Monday, May 26, 2014

Dear Friend by Cheri DeGroot Book Featuer

ABOUT DEAR FRIEND

   
Title: Dear Friend
Genre: Non-fiction humanities
Author: Cheri DeGroot
Publisher: iUniverse
Pages: 60
Language: English
ISBN – 978-1-44016-146-9  


Are you looking for a way to meet new people from all over the world, make new friends, and help others? The solution is simple and affordable—become a pen pal. In Dear Friend, author Cheri DeGroot shares the joys and rewards of becoming a pen pal and provides tips on sharing friendships through handwritten letters. Based on fifty-three years of personal experience as a pen pal, DeGroot details how her lifelong passion for pen palling began and how her friendships with people from all over the United States have helped her through life’s good and bad times. This guide demonstrates the positive aspects of pen palling—from sharing news of family, hobbies and emotions to expanding their knowledge by learning about different cultures and different people. Stressing the importance of communication, Dear Friend reveals how becoming a pen pal can help those who are lonely to find friendship, love, and happiness through the power of the written word.

Purchase your copy:

iuniverse

 

ABOUT CHERI DEGROOT

Cheri DeGroot loves writing letters and journals of her life. Pen palling helps her make new friendships by reaching out through written letters and by computer. DeGroot has initiated several pen pal clubs. She has three grown children and seven grandchildren and lives in Milverton, Ontario, with her husband, Joe.

Daphne Michaels The Gifted Book Blitz!


 We welcome Daphne Michaels as she celebrates the release day of her personal development/spirituality book, The Gifted: How to Live the Life of Your Dreams!


Title: The Gifted: How to Live the Life of Your Dreams 

Author: Daphne Michaels
Publisher: Daphne Michaels Books
Pages: 130
Genre: Personal Development/Spirituality 

Format: Paperback

BUY LINK:

Available in Paperback at Amazon: 
http://amzn.to/1mehbbL   

Book Summary: 




In The Gifted: How to Live the Life of Your Dreams author, speaker and licensed psychotherapist Daphne Michaels celebrates the nine gifts that are our birthright, guiding readers in how to recognize and use them to transform their lives.  In her author's preface, Michaels reveals how her own journey of life transformation began when she was young and realized that human existence wore two conflicting faces--one of love and joy, and one of fear and despair. She decided then to commit her life to reconciling these two visions because she knew that, irreconcilable though they seemed, together these two faces held the secret to living a life of endless possibility and authentic happiness. Her personal journey and formal education in social science, human services and integral psychology led to the founding of the Daphne Michaels Institute, which has helped hundreds of men and women design the lives of their dreams.



In The Gifted Michaels shows us that the first three “gifts” we must recognize and embrace within us if we are to re-design our lives are Awareness, Potential and Stillness. These three allow us to identify and use the remaining six with a life-changing power:  Disharmony, Harmony, Ease, Clarity, Freedom and Engagement.  Each of these six relies on the “essential three” for its own power to change our lives, and each has its own gifts--its “children.” By approaching the nine gifts with real-world metaphors, Michaels answers in easily understood ways what for many readers have been lingering questions about personal transformation—such as how it works, what kind of commitment it takes, and why, if we’re committed, real transformation becomes inevitable—and addresses obstacles that readers may have encountered in the past in trying to reach in life a happiness every human deserves.



While the human universe’s face of love is celebrated in The Gifted, so is the face of fear that haunted a young girl decades ago. As Michaels shows us in her book, even Disharmony—the “quagmire” of life born of the human ego’s fear, defenses, delusions and despair—is a gift, too, and one as important as the others if we know how to see it clearly and use it. Once we understand Disharmony, we are ready to understand the real purpose of Harmony in our lives. Disharmony does not need to rule us.  It is ours to use as we design the lives of our dreams. 



The final gift in The Gifted, Michaels tells us, is the gift of Engagement. Engagement—with the universe and with ourselves—allows us to use all of the other gifts with more power and joy than we ever imagined possible.



