divides his time among England, Italy, the wider world and cyberspace. His e-books include Murder By Suicide, Heresy, Linehan’s Trip and Goodbye, Padania. You can find them here:http://amazon.com/author/bryanmurphy … and at other major retailers.

Bryan welcomes visitors at: http://www.bryanmurphy.eu

Bio:

Bryan welcomes visitors at: http://www.bryanmurphy.eu

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 19 May 2014 22:27:00 +0000

MY MAIN CHARACTER BLOG TOUR

I'd like to thank Mary Clark, author of Tally: An Intuitive Life (All Things That Matter Press 2013), for asking me to participate in this blog tour. You can find her post on http://www.literaryeyes.wordpress.com

I've been asked to respond to the following questions about My Main Character in a Work in Progress.

1. What is the name of your character? Is he/she fictional or a historic person?

My character is Anya, a fictional composite of women I knew. However, she could be viewed as historic, for she is the product of Argentinean middle-class society in the 1950s.

2. When and where is the story set?

The story is set mainly in the city of Buenos Aires, beginning in the early fifties and developing over a 60 year span. Exception made of Los gloriosos sesenta y después [The Glorious Sixties and After], my novels do not give great importance to location, but this one dwells in more detail on the city and on provinces/holiday resorts that Anya visits. This is because, in a way, place and mood are intertwined.

3. What should we know about him/her?

Anya had a difficult childhood, marked by her parents' divorce at a time when divorce was unthinkable, by a domineering mother, and by a father who stood by her as long as she respected his rules. Nothing really tragic happened to her, and yet the whole point is to show how inner perception of events may cause psychic pain to a tragic extent.

4. What is the main conflict? What messes up his/her life?

Anya goes through life pursuing love in the wrong places. One could say she does not need extra help to mess up her life; she is perfectly capable of making herself miserable through her choice of men.

5. What is the personal goal of the character?

When she turned seventeen, her father prophesied she would never marry because no respectable Jew would marry the child of divorced parents, while the Catholics among whom she lived would not settle for a Jewish wife. On the surface, it would seem as if what she most wanted was to prove her father wrong. In actual fact, she did everything possible to prove him right.

6. Is there a working title for this novel, and can we read more about it?

The title is Men in My Mirror, and I think it will stick. Here's a short excerpt:

In the 1950s, when I was a child struggling to make some sense of the world around me, my father went out of his way to awaken my awareness of the differences between men and women. The pattern that emerged then could be summarized thus: men were courageous by nature, as confirmed by the radio news on the Korean war what is Korea? what is a war? how can so many people manage to squeeze together into the wooden box called “radio”? Men provided for their family, protected women, made all important decisions, and were not to be contradicted, for they always knew better. There were exceptions, of course, such as uncle Leon, who not only had never done a stroke of work but had gambled away aunt Fanny’s jewels to the last diamond, but these men just went to show... I couldn't figure out what they went to show. This part of my father’s indoctrination always stopped at an imaginary dotted line. By contrast, women were frail, unable to get by on their own, and needed to get a good grip of the tools of their sex –no one talked about gender back then– so that nice men then the exceptions were not a rarity? would choose them as wives and mothers. My father felt indeed sorry for women who, willy-nilly, needed to earn their own living, and had little patience with those who boasted of a calling, which sounded odd, since Mother belonged in the latter group. A playwright and a political activist, no less. I reckon dad had mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, he felt he indulged her in what he believed would prove a passing fancy. On the other hand, he probably enjoyed the ohs and ahs of his brothers, all five of them married to girls from respectable families that had taken care to deliver them with a blank slate where their brains should have been so that their husbands could engrave in letters of fire the views handed down to them by my grandparents.

7. When can we expect the book to be published?

As soon as I'm happy with it. Although I have written five non-fiction books in English, this is my first novel in English. The challenge is big. Fortunately, my publisher -Jorge Pinto from Jorge Pinto Books Inc.- has been overly patient, and I am most grateful for that.

I'd like to invite you to read Trish Jackson's post on http://www.trishjackson.com/

See below four outstanding writers tagged for Monday, May 26. I am publishing their bios as they sent them for you to see how interesting they all are.

JOYCE ELFERDINK

This author thinks of herself as a teacher, apprentice, traveler and activist. Her inspiration comes from life experiences (nothing new to authors); by the diverse novels she reads (but primarily science fiction); and dramatic films, imagined or true--such as the following:

After watching Julie and Julia, Joyce realized the significance of sharing glimpses and gambits on what is purposeful and meaningful in our lives. Some of her own perceptions are profiled through her novel, Pieces of You and continues in the coming sequel, The Battle of Jericho, 2040. But Pieces of You is more than a “book for thinkers.” It’s a speculative tale of sacrificial love, inspired by her story:

“Five years ago I met a man, a person with lots of life experiences, whom I learned to love in the four months we had together. He became the protagonist of Pieces of You., a love story entwined with social responsibility, the spirit world, and time travel...”

As Mark’s body lies comatose, his spirit journeys to his past and then to two possible futures. A supernatural guide draws him into the changes affected by his decisions, then permits him to choose his own future--to remain with Janine, the woman he loves, or to cross over and direct a Divine team to alter the destiny of those alive in 2040.

Links

Book trailer on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIacFKaNWe8

Amazon Book Listing (Kindle edition): http://tinyurl.com/927am9u

Smashwords Listing: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/279614

Audio excerpt (read by the author): http://harmlessjoyce.wordpress.com/2012/07/08/a-reading-from-pieces-of-you/

MICKI PELUSO

I began writing after a personal tragedy, as a catharsis for my grief. This lead to a first time out publication in Victimology: An International Magazine and a 25 year career in Journalism. I've freelanced and been staff writer for one major newspaper and written for two more. I have published short fiction and non-fiction, as well as slice of life stories in colleges and other magazines and in e-zine editions. My first book was published in 2008; a funny family memoir of love, loss and survival, called, . . .AND THE WHIPPOORWILL SANG which won the Nesta CBC silver award for writing that makes a change in the world. Two of my short horror stories have been published in an anthology called "Speed of Dark." I am presently working on a collection of short fiction, slice of life stories and essays, in a book called, Heartbeat. . .slices of life.

. . . and the Whippoorwill Sang by Micki Peluso

Links

http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=38555070&trk=

https://www.facebook.com/AndTheWhippoorwillSang?ref=hl

http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/811377-micki-peluso

http://www.mallie1025.blogspot.com/

http://lspdigital.com/

BOB VAN LAERHOVEN

Bob van Laerhoven was born on August 8^th 1953 in the sandy soil of Antwerp’s Kempen, where according to the cliché ‘pig-headed clodhoppers’ live. This perhaps explains why he started to write stories at a particularly young age. A number of his stories were published in English, French, German, Spanish and Slovenian.

Debut

Van Laerhoven made his debut as a novelist in 1985 with Nachtspel – Night Game. He quickly became known for his ‘un-Flemish’ style: he writes colorful, kaleidoscopic novels in which the fate of the individual is closely related to broad social transformations. His style slowly evolved in his later novels to embrace more personal themes while continuing to branch out into the world at large. International flair has become his trademark.

Avid traveller

Bob Van Laerhoven became a full-time author in 1991. The context of his stories isn’t invented behind his desk, rather it is rooted in personal experience. As a freelance travel writer, for example, he explored conflicts and trouble-spots across the globe from the early 1990s to 2005. Echoes of his experiences on the road also trickle through in his novels. Somalia, Liberia, Sudan, Gaza, Iran, Iraq, Myanmar, Lebanon, Mozambique, Laos… to name but a few.

Mass murders

During the Bosnian war, Van Laerhoven spent part of 1992 in the besieged city of Sarajevo. Three years later he was working for MSF - Doctors without frontiers - in the Bosnian city of Tuzla during the NATO bombings. At that moment the refugees arrived from the Muslim enclave of Srebrenica. Van Laerhoven was the first writer from the Low Countries to be given the chance to speak to the refugees. His conversations resulted in a travel book:Srebrenica. Getuigen van massamoord – Srebrenica. Testimony to a Mass Murder. The book denounces the rape and torture of the Muslim population of this Bosnian-Serbian enclave and is based on first-hand testimonies. He also concludes that mass murders took place, an idea that was questioned at the time but later proven accurate.

Multifaceted oeuvre

All these experiences contribute to Bob Van Laerhoven’s rich and commendable oeuvre, an oeuvre that typifies him as the versatile author of novels, travel stories, books for young adults, theatre pieces, biographies, poetry, non-fiction, letters, columns, articles... He is also a prize-winning author: in 2007 he won the Hercule Poirot Prize for best thriller of the year with his novel De Wraak van Baudelaire – Baudelaire’s Revenge.

Translations

In May 2013 “La Vengeance de Baudelaire”, the French translation of “De wraak van Baudelaire”, was published in France and in Canada and received very positive reviews: http://www.bobvanlaerhoven.be/fr/pages/18/misdaad-romans

As a result, “Le Mensonge d’Alejandro”, a second novel in French translation – original title : Alejandro’s leugen - was published in May 2014 by the same French and Canadian Publishers: http://www.bobvanlaerhoven.be/fr/pages/16/literatuur

In April 2014, Pegasus Books ( New York) released the hardcover version of “Baudelaire’s Revenge” in the US . Although the novel is only recently out, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, The New York Times Book Review, Library Journal, Curled Up With A Good Book.com and Shelf Awareness Pro already published reviews. http://www.bobvanlaerhoven.be/en/pages/12/misdaad-romans

A Russian translation of “Baudelaire’s Revenge” is just completed. An Italian is in the making.

Website: www.bobvanlaerhoven.be (NL/FR/EN)

Book Trailers: www.youtube.com/bobvanlaerhoven1

PIM WIERSINGA (born 1954) is a Dutch novelist and he has one son (Romeo, born 2000).

Wiersinga writes in a classic tradition with distinctive lyrical overtones. History is his element but it's never his intention to "just" document -let alone idealize- the past. His debut Honingvogels (published in 1992; English version Honeybirds completed; not published yet) is set in Antwerp around the turn of the past century; a sudden reunion with a long-lost friend hurls the narrator-character into the Unknown.

This was followed by an epic novel set in Antiquity entitled Gracchanten (1995), featuring the revolt of the Gracchi brothers viewed through the eyes and temperament of a highly un-Roman character, the son of a Macedonian rebel resisting the supremacy of Rome.

A few years ago, this old love came back to him: the historical novel is his favorite haunt to reflect on present society as well as the human condition in general. Wiersinga: "I love to put myself in alien shoes, boots, or sandals and walk through another time and place - and my Muse seems fond of it too."

Teacher, Teacher, Can't You See? Book Trailer

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 14 May 2014 23:12:00 +0000

MY WRITING PROCESS

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 03 Feb 2014 04:23:00 +0000

The author Salvatore Buttaci (http://salbuttaci.blogspot.com), author of Flashing My Shorts and 200 Shorts, invited me to participate in this blog hop tour and answer four questions about my writing process.

ALL ABOUT MY WRITING PROCESS

1) What am I working on?

Much as I would like my mind to joggle comfortably with a number of projects, this has never worked for me. It's one book at a time, and while it's true that other embryos pull at my sleeve for attention as I focus on the book I'm writing, the most they get is a brief note in an ad hoc folder.

I am finishing a novel titled Men in My Mirror, my most difficult challenge so far. Why? Because although I've written and published five non-fiction books in English, this is my first attempt at fiction in my second language - my mother tongue is Spanish. The other obstacle to overcome is that I've chosen to write in the first person, a point of view that can considerably narrow the narrative scope unless handled with the utmost care. This novel is a fake memoir portraying the men in the life of a woman intent on breaking all boundaries, and will be published by Jorge Pinto Books, New York, NY, like all my previous production since 2005.

2) How does my work differ from others of its genre?

I refuse to be confined to a genre. To start with, I write novels, self-help, working biographies, and companions to literature. My novels have been called "psychological thrillers", a label that never crossed my mind as I was shaping them.

What I can say in all honesty is that I don't follow recipes and that I am all for the economy of language and for polysemy. My prose is concise, terse, and incisive at times. Aware of the so-called "rules", I break them to enhance meaning and pathos in my fiction. My aim is to pierce through the reader's consciousness and set him thinking beyond the printed word. As long as something changes in the reader's view of the world after finishing any of my books, the differences between my work and that of others matter little.

3) Why do I write what I do?

I do not write fiction for the same reasons as I write non-fiction.

My fiction feeds on my life experiences, background, education, observation of others, the humus of my readings and thousands of what-ifs that inhabit me. I am a story-teller, weaving true facts and imaginary developments to shock dormant minds out of their lethargy, or to lure clever readers away from their comfort zone.

My novels deal with unsavory aspects of human nature; those that many people would rather ignore. I've been often told that the outcome proves healing. It's certainly not my intention, yet this is how the level of enunciation and the level of the enunciated interact. After all, a book is what the reader makes of it, whether or not the author agrees :)

I write non-fiction with the clear purpose of aiding comprehension of subjects that need expert guidance. The best example of this is my guide to Joyce's Ulysses for Spanish-speaking readers. The difference between mine and all others written before is that those others seem to complicate the issue rather than simplify it. Understandably, scholars wish to flaunt their erudition and shine in their own light, but if readers felt discouraged by Joyce before seeking this manner of explanation, they usually end up totally defeated by further enigmatic additions to a baffling text.

4) How does my writing process work?

My fiction may be triggered by practically anything, but only an obsessive idea, one that haunts me day and night, finds its way into realization.

I construct the whole novel in my mind, give the characters a full biography recorded in files, and sit down to write when the last brick has been put in place. Much of the material does not go into the novel, and much changes as scene follows scene, for the wording cannot mime the thinking and demands a different type of cohesion. However, I find that a solid structure prior to writing prevents incongruity and indecisiveness.

Other writers get inspired as they type away. I'm afraid inspiration -or the Muse, if you will- does not befriend me.

It goes without saying that all my books go through a number of drafts before I'm satisfied with the result. In order to evaluate each draft and do preliminary editing, I print. For some reason, the work reads clearer on paper.

My non-fiction takes lots of research and fact-checking, but basically adjusts to the same process.

A few trusted colleagues read my work as it is in progress and offer valuable comments and suggestions. Writing is indeed a solitary process but, contrary to what many may think, the community of writers is an example of solidarity, so this is as good a place as any to thank them all, beginning by Sal Buttaci, who gave me the opportunity to share my thoughts.

