This book is available to purchase on Kindle...

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00I4BTDZA

Prologue

It was twenty years, easily twenty years, from that cold winter December morning when Toni Riccio put her Christmas request into her old antique desk. She had been nineteen at the time, and had just finished reading a hundred year old book called The Wizard. Within the pages it read that if one makes a wish and slips it into a drawer of an old desk; one at least fifty years old, then the written desire would come true. She knew for a fact that her desk was over 100 years old since it was her great grandmother’s.

     The author of The Wizard hadn’t given a time period when Toni’s wish would come true, but it plainly said it would in time. She had laughed as she slipped it in the desk, and then marched over to her next door best friend, Tessie Sanderson, whom she had known since the age of five. She giggled as she told her about what she had just done. Tessie was sitting on the floor giving Toni a smirky smile  as she listened about her friend’s written wish, and then wrapped her arms around her new puppy, Teaser, laughing as she whispered in her ear, “Teaser do you believe this crazy friend of mine? She thinks her request is going to come true, and if it does, then my request is going to be right there with her if it does come true.” She twisted around and looked at Toni and said, “What was your request?”

     “I’m not telling you Tess if you’re going to make fun of me, but if you really want to know my request then you must write one too so that you can be right there with me when it comes true.”    

Tessie rushed over and pulled out a sheet of paper and pen from her pretty white desk, scribbled her request and then threw it at Toni and said, “Okay, if you’re so smart, let’s go put it in your antique desk. We’ll place mine next to yours, and then we’ll see if it comes true or not. Okay? What do you say?”

     They both jumped up and hurried next door, and soon after Toni placed Tessie’s request in the desk, and then she told her to touch it. “You must touch it…you know… to make it come true.”
     Tessie touched it with her long slender fingers and then drew back her hand and said, “Okay, I did it. Do you think we should wait to see if our wishes come true or should we walk over to the mall and buy our Prom dresses? I mean we have only two weeks before the prom so don’t you think that’s more important than this silly old request?”

     Agreeing to go to the mall, off the two went to see what was happening and to take in the sales usually going on at some of their favorite stores.  Following their spree they sat down at their favorite fast-food restaurant and had a frosty. Their conversation centered on the types of people who were shopping, visiting, walking or otherwise doing their own thing and studying the fashions on display on the passersby.  It had always been fun to ‘people watch’ because there was always something new and different going on and they didn’t want to miss a minute of it.  Getting caught up in their events at the Mall and the fun that came from laughing at some of the mad styles, the wishes and the old desk were forgotten. After all it was just a fun gesture, a superstition of sorts - wasn’t it?  It was like finding a four-leaf clover when young and thinking of having good luck, or at the other extreme seeing a ladder in front of you and walking under it bringing bad luck.  There have always been these sorts of beliefs or omens around for centuries and it was practiced by the very religious or gullible people who thought they would come true.  Tarot card readers were thought as having wielded strange mysterious powers, as were palm readers, but making a wish and placing it inside an old desk?  Not a chance!  After all, it was not one of the popular beliefs; as a matter of fact Tessie never heard such foolishness in her entire life.  If not - then why did she go along with the request from Toni?  Probably because they were such good friends and what did it matter anyway?  Why not go along with a simple innocent request - for what harm could possibly come of it?

     On the walk home the two parted company, each went to their respective homes and never mentioned the events that took place again. The night came and went as did the next few days, and neither Toni nor Tessie had any contact during that interval of time because of the lives they lived and the jobs they had. They had always managed to come together at some point in time during the weekend and it was rapidly approaching. 

     On this particular Saturday afternoon Toni decided to sleep over at Tessie’s house.  The two carried on as they had for many years, always enjoying each other’s company, but on this day Toni seemed off her course somewhat.  When she shared her discomfort with Tessie, it was passed off as work-related fatigue; both have had the same feelings from time to time depending on their work-loads during the week, but this feeling seemed different and Toni said so.  She couldn’t explain what was happening because she had no clue, but after talking about it she set it aside and went on with her visit in their usual way. Yet she knew something wasn’t right so Tessie was glad she was staying overnight with Toni.

     When Tessie leaped out of bed the next morning realizing it was late, she hollered out to Toni that they’d be late for their appointments, but after getting no response, she stepped over and touched Toni’s arm and it felt cold as ice. She screamed and ran into Toni’s parents’ bedroom and pleaded for them to follow her because she couldn’t wake Toni. The three shook Toni several times until Toni’s father, Sam, simply picked her up and moved her to the other side of the bed and still she didn’t wake. Suddenly, Toni’s mother, Francine, quickly called 911 and within minutes the ambulance arrived and Toni was whisked away.

     Upon arriving at the hospital, the attending emergency doctor quickly realized that Toni was in a coma. Although they didn’t know what was wrong they began running tests on her. It seemed she was unconscious for no known reason. While the testing was being done, Tessie was questioned by doctors as to whether they had taken any drugs. Each time Tessie screamed loudly, “No…no…absolutely not!  Neither Toni nor I would take drugs.”

    
     Toni wasn’t responding yet she knew the doctors were working on her because she could see them, and hear them, but couldn’t bring herself to open her eyes or even utter a word.
She kept seeing a brilliant white light in front in her and the light made her feel warmly protected, as well as loved, and she had a overwhelming urge to move toward it, but the loud crying coming from her best friend and mother kept her from going toward it. Holding back the urge she finally struggled so strongly that she was able to open her eyes and when she did she began crying because she had finally made it back. Tessie and Francine screamed out in happiness, immediately both Tessie and Francine reached across the bed and hugged Toni. What happened to Toni was difficult to comprehend for it demanded the complete recovery from whatever led her into this coma-like condition. What was known because of the screams coming from Toni was that there was a white light like nothing which could be found on earth. Toni’s outbursts told the doctors in attendance that she couldn’t see beyond the intensity of the light, and she was afraid. She wriggled all over the bed trying to escape something that appeared to be grabbing on her because she was flailing her arms wildly as if to thwart them away and off of her. As Toni emerged from her stupor she was wet with perspiration and her heart was pounding wildly to the point where she had to receive an injection to slow down her pulse. She quieted down, looked around and saw faces familiar to her, but still she clung to her bedding as if she was still in fear of being dragged away to some place she obviously feared, but that story would be coming soon, as Toni relaxed her death grip on the sheets, straightened out her body, slowed down her breathing so as to produce a normalcy, exhaled as if completing a marathon, and allowed her head to sink deeply into the pillow provided for her on the hospital bed. Following another deep inhale and exhale Toni spoke out with an obvious inquiry, “Where am I Tessie, Mom, what just happened?”
    

“That’s exactly what we would like to find out Toni,” brought the response from Tessie preceding a deep sigh of relief. “You had us scared half to death. We thought you had left us for a minute and we were all pulling for you to return where you belonged”
    

     “Toni, my dear daughter, we feared for the worse. We didn’t know how to help. There was nothing we could do but watch you in what appeared to be agony. We didn’t know where you were or what was happening to you. We were helpless so please don’t do that again. Ever! Please!” pleaded Toni’s mother.
Toni drew in another incredible breath and slowly exhaled, this time followed by a faint smile. This seemed to indicate that she was regaining her composure and might soon be able to break the silence and try to piece together the seemingly horrible events that just took place. Her trials and tribulations being observed by an outsider would have led one to believe that this young lady had just had a bout with the Devil and came out the victor. Perhaps that is exactly what happened; time will tell.

