Ingrid Jennings's Blog, page 6

How to Self-Publish and Start a Publishing Company

[image error]Check out my new book on amazon How to Self Publish and Start a Publishing company. The kindle and nook version are both on sale for $.99 for the month of October and November.

Slopjar Book Tour Starting October 26-November 23

Gabriel’s Inferno by Sylvain Reynard

Gabriel’s Inferno by Sylvain Reynard

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I won Gabriel’s Inferno by Sylvain Reynard on Goodreads and I didn’t realize what a treat I had until I begin to read the captivating pages. I become instantly hooked and could not put the book down. It is amazing, a tale of forbidden and everlasting love. A love lost and then reunited. Two souls made for each other but separated by conviction and guilt. Professor Emerson is a God among men but his soul bears hardships that he can’t overcome alone. Julia is innocence and virtue. She is his Beatrice and he is her Dante; together they are dynamic. Gabriel’s Inferno is one of the best books I have read this year. Sylvain Reynard is a brilliant writer, she is truly talented. Gabriel’s Inferno

View all my reviews

 

An Amazing Writer’s Journey Though Poetry

I want to first thank Ingrid Jennings for the opportunity to post on her blog.

I have been writing poetry as long as I can remember; I guess I stopped, thinking that no one was really interested in the way I express my inner self. Last year, however, that changed for me; my sister died unexpectedly. In my grief and frustration, I began writing about her. I found it invigorating to share my sister with others; and the response was overwhelming. I was humbled by the out pouring of support.

We have always communicated in rhythm. From the moment a baby takes its first breath; we are singing and humming, with the knowledge that the vibration will calm this child; who has never uttered a single word. We communicate with rhythm; swaying to music, rocking in a chair, in song or melody; or in a prose which we find comforting.

Poetry is a part of all of our lives; even if we call it by a different name. I feel so honored that people take time to read what I have written; it is a blessing that I am proud to share with the world. My largest prayer would be that my words may open up inner thoughts and we can make this world a better place for all of us. Hopefully, we will find that even in our heartache; the lessons can come shining through.

Next week is my sister’s birthday; in memory of her, I hope to share a part of her with you. I hope you an excerpt from my most recent book, Petals of Peace.

http://myraysmarket.com/Petals_of_Peace.php

Thank You,

L.M. Young                                                                                                                  

My Memory of You

I often wish you were still here

But when I pause for a while

I remember my life fulfilled

Memories by the mile

I remember the funny things you said

Even using some of it now

Hoping to share your sweet love

Through my grief some how

I still yearn to escape

To your loving abode

Enjoying your take on life

The stories you told

Will anyone really ever

Hear the angel in your voice

Now it seems as if

There isn’t much choice

I miss your melodic harmony

Chased down with that smile

Blue eyes sparkling and dancing

In a world gone wild

It’s funny the things

We all take for granted

Saying words…doing harm

Things can’t be recanted

I laugh to myself when

I call to you in a dream

Seeming even in slumber

God knows what you mean

He sends you when I’m weary

Can’t seem to find my way

Reminding me to be thankful

For new memories I’ve made

So true you aren’t in them

But lucky for others and me

You are felt all around

Like the bark on my tree

Remember the story I told you

About people and a tree

Fruit and leaves are temporary

It’s the roots which ground me

You were always my root

Holding me steady and strong

Keeping my eyes on God

Right where they belonged

You are and were

My truest best friend

Which God bonded in blood

Were there til the end

And while my heart still aches

Over the loss of my sister my friend

I hold you closer still

With every memory I spend

For every memory I lend out

Reminds me that I didn’t lose at all

Instead of focusing on a broken heart

I’ve built a memory wall

Maybe are broken hearted tooSo those who need it

They can come and smile

At my memory of you

Win an autographed copy of Slopjar on Goodreads or Like my facebook page for a chance to be put in an drawing to win a free copy

Goodreads Book Giveaway


Slopjar
by Ingrid Jennings

Giveaway ends January 01, 2013.

See the giveaway details

at Goodreads.

Enter to win

 

Author of Stonebridge Secret David Moore Interview

I’d like to welcome author David Moore to the website. He has taken time out to answer some questions about his book Stonebridge Secret. Authors need to beware because writer David Moore is coming to claim his spot in the gumbo of authors, he is armed with suspenseful plots and intriguing characters.