That mountaintop decision never left me. It drove my life’s work and over the years led me to understand that there are gifts – nine of them, in fact – that we are all born with but rarely experience in their full glory and potential. These gifts – which make each and every one of us “The Gifted” of this book’s title – are the keys to living lives of endless possibilities and, in turn, achieving an authentic happiness that cannot be lost. They are, in other words, the keys to achieving the life of our dreams.       
                                                                                                                                                                                           - Daphne Michaels 
 
Excerpt:




Life’s greatest mystery is inside us. It is inside every living thing. Like the deep secrets of the universe, the mystery inside us will never be fully explained. By exploring it, however, we can discover gifts available to us that can change our lives forever.

Life’s great mystery is awareness. More basic than thoughts and more primal than instincts, awareness does not require a centralized brain, as scientists have proven through studies with invertebrates like starfish. While these beautiful creatures have no centralized brains, they possess awareness. Starfish, like all invertebrates, use awareness to perceive, eat, grow, reproduce, and survive.

Awareness is so intrinsic to life that it defines life: living means being aware. From the beginning of life – before we take an initial breath – humans demonstrate tremendous awareness. Prenatal psychologists have discovered that we experience, while still in our mother’s womb, not only light and sound but, even more astonishingly, emotion. We kick our legs when agitated by loud noises and sway pleasantly to beautiful classical music. Months before birth we grimace at the taste of sour amniotic fluid and drink heartily when it is sweet. Awareness grows as we grow.

As we develop as human beings, our awareness stretches in all directions – from awareness of our five basic senses to awareness of external events around us, from awareness of our emotions to awareness of our thoughts, from limited awareness of a topic that bores us to an expanded awareness of topics we feel passionate about. Of all the many dimensions of awareness, the highest form is self-awareness. With self-awareness we begin to appreciate just how far awareness actually extends. Just as ocean waters are deeper than the surface of the sea, awareness is deeper than the surface of our physical body or our conscious thoughts. The infinite depth and breadth of awareness is filled with gifts that are ours to receive.


About the Author:







Daphne Michaels is an author, speaker and licensed psychotherapist whose institute has helped hundreds of women and men transform their lives through the "gifts" every human being is born with. Daphne began her own journey of transformation at a young age, pursued it fearlessly, and later studied formally in the fields of social science, human services and integral psychology. The Gifted: How to Live the Life of Your Dreams launches both Daphne Michaels Books and The Gifted series, whose goal it is to share with the widest audience possible the principles that guide the Daphne Michaels Institute. Daphne's earlier book, Light of Our Times, featured her conversations with such international figures in the fields of spirituality and personal development as Ram Dass, Julia Cameron, Dr. Masaru Emoto, and Thomas Moore.



Visit her website at www.daphnemichaels.com.

Connect & Socialize!

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Playing Book Trivia with Leonard H. Roller, author of 'Darklight'

It’s time to play... 


Periodically, we scour the Internet for interesting authors who would like to play Book Trivia with us.  By answering our book trivia questions, we get to learn things about the author no one else knows!  So, let’s get ready…let’s play…Book Trivia!


Today our guest author is Leonard H. Roller, author of the poetry book, Darklight.



In the movie Castaway, if Tom Hanks unearthed a copy of Darklight”, how would that help Tom find a way off the island?

He would, by reading and reflecting upon the book, escape from the nagging world of immediate necessity into the liberating world of the Divine.

Everyone knows rock star idol Brittany Spears is always in trouble with everything you can think of.  In what way could your book help her and set her life back on track?

Some people are reprobate (or is that “recidivist?”) by nature. If Spears were to be interested in reading my book, “Darklight,” she’d already be on the way to recovery!

You have a chance to appear on the hit talent show for authors, American Book Idol, and the mighty judges will determine whether your book will make it to Hollywood and become a big screenplay.  What would impress them more – your book cover, an excerpt or your best review – and why?

The book cover. It’s so visual! And, hopefully, eye-catchingly dramatic! (That’s show biz, right?) It might inspire the “mighty judges” as well as screenwriters!

You have five seconds to tell us who the greatest author of all time is.  In your opinion, who would that be?

Aside from me? William Shakespeare.

