Tirza Schaefer's Blog, page 13
October 18, 2020
Killing It Writing Courses Reviewed
Gina Casto, owner of ,Killing It Write is an amazingly kind and supportive person but she is also a badass editor, mentor and teacher. Some of you will remember that I have taken part in these amazing writing courses she offered.
I have learned so much and I was absolutely amazed at how jam-packed, not only with information but also inspiration and lightbulb moments for me this series of writing courses has been.
Like myself, a lot of Indie authors don’t have a large budget to spend on editing and marketing and Gina knows this and has priced her services, group programs and individual coaching and editing alike, to ensure that everyone is able to afford a professional when you first start out.
If you’re not on Facebook, I upload all my interviews (and other video recordings) on my YouTube channel. Please subscribe and make sure to turn on that little bell that will let you know when there is a new video.
In this ,video, I am telling you a bit more about the courses and my own personal experience. Enjoy!
https://youtu.be/riJErEno4xk
I also invite you to follow Gina by subscribing to her website and following her on all social media.
Her editor website is called Killing It Write (KillingItWrite.com) and you can find her books under her author’s pen name Gina Salamon (GinaSalamon.com). And by the way, her romantic suspense novels are AH-MAZING! You really want to check them out! 5 stars from me all the way through!
#writingcourses #editor #writingtips #storybuilding #characterdevelopment
October 3, 2020
Thoughts Inspiration Education: A Phoenix Was Born
I love spiritual work and I love steamy romance novels. Viewed on a surface level, these two go about as well together as do oil and water if you leave Tantra out of the equation. And this is what blocked me most in my getting ahead professionally, as a romance author and a spiritual healer and Goddess coach. It seemed, when I concentrated on one, I neglected and lost my audience and followers of the other side and vice versa. I was wrecking my brain how to combine the two.
After running everything parallel to start with, I made the decision that I would refuse from then on to be shamed into always denying, hiding or at least keeping separate, one aspect not only of my work but of who I am as a person and what I am passionate about. In an act of defiance, I created a website that incorporated all of it. put everything on one page, in one group, on one account. The result was, I completely lost engagement. I worked harder, created more content, worked longer hours and still…nothing.
The equation Success = Hours x Work Intensity does not work. So together with some challenges in my private life and massive existentialist fears finally overwhelming me, I headed straight for train wreck, a.k.a. burnout. I ended up mentally incapacitated and emotionally raw. It took me a year to work my way out of a half year stint of daily medication and into a space where I could think analytically and creatively again. My journey was scary, to say the least, but it made me stronger and I learned so many valuable lessons from it.
As I came out the other side, I met people who were genuinely kind, non-judgmental, supportive, helpful and emotionally open to let me e these things myself in return as well. There was a flow, give and take wasn’t always balanced, it wasn’t always “instant payback” but there were trust and a willingness to help and receive help where help was needed without always tallying up in minute detail what’s owed from where, when and by whom.
I found a group of people, headed by the awesome ,Stephanie Behrens, photographer and author, who individually are very different in personal taste and style, profession, background, faith and politics but we all believe in that one thing that together we are stronger than the sum total of our individual parts and to build a great team, it takes not only effort but also love, compassion and acceptance.
I feel that all I’ve got from this group, I will never be able to repay in full and I strive to do my best to get my own work done and find a way to incorporate these amazing individuals because I don’t have the energy nor the skills to big them up the way they deserve on top of everything else I already have to do.
As I was seeking ways to combine my own ends with that of the other group members and sharing more of myself publicly in the process, I noticed a slow but steady rise in my social media stats as well. But by that time, marketing and gaining a wider audience wasn’t even my primary goal any longer in connection with this group, although Stephanie Behrens had founded it for this purpose and we are working towards this on a daily basis.
By helping each other with a combined marketing effort within our group, I not only got to know the individual members better but I also got to know myself better. Parallel to this development, things started to ease up on my private life. I was able to let go of a lot of emotionally crippling pain, although there is always more, of course. Healing is an ongoing process.
I won an energy reading by my amazing friend ,Stef Ventura, ,the Psychic Soul Alignment Coach, and received the most profound, concise and clear messages on the questions I had. I won’t go into detail here but at the core was the statement I had hoped to avoid but knowing as a seasoned spiritual healer myself that you cannot ever avoid it if you want to create lasting change in your life, I had to heal deeper layers of my psyche and the outside would fall into place as well. I had hoped to avoid it out of fear of having a relapse into emotional instability and mental brain fog.
A year of being intellectually completely incapacitated had been the scariest part of my burnout. Not the initial all-consuming panic attack, the occasionally recurring anxiety or even the fact that my body weight had spiralled out of control. My greatest fear was of being “stupid” again. As silly as this sounds, for a nerd and, I have to be truthful here, a bit of an intellectual snob (yes, I’m only human, too), not being able to retain anything I was told or that I read and process it intellectually, was the worst that could have happened to me.
