Interview with Sonya Weiss, author of Stealing the Groom - Win Prizes!

ABOUT STEALING THE GROOM

 
Title: Stealing the Groom
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Author: Sonya Weiss
Publisher: Entangled Bliss
Language: English
Format: Ebook

Friends don’t let friends marry the wrong woman…
Chad Walker may be a take-no-chances man with a plan, but there’s no way Amelia Snyder is going to let her best bud marry Mean Girl #1—even if the wedding is solely so he can secure the controlling shares in his family’s company. But free-spirited Amelia’s at-the-altar groomnapping scheme takes a surprising turn when she ends up as the blushing bride instead. Suddenly, with Amelia living in her handsome husband’s home—in his bedroom, no less—she starts to reconsider their strictly platonic arrangement. But Chad’s always been anti-risk and definitely anti-love, and betting a lifetime of best friendship on the chance at forever might be the biggest gamble of all.

AMAZON

How has your upbringing influenced your writing? 

My father was someone who never stopped dreaming.  He wasn’t afraid to chase his dreams no matter what anyone else said about those dreams. He always made life an adventure with a lot of unusual experiences for us and I think that influenced my writing.

When and why did you begin writing? 

I started writing as soon as I could write. Before I ever started school I used to tell the stories I’d make up to my dolls.

What inspires you to write and why?  

It can be different things. Something that I feel, or think or see. Like for instance, I saw a beautiful ad once featuring a man, a woman and a child walking along a sidewalk decked out in holiday lights.  I immediately started thinking of a what-if story about that family.

What genre are you most comfortable writing? 

I feel most comfortable writing contemporary romance and YA.

What inspired you to write your first book? 

I’d always written short stories from the time I was little. But after writing part of my high school play, I thought maybe I should write a book. I decided that it needed to be 500 pages—I have no idea why— so that was my goal. I hand wrote that 500 page novel when I was a senior in high school.

What do you consider the most challenging about writing a novel, or about writing in general? 

Oh…that’s a good one. Self-doubt.  I think the moment a writer begins to write a story, there’s a lot of excitement, but inevitably, the doubts show up.  It’s so easy to give up on that manuscript and move on to one that can give a writer that early excitement.

Did writing this book teach you anything and what was it? 

Oh, yes. That a good editor is worth her weight in gold.  It taught me that no matter how many times you edit, there’s always room for improvement.

Do you intend to make writing a career? 

I would very much like that!

What is your greatest strength as a writer? 

I’ve been told by editors that I write opening hooks and chapter ending hooks very well.

What is your favorite quality about yourself? 

My sense of humor.  It can get me into trouble too.  I once came up behind someone I thought I recognized at the grocery store. She’d just sprayed air freshener into the air to test the scent. I started fake coughing and gagging worthy of an Oscar. The woman turned around and she was a stranger. She didn’t look happy either. LOL.

What is your least favorite quality about yourself? 

I work too hard. I know that sounds kind of like a humble brag, but I don’t mean it to be. I rarely take a day off. I think it’s easy when you love what you do to get so caught up that you don’t take the breaks you need. But I’m trying to work on that!

What is your favorite quote, by whom, and why? 

It’s by Nora Roberts and I may not get it exactly right. But it’s “I can fix a bad page. I can’t fix a blank page.” Those words were a help to me because it taught me to get the story written and stop starting and stopping multiple stories.

ABOUT SONYA WEISS

From the time she was a child, Sonya knew she was destined to be a writer. If she didn’t like the ending of a book or movie, she would write her own ending. When her children were young, she often wrote stories to entertain them. At the urging of one of her daughters, she submitted a short story and to her surprise and delight, it sold. Sonya loves writing all things romance whether it’s writing contemporary adult or teen fiction and still hasn’t lost the wonder that she gets to do what she loves. She enjoys reading, movies, chocolate, and laughter and credits her daughters as being the sweetest blessings in her life.

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Pump Up Your Book and Sonya are teaming up to give away a $25 Amazon Gift Card, Chocolates and a 3 Chapter Critique by Agent Nicole Resciniti!

Terms & Conditions:

• By entering the giveaway, you are confirming you are at least 18 years old.
• 3 winners will be chosen via Rafflecopter to receive each of the prizes
• This giveaway begins March 10 and ends on March 21.
• Winners will be contacted via email on March 22, 2014.
• Winner has 48 hours to reply.

Good luck everyone!

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Interview with Fletcher Best, author of 'The Eight Fingered Fiend of Lake Porker' & Win $25 Amazon Card!

Fletcher Best is an American author of humorous fiction and science fiction.  He is the author of the Stranded In Time series of science fiction novels, including Pirates of the Storm, The Corpornation, and the upcoming third installment, Timeless.  His humorous works include Sniffing Out Stink Ape, The Great Chupacabra Kerfuffle, and The Eight Fingered Fiend of Lake Porker.