A homeless man was caught stealing your book out of a bookstore.  When asked why he did it, he opened the book and pointed a passage out.  What was that passage? 

With dilithium engine sputtering/I prepare/Not boldly, perhaps/But ready just the same/To go where all men have gone before. 

You have been told your book has won one free year on a billboard in any one state.  What state do you feel would be best for your book and why?

State of euphoria. No, seriously, California. Because it is a land of visionaries, Jesus freaks, scientists and nature-lovers.

They’ve invented a board game using the theme of your book.  What would the title of it be that would be different from your book and which retail store would they place it to make the most sales?

“Cosmic Wars.” Barnes and Noble.

The Arbor Day Foundation has decided to pick one tree in your honor because of your writing brilliance.  What kind of tree is it and why did they choose that tree in relation to your book?

Will an annual, flowering plant do? “Cosmos”

President Barack Obama has become the author of several books and he has requested your presence at a special hush hush meeting to discuss ways to promote it.  Through luck of the draw, you were chosen.  What would be the first thing you would say to Barack?

Resign.

Finally, you just got word that your book has received the 2013 NY Times Bestselling Book Award and you have to attend the ceremony at the Four Seasons Hotel in Manhattan.  Anyone who’s anyone will be there and it’s your shot for stardom.  On stage, you must give an acceptance speech.  What would you say and who would you thank?

I would thank God for whatever inspiration inheres in my poems, and for providing splendid subject-matter. That would probably empty out the place. I would not thank The NY Times, because I seriously doubt that they would deign to list my book.






Leonard H. Roller was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey. He holds a BA degree in journalism from New York University, an MA in comparative literature from Columbia University. He has worked as an actor and public relations executive whose clients included such stars as Audrey Hepburn, Kirk Douglas, Joan Crawford, Paul Newman, and others. He’s been a communications consultant for Lockheed, Mattel, and Hilton Hotels and Resorts. He has served as a French translator for the U. S. Army in France, where he spent leave time climbing in the Alps. The author of a communications training text The Profits of Persuasion  (International Resources, 1986), his poems have been published in The Lyric, Pearl, The Storyteller, Deronda Review, Ancient Paths, Snowy Egret, Space and Time Magazine, Thema, California Quarterly, and many others.

His latest book is a book of poetry, Darklight.

Visit his website at www.leonardhroller.com. 





From ancient Greece to the 21st century, poets have gazed at the heavens, trying to unlock the mystery and beauty of the cosmos in verse. In his charming new collection, DARKLIGHT, Leonard H. Roller, one of those poetic seekers, leavens his fascination with the cosmos and love of writing poetry with a gentle humor that will leave readers chuckling while they ponder the great celestial questions and What It All Means.

In the 77 poems in DARKLIGHT, Roller employs a range of poetic styles – from classical sonnets to free verse – to present his unique vision of such astronomical concepts as black holes, dark energy, the “Big Bang” theory, white dwarf stars , multiverses, the possible beginning and end of our universe and the existence of God.

Purchase your copy:

AMAZON

Thursday, May 22, 2014

Out of the Mouths of Characters: Rick Sibelius from Richard Hacker's 'Chain Reaction'

Today is character interview day!  We have Rick Sibelius of CHAIN REACTION with us today to talk about terrorism and other fun stuff.  Enjoy!



Interview: Rick Sibelius, Chain Reaction



You’ve been in the news lately, especially after stopping a major terrorist attack on Austin.

I don’t know if I’d call it a terrorist attack. Izzy Zydeco’s a bit to self-involved to be politically motivated.

But didn’t the Governor’s illegitimate son have a nuclear device?

Yeah. I suppose I get your point.

How does an ex-Houston cop end up in Pflugerville, Texas fighting terrorists?

I’ve always liked Central Texas. The Hill Country, the lakes, live music in Austin—it’s a great place.  When I left the police force, I wanted to stay in the business, so I set up a private investigation firm.

Losing your partner in a shoot-out with major Houston drug dealer didn’t have anything to do with it?

I wonder how long it will take you to recover your little recorder?

I don’t understand.

If by some freak of nature it gets shoved down your throat.