It was also the best that ever happened to me because it forced me to concentrate on the only thing I could still make out, my own feelings which I had buried so often so deeply under intellectual pursuits, adult responsibilities and the need to function always because I’m the only parent my children have and the only spiritually aware person in the family to be able to give them guidance in creating their own lives (see the book I wrote based on a conversation I had with my then 8-year-old daughter Tarini, my youngest, ,How Picasso Makes You a Genius).
The burnout was a blessing. It was a painful breaking away of layers of old, dysfunctional patterns and relationships but it was also the beginning of greater self-awareness, taking my own needs more seriously and not always stuffing them into the bottom of the pile of things to do. I learned to clearly state what I needed, what my boundaries were and what I was able to do – and what not. This required that I had to learn to determine what that was in the first place to be able to communicate it clearly.
As I learned to say no, I created room to say yes to myself. I still love helping others, being part of a team, working for something greater than myself, but I also gave up on my helper syndrome where I would run on empty and stop looking after me in order to put someone else first and give when I had nothing left to give. I learned that it’s not just theory that you can only be of real help to others from a position of strength, not of weakness. I found greater balance and, in the process, a lot more self-love.
But, as Stef Ventura told me during our reading, although I had shed layers of pain, limiting beliefs and other blockages, there were still deeper layers of pain and trauma I needed to access and heal if I really wanted a positive change in my life. It wasn’t that I didn’t know because I did, although often we need to hear things from someone else for them to sink in, it was that I didn’t know how. No amount of meditation, Reiki and other healing modalities had helped to succeed in that. It wasn’t as if I hadn’t tried. But my subconscious had continued to stubbornly cling to those old things I intellectually knew I had no more use of if I wanted to lead a happy, healthy and prosperous life. So now, the elusive and sporadic “one day” had become an ongoing active search for a way to access this.
I wrecked my brain and then I started to watch the high school musical TV series ,,Glee with my now 13-year-old daughter Tarini. Over the weeks, the more we watched, the more I cried from one episode to another. My first thought was that music does this to me in general, evoking strong emotions within me. Then I remembered experiences from my young adult life where I had witnessed deep emotional trauma and pain in others and feeling for them brought on these tears.
Until tonight. For a spiritual coach with thirty years of studying and exploring other religions, old spiritual and new age teachings and quantum and metaphysics, you could argue, I have to have a thick skull for it to take so long for the penny to drop. But it’s not about analytical deduction and intellectual knowledge, rather than the coping mechanism I had cultivated in my childhood and youth to survive the onslaught of emotional trauma and pain I experienced at the time. I had buried that pain under layers of living everyone else up to ensure no one would ever have to endure the kind of pain I had lived through that derives from being rejected, mentally and emotionally violated and being unloved.
Yes, that’s a noble thought and motivation for my work as healer and coach, as well as a cornerstone of my self-image as a mother and friend, but it also stopped me from giving that unconditional love to the one person who needed it most: Myself!
Projection and deflection are powerful tools in suppressing pain and numbing it to the point where you are able to “function” despite it. They are crutches, drugs, and it is no wonder, a series aimed at teenagers was the trigger I needed, combined with music, most of which called up memories from my past as well because the deepest cuts I sustained happened in my childhood, teenage years and young adulthood.
I released my 29th published book, ,Ria, the second novel in ,The Milf Diaries series, on my dad’s 80th birthday. He doesn’t know because we no longer have direct contact. It wasn’t an act of defiance I needed to symbolically slap him in the face with to say, “You said I was never good enough for anything but look at what I achieved.”
I no longer need his approval that has never been forthcoming, anyway, to validate my self-worth. I did it for me, as a symbol of inner liberation and a testimony to my inner strength that made me rise above adversity and succeeding despite it. I didn’t let my dreams be crushed. I didn’t let my spirit be subdued. I didn’t allow the rejection to make me hard and bitter. It taught me the value of unconditional love and even though it took me nearly half a century, it taught me to love and trust myself every day a little more.
You could argue, Glee was a coincidence. I call it a miracle. And if it takes a bunch of ancient Goddesses and a modern high school musical series to break down my walls, so be it. God works in mysterious ways and so do the manifestations of the subconscious. Between Netflix, late-night chats with Stephanie in Texas and feeling too exhausted (two weeks of flu can really take it out of you) to do any work, it did the thing.
Who am I to judge? Only to discern which is, incidentally, the true root meaning of the word, not sentencing, punishing or viewing and treating with prejudice. Linguistics is a whole other topic that is so worth exploring in relation to how we talk to ourselves and others, how we use language. I won’t digress further into this here, merely giving you a nudge to do some research of your own to create greater awareness if that’s what you’re after.
Last night when the tears flowed and so many puzzle pieces fell into place when I allowed my pain to come up and be felt to be able to let it go, at least some of it, I finally understood what I was meant to do as an author and a spiritual coach and healer. I am going to combine both, really combine them. I don’t mean weaving in Goddess themes or “hot topics” like “taboo subjects” to create greater awareness, compassion and tuck in some deeper layers into a steamy love story as I have already done all along.