***

Marta Merajver-Kurlat's complete works can be found on her Amazon Author Page http://www.amazon.com/Marta-Merajver-Kurlat/e/B009TC8C5A

Reviews and interviews on her official website http://www.martamerajver.com.ar/marta/

Announcements about her contributions to other blogs and sites on https://www.facebook.com/martamerajverkurlat

***

I am inviting the following three authors to join our Blog Hop Tour next week:

Joyce (J. F.) Elferdink was born in a small, conservative community but moved to various parts of Michigan (including Detroit), to other states, and to Kazakhstan (as a Peace Corps volunteer) where she learned to look at the world and her purpose in it from a much broader perspective.

She is currently semi-retired and back in her hometown where she teaches Communications at a local university. Her first novel, completed in August of 2012, was a response to a loss that made her ask some deep questions. A sequel will be published later this year.

You can find more about Joyce’s viewpoints and writing style at her blog: http:/harmlessjoyce.wordpress.com
Her novel, a mystical journey that will make the protagonist capable of the sacrifice love asks of him, is available through amazon.com. Its book trailer can be viewed on her author page at: http://www.amazon.com/Joyce-Elferdink/e/B008ZTCRUY/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0

Elaine Cougler has written two books of family stories, a cookbook, her children’s book, Where Is Bear?, and The Loyalist’s Wife, her historical novel, published last June. Her lifelong love of reading historical fiction has led her down this path and she is currently writing the sequel, The Loyalist’s Luck, which will be published later this year, with The Loyalist Legacy to follow. On Becoming a Wordsmith is Elaine’s writing blog where she blogs about the journey to publication and beyond, interviews authors, gathers helpful lists and hints to do with writing, and shares the writing road she loves to travel.

@ElaineCougler www.elainecougler.com http://www.facebook.com/ElaineCouglerAuthor

Bryan Murphy is a man of Kent who lives in Italy. Since retiring from his most recent job, as a translator within the United Nations system, he has concentrated on his own words, publishing many poems and several e-books. "Houlihan's Wake" is Number 1 in Goodreads' "Books Set in Mexico" Listopia. Bryan is currently working on a novel set in Portugal in the 1970s. He welcomes visitors at http://www.bryanmurphy.eu . You can find his books here: http://bit.ly/19vt7Ts . His blog is here: http://bit.ly/1cq1yus .

IBP's trailer: The Basement by Vashti Quiroz-Vega

noreply@blogger.com (Vashtiqvega43) — Sun, 17 Nov 2013 05:10:00 +0000

CHARLES STUBBS ON THE ANATOMY OF A MYSTERY THRILLER

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 15 Nov 2013 13:06:00 +0000

By Charles R. Stubbs – Author of the Travis #WebOfDeceit series of Mystery Thrillers

When I think about what inspired me to write my second novel, ‘Retribution’, it centres round how today’s media control and influence what we believe to be true. The news channels and papers provide a running commentary on events, often interpreting information in a way that suits a particular agenda. Sometimes the stories they peddle and publish turn out simply to be untrue, but that doesn’t stop people believing them.

In the UK during the early years of this century, certain newspapers pushed press intrusion beyond the boundaries of what most people would consider acceptable. It was not only celebrities and politicians they set their sights on. Ordinary members of the public found themselves the subject of innuendo, supposition and hypothesis. If an individual’s private life could be linked by journalists to a story, then that person was considered to be ‘fair game’. Some of the techniques used to obtain information were actually illegal.

Concern was raised, in particular, about the practice of ‘phone hacking’: listening to a person’s stored voicemails on their mobile (cell) phone account. The UK newspaper industry’s watchdog, the Press Complaints Commission, investigated on several occasions, and each time concluded that such activity was confined to a handful of ‘rogue’ reporters and private investigators. However, when an external inquiry was eventually set up, it found that the practice was widespread across the industry.

‘Retribution’ sets out to take the reader on a journey through a haphazard and sometimes conflicting series of events, guided only by ‘snippets of information’. This is what happens in real life. When a story first breaks, generally facts are hard to come by, so news organisations and the public alike are obliged to speculate on what might have happened. If the story sells well, a frantic scramble ensues for more information. Every news outlet and title wants to be first with the next development, insight or new angle. Frequently in this ‘race to be first’, corners are cut, facts are not checked: the result can be confusion and chaos.

The readers of ‘Retribution’ experience this at first hand, being invited at every turn and twist in the story to postulate what might actually be going on, based on the information presented to them. By halfway through the novel I want the reader to feel overwhelmed, floundering even, in a state of confusion; yet fascinated enough by the characters and what is happening to them to want to know more. I recognise that some readers will feel frustrated by this approach. But my message is that those who do persevere to the end are rewarded by revelations that I hope will prompt them to seriously question and challenge what they are presented with on a day-to-day basis by the media in their ‘real world’.

You can buy mystery thriller ‘Retribution’ as a Kindle eBook on Amazon for just $2.99/£1.99. Search for ‘retribution stubbs’, or click this link: http://viewBook.at/Retribution.

Early readers/reviewers described ‘Retribution’ as “Amazing!” and a “Masterpiece of suspense”.

Charles’s website is at: http://webofdeceit.org. His blog, which examines how the modern media control and influence our lives, is at http://webofdeceit.org/blogs. You can follow him on Twitter: @charlesrstubbs.

VIVEK RAJAN VIVEK : INSPIRATIONAL FICTION AND PERSONAL TRANSFORMATION

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 05 Nov 2013 21:49:00 +0000

Thoughts about the book from distinguished readers

“A Great Sage and a Rascal named Doku is uplifting, enriching and deeply thought provoking. A must read for all those who are interested in living a life overflowing with abundance."

~ T. Harv Eker - #1 NY Times Bestseller, Secrets of the Millionaire Mind

"This book gives you a proven, practical, step-by-step process to develop the essential "prosperity consciousness" that leads to wealth."

~ Brian Tracy – Author, Million Dollar Habits

"A rare abundance parable that pairs a recommendation of owning up to one's own greatness yet applying that greatness in continual and joyful service to others, and many other complimentary wisdoms to live a life of inner and outer wealth."

~Kerul Kassel, Ph.D – Award Winning Author of Stop Procrastinating Now and Productive Procrastination

In this book you will discover the following and much, much more:

- How Spiritual Life and Wealth are truly joined at the hip
- A deadly sliver of doubt that shreds your dreams, drives and ambitions to pieces
- What is money, it has nothing to do with Wall Street, gold, real estate, sales or marketing
- The virus that corrupts the pristine operating system you were born with and how to kill it
- Going beyond forgiveness, something that will liberate you instantly
- Success in one sentence, the twin peaks of failure and the art of getting the right answers
- Exercising without moving; the role that food, clarity, creativity and sound play in your life
- Do Soul Mates Exist and how to see through the illusion called time management
- The ultimate secret, few know this, and even fewer know how to use it effectively

Reviews

"I am not a lover of self-help books and in general tend to avoid them. However, I have to say that I found Vivek Rajan Vivek's approach to this genre unique and rather ingenious. Overall, it was a good read, and would be a great introduction to the self-help/inspirational genre. It eases readers into the genre with its narratives, yet keeps the lessons intended clear enough that they don't get lost in the actual story telling. Definitely recommended for those interested!” ~Shawn Otomo

"Now, I am not personally a spiritual person, and in fact I have gone out of my way to avoid books like this in the past. I am the type who learns better through sarcasm, humor and wit, then through language dressed up with romantic spirituality. I thought the story of Doku was well written and well-paced, and it almost felt like poetic prose. Doku's journey was laid out very neatly with clear milestones and though, like I said, this isn't a step-by-step to-do list, it is clear what actions the reader can take in order to produce the same outcomes as Doku." ~Jacqueline Boss

“We would all like to get rich and be all that we can be, right? So I tucked into this short consciousness-raising piece with some skepticism but great personal interest. In the end, the work does what it sets out to do, leading the reader to a "prosperity consciousness." Vivek's work is cumulatively evocative and inspirational. It is worth taking a look at and passing on to friends who need a boost.” ~Anne Carlisle (Ph.D English Literature)

“I've studied Eastern concepts for many years, including owning yoga studios, and teaching internationally, so I feel I'm well qualified to judge a book in this genre. I've read hundreds of them, if not thousands, and this is one of the best I have read on the subject. The simplicity of the story allows the reader to enter in at whatever level he or she is at. You just feel good when you finish it. The author is to be applauded for writing something that can be read merely on the surface level or at a much deeper level. " ~Dianne Harman

All reviews can be read in their entirety by clicking on this link. Thank you.

https://www.facebook.com/vivek.rajanvivek.1

WHAT LIES BEHIND LAURIE SMITH'S MOUNTAIN OF DEATH AND VALLEY OF DEATH

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 23 Oct 2013 17:45:00 +0000

I thought it about time that I showcased my first two self-published novels and gave insights into them, plus three and four in the series. I started Mountain of Death in June 2010 after attending a writing course here in Laidley at Tell Me a Story Books. It burst forth from a tacky little pulp novel I wrote for an exercise (some may say it is still tacky) and landed on my keyboard like a bloody, dismembered digit. Hmm I thought, this could make for an interesting story. I hammered away day and night as the semblance of a story unfolded and like new writers everywhere I burned the midnight oil, or in our case drained the batteries of our solar system, irrelevant Laurie, tell the tale. I typed Chapter Four of this epic at 1.20 a.m. and thought what a clever boy am I, tired, listless I leant over to grab my mug of coffee and hit every key on the left side of the keyboard with my overgrown hand. The screen went funny, word vanished and I was left looking at the desktop. No, where had my baby gone? I'll tell you, it went to where the manuscript should have gone a wormhole somewhere in the vastness.

In my desire to get it all down at once I had forgotten to set automatic saving and also to save to a different location when I had finished writing for the day. Using a program for finding deleted files on the hard drive, I located the first chapter and a half. Sobbing ever so slightly I went to bed where my good wife consoled me, "It'll be fine love, you can rewrite it." So I did and over the following eighteen months I slaved away: learning as I went along, attending classes at the book shop, studying writer's magazines, bashing away at the keyboard. Late at night as I crafted my tale I could feel the lead character standing behind me. The plot flowed. The first draft edit came back with, 'You can do better.' When my dented ego healed I looked at all the red scribbles and thought, 'Yes I can.' Back into it and a couple of months later out it came, bigger, fresher, better. The good wife thought it may be too sexy and violent, then we watched some of the Underbelly series on television, nope it fitted quite well within the norms of what is happening around the place.

For those who have read my blog you would know my background in prisons and police work, the meaty, dirty side of life is no stranger to me and I retained it all in the part of the brain marked: future novels. Well I think there's a part like that. My lead character, Jack Hardy is loosely based on a criminal I knew in jail. This man had an aura of danger and menace about him that made your short hairs stand up, so I used the crime he was in for as the main basis of the story. I changed his ending in life for Jack and away it went. The Jack I created is by no means a nice guy, he's something of a bastard and a petty criminal, (this soon changes) tough, rugged looks, a fighter and most of my female readers find him irresistible. The story is more than sex and violence; it highlights official corruption which I think is one of the top five worst crimes, mainly because it can ruin so many lives. Of course a story is nothing without setting and Kings Cross in the late sixties was a great place to be. It pulsed with a life all of its own: seedy, grimy, dangerous, and exciting you get the idea. Add Surfers Paradise and you have great locations to work with. Mountain is a journey charting Jack's life from fifteen to thirty three, it opens on his last night in jail where he's served a ten year sentence for armed robbery. You will feel every punch when he recalls his second day in Boggo Road. The pain is real, the blood is sticky and Jack's resilience is shown to the fullest. The reminiscences take us through to the morning of his release; this is where the 'fun' begins

For insights into the supporting characters you can visit my archives for April to June 2012, I tried a little guest blogging for them, I don't know if it helped anyone at the time but they are worth a look. The main protagonist, Hans Draheim is the archetypal SS Colonel/torturer. Not a man to be taken lightly he maintains a somewhat odd exterior that is easily removed to bring out the animal below the surface. In Sydney in the early seventies a group of criminals known as the Toe Cutters operated with impunity. They preyed on other criminals who made large heists and cut off their toes until they gave up the money. Roll that evil and sadistic nature up into one man and you have Hans. Some may say that it is somewhat passé to have a Nazi in a book these days. I beg to differ. Geriatric Nazi's, mainly ex camp guards pop up in the news now and then after being rounded up. The documentary series, 'Nazi Hunters' is currently on TV highlighting the work of the Israelis in their hunt for those wanted for crimes against humanity. As a small boy going to the pictures in England I soaked up the Newsreel before Hopalong Cassidy, invariably they consisted of a least one offering on the holocaust and the scenes are still fresh in my mind. So what better representation of evil than my protagonist, and he does it well with no other thought than monetary gain and his needs. Considering what the raison d 'etre of the Third Reich entailed I feel we needed to be reminded now and then of the depths that human beings can descend into.

Every torturer needs a dungeon and Hans has a purpose built one. His sex parties, displays of horror and manipulation of important people all have one goal. Power. There is no greater aphrodisiac than power over others and even in his declining years he slavers over the death and destruction of innocents. The mention of female backpackers in the story are based on real events happening at the time in Queensland, over a dozen young women went missing from highways in south east Queensland in the 70's and 80's, most were last seen on the Gold Coast with only a few bodies being found. When people have power over others with little chance of being caught out then don't be surprised what horror bubbles to the surface.

Why do I have sex scenes in my novels? You can't have strippers, prostitutes, vital young men and women, crime and adventure without showing something we all do. There may be some gratuitous scenes but in the end they add to the plot and give reasons for actions by the characters. Swearing? Yep: they swear and curse, bleed, cum, fight, kill, die, get greedy, hate, get angry the list goes on. Every story is about a journey, whether in the literal or figurative sense. Mountain is not only something of a road journey, (we get around a bit) it follows the characters as they develop personally. Jack finds love and hurt in relationships and the consummate user of women finds out what it's like to be used.

As an author I learned many things about writing: not only from the grammatical point but the discipline of sitting and hammering out what's floating around in your head. How to grow a thick skin and smile when people curl their noses up at your offering, and accept that like your new born baby, who is so beautiful to you a lot of people think it looks like a spider monkey. I did learn how to create an eBook file along with the necessary formatting and how to format for a real book, hint find a book template online. What type of cover to put on the front, it can be expensive if you pick the wrong one. I'm still learning about marketing and promotion and have concluded that word of mouth has sold more books than anything else.