Let’s move on. You’ve been in the news for breaking up a major illegal toxic waste disposal scheme which involved a couple dead suspects and a missing Homeland Security agent in East Texas. Does a wake of destruction follow behind all of your cases?

My goal has always been to have a peaceful life with a woman I love, a nice trailer in the country to call home, and a steady stream of low stress investigation work. Theresa, my partner says I attract the crazies. Maybe so. I don’t know if I’d call it a wake of destruction, but yes, I’ve had my share of unfortunate confrontations.

You mentioned Theresa Soliz. I understand she’s your business partner, but word on the street has you two in a romantic relationship.  Your life and work seem to be inherently dangerous. How do you two cope with living in constant danger?

I’m not sure we do. Theresa’s a lovely woman—beautiful. And she has skills developed during several tours in Iraq. Besides crazy people, I seem to attract very independent women who don’t seem to understand my desire to keep them safe. Is it really so bad to want to protect her by sharing information on a need-to-know basis? She says I’m keeping critical information from her, that I don’t treat her as an equal, that I don’t tell her what I’m thinking or feeling, that I’m still in love with a Homeland Security agent. Yes, MaryLou was incredible, but I’ve moved on…you need to delete the last bit there. Especially about Mar—I mean the Homeland Security agent. 

Absolutely. I’ll delete the whole section on Theresa. One final question. The Austin American Statesman reported a scuffle you had with a fisherman during a striped bass contest at Lake Mansfield Park. I know you can’t tell me about specific cases, but why do you think you get into so many physical confrontations?

When you deal with egomaniacal psychopaths, terrorist and politicians, things sometimes get out of control. But in the end, I always get the job done. Which reminds me. Are we done now? 

About the Author

Richard Hacker is the author of CHAIN REACTION, the third installment in the Nick Sibelius crime series. Champagne Books released DIRTY WATER, the next novel in the Nick Sibelius series after TOXIC RELATIONSHIP, in June, 2013. His first novel, TOXIC RELATIONSHIP, released August, 2012 by Champagne Books was a 2011 Writer’s League of Texas (WLT) finalist, where in addition, SHAPER EMERGENCE won best novel in the Science Fiction category.  He is a member of the Pacific Northwest Writers Association.

After living many years in Austin, Texas where he worked as a leadership coach, public speaker and management trainer, he moved with his high school sweetheart to Seattle.  While he misses the big skies of Texas, Richard has grown fond of the Pacific Northwest.  His writing partner, a springer spaniel named Jazz, helps with proofreading and ball fetching.

You can visit Richard’s website at www.richardhacker.com.

Monday, May 19, 2014

Out of the Mouths of Characters: Reyes Garcia from Colin Falconer's 'Naked in Havana'

Today is character guest post day!  We have Reyes Garcia of NAKED IN HAVANA with us today to talk about his love, Magdalena Fuentes.  Enjoy!




Character Guest Post: Reyes Garcia, NAKED IN HAVANA


The first thing people ask me - other than what really happened in that warehouse after the briefcase blew up - is what it was a man like me saw in a woman like Magdalena Fuentes.
I guess most people thought she was just another girl to me - I know she did. But you know, there were beautiful girls everywhere, especially in a place like Havana, and they weren’t such hard work. I sometimes think it would have been easier to seduce Che Guevara than Magdalena Fuentes.

So why bother?

Other people think it was the challenge and I suppose there’s something in that. That first time she looked at me, at her boyfriend’s engagement party, like she wanted to bust my lip and bite me on the neck, maybe both at the same time ... well if you’ve never had a woman look at you that way, you haven’t lived, all I can say.

And being the daughter of a man who hated me, and the fact that she was in love with someone else, and that after our first conversation she told me she wouldn’t go out with me if I was the last man on earth - yeah, I guess the challenge was there.

But that wasn’t what made me go for the burn with her.

You may have heard it said: ‘If one woman is not enough, a hundred is not too many.’ Well they’re right, a hundred, or however many it was - it is just too damned many after a while. I was looking to reform, I just didn’t want anyone to advertise it and ruin my reputation.

