Please Welcome Sara Stinson as she shares one of her Favorite Recipes with us!

Lisa,

Thank you for having me today.  I’m excited to be here and ready to share one of my favorite recipes.

Living in the south, we cherish recipes handed down by our families.  I have several diverse and delicious recipes given to me by my mother and father.  Both were great cooks!  I decided to choose one of the items Dad had on his menu.

Not many people know, but my father, Fred Calhoun, owned a restaurant when he was very young, and one of his best sellers was his chili for hotdogs.  Through the years, this recipe has been enjoyed for many different occasions.  Many times, the chili made a hit at a birthday party or even at Christmas.

The following is his recipe.  Please try it sometimes and let me know what you think!  Enjoy!

FRED’S CHILI FOR HOTDOGS

Ingredients:

3 lbs. hamburger meat

4 large onions

3 24 oz. ketchups

5 Tbsp. chili powder

1 Tbsp. salt

Directions:

Cover hamburger meat in hot water in a big boiler.  Mash and stir the hamburger meat until all is separated and not lumpy.  You can use your hands or a fork.  Continue to stir and keep the meat separated while the meat browns or it will lump.  When the meat is cooking good, add the seasonings and onions.  Simmer for about 30 minutes.  Cut off.  Add ketchup and stir together.  Do not cook anymore.   It is ready for the hotdogs!  (I have found that cheap ketchup is the best.)

***

After you enjoy your meal, you can sit back and enjoy a good book.  Finger Bones and Wendy has been enjoyed and read by all ages.  It is written for anyone in the third grade and up.  Here is a summary of the book.

Finger Bones has been sending ghosts to their next destination for years. Now it’s Wendy’s turn.
The Bridgeville Clipper announces Finger Bones is dead at 122-years of age. Wendy is not upset. He will be back. Finger Bones and Wendy have unfinished business in this small town.

When ten-year-old Wendy Dee Winkelmann needs to do some serious thinking she likes to chew bubblegum. While sitting on a bench reading, she becomes friends with an old man the townspeople call, Finger Bones. Some locals consider him odd and spread rumors about the ghastly man who lives up a dirt road in an ramshackle cabin. Yet Wendy soon discovers this old man, who walks to town with a burlap bag tied to a stick, has a special job. He sends ghosts to their next destination, and the stick and burlap bag he carries are magical.

Now Wendy chases the lingering spirits. Soon she finds herself caught up in a devious plan of a dark sinister power, and if it means hurting someone, or worse, it will do whatever is necessary to succeed. It’s all up to Wendy to save Bridgeville before the evil power takes over the town.

***

AVAILABLE IN DECEMBER:

BOOK TWO:  Finger Bones and the Ghost Dog

In this story, we meet a loveable yellow lab named Max.  Max is a ghost dog and has returned to the small town of Bridgeville to help save his previous owners, Ryan and Shelley Dumpsters, before it is too late. He has a quest, and Wendy and the team are in the center of this ghostly adventure.

LINKS:

sarastinson.com

stinsonsara.wordpress.com

The Finger Bones Series on Facebook

Finger Bones and Wendy is available on Amazon in paperback and e-book format.

Thanks so much Sara for sharing your yummy recipe with us today!

Dealing with Negative Emotions

Hello everyone, I hope all is well with you. I’m back today talking about negative emotions. These feelings are tough to deal with even as adults, so I thought it’d be a good topic for today, especially with the holidays coming up. It seems like gathering with families can bring these emotions to the surface rather quickly.

Part of the problem when dealing with these emotions is that they have a label of bad or negative, so not only are we dealing with the powerful negative emotion, we’re feeling bad because we have it.

In reality, these emotions aren’t negative, they’re telling us something. They’re a signal designed to alert us. Maybe a situation isn’t a good one and our fear is igniting our fight or flight response.

I did a little research on how to control our negative emotions. It just seems like those negative ones are so strong and they can take us right over, wouldn’t you agree?  Well, this is what I found at  http://www.self-improvement-mentor.com/controlling-emotions.html

First of all, let us identify some of those negative emotions.

Fear- That feeling that something bad is going to happen.

Hurt– That feeling you get when you suffer a loss. A loss is any unmet expectation.

Frustration– When you’re not getting the returns for your efforts that you want.

Disappointment– When you feel you’ve lost out on something forever.

Anger and Guilt- These emotions are the result of the violation of your own internal standards or guidelines.

