Blogging Authors

Friday, March 27, 2020

Book Video Teaser: UNEARTHING THE PAST by W.L. Brooks #bookteaser #bookvideo

thewriterslife 12:00 AM 0 Comments

BOOK BLURB:

A single mother and owner of the town diner, Charlie McKay couldn’t be happier with her life in Blue Creek. Taking care of everyone around her is a labor of love, but the secret she’s keeping about her daughter’s parentage lurks beneath the surface. With the scars of the past still not healed, Charlie isn’t interested in adding a man to her life, even if that man is the oh-so-tempting Craig Sutton.

Determined to own his own bar, as his father had, Craig Sutton is a man on a mission. But wanting to enjoy small town life is only one of the reasons he moved to the mountains of North Carolina. Whether meaning to or not, Craig can’t keep from getting involved with the McKay family, and the closer he gets to Charlie and her daughter the more entangled he becomes.

In Blue Creek secrets have always run deep, and someone is now trying to expose Charlie’s in a disturbing way. She isn’t the only one with something to hide, however, and deception threatens a possible relationship between her and Craig. As hidden truths are revealed and danger increases, Charlie must find a way to face the past or lose everything.

Amazon → https://amzn.to/2FTlM3J

W.L. Brooks was born with an active imagination. When characters come into her mind, she has to give them a life- a chance to tell their stories. With a coffee cup in her hand and a cat by her side, she spends her days letting the ideas flow onto paper. A voracious reader, she draws her inspiration from mystery, romance, suspense and a dash of the paranormal.
A native of Virginia Beach, she is currently living in Western North Carolina. Pick up her latest novel, The Secrets That Shape Us- available now!

Website: www.wlbrooks.com

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

Goodreads: https://bit.ly/2RAd0xl

Monday, March 23, 2020

Book Video Teaser: A Man's Late Night Thoughts by J. Richman #bookteaser #bookvideo

thewriterslife 12:00 AM 0 Comments

BOOK BLURB:

A MAN’S LATE NIGHT THOUGHTS by J. Richman is a creative and life-affirming collection of ponderings that expose the deep thoughts and feelings of a man who has lived a life full of diverse experiences and challenges. This uniquely constructed compilation of more than 300 reflections focuses on several areas of living, including intimate relationships and acceptance of human frailty, as well as the author’s internal conflicts.

A MAN’S LATE NIGHT THOUGHTS homes in on the complications inherent in intimate relationships from the opening pages of the book: “Problems accrue when we confuse how a woman looks with who she is.” Richman brings the perspective of a mature man to the lessons on love presented in the book, including, “Exploitation of another depreciates both parties,” and “The reason we fall in love with flawed people is that that’s the only kind of people there are.”

In addition to offering a brief study of intimate relationships, A MAN’S LATE NIGHT THOUGHTS probes human frailty and offers readers guidance in accepting this fact. “We must learn to be strong enough to be gentle,” brings into focus the need to deliberately work at treating people well. The author also encourages readers to show self-compassion when dealing with their own baggage: “Sometimes it’s difficult to see beyond the wreckage of our lives, but we must! Take heart! We are more than our mistakes.”

In A MAN’S LATE NIGHT THOUGHTS, Richman further challenges readers to take the reins of their lives when he says, “Name those things that you would do if you had no fear then do something about it.” He offers words of caution regarding political rhetoric: “Beware of politicians who whip up emotions to make us suspicious of others unlike us.” And rounds the book out by sharing his internal conflicts: “The world has bent me more than I have bent it”; “too often my logical mind and my emotional mind are hostile enemies”; “every time I look in the mirror, I expect to see a younger man.”

A MAN’S LATE NIGHT THOUGHTS began as a series of notes that Richman wrote to himself. “I found that if I do not write out my true, and often painful, thoughts and feelings, I do not deal with them.” Richman wishes a book like this one had been available when he was a boy because the knowledge enclosed could have assisted him in navigating his teenage and young adult years. He hopes A MAN’S LATE NIGHT THOUGHTS will assure men that they are not alone in their quiet musings. For women, Richman believes the book will provide a window into men’s unexpressed emotions.

