Guest Post ~ Date Like a Grownup: Helping Self Led to Self-Help by Heather Dugan

Available in Paperback and ebook now on Amazon US and Amazon UK

Most friends probably stick with a box of tissues and verbal sympathy, but when I found myself continually sharing the same pieces of advice, I finally organized it all into a book: Date Like a Grownup: Anecdotes, Admissions of Guilt and Advice Between Friends. It's the book I needed—but couldn't find—following my divorce in 2006: a manual for dating well and creating a bigger, better life as a single adult.

My divorce was terrifically isolating, and I've found that to be a common experience. It's awkward and even shameful to some—a public "doesn't play with others" comment on a very private and painful dysfunction. Frequently, a resultant loneliness skews perspective and can send the newly single into a spin cycle of repetitive unhealthy relationships—or toward even deeper isolation. Pile on all the physical life changes, financial, legal and residential; amplify all the responsibilities of parenthood—and it can be an overwhelming challenge! Once, I found my way forward, it was a natural instinct to reach a hand back to those still struggling through.

Heather Dugan

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About the Author

Heather Dugan is a nationally syndicated columnist, speaker and voice/video actor with a focus on creative communication and human connection. Her newest book, Date Like a Grownup: Anecdotes, Admissions of Guilt& Advice Between Friends  examines the impact of loneliness and social obsolescence on men and women in their second single lives, and provides punctuating proof that looking for love from a place of isolation is as unwise as grocery shopping on an empty stomach.

Turning challenges into opportunities for achievement enabled this divorced single mom to effect positive transformation and find value in even life's darkest places. Heather's public speaking and radio/TV interview topics include life launching; divorce, dating and relationships; navigating grief and healthcare patient responsibility as well as work/family issues related to her advicecolumn at Salary.com. Connect with Heather on Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook. For information on upcoming book events and radio/TV interviews, visit her website: http://www.heatherdugan.com.

Guest Post ~ Write 2B Read, by Ani Alexander

A few years ago I was still working at the corporate world and had no idea that I would eventually become a writer. I always enjoyed writing and did my share of writing in various shapes and colors – from poems to blog posts to short stories, flash fiction and essays. But at the same time I never thought of it as something more than a hobby. Maybe it was because I never had the confidence I needed.

Then I realized that the corporate world was no longer in line with my life values and decided to resign. That gave me the time to reflect and think things over, to go through a process of self-discovery and find out what I wanted to do with my life. It happened so that at the same time my first novel Highfall came to me.

As a result I, who had never written anything longer than three pages wrote a complete novel. Thinking that no one would be interested in publishing it and also being very impatient in nature I decided to self publish the novel. I had tested the ground with my book of short stories already and knew how to promote on Amazon. As a result both books became Amazon bestsellers.

When I look back, I realize that the amazing journey, which led me to where I am now, started with one thing – making the first step and taking action. I know many people who have stories to tell and would like to write a book but see many obstacles (mainly imaginary) on their way.

I am from Armenia and I am writing English books. I have never gone to any creative courses and I studied business, which was not related to writing at all. But I already have two Amazon bestsellers and now I am signing a contract with a big publisher for both of my books.

And guess what? You can do it too.

When I think of the times when I only started I recall how much support and encouragement I needed. That is why I decided to create a website and podcast for writers, which will inspire and encourage writers write and publish, overcome their fear of failure and writer’s doubts. Both the blog and the podcast are called Write 2B Read. For the podcast I am interviewing writers every week, who share their own journey, success strategies and anything else which can inspire and encourage other writers. I am also sharing my thoughts and reflections about different writing related topics and tips on self-publishing and book marketing. Since personal relationships are very important I also created a closed Facebook Write 2B Readgroup where we can help each other.

I hope you will enjoy the podcast. At least you should listen to the very first interview, which is with Tony Riches (thanx Tony!)

I hope to connect with you soon. Wishing you success with your writing!

