Cindy Bauer's Blog: Authors Express Promotion, page 25
August 22, 2017
Secrets of Successful Writers by Othello Bach
This writing manual contains only the essential information concerning writing marketable fiction stories. No padding. No fluff. Just easy-to-apply proven rules, tips, and techniques already mastered by professional authors. This manual also contains numerous examples and exercises to help develop writing skills.
AMAZON KINDLE REVIEWS
Secrets of Successful Writers
This writing manual contains only the essential information concerning writing marketable fiction stories. No padding. No fluff. Just easy-to-apply proven rules, tips, and techniques already mastered by professional authors. This manual also contains numerous examples and exercises to help develop writing skills.AMAZON KINDLE REVIEWS
Spirit Shapes by Marilyn Meredith
Spirit Shapes
Dr. Charles N. Toftoy talks to AEP about his EYES series and his newest book, Amazing Fireside Talks
DR. CHARLES N. TOFTOYQ: You have two award winning novels in the thriller category. The new book you are working on is in the inspirational category. What inspired you to make such a drastic change?
People are down in the dumps. I felt that it was more important, during these tough times, to inspire people. Everybody: older, young, youths, men, women…regardless of race or where they live in this world.
Q: I don’t believe anyone has ever written a book covering the numerous topics this one will. How did the idea come to you and why did you choose the topics you chose to write about?
You’re right…it is a first. I chose the most important personal issues we face, in my opinion. Of course, my choices are not all encompassing. There are others, but these are the main ones.Q: You do a lot of research while writing your books. Research takes a lot of time. How do you decide what information to use and what not to use?
I dig in depth: group discussions with people of varied backgrounds, one-on-one interviews, books, newspaper articles, journal articles, internet information, blogs, and other. I pick out the key points and keep a log. It takes time. For example, to choose one quote that pertains directly to a topic, I might research 200 quotes in order to pick just one.
Q: Your first novel was inspired by a true event. What was that event?
One of the top students in my business class was raped and brutally murdered by two scumbags. That stuck in the back of my mind for a couple of years until I realized that I need to write a book dedicated to her. That really got me started into writing novels. Up to that point, I just wrote journal articles and papers for business conferences. Boring. It’s tougher to write a novel. It takes heavy research to do it right. Like tons of interviews with homicide detectives and others. Visiting places you are writing about. You can’t turn research over to young interns or have others do your writing for you. It’s got to be you 100% or dilution occurs. That’s happening with a lot of the big name authors.
Q: How did you come up with the Alpha Team idea?
Good question. Just using imagination combined with reality. I needed a stud as the sleuth so I picked Lars, former Vietnam vet, professor who knows how to kill and lead. Tiger served with him in Vietnam…says whatever he wants. Jokes to break up things now and then. Works in a funeral home because that was needed for the novel. Brenda…Washington Post criminal reporter. Valuable to draw out killers. Black belt. Pretty and tough. Doris…former FBI profiler fits in great with her background and psycQ: You are using the Alpha Team in this third book. That’s also a new twist since it’s not the same genre as your first two books. What approach are you planning to use with the team and why?
They are close. Tight bond. Great to have them as a discussion group. Rather than writing a book with just me telling the reader this and that, it comes from the group members. There’s nothing worse than a book where the author is telling you what to do. And every statement made by my characters is chosen for that particular character and said in the way he or she talks in real life. I feel that my characters live inside me. I mean it.
Q: What topics will you be covering in Amazing Fireside Talks and how did you determine them?
The most important issues we face. Not complete but my choice. Never done before this way in the literary world to the best of my knowledge. Usually a book covers one topic for personal guidance. In this case I cover many topics giving inspiring bottom-lines, leaving out fluff. There’s about 25 areas covered. A few are: denial, depression, anxiety, love, happiness, trust, suicide, hope, patience, dignity, humility, character, and others. Some interesting areas are: scared space, vision quest, and rescue yourself. Again, everything is written TO the reader and FOR the reader.
Q: You are a highly decorated veteran. How did it come about that you decided to teach at GWU?
