Hi All,

Excited to bring you a guest post by Ruby Matenko today. Be sure to check out her book Cheese Puffs and the following on what inspired it! 

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Since I was 4 years old, I have loved to read, which led to my hobby of loving to come up with my own stories. I have also done professional acting since I was seven, so you could say that I have always loved to get into the mind of a character and tell a story in my own way. 

As soon as I could type on a computer, I would write tons of short stories whenever I could. I have always been very interested in medicine, particularly the health and care during pregnancy and with babies. I was reading “What To Expect When You’re Expecting” when I was barely ten! I would say that this interest in obstetrics probably came about because my grandfather delivered babies for 40 years and he is a huge source of inspiration to me since I always talked about it with him. 

When I became a pre-teen and went to middle school and heard about what was going on as kids got older in middle school and high school, I realized that a lot of people around my age were getting boyfriends and girlfriends and participating in really mature activities for their age. I never thought that the health and sex education at schools was sufficient enough, so I realized that it wouldn’t even be these kids’ fault if something bad happened to them due to their own actions — they simply weren’t educated to the extent that they could’ve been. 

I combined all of these interests and what was going on around me and wrote this book. I wanted it to serve as a relatable book for teenagers, but also an informative and educative book that shows teenagers what the consequences of certain actions can be, and how to make good choices.

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Happy Reading!

Guest Post with Dianne Corbeau

Hi Everyone! 

Hope you are well. I am excited to bring you a guest post from Dianne Corbeau today. Please help me with giving her a warm welcome to the Blog.

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My inspiration for my novella, Six Days in Detox, was my living through this horrendous experience and being able to share it with others.

While having my education and life experience, I could observe, document, and bring to fruition this novella. What had happened to me being institutionalized in a state hospital after twenty-six years of sobriety. Everything gone. The only way back was through the trenches of withdrawal from alcohol and coming to terms with my past. The withdrawal was as bad as it could get. My organs were failing, and I was on death’s door. I am not the only individual that has experienced such devastation. I wanted to bring this devastation to the forefront and present it in a layered, complex, and almost unbelievable way. But it happened. It was a hard look at not just internally but within the system. It was the Perfect Storm. Where all things came to the surface in my most vulnerable state and having had the will to survive even if death seemed like a better answer at the time.

My pain was my inspiration as well. This pain brought about growth which in turn brought about great healing. It is necessary to share this experience with others with the hope of forming connections. These connections are vital for the growth of the human spirit. At least, this is how it works for me in the present moment.

The backstories are woven throughout the book which adds another element that leads to a better understanding of what was happening internally with my process. Additionally, the emotional turmoil had reached its capacity.

I wanted to share my horrific experience with others to understand this was a singular experience and this single hospital, not anywhere else. I was not out to persecute anyone; I just told my story. My truth.

The book talks about my experiences, hoping this experience can benefit others. Whether institutionalized, free, or trapped in some mental health cycle, the feeling of aloneness is outstanding. The shame and isolation of addiction and mental health issues can be extremely isolating. I wanted to connect on a human level and hope to succeed.

The novella adds a caretaker, Alexander, to my life. It shows the trying time my friend endured while being my advocate. The advocates are the lifesavers. They are the link that connects the patients to their doctors when they cannot advocate for themselves. It was imperative I showed his caring as a true friend and a stellar advocate. The importance of this dynamic is vital to the patient. The advocate’s family members, friends, or loved ones are all to be recognized, for it takes a village sometimes.

With all the story’s twists and turns, there are humorous moments, as there are in life. Learning to make humorous outlooks on otherwise a devastating experience helped me process what was going on.

It has been a gift, my experience, and I believe one person’s experience could help another.

Through my personal experience, I connect with others, learn, and grow.

Through connection and sharing each other’s experiences, we can grow into the human beings we were meant to be.

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Additional Information Here:

Amazon:

Six Days in Detox: Corbeau, Dianne: 9798886542028: Amazon.com: Books

Goodreads:

Dianne Corbeau (Author of Six Days in Detox) | Goodreads

Barnes & Noble:

Six Days in Detox by Dianne Corbeau, Paperback | Barnes & Noble® (barnesandnoble.com)

Facebook:

www.facebook.com/dianne.corbeau

Linkedin:

Dianne Corbeau - Writer - Freelance | LinkedIn

 

Happy Reading!

Guest Post with Susan Welch

Hi Everyone!

I am excited to bring you a guest post from Susan Welch, author of a Thread So Fine. Please help me welcome her to the blog!

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At forty-six years old and settled in my life with a wonderful husband, two young boys, and a comfortable career, I had a perfectly acceptable story I’d forever told myself about my childhood. Most of us do, I suppose. The night my brother invited me to dinner and revealed in his deadpan way the family secret he and my parents had kept for decades, my own personal narrative unraveled before even the appetizers were served. I had absolutely no idea that I’d been adopted as a baby—and when he told me as much, anyone nearby could’ve knocked me over with a feather.

