Scribblings Blog

My Time Travel & Psychic Mysteries Journey [Sharon Ledwith]

1/25/2023

The journey to publication wasn’t easy for me. In fact, it took me a great deal of time and effort to get to where I am now. So, let’s go back to 1995 when I got bitten by the writing bug during a Planning Your Novel college workshop I attended just for fun. One of the exercises I volunteered for still sticks in my mind. The teacher handed me three pennies, and I had to throw them into a waste basket one at a time. I managed to get all three coins in, shooting at different angles and distances. My teacher, Tom Arnett—a NYT bestselling author—was surprised at my luck because the norm was usually two pennies in. He explained that getting all the pennies in would suggest your (writing) goals would be too easy because the person threw them from a close distance. On the flipside, one penny in (throwing too far away) suggested having unrealistic expectations/goals about a career in writing.

You could say that this penny exercise set the bar for me, and gave me some hope in a field I knew absolutely nothing about. I ended up taking Tom’s night course, Starting your Novel, and from there the writing games began.

Trying to get published looked something like this:

Write a book (a shapeshifter paranormal romance) which took about 2 years, including research and learning the basics. Lots of sweat equity!
Attended a workshop where I met an agent, and handed her a query and outline, which piqued her interest. Our relationship vacillated for four years until we decided to go our separate ways.
Around 1998, I had a dream about seven Mayan-like arches. I saw five kids and two adults with crystals in their hands, walking toward these arches. It definitely had an Indiana Jones feel. So, I thought I’d challenge myself to write a young adult time travel series based on that dream, and called it The Last Timekeepers.
Had some luck with The Last Timekeepers when an agency and publishers showed interest. However, their interest was short-lived. Rejection, rejection, and more rejection.
In 2003, we sold our graphic trade business and house, and moved to our renovated cottage. There, I started a teen psychic mystery series entitled, Mysterious Tales from Fairy Falls.
I decided to try my hand as a participant in the 2007 Muskoka Novel Marathon. The idea is to write a novella or novel in three days, and the winner gets a chance at publication. During the course of the marathon, our dog died suddenly and I left, only to return the next day determined to finish writing my manuscript in time to submit. It was truly a bitter-sweet experience.
I needed a break from writing, so as a distraction, I worked as an animal care attendant at the local Animal Shelter for the next fourteen months. I wrote a whole book out of my animal shelter experience, and geared it for my teen psychic mystery series. To this day, I still have an emotional connection to this book because I based my animal characters on many of the real shelter animals I cared for.
In 2011, I decided to investigate eBooks and how to go about publishing them. I learned that many authors were being forced to wear two hats in these changing times; one for business, and one for writing. I started a blog in May 2011 to create an on-line presence.
Then, I entered the 2011 Muskoka Novel Marathon and met two writers who’d just signed publishing contracts. Their good fortune fed the fire within me.
This is where hard work and opportunity collide. One of those writers shared a link on Facebook, which I thought was her publishing company. But it wasn’t. It was the link to a new epublishing company calling for submissions. I sent out my query and got a reply within seven days—Musa Publishing wanted to see my manuscript. Excited, yet not getting my hopes up, I sent my young adult time travel manuscript in. They loved it, but wanted major revisions. I agreed, and they offered me a five book deal. Wow!
I signed the contract September 13th, 2011, with a release date of May 18th, 2012. Plenty of time for rewrites, and plenty of time to learn what’s expected of an author in this new paradigm of publishing.
Time travel to 2015 when Musa Publishing closed their doors permanently. That’s when Mirror World Publishing appeared out of the blue, and opened their doors to me. Not only did they take on The Last Timekeepers series, but in 2017 added Mysterious Tales from Fairy Falls to their expanding roster of young adult books. Woohoo!

Update to 2023: I’m happily juggling both series, while balancing my author life with all the promoting and marketing required to succeed in today’s publishing world. I’m truly living the dream! Thanks to Sassy Scribblers for allowing me to share my writing journey with your followers!

Here’s a glimpse of the premises of both my young adult series:

The Last Timekeepers Time Travel Adventures…
Chosen by an Atlantean Magus to be Timekeepers—legendary time travelers sworn to keep history safe from the evil Belial—five classmates are sent into the past to restore balance, and bring order back into the world, one mission at a time.
Children are the keys to our future. And now, children are the only hope for our past.

Mysterious Tales from Fairy Falls Teen Psychic Mysteries…
Imagine a teenager possessing a psychic ability and struggling to cope with its freakish power. There’s no hope for a normal life, and no one who understands. Now, imagine being uprooted and forced to live in a small tourist town where nothing much ever happens. It’s bores-ville from the get-go. Until mysterious things start to happen.
Welcome to Fairy Falls. Expect the unexpected.

Sharon's novels are available here: MIRROR WORLD PUBLISHING ׀ AMAZON ׀ BARNES & NOBLE

Sharon Ledwith is the author of the middle-grade/young adult time travel adventure series, THE LAST TIMEKEEPERS, and the award-winning teen psychic mystery series, MYSTERIOUS TALES FROM FAIRY FALLS. When not writing, reading, researching, or revising, she enjoys anything arcane, ancient mysteries, and single malt scotch. Sharon lives a serene, yet busy life in a southern tourist region of Ontario, Canada, with her spoiled hubby, and a moody calico cat.