VALLEY OF DEATH

Valley of Death sprang into life before I finished book one, the idea took over late one night and I began writing the first chapter. The lead character, Annie Leeson appeared with her personality, sexuality, demons and needs intact. The supporting cast assembled in the wings and it was a case of roll 'em. I had a strong feeling about who else to bring across from Mountain and Jack Hardy in his new incarnation as Rod Davis was an odds on favourite. He plays a pivotal role and resorts to type when needed. Grace is there, still a strong woman but she has a certain feel about her, quietly dangerous, a little brittle at times. Susie is part of the cast and you will be surprised about her connection. Naturally there are new additions and we catch up with some friends from book one.

Creating new people can be fun, no God complex here, the subconscious mind sifts away through the files marked 'people I knew' (there must be a file there) and it throws up the required mannequin for you to dress. Hmm, that nose, moustache or facial resemblance of your choice. Then so and so's personality, job history, background it's a regular jigsaw. In the end you have your playthings to uplift or destroy at will. There's a definite Zeus like quality happening here, it sounds funny but as a writer you are creating people, hopefully realistic people to populate the pages of your offering. I wanted them to come off the page at a reader and slap them around a bit, and wake them up to what is happening in the world to children and teens.

Annie seems happy, she has more than most and life has blessed her with physical beauty and intelligence, a need to right wrongs and the drive to move forward in her career. What she can't understand are the dreams that have been haunting her for months, we know they are dragging her back to the mansion, to where she was abused. Being bi-sexual, a woman and good looking can cause jealousy and unwarranted attention in any career, when you add suspicions about her adopted father Detective Johnny Leeson then you have one fired up lady. Her determination and sense of justice uncovers an organised paedophile ring with international connections. Determined to see justice done the repercussions are more than she bargained for. She comes up against official corruption, disbelief and personal danger. Determined to get the men responsible she puts her own life in danger.

My chief protagonist is a representation of corruption at its highest level and he plays his part very well. Educated, smooth, refined who would believe it was him. His fingers, tainted with the blood of innocents, are deep in every pie. A sociopath he feels nothing for his victims or those close to him, his main concerns are lust and the accumulation of wealth. I've spent some time in this story showing his background and that of his son to highlight how people can be born and led into this lifestyle. The degradation and death of innocents is not new to the world and I struggled for hours, days on how to portray some events. I didn't have far to look for cases, the newspapers are full of them. I make no excuses for what I've written or for the characters and their desires. Whatever they've learned as a child can be modified when they are capable of reasoning; sadly the imprinting of sexual pleasure on the young leaves a lasting impression on their psyches. There are no overt depictions of child sex in this book, you cannot write about the subject without mentioning it though and I think I've worked around it. (The age of consent in Australia is 16 years) Check out the link next to the book cover, it will take you straight to the Amazon page for the book and you can read the reviews there. I haven't had the local villagers with flaring torches and pitchforks lining up to take me away yet.

People can be destroyed in many ways, sometimes death is easier than reconstructing yourself and this is what Annie must do to survive. I've tried to show the depth of human spirit here, the desires and wants, the strengths and weaknesses. How we cope as people when the going gets tough, how we survive and what we are prepared to do to survive. There are casualties along the way and Death himself doesn't care how old you are, or for that matter who you are. Like Mountain there is sex, violence, murder and lust. I think the interplay between personalities has evolved here as well and I hope that I've presented them better than book one. There are no white hats. Instead they vary from black-as, to a grubby cream colour.

As a post script I must add that the setting for this book is Fortitude Valley in Brisbane, a near city, riverside suburb it is still something of a hotbed of sex and violence. It certainly draws the punters on Friday and Saturday nights. With some real places I've used poetic license to change them slightly, others stand as they are. The outer suburbs and those around Ipswich are real and I've changed the spelling on some streets. It is a case of write what you know and setting a novel in your home state is quite satisfying and easier. Readers have commented on how they can relate much better to the story when they have knowledge of the location. For overseas readers, well we here down under have had to visualise endless locations over the years in a story and just wing it with the description. If you think the subject of the story is out-dated or not relevant the Australian government has only this week begun a Royal Commission into child abuse in institutions, churches, homes etc. I'm sure that many eyes will be opened to what goes and has gone on over the years to those who cannot defend themselves.

RIVER OF DEATH

River of Death, third in the series almost wrote itself, from the opening lines it flowed, pardon the pun. Once again it came to life as I finished the first draft of the preceding book Valley. The characters, new and old blended seamlessly into the story right from the start. Not only were they waiting in the wings I think they put their own resumes in. Of course Annie Leeson is back, fighting fit and not taking crap off anybody. She's had a promotion and after her harrowing experiences in Valley has sworn off men, at least for a while. There is something different about her in this book, she's cynical with a take no prisoner's approach. You can almost feel her sandpaper-like attitude as she is dragged into the story. The glass-ceiling is still a problem for women in the force and she is no exception. Being lumbered with the case of a woman's mutilated body in a shipping container seemed a good way for her Boss to get her out of his hair for a while.

We meet Simon Fynch, ex motorbike cop now a brand new Detective Senior Constable in Fortitude Valley. He has finally found his niche in life; the years of study and his ongoing degree have paid off. An horrendous incident from his childhood spurred him on to become a copper, now he hopes he can make a difference. A family man with something of a studious look about him his career is almost cut short before it begins. He finds Annie's abrasive attitude annoying but has to suck it up and work with her. There's DS Harry Swift the consummate drinking man who rises to the occasion when needed. Inspector Bill Pygram is still with us, along with Detective Stan Grimes. His life has changed but not his attitude to Annie. Annie's daughter Susan plays a big part in this book and she is quite a character. Further in we meet a Detective Michael 'Dunnie' Painter. For my overseas readers, in Australia a toilet is known as a Dunnie. So with the surname of Painter what other nickname could you use? On the surface he is a grizzled bad tempered bastard, a man you don't want to mess with. There is another side to him and it may surprise you.

Some old characters pass on in this book and let me tell you I cried while writing the scenes. Bit players from book two come to the fore and play their parts admirably. I won't say anything about two of the new characters that appear as it would compromise the story. Needless to say they are quite pivotal. To talk at length about the protagonists would give it all away but rest assured they will make you look twice before going out at night. Yes protagonists, three to be exact and they step up to the plate and play their parts admirably. The lead protagonist is a fine example of a killer whose mental faculties are in a state of decline. Highly intelligent with the morals of an alley cat he leads the police on a frantic hunt, leaving a rare coin as a clue. His taste is classical-his methods worthy of Dr Frankenstein.

The story is more than a kill-fest. We have love and sex, heartbreak and loss, bravery and determination and the ongoing endurance of the human spirit. There is cynicism and revenge, jealousy and regret, death and violence, post mortems and porn, in other words something for everyone. Set in Brisbane's Fortitude Valley, where the river of the title snakes around we find ourselves in a Brisbane winter. (Not too cold at all) The river dominates, although Moreton Bay and Bribie Island gain a mention. Ipswich (I’ve lived and worked there for forty years) plays its part again supplying some grim backdrops. August in Brisbane is known for two things, cold westerly winds and the Royal Queensland Show or 'The Ekka,' held at the Exhibition grounds a stone’s throw from the Valley. It plays a pivotal role in the story. So there we have it, River of Death will be released as an eBook towards the end of 2013, with a print version not far behind.

You can find my blog at: Wordpress

Amazon link for Mountain of Death

Amazon link for Valley of Death

Both books will be free on Amazon between midnight on the 25th and midnight on the 27th of October.

ONE TIME ON EARTH: FASCINATING AND INTRIGUING

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 18 Oct 2013 14:05:00 +0000

Since I am an advocate of spaceflight, people ask me if One Time on Earth is autobiographical. The answer to that is no, although like any other writer I have drawn on what I know. I was left awestruck by Apollo and the notion of mounting expeditions to the moon, at a very early age I did live in a rundown area of town and I am inspired by landscape which features in many of the novel’s passages. There however, similarities between me and the story’s lead actor cease; whereas I was enthralled by the moon landings, Henry Lothian, lives and breathes Apollo and thinks of nothing else but what the day will be like when human beings first steps out on to the surface of another world. For him this is the most significant day in history and humankind’s greatest achievement, and in his mind there is nothing more important than preparing for it so that he will remember every detail until the day he dies. Henry’s world is changing though. The slums around him are being cleared and his lifelong friends are under threat of having to move away. But not everyone agrees with Henry’s views on Apollo. His bad-tempered father, who struggles to save their pub while houses around them are reduced to rubble, is convinced that mounting missions to the moon is not only a waste of money but also a way for Americans to humiliate the Russians. Conflict between father and son is inevitable and eventually differences between them become too great, and without giving too much away, Henry then realises that there is only one way in which he can truly absorb the event he believes will change the world forever.

In writing One Time on Earth I have tried to transport the reader back to this unique period in history, a time when the human race was being drawn to that near mystical point in time when people left the Earth and journeyed to another place in the Universe. I have also tried emphasise that the time when we were able to do such things was a much different time to the one in which we live today.

Excerpt:

It took three days of kicking a ball against walls before I ventured into Kevin’s old house.

For a while I stood in the front garden and stared at the windows and the distorted reflections of clouds held within them.

The house was silent, as if it had a peaceful resignation and waited for its own destruction. I pushed open the unlocked front door and walked in every room, often standing in the bare spaces with my hands in my back pockets, astounded at how painstakingly they had cleared their possessions, and how different the empty house sounded because they had. Knowingly or not, they had erased all clues about the people who once lived there. I was drawn to the lounge and I stood in a rectangular patch of colourless light and faced the tiled fireplace. I hadn’t intended to wallow in self-pity; I had wandered into the house out of curiosity only, but the moment I came to stand there, listening to the clicking noises the sunned building made, their voices and the memories of the things we did swam in my mind. I recalled the brutally cold night we crowded in that lounge and played Monopoly while Kevin’s mother served us warm Swiss Roll. I pictured the moment, when, for no reason at all, we were possessed by the need to collect frogs and pelted down to the walled footpath by the rec’. Then I recalled up-ending the aluminium bucket over Kevin’s cellar floor, and with so many frogs springing about, Major not knowing which way to turn. But most of all I recalled that snowy bonfire night, when we huddled by the popping and whistling fire, transfixed by the collapsing embers, vowing that when men walked upon the moon we would be together; and I recalled with absolute clarity the grim concentration on our faces while we ceremonially cut our thumbs with bottle glass to fortify this notion in our minds.

My face was wet with tears and my body trembled. I tried to stop myself and clenched my hands and pummelled my thighs with balled fists, but no matter how much I tried to distract myself from the memories, I couldn’t stop sobbing and ran for the door.

Seconds later I was running from the house down the short path into the street, driving myself faster and faster. At the street end I skidded to a stop, then as quickly as I had come to a halt, I found himself charging off again. I wanted to scream and shout, but no words came from me; so I focused all my energies into pumping my arms and driving my legs as violently as I could.

Adjacent to the track down the side of the row of terraced houses I came to a halt; heart pounding, chest heaving. I sprinted down the track, ducking beneath the over-arching privet and came to stand in the space at the back of the houses. I kicked at dirt and stones and lashed out at invisible foes, spinning and twirling. I growled and spat; all the ways I could think of to free my rage.

The garage was no distance away, so I charged across the gravel, and with fumbling fingers unfastened the latch. Running backwards, I dragged open the double doors. One of them caught on stones and fell to the ground, and a low cloud of dust rushed from beneath it. I didn’t care though. Squeezing down the side of the Vanguard I tried to yank open the driver’s door, but it wouldn’t budge, then leaning in through the open window, I pulled on the chrome lever until the door gave in, groaned and opened partially. I turned sideways and climbed inside. Immediately I calmed and put my hands through the thin steering wheel spokes. I pressed my back into the cold leather seat and let my head loll back so that I was staring at the car’s cloth ceiling. The smell of oil and petrol settled at the back of my throat, and for a while I sat like this until the knocking of my heart stopped. When it had, I looked over the dashboard and ran a hand over it, just feeling the textures beneath my finger. Then I played with the gear lever and depressed the clutch and listened to the clunking sounds this made. I tried turning the steering wheel, leaning out of the window to watch the wheel move from side to side, but the steering was so heavy it seemed to be locked in place. I looked around for other controls to try out. Set into the dashboard was a radio. At one end was a cream-coloured knob; so in a vain hope that from it sounds could be coaxed, I turned it. Nothing happened. At the other end was an identical knob. I turned this too and watched the crimson line on the tuner patrol from side to side. Nothing; and it was at this point that I became aware of a rustling and clanging sound behind me. I stopped what I was doing and became still, holding my breath. The sound was outside, scraping on the bodywork. My heart jerked and blood pulsed in my temples. I looked to the rear view mirror, but saw nothing. I looked down the car to the wing mirror mounted above the headlamp, and in the cobwebs crisscrossing it, saw a dark and shuffling figure.

http://neilnewton.co.uk/

http://amazon.com/author/nnewton

https://www.facebook.com/neilnewtonauthor

MARY CLARK ON THE LIFE OF AN ELDERLY BOHEMIAN POET

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 07 Oct 2013 21:41:00 +0000

Tally: An Intuitive Life, by Mary Clark, is based on the life and thought of an elderly Bohemian artist, Paul Johnston (PJ), and his relationship with two young poets. PJ lived in Greenwich Village, NYC, most of his adult life. He developed a theory of intuitive, conscious living. He valued an independent, non-conformist lifestyle, and lived for many years in near-poverty but in the epicenter of culture with all its richness. This book is a chronicle of his life, and his friendships in his last years, taken from his letters and writings, and audiotapes he and the author did together.

Mary Clark revealed that the name Tally comes from an early conversation in the book, when the poet Rogue first introduces a young writer, Erin Yes, to PJ. In PJ's garret Rogue and Erin see the remains of a long life filled with varied interests: books, film, modern art, theater, dance, photography, music, family and friends. Rogue says to her: "I'm drawn to old age because I want to know how it all adds up, or doesn't add up in the end."

In the beginning, Erin simply wants to help an old man whose sight and hearing are failing. She becomes intrigued by some of his ideas: how an intuitive program is built up in childhood, how we deal with guilt and innocence, what leads to amiability and hostility, and how we can adjust our "intuitive self-guidance." Rather than rationalize or justify our motivations and actions, he believed we had the ability to honestly (that is, without defensiveness or righteousness) evaluate our intent, behavior and its consequences, and make a change that is positive and remain, or renew ourselves, as innocent, amiable human beings.

In time a friendship forms. With her help PJ publishes some of his writing and hosts parties in his artist's loft. He tells her that they are "together in amiable affection." As PJ struggles with illness and old age, Erin becomes ever more deeply involved in the often difficult, but also rewarding, friendship with this eccentric Old Man.