To be honest and I’ve never said this before, but frankly Vietnam drained me. Two tours in close combat. Mild PTSD followed, even though I was a hard core Ranger-Paratrooper. But lots of firefights, faced with everything you can imagine. Wounded twice…2 Purple Hearts, surrounded three times, shot down in a helicopter, blown off a tank due to an RPG. So, I needed a complete change. I thought that I had enough experience to help students. My best accomplishment was in changing students’ lives for the better. I taught for 17 years in The Business School. I had students take on real life projects where they helped CEOs in small-midsized businesses in the Metro area. Helped over 1,500 businesses in 17 years. I just loved that and so did the students. Fond memories. Big challenge too.
Q: What do you hope the readers will take away from this new book and why?
To never give up. Take away some of these thoughts discussed and apply them as appropriate. The thoughts are provide d to help the reader or someone the reader is helping. Honestly, if the book helps one person, I’ll be happy. It will have been worth the effort.
Q: Do you have any plans for more books?
Not right now. I’m interested in getting this book out to the world…not just the USA. The helpful tips apply to everyone wherever they are. But I am thinking of another thriller that has something to do with members of Congress. Then again, I may write a book for children. Just love new challenges. Since the time of this interview, Dr. Toftoy has begun work on a third novel in the "EYES" series, titled Reversed Pursuit. Watch for updates here!
Award-Winning Author, Dr. Charles N. Toftoy Interview
DR. CHARLES N. TOFTOYQ: You have two award winning novels in the thriller category. The new book you are working on is in the inspirational category. What inspired you to make such a drastic change?
People are down in the dumps. I felt that it was more important, during these tough times, to inspire people. Everybody: older, young, youths, men, women…regardless of race or where they live in this world.
Q: I don’t believe anyone has ever written a book covering the numerous topics this one will. How did the idea come to you and why did you choose the topics you chose to write about?
You’re right…it is a first. I chose the most important personal issues we face, in my opinion. Of course, my choices are not all encompassing. There are others, but these are the main ones.
Q: You do a lot of research while writing your books. Research takes a lot of time. How do you decide what information to use and what not to use?
I dig in depth: group discussions with people of varied backgrounds, one-on-one interviews, books, newspaper articles, journal articles, internet information, blogs, and other. I pick out the key points and keep a log. It takes time. For example, to choose one quote that pertains directly to a topic, I might research 200 quotes in order to pick just one.
Q: Your first novel was inspired by a true event. What was that event?
One of the top students in my business class was raped and brutally murdered by two scumbags. That stuck in the back of my mind for a couple of years until I realized that I need to write a book dedicated to her. That really got me started into writing novels. Up to that point, I just wrote journal articles and papers for business conferences. Boring. It’s tougher to write a novel. It takes heavy research to do it right. Like tons of interviews with homicide detectives and others. Visiting places you are writing about. You can’t turn research over to young interns or have others do your writing for you. It’s got to be you 100% or dilution occurs. That’s happening with a lot of the big name authors.
Q: How did you come up with the Alpha Team idea?
Good question. Just using imagination combined with reality. I needed a stud as the sleuth so I picked Lars, former Vietnam vet, professor who knows how to kill and lead. Tiger served with him in Vietnam…says whatever he wants. Jokes to break up things now and then. Works in a funeral home because that was needed for the novel. Brenda…Washington Post criminal reporter. Valuable to draw out killers. Black belt. Pretty and tough. Doris…former FBI profiler fits in great with her background and psycQ: You are using the Alpha Team in this third book. That’s also a new twist since it’s not the same genre as your first two books. What approach are you planning to use with the team and why?
They are close. Tight bond. Great to have them as a discussion group. Rather than writing a book with just me telling the reader this and that, it comes from the group members. There’s nothing worse than a book where the author is telling you what to do. And every statement made by my characters is chosen for that particular character and said in the way he or she talks in real life. I feel that my characters live inside me. I mean it.
Q: What topics will you be covering in Amazing Fireside Talks and how did you determine them?