SPECIAL BONUS! Download the free PDF short story The Terrible, Mighty Crystal HERE

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Finding Buzby Beach by DW Davis

12/28/2022

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My writing journey began when I was twelve years old when my seventh-grade language arts teacher complimented my writing ability. One of the pieces I wrote then was selected for the school literary magazine. It may not seem like a big deal, but that story was my first published work. It took another 35 years before I sat down and started on my first novel.

There were stops and starts along the way. During my first attempt at college, my composition professor encouraged my writing. Years later, after dropping out of school, working dead-end jobs, a hitch in the Army, and returning to school to get a business degree, I took up writing again at the urging of two of my college writing professors.

The story that grew to be my first novel, River Dream, and then the River Dream Trilogy, started as a short story about the time a storm caught my father and me while we were fishing along the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway near Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina. That story wouldn't stop morphing and growing. I kept asking myself questions about the characters' lives before and after the storm. In the end, the original story was edited out of the manuscript.

After the River Dream Trilogy set at Wrightsville Beach, I realized that creating a fictional town would allow me more independence in establishing a setting for my characters. Thus, Buzby Beach was founded.

I located Buzby Beach on an undeveloped island between Wrightsville and Carolina Beaches near Wilmington. The town and its familiar, reappearing characters have grown with each new Buzby Beach book.

The first draft of The Boy from Buzby Beach was my initial attempt to reach the NaNoWriMo Winner's Circle. Also, at my wife's suggestion, some might say insistence, I named the main characters after our family's dog and cat members at the time. Jacques, the main character, was named after my wife's French Brittany. Ginger was named after my youngest son's dog. The veteran of few words, Scout, got his name from my older son's dog. My cat, Joe, lent his name to the man who drove the bakery truck.

A good deal of the story was set inside Jacques's mother's coffee shop. Marie O'Larrity owned and operated what was, during the time The Boy from Buzby Beach took place, the only coffee shop on the island. She called her establishment the Parisian Bean. Marie's family history with the coffee business dates back to French Colonialism in Indochina. Opening a coffee shop after her alcoholic husband abandoned her and three-year-old Jacques was the natural thing for her to do.

My inspiration for the Parisian Bean was Janeen's Majik Beanz in Carolina Beach, North Carolina. Over the years, I have spent many hours sipping coffee and writing on my laptop in Majik Beanz during my visits to the beach.

The coffee shop is one of four businesses in a decades-old building along Sound Street, one of the island's three main north-to-south roads. The two-story building backs up onto the sound. The three other businesses include a sandwich and ice cream shop, a t-shirt and hat shop, and a bicycle rental store.

On the building's second floor are three apartments: two one-bedroom at each end and the two-bedroom apartment Jacques shares with his mother.

Across Sound Street from the Parisian Bean is the News Stand, a book and gift shop owned by Cienna's grandparents. Cienna visits the island every summer and is one of Jacques's best friends. The News Stand is modeled on Carolina Beach's Island Book Store.

Buzby Island also boasts a fishing pier, a high-class resort, a county park with a campground and freshwater lake that still puzzles scientists, an eclectic collection of restaurants, stores, shops, vacation homes, hotels, an arcade, and a small amusement park.

The most iconic spot on the beach is Iggie's Cheeseburgers and Onion Rings. This walk-up, take-out-only burger stand claims that its cheeseburgers were the ones Jimmy sang about but never have the owners specified which Jimmy. Iggie's is the only business besides the fishing pier allowed on the ocean side of Ocean Street. It has occupied the same piece of sand since the days before Ocean Street was paved and has been rebuilt numerous times after Atlantic storms knocked it down.

Over the years, readers have asked me for directions to Buzby Beach. With a smile, I tell them the only way there is to open one of my Buzby Beach books and dive in.

All the Buzby Beach novels can be found on Amazon in paperback, Kindle, and Kindle Unlimited.

DW Davis' Amazon Author page : amazon.com/author/dwdavis

You can click here to follow Douglas' blog, "The View from Buzby Beach."

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Putting Pen to Paper After Tragedy [Julie Elizabeth Powell]

11/23/2022

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Firstly, thank you for inviting me to your blog and to explain my writing journey.

I’m sure every writer’s journey is different, much dependent on lifestyle, circumstances, experiences and so forth. For me, I can only say that yes, I’ve always loved writing /reading stories but it wasn’t until what happened to my daughter, Samantha, that I seriously put pen to paper, not even knowing if it could be published.

My daughter was born with transposition of the main arteries (crossed the wrong way to the heart), a block value and other issues regarding the heart. She had a temporary surgery to keep her as healthy as possible, a few days old, then at eight months, Samantha has major heart surgery at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children in London. The surgery was a success and she continued to live a happy and healthy life, although, she did have to take heart medicine. Everything was going well until her heart stopped and she died for the first time when she was two and a half.

This was in the Eighties and the medical profession has come a long way since then, but in those days, there were no specialist paramedics but only ‘ambulance people’ who had reasonable skills but nothing like these days – the equipment was far more basic, too. The consequence was that Samantha was revived but too late by doctors, so all that was left was an empty shell; who she’d been had vanished.

Samantha existed in this state for seventeen years until she died for a second and final time.