First, let’s re-label these emotions from “bad” or “negative” to signals. That’s right; they’re signals that alert us to something. For example, when we’re feeling frustrated we need to look at our efforts and see if they need to be tweaked. Maybe talking to a mentor about our results will help us tweak our strategy so we can improve our results.

Our frustration is a signal that we needed. It told us that we needed to take action. In my opinion, that’s what these emotions do for us, they tell us to take action, to make a change. The only problem is that when we feel these emotions we don’t always know what action we need to take.

The first thing we need to do is take control of our emotion. So how do we do that?

I found these steps at  http://www.self-improvement-mentor.com/controlling-emotions.html

The first step is:

1)    Break your pattern immediately and disassociate. Do something crazy to break out of the emotion.

2)    Now get curious. Become a third party observer and ask questions. What’s going on here? Where did this emotion come from? Remember to do this as a third party. Don’t make it personal.

3)    Then identify the real issue of what you want.

4)    Then come up with an action that will get you what you want.

The key to this process is the disassociation. We need to become an observer so that we can identify what we want without being blinded by raw emotion.

These steps are clear and practical, but like everything else in life, it’ll take practice to master them. Don’t be disappointed if you don’t  master them right away.

In my opinion, these steps would be great to teach teens that are experiencing some of these emotions. They can be incredibly intense and many teens don’t have the tools they need to deal with them. By using the following steps above, they can start practicing now and master their emotions at a younger age. Just think how the quality of their lives will improve. 🙂

Thanks for reading my post today. I hope you found it helpful. If you have any tools that work for you on dealing with negative emotions please leave a comment, I’d love to read it!

****For more information on dealing with negative emotions go to:

http://www.self-improvement-mentor.com/controlling-emotions.html

An Excerpt from “The Super Spies and the Pied Piper!”

Hello everyone, I hope all is well with you! I’m extremely busy today, working diligently on my Coming of Age Novel. The words are flowing and I don’t want to stifle that creative flow. So for my post today, I thought I’d share with you an excerpt from the third Super Spies Novel, “The Super Spies and the Pied Piper.” I hope you enjoy it, I know I enjoyed writing it. 🙂 Thanks for taking the time to stop by and read it.

Chapter One

“What do you mean you lost them?” Sarah Cole fidgeted as she waited for Agent Gray to answer. I can’t believe it! He lost the only clue to our parents’ location. What is wrong with this picture?

Agitated, Sarah shifted in her seat and chewed on her lip. She was uncomfortable in the folding chair and rearranged her petite frame so she wouldn’t feel the cold metal against her bare legs. Shivering, she glanced around the all‑too‑familiar  room. The gray cement block walls no longer gave her that creepy, closed-­‐‑in feeling she’d used to get when she first came to the interrogation rooms. She remembered the first time she’d been in that tiny space. It had been the day she’d discovered the Cat Lady’s dead body. Sarah shuddered at the memory and then smiled when she remembered forming the Super Spies and bringing the Cat Lady Killer to justice.

Glancing around the room again, she realized she’d been in this room quite a bit these last few weeks, not only during the Cat Lady investigation, but the High School Bomber investigation as well. Shivering again, Sarah rubbed her arms but she really wasn’t cold. Her mind filled with the image of the bomber the Super Spies had helped apprehend just a week earlier.

Wow! Was it just last week?

She tugged at a lock of her honey colored hair, then brushed it away with an impatient hand. She sighed and glanced at her younger sister. Lacey sat beside her with her legs crossed, jiggling her foot at such a rapid rate it seemed like her whole body was electrified. She caught Sarah’s eye, and for a moment her eyes glittered like emeralds before she shifted her gaze to Aunt June, who had placed her hand on Lacey’s leg in what appeared to be an attempt to quiet her. Sarah shifted in her chair and sighed again. Are we ever going to find Mom and Dad?

A commotion out in the hall drew everyone’s attention. Sarah leaned forward and craned her neck to see what was happening.

“Chief, we’ve got an OD!” An officer yelled.

“What?” Chief Johnson yelled as he rushed by. “An OD on what? Give me the details.”

“The parents found their son unconscious in his room this morning, and an empty bottle of prescription medication on his bedside table.”

“What was it?” Chief Johnson asked.

“It’s Myodine.”

“Who makes it?”

“Ah… Piper Drugs.”