The most important issues we face. Not complete but my choice. Never done before this way in the literary world to the best of my knowledge. Usually a book covers one topic for personal guidance. In this case I cover many topics giving inspiring bottom-lines, leaving out fluff. There’s about 25 areas covered. A few are: denial, depression, anxiety, love, happiness, trust, suicide, hope, patience, dignity, humility, character, and others. Some interesting areas are: scared space, vision quest, and rescue yourself. Again, everything is written TO the reader and FOR the reader.
Q: You are a highly decorated veteran. How did it come about that you decided to teach at GWU?
To be honest and I’ve never said this before, but frankly Vietnam drained me. Two tours in close combat. Mild PTSD followed, even though I was a hard core Ranger-Paratrooper. But lots of firefights, faced with everything you can imagine. Wounded twice…2 Purple Hearts, surrounded three times, shot down in a helicopter, blown off a tank due to an RPG. So, I needed a complete change. I thought that I had enough experience to help students. My best accomplishment was in changing students’ lives for the better. I taught for 17 years in The Business School. I had students take on real life projects where they helped CEOs in small-midsized businesses in the Metro area. Helped over 1,500 businesses in 17 years. I just loved that and so did the students. Fond memories. Big challenge too.
Q: What do you hope the readers will take away from this new book and why?
To never give up. Take away some of these thoughts discussed and apply them as appropriate. The thoughts are provide d to help the reader or someone the reader is helping. Honestly, if the book helps one person, I’ll be happy. It will have been worth the effort.
Q: Do you have any plans for more books?
Not right now. I’m interested in getting this book out to the world…not just the USA. The helpful tips apply to everyone wherever they are. But I am thinking of another thriller that has something to do with members of Congress. Then again, I may write a book for children. Just love new challenges. Since the time of this interview, Dr. Toftoy has begun work on a third novel in the "EYES" series, titled Reversed Pursuit. Watch for updates here!
August 21, 2017
The Minimum You Need To Know Series by Roland Hughes
Service Oriented Architecture is all the rage these days. Dozens, if not hundreds of books are published on it, and more seem to show up every day. This book isn't awash with buzzwords and jargon. In truth, this book will probably be shunned by the SOA elite. Rather than focus on the front end, this book focuses on the back end. That Heritage data silo/application where all of the other books just draw a box with “connect somehow” written on it. Most of them try to sell some expensive middleware along the way.
Management can and should read the first 5 chapters in this book. These chapters aren't technical and may very well open their eyes. The remaining chapters are for those programmers given the “connect somehow” task. While OpenVMS is the Heritage platform of choice in this book and Ubuntu is used for the front end development, developers from other platforms should get a lot of ideas by reading this book.
Source code is provided on the CD.
----------
There are two main intents of this book. The first intent is to allow developers who know at least one of the covered languages on another platform to quickly come up to speed on the OpenVMS platform. The second is to assist current OpenVMS developers finding themselves having to work with a different language their current language become productive.A single application is developed over and over again in each of the languages. Both RMS Indexed file development and relational development are covered in the book. When working with MySQL only the C language is covered. The accompanying CD-ROM contains the source code developed in the book. By being able to compare the source code for the same application in different languages the reader can quickly get a feeling for the design trade offs and benefits of each language covered.
The screen handler covered is FMS. While this may be one of the oldest if not the oldest screen handling/forms development packages on OpenVMS it also has a very large base in production systems. If you are new to the OpenVMS environment you will encounter it. Once you know this forms management system you should be able to quickly pick up the other products on this platform.
----------
This book shows the nitty-gritty of developing with Qt using PostgreSQL, Firebird, and SQLite databases. It also shows the developer how to create BOTH console and GUI Qt applications. Readers are shown how to do development with Qt Designer, Qt Creator, Qdevelop, Monkey Studio, and Eclipse under KUbuntu. Like most of the titles in this series this book attempts to teach by repeatedly developing the same applications so even seasoned developers can learn from the differences each tool presents.----------
This book is part of "The Minimum You Need to Know" family of books by Logikal Solutions. As the family expands they will cover an increasing variety of topics. This book is designed to be used as a test book for classes in logic from high school to college level. It should be one of the first books you read when starting in IT.Not only does this book cover flow charting and pseudocode, it teaches the reader to think before they start mapping out the logic to solve a problem. The author of this book is an industry veteran with roughly 30 years in the field. It has been his experience that recent graduates, from any country, are nearly useless at problem solving. If they cannot point, click, and drag, they cannot solve the problem. This book is an attempt to teach them how to solve the problem.