You wonder what this had to do with my writing journey?

What happened to Samantha affected me so badly that even now, decades later, I am still broken, despite living a life as best as I can. One question haunted me during those waiting years – ‘Where had my daughter gone?’ Yes, her struggling body was there, but she didn’t know me, was completely helpless and suffering every day. Her mind, though, her joyful, beautiful personality had been wiped clean – so what happened to it?

The result was my book, Gone, a fantasy which attempted to answer that question. It, of course, had to be a fantasy because how else could these matters be addressed?

It was not an easy story to write, but I was pleased with the results. Gone was written while Samantha was still ‘alive’ and I’m not sure if it helped me or not, but I knew it had to be put down in words in the hope to find ‘hope’. But there wasn’t any hope as nothing could be changed. As a lover of fantasy, I do admit that I enjoyed the worlds I’d created and think, with amazement, how wonderful it would be if it were true. A place where minds go while waiting for bodies to die and then to move onto somewhere ‘else’?

Slings & Arrows, however, was written after Samantha died the second and final time, seventeen years after her first death. This book is a non-fictional account of those terrible years.

Writing helped keep my mind occupied away from ‘real life’; its misery, sadness and difficulties. After those two difficult books, I explored other genres – fantasy being my favourite because I can make up the things I wanted to make possible. So as not to become bored, I expanded my writing net and produced genres such as crime thrillers, humour, paranormal, science-fiction, exploratory (‘what if’ stories), mystery adventure, horror, post-apocalyptic and others. I wrote for both adults and children.

The Avalon Trilogy was actually brought to life from Gone – I couldn’t let go of those worlds and knew how much fun it would be to turn it into a fantasy adventure for a younger readership. The story became so large that I had to divide it into three parts – The Star Realm, Invasion and Secrets Of The Ice.

I know that I have no actual experience of fantasy worlds, but my imagination can reach into ideas that even surprise me and yet they are rooted in experiences; either personal or something I’ve read, for example.

Knowing Jack was sparked by son’s incredible intuition, yielding a mystery adventure for twelve-year-olds (ish). I think all my stories would be appreciated by most age groups, if they are open to phenomenon and imagination. I love to provoke thinking – ‘Could that happen, do you think it did?’

I love to read, an essential part of writing, I believe. Fantasy is an expansive subject and can be fun to read and write. For things like crime thrillers, I do have to check some facts and I am fascinated by why humans do what they do; the psychology is captivating.

The mind, especially after what happened to Samantha, is of particular interest to me; memory, character, personality, motives and so forth. I wrote Lost Shadows because of this fascination. There are numerous reasons for the mind to be damaged and memory is key to who we are, in my opinion, therefore, if it was lost…

This writing journey has been decades long, however, since my husband died (two years ago but feels like today), I’ve been unable to control the overwhelming feeling that now comes if I try to bring a story to life. The ideas are still there, only when I sit at the PC, the words tumble and swish in time with grief and I have to stop. Anguish over Samantha and her torturous life has never left me and now with Trevor gone (that’s a long story in itself. We met again after thirty-seven years and were together for only eleven), life is a painful voyage without relief. I did write a fantasy romance about us before he died and he enjoyed reading it – it’s called Changing Angels. I’m so glad he read it.

I’m not sure how my writing journey will end. I’d love to be able to sell my books, too, ha! I did manage a story called Soul Light earlier in the year, which is a mix of poems and stories that are related, where characters live in an unusual town. I’ve been asked to be part of an anthology based on a particular topic inspired by photographs, and I hope I can do it. I’ve noted some ideas and even started a couple of stories but… Who knows what life will bring; I can only wait and see.

I cannot ignore my dreams, so many of them, with names and places and ideas that spark my imagination and compel me to write; to create stories, whether fantasy or horror, or mystery or psychological thriller or murder or even humour and adventure. So, my garden is sown, flourishing, with all manner of growth, and still the dreams come.

Julie Elizabeth Powell, my soul lingering within my imagination; maybe you’ll join me?

Author Pages:
Amazon USA page:
http://goo.gl/cT0DCK

Amazon UK page:
http://goo.gl/XK8TOj

Website: - http://julizpow.wix.com/julieelizabethpowell

Facebook Page:
https://www.facebook.com/julieelizabethpowellsbooks

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K.S. (Kat) Brooks: Carrying On the Legacy of Mr. Pish

10/5/2022

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Everyone knows the fastest way to a destination is a straight line. But what fun would that be? A start-stop, zig-zag, topsy-turvy journey keeps us on our toes.

My affair with writing started when I was old enough to hold a crayon. My first work of fiction was in kindergarten, I believe. My two-paragraph “report” about our field trip to the arboretum involved getting my foot stuck in a rabbit-hole and being left behind because I found the trip too boring despite learning about lichen for the first time. By fourth grade, I was writing stories about tropical islands shaped like a panther’s head where animals could talk. Then, at 15, I wrote my first screenplay, a historical fiction epic about a fifth musketeer. I wrote an action-adventure novel a few years later about an anti-terrorist agent, and I knew, despite working full-time in the high-technology industry, that being a writer was in my heart.