“Call Poison Control with the name and manufacturer and ask them what to do about an overdose. Instruct the parents to get their son to the hospital pronto,” Chief Johnson ordered.

“They’ve brought him here.”

“What?” Chief Johnson exclaimed.

The sound of policemen rushing through the hall pulled Sarah and her sister out of their seats. They hurried to the door, unable to stifle their curiosity. Peering down the corridor, Sarah caught a glimpse of a young man sagging between two officers as they desperately tried to keep him on his feet. One officer gently slapped his face while the other officers held him up. The young man blinked and then gagged, puking on the officer in front of him. The rancid stench of fresh vomit filled the air.While plugging her nose, Sarah ducked back inside the interrogation room, followed by her sister. Sarah closed the door, hoping it would keep the smell from penetrating the room.

“Did you hear that, Lace? Piper Drugs! That’s the company Dad works for,” Sarah whispered in her sister’s ear before proceeding back to her seat.

Lacey opened her mouth to speak, but closed it when Agent Gray cleared his throat and motioned for them to sit down. He continued his conversation as if they hadn’t been interrupted. We were on our way to the location of the ping… but before we got there it disappeared.”

“So, what does that mean? Did you find our parents or what?” Sarah blurted out as she sat down. She stared into Agent Gray’s icy blue eyes, trying to read his mind.

Buylinks are  below. This is a great series for your tween/teen. 🙂

Astraea Press:  http://www.astraeapress.com/#!/~/product/category=662245&id=24157242

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Super-Spies-Pied-Piper-ebook/dp/B00D25G7ZM

Barnes and  Noble:  http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-super-spies-and-the-pied-piper-lisa-orchard/1115437908?ean=2940016589701

Please Welcome JQ Rose as She Gives Teens some Awesome Advice

Hello Readers.

Lisa, thank you so much for hosting me on your blog today.

Are you familiar with the song, “Little Boxes” written in 1963 by Melvina Reynolds?

~If you want to use the youtube video here’s the link~

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_2lGkEU4Xs

Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes made of ticky tacky
Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes all the same,
There’s a pink one and a green one
And a blue one and a yellow one
And they’re all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same.

Lyrics from http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/m/malvina_reynolds/little_boxes.html

Listeners to the catchy tune and lyrics have several ideas for its meaning. One of them is the protest against all the cheap housing of suburbia which sprang up in the 60’s. People called the sub-divisions a cookie-cutter method of building homes with ticky tacky or shoddy materials.

The message I receive from the lyrics is the complaint of everyone trying to be the same and not stand out, but conforming to what someone else thinks they should be. Pre-teens and teens especially want to “fit in.” A person is embarrassed or humiliated for being different. Wearing the wrong clothes, having big ears, not speaking clearly can all be reasons for a bully or uncaring person to criticize and make fun. Sad to say the teasing happens all the time, and it is hurtful.

In my non-fiction ebook for girls, Girls Succeed: Stories Behind the Careers of Successful Women, the family of a woman I interviewed moved so many times when she was a child, she couldn’t make friends. She was always the odd one in a group. Because she didn’t want to stand out, she tried to hide how smart she was and was not proud of it. Finally her last few years in high school, she joined the band and sports teams and made friends. She blossomed into the person she really was. She is now a medical doctor and researcher at a university.

No matter what your age, I think everyone should live by this quote from Oscar Wilde:

Be Yourself. Everyone else is taken.

~~Oscar Wilde

 

It’s very easy to forget to appreciate all the wonderful qualities each of us has. Instead of grumbling about what you don’t have, list the positive things in your personality. Every person is special with gifts and talents inside us just waiting to be developed along our life journey.

 

Tagline: Inspiring and empowering girls to achieve success in their dream careers.

Smashwords Link http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/241825

Amazon Link  http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009NY6ZAS

Kobo Link http://www.kobobooks.com/search/search.html?q=girls+succeed%3A+stories+behind+the+careers+of+successful+women

Barnes and Noble Link http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/girls-succeed-jq-rose/1114041658?ean=2940045118033

Sony Link https://ebookstore.sony.com/ebook/j-q-rose/girls-succeed-stories-behind-the-careers-of-successful-women/_/R-400000000000000883970

Bio: After writing feature articles in magazines, newspapers, and online magazines for over fifteen years, J.Q. Rose entered the world of fiction writing with her published mysteries released by Muse It Up Publishing. With Girls Succeed: Stories Behind the Careers of Successful Women she returns to her first love, writing about real people.  Blogging, photography, Pegs and Jokers board games, and travel are the things that keep her out of trouble. Spending winters in Florida with her husband allows Janet the opportunity to enjoy the life of a snowbird. Summer finds her camping and hunting toads, frogs, and salamanders with her four grandsons and granddaughter.