Ani Alexander

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About the Author

Ani Alexander is a bestselling fiction author, blogger and podcaster from Armenia. You can find out more about her at her website
www.anialexander.com, where you can also get free resources for authors (www.anialexander.com/free). The Write 2B Read podcast is available on iTunes at www.anialexander.com/itunes and Stitcher at www.anialexander.com/stitcher. You can also find Ani Alexander on Twitter @Ani_LifeProb

Guest Post by Carenza Basset, author of The Hollow Sword (The Kernow Trilogy)

 

Orphaned teenager Jake is taken by his Aunt to live in Cornwall. Cut off from his previous life and banned from contacting his old mates he makes friends with Anna, a local girl and discovers a strange ability to draw places he's never seen. Together, Jake and Anna face unknown dangers as they unwittingly become involved in a quest for an ancient artefact. 

Available now on Amazon UK and Amazon US

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My name is Carenza Basset and I'm honoured to have been invited to make a guest posting.  I’m the author of the Kernow Trilogy, the first volume of which is The Hollow Sword.  I live in the south of England and I’m a Company Director of a property company. I am also a qualified Blue Badge Tourist guide with specialist interests in history and archaeology. For fun, I own five German Shepherds! I have set my books, as "Kernow" suggests, in Cornwall.

Why did I decide to write about Cornwall?

Cornwall is a mysterious country, (and yes I do mean country!) and I know of no other place like it for inspiring creativity in all its forms. Daphne du Maurier, Winston Graham, Howard Spring, William Golding, Derek Tangye, and WJ Burley are just some of the authors who found inspiration here. Slightly less well known is Denys Val Baker, who wrote twenty six autobiographical books about life there, as well as several novels.

So what is it about Cornwall that inspires?

It is truly a place full of myths, legends and superstition. Even its landscape is mysterious – but it’s more than that - in Cornwall you don’t just sense the mystery, you feel it. It lies in the air and in the earth.  It lies in the long windswept beaches, in the wooded creeks and on the bleak granite-clad carns. You especially feel it in the winter. Wherever you are, it totally surrounds you. How could one not feel inspired?

At the beginning of the series, teenager Jake, who is suddenly orphaned, is taken by his aunt Cara to live in Cornwall. On his late father’s instructions, city boy Jake is cut off from his previous life and banned from contacting his friends. Rebuffed by the local lads as a “foreigner” he reluctantly makes friends with a local girl, Anna. Jake’s life changes out of all recognition and he suddenly discovers a strange ability to draw, particularly of places he’s never seen. Together, Jake and Anna face unknown dangers and they unwittingly become involved in a quest for an ancient artefact. The big problem is that Jake doesn’t know what he’s looking for and he’s not certain who he can trust...

Together, Jake and Anna are drawn into a mystery as ancient and compelling as Kernow itself! Like Jake, I lost my father at an early age so I was able to identify with his emotions as he dealt with his grief and anger.  Not long after my father’s death my mother and I spent time in Cornwall.  Cornwall helped with the healing process and, like Jake, I made good friends there. I continued to revisit Cornwall over many years and became very familiar with the county. When I discuss it with friends, I am always amazed by how many people tell me that they sense the very same feelings about it! How many other regions can say the same?

It took me eighteen months to write The Hollow Sword. It was an exciting journey! Using memories and imagination along with skills honed during my career as a tourist guide I pored over large scale maps as I researched, and used both books and the internet to discover myths and legends to intertwine and add to my plots. Cornwall is a rich tapestry of myth and legends, and, as it weaves its magic, one never knows if they are true or not!

Unfortunately, I am not able to return to Cornwall as often as I would like. I miss it. It’s definitely time I went back...

Carenza Basset

Find out more at http://www.thehollowsword.com/ 

and follow Carenza Basset on Twitter  @CarenzaBasset 

Dean Koontz’s Writing Habits

Dean Koontz is listed by Forbes as one of America’s best-selling authors, with reported annual sales of over $24 million. Koontz has had fourteen titles on the New York Times bestseller list, with his work at the top of the list four times

It wasn’t easy for him though, as he says, ‘I sold the first short story I wrote. Then I received over seventy-five rejections before making another sale. My first four novels were never published. Later, after I’d been selling genre fiction routinely, I wrote a mainstream novel and editors sent me enthusiastic letters about it but turned it down because they felt it was too disturbing and avant-garde to be commercial.’