----------
Most books on Java drop you immediately into developing Web applets and HTML pages. This book doesn't bother covering what is done in thousands of other books on the market. Here we focus on using JNI to access RMS (Records Management System) indexed files and FMS (Forms Management System.) You will learn how to use Java with MMS (Module Management System) and CMS (Code Management System.) Finally, the same application found in The Minimum You Need to Know to Be an OpenVMS Application Developer is redeveloped using Java with FMS and RDB (Releational DataBase.)In short, this isn't just another “oatmeal for the masses” Java book. It is for professionals on the OpenVMS platform who find they must now work with Java.
All source code can be found at the Web site for the series: http://theminimumyouneedtoknow.com/
----------
This book covers using C#/Mono with the Qt framework in great detail. It will be of great use to C++ Qt users as well since Chapter 3 is currently the most complete set of instructions for creating and printing reports in TXT, HTML, and ODF with Qt4. Faithful readers of this series will also be pleased to learn this book continues the tradition of including a Ruminations chapter at the end. ----------
This book is meant to provide a much needed tutorial for the OpenSource xBaseJ library. If you have some fundamental Java skills this book can have you developing your own xBaseJ applications in a matter of hours. The xBaseJ library was used by the author to create the FuelSurcharge project on SourceForge. ----------
Information and Purchase: http://www.theminimumyouneedtoknow.com/
The Minimum You Need To Know series
Service Oriented Architecture is all the rage these days. Dozens, if not hundreds of books are published on it, and more seem to show up every day. This book isn't awash with buzzwords and jargon. In truth, this book will probably be shunned by the SOA elite. Rather than focus on the front end, this book focuses on the back end. That Heritage data silo/application where all of the other books just draw a box with “connect somehow” written on it. Most of them try to sell some expensive middleware along the way.
Management can and should read the first 5 chapters in this book. These chapters aren't technical and may very well open their eyes. The remaining chapters are for those programmers given the “connect somehow” task. While OpenVMS is the Heritage platform of choice in this book and Ubuntu is used for the front end development, developers from other platforms should get a lot of ideas by reading this book.
Source code is provided on the CD.
----------
There are two main intents of this book. The first intent is to allow developers who know at least one of the covered languages on another platform to quickly come up to speed on the OpenVMS platform. The second is to assist current OpenVMS developers finding themselves having to work with a different language their current language become productive.A single application is developed over and over again in each of the languages. Both RMS Indexed file development and relational development are covered in the book. When working with MySQL only the C language is covered. The accompanying CD-ROM contains the source code developed in the book. By being able to compare the source code for the same application in different languages the reader can quickly get a feeling for the design trade offs and benefits of each language covered.
The screen handler covered is FMS. While this may be one of the oldest if not the oldest screen handling/forms development packages on OpenVMS it also has a very large base in production systems. If you are new to the OpenVMS environment you will encounter it. Once you know this forms management system you should be able to quickly pick up the other products on this platform.
----------
This book shows the nitty-gritty of developing with Qt using PostgreSQL, Firebird, and SQLite databases. It also shows the developer how to create BOTH console and GUI Qt applications. Readers are shown how to do development with Qt Designer, Qt Creator, Qdevelop, Monkey Studio, and Eclipse under KUbuntu. Like most of the titles in this series this book attempts to teach by repeatedly developing the same applications so even seasoned developers can learn from the differences each tool presents.----------
This book is part of "The Minimum You Need to Know" family of books by Logikal Solutions. As the family expands they will cover an increasing variety of topics. This book is designed to be used as a test book for classes in logic from high school to college level. It should be one of the first books you read when starting in IT.Not only does this book cover flow charting and pseudocode, it teaches the reader to think before they start mapping out the logic to solve a problem. The author of this book is an industry veteran with roughly 30 years in the field. It has been his experience that recent graduates, from any country, are nearly useless at problem solving. If they cannot point, click, and drag, they cannot solve the problem. This book is an attempt to teach them how to solve the problem.