In addition to his novels, Fletcher Best also writes short stories that are published exclusively for the enjoyment of visitors to his website, FletcherBest.com.  These include the popular, Manatee Vengeance - Blood at the Boat Launch, Alien Invasion of the Zombie Apocalypse, Operation Black Friday, and A Fabulous Business Opportunity.

Born in Miami, Florida, Fletcher has lived in Texas since 1988.  He (or more correctly, his real-life alter-ego George Best) attended Parker College of Chiropractic in Dallas before beginning a chiropractic practice in San Antonio in 1992.  He has resided in San Antonio ever since and now lives in sin with his girlfriend and their 4 cats (the sin being strictly with the girlfriend, not the cats). 

Readers are invited to connect with Fletcher through his website at http://www.FletcherBest.com. 

Thank you for this interview!  I’d like to know more about you as a person first.  What do you do when you’re not writing?

In addition to writing, I maintain a part-time practice as a doctor of chiropractic.  I also run a membership website that provides guidance and treatment advice to people suffering from sciatica.  In my leisure time, I enjoy outdoor activities like hiking and fishing, as well as less active pursuits like going to the movies. 

When did you start writing?

I actually began writing as a teenager, but I never published anything from that time.  A few years ago the writing bug bit once again and I started self-publishing my books.

As a published author, what would you say was the most pivotal point of your writing life?

Probably just making the decision to go forward with self-publishing rather than worrying about trying to get accepted by a publisher.  In the short-run self-publishing means it will take a lot of time and effort to be discovered and to build a fan base, but in the long run it presents a lot of opportunity.

If you could go anywhere in the world to start writing your next book, where would that be and why?

Since I love Roatan, Honduras and the ideas I have for my next book involve a setting on a fictitious Caribbean island, Roatan would be an excellent place to start writing that book.

If you had 4 hours of extra time today, what would you do?

Since it’s a really nice day today, I’d probably go out to one of the local nature parks and go for a hike. 

Where would you like to set a story that you haven’t done yet?

Probably Japan since the Japanese seem a bit quirky and that vibe would fit with my offbeat humor.

Back to your present book, The Eight Fingered Fiend of Lake Porker, how did you publish it?

As I mentioned, I am a self-publisher, and so that’s the route I’ve taken with The Eight Fingered Fiend.  I initially released it in print through Createspace and it will be released in all major ebook formats (Kindle, Nook, etc.) on March 26, 2014.

In writing your book, did you travel anywhere for research?

No, in this case the book is set pretty close to home.  I live in San Antonio and I loosely based the town of Lake Porker on various places in Central and South Texas that I’ve been to over the years. 

Why was writing The Eight Fingered Fiend of Lake Porker so important to you?

I started out my self-publishing career with a science fiction series called Standed In Time and part way into the third book of the series, I realized that I really enjoyed writing the humorous scenes in those books the most.  Since I’ve always enjoyed the outlandish humor of writers like Christopher Moore and Carl Hiaasen, I decided I’d take a shot at writing something like what they write.  As I developed the basic concept of the book, I really had fun with it and I think that’s the direction I’ll probably focus on with my writing for the most part from here on out.   

Where do you get your best ideas and why do you think that is?

My best ideas come from just the things I observe in my daily life that seem a bit odd or amusing and then I make certain associations between them in my mind.  For example, the idea for The Eight Fingered Fiend came from a couple of things I happened to come across within a few weeks of each other.  Part of the idea was from a discussion of Japanese tentacle porn on the Tokyo episode of the television show, Anthony Bourdain:  Parts Unknown, and part came from an online story I read about unconfirmed reports of freshwater octopuses in lakes in Oklahoma.

Other good ideas come from just day dreaming and looking for humorous or oddball takes on the mundane. 

I don’t know of any particular reason why I get my ideas that way, it’s just the way it happens. 

Any final words?

Thank you for allowing me to participate on your website.  If any readers want to find out more about me or my books, or get a taste of my writing from my free short stories, they are invited to visit my website FletcherBest.com.

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I'm Shelf-ish Chats with Techno-Thriller Amazon Bestselling Author Kevin Bohacz

We welcome today techno-thriller author Kevin Bahacz, author of Immortality and Ghost of the Gods.  Kevin is here to talk about his books and how he got started as a writer. Visit Kevin’s website at www.kbohacz.com.

Thank you for this interview!  I’d like to know more about you as a person first.  What do you do when you’re not writing?

You mean there is something other than writing? I had no idea! For me writing is my passion, my life. A day without writing is like a day without breathing—unimaginable. I never have writer’s block and writing without exaggeration has saved my life. Not very long ago I was widowed at a young age. My wife, my best friend of 17 years died in my arms while we looked

into each other’s eyes. In the time that followed when I was drowning in grief I could hear my wife whispering to me, “Write my love… Write.” So I wrote. I wrote so hard that my arms grew sore. I wrote so hard that I gave myself tendonitis but the pain in my arms did not slow me a bit. My writing saved me from grief that was dark enough to crush the life from me. I completed Ghost of the Gods in an amazingly short period of time while also simultaneously working on two new novels.