Read more about Tally on her blog at: http://literaryeyes.wordpress.com

Tally: An Intuitive Life was published by All Things That Matter Press in August 2013 and is available on Amazon as a print book and Kindle book.

LORI'S SONG

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 04 Sep 2013 00:07:00 +0000

1. Please introduce yourself. Tell us a little about the person behind the pen.

I’m Lori Foroozandeh, but if I were honest I also have five other names, but most of them I’ve divorcedJ

Well the book pretty much is my WHOLE LIFE, if I tell you things about me then it would be repetitive in the book. But in short I’m a 47yr. old who lives in Michigan and LOVES ANIMALS. Part of my profits from the book goes towards the HSUS. I was born on 12-11 at the time of 12:11, which to me was very odd. I am not one to follow any superstitions or doctrines based on numerology but the way my life has went I now wonder if that birth-date and time, which coincide so perfectly, might in all actuality have a purpose.

Why did you decide to write (non-fiction)? What is the appeal?

I only wrote one book and it was my life story with the focus on escaping from a POW camp in Iran after 911. If I hadn’t had any tragedies in my life (and trust me this isn’t the only one) I probably wouldn’t have written one. Everyone told me that I should write a book and it would be a great catharsis.

How much research goes into your books, and how do you tackle that?

The only research was my memoryJ

What is the best comment you ever received from a reader? The worst or weirdest?

I received it from Tom Clancy and he said “YOU SURE KNOW HOW TO WRITE A BOOK FOR THE “REAL” AUDIENCE.

My worst was, “you suck and you know nothing about Iran or Muslims”….as you will find out I actually doJ

Tell us a little about your writing style? Do you plan and plot your stories, or do you just plow through them?

I literally plowed through it, I sat down and just wrote for three-six months. I never re-read it because it was too hard. So I had John re-read it and my literary agent for errors. My therapist and I started going through the chapters then stopped when I started having flashbacks.

Can you tell us a little about your current work, (Lori’s Song)?

It’s my true story of being held captive in a POW type camp in Iran for six weeks. The book also deals with my childhood sexual abuse, substance abuse, PTSD and living with bipolar. It is a very graphic book when it comes to scenes during the camp.

My book is available on Kindle, paperback and hardcover. Its available through Amazon, Barnes & Noble and anywhere online. Search “Lori Foroozandeh”.

These are my social networking links and I also have a blog.

http://www.loris-song.com/ (WEBSITE)
http://lorissong.com/ (BLOG)
https://twitter.com/Loris_Song (TWITTER)
https://www.facebook.com/lforoozandeh#!/lforoozandeh (FB)

http://www.amazon.com/Lori-Foroozandeh/e/B002NSC2DU/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_pop_1 (AMAZON

Here is an excerpt from my book:

Anyway getting back to "blows done to humility": The two other girls and I all of which we're not the only females in the camp were chosen as the soldiers "toys"! This meant that when they got bored or just for sadistic purposes they would choose one of us and rape us, all of the soldiers would.... Which if you counted them all it meant anywhere from 20-29 on any given day...
The first time that they came for me, I knew it was coming....I had this sudden nauseating feeling in my stomach, and kept watching the ground intently, while the soldiers approached. All I could hear by the time that they got to me was my heartbeat within my ears. I felt a sudden jerk on each arm and a kick to the back while I was being drug away from Faresh. Yes this was the only time that the cuffs came off....I did the usual screaming and fighting although I knew that in the back of my mind this didn't help, there were too many of them, and only one of me....When the first soldier grabbed me, the other two stood back and pointed their guns at me...and I knew what was happening....I just kept asking the soldiers where in their fucking Qur'an did Allah tell them to do this??? Which only angered them more...

Thank you for allowing me to be featured on your blog, your very gracious. If readers have any questions they can email me: lori@loris-song.com

INSPIRATION

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 27 Aug 2013 12:15:00 +0000

INSPIRATION

The word inspiration is used millions of times since its inclusion in the English language. It has been employed as a reference point for people, things, emotion and acts, good or bad.

When I think of inspiration, my mind travels to those who have set an example by deeds of good, a lyric, or an emotion-evoking phrase in a novel or speech. Such is the reason why I embarked on a career in writing.

My early teen years sparked my interest in writing stories for others to enjoy. There my imagination could soar and explore wondrous travels and situations. I devoured books of the time by William Goldman and relished his fanciful turn of a word and poignant use of few words, which spoke volumes of a situation or a character’s inner thought. I even attempted to write a book on a rickety Smith Corona typewriter with the use of carbon paper for the copies. Alas, my father had other goals for my life that did not include being a writer. In these days, the idea of a parent choosing a child’s profession is ludicrous; but then that was the norm. Therefore, I dutifully chose my career from the list of “suitable” professions my father chose.

A few decades later, after college, marriage, and establishing a nursing career, I attended a Barry Manilow concert. Though I have followed his career and enjoyed his many concerts in the past, I never truly listened to his words of advice, “Do what you love, and the rest will follow.” That advice hit home to me one June day not so many years ago. I realized that the number of days left in my life were limited to a finite number. I no longer had the luxury of youth to delay a dream to the lingering future. I couldn’t believe there was a story of any value within me. I hadn’t done any creative writing since I was seventeen. At the age of fifty-eight, I wondered if I could even construct a proper sentence, since my nursing career involved writing in disjointed phrases on patients’ charts.

It started with the “What if?” concept in my mind. One “what if” lead to another, and another. I began my manuscript on June twenty-seventh and finished my last period on September twenty-seventh that same year. I wrote every free moment when not at the hospital working the night shift, thirty-six hours per week. Ideas and characters rained in a torrent, begging to be developed and born on paper. Excited with my finished “baby” and baptized the name “Front Row Center”, I eagerly shared my greater than 292,000 word creation with a dear friend, Mark J. Dye, who advised me to seek an editor, as he considered the story good. I expected the usual kindness from a friend, but never actual enthusiasm.

Having searched the internet for writing services, I landed an editor who felt I had a career in writing. She took me through the basics to a finished product. Carol Givner was tough, and wouldn’t write any revisions, but forced me to learn what turns a writer into an author. As much as Mr. Manilow’s words inspired me to write, Carol inspired me to write well.

On a whim, and never expecting to have a chance of winning, I entered the IPPY Awards in the romance category. You guessed it. I won! This was my first novel with no previous writing experience.

Recently, two short stories of mine, When Midnight Comes and Characters, have been included in an anthology “The Speed of Dark” by Clayton C. Bye, Chase Enterprises, Inc. Publishing. I felt extremely honored to be included among a group of very talented and seasoned authors, and accepted on the book panel.

Inspiration? It made a monumental change in my life. What was merely an item on my bucket list evolved into a rewarding career. Follow your inspiration and see where it might lead. Listen to your nagging inner voice and welcome the rewards.

Website: www.wordsandpassion.com

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Front-Row-Center-Cynthia-Ainsworthe/dp/0980245907/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1345825833&sr=1-1&keywords=cynthia+b+ainsworthe

Facebook Fan Page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Cynthia-B-Ainsworthe/38240446635

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LINDA HALES: WRITING FOR CHILDREN

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 13 Aug 2013 19:39:00 +0000

First, let me express my sincere appreciation to Marta for giving me this delightful opportunity to discuss my world of children’s story telling.

How did I get here? Oh my, let me count the ways. While I suspect that most would assume a deep fondness for children and concern for their welfare would take front and center stage, that would go without saying; however, I have a special motivation and that is my late daughter Tammy. Yes, I write for myself but Tammy is near and dear in all of my work and if it doesn’t meet with my ‘Tammy criteria’ then it doesn’t go to print. She inspires me to relate tales which reflect actual incidents in her childhood and what was her endearing perspective on life, friendship, love and her understanding of her place in the universe. Yes, you read me correctly. Tammy had an innate understanding that she had a purpose in life and hers was to help others to do the things that they could not do on their own and to teach them that a smile is the key to a happy life. She was indeed my teacher as there were so many areas of my life that needed the benefit of her special kind of sunshine. She cured me of so many misconceptions and misfortunes by teaching me that a simple smile will attract a smile and that can only be a good thing. Sometimes it was as basic as “Mommy, I will make you smile” followed by the cutest little funny face I ever did see. Did I get this from her or did she get it from me? It matters little because we were a team and still are.

Reading age and topic appropriate books to young children can make a world of difference in their view of their environment…indeed, their big wide world. The idea is to fill up their creative tanks with encouragement to dream and imagine outside of their own little boxes. Reading to children further encourages them to become early readers. I remember as early as age three when I begged my sister to teach me to read so that my Daddy would be proud of me too. She was in first grade and for two years, brought her school reader home each day after school and proceeded to teach me her day’s lesson. By the time I was in first grade, I was already reading at grade three level, thanks to my older sister.

Most parents go to great lengths to find the best reading material for their children and I agree that this is the right way to start out. At a very early age, a child already exhibits preferences and interests and parents may want to encourage them with books that stimulate the positive side of their character and expand on it to help them grow. By the age of three, I was taking my daughter to the library which was a visual feast for her young eyes. The deal was that I would choose two books and she got to choose one that particularly interested her. My choices afforded her the guidance she needed to strike out on her own and exercise some choices according to her developing interests. First year of school came along at age four and she was able to bring books home from her kindergarten library and of course, she was learning to read at home. This was her early start to becoming an avid reader and as she grew, so did her span of interests.

It is my view that a children’s book must first be entertaining but have an underlying, age appropriate message that will help to shape their character in a positive way. By no means, am I an expert on shaping the character of children but I have no trouble whatsoever, in recognizing the need for them to develop self-esteem, to learn the value of a positive attitude and to encourage tolerance to the differences in others. These attributes are underscored in my children’s books, an example being an anti-bullying message in Andy-Roo: The Birthday Surprise! I’m proud to tell you that my Andy-Roo was awarded the 2013 Kart Kids Book List Award for Creative Storytelling.

Earlier this year, I took Sunshine to Ireland to tell her blarney tale in ethnic style, with the release of Sunshine and Her Big Blarney Smile! That inspired the concept of developing a ‘travellin’ Sunshines’ series and who knows where I’ll take her next…Scotland, Holland, Paris-France? This was closely followed up with the release of a co-ordinated Activity Story Book with a black and white interior with the blarney story, full coloring pages and a myriad of entertaining activities. I love all of my books as we love our children but I feel a great affinity for my blarney offerings.

I love that I can close my eyes and a story emerges from beginning to end in less than an hour. I did this recently and would like to end with a very short story that popped into my mind in just such a manner…and here it is:

Sunshine’s Big Blarney Castle!

Well hi there! Surely you know by now that my name is Sunshine and I live in a charming old castle in the Village of Blarney in the heart of Ireland.

I’m seven years old and I tell my tales to help little kids learn how important it is to help others and to try, try and try again until they succeed! My gramma told me to never give up until I see a big happy smile on every sad face. That is my mission in life! Maybe I’ll be a nurse or a teacher or maybe even a writer when I grow up. Then again, I might just decide to stay as I am…a little girl who likes to make sad people smile!

Now I’ll tell you what it is like to live in my magical fairy-tale castle! Mine has many rooms with lots of hiding places and so I go exploring to find new ones every day. Oh, I could write a whole book about the secret hiding places I have found but for now, I’ll tell you about the biggest surprise of all!

One day, as I was wandering about the upstairs hallways and peeking into every room, I was caught by surprise when I heard the giggles of little children. Just then a tiny voice called out, “Sunshine! Will you come in and play? It’s rather dark in here and you could light up our room with your big bright smile!” When I entered the room, I could see that I was in a little girl’s chambers and there were many stuffed animals and dollies on the bed. I looked around and could not see where the giggles came from but the sounds seemed to come from behind the chamber walls. I looked for hidden passages and knocked on walls to see if one would open up for me but it did not! All at once, I heard that sweet little voice coming from the bed, “Sunshine, please come up here and play with us!” I could not resist so I jumped up on that big old bed to lie among them and promptly fell asleep.

My little friends were not in the wall after all but were waiting for someone to come and play with them. I go back there every day to play and believe it or not, I can even make them smile!

My website is:

http://www.linnieslittlebooks.com

You will find my books on Amazon at the following link:

http://www.amazon.com/Linda-Hales/e/B004YKW4QU/ref=cm_sw_r_fa_nu_I4tGrb51FD314

My paperbacks and the eBook for Sunshiine and Her Big Blarney Smile! are also being sold in the Chase Enterprises store at:

http://shop.claytonbye.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=87

Two Faces of Shame...

noreply@blogger.com (Taylor Fulks ) — Sat, 27 Jul 2013 23:57:00 +0000

THE TWO FACES OF SHAME…

Shame is an evil witch that parks her broom outside my home, lurks by the door waiting to sneak inside or sometimes, even expects to be invited to enter. I have lived with this wicked creature my entire life so one would think I would be consumed with a hatred for her, a disdain so great, that I shudder at the mere mention of her name. Oddly, I don’t.

Shame has imprisoned me from truly living until now, but she also saved my life…

I began my “writing journey” not as a fulfillment of a life-long dream as most writers do, but more as a panacea to ward off the empty-nest syndrome I will be experiencing very soon, and to stave off loneliness in my life. I love romance…well, let me clarify, I love a great story laced with romance. I’m a voracious reader (over 700 books read in 6 years) so I thought, “This can’t be that hard to do.” Though not a writer, I can tell a pretty good story or two.

I sat down with pen and paper (I’m dating myself, I know. Computers and I used to be on really ugly terms) and tried to write my first romance…maybe a short story to start out with. I was blank, no muse at all, just this niggling little voice inside my head. I scribbled some gibberish not worth the paper it was on, then heard the voice again…”Tell our story! Give me a voice Taylor!” For whatever reason, I finally listened.

MY PRISON WITHOUT BARS: THE JOURNEY OF A DAMAGED WOMAN TO SOMEPLACE NORMAL is my fictional memoir. It’s a novel based on a true story…my story.

When I began this journey, I could barely utter the words “Child Sexual Abuse” without stuttering and stammering, even though I was hell bent on using my real name, not a pen name as I was encouraged to do. I didn’t want to write a memoir. I didn’t know how. I hadn’t ever read one. I had this crazy notion that if you wrote a memoir, somehow you were supposed to have some sort of second sight, philosophical insight…answers, if you will, to all the points and questions raised while telling your story. Unfortunately, I knew I had no answers…just Shame.