 David Moore’s Questions and Answers

 1. What inspired you to write Stonebridge Secret?

Back in 2005 I wrote and self-published a short non-fiction account of a couple’s missionary experiences in Cuba during the Castro revolution. While I was working on that story, I realized that the parts I enjoyed writing most were those in which I had to use my imagination rather than specific facts. It sparked a desire to try writing a novel. So I bought several books on writing fiction, many from Writer’s Digest, and began studying how a contemporary novel is constructed. I came to understand that a good story starts with a “what if” idea.

I remembered a true story that I heard years ago from a family member about a person who worked for a priest who had sexual relationships with women from his church. This individual actually heard the sounds coming from the priest’s office during these sexual encounters. So I wondered: What if the person hearing those noises was an altar boy? And what if that boy knew the woman who was with the priest? And that’s how the story took off.

 2. Can you give a brief description of Stonebridge Secret?

Stonebridge Secret is a story about the collateral damage that occurs when someone pursues revenge. Alex Spencer seeks revenge on Father Francis when he discovers the secret about the priest’s infidelity. Alex’s loss of faith and inability to forgive fuels his revenge and affects the choices he makes throughout the story. Unforgiveness blinds him to the damage he is inflicting on himself and those around him. By the time he realizes this, he has put forces of vengeance in motion that he can’t stop.

 3. How did you come up with your characters?

For about half of my life I lived in or near a quaint and quiet village in Western New York called Spencerport. It was a great place to grow up. When I developed my characters, I drew partially from people I remembered from that town. Old man Beaman was one such character (although Beaman is a fictitious name). There was a small grocery store I used to visit as a child, and the man who owned it was very much like the Beaman character in my book.

Many of the characters were created from my imagination, usually composites of several different “real” people. Father Francis is a composite of every arrogant, self-important, and hypocritical person I’ve ever met in life. Thankfully, I’ve never met any one person with all of his attributes. And I hope I never do. The one character who surprised me most was Reed Wentworth. I originally created him because I wanted Alex to have a roommate at the private school he attended in Boston. He was going to have a very small role in the story. But as I continued writing, Reed took on a life of his own and became a very important, yet extremely tragic, character in the story. His life affected me emotionally more than any other character.

 4. What was the most challenging part of writing Stonebridge Secret? The most rewarding?

Without question, the most challenging part was plotting. The story covers a thirteen-year period, so it was easy to get lost at times. I once read that William Faulkner sketched his plots on the wall of his study. That didn’t seem like a practical solution to me, so I ended up creating a timeline in Excel to track each scene. And I had several manuscript readers who read the first draft and were able to point out any inconsistencies I missed.

The most rewarding part of writing the story, and the most unexpected, was how the characters took on lives of their own and became almost real to me. I remember the evening after I had written a scene about Marge the waitress; I was taking a shower and thinking about the scene. As I thought about Marge, I had this sense that she hadn’t had a chance to tell her whole story. I revisited the scene the next day and added the part about her earlier time as a single mother. It was pure inspiration.

 5. How long have you been writing?

I am a late bloomer as a writer. The first sense I had that I could write was when my wife and I corresponded through letters before we married. I was thirty-three at the time. We lived fourteen hundred miles apart. (This was in the days before email and free long distance phone calls.) My letters over a ten-month period won her heart. They had to because we only saw each other three times before we married!

As far as writing books, I started writing a short non-fiction story when I was going to college in 2003 and self-published it in 2005. Since then, I have helped edit another non-fiction book and written Stonebridge Secret. Also, my degree is in English, so I had plenty of opportunities to write during college.

 6. Where would you say that you get your most creative ideas?

Most of my ideas come from reading books, magazine articles, and news stories. Others come from observation.

 7. How important is research in your writing?

For the type of writing I gravitate to, research is critical. I want the story to sound authentic. For me, that means including details that can only be found through research. In Stonebridge Secret I had to research the hierarchy of the Catholic Church during the time the story takes place. I had to understand what working in Congress was like for a freshman congressman. And I had to research heroin addiction, homelessness, dwarfism, etc. By no means did I research to the point where I was an expert on the subjects. I went far enough to where I felt I could tell the story in a believable way.