As my brother spoke the words, “Mom and Dad adopted you when I was six…”, I felt as if someone put an entire bagel in my mouth, insisting that I figure out a way to swallow it whole.  I was dumbfounded—and slightly nauseous.  Months later I would explain to concerned friends: the revelation wasn’t like discovering I had a life-threatening disease, nor was it winning the lottery, but the long-hidden truth about my identity rocked my world all the same. 

In the first nights after that long conversation with my brother, I could not stop my mind from reeling, from unpacking age-old memories, from yearning for a chance to talk with my deceased parents, from imagining, or re-imagining my own life’s beginning with no facts to go on.  My sister, with whom I’m very close and who also did not know, could not look at me without both of us laughing hysterically—if one of us were truly adopted, we’d both have put money on it being her, not me. She was the questioning rebel. I was the go-along easy one.

Sleep did not come willingly. Gratefully, I am a writer and one thing I’ve always known is that telling myself stories about invented characters and their dilemmas can soothe a racing mind. I go through the day fictionalizing all sorts of things from my daily life, often in my mind and sometimes on paper if the storyline is at all inspiring.  Even as a child, I found comfort in doing this – as if by creating characters I could define-and-control, I could perhaps figure out ways to improve myself and to control my own being or circumstances.  At the very least, I could entertain myself while life played itself out chaotically around me.

Eliza and Shannon Malone came to me in those early sleepless nights as I thought about my mother and my newly-revealed-but-yet-unknown birth mother.  I imagined them in a dream-state as two sisters coming of age together in mid-century Minnesota, just after the war.  Inspired by Dodie Smith’s novel, I Capture The Castle, the two girls were well raised and cared for, and more than a little naïve. They began to take shape as the daughters of an Irish-Catholic professor and his mysterious wife, Nell. The girls felt optimistic and loved, although secrets in the family abounded. One sister would be introverted and artistic—even quirky; the other, bright, confident and capable of almost anything—including caring for her only sister as almost a mother would.  As the book took shape, one sister would quickly endure an unexpected tragedy, and the other would face a far more sinister threat before long.    

The central questions I wanted to explore with my two fictional sisters, their mother, Nell, and ultimately the next-generation child, Miriam, were these: How did young women such as my own adoptive mother and (then-unknown) birth-mother navigate their most challenging circumstances in decades before #MeToo, or modern medicine? How might they have found courage to carry on in a society that from today’s perspective seemed laden with secrecy, shame and disempowerment for women? Post WWII American society saw not only rising access to affluence, but rapid and turbulent social change that lasted for decades. Did the seeming intransigence of the Catholic Church and its social mores make it more comforting or more difficult for women who faced dramatic challenges of health or circumstance?  Or did the Church contribute to solidifying an era of secrecy, shame and loss around unwed mothers; and judgment around unmarried women? Even more broadly, I wanted to explore the nature of family – the invisible threads that almost irrevocably bind us to one another—as mother, daughter, sister, aunt, brother, uncle, father, son....  What is the deepest nature of those threads and how, if at all, do they change when secrets are – or aren’t – revealed?

The story of the Malone family was mostly imagined, although vignettes and characters from my own mother’s years in quarantine for tuberculosis weave in and out of Shannon’s experience over that dramatic year at Milner Hospital. My deceased mother-in-law and her sister, also closely-knit but vastly different women, inspired Shannon and Eliza’s relationship so much that I’ve kept their photos as babies and grown girls pinned to my bulletin board.  The lives and spirits of many other women--my sister, sister-in-law, myself and even my birth mother whom I finally met two years ago--are among the infinite invisible threads that have inspired me, and that I’ve tried to weave together in a story about women’s relationships to one another and the wondrous nature of family.

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Thanks for the post!! 

Happy Reading!

Guest Post with Fred Waitzkin

Hi Everyone!

Excited to be here to bring you a guest post from Fred Waitzkin. Please help me give him a warm welcome to the blog.

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Finding Treasure in Writer’s Block

Young writers often ask if I am sometimes afflicted by writer’s block and if I’ve discovered a cure. Most writers wrestle with this malady from time to time.  Over the years my relationship to the illness has evolved, and as an older writer I see it as a frustrating companion who at times can offer profound advice.

All authors relish days feeling on fire with a story when sentences pour out, almost without effort or thought. They spill into paragraphs and pages. It feels like riding a magic carpet that will soar on forever. I call such periods, writing within the bubble. But then after days or weeks, inevitably, life gets in the way.

Consider this scenario:  I’m just home from a ten-day fishing trip, determined to get back to my manuscript when my grandson Jack begs me to take him to tomorrow’s Mets game. Instead of going to my office I take Jack to the game. We’re both excited as hell about our trip on the subway…. It’s okay. I’d been on a roll with my story. Another day won’t matter at all. As we rumble toward Mets stadium, I pleasantly recall the feeling of riding the carpet, the story pouring out of me…. I’ll be back there tomorrow.

 The Mets lose. Jack cries, inconsolable in his new Mets cap as we’re leaving the stadium. “Why do the Mets always lose, Baba?”

I’m thinking about Jack’s sorrow and the Mets string of losing seasons. I’m disgusted with the Mets, a thickening edifice forming between me and my story.