In the beginning, my writing was relatively innocuous. I told of my abuser and the abuse I endured with little, to no detail. I continued writing my story passing the abuse, moving on to the fallout or damage that victims live with long after the abuse ends. Halfway through my novel, Penn State University erupted in the media, throughout the U.S. with breaking news about long term, persistent, child sexual abuse of young boys in a summer athletic program hosted by the University, run by Jerry Sandusky…now, a convicted pedophile.

Joe Paterno, the head football coach for Penn State and beloved icon, had been informed of this heinous activity and did nothing to stop it, or prevent it from continuing. He had knowledge of the crime for years, yet turned a blind eye to it. By turns, he was quickly fired for his part in the cover-up. He and his football team were stripped of all their awards and titles, not only for this particular year, but for all accolades during his tenure. The University even went so far as to remove a statue honoring him. The University was also sanctioned and subjected to heavy, punitive fines. I was ecstatic! FINALLY! Someone was taking a stand on behalf of the victims.

I was glued to the television, following the story as it unfolded. Then, I noticed the victim’s interviews were being edited and cut. I watched students protest and riot in the streets. The final straw for me was a group interview on the campus with several students, faculty, and some administrators crying “FOUL!” One administrator or faculty member said, “This isn’t right! The punishment is TOO HARSH for the crime!”

I was beyond RAGE…a door in my head swung open and something inside of me snapped! I actually felt possessed. I went to the beginning of my novel, read through the first eight chapters that described the abuse (leaving much to the reader’s imagination) then I tore it to shreds! I started OVER…

The words poured out of me like water gushing down a flushed toilet. I wrote with rage and fury, letting the words and experiences flow from the depths of my soul. I wrote until my hand cramped and my fingers were numb…then I cried. I cried for myself, then for all the innocent children that are lost and have no voice. I cried in Shame…

Why so graphic? I mean come on, does the reader really need to read all the gory details of such an atrocity? The answer is yes...they do! The mind is a compensatory computer, allowing a plethora of knowledge and feelings to flow through its pathways…it's always filtering or camouflaging some things, buffering or blocking others, and completely shutting off when unable to handle or compute. In other words, it makes sure the soul can handle the download.

And therein lays the problem with Child Sexual Abuse. We hear those three words and our minds will only allow us to imagine so far before we filter, buffer, block, or completely shut off the things too unpleasant to handle. My mission became clear…I had to take the reader to that dark, dismal, shameful place no one ever talks about, and with my written words…make them feel.

I know a place so dark that the only light is the knowledge I survived last night. I know a place so shameful, that the only hope is surviving tonight, and the next night, and the next…

So, for good or bad, I laid myself naked and exposed to the world (or at least to the few friends that would actually read my book). I bared myself before everyone to be judged, criticized and condemned. I left nothing to the imagination…I take the reader far beyond what is comfortable and far beyond what most would consider appropriate.

My novel is dark, disturbing, and very GRAPHIC…because you see, that’s what Child Sexual Abuse really is, and we as a society (a global society) need to come to terms with that. I have had family, friends, and colleagues (both medical and literary) accuse me of writing a “HOW-TO FOR PEDOPHILES” (I can assure you from experience, they don’t need directions) to writing Child Porn or really bad Erotica (RED ALERT: If anyone is titillated or turned on by any of the descriptions I have written concerning the abuse I endured, they need help!)

In response, I stand as tall as I can, my back straight and my head held high. I’m no longer a victim, or a survivor…I AM A WARRIOR!

I was introduced to Shame at a very young age…I believe I was six at the time. Shame was that little voice in my head, telling me what was happening to me was wrong. Because you see, abusers seclude their victims, putting them in solitary confinement with no connection to the norms of society or the ways of the outside world. Children learn what they live. Had I not met Shame, not been introduced to the “wrongness” of the life I lived, the cycle would have probably continued with me…for without Shame, we know no better. Shame in all her evil glory, saved my life!

Was I too descriptive? Probably. Was I too graphic? Definitely! But I saw no other way to lead readers through my journey…the journey of a lost and forgotten child that had no voice, no protector. I do not apologize for the subject matter or the way I wrote it. Fear of the unknown breeds ignorance, and ignorance perpetuates the unknown! My job as a writer in this instance, is to make you feel. If you come away from my book with an inkling of what it’s like to have no choices, no freedom and no safety as an innocent, defenseless child, well then I’ve done my job.

So what’s the response to my work? My novel to date has done very well. On Amazon it has over 125~ 5 star reviews out of 143, and is ranked in the Top 25 in two categories for twenty-one weeks. On Goodreads, my book maintains a 4.5 rating and has 90 review/ratings. This response is not the norm for a self-published "taboo novel."

As of June 1^st 2013, my little “taboo novel” won 1^st Place in the prestigious IRDA, INDIE READER DISCOVERY AWARDS presented at the BEA, BOOK EXPO OF AMERICA (the largest trade show for publishers and authors in the world) in NYC. I went to New York to accept this award.

I was recently notified that my novel is a finalist in the READERS FAVORITE INTERNATIONAL BOOK AWARDS for my category, Reality/Fiction. The winners will be announced September 1, 2013. The awards will be presented in Miami, Florida in mid-November. I plan to attend that ceremony as well.

In closing, I'd like to say that I never ask anyone to buy or read my novel. Unfortunately, it's not that kind of book. It's a personal choice to go to that dark place I describe in detail, but let me assure you, it's not a pity pit. My novel is also a psychological thriller, a romance and revenge sought out and realized. If you can get through it, it speaks of light, hope, and acceptance...my journey to someplace normal. This is as bared and naked as I'll ever be.

I’m proud to say the little girl inside my book (inside of me) is fine…I protect her now. This little girl has found her voice…

*I want to thank you Marta, for your gracious, courageous and persistent invitation to guest post on your blogroll. You truly honor me, my story and my life. Thank you most of all for your love, support and friendship…I am blessed beyond measure by all three.

~Taylor~

Write from the heart...with passion!

MY PRISON WITHOUT BARS

viewBook.at/MyPrisonWithoutBarsTheJourneyofaDamagedWomant

TAYLOR EVAN FULKS

www.taylorfulks.com

Facebook

www.facebook.com/taylorevanfulks

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www.twitter.com/TaylorTfulks20

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT BULLYING

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 18 Jul 2013 00:21:00 +0000

My Child is being Bullied: Now What?

Bullying is a pandemic in our nation's schools. Realizing this, we must do all that we can to help our children deal with the pressures that these annoying behaviors poses on their lives. Parents, we have a huge responsibility, but are we doing all that we can to intervene?

Let me ask these questions

As a parent, are you aware of the anti-bullying laws and policies in place at your child's school? If so, how is it being enforced? If not, have you voiced your concerns and/or asked to work closely with school officials in hope to create anti-bullying procedures at your child's school? Do you know if school officials at your child's school are clear about what actually constitutes bullying behaviors?

In some cases, there are concerns about what constitutes bullying behaviors verses normal play, or friendly horsing around. I know that you have these concerns too, so I'll define what bullying is and what it looks like.

Bullying Defined

Verbal (name calling, teasing, insulting, or threatening)

Physical (hitting, kicking, scratching, pushing, stealing, hiding/destroying someone else's property)

Social (refusing to talk to or play with someone, purposefully excluding someone)

Cyber (using electronics such as computer to write mean, demeaning messages about someone)

There are signs of bullying that you can watch for

Poor eating habits or asking to eat as soon as he/she gets home - bully takes lunch or lunch money

Depression

Torn clothes or mysterious bruises/scratches

Isolating self from others - appearing lonely

A change in grades - poor grades

A sudden dislike for school

Exhibiting unfounded anxiety

Low self-esteem

Complaint of sick feelings - stomach aches, headaches

Asking not to go to school

Signs of threats or suicide

If you have reason to believe that your child is being bullied

Stop, Look & Listen NOW

Talk to your child. Ask him/her about their school day. Ask if there is anything that you should know. Whatever you are doing or plan to do, stop! Your child must trust that you will drop whatever you are doing to see him/her through this crisis. Your child needs to know that you are listening to them; you hear their frustration and the pain that they are experiencing. You may want to repeat what you heard them say to you, thereby acknowledging that you are really listening. Let your child know that you will be there for them "at all costs."

Documentation

Get the story as clearly as possible from your child and document everything from your child's version of the bullying incidents to every conversation you have with school officials. Be sure to write things down as soon as an occurrence arises or a conversation happens. This way, incidents are still fresh in your child's mind. You may want to keep documentation separated by tabs in a tablet or a notebook to maintain a distinct record of each person's story. It will be important to keep your child's version separate from a school official's so that messages don't end up overlapping, getting accidentally mixed-up or combined.

Have other students been affected by the bully or bullies who are attacking your child? If so, what are their names? Were there any witnesses to the incidents? If so, what are their names? Does your child remember which class the other students are enrolled in? Can your child point them out? Encourage school officials to interview other children who may have been bullied.

Use dates, times and settings in your documentation. Did the incident happen in the cafeteria, classroom, or playground? Detailed documentation will not only help school officials target bullying incidents, but it will also give school officials an indication of how best to resolve issues as they examine antecedents (causes/variables that may have prompted the bully to react inappropriately), so that changes and individually tailored support plans can be implemented.

Approach school staff immediately

Bullying will not just stop on its own. Don't be afraid to approach school administrators.

You might find that some school officials and administrators may be territorial and believe that they are the educational experts, and you are "just a parent." Since you are your child's greatest advocate, here are a few ideas about how to approach the issue of your child being bullied while working collaboratively with school officials:

Do your research. You can assist school leaders with ideas of how to bully shield and bully proof the school that your child attends.

Approach the school leaders as if you are on their side. Do what you can to avoid creating an adversarial relationship between you and the people who have the power to help stop what is happening

Let the school leaders know that you are not only concerned about your child, but all children enrolled at the school. This will soften your approach thereby giving you greater lead-in for support and next steps.

Begin speaking to the school counselor before working your way up the organizational chart - Test the water, first.

When my own child was bullied at school, I spoke to the school principal directly. Due to budget cuts, this particular school had no assigned counselor. I approached the situation as a concern for the other child as well as my very own child. I said, "Perhaps this young girl is having personal problems in her home- life that's making her feel angry." Other times I would say, "Sounds like this child wants to take charge and is a bit bossy. Perhaps she can be shown how to use her leadership skills in a more positive and productive manner." By using this approach with the school principal, I believe that I softened the conversation, thereby gaining the principal's attention. It appeared that she was more willing to hear me.

But, there are times when the school will not help, so now what can you do?

Before I address this problem, I want to urge parents to always gather as much information about your school the first week or two of the new school year. This is the time when the climate is still warm and friendly, and stress levels aren't heightened due to the pressures of trying to keep up with everyday school life. Know the district level office organizational chart and levels of administration assigned to your child's campus. Attempt to retrieve their contact information such as names, email addresses, voice mail, and telephone numbers, and perhaps location of their office - this is last resort and never show up without an appointment.

When your child's school will not listen to you or help you through a bullying crisis, and you know that you have done your part, you have spoken to the classroom teacher, school counselor, assistant principal and principal if circumstances have taken you this far, you should contact central office staff and speak to your child's school assigned area superintendent.

Share your concerns and let this individual know that you have tried to work collaboratively with school officials at the campus level of your child's school. Trust me - Now that bullying has gained national attention, there is no doubt that this person will be all ears.

There are approximately 48 states that have laws mandating anti-bullying programs and services in schools, but some schools have been slow in implementing the programs.

Be sure that you know the anti-bullying laws of your state (Bully Police, USA has a state by state listing of anti-bullying legislation). Be ready and able to recite the Senate Bill and House Bill laws associated with the bully's offense. For example, if you live in Texas and your child is experiencing sexual harassment issues at school, and no one will address the issue, share your knowledge of SB 471 and HB 194. If you do this, everyone will know that you mean business!

When to call a lawyer

If you have gone through all the recommended steps above, more than likely you will not have to call a lawyer; however there may be times when your story will land on "deaf ears." If no one will listen to you, or if everyone has listened to you and they have chosen not to intervene, there is no more time to waste. You will want to get legal advice immediately. Time is of the essence and the safety of your child is paramount!

Focus on your child

Remember, there are effective steps that you can take as your child's anti-bullying advocate. Consider the fact that bullying related suicides are real.

STOP whatever you're doing and act quickly on your child's behalf. Our children count on us to help them during crisis. This is not the time to put ANYTHING else before your child. Show your child that they can trust and count on you.

About the author

Author Cherrye Vasquez has a Ph.D. in Curriculum & Instruction; a Ms.Ed in Special Education; and a BA in Speech Pathology/Audiology. She specializes in Multi-cultural education and holds certifications in Early Childhood Handicapped, Mid-Management and Educational Diagnostician.

Cherrye is passionate about empowering children, so her platform centers on diversity and bullying issues. She feels strongly that if children are empowered and armed with the tools needed for a deep love of self and self-identity, they will be able to withstand life's challenges, including bullies.

Website:

http://www.BooksThatSow.com

Twitter

https://twitter.com/bullieswillstop

Facebook

http://www.facebook.com/BooksThatSow

Opt-in Page – Sign up to receive helpful tips and news you can use to help stop bullying

http://cherryevasquez.tateauthor.com/help-stop-bullying/

Summer 2013 - Please look for Cherrye’s new release – Clique, Clique, Stop

Summer 2014 – Cherrye’s Bully book will be released

Marta Merajver Interviews Elaine Cougler

noreply@blogger.com (Elaine Cougler Author) — Tue, 09 Jul 2013 13:35:00 +0000

Historical fiction author Elaine Cougler discloses some fascinating aspects of her life and writing in her answers to my questions. It's indeed a privilege that she has agreed to do so on the Blogroll. Enjoy!

photo by Paula Tizzard

MM: Would you say there is a connection between your coming from a large family, your teaching experiences, and your desire to become a writer?

EC: Such an interesting question to start off, Marta. Certainly there is a connection between my teaching and my coming from a large family as I was always used to having people around me and learned to thrive in that busy environment. We played school by the hour in the upstairs hall of our large house and we had enough people to play all the parts. (chuckle)

As for those experiences contributing to becoming a writer, I’m not sure. Maybe two things connect: From the time I was about 10, I loved to get off by myself and read my mother’s books, and my love of reading is and was a natural jumping-off point for beginning to write. I first taught high school French which allowed me to revel in my love of languages but eventually English became my subject area. Following course outlines laid out by excellent teachers who came before me helped me to read a lot of books that I never would have read otherwise. Still today I make reference to poems that spoke to me for their use of language and word pictures. So, yes, I am the writer I am today partly because of my teaching career and my mother’s love of the written word.