ORDER YOUR COPY

Amazon → https://amzn.to/2RVEoqX

Barnes & Noble → https://bit.ly/3b7HaRo

Richman is the author of A MAN’S LATE NIGHT THOUGHTS, a collection of thoughts about life, relationships, and humanity.

Richman’s work history includes his service as an undercover intelligence officer in the US Air Force; later, he established a thriving business in real estate investment. For 16 years, Richman owned and operated Modify My Mortgage, a company that worked with homeowners to prevent foreclosures. His business success allowed Richman the time to pursue his passions, which included serving as the president of Nova, a workshop that provided work and life skills training for clients with disabilities; cofounding A Way Across, a drop-in center for teenagers with emotional and substance abuse problems; and fundraising for several more public service groups.

Richman enjoys writing and editing at night after allowing his ideas to blossom and expand during the day. The author is married with three sons and five grandsons.

Visit his website at http://www.amanslatenightthoughts.com/.

# Book Teaser Spotlights # Book Teaser Trailer

Intuition For All, But Does That Include People With Learning Disabilities? By Dr. Anne Watson @post_hypnotic

thewriterslife 12:00 AM 0 Comments

Intuition For All, But Does That Include People With Learning Disabilities?

By Dr. Anne Watson

So, the question put to me is, “Does everybody receive intuitions, messages from light?

Yes.

Everybody.

No one alive gets left out of the blanketing of beneficial intuitions sent to them all the time.

Like radio receivers, we are tuned into the energy field, sometimes called Source, Zero Point Field, the Akashic Field, the vibrational grid. Call it what you will, it is the non-Earthly plane where memories are stored, and from which thoughts and ideas originate and come to us as holographic messages in light. This is all explained in my book, FLASH! The Science Behind Intuition.

If we pay attention to these intuitions and do as they suggest, we get in harmony with the harmony vibrations these messages send to us, and our lives become easier, “like butter.” But, if we fight them, overrule them, forget about them, or even scorn them, things don’t go smoothly and we end up saying “Darn, I wish I had listened to my instinct” or “Why is everything going wrong for me?”

When I started to write FLASH! The Science Behind Intuition, I was puzzling about brain behavior in the children I taught who were Learning Disabled. A directed vision came along and in a flash I understood how LD kids could so frequently know the answer to a question or a problem and prepare to get it right, but due to neuronal derailing, get it wrong. The big puzzle of how their brains knew the questions in advance was suddenly solved. Intuitions, aided by a brain process called preafference, prime the brain for what is to come, before it arrives.

The problem with my LD kids (ADHD and Language Learning Disabilities) was not that they didn’t receive the incoming messages, but that the neural pathways being prepared to execute the commands too frequently glitched for them. The neuronal impulse derailed, or shunted off to an irrelevant or dead end spur. Misbehaved. Betrayed.

There are all sorts of things that can go wrong from inception to effection, from thought to action. Think about how these brain states will impact the carrying out of intuitions: anxious brain, busy brain, damaged brain, daydreaming brain, depressed brain, drugged-out brain, fearful brain, “i-mind” brain, lovestruck brain, stressed out brain, pressured brain, tuned out brain, and in the case of LD wrongly wired brain or physically damaged brain, and in severe cases of anencephaly, missing brain.

Some of these mind states can be temporary, while others are permanent or permanent until (miraculously) cured. Many of these mind states cause, or are caused by neuronal trains that loop or derail, instead of moving forward: they stall, stay in one place, or bounce around from one rumination to another, messing with the focused, alert, and calm state required to be open to intuition.

Therefore, while everybody receives intuitions, not all people can always effectively get in harmony with their messages. This is, unfortunately, true for people with LD.