Undaunted, Koontz decided that writing novels was the only work he wanted to do and put in sixty-hour weeks at his typewriter, developing his well proven novel format.  When he finished his first New York Times best-seller, Whispers, his wife pointed out that for every page in the final manuscript, he’d used thirty-two pages of typing paper,  laboriously re-typing eight hundred pages of text over and over before he was satisfied.

IBM Displaywriter

An obsessive re-writer, Koontz decided to invest in one of the expensive new word processors, the IBM Displaywriter, storing his work on massive eight inch floppy disks and printing out the pages on a daisywheel printer. He still worked for ten hours at a time but was now able to revise his work on screen, rather than waste time re-typing.

He was pleased if he managed half a dozen finished pages a day, and said, ‘The secret is doing it day after day, committing to it and avoiding distractions. A month goes by and, as a slow drip of water can fill a huge cauldron in a month, so you discover that you have seventy-five polished pages.’

Other posts about the habits of famous writers:

Agatha Christie’s Writing Habits

Daphne du Maurier’s Writing Habits

Ernest Hemingway's Writing Habits

George Orwell's Writing Habits

Jane Austen's Writing Habits

John Steinbeck’s Writing Habits

J. R. R. Tolkien’s Writing Habits

Roald Dahl's Writing Habits

Rudyard Kipling's Writing Habits

Stephen King's Writing Habits 

Thomas Hardy’s Writing Habits

Book Review ~ MURDER, Now and Then: Murder Mystery 1919 to 2019, by Diana Jackson

Now available on Amazon.co.uk and on Amazon.com

Think Midsomer murders meets Bergerac, set in the near future and based on an actual murder that took place in 1919, and you'll have a good idea of what to expect from Diana Jackson's latest thriller. Unlikely coincidences keep you guessing and, in classic murder mystery style, have you changing your mind several times about the killer's identity - or who the next victim might be.

I particularly liked the evocative scenes set in Diana's much-loved Channel Islands and could easily imagine this book as a successful  TV drama. The eventual denouement is original and inventive - I definitely didn't see it coming!  Highly recommended, Murder, Now and Then is one of those books you can't put down until the mystery is solved.

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About the Author

Diana Jackson is a full time author living in Bedfordshire, UK. When not writing, Diana’s other passions are social history, gardening, cooking her own produce, following her husband’s rock and roll band and her more recent absorbing interest in early flight, especially flying boats. Inspired by her great grandmother, an Alderney girl, her  ‘Riduna Series’ novels take the reader from the mid Victorian era through to 1920. Diana now plans a third in the series to the mid thirties. To find out about Diana Jackson’s other writing projects, you can visit her blog http://dianamj.wordpress.com/ and find her on Twitter @Riduna

Guest Post ~ A world where all is not what it seems by Caroline Gleave

When he finds a hidden map and a scripture washed up with an unusual body, Daimeh’s idyllic life changes forever.

The Alkoryn Chronicles: Part I Scripture from the Past:

New on Amazon UK and Amazon US

Firstly I would like to thank Tony for asking me to guest post on his blog. It is very much appreciated. My preferred genre has always been science-fiction, fantasy and even a bit of horror. The idea for ‘The Alkoryn Chronicles’ started when I was young and I have always been interested in the interactions of science, technology and biology. Arthur C.Clarke's Third Law ‘Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic’ inspired my ideas for the story.  There are fantasy elements alongside science-fiction and I examine the relationship between the two. What is fantasy and magical to one character may be scientific technology to another character.

Later in life I decided to turn that idea into a book and wrote the first chapter. I wasn’t able to finish it at the time due to my intense studying and earned BSc (hon) in Natural Sciences, a MSc in Computer-based Information Systems and a Postgraduate Certificate in Computer Aided Graphical and Technological Applications.

Fifteen years later I found that first chapter and it inspired me to continue writing again. I have no qualifications in writing except as a hobbyist, so writing my first novel was a real challenge. I’m glad I persevered and self-published. Since then,  I have been offered a contract to re-publish a revised edition of the book, which I am very excited about. I have also been offered a contract for ‘Part II: Land of Eternal Stars.’ It is still in its early stages so there is no release date yet.