When we look at what is happening in the world now, don't you ever wonder how long the world as we we know it will last?

My novel OASIS paints a poignant but amusing picture of what could happen in the not too distant future.

Read it and you will meet the MUTANT HUMANOIDS who look a little different from us but have the same hopes and fears. They live restricted lives in compounds on a polluted Earth. But when they discover that some COMPLETES exist who live on a beautiful, uncontaminated satellite called OASIS they decide they would like to share their superior lifestyle.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=jeannie+van+rompaey

If you are like millions of people – as I am – then you spend many, many hours on the internet, either related to what you do for a living, or just in a recreational way.

Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest are just a few of the popular websites so many of us gravitate to on a daily basis, but, of course, there are dozens more out there to keep us busy.

Why, you may be asking yourself, am I even bringing this up in the first place?

My response is that, with each passing year, the amount of free time we all have for ourselves to accomplish and enjoy such important activities as exercising, eating healthy, getting enough sleep, and spending quality time with family and friends has consistently been dwindling.

Chasing the almighty dollar has become so widespread, especially in such a competitive country as America is, that greed and selfishness are at an all-time high.

I am not trying to imply that working hard to support oneself and family is any less important now than it was at any other time in the past, but am just amazed at how some people have become so ruthless that they lose focus on what’s really important.

At least once a week I am forced to avoid someone who is walking down the street, head down, texting or talking into their smartphone (ironic name, isn’t it?!) or other gadget, coming straight in my direction as if they are the only person on the face of the planet.

My point is, what’s the use of working so hard and becoming so competitive, that it takes away from what is really important in life?

After all, if one doesn’t have their health, then all of the money and material things one possesses in the world will not matter, nor buy true happiness.

Just something to think about for a while.

Or at least until my next blog post!

If you haven’t read my book, “Jew in Jail” yet, I hope you do.

It is chock full of insightful information on how I was able to recover from my past addictions to alcohol, drugs and gambling while incarcerated, and go on to lead a happy and healthful life myself.

http://www.jewinjail.com/

If you or anyone you know is in need of a motivational and inspirational speaker, I sure hope you tell them about me!

In addition, I also always welcome comments from you, my readers, about my blog, book or website, because receiving feedback from you is what drives me to be my best and help others.

Until next time, everyone, have a great day, and week ahead!

Sating the Preta: A Memoir About Emotional Abuse and Recovery from Complex PTSD

GET IT, READ IT, REVIEW IT (please) !! (and share this message, too :)

In this new year, when it's time to reflect and renew ourselves, it may be helpful to think about whether or not you're a victim of emotional abuse and are suffering the pain of its consequences - Complex PTSD.

This book might help you identify causes and symptoms and where to go from here. I hope it can help you begin an important journey to recovery from the devastating damage of trauma.ok mi

From the book description:

Complex PTSD from emotional abuse is an unreported epidemic in the United States. Lily Scot's “Sating the Preta” reveals the intricacies of this disorder through a personal account written in terms easily understood by trauma victims and their loved ones.

According to Scot, in our increasingly anxious society, all of us are vulnerable to Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder as more of us experience psychological trauma first and second hand. For most of us, these are not shocking or violent headline-creating incidents. They are subtle moments of terror in childhood that open us to risk and further emotional abuse in adulthood.

Out of this complex trauma we learn reactions and behaviors used in a psychotic merry-go-round of avoiding or confronting new terrors – Complex PTSD. Too many of us are the product of emotional abuse and Complex PTSD, and too many others its unwitting cause.

In “Sating the Preta: A memoir about Emotional Abuse and Recovery from Complex PTSD,” Scot illustrates how Complex PTSD develops through a personal story translating the dis

order into a treatable problem rather than the unrelieved craziness that victims feel and loved ones witness, setting them on a journey toward recovery, one perhaps similar to the transformation experienced by Scot.

This compelling memoir explores the first years of Scot's life from 1950 to 1980 - three decades of intense cultural change during which perilous and harmful as well as gratifying and amusing personal events inspire her erratic journey. Scot evolves her story through satisfying vignettes offering vibrant impressions of a poignant early childhood, a painful and silent adolescence, a young adulthood fraught with rage and self-destruction and finally an emerging maturity of compassion, forgiveness and remarkable intuition. She writes in an emotional, but not self-involved manner, her self-deprecating humor often as amusing as her observations are sharp and enduring.

This story also suggests that in these troubled times we be more accepting, forgiving and kinder in our judgment of what motivates those we meet. Their behavior may just be a reflection of the tremendous chaos fermenting in their soul from influences over which they had no control.

Altogether now... ready? A one, a two...

You blurb all day
You blurb all night
Blurb, blurb, blurb
Til the early mornin' light.
Hopin' your book
Is the one they'll choose.
And when the sales don't come
You feel like a bum.
You got the Indie Book Promo
Ain't Gonna Do It No Mo'
Welcome To My Pity Party
Somebody Shoot Me Boogie Blues.

The Indie Book Promo Blues
Yeah, it's the Indie Book Promo Blues.
Your precious time you fritter
On Facebook and Twitter
Tryin' hard to spread the news.
Then when no one bites
You turn out the lights
And cry the Indie Book Promo
Ain't Gonna Do It No Mo'
Welcome Tto My Pity Party
Somebody Shoot Me Boogie Blues.

The reason why there are a million (well, okay, only a little over half a million on amazon) "How To" books on the subject of book marketing is because that's what every indie author wants to know. How to? Probably everything you read about the subject in those books is good advice, to some degree or another. Unfortunately, most of it isn't likely to result in a whole lot of sales. Why?

I suspect it probably has something to do with the fact that the market is now saturated to the hilt with books by indie authors. In a single year (2009 to 2010) nearly 3 million indie paperbacks were published (according to an estimate by Bowker's "Books In Print"). That breaks down to about 625,000 books a month! And that's just paperbacks! The number of ebooks published would likely double that amount. And it hasn't slowed down. If anything, the number of independently published books (paperback and ebook) published per year continues to increase.

That being the case, it's almost pointless to spend time promoting your book to a general population of readers. One of the best pieces of advice is to identify a specific target population, people who would be most likely to buy your book if they knew it existed.

 You can find a lot of online sites, forums, groups and book clubs that are dedicated to a specific genre (for example, "Fantasy"). That's great. The only problem, for an author, is that it seems most of such groups are not particularly author friendly. That is, they either flat out don't allow authors to promote their books on the group pages or, if they do allow it, they'll have it set up so that promotions are only allowed in a specific "author promotion" section on the group site. A lot of the groups at goodreads.com are set up like that. That seems like a good idea, right? I mean, I can see the reasoning. If they allowed promos on the discussion pages, we pesky indie authors would invade in droves of Biblical proportion like a plague of locusts. Thing is, it seems most of the group members who aren't authors, (and that's usually the majority) never (or hardly ever) bother to check out the book promotion section. Why? Because most of them still seem to be under the impression that if you self-published your book, it's probably not worth reading. Anyway, the result is that the only people who visit that section are other authors whose primary reason for going to that section isn't to find new books to read. No, they're only there to post a promo blurb for their own book.

  • • •Authors promoting to other authors • • •

That's become the case all over the internet. There are a ton of book-related Facebook groups where authors are encouraged to promote their books but, again, it's just hundreds of authors promoting to other authors whose primary reason for being there isn't to find a good book to read. They're only on that page (for a minute or two) to promote their own book. People who actually want to find a new book to read rarely (if ever) go to one of those Facebook pages.

