Ruth O'Neil's Blog, page 18

Cynthia Enuton

My guest author today is Cynthia Enuton. She is the author of the Fur Angel series. 
Cynthia grew up in Maryland and received a BA degree in Psychology from the University of Maryland (UMBC). She worked at a State facility for severe emotionally challenged adolescents for over 13 years. Cynthia currently resides in Jacksonville, Florida, as a children/YA author and travels with one of her Fur Angels, Augie Dog, to book signings of the Fur Angel Series.
The Fur Angel Series:
Angel in a Fur Coat (first book in the series) begins in a faraway place where angels are trading their wings and halos for fur coats to be born on earth as dogs. First, they must learn what it means to be a dog, so they go to school. They learn about dog breeds and various dog jobs, and after graduation they get their fur coat and are born to find the person they were made for.
Now, as Fur Angels on earth, Legend of the Pink Toe explores the wonderful world of dogs through the eyes of one special little angel who bears the mark of a legend…a pink little toe.
The legend is unleashed in Wayward Angels when fifteen-year-old Rebecca is pulled into the fantastical world of Fur Angels by her roommate, eleven-year-old Tanisha, who believes in fairytales and Angel in a Fur Coat is her favorite book. Life isn’t easy for the students of Tikkun Olam, a facility for troubled kids also known as the crazy kids. But with the help of therapy, friendship, and a little therapy dog, Peanut, maybe a fairytale ending isn’t all that impossible.
Dolittleology dives deeper into the phenomena of human and animal communications.  When fourteen-year-old Billy Cohen claims to talk with his Pug named Stimpy, he is admitted to the Tikkun Olam Institute. Once a psychiatric treatment facility for kids, but things aren’t what they appear to be. Billy discovers secrets hidden inside its walls and within the subconscious of his mind.
Websites:    http://www.FurAngelSeries.com                    http://www.Gooberella.com

 facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/Gooberella                     http://www.facebook.com/FurAngels

 Twitter:      http://www.twitter.com/gooberella

  Blog           http://www.gooberella.blogspot.com
Amazon:     http://www.amazon.com/author/clenuton

To purchase any of her books, click on the covers below.

 

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A.C. PAPA Editor-In-Chief Chris Bodor

A.C. PAPA Editor-In-Chief Chris Bodor spreading
the message of poetry and spoken wordToday's guest author is A.C. PAPA Editor-In-Chief, Chris Bodor.

Here is a review of his magazine written by Barbara Pyles Barker:


 Reading this inaugural issue of A.C. PAPA was a special treat for me, because the many wonderful poems and stories evoke a world from my own memories. Like Robin McClary who wrote the foreword, I grew up in the Sunshine State and know many of the same things:
palmettoes; TVs you actually had to cross the room to change; three local (and only) channels; locks not used, because they were not needed. On Vilano Beach, where I was raised, the sand dunes were tall, the ocean gave up the most perfect shells after tropical storms, and August meteor showers were brilliant because there was no competition for the light.

My sister and I walked together between our street and Boating Club Road to visit our grandparents practically daily—no worries about what lay between those two homes. We knew the neighbors, and there weren’t a great many. The beach community is filled now. The world is so connected, and I suppose we’re safer now in a way because of it, but there’s also more we need to be safe from. Something has been lost, and that makes it all the more important to remember these details of our childhoods and family histories here in St. Augustine.
The poems in A.C. PAPA capture Florida in works that celebrate cities such as Saint Augustine and Saint Petersburg, as well as the state’s varied landscape. They share the authors’ own memories, as well as what they love of our state and town in contemporary times. Salt-river views, beach glass, Egrets, sea turtles are all here in verse. “Florida’s Environmental Heritage” speaks of those things that have been lost from Nature, but of our attempts to recapture. Haikus capture slivers of Florida.
My state has always provided inspiration to artists. In this collection Larry Baker recalls his inspirations for The Flamingo Rising, how the A1A coastline provided shape and grounding for the acclaimed novel. Another essay, authored by Susan Bennett Lopez,  takes us back to her journey to find Jack Kerouac in Florida. She recounts her search for Jack, her attempt to get to “the core of Kerouac’s psyche.”
Another theme in this volume is the inspiration we writers find in Nature’s most dangerous and awesome forces. There is something about storms that draws us, and lights our imagination. “Fakahatchee Bay Crossing”, by Jim Draper, is a gripping account of a struggle to survive, and the character’s transformation in the stormy bay along a coast of mangrove trees, buoyed above the hazard of razor sharp oyster shells.
In a special section called Coast Lines, three of the poems relate the power of hurricanes; Mother Nature’s signature Florida force. Ann Browning Masters gives us a glimpse into the Oldest City’s history with these storms. “Hurricane Winds”, by Gigi Mischele Miller and Tovah Janovsky’s “Impressions of Arthur” relate beautiful imagery of how we natives dealt with Mother Nature at Her most fearsome and awe inspiring. These poets give all due respect where it is deserved to this stunning and destructive power.
The talented artists in this volume capture the beauty, mystique, and history of this special place, in verse and prose and photos. It is a jewel of a collection.