Connect with J.Q. Rose online at

Girls Succeed blog http://girlssucceed.blogspot.com/

J.Q. Rose blog http://www.jqrose.com/

Author website http://jqrose.webs.com/

J. Q.  Rose Amazon Author Page http://tinyurl.com/aeuv4m4

 

 

Book trailer http://animoto.com/play/QcAByshul5wZ5Bob9bdiug

Thanks for sharing your words of wisdom JQ! I’ve got your book on my TBR pile and will be writing a review soon! 🙂

Please share some of your stories of courage or when you started to bloom! We’d love to read about them! 🙂

Thanks for stopping by and reading JQ’s Post today! 🙂

Improving our Libraries will Improve our Literacy Levels

Hello Everyone! I hope all is well with you! Last year I did a post on Literacy and it’s a subject that’s near and dear to my heart. And at that time I had the thought that e-books might be one of the solutions to our literary woes. But then I started working on a grant proposal for an organization (more about that later) and I did some research and found out something very interesting.

In all communities lack of funding or poverty is the number one cause of low literacy. By providing the tools (e-readers, e-books, and paperbacks) needed to fight this issue we are having a direct effect on it. Wan (2000) reviewed multiple reports to find the positive impacts of reading to children. Some experiments Wan reviewed involved reading aloud with individual students while others combined alone and group storybook readings to a class. Wan’s findings showcased that reading to children was vital to personal and school achievement. Even Stephen D Krashen author of “The Power of Reading” and Professor Emeritus at the University of Southern California said, “In my opinion, the place to focus is the library, both the school and public library. Studies show a positive relationship between library quality (school and public) and the amount read, as well as a relationship with reading competence. Better libraries mean more literacy development for younger readers as well as for high school students.” Therefore, successful approaches to reading including read-aloud programs and setting aside time for reading. The first way to do this is to improve the amount of books on the library shelves.

So the gist of the last paragraph is that if we improve our libraries (school and public) we’ll have a positive effect on literacy levels. Here are some statistics that support this claim.

Information Brief: Impact of School Libraries on Student Achievement by the New York Comprehensive Center

State Impact Studies

 

Collaboration between Teachers and the School Library

Collaboration between teachers and the school library through cooperative planning, identification of educational resources, and imparting information literacy skills, positively impacts teacher effectiveness and promotes student growth.

• Colorado:  A study conducted in 2000 showed that students in elementary schools with highly collaborative relationships between teachers and school librarians scored 21% higher than students with less collaborative relationships on the Colorado Student Assessment Program, or CSAP (Lance, Rodney, & Hamilton-Pennell, 2000).

• Indiana: A 2006 study showed that when principals put an emphasis on in-service opportunities for collaboration between teachers and school librarians, there was an increase in test scores of 29.5% compared to those who placed a lower emphasis on such activities. Additionally, collaboration in curriculum design and delivery of instruction resulted in a 7.8% increase in test results. It should be noted that these relationships were evident in both the elementary and high school grade levels (Scholastic, 2008).

• Illinois:  A 2005 study involving high schools showed that American College Testing (ACT) scores were highest for 11th graders when there was a high degree of collaboration between school librarians and teachers across a range of activities such as identifying materials, planning lessons, and motivating students to read.

• Oregon:  A study indicated that schools with the best Oregon Statewide Assessment reading and language scores had teachers who were twice as likely to collaborate with school librarians. Furthermore, students      in such classes were over 3 times more likely to visit the school library (Scholastic, 2008).

Access for Students

Providing access for teachers and students to school library facilities and resources, including through flexible scheduling, helps support students and has a positive effect on retention, work performance, and grades.

• Delaware: A study noted that teachers and faculty placed high value on school libraries due to their role in providing students with technology access, as well as ensuring information source quality       and diversity. The study concluded that teachers believed that such access helped them perform their responsibilities and duties better (Todd & Heinstrom, 2006)

• Illinois: A study involving schools that provided increased access to the school library through flexible scheduling found that fifth grade students performed 10% better in reading and 11% better in writing on the Illinois Standards Achievement Test (ISAT) compared to those schools with less access. Similar results were seen in high school, where there were 5% differences between schools on the ACT    (Lance Rodney, & Hamilton-Pennell).