I mean, I have a new vision and it feels finally right. Perhaps, it is not a coincidence that this little German woman here was finally able to unify so much within on our German national holiday, the ,German Unity Day when Eastern and Western Germany became one again. Microcosm and Macrocosm. How fitting.
Finally, it doesn’t feel like I have to spread myself thin between both but I will use one to work with and promote the other, so instead of running two businesses parallel, I a running one, no holds barred. So watch this space because tonight, a phoenix was born!
To find out more about the creation of this book and to order your own copies, visit the ,page for How Picasso Makes You a Genius.
To find out more about The Milf Diaries series (and don't forget to check for updates every so often), visit my website ,page for The Milf Diaries.
Watch this video of people in Berlin on the night of 9th November 1989 crossing the border and celebrating their freedom. These pictures went around the world. The wall fell, the most poignant symbol of not only the Iron Curtain but of oppression and thought control in the world at the time. Some Germans had never met their relatives on the other side, some had been kept apart for years. Germany (and this includes myself) watched on, live or on TV and there weren't many eyes left that remained dry.
The Wall had not only been a physical construct in a geographic location. It had divided the heart of our nation, of individuals and the heart of freedom. I still can't watch this without crying. When you do, think about this long and deep of where you have built or are building walls in your own life. Tear these walls down. Your heart will thank you for it.
https://youtu.be/qMtSisXjYZoA Phoenix Was Born
I love spiritual work and I love steamy romance novels. Viewed on a surface level, these two go about as well together as do oil and water if you leave Tantra out of the equation. And this is what blocked me most in my getting ahead professionally, as a romance author and a spiritual healer and Goddess coach. It seemed, when I concentrated on one, I neglected and lost my audience and followers of the other side and vice versa. I was wrecking my brain how to combine the two.
After running everything parallel to start with, I made the decision that I would refuse from then on to be shamed into always denying, hiding or at least keeping separate, one aspect not only of my work but of who I am as a person and what I am passionate about. In an act of defiance, I created a website that incorporated all of it. put everything on one page, in one group, on one account. The result was, I completely lost engagement. I worked harder, created more content, worked longer hours and still…nothing.
The equation Success = Hours x Work Intensity does not work. So together with some challenges in my private life and massive existentialist fears finally overwhelming me, I headed straight for train wreck, a.k.a. burnout. I ended up mentally incapacitated and emotionally raw. It took me a year to work my way out of a half year stint of daily medication and into a space where I could think analytically and creatively again. My journey was scary, to say the least, but it made me stronger and I learned so many valuable lessons from it.
As I came out the other side, I met people who were genuinely kind, non-judgmental, supportive, helpful and emotionally open to let me e these things myself in return as well. There was a flow, give and take wasn’t always balanced, it wasn’t always “instant payback” but there were trust and a willingness to help and receive help where help was needed without always tallying up in minute detail what’s owed from where, when and by whom.
I found a group of people, headed by the awesome ,Stephanie Behrens, photographer and author, who individually are very different in personal taste and style, profession, background, faith and politics but we all believe in that one thing that together we are stronger than the sum total of our individual parts and to build a great team, it takes not only effort but also love, compassion and acceptance.
I feel that all I’ve got from this group, I will never be able to repay in full and I strive to do my best to get my own work done and find a way to incorporate these amazing individuals because I don’t have the energy nor the skills to big them up the way they deserve on top of everything else I already have to do.
As I was seeking ways to combine my own ends with that of the other group members and sharing more of myself publicly in the process, I noticed a slow but steady rise in my social media stats as well. But by that time, marketing and gaining a wider audience wasn’t even my primary goal any longer in connection with this group, although Stephanie Behrens had founded it for this purpose and we are working towards this on a daily basis.
By helping each other with a combined marketing effort within our group, I not only got to know the individual members better but I also got to know myself better. Parallel to this development, things started to ease up on my private life. I was able to let go of a lot of emotionally crippling pain, although there is always more, of course. Healing is an ongoing process.
I won an energy reading by my amazing friend ,Stef Ventura, ,the Psychic Soul Alignment Coach, and received the most profound, concise and clear messages on the questions I had. I won’t go into detail here but at the core was the statement I had hoped to avoid but knowing as a seasoned spiritual healer myself that you cannot ever avoid it if you want to create lasting change in your life, I had to heal deeper layers of my psyche and the outside would fall into place as well. I had hoped to avoid it out of fear of having a relapse into emotional instability and mental brain fog.
A year of being intellectually completely incapacitated had been the scariest part of my burnout. Not the initial all-consuming panic attack, the occasionally recurring anxiety or even the fact that my body weight had spiralled out of control. My greatest fear was of being “stupid” again. As silly as this sounds, for a nerd and, I have to be truthful here, a bit of an intellectual snob (yes, I’m only human, too), not being able to retain anything I was told or that I read and process it intellectually, was the worst that could have happened to me.
