Amara Cudney's Blog, page 3

Bonnie's Surprise

Bonnie's Surprise is a story full of hope and love. Bonnie has to figure out what she's' going to do after Jeff turns her world upside down.






This Friday, Decemeber 20th, Bonnie's Surprise will be free for 24 hours. It's a wonderful short story.
"beautifully written" Knobby"Uplifting"Catherine Algrin"Fun, captivating""exceptional writing.Linda
Merry Christmas , I hope love fills all of your hearts and that goodness comes to you always.

Christmas and Love

I find that this time of year, I'm more sensitive and susceptable to expectations and trying to make everything right. For What? Well for that one moment they call Christmas.

When I was a child, it was the moment I waited for for what seemed forever that finally came early in the morning on December 25th when I'd run to the living room to see what Santa had brought me. So exciting, so much anticipation, it was great.

Now that I'm older, Christmas has taken on a much deeper meaning. Today, I'm thinking about the world and all of it's inhabitants. I'm praying for peace and for an end to hunger. I'm also praying that all people everywhere can have love in their hearts and be kind to each other.

On Dec. 13, I'll be offering Bonnie's Surprise on Amazon for free. This is a story about two people who find themselves falling in love when they least expected it. It's a story about the sweetness of love and how it can enter your heart at any moment.
I hope you enjoy it.

Bonnie's Surprise

When my grand daughter was about 10 or so, I saw her face go suddenly pale. Truly, I thought she was going to faint.  We were in a hotel in Santa Fe, New Mexico and had been having a great time, so I couldn't figure what was the matter.

"Nancy? What's wrong honey?"

"Grandma," her eyes filled with tears, "I think I have a crush."


The  story for Bonnie's Surprise came a similar type of situation. The only difference was that the person who told me that story wasn't 10. They were  70 years older than that and it struck me how love works. It doesn't matter if your 2 or 100, when love strikes, it takes over your life, it changes the colors of the world, it changes you, and you can barely think straight. That's why I wrote the story, to show that love is amazing in it's power on us.


Starting Friday night, Dec. 6th at midnight through the next day, Dec. 7 at midnight, I'll be offering Bonnie's Surprise for free again.

I hope you enjoy the story, please let me know what you think.

A Culture of Bullying

We tend to think that bullying comes from a person's background, how they were raised, their nature or from being abused. I recently read a study that was done on bullying. What I want to know is how did bullying become so pervasive and is it really a "top-down" phenomenon. In other words, is it just in schools or is it how we function in our world.



In this study, researches examined thirty sample populations or "teams" consisting of twenty individuals each. In each of these teams, a leader was selected. Not just any leader would do. The population of leaders selected had to be very diverse so that the results wouldn't be skewed why race, age or background. The leaders were selected to represent a variety of traits. Each leader was a different age and gender as well as being from different ethnic and economic backgrounds.

The leader then had to form a line with the shortest to the tallest, using every person on the team. The "leader" was the only one who could move  members of the team into position. The leader had absolute power. There was also a cash price to the team that formed a perfect line.

Team members could be heard criticizing the leader saying things like, "We'll never win now" or "who picked him?" Researchers found that roughly 80% of all cases in which such remarks were made, the team leader immediately entered bully mode, saying things like "shut up", "Just do what I say" or "There's a reason that I'm the boss here."When things became very tense, the team leader could be heard asking a team member if he wanted to get hurt.

The conclusion of this study was that people aren't necessarily born bullies nor does buying come from a person's background, ethnicity or socio-economic status. We all have a part of us that can become a bully. but most of us have learned how to control that behavior or realized that we don't like to be like that. The study concludes that bullying doesn't come from within, it comes from without.

This got me to thinking about bullying. I was an elementary teacher and bullying was a constant topic. How to teach children not to bully, how to stop bullying and so on. Well, here is what I think. I think that bullying is a cultural problem that we all suffer from. In my first grade class, and all teachers please tell me it isn't so, one of the biggest parts of my job was to make sure these very small children walked in a  perfect line without talking in the school's hallways. I would be very ashamed if the principal or another teacher walked by and my line was talking or out of order. These were 6 and 7 year old kids.

I think that we're all being bullied. We're bullied by the government, we're bullied by our neighbors, we're bullied by our peers and so on. This is not just a child's issue, its a societal issue. Many school principals are bullies because they've been pressured from above. Kids are learning to be bullies through their teachers who are bullied by school principals who are bullied by administrators who are being bullied by… and it just goes on.

Bullying is how most people get by. Christmas is coming up and all I can see are the crowds of people pushing each other out of the way to get what they want. They turn into bullies to get what they want because retail stores feel pressure to make more money so they've created situations where this will occur.