So back to your question, what I do other than writing and breathing is walk two hours a day and dreaming. Dreaming is a very big part of my life. I am a lucid dreamer and my dream life is wildly prolific. In the past three years I have recorded over 5000 dreams in my journal, and well over 300 of them were vivid hyper-real lucid dreams. I’ve had as many as 17 dreams in one night. I never try to control my lucid dream journeys. I let them unfold and develop on their own. To me controlling a lucid dream is like trying to control life instead of fully experiencing it here and now. I literally feel like I have two lives. One life in this material reality and a second life in dream reality.

When did you start writing?

I started writing in the late 1980’s. My first novel Dream Dancers was published in 1993. I have been working as a fulltime writer for over 4 years. I’ve completed 4 novels and am currently working on three different novels. One with a working title of Dream Signs will be out later this year. The novel that will be released after Dream Signs is titled The Bridge and it will not be done until sometime next year. I have a powerful emotional connection with The Bridge, more so than with any other novel I have written.

As a published author, what would you say was the most pivotal point of your writing life?

That had to be when Immortality became a bestseller on Amazon. In 2007 shortly after it was released Immortality took off. The paperback edition hit bestseller status on Amazon then a kindle edition was released in 2008. By the summer of 2008 Immortality was constantly ranking #1 in several of the bestselling genre categories under Amazon Kindle. It also had a consistent overall ranking across all books and genres of better than #500, and many times hit #255 or better for weeks at a time. At the same time, the print edition continued to sell briskly and was constantly ranked in the top 25 in several genres.

This tangible confirmation of my writing took awhile to fully sink in. My wife, Mazelle was proud of me and constantly kept telling me so but it really took a couple of years for me to realize that I had done it and that I could make a living as a writer. Immortality stayed on the bestseller lists from 2007 through 2013, which was a very long run.

If you could go anywhere in the world to start writing your next book, where would that be and why?

I am currently searching for just that place... Almost everything I own is now in storage or given away. I have simplified my life. I have sold our home. For many months I have been wandering up and down the California coast living in magical oceanfront vacation homes for a month at a time looking for the best place to dream and write. I have been letting intuition lead me from place to place. I find that my intuition is far more reliable than my left brain in these decisions. This journey is exciting, creative, and beyond my comfort zone. I feel I am in one sense homeless and in another sense at home. I am uprooted... and this is all very good.... very creative. Pushing beyond my comfort zone causes all sorts of emotions to bubble up to the surface.

If you had 4 hours of extra time today, what would you do?

We spend 1/3 our lives in sleep and no one knows with any scientific accuracy how much of that sleep time is spent in dreams. Most people think we only dream during REM cycles. This has been proven false. We dream all the time. A huge number of people including a good number of famous thinkers believe that what we call waking reality is just another kind of dream… and I feel they are probably right. The other way to look at it is that if we are always dreaming then in a very real sense our nighttime dreams are as substantive as our daytime dreams.

As I’ve mentioned, I often experience lucid dreams that are in every subjective way more real than reality. So what would I do with an extra 4 hours? I would spend it in a lucid dream reunited with my wife Mazelle. Time is often stretched in dreams. So if I am very lucky, those four hours of material time might be stretched into a day or more of dream time. Whether the reunion is “real” or “imaginal” does not matter. All that matters is what it feels like. In the final analysis, if I feel therefore I am.

Where would you like to set a story that you haven’t done yet?

Since I write what I most like to read, contemporary techno-thrillers, setting the story in a future place is out of the question. I might like to set a story largely in dreams but do so in such a way that the characters and the readers are never sure if they are in an internal or external space. “Reality” can at times feel very dreamy—take déjà vu as an example. Likewise dreams can feel concretely material as in the case of lucid dreams.

Back to your present book, Immortality, how did you publish it?

My first novel, Dream Dancers was conventionally published in 1993 in a deal closed by the agent I had at that time. In 2003 when Immortality was completed I assumed I would be able to get it published since I was already a published author. I soon found myself waist deep in rejection notices from both agents and publishers. All the rejection notices basically said, “We are sure this is a wonderful book but we don’t have the time to read a long manuscript by an obscure author.”

I knew Immortality was a timely, entertaining, and marketable novel. Some extremely successful literary professionals including more than one famous writer had read it and told me they loved it. So here I was a published author unable to open a single door into the major publishing houses. Three years later I had reached the point where I either had to give up or publish it myself. Back in 2006 self-publishing carried the stigma of failure but I had no choice. I knew in my gut Immortality was a fantastic story. So I started a small publishing company, hired an offset-printer, and proceeded to manufacture and sell Immortality.