The inaugural issue of Ancient City Poets, Authors, Photographers and Artists (A.C. PAPA) is available on Amazon by clicking on the cover.



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Song of the Week - "10,000 Reasons"

Lists. I’m definitely a fan of them. In fact, at any given time I have two or three, or even more lists going with what I need to do, what I need to buy, writing assignments coming up, etc. I even have a book where I make a point of listing the blessings God gives me. It opens my eyes even farther to see where His hand is at work in my life, even if I didn’t know it at the time.
Today I want to encourage you to make a list. Make a list of ways that God has blessed you. The Song of the Week is “10,000 Reasons.” Can you come up with that many? How many can you come up with?
Listen to the song this week and I dare you to not have it in your head and heart all day/week long.

Start your list now.

Jamie White, Author of "Stains on the Soul"

Today's guest is a little different. You will not learn so much about the author, but about one of her characters. This is Fiona.


“The Dream”

I feel like I’m losing it. Every time I go to sleep, it’s the same thing: I wake up in a cold sweat with all kinds of horrible images fresh in my mind. I’ve been walking around like a zombie and trying not to let anyone know just how exhausted I am, and all because of these dreams.

There’s a girl about to burn at the stake. She looks terrified and I know it’s not just the fact she’s about to die. She’s terrified of what she sees before the men come and light the kindling beneath her. No… actually, I think she looks more sad than anything.

It makes me think of him, and I don’t know why. He’s new is town and he’s been coming on to me. He’s cute, so I really shouldn’t mind but there’s something about him that makes me uncomfortable. I think part of it is the fact I like him too much and I shouldn’t. I’m technically seeing someone, and I’m about to go off to college soon. Why should I bother getting mixed up with someone else? Especially someone who makes my skin crawl.

Every time I see him, I can’t breathe and sometimes I think of that girl in my dreams. She looks so sad, like she wants to tell me something important. 

I told you I was losing it.




About Stains on the Soul: 
It’s her last summer before going away to college and Fiona finds herself facing more than she bargained for: A boyfriend she doesn’t want who has a strange hold over her, a friend pushing her to expand her boundaries, and a new guy named Ted whose presence is more than a distraction. If that isn’t enough, Fiona is being haunted with horrifying nightmares of burning at the stake—nightmares so real, she feels as though she’s losing her mid.

Are they only dreams, or are they trying to warn her about this new guy she can’t help but want?


About Jamie:

Jamie White is a music addict, book lover, pet servant & NaNoWriMo survivor. When she's not busy writing blog posts, she's taking pictures and spending time with her husband and pets. She released Stains on the Soul and Clutter via Pagan Writers Press in 2013. Stains 2 is set to release February 2015.

You can visit Jamie here:


http://www.jbcultureshock.wordpress.com

jamiebmusings@gmail.com




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Leslie Halpern, Children's Poetry Writer

My guest author today is Leslie C. Halpern.

About Leslie:

Award-winning poet Leslie C. Halpern has a Master’s Degree in Liberal Arts and Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism. In addition to children’s books, she writes nonfiction books about the entertainment industry for adults, and reviews books and movies for several online publications. Find out more about her at www.LeslieHalpern.com and www.facebook.com/LeslieCHalpern


For all of you out there who want to write for children, here are some great tips from Leslie.