Of course authors are readers, too. And once in a blue moon, another author will see your promo blurb on Facebook or Twitter and they'll click the link and buy the book. It's rare, but it does happen. I belong to over a dozen book-related Facebook groups and I do post promos at least 2 or 3 times a week on all of those group pages but, honestly, I don't think it does much good. So why do I do it? I guess because at least I feel like I'm doing something!

What about purchasing ad space, like on goodreads.com or Facebook? Some people do get a few sales from those ads. I've tried both but they didn't seem to result in any sales.

What about Twitter? Seems like every author now has a Twitter account. But do promo tweets result in sales? Maybe, once in a while, but the problem with Twitter is that there's no way to know if a sale was the result of having tweeted a promo blurb. There's no way to track that. I use Twitter quite a bit but, to tell you the truth, I think it's probably more of a waste of time than it is an effective sales tool. Again, I think I do it only because it's there and it makes me feel like I'm doing something rather than doing nothing at all.

What about giveaways? I tried the Kindle 5-day free download thing. At the end of the 5 days, nearly 500 copies of my novel (Ash: Return Of The Beast) had been downloaded. I have no idea how many of those 500 people actually read the book after they downloaded it but none of them bothered to post a review on amazon. Getting reviews is really the primary reason for giving the book away in the first place. The more reviews your book has on amazon, the more likely it might attract other readers.

Some people have had better luck with the giveaways but, from what I've heard (from other authors who have tried it), it's not all that effective. Some authors have argued, saying, "Well, at least now my book is being read by hundreds of people!" Well, maybe. What they don't seem to realize is that there are 10s of thousands of people out there who are practically addicted to scarfing up as many free ebooks as possible just because they can. They'll probably never get around to actually reading most of them.

What about personal blogs? I'm pretty much a newbie when it comes to blogging. My blog (www.GaryValTenuta.blogspot.com) has only been in existence for a short time and it's had only a little over 1200 page views. All I know, at this point, is that those 1200+ page views haven't yet translated into a single book sale. But, like I said, I'm still new at this and looking forward to seeing how it goes.

Another suggestion you'll often find in those "How To" books is to "engage in conversations with readers without necessarily promoting your book". The idea is that sooner or later, as people get to know you, they'll want to know more about your books and that will result in sales. Been there, done that (still doing it) and it's not all that effective. Nothing wrong with engaging in online conversations with people who love books but the bottom line is you'll end up investing a LOT of time for very little (if any) actual return in terms of book sales.

So what's an author to do? That's what we ALL want to know. The best advice I can offer is to just do what you can (all of the above) with the realization that it's probably not going to result in a lot of sales. And while you're doing those various promo activities, keep on writing! Get another book out there. Or a series of short stories or novellas. The more books you have available, the better the odds of getting sales. If you have one book available, you might only get 2 sales in a month. But if you have two books available, and two of each are purchased, you've collected royalties on four sales that month, and so on. It takes time for the sales numbers to build up. But as your sales numbers increase (along with the number of reviews), so does the ranking of your books in amazon's system. The higher the ranking the more visible your book will be for people using key words to search for specific kinds of books on amazon.

Of course there's always the possibility that your book contains that undefinable magical "something" that excites the first few readers so much that they tell all their friends they just have to read it, and then it becomes an over-night cultural phenomenon, in which case a big publisher will offer you a ton of money for the rights and you'll no longer have to suffer the Indie Book Promo-Ain't Gonna Do It No Mo'-Welcome-To-My-Pity-Party-Somebody-Shoot-Me- Boogie-Blues.

Shadow Play by Christie Palmer

A small town in the mountains of Marshall, Montana is being plagued by an unknown entity. It’s mutilating and killing the women of the town. At his wits end the Sheriff of Marshall has nowhere to turn but to a friend. A friend, with the abilities to track and kill any prey. 
Ryder doesn’t normally do mortal issues. However, he can’t turn his back on a friend. Besides he is the best at what he does. After all he is a Tracker, an ancient race with unparalleled abilities to track down any prey. With one of the three essential elements: Taste, Touch or Smell. Heartless and cold, Ryder knows what needs to be done and performs his duty without feeling. 
Kyra, an Air Element and the only female Elemental Enforcer, is sent on a fact finding mission to Marshall, by the Druid Council. She needs to find out exactly what is happening in Montana before the Tribunal goes in and kills everyone.
The last thing she expects to find is a Tracker, and is even more surprised to find out that he is on her side. But can they get past their initial feelings upon meeting and the sexual tension? Or will the evil that is living in the mountain kill them both.
Ryder and Kyra must learn to work together to destroy the shadow and save Kyra from a fate worse than death. When pure evil is involved is love enough?

DRONES (The Maliviziati Series) by Johnny Ray

Matalina heads the elite special forces of Baltonia, a small country near Switzerland, and where the Maliviziati maintain their secret society that opposes the Illuminati’s various splinter groups that want to create a new world order. While she directs the most powerful special operatives in the world, she is very capable of going solo when needed. She was bred like her parents and theirs before to be the best warrior in the world. Unfortunately, her chosen mate, Bjorn, has turned against them, killing her sister in the process. She loved him earlier, and perhaps she still does. Still, when she finds him, she will kill him. 
When a new faction attempts to release drones in America, Matalina has to respond to keep this from playing into the hands of those wanting to create a new world order. She soon learns that the leader of this group is one of Bjorn’s operatives, Mario, a guy she should kill, but he is also the one person she needs to take alive to be able to locate Bjorn. With mercenaries flown in from Columbia to help this terrorist faction which was formed out of Afghanistan, this novel circles the globe as many players fight for eventual control of the world.

Defeat Foreclosure by William Dorich

Defeat Foreclosure was writtren by California Realtor William Dorich and Trial lawyer, Merle Horwitz in easy to understand language that applies to home owners in every state.

Millions of Americans are in foreclosure and many have already loss their homes. But new evidence has been exposed regarding the sleazy way some lenders and mortgage holders have repossessed property. On 60 Minutes recently the "Robo signed documents" issue was revealed... a process in which millions of documents since 2001 have been signed by computers without a single page of these documents being read and reviewed. Meanwhile, millions of homes have been bundled and sold as investments on Wall Street. 

It the lender cannot provide you with the legal copy of the NOTE you signed then they do not have the right to send you a Default Notice or seize your property... imagine a million homes sold to Wall Street investors... just think about it, who owns the NOTE? A million investors can't foreclose on you. The courts have been slow in defending the legal rights of homeowners who are being denied due process. BUT... "The chickens have come home to roost," as the saying goes.

Defeat Foreclosure... you will learn some Real Estate Magic that can help you save your home.

Dear Prudence by Amanda Grieme

An eccentric psycho-med guinea pig masked behind a guise of beauty and eloquence, Ana is plagued by confusion due to her bipolar/schizo-affective disorder. With her secrets recorded in unsent letters stored in her coveted backpack, she feels that the only way to let her loved ones live life to the fullest is to take herself out of the equation.

But as she makes her escape from a Rhode Island State Hospital and begins her journey toward the crystal blue waters of the Florida Keys and her romantic demise, Ana is unaware that there are other forces at work. An angelic guide assigned by the universal weaver to Ana hovers just an inch above her reality, helping or hindering her as she goes, depending on what is needed.

Is Ana’s life just a knot in Mother Fate’s tapestry or is it something more?