But you know, a girl’s gotta eat, so I kept working my way up the corporate ladder until I was director of operations at a small internet start-up company. Destiny decided it was time for me to do what I was supposed to be doing, and all the pieces started to fall together: I sold my house, I moved somewhere more conducive to writing, and a friend sent me information about a new publisher opening house in Chicago.

After banging up against the velvet rope of traditional publishing for decades, this new publisher accepted my novel. I’d finally “made it.” Then, I got a call from a small indie publisher wanting to handle my eBooks. I went from zero to two publishers in the course of one summer.

The move that changed everything was the one to Washington State in 2008. Living in the wilderness was where I needed to be and, within a few years, I had turned out suspense novels, romantic comedies, romantic suspense, writing prompt photo books, and the biggest surprise to me: an entire series of children’s books.

What better way to share the world around me and all the amazing things I got to see while traveling than with an adorable dog? Mr. Pish is the star of about 10 educational children’s picture books, an all-ages activity book, an app, and 14 years of calendars. Writing through the precious pooch’s eyes has given me such a wonderful opportunity to learn from a different point of view, and his philosophy that “Everywhere I am is the best place ever” is something that’s made me a happier person.

When he passed away at the age of 16 in 2013, my heart broke, plain and simple. While I still traveled and kept his thoughts in mind at each place I visited, it was too hard for me to write without him there. Having the little guy in my lap, laying his head across my keyboard, and getting me up off my butt to take him for walks is still missed, and I imagine always will be. I was never a little dog person, but he managed to win me over. I always say, “Little dog, big personality,” and nothing could be more true about him.

I am literally just now getting back to carrying on his legacy with books that teach kids history, geography, geology, and whatever else interesting he happens to discover about the places “we” visit. It’s still hard, though.

A mother once came to me and told me that her son, who was 13, refused to read. But one day, they were on Mr. Pish’s YouTube channel, watching one of the silly videos we had made together, and the boy became engrossed with my little guy. The mom seized that opportunity and gave him a Mr. Pish book, and she swears that is the only reason her son is now reading. I’ve heard similar stories from other parents that Mr. Pish’s books helped spark their sons’ interest in reading. As I think about those kids, and as I talk with teachers and sit in on school district events doing my job as a photojournalist, I see opportunities where Mr. Pish’s insights could be helpful to our next generations. And I know I need to get back to it, because he is needed.

Oddly, I always saw myself as a spy novelist and never imagined that I would achieve my dream of having thousands of people reading my writing and seeing my photography through children’s books or writing for newspapers.

While getting back on the Mr. Pish bicycle is daunting, I want to honor my sweet boy. He’s in my heart, and on my mind – now I just have to concentrate on getting him back onto paper.

Learn more about Kat's and Mr. Pish's adventures:

http://ksbrooks.com

http://mrpish.com

facebook.com/authorksbrooks

Mr. Pish’s amazon author
page: https://amzn.to/3S8uTB4

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Donna Ball Talks About Her New Series

9/28/2022

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Those of you who read my blog (www.donnaballblog.com) know that one of my favorite quotes is from Stephen King: “There is only one story: A stranger comes to town.” In UNFIXABLE: A Buck Lawson Mystery, (Book One of the Blood River Series) a stranger comes to the little town of Mercy, Georgia, almost gets himself arrested during a convenience store robbery, and turns out to be the new chief of police. His name is, of course, Buck Lawson, and he is no stranger to the many devoted readers of the Raine Stockton Dog Mystery Series, which has been going strong for over fifteen years now.

Buck, the often exasperated, ever devoted ex-husband of Raine Stockton, was an enormously popular character with readers. In fact, when I took a poll some time back about whether Raine should marry her new, rich boyfriend or go back to Buck, the results were enormously in Buck’s favor—despite the fact that he had cheated on her not once, not twice, but three times (that we know of!) About five books ago I came to realize that Buck needed to have his own series. After several years and a lot of struggles, this is what I came up with:

Former Hanover County Sheriff Buck Lawson leaves the mountains of North Carolina to take a job as the police chief of the small South Georgia town of Mercy, and soon finds himself in over his head. For one thing, his predecessor has been murdered...
Leaving behind two failed marriages and a job that almost cost him his life, all Buck wants for himself and his new family is a fresh start. But Mercy is a town with a past as dark as the Blood River that runs through it, and the crime that resulted in the death of the beloved former chief of police may have its roots in an evil that goes back generations.

Buck discovers he has inherited an unsolved homicide, a house that may well be haunted and a police department that is almost certainly corrupt. It falls to Buck to free an innocent man and bring the former police chief's killer to justice while he wades through the quagmire of incompetence and dishonesty that permeates his office. His only true ally, Buck comes to understand, is the dead man himself.

Blood River, as the name might imply, is a slightly edgier type of mystery than my readers are used to, and I felt I was taking quite a chance nudging them out of their comfort zone. Moreover, I had to take a secondary character from a very popular ongoing series and make him substantial enough, and interesting enough, to carry his own series. Buck played a pretty important role in the Raine Stockton series, but the truth is we didn’t know that much about him. In previous books, he’d been portrayed as a basically good guy with some rather substantial flaws. We knew he was naturally charming and popular with just about everyone. He had a reputation as a philanderer, which cost him the love of his life. Women, dogs and children loved him. He had strong leadership qualities, and he didn’t mind breaking the rules now and then. And that’s basically it– not a lot to go on when it comes to building a three-dimensional character. But when you also consider the fact that in the past two years Buck had lost his mother, a child, and two wives; that he had changed jobs twice, left town and returned, and almost died in a shooting incident, there were plenty of questions left answered.