I have created a rich alternative world full of its own animals, vegetation and dynamic landscapes, from jungles to deserts to volcanoes. It is a unique world where its axis only allows the sun to shine on one side, leaving the other side in complete darkness. I have tried to give the locations in the book a real sense of life and place. I wanted to make them as believable as possible. I would always tell myself whilst writing. “My characters deserve a real place to live.”

As the first book in the series ‘Part I: Scripture from the Past’ introduces the reader to the world of Alkoryn, a humble idyllic setting, where the sun never sets. I wanted to give Alkoryn a radiance of harmony, peace and high morality and the Alkoryn people a self-sufficient community who are highly productive without being industrious. Daimeh's life changes when he finds an unusually alien body washed up on the shore of the glorious Galunda Bay. What had burdened the bay?

His aunt Cresadir performs an autopsy on the body and as the story unfolds, Daimeh realises all is not what it seems and the opportunity arises for him to explore beyond the borders of Alkoryn. With his aunt by his side they embark on a journey they had only dreamt of and reveal an enriched world of mysterious technology, peculiar creatures and an advanced civilisation; secretive and led by a single council who seek to evolve themselves into a perfect race.

'Part I' focuses on the light side of the planet and 'Part II' the dark side. This does not necessarily mean good and evil. Although I have always enjoyed the concept, I wished to pull it apart a bit and offer a neutrality between the two. You decide which side you are on.

Caroline Gleave

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About the Author

Caroline-Jayne Gleave grew up in Pity Me, a small suburb near Durham City and now lives in Esh Winning. She studied sciences at University of Durham and continued her studies to a postgraduate level.

She was very sporty when she was younger and in her early twenties she became an Olympian, her chosen sport being women's ice hockey. Now, she is a clothes designer and runs her own business from home. When she is not working or writing she enjoys movies, tv series, gaming and designing. You can find Caroline on Twitter @QissQasai and Facebook, as well as on her blog The Alkoryn Chronicles

Book Launch Guest Post ~ Unelmoija: The Spiritshifter by Elle Boca

Loi, an amplifier able to help young superhuman Weeia develop their abilities, is found dead of mysterious causes. Amy, like Loi, may be an amplifier. If she gets involved she might be next. Should she risk her life to help Weeia youth unlock their abilities? 

New on Amazon US and Amazon UK

The story and the series began with Amy. All along she has led me with her in her adventures and that of Unelmoija and the Weeia. I in turn share her story in the Weeia books in the hope that they entertain others. The idea was born of my interest in and enjoyment of urban fantasy books. I wanted to write a story with a strong woman lead in a contemporary real world (versus a fantasy world) environment. I also want to share a bit about the beautiful area where I live in the book. As far as I know this is the first urban fantasy set in Miami. While the city is famous around the world it remains in many ways undiscovered.

Over the course of the story, Amy becomes special, but all along she's the girl next door trusting and somewhat naive yet armed with great sympathy, generosity and courage. We ride along close up and personal thanks to her first person account from the day she discovers she's superhuman, meets her father for the firsts time, meets Duncan, the man who is her polar opposite yet is irresistibly attracted to her, and watch her falter, suffer and grow through some challenging and unexpected experiences while at the same time she discovers Miami, her new home.

From a bigger picture perspective, I like the idea of superhumans representing a possible next step in our evolution. Who are the Weeia? The Weeia (pronounced way-yah) are similar to you or me in most ways, except that they have superhuman abilities and live long lives. Fearing humans, they live hidden among us. Your neighbor, banker, boss or doctor, even a person you’ve known all your life could be Weeia. Their super abilities vary by type and strength. They fall into four main categories: Emotional, Material, Mental, and Temporal.

 Elle Boca

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About the Author

Elle Boca is the author of the Weeia urban fantasy series set in Miami, Florida in the United States. When not writing and creating fantastical beings she likes photographing nature and wildlife, eating baked goods, watching movies, and dreaming of going on safari. Find out more at her website elleboca.poyeen.com and find her on Twitter: @elleboca and Goodreads.