Six Things I Learned From Writing Children’s Books

Humor is less subjective with children than with adults.
Body functions, body parts, vegetables, animals behaving like humans, kids knowing more than adults, and anything that stinks usually get laughs from children. While adults have a lifetime of teachers, parents, and partners censoring their humor, young children know what amuses them and have no qualms about laughing out loud. The trick is finding the balance where the subject matter is funny enough to interest young children while still teaching them some kind of lesson. Adults sometimes lose themselves in funny children’s books as they let their “inner child” giggle along with the kids.
Children don’t fear poetry, parents do.
When parents don’t expose their children to age-appropriate poetry while they’re young, they miss the opportunity to develop life-long poetry lovers. If the poetry is too advanced or too serious for early readers, or the parents project their own lack of appreciation for poetry, they doom their children to a built-in prejudice against one of the most creative forms of written expression. Many people fear poems because they don’t understand them, and therefore feel dumb when they can’t speak the language of poetry. Learning about rhyme, rhythm, metaphor, simile, and other literary devices at an early age will give children an advantage throughout their entire lives.
Reading challenges must be age-appropriate to build self-esteem.
Parents and authors share the responsibility on this one. Books should clearly state the reading level on the cover, and parents and teachers need to direct children to age-appropriate books. As the writer, use mostly familiar words, although it’s fine to challenge readers a little if the context helps define the word. Include a glossary in the back if the book includes several words that might be unfamiliar. Reading ability in children varies greatly depending upon their exposure to books, parental support, and language skills. As the parent or teacher, be aware of the level at which the child is reading and find subject matter, writing style, and artwork that make the readers stretch a little to help build self-esteem. If the material is too advanced for the reader, they feel frustrated; if the material is too basic, they grow bored. That’s why age-appropriate (emotional age, intellectual age, and chronological age) are so important with your readers.
Gadgets, toys, and musical instruments bring poetry alive for children.
I include many literary devices, such as onamonapia, rhyme, and alliteration in my poetry for children (ages 5-9), and take full advantage of these when reading poetry aloud for an audience. However, even with an animated voice and colorful pictures, my readings and other presentations are often enhanced by props. For example, in Rub, Scrub, Clean the Tub: Funny Children’s Poems About Self-Image, several of the poems and illustrations include yellow rubber ducks. I include a variety of ducks when I read from this book including wind-ups, pull-strings, squeakers, and quackers that never fail to elicit giggles from the audience.
Artwork is often more important than the text.
As a writer, it hurts to say this, but the graphic design and artwork are the primary motivators when people buy children’s books. No matter how much they like the subject matter and text, if the artwork isn’t fun, colorful, or interesting, people don’t buy the book for children. Illustrations need not be masterful; it’s a question of reader engagement rather than artistic skill. Unless you have the ability to write and illustrate, hire an artist to provide illustrations that will capture children’s imaginations and make them curious about the text.
Don’t stereotype your customers.

When I first starting writing the Funny Children’s Poems book series, I assumed the primary market would be 20-something parents and 50-something grandparents shopping for young children. I soon learned people in their 20’s, 30’s and 40’s sometimes have young children, and grandparents also come in all shapes, sizes, and ages. In addition, aunts, uncles, cousins, godparents, brothers, sisters, friends, and teachers buy children’s books. Other people who might be interested in buying (or displaying free copies) include doctors, dentists, child psychologists, and other professionals who have children visiting their waiting rooms. 

About her book:

Award-winning poet Leslie C. Halpern wrote her Funny Children’s Poems book series to educate and entertain early readers, ages 5-9. The series includes Frogs, Hogs, Puppy Dogs: Funny Children’s Poems About Animal Friends (2014), Shakes, Cakes, Frosted Flakes: Funny Children’s Poems About Table Manners (2013), and Rub, Scrub, Clean the Tub: Funny Children’s Poems About Self-Image (2012), all published by Cricket Cottage Publishing and illustrated with whimsical watercolor paintings by Oral Nussbaum. Told from a child’s perspective, Frogs, Hogs, Puppy Dogs takes a light-hearted look at our relationships with house pets and zoo animals; Shakes, Cakes, Frosted Flakes humorously studies eating habits, nutrition, and etiquette; and Rub, Scrub, Clean the Tub provides a child’s distorted view of personal hygiene, interpersonal relationships, and self-image. All three books in the Funny Children’s Poems series include parent-teacher resource pages with challenging questions, fun games, and glossaries of unfamiliar words. Find Leslie’s children’s books and adult nonfiction books about the entertainment industry at www.Amazon.com, on her website at www.LeslieHalpern.com, and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/funnychildrenspoems.

Purchase her books from Amazon by clicking on the covers.


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The Importance of Dialogue with Elise Abram

The Importance of Dialogue
"Conversation #1" by Angus Cameron https://www.flickr.com/photos/7371605...

Reading should be an immersive activity in which you experience everything the point of view (POV) character experiences. A good narrative should give the reader a fly-on-the-wall-with-extra-sensory-perception feeling in which everything the POV character sees, hears, feels, and occasionally tastes and smells is related. The ESP comes when we hear the POV character's thoughts. This helps to establish pathos, a sense of empathy, compassion and the ability to put myself into the protagonist's shoes.