The Starlight Club by Joe Corso

Trenchie not being a “rat” is just released from his ten year prison sentence. A new life is waiting – complete with envelopes of money and a steak house to call his own. He finds the woman of his dreams who brings along ex-husband baggage. Hit man Jimmy The Hat finds unexpected fame in the most unlikely of places, yet he always stays true to the “boys”, especially Big Red. “Crazy Joey Gallo” and his brothers break away from the Profaci family and go “rogue, on their own now. They split their gang into several small groups and spread them out over the five boroughs.”

Price of Justice by Alan Brenham

His focus is on solving the murders--until the unthinkable happens...
Recently widowed, Austin Police Detective Jason Scarsdale works to solve the murders of two pedophiles, while trying to be both mother and father to his five-year-old daughter. During his investigation, Scarsdale is forced to navigate between the crosshairs of two police commanders out to get him. Drawn to Austin Police Crime Analyst, Dani Mueller, who has also suffered tragedy, Scarsdale fights both his attraction and his suspicions that something just isn't right...

She is hiding a secret, one that could not only cost her a job--it could end her life...
Dani hides a deadly past. After her daughter was brutally murdered, Dani exacted her revenge then changed her name and fled to Austin. But if her secret ever gets out, she knows there is no place she can hide from the murderer's vicious family.

Pulled into a web of malice and deceit, Scarsdale and Dani discover the value of breaking the rules. Then just when they thought things couldn't get worse...they do.

Until Tomorrow Comes by LaDonna Marie

Author LaDonna Marie wants to introduce through her poetry a journey of growth and awareness with different life experiences. She shares her poetry in efforts to spark reflections and enlighten the reader on your own journey as well. Look inside and answer these questions. Are you feeling lost in some areas of your life? Are you on the verge of giving up? Are you seeking to become stronger and independent? Are you seeking a deeper connection in your spirituality? In answering these questions you may find some come instantly and some may take time. So Until Tomorrow Comes let’s approach each a day with a positive outlook while finding yourself.

Marvelous afterlife. Paranormal experiences of a medium photographer. (Afterlife - Paranormal stories) by Philippe de Sequr

Phillipe de Ségur has always seen ghosts, but he had to nearly die before he found his true vocation as an effective and successful medium. 
Now called the ‘Medium-Photographer’ by television presenters, he saw his first dead person while still a boy. 
Had it not been for his own near-death experience in his early 40s, this ghost hunter might have continued in the safe but confining life of a French civil servant. Instead, he lost his fear of death and found his 'real' purpose, the missing element of his life. 
In Marvelous Afterlife, he explains that he needed that brush with death to help him understand the reason for his existence and place his ‘sixth sense’ at the service of humanity. 
When photos he took at a séance included orbs of glowing light, de Ségur discovered his ability to photograph spirit entities. 
Calling himself a rational man who believes only in what he can see, de Ségur says technical advancements in sound and photography could help expand the little understanding the average person has about the paranormal. 
In ‘Marvellous Afterlife’, he shares with you his experiences and ‘paranormal adventures’ in haunted château and houses.

Fundamentals of the Yoruba Religion (Orisa Worship) by Chief FAMA 

Fundamentals of the Yoruba Religion (Orisa Worship) is a guide for those who humbly dare to seek the truth, and want to serve in the Yoruba Religion as Olodunmare meant it to be. It is a response to all priests and priestesses who wish to enrich, increase, and clarify their knowledge of the true Ifa/Orisa worship within the Yoruba tradition. With this commendable book, Iya FAMA is a spiritual inspiration for all of us.

The Three Kitties That Saved My Life by Michael Meyer

Evidence of Insanity by Carol Piner

This is the story of a girl born the baby child of two wildly unprepared parents. Kick-ass Mama and a Daddy who never met a moral he liked. She was born, slightly squashed, because her Mama rammed her Daddy's car because he had a stench in it. That, my friends, was only the start of it. Born a certified disaster magnet she was never able to get it quite right.

9 Incarnate by Gary Starta 

In 9 INCARNATE Egypt’s great gods and goddesses arrive by comet bringing hope of unity and secrets of the pyramids. However, the beloved Isis isn’t among the Arrivals and preternatural investigator Caitlin Diggs begins hearing the goddess in her head. Could Diggs’s previous exposure to a crystal artifact substantiate the belief that Isis has stored her essence on Earth and consequently now shares her human body? 
Perplexed, Diggs turns to a scientist to explain the Arrivals, not to mention the weirdness which includes a coinciding mass disappearance and assassination of the president. Diggs surmises the deities may be preparing a new Egypt until a lethal threat of global warming emerges. More perplexing, is her co-alignment with Isis an alliance or hindrance? Diggs may have to make the ultimate sacrifice if she is to keep Egypt’s past from ending Earth’s future, and all the while maintain her integrity.

Detox, Big Time!Stop fatigue, pain, weight problems...11 guidelines for Boundless health. by Caroline Benson

In Detox, Big Time! you'll also discover: 

• A recap chart with numerous examples of recipes and food rotations.

The Fourth Conspiracy by Thomas Thorpe

William Darmon and his wife Elizabeth, owners of Mayfair Hall, fall victim to rival Forth family who introduce a bill into Parliament called the Writ of Confiscation. It will repossess the Darmon's ancestral home unless they can find their missing deed. A late family friend hid the document on a trip to Egypt decades earlier, leaving a clue to its location only visible in the night sky of 1825. As the Darmons begin to unravel the mystery, a Forth body turns up on their doorstep. William and brother-in-law, Charles set off for the Mediterranean only to be waylaid by Greek independence fighters on the eve of a massive Egyptian invasion. William's escape finds him stranded in the Sahara far behind Forth members attempting to destroy his property title. Historically accurate events provide non-stop suspense.

AMEN to ROT by Bryce Bentley Summers

Waking up one morning to find yourself buried is bad enough. But to have amnesia, believe you may be hungry for human flesh, and find out that you’re a grotesque ugly creature, can be somewhat overwhelming. 

Journey with Amen as he discovers his world is inhabited by Undead, and is confused to learn it also has strange alien creatures, who appear to be helping the Undead. 

In this climatic end, we feel Amen's confusion, as he must decide whether he truly desires human flesh, or not.

Female Adventurers: The Women Who Helped Colonize Massachusetts and Connecticut by Alice Plouchard Stelzer

The dozen unsung heroines profiled in "Female Adventurers who Helped Colonize Connecticut," are representative of all the courageous women who left comfort behind and migrated into a wilderness. Readers will gain insight into the commitment that their foremothers made and the challenges they encountered while building a civilized foundation that allowed future generations to pursue their religious beliefs without persecution.

Not Forgotten by Donna Zadunajsky 

Twenty-six years later, Deanna Iris and her son move back to the town she grew up in, back where her secret began and where her life changed forever. 
Unpacking boxes, she receives a call from Officer Bates stating that her sister and son were in a car accident and are in critical condition. Upon arriving at Mendota Community Hospital, she is approached by Officer Bates, who takes her in to see them. 
Sitting with her son Brent, who is unconscious, and her sister Shelia, who suffers from a head injury and is in a coma, Deanna meets their doctor for the first time. Is it Dr. Sheldon’s face that reminds her of someone she knew? Could it be possible that her dead daughter from twenty-six years ago could now be alive? 
After meeting with a friend who knew about her secret and who is later found murdered, Deanna receives a note in her mailbox telling her to get out of town before what happened to her friend will happen to her. What transpired all those years ago and who is this mysterious woman she sees as she drives by her sister’s house? Will Deanna ever allow herself to be loved? Or will searching for the answers to her past lead to her death?