In 2007 Immortality took off becoming a bestseller. Using my bestseller success as bait, I was able to sign with an agent who had represented a smattering of NYTime’s bestsellers. My agent proceeded to shop Immortality to all the big publishing houses. My wife, Mazelle and I were deliriously thrilled. This time the responses from publishers were very different from when Immortality was unpublished and I was un-agented. Across the board the feedback was surprisingly similar, “We love the book but who are you?”

What the publishers were really saying was I had no massive following. I did not have a million readers chanting in unison, “We want to buy more books by you…”

Fast forward to 2010, Immortality was still selling very much like it was in 2008, constantly hitting the top 10 of its genre and never falling below the top 50. In fact 2010 and half of 2011 was one of my best grossing periods ever. By now my agent had done all he could and given up six months prior in 2009. He loved Immortality and was very frustrated and baffled by his inability to close a deal. It was then that I was contacted out of nowhere by a veteran NYC agent who was a senior member in a super-agent firm. This agent told me they had read Immortality and loved it! This agent was convinced they could sell the book. Mazelle and I were wildly excited and told the agent to go for it. This new agent got the book read by a different group of more senior editors. This time the responses really threw me. The feedback I got was essentially, “We love the book but why should we buy it when you have already sold the heck out of it?”

At this point I felt like I just could not win. Years ago I didn’t have a big enough following, and now that I had a following, it seemed the publishers wanted something more. They wanted an unpublished book. I explained that 95% of the copies of Immortality had been sold on Amazon, which meant that I had tapped less than 50% of the potential market for a book in this genre. So while it was a bestseller, the lion’s share of the meat was still on this bone yet no publisher was interested in the feast. With fractional market penetration I had made a pile of money but there was many times more to be made if a big publisher would get behind the book. Yet it now felt like with regard to attracting a publisher, success was my worst enemy.

Today, three years later I now have a new amazing NYC agent from a top firm who has closed deals for other indie authors in exactly the same “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” predicament as me. In the last six months I have received glowing critical reviews, including Publisher’s Weekly who has awarded STARRED reviews to both Immortality and Ghost of the Gods. There is interest from Holly Wood in making Immortality into a movie. I have every confidence that this time we’ll succeed in finally getting a solid publishing deal.

In writing your book, did you travel anywhere for research?

I’ve lived in almost every city and town that my novels are set in… so the answer would be that I have traveled though in some cases it was retroactive travel. In other cases I did specifically travel to the locations and stayed for several weeks so that I could absorb the landscape or is it the dreamscape? Realism in my writing is very important to me. I cannot imagine writing about a real place or even a screwdriver that I have not touched with my own hands. If I did not do this, the feel of the place could be off or people who live in that location might hit a mistake that would cause them to stumble while reading. Since my novels are mostly epic in scope they are set in a large number of locations and often include the characters traveling or fleeing through the locations.

Why was writing Immortality so important to you?

Ghost of the Gods was important to me in part because it was the completion of the story I began with Immortality. The epic story of Immortality was originally planned to be one large book but as I got farther into the story I realized that it could be broken into two pieces and that it would be far more marketable to publishers as two shorter novels than one long novel.

That said, writing Ghosts of the Gods was especially important to me because of how it saved my life or at the very least my soul. It is hard to express what it is like to be writing while your world is piece by piece demolished around you, and that is exactly what happened when I lost my best friend, Mazelle to cancer. I did not write a single page for the ten months Mazelle was ill. All we did night and day was fight to save her, and after we had lost that struggle is when I started to write again.

Where do you get your best ideas and why do you think that is?

The short answer to your question is the ideas come from my muse. The longer answer is that my novels come from daytime dreams as well as nighttime dreams. When I am writing it does not feel like I am creating the material. It feels more like I am watching daydreams which come from somewhere other than me and I am merely typing as fast as I can to capture the daydream that is unfolding before my mind’s eyes.

For all four novels I have written, I first created thousands of pages of meticulously detailed background material. Once I feel the characters have become like friends to me, I sit down and start writing. Invariably in a short time the characters stage a revolt and the story takes on a life of its own veering off in directions I never planned. In the end I typically use about 1% of the meticulously detailed background material! Thousands of years ago the Greeks and Romans thought that all creative people were merely channels for muses. I truly cannot figure out where my stories come from. Out of a process of elimination I have decided they come from some Jungian collective awareness that we might as well call a muse.

Any final words?

Just thank you and to everyone please take Immortality and Ghost of the Gods for a test drive! I promise it will be a wild and winding road that will keep you guessing until you reach the very last word.

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The Seven Secrets of Successful Parents by Randy Colton Rolfe Book Blitz - Win a $25 Amazon Gift Card!