• Michigan: A study demonstrated that teachers and students in schools with the highest reading scores on the Michigan Educational Assessment Program (MEAP) were four times more likely to have access to the school library on a flexibly scheduled basis than those in the lowest scoring schools (Rodney, Keith, & Christine, 2003).

These statistics demonstrate that the more teachers work with their library and the more resources a library can provide this has a direct effect on literacy levels of the students. This also applies to public libraries as well.

Without a variety of books to choose from a public library will attract very few readers. So, the more books a library has the more young people will be using its facilities.

A low cost alternative is the e-book. E-readers can hold approximately one thousand e-books. And e-books are less expensive and more durable than paperbacks. So, let’s help our libraries. We can donate our books and our time to them. I said it before and I’ll say it again! E-books are one of the solutions to our literacy issues!

Thanks for stopping by today and reading my post! Leave a comment and share your thoughts! I’d love to hear from you!

“Up North” in the Mitten State

Hello Everyone! I hope all is well with you! I’m back today and I’m excited because this is the last week of school for my kids! They are ecstatic to get a break from the structure and to be honest so is Mom! 🙂

I’ve got all kinds of ideas for things that we can do this summer, zoo trips, beach days, and of course there are vacations. As a family we love the water and enjoy going “Up North.” For us that means going to the Traverse City area here in Michigan. We’ve vacationed there ever since the boys were born. They love the area and so do my husband and I.

There’s something to be said for the small towns that surround the Traverse City area. There are all kinds of unique stores and a lot of history in these tiny burgs.

One of these small towns is Leelanau. Sitting right on the shores of Lake Michigan it’s a small fishing community. The wind is brisk coming off of the lake, so it’s a great place on a warm day when you can’t get to the beach. It’s fun to go through the tiny stores and galleries in this town. It’s an old town full of history. And when you go down by the water there’s a store that sells fresh fish. We went there when I was pregnant with my first child and needless to say I couldn’t stay in that store very long.  The smell really got to me. 🙂

It’d be a great place for the setting of a story. Hmmm…

Another small town that I love to visit is Sutton’s Bay. Again they have some great shops to explore and I can wander for quite some time while my hubby and the boys play in the park. One of the things that I’ve noticed is that both of these towns have a variety of art galleries and it’s great to see the shores where you’ve walked in a painting or photograph.

There are other tiny burgs that deserve to be mentioned like Alden, and Elk Rapids, awesome communities that are right on either Torch Lake or Lake Michigan that sport cute shops and community events. Of course we can’t forget about Traverse City itself! It’s a great place to walk with the kids and see the sights; again, more great stores and art galleries. If you get a chance to be there during the Cherry Festival by all means do it. It can get a bit crowded, but they have the Blue Angels come every other year and they are a sight to see!

If you’re a wine drinker you’ll love the Traverse City Area. There are wineries everywhere and they’re always open for wine tasting. A fun adult thing that we have yet to do! 🙂 Wineries are pretty boring for the kids. 🙂

If there’s one place you must see it’s Torch Lake. The water is so clear it looks like you’re on a beach in the tropics. The water is also cold so it’s quite refreshing. Everyone gathers at a place called the Sand Bar. People come from all over to park their boats there. And then they get out in the water and play football or Frisbee or just float.  Everyone has a great time. There’s a small shop on Torch River that will even deliver a pizza to your boat. If pizza isn’t your style then there’s a pontoon boat out there with a grill on its deck and they sell burgers and dogs to anyone who wants one.

As you can see Up North is always a great time for us! I can’t wait until the weather turns hot and muggy and we’ll be on our way!

Thanks for stopping by and reading my post! Do you have any special vacation spots that you’d like to share? Leave a comment! I’d love to hear from you!

It’s a Holiday Indie Giveaway!!

 

 THIS GIVEAWAY HAS ENDED! WINNERS WILL BE ANNOUNCED SOON SO STAY TUNED AND HAVE A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

 

 

Hello Everyone! I hope all is well with you! It’s the Christmas Season and we’re giving away some great books and some Amazon Gift cards! In fact, there will be three winners and each winner will receive a copy of each e-book and a $10 Amazon Gift Card. What an awesome Christmas present! 🙂 Below are the covers and blurbs from the books! So check it out and keep reading to see how you can enter! 🙂 The winner will be announced December 24th.