Hurricane Hole (#2- Romantic Mystery Sailing Trilogy) by R.P. Dahlke

Marooned in Baja, Mexico, a Chechen arms dealer is waiting for the right diver to retrieve the deadly cargo lying at the bottom of the Sea of Cortez. But when Leila Hunter Standiford, on hiatus from her TV contract happens to admire a handsome captain aboard a beautiful vintage Alden, she doesn't realize the boat will soon burn to the water line, or that a dead body will be found below, or that the captain has been carefully selected as the sacrificial diver for the cargo, or that meeting the captain will forever change her life.

Above The Law 360 by Jibril Mohammed

This book is an inspirational about the understanding of the world religious Scriptures. The terms that commonly understood by all the religious sects especially the Bible, the Quran, Hindu and Buddhist Scriptures. World leaders always talk about peace and unity but it can be acquired only by understanding the will and the testament of God to His creatures. By reading this we will witness the hidden truth ourselves, then the choice is ours to make.
This Book is dedicated to the citizens of the world’s six continents.
The world is filled with confusion, turmoil, uprisings, revolutions and war without end. It is high time we found out what was wrong, and got a solution to all these problems. Looking closely, it is evident that at the centre of our mishaps is our confusion about our own faith in the Lord, which is the first and precious thing in the life of mankind. Coming together under one umbrella of belief will help us seek the truth about God, what are the real commandments, the truth about Jesus Christ and what he said, especially tangible proofs from the Scriptures, and which religion is the true religion of God for mankind and how we split into sects? What is the real story of St. Paul, Constantine the Prince of Byzantine, who is the founder of Christianity, what is Islam? Who is Muhammad? And what proves him to be a Prophet from God? I think every individual needs to know these things to make their own choices.

All My Tomorrows by Kathleen Sherwood

After arriving in Kentucky, Alexa settles into a new house and a new job, and unexpectedly finds herself reaching out to her new landlord, Cole Jamison, for comfort and friendship. Although reluctant at first, the eligible young rancher, who has been waiting patiently for God to bring the right woman into his life, discovers soon that he is more than willing to console the grieving woman. Alexa finds solace and companionship in Cole, but will the painful memories of Alexa's past resurface to threaten their newfound love? Filled with loveable characters, unexpected twists and turns, and a beautifully written love story, All My Tomorrows is a tender story of forgiveness, healing, and the touch of God's hand.

Taking Vengeance (A Tale of the Far Isles Half-Elven) by M.K. Theodoratus

Half-Elven parents on the rampage. When sea raiders attack their daughter, Mariah and Ashton seek vengeance. 


Fighting and chaos are no strangers to Mariah. Four hundred years after the Half-Elven Rebellion, turmoil has worn her down. But she must face her problems alone. Ashton, her ring-mate, has gone spying on their southern enemies. She fights with Linden, the ruler and Ashton's brother and her former lover, constantly. Tired of the bickering, she seeks a peaceful life as a healer.


When sea raiders attack her daughter's family, Mariah falls apart. Ashton feels her distress and uses his elf magic to return to the Marches. He urges her to go hunting for vengeance against the killers. Only they discover a strange new magic that threatens all she holds dear.

Shumbachena: White Lion by Nicholas Stanton

October, in Southern Africa. 
What a month to be out in the bush. This time of the year was known as, the suicide month due to the extremely high temperatures and the corresponding rate of people taking their lives. 
The sweltering heat makes your sweat attract bugs of all sorts, some stinging your skin. The heat haze lifting from the dry, cracking, baked earth reminds you that you are in an extremely harsh environment, one that is not to be underestimated. Through the haze, everything around you shimmers in the day light; the trees swayed, and not from the breeze , the rocks shifted , and all the shadows appeared as though they are watching you. 
The light, burning winds move through the tall golden, dry, tick infested grasses of the vlei. Breathing in this hot air is like breathing in liquid fire. Your sweat runs between your shirt and back and trickles uncomfortably into your trousers. Everything you wear clings to your body and feels damp and humid. 
In the distance, I can hear the constant cooing of the bush dove. The local people say that the dove is calling out to them saying. “You have harvested all the corn and I am suffering from hunger, where is the corn.” 
I am Adrian Riley and I am riding through the bush on my horse, tracking poachers. This might sound exciting; and it is to a certain extent, but it is also very deadly. The chances of being wounded or even killed are very high. However, I have been doing this for quite a few years now and I really enjoy working in the bush. The incessant insect noise is comforting as it reminds you all is well. Butterflies flit about with not a care in their little world and the bush flies land and take off constantly, their buzz adding continuously in your ears. The dry earth kicks up a fine red mist as the hooves of the horses disturb it and the swishing of their tails tells you that the flies are just as annoying to them as they are to me. 
I am employed by the ‘Save the Rhino’ campaign and I take my job very seriously. I have been forced to harshly deal with poachers before and will do so again if they try to kill my fellow rangers or me. 
If you were to meet up with me now you would see me as an unshaven and unwashed mad English man out in the African sun. While we are out tracking, we do not have the luxury of being able to wash. The reasons, well not enough water and without the scent of the wild the poachers would smell us a mile away. It wasn’t pleasant but it saved lives. 
There are five of us on this trek; myself, Tawanda, Farai, Sixpence and Joseph.

The title says it all in this collection by Paul A. Toth. New York Times journalist and A Southern Yankee blogger Dan Newland has this to say in his pre-publication review: "These stories are a veritable showcase for the concise and subtle craft of a sort of 'watchwork' writer whose faux aloofness belies a raging zest for life and minutely detailed attention to the people and places around him, which borders on the obsessive, while investing profound empathy in every line he writes."

And this from friend, Nashville genius writer, and editor of The 2nd Hand, home to many of my stories: "The veracity of the facts of this recollection are lost to time, but it's no matter, the book he's asked me to introduce here is one of those story collections that, if history is kind, I'd wager will resonate years, decades, centuries hence itself, well beyond whatever fall is in store for each and every one of us near- and/or long-term to turn us all into refugees in our own right."

So with far more humility than that paragraph invites, I say to editors, "This is a collection as relevant as its title. Here it is, relevance, and that's what I've always meant to offer. Something that adheres to these times and not the mediocre nostalgia that steams from the MFA factory chimneys."