2. MM: How does the subject matter of The Loyalist’s Wife relate to your own history and ancestry?

EC: In the beginning there were a few links but the story of Lucinda and John came out of my head. I have always been one to put myself in situations and feel how a character might feel. I do, however, think that my own Loyalist background made the research for The Loyalist’s Wife particularly exciting for me. In one of the books I have the members of Butler’s Rangers are listed and one name was John Garner. Because I have a brother by that name naming my male character John just seemed to be right. For his wife’s name, I wanted something that suggested the period so I chose Lucinda, the name of one of my great aunts. I particularly liked that I could shorten it to Lucy or use the long form, depending on the situation. That gave an extra layer to drawing her character.

3. MM: In your opinion, what is the advantage of writing a series rather than independent books?

EC: When I started John and Lucy’s story, I only saw the one book, but the more I researched and the more I got to know these two, I realized there would be more to tell. For me, then, the series gives me a chance to tell more of the history of the Loyalists, a group of people who first brought English colonists to Canada, which up until that point had been mostly French.

I already have readers wanting to know the rest of John and Lucy’s story, an indication that once readers get hooked on your characters and their plight, they want to have more. One hopes there will be a loud clamoring for The Loyalist’s Luck (June, 2014) and The Loyalist’s Legacy. (June, 2015)

4. MM: What was the most fruitful outcome of your contact with other writers in terms of the best way to approach your subject?

EC: I wrote The Loyalist’s Luck in splendid isolation, at least for the first draft, so I had little contact with others at that time. I decided on the approach based on my own experience reading great historical fiction authors such as Sharon Kay Penman, Colleen McCullough, Margaret George, and many others. Of course, that all changed once I started reaching out to critique groups, extreme editing courses, workshops and conferences. After all of that I think my best lesson has to be that I learned to trust my own voice. The irony is that I had to write through fire to gain that confidence, but there it is.

5. MM: Why did you choose to write historical fiction?

EC: I love reading many different types of fiction and even some history books, but historical fiction has always appealed to me for its greater sense of truth. Yes, the characters are usually fictional but setting them against great and true events in history lends a veracity, a reality, to fiction. Taking true events and showing how they might have affected everyday people lets me actually feel what they might have felt. Personally, with my own family history so entwined in the Loyalist story, this is thrilling.

6. MM: Did you create your characters or did they impose themselves upon you?

EC: I have to say I made up my characters. Authors talk about characters insisting that their story be told and so on but that was not my experience. Of course there were wonderful times when Lucy just absolutely said something which didn’t even seem to come out of my head. John, too, spoke out as I put him in outrageous situations. I loved losing myself in the story and sometimes got so entranced the hours flew, my tears fell, and I wanted to stop writing and just read the story to see what would happen. Of course I had to write it first!

7. MM: Still talking about characters, do you have special feelings for them? I mean, do you love some more than others and, if so, how do you balance your feelings in the final composition?

EC: For me the main thing is the story and I suppose that is because historical fiction has its framework of historical events against which the personal story of my characters must be laid. I can’t just let my characters go because of that framework. Of course, I do admit to loving Lucy more than John, simply because she was easier for me to draw. My point of view shifts between Lucy’s chapters about being left behind to try to hold on to their farm and John’s chapters where he fought with Butler’s Rangers against the Americans, all the while bearing a huge load of guilt for leaving Lucy alone. I often used my father as a model for John and imagined what he might have done in the same situations. That was intriguing, to say the least.

8. MM: What advice would you offer writers in the same genre?

EC: Oh, that’s a tough one, Marta! I regret not using an in-depth timeline and map from the very outset. Remembering just where John was and later, Lucy, (that’s not really a spoiler!), became tricky in the revisions and critiquing sessions. People would ask me about those things and I couldn’t remember. With the sequel, The Loyalist’s Luck, I have much more of an outline with timelines clearly marked. Of course they might change but, at least, I have a record for easy reference.

Thank you, Marta, for inviting me to participate in this interview. I loved the procedure you used for it, asking me for a bio from which you might draw questions. Yet again, you have taught me something very useful. Hopefully, this has resulted in a more personal and unique interview. Thanks so much!

The Loyalist’s Wife:

When American colonists resort to war against Britain and her colonial attitudes, a young couple caught in the crossfire must find a way to survive. Pioneers in the wilds of New York State, John and Lucy face a bitter separation and the fear of losing everything, even their lives, when he joins Butler’s Rangers to fight for the King and leaves her to care for their isolated farm. As the war in the Americas ramps up, ruffians roam the colonies looking to snap up Loyalist land. Alone, pregnant, and fearing John is dead, Lucy must fight with every weapon she has.

With vivid scenes of desperation, heroism, and personal angst, Elaine Cougler takes us back to the beginnings of one great country and the planting of Loyalist seeds for another. The Loyalist’s Wife transcends the fighting between nations to show us the individual cost of such battles.

Elaine blogs at On Becoming a Wordsmith which may be found at www.elainecougler.com. She also is frequently found here: @ElaineCougler, Facebook/ElaineCouglerAuthor, and LinkedIn author groups. The Loyalist’s Wife is available on Amazon and Kobo. www.amazon.com www.kobo.com

A native of Southern Ontario, Elaine taught high school and with her husband raised two children until she finally had time to pursue her writing career. She loves to research both family history and history in general for the stories of real people that emanate from the dusty pages. These days writing is Elaine’s pleasure and she has published two volumes of family history, a children’s story, and numerous short stories. Telling the stories of Loyalists caught in the American Revolutionary War is very natural as her personal roots are thoroughly enmeshed in that struggle, out of which arose both Canada and the United States.

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 09 Jul 2013 12:55:00 +0000

GOING AGAINST THE GRAIN

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 30 Jun 2013 18:37:00 +0000

Sometimes, You have To Go Against The Grain?

It is an honor and a privilege to write this post for my friend. I have come as close to social justice as I can with this post. Sometimes it is better to stay in your lane, and so I am posting on something that hope will be beneficial to all and hopefully fall somewhere within the category of social justice. I pray it will be agreeable to all!

We as people are really just like a piece of fabric. If you cut it the right way, you get the product that you want. But if you cut it against the grain, you will end up with shards and shreds of fabric. If you are lucky enough to be able to create a garment with the fabric cut against the grain, it will be that garment that just never fits right, always twists itself, no matter how many times you straighten it out. It was after all cut against the grain of the fabric and is really unable to hold the shape of the garment owing to the properties of the grain.

To go “against the grain” means to go against the generally accepted practice, or societal norms, or simply something that is unpleasant. A slightly different usage might be to describe something that one needs to do, but that goes against one’s own inclinations.

I hope to help everyone with something that not too long ago was a very perplexing matter to me. So that it makes sense to you, let me tell you about a decision that I had to make. I was raised Christian and my marriage wasn’t really working out. To get a divorce was unthinkable! Once you get married, you are to stay married, no matter what! God will make a way somehow, is how I was raised. So to get a divorce was a no, no!

Let me let you know, I stayed in that marriage for as long as I could. My level of unhappiness was just too great. I cried all the way to work! I put Visine in my eyes to hide the redness and did a very wonderful job. Time to go home and the tears would start falling again!!!

In my head, I knew I made the right decision! It was peaceful when I came home, no one there to argue and fuss with! Praise the Lord!!

But somewhere, I could feel that something wasn’t right. There weren’t many self help books for divorced women, so I winged this on my own. I learned Aromatherapy! Great stuff there, but still I could feel somewhere within myself, something was wrong!

Believe me, I prayed day and night, but I still wasn’t getting any relief. Where is that Holy Spirit that Mama had told me about, that would come and help you in times of deep distress! Still I thanked God for providing me with sound mind and body and a portion of health and strength that I did have. I learned how to be a medical intuitive, and I could sense the area where there was incongruence in my body even, but that still didn’t quite get it.

So I kept on pursing and checking with everyone I knew, because I had to find some relief for myself. I did not want to take any medicines. People told me just take a little Valium, you will be alright. But medicines and my system just do not get along. That is why I took the time to learn about Aromatherapy and natural herbs. They worked for me for the most part, especially since there are no after affects to deal with like oftentimes there are with medicines.

Well, one day I came across this little book by a Shakti Gawain titled, The Four Levels of Healing! God bless her, wherever in the world she is! She brought out how that we are not just these bodies! Surprise, surprise! I being a Christian knew about the spirit part of us, but did not really comprehend it very well. But I did after she explained that we have 4 levels to us, Spiritual, Mental, Physical and Emotional and how you have to heal on all levels!

Mentally and physically, I was ok! I was alright with the decision that I finally made to leave and get divorced! I just couldn’t take it no mo’ and I had to go, or I wasn’t going to be ok mentally for too much longer. Spiritually for the most part, I was ok. The discovery of having a spiritual and an emotional body was just what the doctor ordered. I had achieved healing in the other parts of myself, but in the not knowing about the spiritual and emotional parts of myself as ”bodies” and that those parts needed to be healed as well, was my answer! It was as if someone had literally pulled an arrow right out of my spirit, and believe me I could spell relief!!! I had relief in all of my “bodies”!

I was again a whole person! Emotionally, I was not alright with that decision, because it did go against my grain! It just wasn’t something that I ever wanted to do. I wasn’t raised that way, so to speak. Trust me, I will never put anyone in jail like that again, without a get out of jail free card. You were not meant to be mistreated in any way, so if you are in a situation, that is not healthy, do not be afraid to go against the grain, so to speak, there will be help for you to again become whole!

Louise Malbon-Reddix is the Author of:

Stand In Your Anointment - This Too Shall Pass!

Watch the Book Trailer & Where to buy the book

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfOUVQFaxU0

You can find more written by me at:

http://www.amazon.com/author/louisempc

http://www.facebook.com/victoryroadwellnesscenter

http://www.victoryroadwellnesscenter.com

http://www.scoop.it/authoring

http://pinterest.com/lmreddix/

http://www.youravon.com/lmalbon-reddix

And you can Follow me on Twitter - @LouiseReddix - see you there!!!

TRISH JACKSON ON "WRITING - A JOURNEY OF DISCOVERY"

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 22:40:00 +0000

WRITING – A JOURNEY OF DISCOVERY

First, thank you so much, Marta for inviting me to be a guest on your blog. I feel honored to number among the wonderful authors you've had on this blog.

Recently in interviews I've been conducting on my own blog, I've asked authors what advice they would give to other writers, and they've come up with some wonderful, positive suggestions. The most common and probably the best being: "keep writing and never give up."

Writing is an amazing journey of discovery, and although I had always written stories, no-one was more surprised than me when I found that I was actually able to complete a full length novel that other adults may enjoy reading.

That was in the mid-nineties, before the Internet had become a household name. Publishers still held the power, and were like gods. Self-publishing and small presses were not an option, and eBooks had not yet been invented. The publishers set their own "rules" that had to be followed if you had any chance of ever being published.

I tried submitting WAY OUT OF LINE and found it hard not to take the rejections personally. Finally, a POD publisher accepted it. Publish America was somewhere between a vanity press, whom you pay to publish your work, and a traditional publisher, who pay you for the publishing rights. I accepted out of desperation and they offered very little help with anything.

When I had completed my next novel, REDNECK P.I., self-publishing and eBooks had become a reality and had taken the power away from the traditional publishers. The challenge was on for me to have a publisher accept my manuscript on merit. I knew it was good, so I followed the submission guidelines and sent it to several publishers, and when Uncial Press accepted it, I was ecstatic. Uncial Press published the sequel, KICK ASSITUDE this March.

Since then, I have signed a contract with an agent and had CAPRICORN CRAVINGS, the first book in my Astrology Series, accepted by a larger publisher, Soul Mate Publishing.

Strangely, I'm actually contemplating self-publishing the third novel in the Redneck Series, BACKWOODS BOOGIE. Although one does not have a professional editor to consult going this route, one has total freedom to publish immediately instead of having to wait for a publisher's time scale, plus control over the pricing.

So my advice to writers is - whichever route you go, keep writing and never give up. We are living in a great period in history for writers.

Visit my website: http://www.trishjackson.com

Follow me on Facebook and Twitter:

http://www.facebook.com/redneckpi and https://twitter.com/trishjaxon

My Bog, Romance Ramble : http://romancerambleandbookbabble.blogspot.com/

Organ transplanting-ethics and morality.

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 20:50:00 +0000

Organ transplanting-ethics and morality.

By Laurie Smith

The first successful kidney transplant occurred in Boston in 1954, identical twins Richard and Ronald Herrick were the first participants. Richard was dying of kidney disease and his brother’s was used, saving his life. I well remember 1967 when Doctor Christiaan Barnard performed the world’s first heart transplant and could only imagine the feelings of relief for those with ailing and diseased hearts. The patient, 55-year-old Louis Washkansky received a heart from a young woman killed in a traffic accident, he survived for 18 days. There were many arguments both moral and ethical, for and against and the views are still argued today. Now we have heart-lung transplants, cornea, liver, kidney, pancreas and the small intestine. Of course there are the advances in skin grafts, one of the first types of organ transplant, the use of artificial heart valves, stents, and valves from the hearts of pigs. Remarkably these valves work as well as human ones and last 10-15 years. The use of animal valves caused a barrage of controversy from various religious leaders and animal rights groups. Most kidneys and some livers are from live donors. With the liver the lobe is taken from the donor and transplanted, the donor’s liver regrows within a couple of months. Though there are reports of donors having trouble with pain, digestive problems and depression up to three years later.

For the other major organs somebody’s loved one, child or spouse has died. Their death can impact on ten other lives. Either saving them or at the very least improving their quality of life. Who hasn’t been moved by the imagery of people lying in hospital beds, in need of a donor organ? Especially when that patient is a small child, it tears at us to see the suffering. The parents sit by them agonising, waiting for someone to die so their child may live. Many patients miss out due to financial restraints, lack of health insurance, others being deemed a better match or more viable. Organ donors are few in comparison to population size, here in Australia we are number 17 in the world though we have the best outcome rate for patients. Those needing far outweigh those willing to give. Here your driver’s licence is marked if you wish to donate, you would think it was binding, it isn’t and family members can veto it. Having it in your will is a little too late for anything other than corneas and various tissues. The prime minister has put forward the idea of a scheme to pay workers $3,000.00 and their medical expenses if they donate a kidney. Workers only it seems, otherwise God forbid we would have the great unwashed making a dollar from an organ. On average 1700 Australians are waiting and about 245 receive a transplant. The problem is that only one percent of people die in hospitals and organs need to be fresh.