----------
Most books on Java drop you immediately into developing Web applets and HTML pages. This book doesn't bother covering what is done in thousands of other books on the market. Here we focus on using JNI to access RMS (Records Management System) indexed files and FMS (Forms Management System.) You will learn how to use Java with MMS (Module Management System) and CMS (Code Management System.) Finally, the same application found in The Minimum You Need to Know to Be an OpenVMS Application Developer is redeveloped using Java with FMS and RDB (Releational DataBase.)In short, this isn't just another “oatmeal for the masses” Java book. It is for professionals on the OpenVMS platform who find they must now work with Java.
All source code can be found at the Web site for the series: http://theminimumyouneedtoknow.com/
----------
This book covers using C#/Mono with the Qt framework in great detail. It will be of great use to C++ Qt users as well since Chapter 3 is currently the most complete set of instructions for creating and printing reports in TXT, HTML, and ODF with Qt4. Faithful readers of this series will also be pleased to learn this book continues the tradition of including a Ruminations chapter at the end. ----------
This book is meant to provide a much needed tutorial for the OpenSource xBaseJ library. If you have some fundamental Java skills this book can have you developing your own xBaseJ applications in a matter of hours. The xBaseJ library was used by the author to create the FuelSurcharge project on SourceForge. ----------
Information and Purchase: http://www.theminimumyouneedtoknow.com/
Trail Fixin's by Rev. Paul G. Zimmer II
This book of devotions is a result of his many years of ministry and service to the church and God’s people, and we are sure the devotions in this book will be a blessing to you in many wonderful ways! Pastor Paul Zimmer is a 1973 graduate of Azusa Pacific College. His ministry is extensive, and covers nearly 50 years in all. Over that span of time, he has served the Lord as a Senior Pastor, Associate Pastor of Youth Ministries, and Worship Leader and Administrator of a large Christian preschool and elementary school. Between those church callings, Pastor Paul also worked with numerous public and private social service agencies that provided counseling and advocate services for children, youth and teens. His work with many social service agencies has resulted in several recognitions from the local community for his efforts to provide services that protected and advanced the cause of children, youth and teens. While serving in Grand Island, NE the Unified School District gave him recognition for the juvenile diversion and counseling services provided while employed as the Director of Hall County Youth Services Bureau. Then in 1994, the Riverside County Office of Education named him the Children and Youth Advocate of the Year for his work in Riverside and San Bernardino counties as the Supervisor of the Community Care Licensing unit that licensed day‑care homes and agencies throughout both counties. Pastor Paul served in that position for the State of California Social Services from 1989 through his medical retirement 2000. Since his retirement, he has developed a wide reaching on line ministry, a monthly world prayer meeting and authored five books.AMAZON KINDLE REVIEWS
Trail Fixin's
This book of devotions is a result of his many years of ministry and service to the church and God’s people, and we are sure the devotions in this book will be a blessing to you in many wonderful ways! Pastor Paul Zimmer is a 1973 graduate of Azusa Pacific College. His ministry is extensive, and covers nearly 50 years in all. Over that span of time, he has served the Lord as a Senior Pastor, Associate Pastor of Youth Ministries, and Worship Leader and Administrator of a large Christian preschool and elementary school. Between those church callings, Pastor Paul also worked with numerous public and private social service agencies that provided counseling and advocate services for children, youth and teens. His work with many social service agencies has resulted in several recognitions from the local community for his efforts to provide services that protected and advanced the cause of children, youth and teens. While serving in Grand Island, NE the Unified School District gave him recognition for the juvenile diversion and counseling services provided while employed as the Director of Hall County Youth Services Bureau. Then in 1994, the Riverside County Office of Education named him the Children and Youth Advocate of the Year for his work in Riverside and San Bernardino counties as the Supervisor of the Community Care Licensing unit that licensed day‑care homes and agencies throughout both counties. Pastor Paul served in that position for the State of California Social Services from 1989 through his medical retirement 2000. Since his retirement, he has developed a wide reaching on line ministry, a monthly world prayer meeting and authored five books.AMAZON KINDLE REVIEWS
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