The Son of God stood up from his throne and began to speak. The violins in the background continued unabated.
    "Do you feel powerful now? What do you think of your puny powers you've used to build yourself up in your own eyes? Do you still feel wise in your values clarifications? Can you create your own morality apart from us? Can you know The One by looking in the mirror? Can any being that has to eat truly be a God? Can pluralism, tolerance, and freedom from morality find limitless life? Where are your unlimited potentials? Where are your enlightenments, your all-encompassing diversity, your powers, higher consciousness, and evolutionary spiritual ascensions that you glorified instead of we who constructed you? Will your self-actualization, self-realization, multiculturalisms, and collective consciousness mantras lead you to the divine? Do you really think your intelligence and beliefs are really the last words?
    "Where are your pantheisms, positive aspirations, enlightened masters, self-evolutions, your divine nature, and your so-called spiritual evolution? Who here can keep alive his own soul, make their own food, or land to simply stand on? Are we intolerant because we have the monopoly on truth? Can there be many paths to us? You must learn truth is not an airy concept; it is a pronoun, a person, The One. Can the sum total of your voluminous verbiage ever make us liars? Can you will your eyes to see through this brightness, or breathe one more breath than we willed you to inhale?
    “You are fools, for you threw away a whole life style of absolute luxury, peace, love, and brotherhood, for the putrid dung pile. You threw away this Heaven and universe with eyes wide open for the bloody hell that is to come. All the circle of life you shed tears for instead of your brothers are dead. Now after you have caused this incredible folly, can you tell me you are good as you struggle against all external yokes? Tell me, what place will there be before you, and how will you live without a universe? Likewise, you cannot live without the love of The One. For verily I say, all will walk through the valley of the shadows and death before your coals are accepted in The Great Cauldron of The One again."
    Yahshua paused within the nuclear brightness choosing his words carefully. He sensed total chaotic fright, panic germinating inferno fierce from both sides of the demarcation. And he held his head down feeling great love for these numbers of life he constructed. Though he knew it had to be like this, it was hard. This was the foreordained and the unstoppable. But it gave him great sorrow. For as he stood here in the present, passing this judgment on all creation, the innocent and the guilty, it did not change the sadness he felt. The three who were The One dreaded this day. Yahshua turned and looked at his Father sadly, and then continued.
    "We are unable to destroy so many of our children who richly deserve our wrath. Many being misled have slipped down the slippery slope of betrayal. And many feeling burning shame would rather die than face us again. We decided rather than to kill or destroy; there must be a better way of melding repentance and reconciliation. Even though you are intimately familiar with death, you have no experience with in dealing with evil. For if you did, you'd know there is no moderate middle ground that gives rest, for there is either evil and death or righteousness and life.
    "And many have taken the path of the middle thinking erroneously, self-discipline, moral self-righteousness, and good intentions could be an acceptable substitute for the love and brotherhood we aspired in all. And because of this ignorance some of you thought, just like the addicts, you could put one toe into its dark waters without completely falling in, overwhelmed, compromised, and drowned.
"All the universes and galaxies have ceased to exist. There is no Heaven, Laviah Zoo, or light outside these walls. In fact, we are not even on Terra anymore. The Great House of The One has moved outside time and space, for we have fully destroyed everything we have constructed rather than let one number of life die needlessly who might contain the feeblest spark of repentance.
    "Because of your perfidy and wanting Luciah, a number of life to rule over you, we will give you your wish. All numbers of life will be born again out of your indestructible shell into a weak vessel composed of flesh. You will awake as a new construction in the circle of life. We who are The One are doing this for three reasons.
    "One is so you will know and experience death personally without its finality. You couldn't do this as numbers of life. You will get sick having all the aliments the circle of life experiences. And as you slowly wither in sickness, and death, some inner part of you will long for the love of The One. And you will try many systems to substitute for our rule, but all will fail. You will learn there is no goodness in any soul except through us. And you will learn this truth the hard way, as you are blinded by injustice and drowned in the callousness of those who rule over you.
    "The second reason is so you will be able to experience evil totally and intimately. You will see how your own kind will treat you, those whom have always been family. You will live in a world that does not want know your name. Your leaders will be evil children gleefully clapping their hands at your suffering. You will not be safe in your nation, your house, or in the wilderness. You will work by the sweat of your brow just to simply survive. The brotherhood you have thrown away here with eyes wide open, you will desire again as you live in a world full of deadly strangers. With fear, you will walk your world because you did not accept the peace of mind you were freely given here. You will experience this so that you may compare the lifestyle you have given up here, to that you had in the flesh.
    "And thirdly, you will be ruled by Luciah and his children, as many wanted in this life. You can then hopefully make a decision so simple that it boggles our imagination there is any discussion of the answer. The only question is will you choose life or death. And through this process, you will see what kind of world you will build without the totality of The One. Look to your left and right. See how he will treat you. You will be able to see with clarity what truly dwells in the deepest part of all numbers without the love of The One.
    "You will have no remembrance of where you came from or what you truly are. You will be born innocent, the same soul but a different shell, to make the choices you should have made here. Is it life or death, peace or war, luxury or poverty, endless strangers or endless brotherhood? And after the fullness of time and the ending of passing of numbers through the circle of life, and the emptying of the Well of Souls, there will be a thousand year kingdom. It will be for teaching those who failed in the flesh to do what is right. And by this last millennial kingdom of the second Universe of God, everyone will possess the full memories of all the prior eternities in conjunction with the memories of your fleshly existence. We desire all to know truth and rise from the ashes of their past failures, to be pleasing to us by desiring to be with us forever.
    "In the last days many will not have a chance to learn for we will blind them for their own good, except for my Elect. That seeing they may see and not perceive; and hearing they may hear and not understand; lest at any time they should be converted, and their sins should be forgiven them. This is so no one may lose their souls and the promised eternities because of what they did in the flesh out of ignorance. It would defeat our purpose for anyone to become eternally damned because of the flesh.
"This is our rationale; we desire none to perish but want all to come to full understanding of the truth of The One. We have no one else but you. We want everyone to return successful. You will learn exactly what Luciah is about, for he will demonstrate fully the love he has for you as you intimately see his deeds, works, and fruits of his hand.
    "We will create the construction some wanted so badly in the numbers of life construction. And that shall be a female. And from umbilical cord to umbilical cord, all thirteen billion of you will go through the second universe. This first Universe of God is forever finished. I reiterate the obvious; we will not have any dogs biting us in our house. And as we have said so many times, the breath and great expanses of all creation is our house. And after your voyage through in the flesh age, if you still feel like growling and baring your teeth at us, then walk proudly into the lake of fire and die.
    "We will not make it mandatory to be born again. Those who refuse will embrace eternal death. It is our way or the highway. As a sovereign, we have bent over backwards, to ensure you will live with us in the third and final Universe of God. You must be reborn from a number of life into a human being to gain eternal life; you must be born again.
    "Human beings will call the numbers of life Angels. And very few will understand the obvious connection between the numbers of life and them. For in the final analysis, whether flesh or the indestructible, you are the same fellow servants of God and our beloved children. This is the bond between the circle of life and the numbers of life you have been unable to see here. As flesh, you will not be able to discern your true heritage, your true beginnings, or your innate preciousness to The One. You will languish trying to figure what you are in the grand scheme of things. The greatest interrogatives pondered are 'where did I come from, and why am I here'. Everything will be vanity. Your flesh will be your worst enemy - a new intelligent couch. It will have desires and needs you will not be able to understand fully now. It will constantly war against your soul.
    “You will grow old and wrinkled, feeble, and turn back into the dust, full of pains. You will be weak in your frame, easily broken, but mighty in your intellect. All will be submerged in the marketing of evil, and mourn the precious gems of simple goodness and family. And the question asked for a thousand generations will be the most stupid - 'what is the meaning of life?' The true answer will always be rejected. The meaning of life is responsibility to your Creator…

We are now two weeks into 2014, and it is a good time to gauge where you are, as far as new year’s resolutions are concerned.

Millions of people vow to start each year by working out, eating healthy, quitting smoking, etc., but the majority give up on those commitments.

Why is this so?

Well, I am certainly no expert, but can only speak for myself.

First of all, I don’t even make any new year’s resolutions, because, quite frankly, I live the way I want to all throughout the year, and, therefore, don’t need to start doing anything from scratch from day one.

That is not to say that I have my “house in order” completely, but do by best to live the right way on a daily basis.

Perhaps it is because I spent nearly six years behind bars from 1998 to 2004, and do not want to chance returning to the negative lifestyle that I was involved in for so long back then, and now always maintain my focus on my top priorities in life.