Next morning I’m finally back in front of my computer after an eleven-day break. I take a look at my last chapter…. Pretty good. I sit at the computer waiting for the words to flow…. Nothing. I wait. Nothing. Four more days pass of nothing. I’m pulling what’s left of my hair. Now I’m living outside the bubble.

Okay, seven days of writer’s block. I’m back in my office at 9:30. I make a cup of tea. I pace around a little. I have a lunch date at 12:30. I’m looking forward to that. I stare at my Mac like it’s the enemy. I begin to pace around. I sip tea. I look at my computer. No way I’m sitting there to suffer any more. I snap on my old radio and listen to sports talk radio, a discussion about the Mets falling apart after a promising start to the season. Every year they do it. They cannot hit…. It’s now 11. I look at the computer, shake my head, no way. I pace in the hall. I come back into the office and read the paper. Now it’s 11:50. Almost time to leave for lunch. Not yet, Waitzkin, not yet. I stall another five minutes, pressure building. It’s twelve. Suddenly I throw myself into my chair in front of the keys. I need to leave my office for lunch in 18 minutes. It’s now or never…, and if I’m lucky, the dam breaks. Words pour out. I’m feverishly typing words that wouldn’t come for days. They are gushing out now when I hardly have time to write them, trying to catch them in the air like butterflies, get them into the machine… I’ve written some of my best paragraph this way, when it was do or die.

Another trick for writer’s block: I always carry around a tiny notebook in my shirt pocket. When I’m riding my bike home along the river, thinking about the Mets losing streak, an idea pops into my head. I stop the bike and jot it into the book. I’m talking to my wife Bonnie and an idea suddenly appears. I’m talking to my son. He shakes his head, annoyed, while I scrawl treasure into my notebook. “Dad never listens to me.”

Two days ago, I was stumped how to end an essay about my artist mother. I woke up after a two-hour nap and suddenly I could see the words hanging in the air in front of me. I wrote them in the notebook before they disappeared…. Carry a notebook. Just having it with you elicits ideas.

I wrote my new novel, Deep Water Blues, without once having writer’s block. It was pure bliss, beginning to end. I’d decided I was going to write a short book, 150 pages or less, something I could hold in my head without having to turn back to see what I’d written two or three years earlier. I was determined to write this one fast. And also, I’d gone into it after having written a screenplay, my first. I wanted this new book to move like a movie.

Deep Water Blues describes a gruesome disaster that takes place to a little island civilization—an island once gorgeous, and peaceful, almost Eden like, and in the aftermath, the island becomes decimated by greed, out-of-control ambition, violence and murder. At the heart of it, Deep Water Blues, which was inspired by true events, is an adventure story. I wanted to tell the story fast, fast and violent with no looking back, no flashbacks, mostly taut bold scenes as in riveting film…. Writing this book took me over like a runaway train.

There was no room for writer’s block in my new book. Pace and length and a harrowing story were the key elements. Maybe I’ll try that again.

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Thanks Fred for the post!

Happy Reading!









PS. I am still on break for another week or so, but since this one is released today, I wanted to be sure you got the info! :) 

Guest Post with Sharon Prentice

Hi Everyone! I am excited to be here today to bring you a guest post from Dr. Sharon Prentice. Please help me welcome her to the blog!
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How I Embraced Vulnerability to Tell the Story of Becoming Starlight
by Sharon Prentice, PhD

Writing a book.  To be quite honest, the thought had never entered my mind; I’d never written anything other than personal prose or patient charts that were never meant to see the light of day.  The idea was so remote that it would’ve been, as in the Twilight Zone monologue, like “opening a door into a fifth dimension of thought and sound, as timeless as space, as vast as infinity.” But once the possibility was introduced to me,  I had one reaction: exposing the secrets that lay hidden within my Soul sent chills racing through the recesses of my very being. I couldn’t let it go, though -- once unearthed…the thought simply would not leave me alone!

Imagine, if you will, standing on a stage, alone, in front of hundreds of people unknown to you,  while guffaws and ridicule, barbs of judgement undeserved and previously unknown are all directed your way!  A dizzying array of emotion and confusion filling your Spirit with every direct hit...and then, you realize you are, as my dad liked to say--naked as the day you were born! It’s then, possibly for the first time, that you begin to understand the concept of unadulterated vulnerability.

No one enjoys feeling vulnerable. Especially those of us who exist in environments created to keep vulnerability at bay. But there comes a time when life slaps you awake--and you can no longer exist within the protective bubble that served you so well in your private life.

Every writer understands this concept of vulnerability. Opening up to that bone-shaking, fearful reality—that I would be vulnerable--was the beginning of my journey into the world of publishing.  Accepting that in order to tell my story, I would have to surrender my oh-so- carefully tucked-away secrets to public scrutiny was my biggest hurdle. But it was one that needed confronting and eventually--conquering.

To tell my story… was exactly what I needed to do! One of my greatest mentors, Dr. Wayne Dwyer, before his death, told me, “Tell your story, Sharon. Tell the story.” The beginning of the writing process for me was the recognition that I was more uncomfortable staying silent than I was letting the words flow free and accepting the vulnerability inherent in exposure. Naked body or naked Soul--same thing!