It was also the best that ever happened to me because it forced me to concentrate on the only thing I could still make out, my own feelings which I had buried so often so deeply under intellectual pursuits, adult responsibilities and the need to function always because I’m the only parent my children have and the only spiritually aware person in the family to be able to give them guidance in creating their own lives (see the book I wrote based on a conversation I had with my then 8-year-old daughter Tarini, my youngest, ,How Picasso Makes You a Genius).
The burnout was a blessing. It was a painful breaking away of layers of old, dysfunctional patterns and relationships but it was also the beginning of greater self-awareness, taking my own needs more seriously and not always stuffing them into the bottom of the pile of things to do. I learned to clearly state what I needed, what my boundaries were and what I was able to do – and what not. This required that I had to learn to determine what that was in the first place to be able to communicate it clearly.
As I learned to say no, I created room to say yes to myself. I still love helping others, being part of a team, working for something greater than myself, but I also gave up on my helper syndrome where I would run on empty and stop looking after me in order to put someone else first and give when I had nothing left to give. I learned that it’s not just theory that you can only be of real help to others from a position of strength, not of weakness. I found greater balance and, in the process, a lot more self-love.
But, as Stef Ventura told me during our reading, although I had shed layers of pain, limiting beliefs and other blockages, there were still deeper layers of pain and trauma I needed to access and heal if I really wanted a positive change in my life. It wasn’t that I didn’t know because I did, although often we need to hear things from someone else for them to sink in, it was that I didn’t know how. No amount of meditation, Reiki and other healing modalities had helped to succeed in that. It wasn’t as if I hadn’t tried. But my subconscious had continued to stubbornly cling to those old things I intellectually knew I had no more use of if I wanted to lead a happy, healthy and prosperous life. So now, the elusive and sporadic “one day” had become an ongoing active search for a way to access this.
I wrecked my brain and then I started to watch the high school musical TV series ,,Glee with my now 13-year-old daughter Tarini. Over the weeks, the more we watched, the more I cried from one episode to another. My first thought was that music does this to me in general, evoking strong emotions within me. Then I remembered experiences from my young adult life where I had witnessed deep emotional trauma and pain in others and feeling for them brought on these tears.
Until tonight. For a spiritual coach with thirty years of studying and exploring other religions, old spiritual and new age teachings and quantum and metaphysics, you could argue, I have to have a thick skull for it to take so long for the penny to drop. But it’s not about analytical deduction and intellectual knowledge, rather than the coping mechanism I had cultivated in my childhood and youth to survive the onslaught of emotional trauma and pain I experienced at the time. I had buried that pain under layers of living everyone else up to ensure no one would ever have to endure the kind of pain I had lived through that derives from being rejected, mentally and emotionally violated and being unloved.
Yes, that’s a noble thought and motivation for my work as healer and coach, as well as a cornerstone of my self-image as a mother and friend, but it also stopped me from giving that unconditional love to the one person who needed it most: Myself!
Projection and deflection are powerful tools in suppressing pain and numbing it to the point where you are able to “function” despite it. They are crutches, drugs, and it is no wonder, a series aimed at teenagers was the trigger I needed, combined with music, most of which called up memories from my past as well because the deepest cuts I sustained happened in my childhood, teenage years and young adulthood.
I released my 29th published book, ,Ria, the second novel in ,The Milf Diaries series, on my dad’s 80th birthday. He doesn’t know because we no longer have direct contact. It wasn’t an act of defiance I needed to symbolically slap him in the face with to say, “You said I was never good enough for anything but look at what I achieved.”
I no longer need his approval that has never been forthcoming, anyway, to validate my self-worth. I did it for me, as a symbol of inner liberation and a testimony to my inner strength that made me rise above adversity and succeeding despite it. I didn’t let my dreams be crushed. I didn’t let my spirit be subdued. I didn’t allow the rejection to make me hard and bitter. It taught me the value of unconditional love and even though it took me nearly half a century, it taught me to love and trust myself every day a little more.
You could argue, Glee was a coincidence. I call it a miracle. And if it takes a bunch of ancient Goddesses and a modern high school musical series to break down my walls, so be it. God works in mysterious ways and so do the manifestations of the subconscious. Between Netflix, late-night chats with Stephanie in Texas and feeling too exhausted (two weeks of flu can really take it out of you) to do any work, it did the thing.
Who am I to judge? Only to discern which is, incidentally, the true root meaning of the word, not sentencing, punishing or viewing and treating with prejudice. Linguistics is a whole other topic that is so worth exploring in relation to how we talk to ourselves and others, how we use language. I won’t digress further into this here, merely giving you a nudge to do some research of your own to create greater awareness if that’s what you’re after.
Last night when the tears flowed and so many puzzle pieces fell into place when I allowed my pain to come up and be felt to be able to let it go, at least some of it, I finally understood what I was meant to do as an author and a spiritual coach and healer. I am going to combine both, really combine them. I don’t mean weaving in Goddess themes or “hot topics” like “taboo subjects” to create greater awareness, compassion and tuck in some deeper layers into a steamy love story as I have already done all along.