I began to discover who Buck was by exploring what he experienced behind the scenes in the Raine Stockton books, and how that shaped him into the kind of man who was ready to take on a town like Mercy. One of the tenets of good storytelling is to start your story at the moment of change. Buck Lawson is one of those rare characters who had the courage to change his life. UNFIXABLE begins when he decides to do so.

UNFIXABLE has the same humor, atmospheric setting, quirky characters and unexpected twists that readers have come to expect from me, only more of everything. It’s not a cozy. It’s not a dog mystery. But it may well be my favorite book of the past ten years.

UNFIXABLE is available now in Kindle, paperback and audio.

The prequel, THE JUDGE’S DAUGHTER (Raine Stockton Dog Mystery #15) will be released Sept. 29 and is available from Amazon.com. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B8WGLWN3.

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Learning to Dance with Subtle Energy

9/21/2022

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I was inspired to write The Mechanics of Advanced Meditation to share the joy I discovered after many years of meditating to relieve headaches. It became clear that certain techniques resulted in consistent success in both relieving headaches and healing injuries. It is hard not to want to share the joy of pain relief and tell other people about it. Finding ways to relieve pain without the help of pain medicine is a difficult thing for people to respond to since they are often looking for the quickest solution that requires the least effort. It was difficult to find the right way to discuss the topic in a short conversation, but it was also difficult to see people suffering needlessly.

I wrote this book to share certain techniques that resulted in consistent success in both relieving headaches and healing injuries. It became clear that the method could not be shared in a quick conversation, so a book seemed the like best way to describe the process. The book provides techniques that anyone can use to focus their energy on injuries for extended periods of time. This method causes the body to accelerate healing in that area. There are many books available to encourage meditation for help relieve stress, but that is as far as the instruction goes. I wanted to get past the surface benefits of stress relief to show how to go deeper into healing.

The book lays out instructions that anticipate the stumbling blocks encountered when focusing for long periods of time. Various techniques are revealed to help the reader ride through the distractions and remain focused on the task. The method was not just intended to relieve stress but is more like weightlifting and will cause the body to heat up and sweat. It is not a quick fix, and it requires personal effort, but the method provides lasting healing.

The process of healing is very dynamic and requires small adjustments to be made rapidly, much like driving a car. The book breaks down the mechanics of the process and then ties the tools together. This helps the reader identify what is happening in real time and provides tools to make the needed adjustments. The effort builds momentum in the energy that accelerates the healing.

There are no special beliefs needed because the subtle energy, is the same energy that makes muscles move. It doesn’t take much thinking to move a finger, but that same energy focused for extended periods of time accelerates healing. This sounds simple enough but maintaining focus can be a challenge. Changing focus too often dissipates the built-up momentum so it is important to remain focused. A top athlete makes a consistent effort over multiple hours to complete a workout, and the same is true for healing.

To avoid accidents a driver repeats things like checking speed and watching the road ahead. This requires a bit of training and more focus the faster the car goes. This method of meditation uses this same focus and energy to drive the body to heal faster. The more energy and focus being applied, the faster the body heals. Just like in a car, as momentum builds it becomes more important to remain focused.

A handle is a concept used to define a focus. Similar to using a microscope or binoculars it requires holding the body in a particular configuration. The benefit of seeing through binoculars requires accepting limited movement to keep the target in focus. A handle defines the limitations so the person can hold the focus. Working within the handle keeps the energy moving consistently over long periods of time. The handle becomes familiar like a repeatable muscle memory. Developing many handles allows energy to flow from multiple directions to the same target. The energy flowing to a particular area accelerates healing.

I realized that this method could be shared with others much like a fitness coach shows students the best techniques to success. The next step was to compile the method into a book I could share. Although I have a lot of experience creating technical documents, this was a bit of a different experience. The book was written from a technical point of view but contains many analogies to make it easier for the reader to relate to the concepts. I want to give a special thanks to Rose Freeland and her team that helped me complete this book with her wonderful artwork. Her great insights into the art world created the images that I hope will inspire the reader’s imagination. The human imagination is a powerful tool when it can be focused on a particular task such as healing.

Andrew King

https://www.instagram.com/andrewkingauthor/
https://www.facebook.com/AndrewKingSubtleEnergy
https://www.facebook.com/subtleenergybooks
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/20979492.Andrew_King
https://subtleenergybooks.com/
https://linktr.ee/AndrewKing_Subtleenergy
https://www.amazon.com/Mechanics-Advanced-Meditation-Learning-Subtle/dp/B088N444W7/

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Yvonne Hertzberger Shares Her Fantasy Journey

9/14/2022

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When my dear friend Greta asked me to write a post and suggested I tell the story of my writing journey it could not have come at a better time. After completing my fifth novel, I needed a break … but maybe I should start at the beginning.

Waaaay back, when I retired from paid work and decided I had a story to share I researched getting published. What I learned sent me on the path to self-publishing as I discovered that finding a traditional publisher who would edit, create my cover and promote me was unlikely in the extreme. Nor was I willing to give up control of my work to a publisher that would have me fit their idea of what sells.