But I knew myself well enough to know that if I stayed with just one woman she would have to be a little special to keep me from getting restless.

I guess I was looking for two things; the first thing was loyalty, and if you saw her with her father, what she did for him at the end, well you’d know this was a girl who would kill for someone she loves.

The trick was getting her to love you.

The second thing was spirit and that was something Magdalena Fuentes had in spades. I remember how she shut her boyfriend’s hand in the car door and then had her chauffeur drive off. Well, I never laughed so much in years. He was asking for it. I heard what he said to her that day in the garden. I knew what I did to her.

Even that time she got arrested by Masferer’s goons in Knife Street, when they took her back to the torture cells and threatened her, she was more worried about her father finding out she’d stayed out late.

So I knew I’d never get restless with Magdalena Fuentes. You never knew what she was going to do next.

So we were the perfect match. Except of course, that we scared the hell out of each other. It was the one thing I didn’t see coming; that as soon as I got everything I wanted I’d run away from it as fast as I could. And so would she.

I’d smuggle guns for the rebels. I’d sort out the Bay of Pigs for Kennedy. I’d even train montagnards to fight the Viet Cong.

But love? I don’t know.

Hell, love is dangerous. Losing your life - I factor that in as a cost of doing business. But losing your heart? Jesus, that could hurt.

About the Author

Colin Falconer was born in North London, and spent most of his formative years at school playing football or looking out of the window wishing he was somewhere else.

After failing to make the grade as a professional football player, he spent much of his early years traveling, hitch-hiking around Europe and North Africa and then heading to Asia.
His experiences in Bangkok and India later inspired his thriller VENOM, which became a debut bestseller in the UK and his adventures in the jungles of the Golden Triangle of Burma and Laos were also filed away for later, the basis of his OPIUM series about the underworld drug trade.
He later moved to Australia and worked in advertising, before moving to Sydney where he freelanced for most of Australia’s leading newspapers and magazines, as well as working in radio and television.
He has over 40 books in print. HAREM was an enormous bestseller in Germany and THE NAKED HUSBAND was only kept out of the number one spot in Australia by Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code. AZTEC stayed on the bestseller lists in Mexico for four months. He is a bestseller in Europe and his work has sold into translation in 23 countries around the world.
He travels regularly to research his novels and his quest for authenticity has led him to run with the bulls in Pamplona, pursue tornadoes across Oklahoma and black witches across Mexico, go cage shark diving in South Africa and get tear gassed in a riot in La Paz. He also completed a nine hundred kilometre walk of the camino in Spain.
He did not write for over five years following personal tragedy but returned to publishing in 2010 with the release of SILK ROAD and then STIGMATA. His historical novel ISABELLA was an Amazon bestseller last year.
His likens his fiction most closely to Wilbur Smith and Ken Follett – books with romance and high adventure, drawn from many periods of history.
His latest book is the romantic suspense, Naked in Havana.
Visit his website at www.colinfalconer.org.
 

Friday, May 16, 2014

Interview with Francesca Pelaccia, author of 'The Witch's Salvation'



The Witch's Salvation is Francesca Pelaccia’s debut novel and the first book of The Witch's Trilogy. A teacher and now at long last an author, Francesca has written in other genres but enjoys creating and writing time-travel fantasies. Francesca blogs on the craft of writing especially as it relates to genre and reviews books.  Currently she is working on the second book of The Witch’s Trilogy entitled The Witch’s Monastery. Visit Francesca at www.francescapelaccia.com.

Can you tell us what your book is about?

The Witch’s Salvation is a tale about restoring humanity to the last surviving witch of the Carpathian Mountains. The only people who can restore her humanity are Anasztasia and Matthias, two eighteen-year olds born mortal to two immortal families of royal lineage. If they go back in time and retrieve the Golden Cup that holds the mystery to regaining the witch’s humanity, she will make them immortal. She will also dissolve the curse that keeps Matthias’s family imprisoned in the ancient boundaries of Wallachia, present day Romania, and Anasztasia’s family exiled from it. But Anasztasia and Matthias must return to Easter Sunday, 1457, the day Prince Vlad III, aka Dracula, massacred nobles. Anasztasia and Matthias return to the past where life and death adventures begin toward saving the witch, unravelling their families’ secrets, and coming into their own.