ABOUT THE SEVEN SECRETS OF SUCCESSFUL PARENTS

Title: The Seven Secrets of Successful Parents Genre: Parenting/Family & Relationshiops Author: Randy Colton Rolfe Publisher: iUniverse Pages: 340 Language: English Format: Ebook “Throughout her seven secrets, Rolfe models how parenting can be the most fulfilling work of our lives.” —Linda Aronson, author of Big Spirits, Little Bodies Every parent has the innate power to be successful. But life can get in the way. It is hard to be at your best when you are tired, angry, rushed, surprised, preoccupied, or just too busy. But then you may have to deal with regret, frustration, or guilt, or a hurt or angry child. In The Seven Secrets of Successful Parents, author and family therapist Randy Colton Rolfe shares the core attitudes which will prepare and empower you to be successful in any parenting situation. With her powerful approach of prepared, holistic, responsive parenting, you can master all these parenting goals and more: • Setting appropriate limits that stick • Promoting safe relationships • Inspiring learning • Nurturing your child’s spirit • Rebuilding after negative feelings • Fostering good judgment • Venting parental frustration harmlessly • Resisting unhelpful criticism from outsiders • Encouraging your child to speak up with respect • Enjoying your child totally, without reservation In The Seven Secrets of Successful Parents you will discover new options, helpful case histories, amusing anecdotes, valuable research, dialogues, and meditations to help you raise happy, healthy, productive children. Watch your parenting success grow!

iUniverse

ABOUT RANDY COLTON ROLFE

Randy Colton Rolfe has been counseling families for over 25 years. Author of four other books on family life, including You Can Postpone Anything But Love, she is an internationally known speaker and media personality. She and her husband have a son and a daughter and live in Pennsylvania and California. Visit Randy online at www.randyrolfe.com.

Pump Up Your Book and Randy are teaming up to give you a chance to win 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 Certificate
• This giveaway begins March 3 and ends on March 14.
• Winners will be contacted via email on March 15, 2014.
• Winner has 48 hours to reply.

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Shopping for a Lighter Cross by Dr. C

ABOUT SHOPPING FOR A LIGHTER CROSS

 
Title: Shopping for a Lighter Cross
Genre: Biography
Author: Dr. C
Publisher: iUniverse
Pages: 64
Language: English
ISBN - 978-1-47599-682-1

  Everyone has life’s challenges and can face them with fear or with trust. I choose to look at them as experiences where God blessed me with His curve balls thrown in. These curve balls are not the negative, painful or abusive life experiences that I have lived through, but rather the unexpected, blessings, gifts, and graces God threw in to help me through the experiences. I believe that these curve balls were given so that I can witness to His great and awesome presence in and through the experiences, the people in those experiences and in myself as living through and surviving the experiences as a better, not bitter human being.

Purchase your copy:

ABOUT DR. C

The author lives in Aston, Pennsylvania with her husband John, their golden retriever Clover and their two cats: Duchess and Graygray. Dr. C is a Pastoral Associate/Spiritual Director for a Catholic parish in Delaware County and John works for the Federal Government. Dr. C graduated with her Doctorate in Ministry degree in May 2013.

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Sensual Sexual Romance by Deni Rome Book Blitz - Win a $25 Amazon Gift Card!

ABOUT SENSUAL SEXUAL ROMANCE

Title: Sensual Sexual Romance
Genre: Poetry
Author: Deni Rome
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Pages: 202
Language: English
Format: Ebook

 The title says it all… erotic poems blended with erotic short stories. Each story will speak to your most sensual, sexual, and romantic erogenous parts of your body and your mind. The descriptive words will entice and stimulate. You will seek out your lover, even if your lover is in that good box.

AuthorHouse

ABOUT DENI ROME

 Deni Rome considers her a thespian, where the descriptive words between these pages will bring you directly into the scene. She wants to bring vision to her thoughts so the reader can experience tantalizing sensations, tapping all your senses. She resides in the Washington, DC area.  

Pump Up Your Book and Deni are teaming up to give you a chance to win 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 Certificate
• This giveaway begins March 3 and ends on March 14.
• Winners will be contacted via email on March 15, 2014.
• Winner has 48 hours to reply.

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My Racial Group's Purpose on Earth by Franklin Gibbs Book Blitz - Win a $25 Amazon Gift Card!

ABOUT MY RACIAL GROUP'S PURPOSE ON EARTH

Title: My Racial Group's Purpose on Earth
Genre: Spirituality/Religion
Author: Franklin Gibbs
Publisher: iUniverse
Pages: 236
Language: English
Format: Ebook

We spend a lot of time in determining our individual purposes (i.e., our callings) for being here on earth. Some of us were called (created) to be singers, dancers, preachers, teachers, helpers, exhorters, prophets and so on. This is fine. But, this book goes beyond our individual purpose (calling) and delves deeply into our racial group’s purpose (calling). That is, this book shows you the nuts and bolts of your racial group’s purpose here on earth. Each racial group on the face of the earth was created to fulfill a divine purpose. Thus, we need to know our racial group’s purpose so that we can serve God completely. Moreover, mixed children of color from interracial marriages are special to God. For they have a special purpose to fulfill on earth and in heaven. That said, this book shows why God created racial groups with different skin tones, nose sizes, lip shapes and hair textures. You’ll be amazed to see how pivotal cherubim (God’s special angels) are in determining our racial group’s purpose. God patterned their behavior after man’s expected behavior. So, this book studies their behavior patterns in detail to see what our racial groups are supposed to do. That said, for centuries racial groups have been bickering and clawing at one another. But, once we become aware of and start following our racial group’s purpose (as shown in this book), our racial problems will be solved- i.e., they’ll go away. In this book, you’ll enjoy to the fullest extent the ingenious purpose for which God created you and your racial group and the amazing treasures and benefits that He has in store for you and your racial group.