Since I had neither the confidence nor the knowledge to go it alone, I sourced out “assisted publishing”. That led me to sign a contract with iUniverse, which turned out to be a vanity publisher that only wanted my money. After my three years were up, having learned a thing or two, and when I was ready to publish my second novel, I got my first book back and republished it with a different cover and some fresh edits. I self-published with both Amazon and Smashwords. Amazon has both paper and e-versions, Smashwords offers only e-books but in several formats. (They have recently merged with D2D. which will offer a paper option.)

Some writers are far more prolific than I. It takes me two to three years to get a new novel out. Much of what I learned along the way came from other writers, from Indies Unlimited (a wonderful group that supports Indie authors), Sandra Beckwith and several others. I owe them a lot.

Things went fairly smoothly with the Earth’s Pendulum trilogy and my fourth book, Labyrinth Quest. I had an editor who became a friend, great cover designer and formatter. Life was good. That changed with the fifth book, Altered Destinies. The man who did my formatting died. My editor retired. Many other smaller issues crept in. I became very discouraged.

My books all fall into the Fantasy category, with the first four including elements of magic realism. They all take place in “old world” societies, (all but Labyrinth Quest) in a world similar to late Norman or early Medieval times, but with strong female characters who explore non-traditional roles.

Character and character development are key for me, secondary to plot and setting, though those are important, too. I am most proud of the fourth book, Labyrinth Quest. I reread it recently and discovered, to my surprise

that M’rain, the protagonist, is so much like me it’s scary. Haha. The Earth’s Pendulum trilogy has my favourite character, Klast. Can a spy and an assassin be a good guy? If you read Back From Chaos, I think you’ll fall in love with him. I’m told women do – and men respect him.

My most recent book, Altered Destinies, departs from the magic realism angle. It takes place in a world re-emerging from a near-total apocalypse. Unlike many of these, which are dystopian, this is a book of hope with society struggling not to make the mistakes of the past.

While I was writing Altered Destinies, I also began my memoir. My life has been, shall we say, challenging, so my history of abuse and recovery might offer hope to someone else facing similar issues. I let that go for a while as it became difficult to revisit some of those times. Now I think I am ready to take up the torch again.

Anyone know how to write a memoir? Just kidding.

You can check out Yvonne's website here: https://yvonnehertzberger.com/

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A Fistful of Redemption: The Odyssey of a Friendship [TS Snow]

9/7/2022

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I wrote my first novel when I was seven, typed on a portable Underwood typewriter I received as a Christmas gift. It was a story about a horse, because I was crazy about horses and though I don’t ride now, I still love those beautiful creatures.

In high school, I was on the school newspaper, writing —what else?— book reviews, and in college, my beat was the theater and drama department. It wasn’t until I was a true adult, with a family of my own that I seriously contemplated writing a novel. Even then, I had no desire to submit the manuscript anywhere. They were written mostly for my own edification—and the entertainment of friends—and also to get the story out of my head so I could go on to something else.

My submitting a novel anywhere only happened because a coworker dared me to send the manuscript of the story becoming Book 2 of the GodChosen series to a publisher. I went to a local bookstore and asked a clerk to look up the address for a certain publisher in their catalogue. I sent the story to the address she gave me. It was rejected, because the publisher’s genre was for children’s novels. The clerk wasn’t very alert; she gave me the address of the wrong publisher. They asked if I had such a story. I replied I did. They asked to see it. I sat down and wrote the story becoming Spacedogs’ Best Friend, later released as Hot Diggity Spacedogs.

More about that another day. Right now, back to the GodChosen...

The Twilight of the GodChosen has an unusual history in that, as mentioned above, it’s Part 2 of an earlier series. GodChosen, Part 1, is the story of a man told by the gods he’s to be the father of a dynasty that will rule the planet Arcanis for 3000 years. Twilight is about the man who brings about the end of that dynasty.

Part 1 is a sword and sorcery saga; Part 2 has been classified as Science Fiction, space opera, and futuristic romance. It’s all those to be sure, but it’s something more. It’s the story of a friendship between two men … a bromance if you will, the “Buddy Story” of a haughty Arcanian prince who’s recently bitten the dust and the upstart Terran youngster who becomes his best friend, as well as the extent to which each will go in the name of that friendship.

In each of the seven stories in the series, this is pointed out, even in the novels in which either doesn’t figure prominently.

For example, in the first novel, Noble Sinner, Miles Sheffield is five-years-old and is mentioned as a mere footnote. Twenty years later, in A Span of Longing, after two decades of being exiled and learning how the lowest of the low live, Aric finally meets his lover Elizabeth’s younger brother, and it isn’t so much a meeting as a collision. Within two minutes of their introduction, they’re duking it out, exchanging fisticuff, and beating each other into unconsciousness.

It takes a near-death experience to end their animosity, though along the way, they mellow a little toward each other. Aric remembers his long-ago relief at knowing he wouldn’t have to babysit a five-year-old during his parents’ visit to his planet, but realizes he’s now fulfilling that same position as he mentors the young Terran, and he wonders if this is how it feels to have a younger brother. When tragedy strikes, he’s there for Miles. When he decides to return to Arcanis and try to regain his citizenship, facing possible death in doing so, Miles is by his side, confident in his ability to prevent the latter from happening.