The only way that I can see a way out of this is through a surrender to love. I know you're probably saying to yourselves, "what?" But if we truly learn to tap into ourselves and love ourselves and are good to ourselves then we can be good to others. If we're good to others it has a domino effect. Then others are good to others. If we take time to be of service in our community, then we are combating bullying. Those people that we are serving will begin to serve others and it will be in a loving way just like we are doing.

 I once heard a very wise woman say that the war we see around us is a reflection of the war within us. Centering ourselves and meditating causes us to be peaceful and serene. That energy is contagious. It really is only through prayer that we can change how things are. We can raise our consciousness to understand that bullying isn't just a "child's issue", it's a societal issue and it's a reflection of how we treat ourselves and others.

Surprising Connections

I don't know why I'm surprised, but I am. Today, I met with the woman who is an amazing artist. We had lunch and it was so nice to hang out with her. We'd met through a mutual friend and  I had let her read the first twenty or so pages so she could get an idea of what the book was about. 
Naturally, I asked her what she thought. She told me that she had been abused most of her life and she identified with Merili. She then went on to tell me her story and it was powerful. She survived.


As I was speaking with another woman who I'd met along the path and she told me about a family member who is suffering from alcoholism. She told me part of her story and it was heartrending. I could see how she and her family were suffering and being affected by the disease. She's anxious to find out how Merili gets through her issues of abuse and addiction.


I know that  the reason God gave me this book to write was because people needed to read about it. I remember watching an Oprah show about a woman who was in an abusive relationship. Oprah asked her why she stayed. At the deepest part of my soul, I knew why. It's not that easy to leave, in fact, it's very hard. Telling someone that they should leave is almost like telling them to clean their glasses if they're blind.
A person who is caught in a spiral of addiction or is in an abusive relationship has to connect with a deep part of herself or himself that they don't even know is there. They have to believe that they don't deserve to live in the hell where they are. Not only that, they have to find an inner strength and a connection with a power greater than themselves who can help. It takes a willingness to be different and also a true dedication to allowing their lives to change which isn't always comfortable, especially if you don't know how your life is going to change.
I'm anxious to meet others who are going to relate to Merili's Wine and who are waiting for the story to be told. I'm glad that God is showing me that it's worth it.


photos taken by Sam Cudney

The Prayer

I just launched the cover of "The Prayer", a short story I wrote.


Tomorrow, Nov. 5, 2013, the story will be available for .99 on Amazon. This is so exciting I can't tell you. Basically, we're practicing to get Merili published. And, I want to share my other work as well.
Please support me by sharing my posts and making comments. Reviews are also awesome.
Visit  Facebook and tomorrow-Amazon. Yeah!   facebook/amaracudneyauthor.com

I've posted the first 500 words of Merili's Wine on her f...

I've posted the first 500 words of Merili's Wine on her facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/MerilisWine

I'd really like to hear what you all think. I'm looking for honest feedback.

And just a heads up I'm also looking for a cover designer and an editor. I'm laying this desire in God's hands and praying that I'm led to them and that they are led to me.

Have a great weekend.

Missing Merili

It's been almost three weeks since I visited Merili. I gave her my word that I'd stay away and let her rest. Do you think I'm crazy? I miss her so much. I can hardly wait to see her again next week.

It'll be time to do some editing, clean up some stuff and all that other housecleaning.

I want to send a special thanks out to Lizzie Ford, author of The Rhyn Series as well as the Witchling Series and many more books (available on Amazon). She gifted me with two books about digital publishing. I reading like crazy, hoping to be done by next week. My daughter told me about her and I wrote her on Facebook. She responded right away and then gave me the books.

This is going to be so much fun. Don't forget to go to meriliswine@facebook this weekend to check out the first 500 words. Let me know if you like it.

What does Merili want?

It is so true. I'm actually having anxiety about this. You see, last week I finished the book. Well, I finished the 2nd draft. It's no where near ready, but the meat of it is complete. So where do I go now?

Let me tell you. Everyone has an opinion. You'll never get it published. Digital's the way to go. E publishing's the way to go. Okay, Okay.

What I'm finding out is that when you're ready to take the next steps, there are tons of people that will help you. The important thing is to listen to your heart and listen to your protagonist. They've been your best friend for at least a year, right?

You do have to learn. I feel like I'm in graduate school. I spend about four hours a day just researching, learning, reading, and talking to people. Amazing things are happening. My daughter told me about an author, Lizzie Ford, and I Facebooked her. She wrote back and gifted me two books on e publishing. People are offering to help. It's the way we are no a days. A connected community.

This week, I'm learning how to twitter, make a web page, do Linkedin, create an author page, pick up this blog and how to let the process flow. I am so excited about how its all going to work out. I feel to deeply about this. Merili will find a way. Look for the first 500 words at meriliswine@facebook.com this coming weekend. And thanks for all of your support and friendship. It means the world to me.