I mean, I have a new vision and it feels finally right. Perhaps, it is not a coincidence that this little German woman here was finally able to unify so much within on our German national holiday, the ,German Unity Day when Eastern and Western Germany became one again. Microcosm and Macrocosm. How fitting.
Finally, it doesn’t feel like I have to spread myself thin between both but I will use one to work with and promote the other, so instead of running two businesses parallel, I a running one, no holds barred. So watch this space because tonight, a phoenix was born!
To find out more about the creation of this book and to order your own copies, visit the ,page for How Picasso Makes You a Genius.
To find out more about The Milf Diaries series (and don't forget to check for updates every so often), visit my website ,page for The Milf Diaries.
Watch this video of people in Berlin on the night of 9th November 1989 crossing the border and celebrating their freedom. These pictures went around the world. The wall fell, the most poignant symbol of not only the Iron Curtain but of oppression and thought control in the world at the time. Some Germans had never met their relatives on the other side, some had been kept apart for years. Germany (and this includes myself) watched on, live or on TV and there weren't many eyes left that remained dry.
The Wall had not only been a physical construct in a geographic location. It had divided the heart of our nation, of individuals and the heart of freedom. I still can't watch this without crying. When you do, think about this long and deep of where you have built or are building walls in your own life. Tear these walls down. Your heart will thank you for it.
https://youtu.be/qMtSisXjYZoThoughts Inspiration Education: Tajun & Unification
Today, I will have to publish two blogs. Yes, after neglecting blogging for such a long time, two in one day. And no, I cannot spread them out because today is a special day in Germany and it is a special day for my family and it is a special day for me. I want to (and indeed feel I have to) share with you my thoughts, ideas and feelings. It is a message of love, of healing and of working towards your dreams, one step, one lightbulb moment at a time. And for this blog, one love and cuddle fest at a time. Here we go…
Late this morning, almost lunchtime, my son Tajun came by. We had not expected him. He came yesterday from the ,City of Münster where he lives in two hours away to visit his grandparents and have a belated 80th birthday dinner for his granddad. He told us that he cannot come to visit us this weekend as he has to return home for a party at the student halls and he has to help with preparations. Still, before he hit the Autobahn, the German highway, again with his motorbike, he had to stop over here to give us a cuddle.
What a nice surprise this was! I had hoped he’d do that but I didn’t want to pressure him. He works hard during the week and riding his bike in less than ideal weather is not that easy, either, I am sure. As it is, he always splits himself between grandparents, his friends and us when he is here, or he stays home and spends time with his friends there. At his age, I used to live in London, so I couldn’t go home over the weekend but I could party, usually during the week. I studied, worked and partied. I had boundless energy. It seems like a lifetime ago now but this way I have an understanding of all the things that are going on in my son’s life. Been there, done that, won the t-shirt.
He said he could not leave without having cuddled us. He was so very loving and my heart simply flowed over as we all three, Tarini included, held each other tightly, kissed cheeks and said how much we love each other. I would so love for him to be able to stay here and so would he but he is, unfortunately, allergic to our cat Taani, Tarini’s animal familiar. Those two are soulmates. Tajun loves the cat a lot as well. He sometimes caresses and strokes her and washes his hands afterwards but usually starts getting watery eyes and an itchy nose quite quickly, anyway. I think it hurts all of us that we cannot be together more but for now, we must live with it the way it is.
When I showed him what I had written last night, the raw version on paper, he was impressed. Seven A4 pages are nothing to me, and yet, the most he had ever written were 6 half pages in his final German exams at school he said. I have noticed that since I showed him the amazing ,5-star review from ,The Magic Book Corner for my book ,Tank, the first part of the ,Seals in Spain Trilogy, he is taking my writing more seriously and is more appreciative of what I do. He said if he ever needs anything written, he knows where to come to for help. Haha! As if I had any idea about the technicalities of sanitary, heating and A/C systems or the details of weaponry. Firearms are another of his passions besides being a history buff with a view to strategy and warfare.
I like heroes in uniforms but I’ve only ever once fired a gas pistol (that’s what I was told what it was at the time) one New Year’s Eve when I was a teenager with a fireworks bullet in it. The handgun was heavy and loud and I didn’t think at the time I would ever care to repeat the experience. I never really read up in detail about firearms, the technicalities and mechanics of it. In theory, Tajun could build you a gun. He loves the mechanics of it all. So I told him, I wasn’t sure I would be able to help had he ever to write something. He said we can do it together. Now that would be a cool project.