iUniverse

ABOUT FRANKLIN GIBBS

 Dr. Franklin T. Gibbs earned a BA degree in Mathematics, a BS degree in Accounting and an AA degree in Accounting. He earned his MS degree in Educational Administration and passed the C.P.A. Exam in 1982. He received a Doctor of Ministry degree in Religious Studies.  

Pump Up Your Book and Franklin are teaming up to give you a chance to win 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 Certificate
• This giveaway begins March 3 and ends on March 14.
• Winners will be contacted via email on March 15, 2014.
• Winner has 48 hours to reply.

Good luck everyone!

ENTER TO WIN!

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Dr. Cappeletti's Chorus by Gerard R. D'Alessio Book Blitz - Win a $25 Amazon Gift Card!

ABOUT DR. CAPPELETTI'S CHORUS

Title: Dr. Cappeletti's Chorus
Genre: Legal Fiction
Author: Gerard R. D'Alessio
Publisher: iUniverse
Pages: 110
Language: English
Format: Ebook

 Anthony Cappeletti works hard and does everything right. He’s an alter boy, a star on his college baseball team; he graduates near the top of his college and medical school classes, and he overcomes major fi nancial obstacles to achieve his boyhood dream of becoming a successful physician in his hometown in central Pennsylvania. He marries his college sweetheart, has three wonderful children and earns the respect of everyone in his community. Then, without warning, Tony is accused of sexually assaulting eight female patients. His family is shocked and devastated by the consequences of these accusations. Tony claims he is the victim of a conspiracy to destroy his reputation. He loses his license, his hospital privileges, and his ability to practice medicine at all. His world falls apart, but so does that of his wife, his children, his father and his step-mother. Facing the most crucial time in his life, Tony struggles to convince his family - and a jury - of his innocence as he faces decades in prison. Is he guilty or the victim of a plot to destroy him?

iUniverse

ABOUT GERARD R. D'ALESSIO

Gerard D’Alessio received his PhD degree in Clinical Psychology from Northwestern University. After practicing for thirty-seven years, he retired to Philadelphia, PA where he now lives with his artist wife, Susan, and has been writing fi ction (short stories, novels and plays)in which he strives to capture the drama of everyday life.

Pump Up Your Book and Gerard are teaming up to give you a chance to win 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 Certificate
• This giveaway begins March 3 and ends on March 14.
• Winners will be contacted via email on March 15, 2014.
• Winner has 48 hours to reply.

Good luck everyone!

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Interview with Gulten Dye, author of 'Semi-Coma: Evolution of My Intermittent Consciousness'

Gulten Dye was born and raised in a small town in Turkey and moved with her family to Istanbul as a small child.  It was there that she earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing, and worked as a nurse at a local hospital before moving to the Philippines with her boyfriend.

After being there a little over a year, they got married and a short while after that moved to Shreveport, Louisiana where she immediately began her studies to be able to work as a Registered Nurse. While studying for her boards, she was allowed to work as a scrub technician in an operating room at a nearby surgery center. She passed her boards and worked in an operating room for many years before moving to Las Vegas, Nevada there she worked at a busy University Medical Trauma Center as a staff nurse for several years until she earned the position of Charge Nurse.

By 2001, she was divorced and living with her two young sons.  Her desire to make more money became her impetus to start her own business, which soon became her sole source of income as her success grew.  She has never looked back.

Gulten found her talent and passion in creating one-of-a-kind jewelry pieces and sold them to well-known people, such as Celine Dion, Rachel Ray and Mary Higgins Clark.  She became an international success when her work showed on Entertainment Tonight and Insider and was for sale in the high-end casinos in Las Vegas and on high-end cruise liners. She then created a jewelry line called Metamorphosis, a line of interchangeable jewelry that brought her even greater success.

Gulten is also an author and self- published her first book Semi Coma – Evolution of my Intermittent Consciousness in 2011, currently selling on all digital media as well as in hard copy.  Her second book “The Missing Link” is awaiting publication in 2013.

In 2013, she opened her new concept store where she not only sells her own designs, but includes many local artists of different medium, including a local authors section.  In turn for being able to sell their artwork in her store, all artists have agreed to teach others their medium for the future generation free thinkers.

Gulten lives and creates in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Visit her website at www.gultendye.com.