 8. What is your favorite type of genre to read?

I prefer literary and historic fiction, stories where I get to know the characters and their environments. I like writers whose work has stood the test of time: Charles Dickens, C.S. Forester, and Willa Cather. And I like Edward Rutherfurd. I also enjoy a good thriller of the Dan Brown type from time to time. My favorite non-fiction writer is David McCullough.

 9. Where is your favorite place to write?

I am blessed with a very comfortable study that faces a nature preserve behind our house. I work on an oak roll-top desk that was a very special gift from my wife and a friend twenty years ago.

 10. Could you tell us what you’re currently working on and when should we expect to see it out?

I am almost to the halfway point on the first draft of my next novel (as yet untitled), which takes place in Stonebridge during World War I. The story starts with the theft of two bars of gold from a bank in Syracuse in 1862. The gold is re-discovered in 1917 at the bottom of the Erie Canal by the protagonist, Jake McCleary, and his life begins taking a turn for the worse after that. Murder, intrigue, frustrated romance, and military battles follow, and throughout, Jake struggles with whether his life will amount to anything. I hope to release this in March of 2013.

To Purchase David Moore’s Stonebridge Secret Book Click on the Amazon link below:

 

The Secret by Rhonda Byrne is a must read!

Become great and accomplish your goals with The Secret. It is a must read for people that feel like life is a struggle.The Secret is an inspirational book and really  everyone should read it. I must say, it is the best motivational book I have ever read. I feel like I can accomplish anything with the Secret; nothing is beyond my grasp. It teaches you to disregard negative thoughts and negativity and focus on positive thoughts because of the Law of Attraction. The more positive you think, the more positive you will attract therefore seize the day with positive thoughts.

CANDLESTICKS AND ASHES

CANDLESTICKS AND ASHES

Wax just melted away upon my body,

drop by drop,



devouring my every spot.

The seconds were hours of torment.

The minutes, days of sadness and despair.

My body sweats with thirst,

my tongue drenched with dryness,

my thoughts,

no thoughts,

just a long itching of pain scattered in the breeze.

Candlesticks and ashes

lie beneath my feet.

The ashes of deceased beings and the candles that scorched them.

My dream is no more.

I awaken.

I must write.

Need A book to read this weekend check out “That Girl Started Her Own Country” by the Holy Ghost Writer

Who run the world? Girls or at least according to Beyonce and Zaydee from

That Girl Started Her Own Country

 

That Girl Started Her Own Country by Holy Ghost Writer

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

That Girl Started Her Own Country by the Holy Ghost writer is a very interesting book. It is about a woman named Zaydee who is very mysterious. The more you read the more details are revealed about her. She is somewhat of a 21st century rich playgirl. But it seems her heart belongs to an ex-boyfriend. She is very wealthy and gets arrested while discussing terms to laundry money. But she is charged with assualting an FBI agent. Once she is arrested she never reveals her name. She is booked as Princess Doe. She doesn’t have fingerprints. No one knows who she really is. One thing for sure, she is pro-women. Thoughout the story she is donating to woman causes. While in jail she gets an idea to start her own country. From there she begin to plan. This is a very unique story and it talks about different secret societies and makes me wonder if they really exist. Zaydee is a superhero for women.

 

 

 

 

 

www.ingridjennings.com

Stonebridge Secret by David Moore Book Review

Stonebridge Secret by David Moore

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Stonebridge Secret is a story about a young man with a heart full of vengeance. He overheard some very damaging sounds coming from his priest (whom he looked up too) office. For years the young man (Alex) carried the sadness that the priest caused him. After Alex mother gets into a verbal dispute with the priest she drives off emotional and gets into a car accident. This further fuels Alex. He then goes to stay with his wealthy Republican grandparents. They send him to one of the top prep schools for lawyers. Alex has his mind set on the day he will have a position of power and can get his revenge on the womanizing priest who destroyed his childhood.

I have left out a great deal of information so I don’t spoil it for these seeking a roller-coaster ride of emotions. Stonebridge Secret exceeded my expectations. It goes into politics with the government and with the church plus its all wrapped into the life of this young man Alex. In addition, Alex grandmother Doris gives some exceptional advice that I will be applying in my own life. This is an awesome book; I did not want to put it down. I am happy I won this book on a Goodreads giveaway.

Stonebridge Secret

View all my reviews