The three of us spent ten minutes in each other’s arms, hugging and kissing before Tajun had to go on to be home in time to help people on his floor to empty the communal room for the party. Today is German Unity Day. We are celebrating when the wall to Eastern Germany had come down in 1989 (read this article from 2015 by The Local) and our country had once become one nation. The Allied forces had split Germany amongst themselves after the war and as free as the parts were that had been occupied by Western forces, as enslaved the Soviet-rules Eastern part was which had been ruled by a puppet regime, which was called the German Democratic Republic, an allegedly socialist state, although there was nothing much social about it and most of all, it wasn’t really democratic at all.
Today, our country is free and unified, at least on paper, although it is said it takes a generation for people to mentally unify themselves again. That’s my children’s generation and in many ways, I love how their minds work. They see the world through different eyes. No Cold War or Iron Curtain clouds their vision, no wall restricts their travels. That is a great blessing and with all the challenges we face today, we often forget all the blessings we are gifted with now that we didn’t have thirty years ago.
My greatest blessing today is the unity of our family for ten minutes. Yes, my middle daughter was missing in the family hug and love fest but three out of four is still damn good. And the love I feel now from this is the wind beneath my wings. Tajun asked me to send him the link to the blog when I have written and posted it. I think it is the first time he ever asked me to do that. Usually, I sent him a link now and then and hoped that he would take the time to read it. Our relationship is taking on another, new dynamic. He is growing into an impressive young man and I am so very proud of him, just as I am proud of my daughters Tarjani and Tarini, of course. But today, it was about him dropping in for just a few minutes, standing in the hallway in his biker gear, he only took the helmet off, not wanting to skip town without holding us in his arms for a few minutes at least.
September 24, 2020
Special Guest Interview with Audiobook Narrator Michael Mills & "His" Two Authors Lyndsay & Sloan
There are millions of ebooks published but a lot less are actually available on audiobooks. Not many authors know how to go about having their books recorded by a professional narrator and there is much confusion about the process and financing alike. So how is it really to work with an audiobook narrator on your beloved manuscript? How does anyone even get the idea of becoming a narrator?
All those questions and more will be answered in this interview with Michael Mills, audiobook narrator, and “his” authors Lyndsay Whitlock and Sloan Young (and don’t worry if you want to know more about their literary works, links will be provided below and future interviews concentrating on this will be conducted, it’s all in the planning).
To watch the recordings of my interviews and more amazing content, subscribe to my YouTube channel and to watch live with the opportunity to ask questions in real-time, join my Facebook literary community Tirza's Bookstore.
,https://www.facebook.com/groups/TirzasBookstore
To follow Michael on social media and contact him with any questions you might have, follow the links below:
MICHAEL‘S LINKS
Website - ,https://www.foreveraudiobooks.com
ACX Profile Page - ,https://www.acx.com/narrator?p=A3O9K8EAC4881T
AHAB - ,https://ahabtalent.com/talents/5858
Findaway Voices - ,https://findawayvoices.com
Facebook Page - ,https://www.facebook.com/foreveraudiobooks
Instagram - ,https://www.instagram.com/foreveraudiobooks
Twitter - ,https://twitter.com/yomillsie
https://youtu.be/cZVuF8snjOQ
Below you can find all the links to the audiobooks Michael narrated and Lyndsay's and Sloan's social media links.
SLOAN YOUNG’S BOOKS ON AUDIBLE
Prymus: Gateway - War of the Wheels Trilogy, Book 1
,https://www.audible.com/pd/Prymus-Gateway-Audiobook/B081DBZD73
Prymus: Armageddon - War of the Wheels Trilogy, Book 2,,https://www.audible.com/pd/Prymus-Armageddon-Audiobook/B0821QN1BL
Prymus: Uprising - War of the Wheels Trilogy, Book 3
,https://www.audible.com/pd/Prymus-Uprising-Audiobook/B0831SRLMK
SLOAN YOUNG ON SOCIAL MEDIA
Author Page on Amazon -
,https://www.amazon.com/Sloan-Young/e/B07Z2Z6BC5
Twitter - ,https://www.twitter.com/prymustrilogy
Facebook Page - ,https://www.facebook.com/prymustrilogy
Instagram - ,https://www.instagram.com/prymustrilogy
LYNDSAY WHITLOCK’S BOOK ON AUDIBLE
Grave - The Sanctuary Series, Book 1
,https://www.audible.com/pd/Grave-Audiobook/B0888V3V37
LYNDSAY WHITLOCK ON SOCIAL MEDIA
Author Page on Amazon -
,https://www.amazon.com/L.H.-Whitlock/e/B01F4IG8VW
Instagram - ,https://www.instagram.com/l.h.whitlock
Twitter - https://twitter.com/LHWhitlock1
Goodreads -
,https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15217152.L_H_Whitlock
Bookbub - ,https://www.bookbub.com/authors/l-h-whitlock
#audiobooks #audiobooknarration #narrator #recordingabook #soundquality #voiceacting #voiceover
September 21, 2020
Special Guest Interview with Bestselling Author Kevin A. Kuhn
Some time has elapsed since my last blog and there have been many new developments. Amongst other things, I am taking part in an extended writing course that comes in nine parts with editor par excellence Gina Casto (KillingItWrite.com) whom I dedicated the last blog and interview to and I will tell you more about it at a later date.