Can you tell us a little about your main and supporting characters?

My female protagonist is Anasztasia, an urban princess born mortal to immortals, who can bring the family down if her mortality is revealed. She upholds her family’s values in order to feel that she belongs, finds the good in people and in situations, and believes in love and innate goodness as the all-conquering factors.  

My male protagonist is Matthias, also born mortal to immortal monarchs.  Raised in England, away from his family, Matthias is the angry, almost dark, rebel prince, who blames the family’s high regard for honor and history for the loss of his father.

The witch of the Carpathian Mountains is the Strigoaic. She is over 550 years old and longs to regain her humanity.

In the historical section, there are several important secondary characters.

Renata is a spirited gypsy girl, who has just had a baby and been betrayed by a noble.

Friar Gavril is a sword-wielding but holy-water touting holy man. He is always happy and never allows his club hand to stop him from doing anything.

Andrei is the disillusioned warrior on his own mission of redemption.

Petru the Proud is the prince’s number one henchman with a killer soft-spot for Anasztasia.

Are you consciously aware of the plot before you begin a novel or do you discover it as you write?

I am a plotter and re-plotter and re-plotter. I need to know where I am going so I can write in that direction. But when writing, something better tends to come up that leads me to a better place, so I have to go back to re-plotting. I use the Writer’s Journey to plot.

The book is set in several locations.  Can you tell us about that?

 The Witch’s Salvation is set in the Carpathian Mountains of Romania. In the historical sections it is also set in the Carpathian Mountains but of what was then referred to as Wallachia.

Can you tell us why you chose this city in particular?

I chose the setting because of its historical authenticity. The Witch’s Salvation is weaved around one historical fact. On Easter Sunday 1457, the historical Dracula invited nobles and their families who had had a hand in the death of his father and older brother to celebrate Easter with him. After an elaborate ceremony and feast, he impaled the older nobles and forced the others to trek to a mountain top where they built him another castle. They all died during the construction.

Does the setting play a major part in the development of your story?  

Yes. The story in both the present time and in the historical section takes place in the Carpathian Mountains and the ancient city of Tirgoviste. The Carpathians are mysterious, dark, and foreboding. The protagonists must learn to survive them in order to achieve their goals.

Is it hard to get an historical/medievel paranormal book published?

Yes. There’s lots of competition and it may not be what the market wants and publishers are looking for. Dystopias can be in vogue one year, then urban fantasies, followed by gods and demons fantasies, and so on.

Which holiday is your favorite and why?

I love Christmas mainly because I can bake and give my goodies away to friends and families as added gifts.

If we were to meet for lunch to talk books, where would we go?

We would definitely be meeting at a small outdoor café on the Left Bank of Paris. Since this would be a long lunch (we both love to talk books), we would start with an appetizer of pates and crusty baguette, followed by salmon crepes. We would then top the lunch off with a delicate pain du chocolate and a hot cup of café au lait.

What do you like to do for fun?

I’d love to say parachuting but I bake. I love to bake desserts, especially cakes, and I’m very good at it. It relaxes me. Also, I don’t eat anything I bake. I just like to create them and then get family and friends to eat them—which they do with pleasure. Baking is like writing. In baking I get to see what I create within the hour whereas with writing it’s sometime in the future.

What kind of advice would you give other fiction authors?

Just do it! I have been writing all my life. I used to write everywhere—in the locker rooms of summer jobs, in buses, at coffee shops. It was fun just letting my imagination go and writing. There were no worries about plot, or character arcs, or historical accuracies. Then life got in the way—work, family, and of course all those bills. I wrote but when I had the time. Also, the rules of how to write became paramount. They were drilled into me by everyone and anyone connected to writing—agents, publishers, other authors, critique partners, teachers. Writing became difficult. Now, I’m back to writing as I started off. For the joy of it, but enriched with what I learned. For all you authors out there: believe in yourself, never give up, and go for it!