Exercising, healthy eating, waking up with a smile on my face, and being grateful for where I am now in my life, are just a few of the constants that continue to keep me grounded and content these days.

Writing this blog, maintaining my sobriety, and delivering motivational & inspirational speeches to help others in their recovery, or anyone not living up to their full potential, are things I began doing once I came home from prison, and have truly become almost as important to me as breathing, since they are my personal ingredients for a happy, productive life.

Now, back to you, my readers.

For those of you who have made new year’s resolutions, and are now having a tough time keeping them, here’s some advice from me.

You might want to start off slow, rather than bite off more than you could chew.

For exercise, try walking a block every day for a week, and then each time after that, increase your distance by small increments until you arrive at a satisfying mark. If you feel that your stamina has built up to a good level, then by all means begin jogging.

As far as eating healthy, start your day off with a nutritious breakfast that will keep you full and energized until lunchtime.

Consuming a lunch that is high in protein will insure that you won’t get hungry and have to grab that unhealthy candy bar at around 2:00 in the afternoon.

For dinner, have a sensible meal that will carry you over to breakfast the following morning, including vegetables and a piece of fruit as a snack.

I find that drinking water all throughout the day not only keeps me away from binging on chocolate and chips, but also does wonders for the skin.

If you are a smoker – and I hope you are not – then quitting this nasty habit could very well be the toughest task of your entire life.

However, like anything and everything else, you have the power and the choice to accomplish this!

You weren’t born to lag behind anyone else in the world.

You are a winner and role model to others.

So, start to shine like the star you are!

Mystical, Magical or Reality? New Caitlin Diggs reviewed!

When I began writing Caitlin Diggs's fourth novel, 9 Incarnate, I was fascinated with the idea of gods and aliens. Many who are familiar with Ancient Aliens are aware of the theories which propose aliens were mistaken by primitive cultures to be gods. Could this be the case with ancient Egypt? It would seem some kind of divine intervention or magic was cultivated to bring about one of the wonders of the world, the pyramids.

Could these magestic structures be the work of sole humans without the aid of precision capable tool making to not only cut the blocks perfectly but lift what appears to have been blocks of stone weighing megatons into place?

The answer may be contained in the pages of 9 INCARNATE when Agent Caitlin Diggs explores the mystery of the ancient world via the arrival of the Ennead, a group of gods claiming to be the ancient divine nine of Egypt. Well, except of course for Isis, who appears to have been residing within Caitlin due to a strange incident with a crystal.

The Wiccan FBI Agent Briana McFadden and fringe scientist Claude Brahms often spar in this book, each arguing for magic and science. McFadden believes nature was manipulated by the gods whereas Brahms believes the manipulation is only possible because of physics. In other words, blocks of stone didn't float into place by magical spells but because someone manipulated gravity via vibration.

I hope you'll come along for this crazy ride into Earth's past, present and probable future in 9 INCARNATE. See the first review below.

5 stars A very original fun read January 8, 2014 By Sheri A. Wilkinson

'Very original story line, I loved it! Caitlin Diggs is a preternatural investigator. She is investigating a murder and hears a voice in her head. She finds that she is one with the Goddess Isis. With the help of her friend Briana they set out to solve the crime and the mystery the Egyptian pyramids hold.

A fun read. I loved the blend of Egyptian Gods/Goddesses with the mortal world. Also the mystery and the originality of the story line. Caitlin was very likable, the situation she was put in, and the way she handled it was fascinating to watch unfold. A well written story I find all will enjoy.'

http://www.amazon.com/9-Incarnate-Gary-Starta-ebook/dp/B00HMZRU4A/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1389052608&sr=1-1&keywords=9+Incarnate

Here is a short teaser from my latest novel…coming soon!

…a shadow came and caused chaos across the land. No one knows where it came from. It passed over the valleys, through the villages, across the rivers and over the mountains. As the shadow passed, it whispered. Whispers were heard in peoples’ homes, causing troubles to stir between family members. Husbands fought with wives, Mothers with daughters and fathers with their sons. Brothers fought and sisters envied each other.

Whispers were heard amongst traders and others breeding dishonesty and mistrust. Butchers, Bakers, and fresh food stalls sold yesterday’s wares at today’s prices. Rooms in the inn were not looked after properly, stale ale was being served, and other drinks watered down.

Whispers echoed from the mountains and arguments broke out between goblins and men over laws of passage and the fairness of trade. The trolls tried to keep out of it, but whispers flowed along the riverbeds and they squabbled over shiny coins. They also found themselves beset by goblins and other folk claiming they asked too much because of their greed.

The unicorn prevented many skirmishes at first but soon, it all began to get out of hand and she lost her influence among the inhabitants of Geo. Everyone stopped listening to her as whisperings about her longing to control everything and claim the villages, the rivers and the mountains as her own became common knowledge.

The land of Geo was beset with disharmony and war started to brew between goblins, trolls and men with each race blaming the other for the discord that was ripe across the land.

Each race began treating the unicorn as an outcast for she differed from them all and they each believed that she sided against them. The trolls believed she was all for the people, the people believed she was all for the goblins and the goblins believed she was all for the trolls. They all believed she was using them to gain more power and control.

The unicorn, completely overwhelmed by all the troubles called for advice from beyond…

est. 2010 All Mystery newsletter got started because as an author of mysteries, I got tired of getting stuck between vampires and memoir. Our motto is " No vampires allowed unless they solve crime in their spare time." This colorful, linked newsletter goes out twice a week to  fans of mystery and suspense, then stays on our home page until the next newsletter rolls over it. Authors also get tweets, RT's, Facebook (2 pages one group)  and Google+  and Pinterest posts. Authors are encouraged to join and post book news at our active group of writers, readers, reviewers on our Yahoo and Good Reads Groups. What's the cost? In 2014, it's absolutely nothing, nada, zip, zilch.

Take a look at the links below:

Author information page: http://allmysteryenewsletter.com/author-information-form/

Home page: http://allmysteryenewsletter.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/DirtCheapMysteryReads/

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/allmysteryenewsletter/

Group at Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/154260248108118/

Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/allmysterynews/boards/

Yahoo Group (join up and talk to readers/bloggers/reviewers:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/allmysteryenewsletter/?yguid=185161871

Good Reads Group: http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/42847.All_Mystery_e_newsletter           

Twitter handle: @allmysteryenews  and @DIRTCHEAPMYST For RT's Add: #amenl

About The Wizard, The Girl, and The Unicorn’s Horn

(A Synopsis)

This story takes us to the land of Geo which is a relatively small island where farmers, simple towns folk, goblins and trolls live in relative harmony. The land is shepherded by a wizard whose main role is to keep the peace and harmony by travelling throughout the land every year resolving any developed disputes along the way.

Normally this is a relatively easy job for the wizard and no one even remembers him having to perform any magic or put spells on anyone or anything to keep the peace. But then one day, all the simple folk disappear and there is a shadow lurking over the last mountain.

What are the goblins and trolls going to do without people to trade with?  What is lurking in the shadow over the last mountain? Who is the little girl that magically appears and what has the unicorn’s horn got to do with any of the goings on?

More importantly, will the wizard be able to defeat the shadow and get the simple folk back?  In order to find out, one must read: The Wizard, The Girl and The Unicorn’s Horn.

y choice of science fiction is intimately related to my late blooming as a fiction writer. Science fiction and fantasy books belonged to my youth. I abandoned them when I became a “responsible adult.”

As a result, my inner writer still thinks she is twenty-something.