But how and where to begin? What exactly did I want to say--or have to say--in this effort to release the words that were forming in the underbelly of my soul?  Instead of letting anxiety rule the day, I simply sat myself down…grabbed pen and paper…and let the floodgates open.

I didn’t change my physical environment…I embraced it. The old La-Z-y Boy recliner that had been my dad’s “home base” before his death became my sacred space. I felt safe and peaceful. It became my home…my sanctuary. My body just seemed to conform to the indentations that had, for years, become its very nature and I felt as if it “knew” me.  I didn’t feel the need to have a totally private, quiet, locked away space that had no recognition of me and the joys and sorrows of my life. It was there, on my dad’s well-loved recliner, that Becoming Starlight was birthed. 

But even in that sanctuary, I found myself chasing words.  It was irritating as the words seemed to erupt and run like madmen away from my conscious mind. The more I chased after the words as they fled the scene, the more irritated I became. Was this the well-known “writer’s block” rearing its ugly head? Or was it simply me trying to force something that simply couldn’t be forced? The operative word here became--relax! I needed to relax and just let it flow. Not trying to force each and every thought into some perfect form of writing saved the day! I stopped worrying about tense and punctuation and dangling participles! I simply put pen to paper and wrote the story.

It was then that the sacred words fell into place. It was then that the words found their place and told their story. My process needed acceptance of the vulnerability of the story that needed to be told. I let the invisible dancer lead the way and make the pen I held in my hand dance.

Becoming an author can be a life-altering decision! Finding your own safe space, your own sense of security, allowing the unfolding of the magic within...effortlessly…is the first step to creating and releasing the music in your Soul. Drawing out that music for healing and comfort…uncovering the shadows that haunt the human condition--that’s what it’s all about and what I hoped my readers would find. 

About the Author:

Dr. Sharon Prentice is the author of Becoming Starlight: A Shared Death Journey from Darkness to Light. Soon after completing her graduate studies in psychology, Dr. Prentice longed to discover “the why’s” about her own intimate experience with death in the form of an SDE, and that of others who had experienced something “weird, unbelievable, odd” at the time of the death of a loved one. Dr. Prentice is in private practice as a Licensed Clinical Pastoral Counselor - Advanced Certification. She is also a Board Certified Spiritual Counselor (SC-C) and holds Board Certification in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Group Therapy, Integrated Marriage and Family Therapy, and Crisis and Abuse Therapy. She is also a Board Certified Temperament Counselor. Dr. Prentice is a Professional Member of the American Counselors Association, a Professional Clinical member of the National Christian Counselors Association, a Clinical member of the American Mental Health Counselors Association, and a Presidential member of the American Association of Christian Counselors. She is also a Commissioned Minister of Pastoral Care. For more information, please visit https://sharonprentice.com and follow the author on Facebook and Twitter.

Guest Post: Charlie Laidlaw

Hi Everyone!

Excited to be here to share this cover and some details about a new book by Charlie Laidlaw. Please help me by giving a warm welcome!
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The space between time

Back cover synopsis

There are more stars in the universe than there are grains of sand on Earth...

Emma Maria Rossini appears to be the luckiest girl in the world. She's the daughter of a beautiful and loving mother, and her father is one of the most famous film actors of his generation. She's also the granddaughter of a rather eccentric and obscure Italian astrophysicist.

But as her seemingly charmed life begins to unravel, and Emma experiences love and tragedy, she ultimately finds solace in her once-derided grandfather’s Theorem on the universe.

The Space Between Time is humorous and poignant and offers the metaphor that we are all connected, even to those we have loved and not quite lost.

Synopsis

The Space Between Time is a dark comedy about love and loss.  It’s also about memory and how a childhood remembered can years later falsely distort what we feel about those closest to us.

Emma Maria Rossini appears to be the luckiest girl in the world.  She’s the daughter of a beautiful and loving mother and her father is one of the most famous film actors of his generation.  Tom Cruise is almost an adopted uncle.

She’s also the granddaughter of a rather eccentric and obscure Italian astrophysicist whose theories on the universe have been much ridiculed.

The story centres on Emma’s childhood in Edinburgh and East Lothian, and the overpowering event of her mother’s death, apparently in a freak lighting strike.  

However, the secret that only Emma knows is that her mother’s death was no accident.  It precipitates a suicide attempt, and estrangement from her father.

Emma stumbles through university and finds work as a journalist in Edinburgh, although she is once more becoming mentally unstable and, following the death of her father, again tries to commit suicide.

It’s while she’s in a mental institution that her psychiatrist suggests she writes a memoir of her life, to help her make sense of everything that’s happened to her, and The Space Between Time is the story she writes.

The tragic-comic story, aimed at both male and female readers, has heart, humour and warmth.  Its central message is that, even at the worst of times, a second chance can often be just around the corner.

In coming to terms with her life and the deaths of her parents, Emma finds ultimate solace in her once-derided grandfather’s Theorem on the universe – which offers the metaphor that we are all connected, even to those we have loved and not quite lost.

Happy Reading!

Guest Post with Lori Morrison

Hi Everyone! I am excited to be here today with a guest post from Lori Morrison. Please help me give her a warm welcome to the blog!