How much is a life worth? To those who take them indiscriminately, nothing. To a parent watching their child die it is priceless. To those in the illegal kidney trade located in China, India and Pakistan its worth up to $250,000.00. Would you accept say a kidney, one in ten of which comes from the illegal trade of human organs worldwide, and deal with a criminal organisation that preys on the impoverished? Does the grieving parent/spouse really care where it originates, as long as it works? Taking this a step further would you accept an organ from an executed criminal? I’m not saying that because the donor is a criminal that something is inherently wrong, rather that they have no choice in the matter. Most executions in China are by lethal injection and take place in mobile execution chambers parked next to major hospitals. They have used the organs from executed prisoners for decades; this is sanctioned by the government. Ten thousand transplants occur there annually and on average four thousand prisoners are executed, with seven thousand organs used. They have the highest execution rate in the world. Five years ago the government ruled that the organs could only be given to family members, and they will be phasing out the use of prisoner’s organs in 2015. This is irony at work, members of a criminal gang dealing in organs were sentenced to death in 2009. I wonder if they used their organs?

It must be the writer in me but I feel that a system where the State can trade your parts (who gets the money, a kidney sells for $15,000.00?) is nothing short of horrific. There are 68 crimes that draw the death penalty in China and many include non-violent offences i.e., monetary crimes. This brings to mind some Dystopian future where the downtrodden are chosen for execution by the State for their ability to match some wealthy individual in need of organs. I haven’t written this by plucking facts and figures out of fresh air. I’ve scoured several newspaper articles and came across the below site and believe me the more I read the sicker I became. Children are often the forgotten victims of organ trafficking. People aren’t content with using them in the sex trade, enlisting 10 year old boys to fight in war, or working them into an early grave in substandard conditions, now they are also unwilling donors. In Africa parents have sold their children’s organs, in Haiti and Mongolia orphans and street children are vulnerable to this trade. Follow this link for the full article: http://worldpulse.com/node/62193 So where do this leave us? We have a readily available product for sale: a huge market, profiteers, criminal gangs, uncaring Governments, vulnerable donors, unwilling donors, moralists and ethicists.

Mr and Mrs Brown are at the end of their tether, their daughter, Olivia is 12 and has polycystic kidney disease, and the only cure now is a donor kidney. Neither of the Browns are a match. Olivia came into the world via donor egg and sperm and she is their only child. They have watched their once healthy girl grow weaker and she is weeks away from death. One earlier kidney transplant failed, their health fund is having problems with a changeover to a new fund and time and ready money is running out. They search the internet and find a clinic in mainland China that can perform the operation for $150,000.00. After mortgaging their home, selling everything else of value and borrowing from family members they fly to Beijing with an ailing Olivia, and then on to their final destination further inland.

Temujin is an eleven year old Mongolian girl, orphaned after her parents died the previous year. She has lived a vicarious life since then, being put in and running away from state run orphanages. Now she lives at the rear of a horse stable in a provincial town, healthy but hungry the only currency she has is her body. When a man in a suit approaches her late one night with the promise of hot food and a warm bed she eagerly goes with him, willing to do anything to get out of the cold. Led into a tiny room in the town’s only hotel she sees the bed and begins undressing. A woman appears dressed in a long white gown with a syringe in her hand, a tiny prick to Temujin’s arm and darkness overtakes her. She never wakes up again; the removal of her kidneys and other organs that will survive the flight is done swiftly, professionally and her body is left in a shallow grave.

Bai Gau is a 30 year old prisoner in a Chinese jail, a member of a large religious sect outlawed there. He is due for execution and his organs have already been allocated, except for one kidney. This has been set aside for Olivia.

Let us go to India into a major city, we’ll meet Aadi he’s a Dalit one of India’s Untouchables. He lives with his wife and six children in an alley behind a warehouse; their home is probably the size of one of our bedrooms. They have little money or food and being Dalit are open to abuse and hounding from the authorities. Enter a man with $1,000.00/Rupees 55,000.00 the average wage per capita is around R 33,000.00 and you have a tangible incentive for Aadi to donate.

On the morning of the operation Bai Gau is put to death by lethal injection in the mobile execution chamber parked behind the hospital. All of his organs are harvested and at the last minute an appeal by his family has seen the kidney intended for Olivia being used for one of Bai’s cousins. Aadi’s kidney has arrived by air, destined for ninety year old Otto Schmidt, a German man who acquired his wealth during WW2 as a factory owner using forced labour from concentration camps. The organ has deteriorated in transit due to poor handling and is no longer viable.

Wang Li who is managing the Browns transplant informs them of the unfolding events and inadvertently lets slip the origin of the remaining kidney. They’re horrified, even more so when they hear that Schmidt has now promised to pay double the amount to claim Temujin’s organ. Enraged, Mr Brown storms into Schmidt’s room, the man lays there feeble, suffering. Brown explains his daughter’s situation and the origin of the kidney. Schmidt laughs at him, crowing that he’ll triple the price to gain an extra year or so of life. Snatching up an empty syringe from a tray, Brown pulls back the plunger filling it with air, sticks it into a tube going into Schmidt’s arm and injects an air bubble into it. Walking slowly away he drops the syringe in a rubbish bin and returns to his wife and daughter. Later that day Temujin’s kidney is successfully transplanted into Olivia Brown who makes a full recovery.

There are a few moral questions here:

1. Does any government have the right to dispose of executed criminals organs?

2. Once they knew the origin of the kidney should the Browns have allowed the operation to go on?

3. Knowing the circumstances of Bai Gau’s involuntary donation was it right for them to have gone ahead if the donation hadn’t been stopped?

4. Otto Schmidt was at the end of his long life. Did he deserve Temujin’s kidney?

5. Did his wealth make him more deserving?

6. Did Olivia’s condition and impending death make the murder of Schmidt right?

7. Knowing the method of donation should Temujin’s kidney have been used even after Schmidt’s death?

8. Does saving the life of your child mean that you should set aside all moral and ethical considerations that have served you up to now?

Now for a hypothetical viewpoint, probably stemming from my love of the Twilight Zone, so here goes. Schmidt although having a past steeped in greed and suffering, upon receiving his new kidney experiences a new paradigm in his life. The wealth he has accrued over time is put to use in helping build orphanages in underdeveloped countries, giving thousands of children a new start in life. Moral questions,

If Temujin’s kidney wasn’t used would her death have all been for nothing?
Does a better existence for a thousand children make up for one child’s murder?
Does it matter where the money comes from as long as it is being put to a good cause?
Can a person whose life had been steeped in evil and greed, truly rehabilitate?

The Browns return home and spend years repaying their debts, Olivia, happy to be alive at first, becomes depressed and withdrawn at not being able to attend college. She begins drinking at 16 and taking party drugs, all to the detriment of her kidney. After drinking half a bottle of Tequila she drives her boyfriend’s car through a red light, smashing into another car, taking the life of a young heart transplant surgeon. She survives, only to end up on dialysis and dying two years later. Mr and Mrs Brown are already in conflict since the operation and separate, suffering deep depression over the murder of Schmidt and the death of his daughter, Mr Brown suicides.

Moral question,

Does the end justify the means?

I can be contacted at the below links.

www.laurie27wsmith.wordpress.com/

http://www.facebook.com/laurie.smith.5602728

BRYAN MURPHY AND MASTERFUL CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 23 May 2013 00:17:00 +0000

Marta: “Goodbye, Padania” is the first in a series of e-books featuring Daria Rigoletti. We meet her as an apparently cold-hearted killer. Over time, she changes. Instrumental in that change is Mercurio Ferraris. He is with us now.

Mercurio Ferraris, welcome. That’s quite an unusual name. Mercurio, I mean.

Mercurio: Yes. There is an old Italian tradition which portrays San Mercurio as a saint who disguises himself like a poor traveller and goes from door to door seeking hospitality. That is how he finds out who is good and who is not. My Papà had come to the industrial north of Italy to find work. There was always a lot of prejudice against poor southerners. I guess he wanted to weigh the odds in his son’s favour.

Marta: He never expected that prejudice to lead most of the north of Italy to break away and form an overtly racist state.

Mercurio: No. At first it was just people with dark skins they hated, then all foreigners, then even people from the south of Italy. And so on. They could always find more people to hate, but they ran out of people to run a country and an economy with.

Marta: You were instrumental in putting an end to that. With some help from a certain Daria Rigoletti. When and where did you first meet Daria?

Mercurio: Back in 2032. In the city of Turin, in what they called the Republic of Padania.

Marta: Was it a happy meeting?

Mercurio: Hah! Yes and no.

Marta: What do you mean?

Mercurio: She had been contracted to kill me.

Marta: Clearly she didn’t.

Mercurio: No. She had the chance, but she chose not to take it. Why? She told me later it was to do with the way I looked directly into her eyes.

Marta: But who wanted you dead?

Mercurio: After the pogroms against immigrants, factories were closing all over Padania for lack of manpower. The government’s answer was child labour. I opposed that.

Marta: So, the government?

Mercurio: Or the employers. I had always been a union man.

Marta: When and where did you next see Daria?

Mercurio: In Mongreno, in the hills above Turin, a year later. She had given up killing and set up a cult that espoused non-violence.

Marta: But by then there was a civil war on.

Mercurio: Yes, the armed rebellion had started. I came to ask her help. She refused to take part herself, but she did give some of our guys training.

Marta: In what?

Mercurio: Oh, techniques that are useful in a civil war.

Marta: Is it true that you and she became lovers?

Mercurio: Yes. Briefly.

Marta: Was she a good lover?

Mercurio: Let us just say that she demanded a lot and gave a lot. And that she warmed up.

Marta: Excuse me, but aren’t you a family man?

Mercurio: I lost my wife before the rebellion could start. My children both died during the war itself.

Marta: And the children of the country?

Mercurio: No children have to work in the factories of Italy today.

Marta: What happened to Daria?

Mercurio: She could not control the violent instincts among her followers. Last heard of in India. With their money.

Marta: Will you ever see her again?

Mercurio: If I never see her again, I will die happy because of what I have achieved in the reconstruction of my country. And because of what I had with her.

Marta: And if you do see her again?

Mercurio: Then I shall die even happier.

Marta: Saint or sinner, thank you, Mercurio Ferraris.

Mercurio: My pleasure.

[end]

Bryan Murphy’s “Goodbye, Padania”, featuring Daria Rigoletti and Mercurio Ferraris, is avialable from Amazon, Smashwords, Kobo, Sony, Barnes & Noble, etc. All the author’s e-books are available in multiple formats at: HYPERLINK "https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/bmzm" https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/bmzm In addition, he welcomes visitors at: HYPERLINK "http://www.bryanmurphy.eu/" http://www.bryanmurphy.eu/ .

ELAINE COUGLER AND THE LOYALIST

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 13 May 2013 21:57:00 +0000

5 Surprises I Found As I Neared the Finish Line with The Loyalist’s Wife

Are you one of those writers who talks about your writing journey with all of its stops along
the way? Do you find as you near your destination the trip seems harder and longer with many
unexpected twists and turns? What was your biggest surprise as you neared the publishing goal?

Writing is such a voyage of self-discovery I shouldn’t have had any surprises. The long haul to
publishing was and still is full of learning and leaning into yet another curve until I felt less like
a race car driver rushing to the finish line and more like the putting along little engine that could
(hopefully).

Here are 5 surprises I got on my publishing journey.

1. Critiques pointed out dozens of errors I had made. Not grammatical but writing errors
which I had made because I really had no idea how to write for my readers. I am a
perfectionist, I admit it, and when I took my draft to critique partners, their reactions
floored me. Yes. So much so that I stopped working on my historical for about three
months until I learned enough about writing to deal with constructive criticism.
Hurdling my lack of knowledge was huge.
2. My newfound ability to listen to critiques actually worked against me. Once I realized
that being a life-long reader of historical fiction and a teacher of senior English
students were not enough, I became a willing student and sought help in courses,
critique groups, and by inviting about ten people I knew to be readers of my novel.
Everything they said, I assumed was correct. Well, almost everything. I did recognize
that some of them just didn’t understand historical fiction and their comments made
no sense. What I realize now is that listening politely to others’ comments is useful
only if the writer has enough confidence to throw out suggestions which do not apply.
My most famous example of that was the person well-known in writing circles, who
had me change my opening to a format not geared to historical fiction. That was
an interesting exercise but was not me and was not good for my story. I felt The
Loyalist’s Wife had lost its zip. Finally I listened to my own inner voice and rewrote
the opening once more, incorporating what I had learned but trusting my thirty years
of reading historical fiction to guide me. The new opening was true to my voice, my
story, and my own extensive knowledge of what a historical novel should sound like.
3. I never thought getting my book to the publishing stage would take this long. Indeed,
I almost gave up entirely when a writing friend told me ten years was a reasonable
time period to get a writer’s work to publication. Now I understand and feel my six
years is only due to my education and my experience teaching the language itself
before I started this novel. And if you look at my website, you’ll see I have now
speeded up the process with books two and three in The Loyalist Trilogy coming out
next year and the year after. But I would never be planning those dates if I hadn’t put
in the time and effort already to learn with the first book.

4. I learned to lose my timidity and identify myself as a writer. In the beginning I did as
my mother taught me as a little girl. I put myself last, didn’t talk about my abilities
or my writing dreams, and certainly kept quiet that I was a writer. The more time I
spent, however, with my butt in chair, the more I realized I was a writer, published or
not. And I loved to talk about writing. Soon I initiated conversations about writing,
took in many classes and conferences, stepped right up and talked to strangers
until saying I was a writer was as easy as saying I was a teacher. I grew into my
new avocation. By doing this I even met a fellow writer at a wedding and we have
remained friends and fellow writers since then. I expect to see her at an upcoming
conference where we will catch up on our respective careers.
5. My biggest surprise was experiencing a different kind of fear. All my life I have
been out there, as they say. I’m a singer, a teacher, an outspoken committee member,
a person who has conquered the many trips to the washroom before a singing or
speaking engagement. I know that fear is a great motivator and helps me do my best.
What I didn’t expect, however, was my absolute fright at pushing Send and finally
emailing my final manuscript to the printer. Who knew I would be paralyzed by
the fear that I might not have found all of the errors, that I might have completely
overlooked some part of the history of the American Revolution and my Loyalist
characters? But I did it. Knowing that I would get one more proof saved me. And
wanting to feel that book in my hands.