Aric and Miles are always there for each other. They may bicker and have their little flare-ups but—hey, don’t all couples?

The two might be called the Starsky and Hutch of the SF world. Their story spans almost 40 years…of fights, marriages, births, and deaths, laughter, despair, and sarcasm…plenty of sarcasm. Wives and kingdoms may come and go, but Miles is always there for Aric and vice versa. As the old song says, Wherever we go, whatever we do, we’re gonna go through it together. (Thank you, Stephen Sondheim!)

In A Fistful of Redemption, the two are going on one last adventure. It may not be the one they expect but it’s definitely appropriate. Friends to the End and all that. This time, it’s about forgiveness and regaining one’s mental equilibrium after a devastating tragedy, a tragedy each man believes he might have prevented if he’d been more caring and considerate of his wife and children. Now, Aric has to learn to forgive himself before he can accept the happiness being offered to him while Miles’ redemption has to come through the Terran courts.

After this, I insist Aric kan Ingan and Miles Sheffield will settle down. After all, they’re both grandfathers now, but being the friends they are, when one finally rides off into the sunset, undoubtedly the other will be running to catch up.

A Fistful of Redemption, Book 7 of The Twilight of the GodChosen, is published by Aethon Books. It is available in Kindle and paperback through amazon.com
https://www.amazon.com/Fistful-Redemption-Space-Twilight-Godchosen-ebook/dp/B09RPHBL3Y/

FInd out more about Toni:
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/Welcome-to-the-ToniVerse-1900908046884512/?modal=admin_todo_tour
Amazon Author’s Page:
https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B002BLQBB8
Twitter: @ToniVSweeney

Toni V. Sweeney has lived 30 years in the South, a score in the Middle West, and a decade on the Pacific Coast and now she’s trying for her second 30 on the Great Plains.

Since the publication of her first novel in 1989, Toni divides her time between writing SF/Fantasy under her own name and romance/paranormal/adventures under the pseudonyms Tony-Paul de Vissage, Icy Snow Blackstone, and TS Snow. She is also on the review staff of the New York Journal of Books, is an amazon reviewer, and is in the 1% of reviewers for Goodreads. In 2016, she was named a Professional Reader by netgalley.com.

Currently, Toni has written 85 novels, with 79 of them having been published. This includes several series.

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Yeah, But I Didn't

8/31/2022

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The following story is about yours truly. Some bits have been exaggerated. That’s what I do,
take a kernel of truth and butter it until it’s palatable.
The part I didn’t say at all is not told here. It’s told in my novel,
YEAH, BUT I DIDN’T.
I wrote that one a few years ago, when I finally felt far enough away to know
that I wouldn’t spontaneously combust when the words hit the page.
That book holds all the truths.
Well, most of them, anyway.

Many years ago, a young girl sat at her open bedroom window late one night after she should have been fast asleep. The wind blew dusty spirals of red earth down the center of the wide, deserted street. Her small town slept as only small West Texas towns will. Not even a stray dog or cat haunted the moonlit scene.

What’s out there, the young girl wondered. And why do I feel like I’m missing it? An emptiness had begun to gnaw at her from somewhere deep inside. She didn’t know the name of that feeling, couldn’t put it into words at all, but she was determined to try.

The very next morning, school pencil clutched in one slender hand, the girl wrote her first story. The main character turned out to be a questing teen a few years older than herself—old enough to stick out a thumb and catch a ride.

Her pencil flew across the page, from sharp graphite point to soft, smeary nub. All day long the girl gave life to the feelings tormenting her. Characters came and went. The pink eraser shrunk. The main character traveled on.

Eventually the girl wrote enough words.

She felt better. Her main character had made it all the way across the country, away from the things that constituted real life.

There were tons of gaps in that first story, but the girl had done it. She had temporarily filled the gaping maw within her soul. Filled it up with words she learned from always being a library rat. From Mary Stewart’s Crystal Cave, to Richard Adams’ Watership Down, to Richard Bradford’s Red Sky at Morning, she’d built up a cache of words.

Later, she won a prize for her writing. At the award ceremony she had to stop—just before going on stage to read the tale aloud—and ask her teacher how to pronounce writhing. Even though she’d written it, she’d never heard it spoken.

“Is it a long i or a short i sound,” she asked the teacher? She felt ridiculous not knowing. But this was eons before Google. And she’d never thought to look it up in her Webster’s. After all, she knew the meaning. She had read it in her library books.

Years later, she returned to sit at the New Releases table in the local bookstore, a stack of to-be-signed-books at her elbow. Her old teacher approached and pulled out an early copy of his own. Without preamble he said, “I suppose you live in New York now.”

She grasped the book he laid before her. “Why no,” she replied. “Not at all.” She sensed he wanted to say more. “Do you still write?” She recalled how vividly he had read aloud his poetry one day in class.

He shrugged. “I still dabble,” he said. “But every year I tell my new students about you. About how you didn’t know the pronunciation of a word even though you knew its meaning. And about how that never slowed you down.” He tapped her book title with his forefinger. “Writhing at the Door,” he read. “That was the word, writhing. I’ll never forget it.”