What about dialogue?

Every seasoned writer has heard the old adage "Show, don't tell". It's the first thing I teach my Writer's Craft students, repeating it as a mantra to them throughout the semester. Dialogue is the best way to show your audience what motivates your main character.

To demonstrate, consider this:

John said he was mad.

Here the narrator tells the reader what John has said, that John is mad. We know nothing about John's thoughts, or his level of agitation. Rather than tell us what John's said, let your characters speak for themselves.

"I'm mad," John said.

Though this time John is allowed to speak for himself, this excerpt gives the reader nothing more than the first example of telling.

John felt the blood rise in his temples. "I'm so angry I could spit," he said.
Here the author tells us what John's feeling in the moments before he speaks. Something's happened that has clearly agitated him. He's not just mad, he's angry, really angry.

Dialogue doesn't just show detail, it helps advance plot ("Don't follow me," he told her and he climbed into his pick-up, that old Dodge beater he'd bought on Craig's List for a song.), and character ("I hate it when she does that.") to show the characters' thoughts and feelings in a way being told these things (He told her not to follow him and he got into his truck and drove away.) by a disembodied narrator can't.

About the Author:

Elise Abram is a high school English and Computer Studies teacher, former archaeologist, avid reader and student of the human condition. Everything she does, watches, reads and hears is fodder for her writing. In her spare time she experiments with Paleo cookery, knits badly, and writes.
Her book:

Raised from the dead as a revenant more than a hundred years ago, Zulu possesses superior stealth, superhuman speed, and a keen intellect. His only companion is Morgan the Seer, an old man cursed with longevity and the ability to see the future in his dreams. Zulu has spent the last century working with Morgan in order to save the people in his nightmares from horrible fates. Branded a vigilante by the media, Zulu must live his life in the shadows, traveling by night or in the city's underground unless his quest demands otherwise.

Morgan also has enemies. His twin brother Malchus, a powerful necromancer, is raising an army of undead minions to hunt Morgan down. Will they be able to stop Morgan from raising his army? How will they kill someone as powerful as Malchus? Is there more at stake than just their own lives?

You can pick up Elise's book at Amazon by clicking on the cover.

Or by going to:

Barnes and Noble - http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-revenant-elise-abram/1119936760

Kobo - http://store.kobobooks.com/en-CA/ebook/the-revenant-5

Black Rose Writing - http://www.blackrosewriting.com/childrens-booksya/the-revenant


Catch up with Elise:

Website - http://eliseabram.com

Facebook - https://facebook.com/zulutherevenant and https://facebook.com/eliseabram

Twitter - https://twitter.com/eliseabram

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/eliseabram

Amazon Author Page - http://www.amazon.com/Elise-Abram/e/B009FF1JGA

Goodreads - https://www.goodreads.com/EliseAbram

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Song of the Week - "I Get on My Knees"

I recently had an experience that I could only call a taste of the world. I didn’t like it. It took me a few days to get rid of the negativity that weighed me down. I realized that the world is negative. Bad things happen to all of us. After speaking with my husband we knew we would handle situations differently than the people of the world. We also knew that we wouldn’t want to have to handle situations without God in our lives.
The Song of this Week is “I Get on My Knees.” So many times there are issues within my family, among my friends that the only thing I can do is pray. Actually, my husband’s Gram used to say, “The BEST thing you can do is pray.” She was a very wise woman who lived a lot of years and saw a lot of things.

If you, or anyone you know, is going through a tough time this week, get on your knees. Take the circumstances to God. Don’t look inside yourself. Don’t look to others who are only human. It is He who can help us overcome any problems we may have. 

Charmain Zimmerman Brackett -- Little Pearl's Circus World

For the month of February I will be hosting several authors who are part of the Indie Lights Book Parade. All of these are "clean" authors, which is difficult to find these days, even in the Christian market. Please check back all month long to perhaps find new authors to add to your TBR pile. (Everyone does have a TBR pile, right??)

My guest author today is Charmain Zimmerman Brackett, author of Little Pearl's Circus World.

About the Author:

Charmain Zimmerman Brackett started her writing career while still in college joining the sports staff of the local paper as a correspondent taking high school sports stats. She's continued working for that same newspaper for more than 27 years. She published her first novel, The Key of Elyon, in 2012, and it was awarded the 2014 Yerby Award for Fiction at the Augusta Literary Festival. 
About the Book:
Before she was 5 years-old, Little Pearl Clark was performing in her father's circus, the M.L. Clark and Son's Combined Shows. Join Little Pearl behind the scenes of her circus world. Little Pearl's Circus World is based on the true story Pearl Clark LaComa (1890-1927).