It is not happenstance that most of the characters in both WARNING and CEL & ANNA are young. In the follow-up novel, which I will probably release in episodes,  I  regress even further: the main character is a teenager.

I guest blog on why I write science fiction at Debra Eve’s excellent website Later Bloomer.

Falling in love is a wonderful and magical experience between two people. The chemistry is strange and sometimes very complicated. The experience divers in many ways but the commonest are happiness, restlessness and strong emotions. However; falling in love doesn’t always guarantees a successful marriage or living together.

Frankly speaking, according to statistics many are getting divorce more than getting together.

To build and support successful marriage or relationships, many partners read books written as a guide to happy marriage. Despite hundreds of books counseling couples, lovers are constantly in pain, emotionally and psychologically affected by painful love affairs. The causes of divorces or separations vary, lack of attention, sex, cheating, quarrels, financial matters and others. However; few things many never thought of as destroyer of marriages is lack of cooking at home and lack of prevention of early sex in teenage relationship.

Many couples friendship began at school as teenagers before they settled. In principle, it is always good for people to study and know each other very well, before entering into relations or love affairs. But on moral issue entering into relationships as teenagers isn’t a wise thing to do. Children as young as thirteen and fourteen indulged in caressing and kissing. This is seen as normal in advanced countries but in Africa it is not permitted.

Most of these early relationships end up in separate ways or settle together. When they finally get married, the love isn't strong as before. That’s where the problems begin. In this case the marriage doesn't go far. Why? The reason is simple and logical. Both have seen their nakedness too much as teenagers to the extent that they no longer value their precious bodies as adults. No happiness and the essence of enjoying a happy relationship is completely ruined.

Here the dignity and the worthiness of the woman have been neglected by the man. It is always the man that causes the breakup because he wants something new. Many start to cheat and stayed late at work in illicit love affairs. A woman or man may find the real happiness in life, marriage, living together or in relationships, when they enter into love affairs as adults, than as teenagers.

Any man or woman who doesn’t know how to cook before getting into a relationship or marriage may not fully enjoy the relationship. There is always a guarantee for a happy marriage when one of the partners knows how to cook but if both can’t cook means the marriage have a bleak future. Imagine a family depending always on fast and tin foods. How would a husband feel after a day’s hard work, comes home to sit behind the dining table and be served with tin spaghetti with that marshy tomato sauce? Many enjoy that but that’s health hazard.

A man facing such situation may never be happy. Some may speak against it but many hide the way they feel when upset. Since he can’t live with that any longer he starts to seek his interest in other places. That’s where the cheating starts. If the one he is seeing can provide him those delicious meals he is missing from his previous partner, the relationship automatically comes to end.

It is therefore very essential for both men and women to learn or know how to cook before getting into a relationship or marriage. Getting familiar with cooking isn’t a difficult issue. There are thousands of books and adult schools for cooking. Time factor is always an issue. Many may not have the time to go to a cooking school after work. Here a cooking book is very useful.

Just follow the instructions on how to cook and next you see the delicious meal on the dining table. You may not be perfect at your first attempt but remember practice makes man perfect. Besides, cultivating the habit of cooking at home saves a lot of money. I am happily married for the past twenty years. When my wife is busy at work, I do the cooking for the children. This is the only way to share the secrets of why our marriage is stronger than ever. I am a very good cook besides my writing career.

By Pat O'Regan

I’ve run the gamut in writing – novels, short stories, plays, essays, profiles – but, as a way of attracting attention, I’ll focus on just two works. One of the novels concerns the life and art of a professional outdoor photographer. Photography, of course, is a very common expression of the artistic impulse we all share. Who hasn’t looked through a viewfinder and been thrilled at the sight? Or gazed upon a photo and thought, “Maybe I was lucky, but I’ve taken a great shot!” In the context of the love and struggle of Peter Donnelly, professional photographer, Shadows of the Past shows the artist in all of us. This is me, the reader would think, for I’ve been overcome by beauty, too. Add to this a love story and a struggle with the family of origin and you have the world of Peter Donnelly, and the reader. This novel has been professionally edited to exacting (and expensive) standards.

The other work I might single out is a play on the Vietnam War. I’ve not yet seen this conflict, so embedded in the American Soul, covered on stage. What is the experience of young guys in combat? What does war do to them? Truly, war enriches people’s lives – when it doesn’t drive them mad or kill them. Having been in combat in Vietnam, I know something about the experience. I’ve seen buddies killed or wounded, many driven to the brink of endurance, mentally and physically. Basically, an anti-war play, every line of FDC has dramatic content, rising to the keenest pitch of excitement and despair in its portrayal of the grinding shocks and burdens of war as it assaults the hearts of young men. From curtain to curtain, an audience would be captivated. I staged a reading of FDC (Fire Direction Control: the hut in which most of the action of the play takes place) recently. There was no lack of energy in my living room that night. I would do whatever I could to help with the production of this work. Somebody would make a lot of money with this play.

All art is born of conflict and every artist is beset with it. Love in the context of pain or hate. We can know a lot about others by the great love in their lives. Mine is literature. I was raised by a father who loved alcohol. It brought him relief from the shame of having been abused. My mother, God bless her, loved her motor home (which my father hated, by the way, as did I. It was the only thing we had in common.). When I was young, I tried to end my life – a thing of no value to me, whatsoever – in the mundane way of getting lost in the woods in the dead of winter. But I couldn’t manage it. I got lucky – three times – stumbling out of the woods just as the sun was setting and the woods was becoming black as pitch. I stumbled, instead, into a teaching position at a small parochial college, where I did the work of two or three medical students, and where, for all my efforts, the nuns colluded to steal part of my meagre salary (by putting me on the salary scale lower than I should have been). Oh, the memories to write about! And I did. My novel about that college is called Mater Dei, which means Mother of God, the name of the college.

After the college (now, alas and predictably, defunct), burned out, I turned to writing for business. Unbeknownst to me at the time – or who could stand it? – often I was the only one in sight getting any actual writing done. This did not, of course, exempt me from being utterly taken for granted and treated disparagingly. Of course, I did not realize this at the time – or who could stand it? – and I am not saying that this is unique. You, too, are taken for granted. Besides, who’s complaining? I made a living, and I’m still here. Furthermore, is not all this turmoil the stuff of a writing life? The novel based on my life is called The Life of Jeremy Grady.

At this time, I began to get work published. I’ve had some eight or ten short stories published in various magazines. I also write for the local chapter of the Sierra Club and a regional running magazine (I’m a runner), called RunMinnesota. (Along the way, I’ve become well-read, which is the great joy of my life.) 

Some of this time, I was married. Can you believe it? We didn’t have any kids, but isn’t life a trade-off, this for that? I look at my library, consider the stuff I have written and recall the places I have been, and say to myself, “It’s okay, after all.”

The photography novel (Shadows of the Past) is being marketed at my own web site (peoregan.com). My four books of short stories have been listed on the POD publisher Lulu.com (enter Pat O’Regan in the Search field). I would send anyone interested a copy of the Vietnam War play (at my expense, of course).

I might mention another marketing angle. Of the many published articles and profiles, mostly on environmental issues and running, the profiles of some of the best runners around (including six Olympic athletes, four men and two women, and one Olympic coach) would make a very engaging book for anyone with an interest in athletic endeavor, especially running. This work gets at the souls of people who are among the best in the world at something. I can tell you, they are not like the rest of us. Some 20-25 profiles of these people would sell to the legion of runners out there.