What to do?

Train the Learning Disabled or otherwise glitching brain to come into a controlled, alert, focused mind state, through meditation and/or EEG neurofeedback training. Train long and hard. Train as if the harmony of the planets rests upon successful individual mind state control, for it does.

Anne Watson is a Canadian author and educator and co-author of So You Have to Go to Court! A Child’s Guide to Testifying as a Witness in Child Abuse Cases with Wendy Harvey. She was raised in England, trained as a teacher, and after starting teaching in Canada at Thistletown Regional Centre School for Emotionally Disturbed Children, she then taught in the Cayman Islands, the Bahamas, and in Palm Beach County USA. Just before beginning doctoral studies in Special Education Psychology at U. of T., she travelled right around the world. Once a doctor, she became a Prof at UBC and later at Trent U., then switched to doing psychoeducational assessments (CSI of the brain!). After 30 years of midnight oil reports and early morning parent meetings she retired to concentrate on writing and art. Her calling is to help people contact their Inner Voice – the Universe – by fast tracking open brain states using EEG devices, some of which can be glimpsed in a couple of scenes in her just finished movie, “A Thousand Reasons.” She has two successful adult kids and one almost grown up granddaughter.

WEBSITE & SOCIAL LINKS:

Website: http://www.dr.annewatson-russell.com

Publisher: www.posthypnoticpress.com

Twitter Link: @Post_Hypnotic

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DrAnneWatsonRussell

Publisher Facebook Link: https://www.facebook.com/PostHypnoticPress/

If we have intuitions (and we do) where do they come from? Where, in us, do they arrive? What, in us, allows us to receive and interpret them? And why? Why do we get them?
Fourteen years of research, often waiting for the science to catch up with a vision sent to me by the Universe, these questions are answered in lay terms for the wonderment and affirmation of those interested in energy from another plane.

Amazon → https://amzn.to/37U1Fi7

# Guest Posts

Friday, March 20, 2020

Character Interview: Monsterland's Wyatt Baldwin @#characterinterview

thewriterslife 12:00 AM 0 Comments

We are really excited to have Wyatt Baldwin here with us today at Blogging Authors! Wyatt Baldwin comes from the inside pages of Michael Okon's new book, MONSTERLAND. Take it away, Wyatt!

What is your name?

Wyatt Baldwin, not related to Alec.

What do you look like?

5’11. Black hair. Lanky. Normally wearing a cool vintage zombie shirt and jeans.

Where are you today and what are you doing?

Heading to the opening of that new theme park Monsterland with my best friends Melvin and Howard Drucker. We are meeting up with the cool kids, and my crush – Jade. What a better way to meet up at a theme park with real werewolves, vampires, and zombies? I’m going to have to prove to my friends how brave I really am.

You come face to face with your worse enemy. How do you react?

At this point in my life, I would freeze and walk away. But isn’t that how all protagonists begin at every story? Who knows what’s going to happen as my life progresses.

How would your parents describe you?

Well, my dad died a few years ago, they said it was an accident but I wasn’t too sure about that. My mom would call me a brilliant hypochondriac maybe. A nerd with a gift to convince anyone that zombies can beat werewolves or vampires seven days a week, and twice on Sunday. My stepfather Carter, well, who cares what he thinks.

Who is your best friend?

I have two, Melvin and Howard Drucker. We work together at Instaburger. You can call us the “outcasts” in Copper Valley, although I moved here recently, I feel like I’ve known them my entire lives. They got me, and we have this evergreen debate on which monster would win – werewolf versus vampire versus zombie. I’m in Team Zombie.

Are you faith-oriented?

After my father died mysteriously, I don’t know what to believe anymore.

Are you married or in a relationship?

Married at 18. Ha! Nope, just would love Jade to notice me. She’s the girl I’ve been longing for since I got to this small desert town.

Do you have children?