For now, I would love to concentrate on my second “victim” (don’t worry, we had great fun talking), Kevin A. Kuhn who is a bestselling author that has won several awards for both of his books he has thus far published:
I will not write more about all the amazing things Kevin can much better share with you himself. Watch the interview here and let me know and, as always, don’t be shy to contact me with questions, suggestions or any other comments. If you have questions for Kevin, I am happy to pass them along or you can contact him directly via his social media links.
But now, the interview in which Kevin tells us how he dethroned Stephen King from first place on Amazon and so much more interesting, educational, funny and surprising. Enjoy!
Multiple award-winning author Kevin (BigKuhna) lives in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, with his wife Melinda, three children, and two fierce schnoodles. He is a technology executive who enjoys sipping cheap bourbon, avoiding yardwork, and living vicariously through his children’s sports. While Kevin has no musical skill whatsoever, he appreciates a broad spectrum of artists from Pink Floyd to Prince and Radiohead to the Rolling Stones. His golf game is horrific with flashes of mediocrity.
His first book is a novel called "Do You Realize" and has received multiple awards. His second book is called “Ten Tales of A Dark Tomorrow.” Kevin talks about how he, as a technology executive turned to writing, how he came up with the idea for his stories and characters and gives some valuable insights on being a writer.
MORE VALUABLE INFORMATION BOOK AWARDS “ DO YOU REALISE?”
“Do You Realize?” has received five literary awards:
Gold Medal - eLit Book Awards for Fantasy/Science Fiction
Next Generation Indie Book Awards - Finalist for Inspirational Fiction
Readers' Favorite International Book Awards - Bronze Medal - Visionary Fiction
National Indie Excellence Awards - Finalist - Visionary Fiction
IAN - Book of the Year Awards -Finalist - Science Fiction
BOOK LINKS “DO YOU REALISE?”
Kindle - ,https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06VX1QQHX
Audible - ,https://www.audible.com/pd/Do-You-Realize-Audiobook/B07SS612KN
Kobo - ,https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/do-you-realize-3
Nook - ,https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/do-you-realize-kevin-a-kuhn/1125466578
BOOK AWARDS “TEN TALES OF A DARK TOMORROW”
“Ten Tales of a Dark Tomorrow” has received two literary awards:
Gold Medal – Foreword Indie Book of the Year – Short Stories
National Indie Excellence Awards - Finalist – Short Stories
BOOK LINKS “TEN TALES OF A DARK TOMORROW”
Currently, exclusively on Amazon / Kindle Unlimited
Kindle - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07YQ818SZ
Audible - ,https://www.audible.com/pd/Ten-Tales-of-a-Dark-Tomorrow-Audiobook/B0829BCZGS
HOW TO ENGAGE A READER
A reader needs to experience the story in their head.
Show, don’t tell.
Avoid anything that reminds the reader it’s not real or takes them out of the experience.
Name everything, people, places, slang, etc.
Create possibilities. Let the reader’s imagination run. Find a way to create mystery and intrigue.
Make the reader work – allow them to infer, construe and deduce. Every time they make a connection, they become more invested.
KEVIN’S BEST ADVICE
Read your dialogue out loud, then fix it
Don’t be boring (Insights! Conflict! Action! Emotion!)
Watch out for Tropes!
a. Main Character is perfect
b. Character describes self in a mirror
c. Ex Machina – magical device resolves the plot
4. Write first draft for yourself, edit & rewrite for everyone else
https://youtu.be/xERXf9fOBV8
I also invite you to follow Kevin by subscribing to her website and following him on all social media.
SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS
Website – ,https://kevkuhn45.wixsite.com/bigkuhna
Facebook Page – ,https://www.facebook.com/KevinAKuhn/
Twitter – ,https://twitter.com/Big_Kuhna
Instagram - ,https://www.instagram.com/big_kuhna/
Goodreads - ,https://www.goodreads.com/kevinkuhn
#bestseller #bestsellingauthor #author #writingtips #storybuilding #characterdevelopment #StephenKing #KevinAKuhn
August 13, 2020
Special Guest Interview with Editor Gina Casto
Last week, I embarked on the first interview of a series, interviewing special guests that are related to the book industry in some way in my public Facebook group Tirza’s Bookstore. This project has always been a dream of mine and I have finally made a start on it with quite a blast to ring in this new era.
My first Special Guest was professional editor and author Gina Casto who writes under the pen name Gina Salamon. Gina has created new group programs to learn about editing and how to better build your storyline and characters. Let me tell you, she is a fountain of expert advice and such a kind person at the same time. Her motto is “I will always be honest to be of help but that doesn’t mean you have to be rude” is what she lives by.
And let me tell you, does she know what she is doing! With her new platform Killing It Write, she is offering authors resources not only with her courses but also her blog that are invaluable in terms of bring you forward in honing your own writing skills. I’ve learned so much in only this completely free interview and I will take part in one of her courses as well.