Good Luck!

This book opens in a small town in Michigan where fifteen-year-old Sarah Cole is stuck spending the summer at her Aunt and Uncle’s with her sister, Lacey. She’s not happy with the situation until she befriends a girl named Jackie. The three girls stumble upon the ruthless murder of a reclusive neighborhood woman. One of the officers investigating the crime believes the girls are responsible for her death. Fearing that this officer will frame them for the murder, the girls organize their own detective squad. They become the Super Spies and start their own fact-finding mission.  The Super Spies can’t understand why anyone would want to murder the “Cat Lady” until they start digging into her past and discover a horrible crime that happened thirty years ago. They uncover a connection between the two crimes and attempt to bring this information to the police, only to be reprimanded for meddling in the inquest. Not only are the girls upset by the admonition, but they also struggle with the fact that their exuberant investigating could provide a legal loophole allowing the killer to go free. To make matters worse, the police don’t even believe them. Frustrated by this turn of events, the Super Spies realize it’s up to them to snare the Cat Lady killer, or die trying…

This book opens in a small town in Michigan where Sarah and her sister Lacey are now living with their Aunt and Uncle. Still reeling from the fact her parents have disappeared, Sarah starts the school year with her new friend Jackie Jenkins. When Sarah learns the school has been bombed, she’s filled with dread. Uncle Walt is a teacher, and he was in the school when the bomb exploded. Taking matters into her own hands, Sarah decides to search for him. The rest of the Super Spies are right behind her. When a fireman chases them away from the school, Sarah becomes suspicious. She decides to investigate. The FBI arrives on the scene. Sarah realizes this bombing could have even bigger implications. Searching for the bombers, Sarah is introduced to the world of terrorism. She fears that the bombing and her parents’ disappearance are connected and terrorists are involved. To make matters worse, the bombers are determined to finish the job. Can the Super Spies find the bombers before it’s too late?

Friend or Foe?

Murder victim Bart Bagley is not content to merely roll over in his grave. He wants his murderer caught and he wants teenage ghost whisperer, Indigo Eady, to help him.

It becomes obvious that Bart’s temper led to more than one disagreement, but is it enough to want him dead? With nothing but a cold trail and a hot list of “friendly” suspects, Indigo and her friends race to find the killer before they become the next victims.

Indigo Eady is not clumsy. At least, that’s what she keeps telling everyone. Can she help that the overactive spirit community of Sabrina Shores causes her psychic abilities to short-circuit? It’s unfortunate that her cute new friend Badger is often on the receiving end of her mishaps. At times, she is positively hazardous to his health. Even so, sparks start to fly in more than one direction…

Find out more about Gwen Gardner here: http://gwengardner.blogspot.com/

For seventeen-year-old Abigail, one rash decision leads to an unexpected chance for redemption. At V’Salicus Academy, a unique institute where she trains to become an agent of heaven, she struggles with the pain of her past, the changes of the present and accepts a loveless future until her path – and heart – crosses with Basil’s.
Basil’s off-chance slip of the tongue binds him to a life of servitude to the Devourer, the master of hell. His existence has no upside until a chance meeting with Abigail brings new perspective.
Keeping the truth of their present lives from each other brings disaster when secrets are brought to light and the life of Abigail’s mentor is put on the line.
Can Abigail and Basil save her mentor and salvage their love amid the chaos? Or will they lose it all, destined forever to NEVERLOVE?

Find out more about Angela Brown here: http://publishness.blogspot.com/

Fourteen-year old Lissa is snatched from her home and finds herself a slave on a trading ship traveling on a waterless ocean of nothing but gray dust. A feisty, curious and intelligent girl, her desire to explore the ship earns her the hatred of the cruel first officer, Farq.

Fascinated by the ocean of dust, Lissa becomes embroiled in its mysteries, sensing things that the crew cannot, while cryptic whispers in her head are leading her toward a destiny linked to the dust itself. Only one man aboard can help her make sense of her new talent, but can she trust him? All is not as it seems, and she must unravel the clues before it’s too late.

When a sinister plot casts her adrift on the barren ocean, her best friend is left in the hands of the treacherous crew. Everything hinges upon her courage, quick wits, and her ability to master her new talent.

Find out more about Graeme Ing here:  http://www.graemeing.com/

You can enter by going to the Rafflecopter here but if that doesn’t work keep reading and get the details below!

