Rival Gates's Blog, page 72

My Full Page Guest Blog!

Mary DeSantis and the good folks at Kit 'N Kabookle blog were kind enough to do a full page spread on me and “Quest for the Red Sapphire”. It is up on this link: http://kitnkabookle.blogspot.com/2014... There is an excerpt from the book as well as a character interview, an interview with me and a more detailed insight into my life. It also touches on the fact that the .99 cent Amazon download sale is still going on through the 12th. http://www.amazon.com/Quest-Red-Sapph... . Thank you to Mary for hosting me and my book. She runs a first class blog and is ever the professional. Enjoy the read.

Terror of a Rental Car

Let me just start by thanking everyone who has downloaded my book from Amazon. It is still .99 until January 12th. Keep on downloading! My daughter’s car (which I technically own) was parked harmlessly about a month ago when someone backed into it. The body shop has just found time to work on it and I took it in this afternoon. As part of the arrangement, I was to be provided a rental car. When I was taken out to check it over for damage before taking possession I saw that I had been given a Ford Fiesta. Now I certainly could stand to lose some weight but I am not that big. When I sat down in the driver’s seat one of my shoulders was hanging off the back of the chair. The seat was back all the way and my knees were bent in front of me. I like to think of myself as someone who is not picky but this just wasn’t going to work. I politely asked the nice young lady if I could have something a little bigger. She said I would need to talk to the insurance company to get a larger size. So I called the insurance company. They said I had been approved for a sub-compact car. I never knew what that term meant until today. After explaining the situation at length they approved me for a full sized car. I was promptly taken to the car lot for the rental company and given a 2014 Chevy Silverado Extended Cab. Talk about a change! Now I was sitting in a tank. The only thing missing was the gun turret. It was too big to fit in my garage. The agent talked to me about the gas and how much it needed to have when I returned it. Then she spoke to me about optional insurance. It was a terrifying speech. She said that I was responsible for any damage like someone opening a car door into it or someone scratching it. That doesn’t sound so bad, right? Wrong. Then she said a claim would be filed against my insurance and I would be charged for the damage plus the number of days the truck was “Off the road.” I don’t know what all that would add up to but it was a lot. I am a trained salesman and I know a fear appeal speech when I hear it. This was one of the scariest ones ever. The more she talked, the more I considered the optional insurance. A knot was forming in my stomach. All I could think of was hitting something with this huge truck. Why couldn’t I have fit in the Fiesta? Then she told me the price. It was $20.00 a day for as long as I had the truck. I’ve had repairs take as long as a month before. Even if it’s only a couple of weeks, that’s $240 I would be paying whether I damaged the truck or not. It’s half way to my deductible. So there was a fight within me. If the scared side won I would pay for the insurance. If the cheap side of me won I would not do the insurance and roll the dice. I am no gambler and abhor taking risks but I declined the coverage. The expense just didn’t seem justified. Now I have a huge truck parked in front of my house I am scared to drive. What good is that? It was either feel like that or pay the money and feel like a sucker. So the days of terror begin. Maybe my wife will drive it? She doesn’t worry about such things.

.99 Sale Continues and Surges

The .99 cent Kindle Download Sale of “Quest for the Red Sapphire” is going very well. I am so pleased to have my work in the hands of more readers. It runs through the 12th on Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/Quest-Red-Sapph.... It is a wonderful opportunity to download a great book for a great price. The general reaction I have received is that it is a hard book to put down once you start reading. That has to be just about the greatest compliment a writer can hear. Its sequel, “Sapphire Crucible” is at the editor’s now and should be out in the next 2 months. It will answer many of the questions posed by “Quest for the Red Sapphire”. I can’t answer everything, mind you. Some things must be kept for future books. Be assured, however, that there will be even more action than the first book and thrilling moments that will keep the book glued to your fingers. The anticipation is palpable for me and I know what is going to happen! I won’t spoil it but there will be some big surprises. Enjoy the stories.

Author Interview, .99 Sale Starts

I have been honored by another blogger with an Author Spotlight. Jessica Tornese has done a piece about me on http://jessicatornese.com/. There’s information about the book, a fresh bio about me and an excerpt from “Quest for the Red Sapphire” It also spotlights that the .99 sale started today! It runs through the 12th on Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/Quest-Red-Sapph.... I am flattered by the exposure and hope you will take this opportunity to read this exciting novel for a very low price.

Interview With Angel Dunworth

Interview with Angel Dunworth
www.streetlighthalo.com

What do you write?
Just about everything... I adore words, puns, anything to do with language. The book I have coming out is a short story collection written for troubled teens and parents addressing issues of things they deal with today. My website is filled with links to organizations that offer help and also articles, statistics... whatever I thought might be useful.

How do you write?
I was reading an interview by another writer and in it he stated that he writes from an outline like we used to have to make in high school. People write from an outline or plan? I can't even imagine how hard that must be. The only way I've ever been able to write is for the first paragraph and first scene... words will just start popping into my head and I have to write them down. I just take it and run...with no plan anything can happen and it feels so free I get addicted until I’m done.

Isn't that harder to do?

No. not for me. It does have its drawbacks. One time I was reading to the kids in my living room and one says, "What happened to such and such?" Oh hell I left that character stranded in the middle of the book! lol Forgot all about her. lol

Another time after my cancer surgery they put me on opiates. I had this awesome idea for the sequel for my masterpiece. Remember though I was on percoset for pain. So 2 weeks later when the Rx was over I reread... about 30 pages and it said over and over "and then it was." lol

I hadn't written the great thing I thought and neither could I remember what I was going to write! Lol

What inspires you to write?