Like myself, a lot of Indie authors don’t have a large budget to spend on editing and marketing and Gina knows this and has priced her services, group programs and individual coaching and editing alike, to ensure that everyone is able to afford a professional when you first start out.
On top of this INCREDIBLE VALUE FOR MONEY regular pricing, she is offering everyone who has watched our interview a special BONUS DISCOUNT of ,20% when you tell her, Tirza sent you, as of now, right through to the end of September, so make sure you don’t let this GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY pass you by unused!
If you’re not on Facebook, I upload all my interviews (and other video recordings) on my YouTube channel. Please subscribe and make sure to turn on that little bell that will let you know when there is a new video. Watch my interview with Gina here:
https://youtu.be/0tqNjf-t1Qw
I also invite you to follow Gina by subscribing to her website and following her on all social media.
Her editor website is called Killing It Write (KillingItWrite.com) and you can find her books under her author’s pen name Gina Salamon (GinaSalamon.com). And by the way, her romantic suspense novels are AH-MAZING! You really want to check them out! 5 stars from me all the way through!
#editor #writingtips #storybuilding #characterdevelopment #specialdiscount #specialoffer
July 8, 2020
All Things Books: The Pleasure of Being Conned
A Book Review for THE LONG CON by
After I’d already read the author’s Alex Drake series, I've just finished an awesome book by Lexxi James and loved it! Of course, I had to write a review straight away, not only out of enthusiasm over the pleasure of reading the book and enjoying it so much but also because book reviews are the currency that give authors more exposure. They are really important to get higher rankings, allow more readers to find your books and give a potential reader the confidence to buy a book from a thus far unknown author.
So with that in mind, I don’t merely write the author a message or comment on social media that I’ve liked the book, I write a review and it gets posted on my social media, various platforms, as well.
I want to share the joy I had reading this book with others and enable them to have a similar experience.
I want to support a fellow Indie author.
And, in this particular case, I want to give a shoutout to my friend.
So here is my review. I hope you enjoy it and it might just get you to read the book yourself.
You've never loved being conned more! As much as I love honesty, this con artistry in this book is delightful. Richard and Jaclyn really have it going on. Their banter is sexy, witty, delightful and intriguing. Lots of things happen here and there is never a dull moment in this con ride of your life. So buckle up and enjoy being taken for a ride. Never has deception been sweeter or more romantic (or more packing a punch, which I promise you'll glee over, too). Absolutely a 5-star book all the way, as we're used from this amazing author, Lexxi James. And I'll keep continuing to get all her books, be sure of that!
Get the book on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B085C1KFTR/
Places you can post your reviews to:
Amazon and other online bookstores
Goodreads
Bookbub
Your Social Media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, etc.)
Commenting/reviewing the author’s page, account, etc. on social media
So next time, you enjoy reading a book, please take the time and leave a review. You don’t know how happy you’ll make the author and how much you can boost their books. Every single review counts! You might just make a great impact on someone’s life with your review!
#conartist #billionaireromance #strongwomen #fooledforlove #bookstagram #lexxijames #thelongcon #bookreview #bookstagram #tirzaschaefer #tirzareads
June 3, 2020
Power Animal Meditation: Cobra
Read Tirza Schaefer's books here.
Cobras belong to the genus Naja, the category in which all true cobras fall. Depending on species, their lengths vary from six to ten feet. Common characteristics are their fangs and venom glands, their ability to deliver a fatal bite to humans through their highly poisonous neurotoxic venom.
Read Tirza Schaefer's books here.
When we look at how a cobra or other spirit or power animals in the spiritual realm impart their powers on a person, the most intense way of transference is a bite or swipe with a claw, i.e., through an injury that entails some part of the animal entering the human body in a vision or dream. Personally, in case of Cobra, I have repeatedly had both dreams and visions of this beautiful and powerful animal burying its fangs in my eyelids.
Cobra is your staunch supporter in times when life seems without deeper meaning, stagnant and hopeless and you have moved to a point in your life where gaining a better understanding of yourself is crucial. Cobra energies unveil your innate abilities that have thus far lain dormant and not been yet discovered. She also helps you seek and find the truth of a matter.
To learn more about this Power Animal and use its energy in your meditation and self-reflection, click here:
,Cobra
Tirza's Author Page
Tirza's Amazon Author Page
#poweranimal #TirzaSchaefer #AuthorTirzaSchaefer #Tirzabooks #PowerAnimalMeditation #cobra #intuition #knowledge #wisdom #magic #medicine #healing
March 15, 2020
Goddess Meditation: Bastet
To learn more about this Goddess and use her energy in your meditation and self-reflection, click here: Bastet Tirza's Amazon Author Page Tirza's Books2Read Author Page #goddess #TirzaSchaefer #AuthorTirzaSchaefer #Tirzabooks #GoddessMeditation #GreekGoddess #death #sleep #day #darkness #night