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The Shaman's Guide to Power Animals

by Lori Morrison

Almost ten years ago, in the middle of a volcanic lake in El Salvador, I was struck by a mysterious light beam during a late-night walk. After three hours of being unconscious, I awoke to realize that all of my perceptions of the world had changed. I had left my ordinary reality and was now living in a non-ordinary reality. After a few stays in mental hospitals, believing I had lost my mind, I realized that I had instead been given a gift and joined a rare group of people that call themselves “lightning shamans”. This was an even stranger story as I was a left-brain entrepreneur that had been in the boardrooms of wall street and then a successful business woman throughout Central America, far from the tenants of indigenous teachings. After receiving this gift, I was able to interact with the spirits of animals,  along with a multitude of other mysterious beings from other worlds that I could see, hear and communicate with.

As a result of this experience, for several years, the spirits of four jaguars began to converse with me, along with Mayan ancestral priests, who would become my spiritual teachers and guides. They arrived on the night of my fifty-second birthday, an important date for the Mayan culture, to initiate me into a whole new purpose in this lifetime. I later learned that these jaguar spirits are often called Power Animals, guides that bring knowledge and power to human beings to support our earthly walk. I dove deep into researching to see if others had a similar experience and I realized that it is a richly woven practice among a variety of cultures of the world. Power animal spirits are also important allies for shamans. They are their guides and healers from the spirit world. Also, when an animal appears in the physical world it has a lot of meaning that can enrich our lives and expand our awareness.

I wrote this book because I wanted to share my findings about Power Animals and their importance to humanity. I had many questions to answer like, what meaning did different animals have for the Egyptians? Many graves have humans buried with a variety of animals, why? What did the Mayans believe when a hummingbird appeared? What messages did the Navajo medicine men receive from the animal spirits? There was a vast and hidden world that I wanted to discover, so I put on my Indiana Jones hat and headed off into the spiritual meanings of Power Animals.

My main source of information were symbols left by a variety of ancient cultures. I also found rich resources through art history and spent a lot of time watching videos of the animals in the wild. How did they react? What was their skill and power? Lastly, through intention and purpose with my new-found gift, I was now able to go to a multi-dimensional place where the spirits of Power Animals reside, and I asked them to share their wisdom with me for my book. They brought through me amazing and profound messages for humanity. The teachings at times were astonishing. I found myself immersed into an animal kingdom school with very original perspectives about living on earth.  

What was an interesting discovery was learning that when a child is born into an indigenous community it is believed to be accompanied by its Power Animal.  A ritual is performed through dance and celebration for the purpose of integrating the power of the animal into the child’s heart chakra normally orchestrated by a shaman. This connection is intended to keep the child safe as it will be its companion through life. Later in life, if a child has experienced a traumatic experience, the shaman will often do a retrieval and reinstate its energy back into the child to overcome any weakness. In the modern world Power Animals can be called upon like guardian angels, protectors and beings that raise our level of consciousness.

Through the use of scalar energy made famous by Nicolas Tesla, I have combined this cutting-edge technology with ancient practices to create a program where with a person’s birthdate and birthplace I can scan their energetic field to see what Power Animal was present with them at birth. This allows me to perform a modern version of this ancient practice. Combining this with my own skills, it has reached an incredible level of accuracy and validation.

With the launch of the book, I have given interested readers the opportunity to find out what their Power Animal was at birth. I now offer this service on my website and the book then gives them the insight as to the powers and the awareness of this relationship. Readers who have signed up for this “high tech” power animal retrieval have often been astounded when their Power Animal is revealed. With one client, the scan revealed that a sparrow was her Power Animal. This was an emotional revelation since she had a tattoo of several sparrows on her body thus removing years of questioning why she chose a sparrow.  Another reader was scanned, and it was determined that her Power Animal was a cougar. In this case it was validation of many dreams she had through her life about cougars, and why a friend insisted on giving her a painting of a cougar years ago that she has hanging over her bed. These stories and more continue to validate the sometimes subtle and unknown ties we have to the animal spirit world.

Writing this book also brought me a wealth of knowledge about myself. It was often a whirlwind of messages from a Power Animals perspective of how unusual they see the humans view. From Mongolia to Machu Picchu I found that Power Animals have always been a part of our collective understanding and existence, yet with so little connection to nature, it has been lost to us. My goal was to find it again and bring it back to its loving form so that once again humans could reunite with their Power Animal and reconnect to the meaningful messages that are brought to us from their world.

About the Author:

Lori Morrison is the author of The Shaman's Guide to Power Animals (March 2019). She is a best-selling author, inspirationalist and mystic. She is part of a rare breed of lightening shamans who have received a spontaneous awakening of shamanic knowledge. Lori first journeyed into the shamanic underworld in 2010 where she found the spiritual realm of Power Animals.  Her teachers were Mayan Ancestors who took her through a two year initiation with the spirits of four Jaguar. Her later intimate connection with Lion, given to her by a Haitian shaman has been an extraordinary experience and has enhanced greatly her healing powers. By merging and forming a sacred relationship with animal spirits she is able to support her clients with insight and change through her cutting edge shamanic counseling practice in Sedona, Arizona where she resides. For more information, please visit https://lorimorrison.com and follow Lori on Facebook and Twitter.