Now, I bet you’re wondering how do I enter to win these great prizes?

Since Rafflecopter doesn’t work on my blog you can go to Graeme’s and enter there or continue reading and find out how to enter here!

To enter on Graeme’s Blog:

http://www.graemeing.com/2012/12/09/holiday-indie-giveaway-free-bundles-of-ebooks-to-win/

Well there are several ways to do that! You can like each author’s page on Facebook and that counts as one entry.

Here’s the list:

Lisa Orchard: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Lisa-Orchard/328536613877060?ref=hl

Angela Brown: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Partners-in-ParanormYA/462052430493091

Gwen Gardner: https://www.facebook.com/IndigoEady

Graeme Ing: https://www.facebook.com/GraemeIngAuthor?ref=ts&fref=ts

You can also follow us on Twitter! Each follow counts as one entry!

Here’s the list:

Lisa Orchard:  https://twitter.com/lisaorchard1

Angela Brown: https://twitter.com/neostateofmind

Gwen Gardner: https://twitter.com/ladygwentweets

Graeme Ing: https://twitter.com/GraemeIng

You can also share and tweet about the giveaway, each share or tweet counts as two entries! 🙂

Just post the URL of your Like, Follow, Tweet, or Share in the comment section, or you can go to http://www.graemeing.com/2012/12/09/holiday-indie-giveaway-free-bundles-of-ebooks-to-win/ and enter in the rafflecopter there.

If you leave your URL in the comment section I will enter it into the Rafflecopter for you! 🙂

Thanks everyone for participating! This is going to be fun! 🙂 And I hope all of you will have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

RIP Zig Ziglar

Hello Everyone! I hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving and are looking forward to Christmas! I know I am! It’s my favorite holiday. 🙂

I’m just getting over a bout with the stomach flu, so my post is a little late today. Sorry about that. 🙂 But on the plus side, I’m feeling much better and I’m almost back to my old self!

Yesterday, a wonderful man passed away, one that was an inspiration to me as well as millions of people. His name was Zig Ziglar. I want to talk a little bit about Zig today because I was impressed with the man.

He was a World War II veteran. After the war he worked for a series of companies in the sales field. That’s when I first learned about Zig because I started my early career in sales as well and his books were recommended to me.

When I first started out I read a variety of “sales” books that were going to show me how to get to the top. They basically said a career in sales is really a numbers game. The more people you see the more sales you get…yada…yada…yada.  Then I read Zig’s. Not only did he motivate his readers to be the best sales people they could be but they also encouraged people to be the best humans they could be. 🙂

You see, to Zig a career in sales wasn’t just about the numbers. He really wanted to improve his customer’s lives with his product. And isn’t that what we all want to do as authors, with our books? Improve or make better the lives of our readers?

That’s what I gleaned from his books and his motivational speeches anyway. And the man was funny! 🙂 Not only were his jokes funny…but they also rang true in many cases. 🙂

Here’s one that I really like. “People often say motivation doesn’t last. Neither does bathing that’s why we recommend it daily.” I always chuckle when I read that one and it puts me in a better mood.

I was sad when I heard he passed away. He was one celebrity I would have loved to meet in person.

Now, that I’m working on becoming a best-selling author. 🙂 I can use the same principles that he used in his motivational speeches to achieve that goal. And I must say I see many authors who use these principles too. I don’t know if they realize they’re using them, but they are. And that’s one of the things I love about the Publishing Industry.

So, many authors are out there willing to help each other out. What a refreshing experience after working in the dog eat dog world of Corporate America. 🙂

This quote from Zig summarizes what I’m trying to say. “You will get all you want in life, if you help enough other people get what they want.”

That’s how I feel about the authors and bloggers who have helped me by either critiquing what I’ve written or helped me by promoting my books. Thanks everyone! 🙂

And another quote that all of us authors can relate to, is this one. “There has never been a statue erected to honor a critic.” 🙂

Just tuck that little nugget into the back of your brain and remember it when you get that one or two star review. 🙂

In closing, I’d like to say thanks to Zig for sharing his philosophies with everyone. He’s touched my life with his realistic humor and I’m sure he’ll continue to touch many people’s lives with his words of wisdom.

If you want to check out Zig Ziglar’s books click the link below.

http://www.amazon.com/Zig-Ziglar/e/B000AP7VIY/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1354205732&sr=1-2-ent

Thanks for stopping by today and reading my post. 🙂 If you’d like to share your thoughts on Zig…leave a comment. I’d love to hear from you!