His voice softened. “Your book already has a special place on the shelf in my classroom. I tell the kids you followed your dreams to New York where you live in a loft apartment overlooking Central Park. I’ve made up a whole writing life for you, thinking you’d never return here to Backwater, Texas.”

She opened the cover, laughing. “Thank you. To be the main character in someone else’s made-up story truly makes me happy.”

The teacher relaxed. “I’m glad you don’t mind.”

“I feel like a star,” she said, thinking of her sweet little apartment in Dallas, not so far away. She wasn’t rich. Didn’t have a blockbuster novel, but she had a loyal following, and the words still filled the spaces inside her soul.

She took up her pen. On the flyleaf of her very first novel, she wrote:

Mr. D--
Thank you for not making a simple high school scribe feel like a fool.
All my best,
B--

And that is the story of my first story. And this one as well.

August 2022
Ann Swann (Formerly known as Benji)

Yeah, But I Didn’t by Ann Swann

Benji Stevens is 14 years old when her world falls apart. Betrayed, bullied, and battered emotionally, physically, and spiritually, her life spirals out of control. She is certain there is nowhere to turn and nothing to live for. Yet in the midst of the darkness there appears an array of hope in the form of her crazy uncle, her single mom, and a host of other characters she never dreamed would be there to help. When she is forced to join the Yeah, but I Didn’t therapy group, Benji is finally able to confront her inner demons and embrace her own self-worth.

Author website: https://www.authorannswann.com
Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/pj5uc9j3
Facebook: www.facebook.com/annswann.books
Goodreads: http://tinyurl.com/6vuw7vl
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ann_swann
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/annswann.author/

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Penulis [Writer]

8/24/2022

2 Comments

I am Ey (“E”) Isadora-Lyphe Wade. Penulis. Author. Inventor. My motto: "Life is Inspirational." I tend to see myself as a rambler in conversation and thinking. A scrambler of thoughts and words without designated paths that always end up telling a good story. I have never been able to conform my writing style to any specific pattern and more often than not, I’m working on one story, using the same pen I’ve used for the past fifteen years, when the characters from another will just be dying to get my attention and I run off into their world. Which is why I write in varied genres from creative nonfiction, thriller, romance, YA, women’s fiction to children’s picture books. I have so much to say.

So, knowing me as an author is like cracking an egg’s shell in the air and wondering how far the splatter will spread. Pretty much the same with knowing me as a person. I’m like all over the board and always working on three to five projects at a time. I have no favorite spots to work, and my view tends to be pointed at the keyboard. When an idea comes into my head, I just flow with it. Which is one of the things that brought me to writing my creative nonfiction history book, Beads on a String – America’s Racially Intertwined Biographical History. I’d become frustrated with all the racial divisions and wanted something that celebrated us all, so I dove into researching America’s diverse history. Because I started off writing the book with the intention of teaching my own children to be tolerant, informed, and proud of all who are American and contributed to this country’s growth – I am humbled and thankful for the encouragement and praise of the readers who have given me feedback. The most impressive words came from a young history enthusiast, Gage Bailey:

My name is Gage Bailey, and I am fourteen years old. I really liked the fact that the author added so much more information in this book, more than you can find in the textbooks we get in school. The title is perfect. There are more than just "Americans" who helped to make the history of our country and I think it is sad that we don't get to hear about them at school. We are all beads on the same string, and everything we do, no matter how big or small, makes history.

The only thing I wish is that the author would have added more of her opinion in the book. I do realize it is non-fiction, but I would have liked to know more about what she thought when she was researching and writing it. What she as surprised as me to find out such important and interesting facts? I really liked this book and I recommend it to anyone who loves History!

Because of Gage, I am able to remember and express the myriad of emotions I encountered while researching for Beads on a String – America’s Racially Intertwined Biographical History. There was joy, amazement, sadness, and quite a bit of anger garnered. You can't even imagine how excited I was while penning the invention section and learned it was a Black man who invented the super soaker. The simple water filled toy that brought us through a lot of hot summers. I can't think of a race that does not love to play with one of those.

To Gage I responded: I guess in essence you can say my love and enthusiasm for Beads on a String – America’s Racially Intertwined Biographical History can be compared to playing a good game of hide and seek with a loaded water gun at my side. The anticipation of something new being around the corner, the trepidation of running into the unexpected blast of knowledge and last, but not least, I feel the rush of triumph over the hidden enemy – ignorance and discrimination. No matter what anyone says, I love this book, I love America. With all of her faults and the many angry voices trying to tear her down, I believe in the people ... our beads.

So, that’s me and my writing life in a nutshell. To find me, I'm no farther than a click away. Visit my webpage: Into the Deep Please explore my other writings at my Amazon Author Page and all other major booksellers. If you like trailing behind, you can follow me on twitter @Read_EyBooks or on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

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My Time Travel & Psychic Mysteries Journey [Sharon Ledwith]

Finding Buzby Beach by DW Davis

Putting Pen to Paper After Tragedy [Julie Elizabeth Powell]

K.S. (Kat) Brooks: Carrying On the Legacy of Mr. Pish

Donna Ball Talks About Her New Series

Learning to Dance with Subtle Energy

Yvonne Hertzberger Shares Her Fantasy Journey

A Fistful of Redemption: The Odyssey of a Friendship [TS Snow]

Yeah, But I Didn't

Penulis [Writer]

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