Thank you for this interview!  I’d like to know more about you as a person first.  What do you do when you’re not writing?

 
I am a jewelry designer and I also have a retail shop - those two things keep me very busy especially since I design and create most of the jewelry in my shop, as well for many private clients

Writing is something I try to do at least an hour or two every day because I love it, but I always have several things  I am working on at all times so it’s really difficult to define certain times for anything, including writing. 

When did you start writing?

When I was in middle school.

As a published author, what would you say was the most pivotal point of your writing life?

The most crucial point of my writing life for me was to discover my genuine love for writing.  The feeling I get from writing is truly a gift for me; it’s as if I can't wait to carve out a moment from my busy schedule to sit down with myself and allow whatever is inside of my heart to come right out onto the pages! During writing I always get the sense of being in the company of my readers I feel their subtle presence I am sharing directly with them there are no barriers its me and them no paper no pen almost no words, it's magical really. When I am in true writing space  I am  in the  flow with myself and with everything there is.

If you could go anywhere in the world to start writing your next book, where would that be and why?

I have asked myself that very question countless of times in my life, and I am always surprised with the conflicted answers that arise within me.  I guess I truly don't know the answer to this question for at times I want to be by the ocean where there are people, and other times, I just want to be deep in the woods where there are people, but not the screaming ones but the contented ones. I suppose I get a certain sense of strength from people. One thing is certain, I love nature, warm weather, and people as long as I have a space to hide away from it all anytime I want to, and to come out to play when I want to. I am sure to love the place, and as for writing, I am able to write anywhere.

If you had 4 hours of extra time today, what would you do?

Go get a massage. have my nails done, and take my parents to all the places they want to go.

Where would you like to set a story that you haven’t done yet?

In another dimension yet to be discovered. 

Back to your present book, (Semi Coma, Evolution Of My Intermittent Consciousness), how did you publish it?

I choose to self-publish.

In writing your book, did you travel anywhere for research?

No, I didn't need to do any research for my book; however, during the time of writing this book, I visited more than a dozen countries for my other business.

Why was writing (Semi Coma, Evolution of My Intermittent Consciousness) so important to you?

For as long as I can remember, I have always loved writing.  For me, it is such a wonderful way of getting in touch with what is really goes on in my subconscious.  As for my book itself, I guess you could say that when I began to understand my happiness didn't have to be accidental, that I actually had something to do with it, and that I could make more of it anytime I chose to, I wanted to share that message with others.

Where do you get your best ideas and why do you think that is?

I get my best ideas when I truly am away from my mental chatter. I think it's because the ideas are always infinite and it resides within us, and when we tune out the chatter, we are able to notice them.

Any final words?

Yes, go out and be happy.

 

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Security Levels in the Federal Bureau of Prisons by Christopher Zoukis

Today we welcome Christopher Zoukis to I'm Shelf-ish!  Christopher is the co-author of the reference/law book, Directory of Federal Prisons.  His co-author is Dr. Randall Radic.  Christopher is here to talk about security levels in the Federal Bureau of Prisons as part of his nationwide blog tour.

Security Levels in the Federal Bureau of Prisons

By Christopher Zoukis

The paramount concern of many first-time federal prison inmates is their safety and what security level they will be housed within.  We've all seen the HBO series Oz and read of brutal violence and sexual assaults in prison.  Thus, the first question which comes to mind is, "How do I protect myself once confined in a federal prison?"  Often the answer to this question revolves around what security level the inmate is housed in.  Let's set the record straight on the topic of surviving federal prison, what security level the inmate is housed at,

and remove all of the spin that often permeates such discussions.

The Housing of Diverse Prison Populations

Prisons are populated with those who violate societal norms by breaking the law.  No one goes to prison for singing too loudly in the choir, but they all aren't monsters either.  The truth of the matter is that federal prison inmates are housed in varying security levels depending upon their propensity for escape and violence.  As such, white collar offenders generally will not be housed with murderers or rapists or terrorists.  Instead, they will be housed with other white collar offenders (e.g., embezzlers, fraudsters, tax cheaters, etc.) and with low-level, non-violent, first-time drug offenders.  Likewise, prison inmates with extensive criminal history records will be housed with fellow inmates who have been engaging in crime for a very long time, too.  As such, for many inmates, surviving federal prison is not as hard as it might sound, owing to the fact that federal prison inmates are generally housed at security levels with others of their same propensities for violence and history of criminality.

The Dividing of the Prison Populations by Security Levels

Federal prison inmates who have shorter or less serious criminal histories will be housed at lower security levels (i.e., minimum security federal prisons and low security federal prisons), while those with extensive criminal histories (and, in particular, histories of violence or escape) will be housed at the higher security levels (i.e., medium security federal prisons and high security federal prisons).  The higher the security level, the more prevalent violence will be and the more inherently dangerous the prison experience is.  While these groupings do not stop -- or even limit -- violence or dangerousness, they do ensure that the more dangerous or violence prone federal prison inmates are housed together.  Thus, white collar offenders will not be housed in prisons where the danger is extreme, even if there is a certain level of risk at federal prisons of every security level.