 
Happy Reading!

Guest Post with Neel Mullick

Hi Everyone!

I am excited to be here today to bring you a guest post from author, Neel Mullick. Please help me by giving him a warm welcome to the blog.

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Dark Blossom came to my rescue at a time when I was struggling with empathy in my life. My imagination had run amok and created characters that were very different from me but were facing similar yet exaggerated ordeals in their lives. I finally took to the pen when I found myself consumed by the need to crawl under their skins, connect with them empathically, and describe the world the way they were seeing it. To be honest, it wasn’t until I had lost a couple of months and gained almost ten pounds that I realized I was writing a story!

Even though the book is not autobiographical by any stretch of imagination, I did find myself turning to events, experiences, and people from my life for inspiration and it does have bits and pieces of me.

While my characters’ ordeals may be considered dark, my innateness drove me to narrate their stories in an entertaining way. Soon I discovered this to be the salve I needed in my life, because in order to achieve that, I needed a double dose of empathy – for my characters as well as for readers. And it was because of the role of the book in filling that personal void that I decided to donate half my royalties to charity.

I am only beginning to understand that writing and learning are synonymous but perhaps the most significant epiphany has been the realization that a good story takes place at the intersection of personal authenticity and people’s perception. A good story must be borne from a sincere place and telling it in a way that captivates audiences requires understanding how people perceive it viscerally. While the former allowed me to delineate the range of my characters’ expressions, the latter lets readers partake of such expression. While the former can get you to a first draft, it takes brutal honesty with respect to understanding the latter that gets you to a final version.

Given that I had taken to writing in somewhat of a frenzy, I had to subsequently double back for research. This was all the more important because I was not only aspiring to deal with a lot of sensitive topics in a riveting way but also narrating from the perspective of a woman psychologist who was from a cultural background different from mine. I had to both push myself out of my comfort zone and dig very deep within. Other than reading works of fiction as well as non-fiction (including autobiographies) dealing with these sensitive topics, I also had to talk to a lot of psychologists. I needed to understand the subtleties of suffering and how specialists help the human psyche cope with and heal such fractures.

The first draft took me about three months but then came the more arduous process of editing. Even though it took more rounds of editing than I am embarrassed to admit, they were almost evenly paced out over one and a half years. In retrospect, this worked out better for me as well as for the story, because it took me that long to be honest and objective about it.

While readers seem to be enjoying Dark Blossom as a suspenseful psychological thriller, to me it remains a story of love in spite of loss and of empathy in the face of adversity. So it’s even more gratifying when I get an occasional note from a reader telling me not just how much they enjoyed it but also what they took away from the book on love, parenting, and on healing for that matter.

Now that I have crossed the bridge of publishing and am navigating the streets of marketing, I am convinced that, first and foremost, there is no substitute for a good story and great storytelling. And the process that helped me the most in getting there was support from a good and sincere editor – one who has ample experience and few prejudices. To anyone looking to get published, I would strongly recommend subjecting your work to the feedback of such an editor, honestly, before putting your work out there.

Once this critical ingredient is ready, come all the other aspects of publishing the book and then promoting it. Given the many distractions competing for people’s attention these days, it bodes well for authors to think through not only how their story will reach target readers but also how their band will resonate with their audience.

If you do all these things you make the publisher’s job easier. But perhaps more importantly, if success takes time, then being true to this process will give you the confidence and belief to persevere.

Thank you Neel for the Post! 

Neel Mullick is the author of Dark Blossom. The Head of Product and Information Security at a Belgian family-office technology company, Mullick is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University and INSEAD. He mentors female entrepreneurs through the Cherie Blaire Foundation for Women, is involved in raising a generation of digital and socially aware leaders with Nigeria’s Steering for Greatness Foundation, supports improvement in the quality of life of domestic workers through Peru’s Emprendedoras del Hogar, and works with IIMPACT in India to help break the cycle of illiteracy plaguing young girls from socially and economically impoverished communities. Dark Blossom is his first novel.

 
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Guest Post with Renee Linnell

Hi Everyone! I am happy to bring you a guest post today from Renee Linnell. Please help me by welcoming her to the blog!
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Why I Wrote The Burn Zone

by Renee Linnell

I wrote The Burn Zone as a catharsis; I had to get the story out of me. Dr. Maya Angelou once said, “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” I believe she is right. The story was consuming me. It was tearing me apart from within. I was filled with anger and hatred and confusion and I had to let it go. So I wrote. And wrote and wrote and wrote. I vomited all of it onto paper. Over and over and over again. The same scenarios, the same pain, the same periods of my life. I wrote hate letters that I never sent. I screamed into pillows. I wrote letters to God. Over 700 pages I wrote. And it helped. The heaviness began to lift. The anger began to abate. The fits of rage dissipated. The overwhelming sadness turned to hope.