Nope. Will I ever? Hopefully with Jade, but you never know how life can change in an instant.

Inside the Book

Welcome to Monsterland—the scariest place on Earth.Wyatt Baldwin’s senior year is not going well. His parents divorce, then his dad mysteriously dies. He’s not exactly comfortable with his new stepfather, Carter White, either. An ongoing debate with his best friends Melvin and Howard Drucker over which monster is superior has gotten stale. He’d much rather spend his days with beautiful and popular Jade. However, she’s dating the brash high-school quarterback Nolan, and Wyatt thinks he doesn’t stand a chance. But everything changes when Wyatt and his friends are invited to attend the grand opening of Monsterland, a groundbreaking theme park where guests can interact with vampires in Vampire Village, be chased by werewolves on the River Run, and walk among the dead in Zombieville.With real werewolves, vampires and zombies as the main attractions, what could possibly go wrong?

Praise:

“Michael Okon crafts a fabulous novel with unique, unforgettable characters. …The world building was done fabulously. There were believable backgrounds that explain how it could be possible for there to be a world that had not only vampires, but also werewolves and zombies, excuse me, the vitality-challenged. It all comes together seamlessly as the plot lines converge to make for an explosive ending.” – Devouring Books 2017, blogspot
“I can assure you of this: you will not be disappointed. Nor will you sleep well at night for a while, either. But isn’t that the mark of a master storyteller! Hat’s off to Michael Okon” – Theodore Jerome Cohen, Author of “House of Cards: Dead Men Tell No Tales (Martelli NYPD, #2)”
“As this book deserves not only top of the New York Times bestseller list but on the big screen as well. The moment I began to read my world was transformed and I was living through the novel.” – Carey Hurst, Tales of A Wanna-Be SuperHero Mom
“First rate YA fiction with a monsterous twist. Highly recommended.” – Richard Schwindt, author of “The Death in Sioux Lookout Trilogy”
“Okon does a fantastic job of creating distinct personalities for the different monsters. The vampires are sly and cunning while the werewolves are weary and brooding. Even the zombies have some personality, albeit it’s only shown through thoughts they struggle to string together.” – Alejandro Ramos, medium.com
“I enjoyed the beautiful prose, the great characters, and the exciting plot. It’s hard to read this novel without getting emotionally involved.” – Divine Zape, Readers’ Favortie (Five Star Review)
“I think MONSTERLAND provides something different for the YA category that really isn’t otherwise present, not only in type of story but in teen/adult relationships.” – litbites.com, Blog Tour
“This book has a charm often lost in supernatural stories. Michael Okon sets a brilliant scene where you can hear and see the world coming to life before your eyes. You don’t read this book, you live it. .. Monsterland makes for a fun yet harrowing horror read, with injections of comedy, and masterful execution.” – K.J. Simmill (5 Star Review)

Monsterland Awards

2017 Readers’ Favorite Five Star Review
Feathered Quill Book Awards 2018 – Science Fiction/Fantasy – Second Place
Feathered Quill Book Awards 2018 – Teen Fiction, Graphic/Anime (13-18 years) – First Place
The Feathered Quill, The Write Companion Award for Best Overall Top Pick
2018 Shelf Unbound – Notable
2018 Readers’ Favorite Silver Medal Winner in the Young Adult – Horror genre
2019 International Book Awards – Fiction: Fantasy – Finalist
2020 Feathered Quill Book Awards – Gold/1st Place – Best of Backlist

ORDER YOUR COPY

Amazon → https://amzn.to/31KQKFy

Barnes & Noble → https://bit.ly/2SCCo5P

_____________________

Meet the Author

Deborah Serani is an award-winning author and psychologist who has been in practice for thirty years. She is also a professor at Adelphi University and is a go-to media expert for psychological issues. Her interviews can be found in Newsday, Psychology Today, The Chicago Tribune, The New York Times, The Associated Press, and affiliate radio programs at CBS and NPR, among others. Dr. Serani has also been a technical advisor for the NBC television show, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. The recurring character, Judge D. Serani, was named after her.