How Does the Federal Bureau of Prisons Differentiate Amongst the Various Security Levels?

The Federal Bureau of Prisons houses federal prison inmates in five security categories or levels, depending upon their current crime, criminal history, history of prison misconduct, and other factors.  These categories are minimum security (sometimes called "Federal Prison Camps" or "Satellite Prison Camps"), low security (called "Federal Correctional Institutions" or "FCIs"), medium security (called "Federal Correctional Institutions" or "FCIs"), high security (called "United States Penitentiaries" or "USPs"), and administrative security (which go by a number of different titles based upon the institution's mission).  The Federal Bureau of Prisons' website summarizes each security level as follows:

·         Minimum Security Federal Prisons: "Minimum-security institutions, commonly called 'federal prison camps,' are designed for offenders who do not pose a risk of violence or escape.  Minimum-security institutions have dormitory and room housing, a relatively low staff-to-inmate ratio, and limited or no perimeter fencing."  It should be noted that satellite prison camps, which usually exist to support operation of a higher security facility, are much the same.

·         Low Security Federal Prisons: "Low-security Federal Correctional Institutions (FCIs) have double-fenced perimeters, mostly dormitory or cubicle housing, and strong work and program components.  The staff-to-inmate ratio in these institutions is higher than at minimum-security facilities."

·         Medium Security Federal Prisons: "Medium-security FCIs have strengthened perimeters (often double fenced with electronic detection systems), mostly cell-type housing, a wide variety of work and treatment programs, an even higher staff-to-inmate ratio than low-security FCIs, and even greater internal controls."

·         High Security Federal Prisons: "High-security institutions, also known as United States Penitentiaries (USPs), have highly-secured perimeters (featuring walls or reinforced fences), multiple- and single-occupant cell housing, the highest staff-to-inmate ratio, and close control of inmate movement."

·         Administrative Security Federal Prisons: "Administrative facilities are institutions with special missions, such as the detention of pretrial offenders; the treatment of inmates with serious or chronic medical problems; or the containment of extremely dangerous, violent, or escape-prone inmates.  They are capable of holding inmates in all security categories.  Administrative facilities include Metropolitan Correctional Centers (MCCs), Metropolitan Detention Centers (MDCs), Federal Detention Centers (FDCs), and Federal Medical Centers (FMCs), as well as the Federal Transfer Center (FTC), the Medical Center for Federal Prisoners (MCFP), and the Administrative-Maximum (ADX) U.S. Penitentiary."

Where Can I Learn More About the Various Federal Prison Security Levels?

Further reading about the various security levels used in the Federal Bureau of Prisons can be located through several reputable sources.  The most current source is http://www.prisonlawblog.com.  The Prison Law Blog discusses not only prison law and prisoners' rights, but also life in federal prison, including issues specific to each prison security level.  For a guide to the security level at every prison within the Federal Bureau of Prisons and every private prison which houses federal prison inmates, buy a copy of my book the Directory of Federal Prisons: PrisonLawBlog.com's Federal Bureau of Prisons Facility Directory.

About the Authors:

Christopher Zoukis is an impassioned advocate for prison education, a legal scholar, and a prolific writer of books, book reviews, and articles.  His articles on prison education and prison law appear frequently in Prison Legal News, and have been published in The Kansas City Star, The Sacramento Bee, Blog Critics, and Midwest Book Review, among other national, regional, and specialty publications.

Mr. Zoukis is often quoted on matters concerning prison law, criminal law, prisoners' rights, and prison education.  Recently, he was the focus of an article at Salon.com concerning America's broken criminal justice system and potential solutions to the current crisis.

When not in the thick of the battle for prison reform, prison education, or prisoners' rights advocacy, Mr. Zoukis can be found blogging at PrisonLawBlog.com, PrisonEducation.com, and ChristopherZoukis.com. 

Randall Radic is the Senior Editor and Chief Operating Officer of Middle Street Publishing (MSP), where he superintends PrisonLawBlog.com and PrisonEducation.com, and manages all of MSP's print and online endeavors.

After graduating from the University of Arizona with a B.A. in the classics, Dr. Radic matriculated at Agape Seminary, where he received the degree of Doctor of Sacred Theology, and then Trinity Seminary where he received the degree of Doctor of Theology.

Dr. Radic is the author of several non-fiction books, including Blood In, Blood Out: The Violent Empire of the Aryan Brotherhood (Headpress, 2011), The Sound of Meat (Ephemera Bound Publishing, 2008), A Priest in Hell: True Crimes of America's Clergy (ECW Press, 2009), and Terminal Disaster: Inside the Money Machine (Sunbury Press, 2012).

Dr. Radic has appeared on National Public Radio and A&E Television discussing prison education and America's prison gangs.

 

 

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