The Winner of the signed paperback Is….

Hello Everyone!! The winner of the signed paperback, “The Super Spies and the Cat Lady Killer” is…..SHADOW!! 🙂

CONGRATS! SHADOW!

Please Welcome Sherry Gloag as she talks about “Vidal’s Honor”!

 

Hello Everyone! I hope all is well with you today! I’ve got Sherry Gloag here and she’s talking a little bit about herself and her new release “Vidal’s Honor”. Thanks so much for being here today Sherry! 🙂 Take it away!

 

 

I have loved reading for as long as I can remember, and I discovered Georgette Heyer very early on, and have always had copies of her books on my shelves, both virtual and real.  So, in a way, I suppose, given I write romance, that I would one day try my hand at a Regency Romance.

Vidal’s Honor opens on the morning of the battle of Salamanca in July 1812.  Not having much confidence in my ability to research my subject I wasn’t sure how I’d get on.  Suffice to say, it was a pleasant surprise.  I even spent time researching the weather in various parts of Spain and France, and yes they, unlike the English, do have weather records going back that far.

There is a scene when my hero and heroine, Lord Charles Vidal and Lady Honor Beaumont are setting out to cross the English Channel, and although on that particular night, in reality it rained, I took the licence of turning it into a storm with huge waves, thunder and lightning.  It was great fun.

It often happens that secondary characters play a bigger part than expected and when your story is ‘finished’ they demand you start all over again and write their story, and so it is with my secondary characters, Juan and Consuela.  Because I am a ‘pantser’ writer, I’m not sure how or where their story is going beyond a very rough outline, but already I’m having the same fun with this story as I did with my Christmas Regency Romance, Vidal’s honor, published by Astraea Press on 31^st October.

 

Vidal’s Honor

Blurb:

When plunged into a world of spies, agents and espionage during the Peninsula wars, Honor, Lady Beaumont, flees for her life when the French capture her husband at Salamanca, and relies on his batman to arrange her safe passage back to England.

Viscount Charles Vidal is ordered by Robert Dumas, the First Lord of the Admiralty, to travel to Spain and escort the only woman he’s ever loved, Lord Devlin Beaumont’s widow back home before the French discover her whereabouts.

Their journey is fraught by danger, least of all knowing whether they are surrounded by friends or foe. Will they survive long enough to explore the possibility of a future together or will whispers of treason be enough to see Honor dispatched to Tyburn first?

Here’s an excerpt from this very intriguing book! 🙂

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Will whispers of treason be enough to see Honor dispatched to Tyburn or can
Vidal save her again?

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

 

While Vidal joked with his cousin, the viscount scanned the room. The smell of fine wine, whiskey and cigar smoke blended into a rich aroma that was as much a part of Whites as the card games, the background chatter, and outbreaks of lewd laughter from the younger members of the club.
One member in particular interested Vidal tonight, and he watched Robert Dundas, second Viscount Melville, and First Lord of the Admiralty, take leave of his friends and head in his direction.

He wondered why the man spent the best part of the night watching his every move, and paused in the act of fobbing his snuff box while he waited for the viscount to join him.

“Take a walk with me?” Although couched as a question, Vidal noted the quiet steel of command in the other man’s voice. Dundas laid a hand on his arm; a companionable gesture for anyone interested enough to observe the two men leaving the club together. “I believe I live not far beyond your own house. I’d appreciate your company, and this is not the place for such a discussion. ”

With an indolent twist of the wrist Vidal returned the modish lacquered box, unopened, to his pocket and nodded agreement. A man’s club was no setting for private conversation, and it was plain the man wanted to talk about something away from flapping ears.

Together they strolled across the room stopping to take leave of several mutual friends.

Buy Links:

Astraea Press: http://www.astraeapress.com/#ecwid:category=662267&mode=product&product=16090214

 

Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Sherry+Gloag

 

Amazon.co.uk: http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_0_10?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=sherry+gloag&sprefix=sherry+glo%2Caps%2C251

 

 

 

This sounds like a great story Sherry!

You can find Sherry at these social media sites:

Web: http://www.sherrygloag.com

Blog: http://sherrygloagtheheartofromance.blogspot.co.uk/

FB: http://www.facebook.com/sherry.gloag

twitter: https://twitter.com/SherryGloag

Thanks Sherry for sharing with us today!