★WEBSITE & SOCIAL LINKS★

Website → https://www.drdeborahserani.com

Twitter→ https://twitter.com/DeborahSerani

Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/Dr-Deborah-Serani-227062310643715/

# CHARACTER INTERVIEWS

Tuesday, March 17, 2020

BOOK BLAST & GIVEAWAY: THE MOCKING MAN BY LESLIE GEORGESON @man_mocking #bookblast

thewriterslife 12:00 AM 0 Comments

We're happy to host the book blast for THE MOCKING MAN by romantic suspense author Leslie Georgeson. Leslie is giving away a $25 Amazon Gift Card. Be sure to enter on form below and good luck!

THE MOCKING MAN
By Leslie Georgeson
Romantic Suspense

THE PACT: Two friends. One pact. A dangerous plan with an elaborate deception. In a world where they must rely on each other to survive, how far will each of them go to honor the pact?
_____

The Mocking Man:

Deception.

Not a word I would have associated with myself fifteen years ago. Back then I was innocent and carefree, a teenage boy with big dreams.

Then my best friend Rafe was kidnapped, and my world fell apart. I foolishly thought I could save him.

I was wrong.

Now my entire life is a web of deceit. My every breath tainted by lies. I don’t like what I’ve become. But it’s essential for my very survival.

My job now is to stay in the shadows and keep Rafe’s sister Isabella safe. She can’t even know I’m here.

Then danger lurks closer. Somehow, I must protect her while keeping my secret.

But I get so caught up in my own twisted game that I eventually make a terrible mistake.

Now she’s a part of the pact. And I can’t let her go.

But what kind of life can I give her if I can never be anything more than the mocking man?

***This series is a romantic suspense duet. Book 1 is Alex’s story, and Book 2 is Rafe’s story. Each is a separate romance with an HEA (and no cliffhangers). However, events from book 1 lead to events in book 2. Therefore, it is recommended that they be read in order to get the full story. These books contain strong language, adult situations, and dark subject matters. Recommended for readers ages 18 and up.***

Amazon → https://amzn.to/2TLM1S0

Mr. Wilson could be watching me right now through the video surveillance he’d mentioned.
Be very careful, Izzy. You could go to jail if you get caught.  

My boss’s words about being unethical flashed through my mind. What I was contemplating now wasn’t ethical at all. It was dishonest. Wrong.

But I needed to find out if Alex was alive. I needed to find the mocking man. And I needed to do it today. So while Mr. Wilson slept, I was going to quietly snoop while I cleaned, and see if I could find something that might give me answers.

Video surveillance be dammed. If I moved around just right, carrying my supplies and acting like I was cleaning, then he wouldn’t know I was snooping, right?

A half hour later, I’d searched through this entire side of the villa and found no evidence suggesting Alex Davies might live here. Was I wasting my time here? Was Alex truly dead?

I tiptoed back into the kitchen. Then I went around past the sunroom area and down a separate hallway, checking each room. Nothing.

The last door to my right was closed. The sun wasn’t all the way up yet, so it was still a bit dark in the hallway. As I drew nearer, it became apparent the “closed” door actually stood slightly ajar. Just a crack. As if someone had forgotten to close it all of the way.

For some reason, that small opening called to me, saying, “Come check me out. There are secrets in here.”

And I fell for it. Hook, line, and sinker.

I gravitated toward the opening, eager to see beyond, taking no heed to my inner warnings that shrieked, curiosity killed the cat, Izzy. Be careful.

Gently pressing on the door, I pushed it open.

The room was shrouded in darkness, the curtains drawn.

A sense of eeriness crept over me as I tried to make out what I was seeing.

I stumbled back, a scream erupting from my throat.

What the…crap was that?