As this happened I began to speak bits of my story to loved ones. I began to share what I went through, what I signed up for. People were shocked, amazed, and . . . impressed. I began to realize my story had worth. I began to realize it was a story of strength; a story of the fight of the human spirit; a story of uncovering my True Self from deep within the shattered pile of a whole lifetime’s worth of rubble. As I spoke my story I began to get a consistent similar response, “You have to write a book.” It was then that I realized I had been writing a book; it was then that I made the decision to publish what I had written.

But, it wasn’t easy. Reading through my journals was painful. Reliving those stories, those states of mind, was sickening. However, I kept doing it. Because as I did it I realized I had inscribed a map. It was a description of what so many of us (I may even venture to say all of us) do as we create a life to please others. And it was a map, a stepping stone path, out, back to authenticity. I realized I had to print and share my story; even if it helped only one other person. 

I suppose my background as a seeker and as a Buddhist monk influenced my writing in that I felt safe being raw. Vulnerable. “In my defenselessness my safety lies,” says The Course in Miracles. I took it to heart. And it has been liberating. Publishing my whole story is so freeing because I get to just be me. And it turns out I’m really good at being me. I sucked at being the versions of me I thought I was supposed to be to please my parents, my teachers, my friends, the rest of the world; but it’s actually not much effort at all to just be me. I had a great writing teacher in high school who taught us all the rules of grammar, but then encouraged us to break them. So, you will notice I break a lot of writing rules, but I write the way I would tell a story. Thought by thought, sentence by sentence. Again, authenticity. This is the way I would tell you a story if we were face to face in my living room; why should I write it any other way?

It is my sincere desire that readers would feel liberated after reading my book. I love to imagine the little child within them smiling, finally feeling like s/he gets to call the shots. I love the idea of my readers making the commitment to love and nurture themselves; to treat themselves to the little joys in life that they love. I would love for my readers to finally let go of shame; to start claiming and even celebrating their stories. Especially the “skeletons in the closet.” I imagine shackles around the soul being removed; the shackles of shame, the shackles of not-forgiving, the shackles of wishing this or that never happened. I love imagining the spirits of my readers dancing around in the joy and wonder of their Earth Walk. Changing their mental paradigms to believing their life has been a wild adventure instead of lugging around the baggage of regret. I love imagining the flames within their hearts, the light within, igniting. And I would love for my readers to pull up to the surface, and feel safe in the exposing of, the parts of them that make them different. I would love for them to put my book down knowing their difference is their destiny and feeling ready to show and tell the world about their story, their fight of the human spirit, all that they have gone through, all that they have learned. I would love for them to discover the exhilarating freedom that comes with forgiving all of it, embracing their battle scars, and using those scars to go out in the world and fulfill their true Divine Purpose.

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Thanks Renee for the post!

About the Author:

Renee Linnell is the author of The Burn Zone (She Writes Press). She is a serial entrepreneur who has founded and cofounded five companies and has an Executive Masters in Business Administration from New York University. Currently she is working on starting a publishing company to give people from diverse walks of life an opportunity to tell their stories. She divides her time between Colorado and Southern California. For more information, please visit https://reneelinnell.com and follow Renee on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Guest Post with Sandra Ingerman

Hi Everyone!

I am excited to be here to bring you a guest post from Sandra Ingerman. Please help me by giving her a warm welcome to the blog!

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The Hidden Worlds

by Sandra Ingerman

I have always loved working with children. Since the 1980s I have been teaching children of all ages how to perform shamanic journeys as this is such a powerful way to help children and young adults feel empowered by challenging life situations. Over the years I have also worked with children who needed healing work to retrieve their lost soul essence, to remove a spiritual blockage causing an illness, or to help children deal with nightmares.

I felt it was important to write a book that included not just how power animals can assist children of all ages, but also life practices that are the same taught to children in shamanic cultures. For how to navigate challenges of life, to live a life of harmony with nature, and where children are acknowledged for their gifts and strengths are all taught as early as possible to children living in indigenous cultures.  Our children are our future and deserve a way to work with the personal and planetary challenges they are facing.

So I set my intention to write a beautiful book that would incorporate the practice of shamanic journeying and how to live in harmony with nature.

When I submitted The Hidden Worlds to my agent she said, “This is the worst book I have read of yours.” My agent was born to be a mother, and she knew this book would not capture the imagination of readers. It was too heavy on spiritual lessons with not enough of a story to draw the readers in.

It was clear that as I did not have children of my own, I did not understand how to write an engaging story.

I was leading a reunion of shamanic teachers I trained. And Katherine Wood and I had lunch together. Katherine had a long career as a school teacher, and through our long history together I knew her work with children was simply brilliant!

She agreed to work with me and take the story I had created to become an engaging teaching adventure for young adults. Then the magic began.

Initially Isaiah, the main character of the story, appeared to me in a dream. In the dream I could see that he was frail and quite sick. I could easily see how writing a story of how Grizzly Bear could befriend and bring guidance and healing to child who was ill would be a great start to the story.

Then I wanted to bring in other characters who had certain issues. I created Rose, George, and Magda who were all so different.  Isaiah who was frail, George who had special needs, Rose who was Chinese was so angry about being adopted and fought so much at school, and Madga was so popular and a great soccer player. I paired them with Grizzly Bear, Octopus, Giraffe, and Panther to help them with their issues at home and with other students at school.