The Loyalist’s Wife by Elaine Cougler

When American colonists resort to war against Britain and her colonial attitudes,
a young couple caught in the crossfire must find a way to survive. Pioneers in the
wilds of New York State, John and Lucy face a bitter separation and the fear of losing
everything, even their lives, when he joins Butler’s Rangers to fight for the King
and leaves her to care for their isolated farm. As the war in the Americas ramps up,
ruffians roam the colonies looking to snap up Loyalist land. Alone, pregnant, and
fearing John is dead, Lucy must fight with every weapon she has.
With vivid scenes of desperation, heroism, and personal angst, Elaine Cougler
takes us back to the beginnings of one great country and the planting of Loyalist
seeds for another. The Loyalist’s Wife transcends the fighting between nations to
show us the individual cost of such battles.

Photo by Paula Tizzard

The Loyalist’s Wife paperback: May 15, 2013 and e-book: June 15, 2013

Contact Elaine:

www.elainecougler.com

@ElaineCougler

www.facebook.com/ElaineCouglerAuthor

UNEXPECTED GIFTS BY SARAH MALLERY

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 06 May 2013 12:57:00 +0000

Unexpected Gifts

S. R. Mallery

The concept of this book developed from a single seed that had germinated many years before. It was a time back when I was visiting my parents, while I was in bed with my daughter, then three, curled up fast asleep next to me. My father had given me a short story my mother had gotten published years before that and as I lay reading in bed, I suddenly stopped and looked down at my peaceful, sleeping child. It was then that the idea crossed my mind and gave me a thrill––there were three generations in our bed that night.

Being an avid American history fan, I started wondering how I could write a story that involved various time frames in the U.S and still have one connective thread. Slowly, I incorporated the dovetailing of my modern day psychology student heroine (Sonia), lost and misguided, with her learning how to cope with her own life just from reading her family’s ancestors’ diaries and journals.

Not a typical love story, the book journeys back and forth between Sonia’s life and the past, as the reader sees her gathering wisdom from her forbearers. And like Sonia, we, too, are privy to American history: first, the Vietnam War, Woodstock, and Timothy Leary era; next, the 1950’s and early 60’s, along with Tupperware parties, McCarthyism, and Black Power. Going back even further, we are exposed to the 1930’s Great Depression, when hobos hopped trains, high-steel workers scaled tremendous heights, crazed dance marathons were all the rage, and Eleanor Roosevelt fought for the rights of all mankind.

As Sonia continues discovering more and more about her own life and the people in it, she finds out how hard it was in 1915 for immigrants like her great-great grandfather, even with a good job at the Ford’s Factory, and how, at the same time, the Suffragists’ fight for the vote literally salvaged her great-great aunt. Finally, with the clarity she has gained from these family memoirs, she begins to turn her life around:

Chapter I: Discoveries

“….there was an old steamer trunk at the far end of the room, rusty, somewhat threadbare, and artistically draped with a cobweb or two over its corner edges. Yet opened, it looked cheerful, with…cardboard boxes, all labeled and color-coded….

…when Sam’s [Sonia’s father] box was exposed, Sonia gasped. A corucopia of the Vietnam experience flooded her senses and at the same time, left a slight dread....”

Chapter 2: Sam––Living With Fear

[from Sonia’s father’s letters] “…crack-crack-crack! Everyone froze. “Get the fuck down!” yelled our squad leader, Sgt. Carbini.

We dropped like stones, trying to listen for snipers over our pounding chests…”

“….Nearing the village, we passed women in their beige tunics, black pants, and Sampan hats, shouldering thick bamboo rods weighted down by buckets of water. Most kept their heads lowered…but the few who didn’t stared up at us with dead, black-brown eyes and pressed lips….”

“….Carbini was first. He marched over to a hooch, flipped on his Zippo, and carefully lit the underbelly of its thatched roof. It smoldered for a few seconds, a thin, rising wisp of smoke twisting in the tropical air. From that, a flame grew, nibbling at the straw with a low, blue heat before suddenly bursting into a torch, arcing up towards the sky in a yellow-hot blaze….”

Chapter 12: Daria––Living With Proverbs

[written in Sonia’s great great-grandmother Daria’s bible]

“…they say I was born at an inconvenient time. The year was 1902, and the moment, the wee hours of a rain-soaked morn in County Kerry. A terrible storm it was, with lightning that crackled the sky and hoarse winds that rattled the trees…”

[from Daria’s dance marathon experience] “….the siren came...Bang! went the Big Bertha canon, and we be on the run. Round and round we hustled, like people fleeing the English…May all the goats in Gorey chase you to hell…”

website: www.srmallery.com

Book trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8boWh1y5MtM

Amazon Author’s page:http://www.amazon.com/author/www.srmallery.com

AmazonPage:http://www.amazon.com/Unexpected-Gifts-S-R-Mallery/dp/0988954206/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1367266861&sr=1-1&keywords=Unexpected+Gifts+s.r.mallery

ETHICS AND SCIENCE:STRANGE BEDFELLOWS

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 17:36:00 +0000

ETHICS AND SCIENCE:STRANGE BEDFELLOWS
By Micki Peluso

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This essay is about fifteen years old, but still applies to today. As far as ethics and science are concerned, we are still treading a fine and dangerous line.

Morality is always at odds with something, which is its sole purpose for being. Morality is in constant turmoil with law, a distant relative and with medical technology, no relation at all. Publicized reports of child organ donation and the much debated issue of fetal tissue implants are prime examples of the inability to define the limits of morality. One 19-year-old victim of terminal leukemia, was clearly dying. Bone marrow cells which matched her own could not be found among her immediate family or in nationwide searches. Her frantic parents had opted to conceive a child, specifically to donate the needed transplant, if the infant's marrow proved to be compatible. This entailed a reverse vasectomy for her father and childbirth at the age of 42 for her mother. They were desperate enough and loved their daughter enough to try anything to save her.

Although this was not a novel occurrence, and is quietly being practiced by many families across the nation, this family's decision to publicize their intent and subsequent success, threw ethicists, doctors and the nation at large into a philosophical quandary. Was it right, moral or ethical to bring a child into the world for the purpose of saving her sibling?

Let's consider some of the many reasons for bearing children: a forgotten birth control pill, a misguided attempt to save a marriage, a playmate for an only child who has become a tyrant. Not to mention surrogacy, the desire or necessity of siring an heir to a fortune, and ignorance, especially among teenagers, of effective birth control measures. Whatever the reasons, once born, most babies, although not all, are loved, bonded with and wanted. Will this family's love for the new baby cease if the transplant fails? Of course not.

Years ago, children were most often bred for convenience, particularly in rural areas where many children were needed to help manage farms; and to care for aging parents. In cities during the Industrial Revolution, children were bred to work long hours in sweat factories to supplement their family's meager income. Before modern health care and mandatory vaccinations became prevalent, many babies were conceived because so few lived past infancy. Think of how many children are born today simply because of religious bans on birth control and abortion. So it is a safe assumption that "the principle that individuals should be brought into the world and cherished for their own sake and no other motive," is a relatively new concept. If past history proves that we have not always done well by our children, shouldn't we take precautions to insure that future children are born and raised for the right reasons?

Pediatrician and ethicist, Dr. Norman Fost, believes that " Of all the reasons people have children, I think this is one of the better ones: to save a life." But Dr. Robert Levine, ethicist at Yale University, is disturbed by the idea of people having babies to be donors and then aborting fetuses that were not the right tissue type.

I believe that the ethical question is not whether it is wrong to conceive a child to save another child, but rather, on what grounds does society and parents have the right to donate children's organs? Children who cannot comprehend the possible dangers to themselves, either immediate or in the future.

In the above case, it was not an organ that was donated, but the "simple procedure" of the bone marrow transplant, a painful procedure, that endangered the child's life. Many medical procedures are considered simple, but that does not guarantee the safety of the patient; ex: "The operation was a success but the patient died."

Suppose, for the sake of argument, that the parents of twins decided to donate the kidney of one twin to save the life of the other, whose kidneys had failed. The operations were successful and both twins grew to adulthood. Then something happened and the twin who gave up one kidney lost the other, and died waiting for a viable transplant. What gave the parents the right to donate that child's organ and ultimately cause a later death? This is where the dilemma gets sticky. When things go well for all concerned, morality stays in the background. But when things go wrong, as they often will, we are forced to rely on ethics to protect ourselves from an over-zealous scientific community, and even our own desires. Most of us would do anything to save our children, but "anything" sometimes comes with a price tag that we cannot, as a moral society, afford.

One of my cousins donated one of her kidneys to save the life of her older, diabetic sister; a fine, altruistic act done out of pure love, and a mature decision made by a young adult, who was willing to chance living with one kidney so that her sister could live. Underage children do not have the ability to make such decisions and it is questionable whether parents have the right to make the decision for them.

Fetal tissue used for implants in treating diseases such as Parkinson's, is another matter. Regardless of whether one is pro-life, pro-choice, or pro-abortion, a certain number of abortions are going to be done, for various reasons. Wouldn't it somehow ease the pain of the often unnecessary killing of unborn children to know that other lives might be saved? Yet, if the Supreme Court succeeds in labeling the fetus as "citizen" that ethical question will enmesh itself within the tentacles of the law.

The family wanting to have a child to save their other child has worked out fine so far. The bone marrow transplant was a success, the baby is fine, and in a few years her sister will know if she has beaten leukemia. The bond of love between the teenager and her baby sister will remain for the rest of their lives; a fairy tale ending. However, not all such stories may end so beautifully.

The darker side of the human psyche might try to breed unwanted babies for organ donation only, and seek to profit by it. We are well into the actuality of cloning whole body organs from human cells, pushing ethics to the end of its tolerance. Science, in the excitement of discovery, often mistakes what is possible for what is acceptable under the standard of societal ethics. Should morality adapt to fit the future, or remain the only regulation which might insure that we have a future?

Morality is the only counterbalance for law and medical technological advances, the only avenue in preventing the human race from rushing headlong into science fiction. Perhaps science and medical technology have already jumped far ahead of applicable ethics. Morality has not expanded to fit an ever-growing technology--and maybe never will. This can be our saving grace or our downfall.

Web Site: A Writer's Journey

www.mallie1025.blogspot.com/

JOHN BYK ON LITERARY CRITICISM

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 16:05:00 +0000

The Passion of the Critic

Everybody wants their book reviewed. The problem is that hardly anybody knows the first thing about writing a review anymore let alone writing a book.

Let’s play stud poker, showing all cards face up one at a time.

I have a Masters of English degree with a focus on modern literature and my thesis was a creative, non-fiction travelogue piece that I wrote while backpacking through communist Poland in 1985 before the Berlin Wall came down. You can get the eBook version cheap at Amazon or Barnes & Noble. Although I’ve sold quite a few copies, only one person reviewed it and gave it a two star rating, claiming that it was ‘too short’. Apparently, he didn’t bother to read the detailed description that said the print length version was only 64 pages long. Every intelligent person I know that read it said it was great, bucolic and resonated with multiple levels of meaning and, although the prose was simple, it was far from being simplistic. That’s if you know what I mean. But most people don’t.
Most of the reading population, if they graduated from high school, took no more English classes than was required of them besides the mandatory and dreaded, College Composition course which I’ve taught at several universities around the world during my twenty-five years as an educator. Now how are critically handicapped people able to evaluate a book on the market using lyrical and rhetorical devices better than those who have spent years studying literature? They can’t. That’s why you get nothing but plot summaries in most online reviews peppered with cliché phrases such as ‘page turner’, ‘likeable characters’, ‘couldn’t put it down’ or ‘lots of surprising plot twists’.

Hello? Excuse me but literary criticism used to be a bona-fide field of academic studies with its own set of clearly defined parameters, commonly shared vocabulary and reliance upon the knowledge of rhetorical devices like exposition, development, climax and denouement. I know, I know. I’m speaking in a foreign language again but it just so happens that I’ve also studied Spanish literature at the graduate level and am still certified to teach it at the high school level. Take a deep breath all of you monolingual readers and reviewers. Place your bets or fold. I’ve shown two aces already.

Next card.

I’ve talked to more than a hundred authors on my podcast blog, 2012writers (STILL) ALIVE. Some of them are famous worldwide and have been on the New York Times best seller list more than once. Others have not been so fortunate, but yet they write with passion and knowledge about their particular fields of expertise. One thing that they all have in common is that they like feedback, hopefully the positive and encouraging kind. So when some idiot with a computer and Internet connection gets online and reviews their work with bland comments such as ‘not worth the money’, ‘didn’t hold my interest’ or ‘waste of time’, I feel sorry not only for the author but more so for the “reviewer” who doesn’t know the semantic difference between lightning and a lightning bug, as Mark Twain once said.

Another ace on the table.

I was accepted into a PhD program at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan and took several courses in advanced Linguistics, Composition and Literary Criticism before having to drop out for financial reasons and job demands. So I know just a little bit about language and its structure, history and usage. It’s amazing how many writers and reviewers today don’t, but like I said above, hook them up to a broadband signal and get tons of garbage upchucked online. That’s why I rarely write reviews or post them on Amazon,Goodreads (under my pen name, Conrad Johnson) or Blogcritics.org. anymore. You just can’t be intelligently honest and write the slightest negative review, no matter how constructive in tone it is, without drawing the ire of keyboard pounding Neanderthals who resent the fact that you use vocabulary outside of their knowledge base. And I’m not about to waste my time arguing with idiots on forums that I don’t have complete control over.

Ace number four. Call or cop out.

I’m extremely secure in my knowledge of literature and quite a few other subjects and if you take the time to listen to some of my short podcast interviews, you’ll see that I don’t bore guests with script questions. I engage them astutely, based upon my research of their work and my own lifetime of experiences as a world traveler and lifelong reader, writer and teacher of language. All of my guests have enjoyed talking to me and I’ve gotten private and public praise from them that I deserve because I earned it along with their respect. Is that all the money you have? How much is that watch you’re wearing worth?

Last card. The kicker.

I’m a damn fine writer (so I've been told by many professionals) that has published several novels and written for various venues on the Internet but I don’t care to ‘toot my own horn’ much because the way the book marketplace is today. It sounds like a zillion vuvuzelas at a football match. The cacophony is deafening and that’s why many agents, publishers and reviewers are slamming their doors shut for some peace and quiet, including me. Sure, it’s nice to be recognized and, sure, it would be wonderful to sell a million copies of some pulp, pornographic thriller like E.L. James or James Patterson do, but until that day arrives for me (if it ever does), then I’ll just be satisfied with an intelligent response to my writing by someone like John D. Rachel who reviewed my recent novella, Jesus Told Me To Kill Her, with marvelous precision and insight that the mockers and the envious loathe-- similar to the type of people who stood on the sidelines on that historical day when a simple carpenter carried a cross to Golgotha and was spat upon and brutally attacked because he dared to speak honestly and intelligently about a subject that everyone in his nation could only grasp at the basest of levels.

Your deal.