The first inspiration I ever remember is my Pappaw when I was little reading to me and using different character voices. That used to thrill me to no end. I loved his Winnie the Pooh voices!

Now I write what's real mostly. I get inspired simply by wanting to help and putting myself in, “Wow! What are they going through and how does it affect them?”

When I really need to FEEL inspiration, I use prayer or I simply look at my loved ones and at how blessed I am. Once I do that I want everyone to become as blessed as I am and so I write. I write about mindsets and obstacles. To me those things are fantasy, the reality is this, “Do not become your situation; Overcome your situation.”

Not a bad mantra, any others you use a lot?

Life is not about waiting out the storm; life is about dancing in the rain!

Even at its worst: Life is good!

FEAR... F-E-A-R
False
Evidence
Appearing
Real

That's about it!

Sounds good. So where do I buy this book of yours?

Snapshots from Home will be available where you buy eBooks most likely Amazon. Release date to be disclosed soon.

The soft cover is not close to ready yet but I will blog about it when it is!



Let's have that blog info

My blog can be read from the website www.streetlighthalo.com OR
http://streetlighthalo.blogspot.com/

However if you write to me at streetlighthalo0711@gmail I can email them straight to you if you like. It's no trouble; it's just harder to keep track of the numbers is all.

Thanks for your time!

Thanks for listening!



--
Angel Dunworth
www.streetlighthalo.com

.99 Sale

Starting Monday, January 6th “Quest for the Red Sapphire” will be available in the Kindle version on Amazon.com for .99! It will run for a week. Enjoy the read!

200 Channels and Nothing On

Cold weather has kept me inside as of late and I have come to realize something. The more channels I get on my cable box, the less it seems there is to watch. It sounds strange to me too but it is true. When I was growing up there were a half dozen stations to watch. You made your choice and if the channel was coming in well enough, you watched it. Those were your options and you accepted things as they were. Then I subscribed to cable and I had about 20 channels. It seemed like there was so much to see. That number kept growing and growing and now there are about a couple of hundred channels to surf. The problem is that the more specialized the channels become, the smaller the share of the market they appeal to. The result is many niche channels filling your menu and nothing of interest to watch. You would think more options would make for more viewing time but it has proved to be the opposite. I scan the channels and find nothing of interest. Then I decide to do something else. Television used to be mesmerizing. There were shows that you made sure you were home in time to see. Other shows you talked about with friends the next day because chances were, they watched them as well. Now you ask someone if they watched a show and either they were watching something else or they were not watching television. I constantly talk to people who tell me about shows I either never watch or have never heard of before. Likewise, I talk about something I saw and it appears I was the only one on the planet watching that program. Then there are the reality shows. Do you know what we used to call reality TV...NEWS. Now every channel has some sort of contest or adventure show where cooks square off, or fishermen fish or pilots in Alaska fly or some guy eats disgusting food all over the world. I mean the list just doesn’t stop. We have pawn brokers made into stars and teenaged moms mouthing off and throwing their lives away. These shows are supposed to make us want to watch? What ever happened to writers who actually wrote scripts for shows? I guess people want realism because the prevalence of such shows displays their unimaginable popularity. In the end I pay my cable bill every month and wonder why I even bother having the service. Maybe the people who just watch Netflix have it right. Who knows? All I know is it seems I keep seeing new channels appear that I will never watch.

New Interview

Laurie’s Thoughts and Reviews are featuring me right now and has an interview posted. It is really a nice piece. Here is the link: http://lauries-interviews.blogspot.co... I would like to thank Laurie for taking the time to spotlight my work. Enjoy!!

Farewell 2013

Another year is in the books. I never really understood the importance of making New Year’s a holiday but I guess there’s no harm in it. Let me thank Chicken Soup for a Bookworm’s Soul again for their kind and gracious review http://bookwormsoul.blogspot.com/2013... from yesterday. 2013 is a year for which I need to give a great many thanks. First of all I am thankful to the good folks at Alpha Wolf/Solstice Publishing for issuing “Quest for the Red Sapphire.” It is the first of many novels I have planned. They took a chance on a new writer with a big dream. That dream is becoming a reality and I cannot convey the extremity of my thanks. I started the year with no publisher and little hope. Ending the year, I have my book in its first store and on Amazon.com with great hope for the future. The other writers at Solstice have helped me with marketing tips and I must heap praise on them as well. Then I have some very good friends, namely Angel Dunworth http://www.streetlighthalo.com/index.... who has been everything from an inspiration to a person to vent toward. As you will have noticed if you read my blog regularly, I have a great support system at home. My children are a great and ever changing gift. I could not love them more. My wife is my rock. When the roof feels like it’s crashing down, she is the support beam holding it up above my head. She is truly the wind in my sails that draws me forward. My wife is everything to me. Most men are not so lucky as to have such an understanding wife. I am thankful for my health this year as I had surgery, which took 2 months of my year. Now that I am fully recovered I look forward to good health next year. In all, 2013 was a great year for me personally and as a professional. 2014 looks to be even better. My second book, “Sapphire Crucible” is due out in the first half of the year and “Quest for the Red Sapphire” continues a strong presence. Maybe the point of the New Year’s Celebration is the anticipation of better things to come in the next year? I always thought it was a reason for people to drink too much and act silly. Then again, I might be thinking of the Superbowl, or St. Patrick’s Day. Whatever your reason for celebration, enjoy yourselves and be safe. Soon the festivities will be over with and we will be left with plain old January.

New Book Review

The good folks at Chicken Soup From a Bookworm's Soul just posted a very flattering review of "Quest for the Red Sapphire" It is on Goodreads and at this link. http://bookwormsoul.blogspot.com/2013...