Leslie Georgeson writes romance and suspense, sometimes with a dash of sci-fi or paranormal tossed in to make things more interesting. She is the author of the military romantic suspense series, THE DREGS, which was nominated for the 2018 TopShelf Indie Book Awards. Her other titles include the UNLIKELY HEROES series, the UNDERNEATH series, the standalone romantic mystery, NO SON OF MINE, and the newly released romantic suspense duet, THE PACT. Book one, The Mocking Man, is now available on Amazon and book two, The Honest Liar, is scheduled for an early June 2020 release. Leslie lives with her husband and daughter on a quiet country acreage in Idaho.

WEBSITE & SOCIAL LINKS:

Website: http://lesliegeorgeson.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/lesliegeorgeson
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authorlesliegeorgeson/

Leslie Georgeson is giving away a $25 Amazon Gift Card!

Terms & Conditions:

By entering the giveaway, you are confirming you are at least 18 years old.
One winner will be chosen via Rafflecopter to receive one $25 Amazon Gift Card.
This giveaway ends midnight April 10.
Winner will be contacted via email on April 11.
Winner has 48 hours to reply.

Good luck everyone!

ENTER TO WIN!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

# Book Blasts

Monday, March 16, 2020

Book Teaser Trailer: We of the Forsaken World by Kiran Bhat #booktrailer #bookteaser

thewriterslife 12:00 AM 0 Comments

Title: we of the forsaken world
Author: Kiran Bhat
Publisher: Iguana Books
Pages: 216
Genre: Metaphysical Fiction / Literary Fiction

The Internet has connected – and continues to connect – billions of people around the world, sometimes in surprising ways. In his sprawling new novel, we of the forsaken world, author Kiran Bhat has turned the fact of that once-unimaginable connectivity into a metaphor for life itself.
In, we of the forsaken world, Bhat follows the fortunes of 16 people who live in four distinct places on the planet. The gripping stories include those of a man’s journey to the birthplace of his mother, a tourist town destroyed by an industrial spill; a chief’s second son born in a nameless remote tribe, creating a scramble for succession as their jungles are destroyed by loggers; a homeless, one-armed woman living in a sprawling metropolis who sets out to take revenge on the men who trafficked her; and a milkmaid in a small village of shanty shacks connected only by a mud and concrete road who watches the girls she calls friends destroy her reputation.

Like modern communication networks, the stories in , we of the forsaken world connect along subtle lines, dispersing at the moments where another story is about to take place. Each story is a parable unto itself, but the tales also expand to engulf the lives of everyone who lives on planet Earth, at every second, everywhere.

As Bhat notes, his characters “largely live their own lives, deal with their own problems, and exist independently of the fact that they inhabit the same space. This becomes a parable of globalization, but in a literary text.”

Bhat continues: “I wanted to imagine a globalism, but one that was bottom-to-top, and using globalism to imagine new terrains, for the sake of fiction, for the sake of humanity’s intellectual growth.”

“These are stories that could be directly ripped from our headlines. I think each of these stories is very much its own vignette, and each of these vignettes gives a lot of insight into human nature, as a whole.”

we of the forsaken world takes pride of place next to such notable literary works as David Mitchell’s CLOUD ATLAS, a finalist for the prestigious Man Booker Prize for 2004, and Mohsin Hamid’s EXIT WEST, which was listed by the New York Times as one of its Best Books of 2017.

Bhat’s epic also stands comfortably with the works of contemporary visionaries such as Umberto Eco, Haruki Murakami, and Philip K. Dick.

Order Your Copy

Amazon → https://amzn.to/2DQIclm

Barnes & Noble → https://bit.ly/2Lqe9Fi

Kiran Bhat was born in Jonesboro, Georgia to parents from villages in Dakshina Kannada, India. An avid world traveler, polyglot, and digital nomad, he has currently traveled to more than 130 countries, lived in 18 different places, and speaks 12 languages. He currently lives in Melbourne, Australia.