Circus Roots:

It started as a way to preserve her family heritage, but it resulted in an illustrated children's book based on her great-grandmother's life in the circus.

About three years ago, Charmain Zimmerman Brackett had a chance meeting with some long-lost cousins.

"I grew up in Georgia, and most of my dad's family lived in Las Vegas. I didn't really get to know his side of the family," she said. "One of my cousins moved to Georgia, and I went with my parents to meet her and her sister who was visiting from Las Vegas."

Her cousin, Becky Bagshaw, was interested in genealogy and spent the next few hours telling Brackett about their family's circus history. Their great-grandmother, Pearl Clark LaComa, had been part of a circus owned by LaComa's father, Mack Loren "M.L." Clark. And their grandmother, Juanita LaComa Zimmerman, had wanted to be a writer. She wrote down snippets of her circus memories in spiral-bound notebooks. Bagshaw promised to send photocopies of pictures and these journals when she returned to Las Vegas, and she did.

"The box she sent me was full of my grandmother's writings and copies of photographs. It was fascinating to me, but it saddened me at the same time because I never knew any of this when my grandmother was alive," said Brackett.

Over the next two years, Brackett went on a quest to pull as much circus information together as possible. She traveled to Baraboo, Wis. to research at the Robert L. Parkinson Library and Research Center and to Alexandria, La. where her family's circus had its winter headquarters.

She spent countless hours on the Internet.

She gathered family photos from other relatives in Texas and Washington state.

"At first, I thought I'd do something just for my family. I wanted to put the photographs together in one place in a medium that could be passed down from generation to generation. After posting a few photographs of my grandmother on social media, I discovered other people were as interested in my family as I was," she said.

With her journalistic background, she had hoped to write a non-fiction work about her great-grandparents' lives, but despite her efforts, she couldn't find enough information. So she went to Plan B - write a children's book based on the notes her grandmother had written. There was enough information for that. She enlisted Erica Pastecki, an artist and art teacher, to create paintings which would be used as the basis for the illustrations. Brackett also hired Ashlee Henry to do the design of the book.

In November 2014, Little Pearl's Circus World was published.

And on Jan. 3, readers at The Kindle Hub voted her book as the Best Children's Book of 2014.

"It's really exciting to see people get behind this project. I'm thrilled with the way the book turned out, and I can't wait to see where it leads," she said.

To purchase this book, click on the cover to go to Amazon or click for Barnes and Noble.

To find out more about Charmain, visit her:

website/blog - www.charmainzbrackett.com twitter - @CZBrackett
facebook - www.facebook.com/thekeyofelyon
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Song of the Week - "Greater"

When I hear this song it makes me want to move. Unfortunately I’m a fairly reserved person. Once in a while you may see my hand or my foot tapping, but that’s about it. However, just because you don’t see me moving physically, doesn’t mean my heart isn’t moved. I think that’s something that’s lacking in Christianity today. We don’t move physically, mentally or emotionally. I don’t really understand that, especially when there are songs like this being sung on a daily basis.

I’m posting this version of the song in honor of my deaf friends/interpreters. There is a woman who attends my church that is an interpreter for the deaf. I often see her signing the words to songs we are singing. She feels the need to move. I have a couple of friends who are deaf. They often move when it comes to worship, simply because that’s the way they express themselves.

When we worship, we should feel the need to move and I don’t just mean by dancing or clapping. We should feel the need to reach out to those who need help, a hug, a kind word. The closer we get to God, the more other’s needs should become apparent to us, encouraging us to move.
It’s hard to understand how people cannot be moved when they know that God is in us and “the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world” (1 John 4:4). So, watch and listen to this song and I dare you not to move, at least a little bit. Then, when the song is over, go out and move to help someone on a spiritual level.

Song of the Week - "The Warrior is a Child"

The song of the week this week is “The Warrior is a Child.” I know so many people that this song could apply to. So many of my friends and family are going through difficult times, illnesses of their own or a family member’s. These people still manage to put a smile on their face and give glory to God for whatever is going on in their lives. This post is for those friends and family. I won’t name names, but if you happen to be reading this, you know who you are. You can also know that I am praying for YOU.
This week I encourage you to keep your eyes open and look for that one that just wants to sit and cry. Maybe they are tired of trying to be strong for appearances’ sake. Send them a card. Call them up. Fix the family a meal.  Be there. Let them cry on your shoulder. Remind them that God is there and is holding their hand.

You be the strong one this week.