With Katherine’s help, we devised a story to bring more adventure into the book. For in the first draft I only had the characters meet each other and their power animals in their dreams—not enough intrigue for children to get hooked into the story. And I did not create much character development. Katherine with her knowledge of how children can act out in life and behave towards each other in school brought in the details of their stories and their personal challenges. She brought texture to the characters to make them alive so that readers could really relate to them and their struggles.

We came up with idea of the children meeting each other in a dream. And then during the day they met while wandering on their own during a break. They all found themselves at a pond that was filled with dead birds. This unlikely group of friends decided to become detectives to find out the source of the pollution. They did not tell their parents or any school officials what they were up to. By putting their heads together and also asking for help from their most trusted power animals they found that a toxic waste plant was disposing of poison illegally.

I have found that when crafting a story there is a point where the character’s lives deepen to the point that they take control of the plot. It was great for me to experience this as the four worked together to shut this plant down. The story took interesting twists as they developed respect for each other’s gifts, performed rescues, explored romance, confronted bullies, and resolved their conflicts with each other. I hope they will remind our readers of the limitless possibilities that are available in their own lives.

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Thanks Sandra for the post! 

About the Author:

Sandra Ingerman, MA, is an award winning author of twelve books, including The Hidden Worlds and The Book of Ceremony: Shamanic Wisdom for Invoking the Sacred in Everyday Life. She is a world-renowned teacher of shamanism and has been teaching for more than 30 years. Sandra is recognized for bridging ancient cross-cultural healing methods into our modern culture, addressing the needs of our times. For more information, please visit https://sandraingermanbooks.com and follow the author on Facebook and Twitter.

Happy Reading!

Guest Post with Sheri Langer

Hi Everyone! I am excited to be here today with a guest post from Sheri Langer.  I had a chance to ask about what inspired her book and I think you will find the guest post very entertaining! You may even decide to buy an early Valentine or to treat yourself to the book!  

(Note: not an affliate link, just helping to get the word out!)

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We all have dreams. As a child, mine was to have long polished fingernails, a sparkly diamond ring, a husband, kids, and a puppy. It was my firm belief that my children would be the luckiest on earth because I would love them beyond reason. My only other wish was to be a movie star, admired by all.

We all have dreams that change. As a child I loved movies, especially the ones where sultry, stunning actresses had to do nothing but stand in a room to have every man in sight desire them. Their allure was disarming and enviable and as I got older, I wanted to be one of them. As a teen, it became somewhat painfully obvious that a 5’2”, very bosomy, bottle- blonde was not exactly the ingenue Hollywood was banging down doors to find. I still watched movies with palpable yearning, but as a matter of practicality, I knew I would have to switch gears.

We all have dreams that change us. I went to college because I had no choice but to graduate and be a “something.” I had given up my dreams of being an actress and so I returned to my most organic desire -to be a wife and a mother. My first serious boyfriend didn’t feel ready to comply with my wishes and broke up with me. Shortly after, I met the guy I believed was Mr. Right. He transferred to my school so we could be together. It was all very romantic in the screenplay I was writing in my head.

We all have dreams that work-until they confuse us.  We got married. I went for my MA in English Ed so I could actually be a “something.” I loved words. The problem was I didn’t want to be a teacher or a journalist. I didn’t want to be anything that required punching a time clock or reporting to a boss. I wanted to write movies, but as far as I was concerned those were created in some far-off land by nameless sprites. 

We all have dreams that shape us. I got pregnant and realized that being a mother was my truest calling. Except for the pen and paper that beckoned me in the wee hours, I was a mom all the way from colic to toddlerhood and then onto my next pregnancy, and my next pregnancy, and my next pregnancy. All the while, my movies kept me company. They reminded me, while my own marriage was unraveling, that true love was still out there.

We all have dreams that save us. I got divorced. It was a blessing, but destabilizing, nonetheless. I was no longer part of a couple. We divvied up the friends, but I got to keep the videos. The weekends I didn’t have the kids became my nights for take-out and romcoms. I needed to reinforce my childhood notions of love. I started dating, which I found was not the way to secure those notions. The more I dated, the more I needed my movies.

At some point, we all stop dreaming and start doing. One day, my sister said, very matter-of-factly, “just write your movie already.” Really? Maybe she was right. Maybe the only way I could have the love I wanted was to create it myself. I started writing a screenplay and while developing the main conflict, decided to reach out to my first serious boyfriend. I was in NY. He was safely tucked away in Florida. Maybe he would be able to explain why I was relationship-challenged.

We all have dreams that come true. My former boyfriend was now divorced and seemed to have been waiting for my call. We kept in touch and after a few weeks he said he needed to see me. Our time together convinced me to keep writing. Upon the advice of my late, treasured mentor, I novelized my screenplay and LOVE-LINES emerged. My boyfriend moved to NY, proposed, and after a mere dozen years of living together, we got married this past New Year’s Eve.

Keep dreaming.

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Thank you for  the post Sheri! 

More information:

If you are interested in reading in excerpt from her book, Love Lines or learning more about her. 

Happy Reading!