Wednesday, July 29, 2020

#Giveaway Our Friendship Matters by Kimberley B. Jones



This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Kimberley B. Jones will be awarding a $10 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

Leah and Sasha are 17-year-old friends who had been close to one another since elementary school, but as the summer approaches they find their friendship tested in ways they never anticipated.


Following graduation, Sasha’s privileged life and perception of the world around her is suddenly altered when an old childhood friend persuades her to join in a campaign against an injustice after his best friend is killed by a cop.


But joining the protest has unforeseen consequences for Sasha, distancing her from Leah, who becomes jealous of Sasha’s new friends and finds herself on the opposing side, protesting alongside her group of new white friends.


As the tension mounts between the two bitterly opposed factions, a tragedy strikes and threatens to make Sasha and Leah enemies. Can they find a way to resolve their differences, putting them to the side and learn to accept each other’s viewpoints? Or is their long friendship finished for good?


Read an Excerpt



As we pulled out of the driveway, Dad waved goodbye. I could picture the smile on his face once he walked into the house and noticed Mom was cooking lasagna.


“So, how is the public-school life at Eastview High?” I asked Ricardo. “Other than Chester beating your guys in sports.”


 “Ya’ll just have better resources than us,” Ricardo said.


“How come we couldn’t just be good at what we do?”


“What! Anyway . . . Eastview is great, I guess, but we are dealing with some issues. It’s our senior year and I am just thinking about leaving this place.”


“Why would you want to leave?”


“Because I feel trapped in a box. Everywhere I go, I feel like a suspect.”


“A suspect, what makes you think that? You shouldn’t feel like that,” I said as my brow lifted from his response.


“Yeah, I know you wouldn’t understand because you go to this perfect private school and stay in this big, beautiful house.”


“What’s that supposed to mean?”


“I’m sorry. Just drop me off at the next block. I got it from there.”


I pulled to the curb and, as Ricardo got out of the car, he leaned against the closed door—with half his body leaning over the window—and said, “Wake up and find out who you really are.”


I squinted my eyes, “Okay.” I drove off. Why would he say such a thing to me?

About the Author:
Kimberley is a professional early childhood educator. She was born in the small town of Saint George, South Carolina, on September 12, 1982. Graduated from Woodland High School in 2000, Benedict College in 2004 with B.S., Child & Family Development, and from Ashford University in 2013 with a Masters in Early Childhood Education.


After receiving her education and being a military spouse, she held several jobs as a preschool teacher and a preschool director, but she wanted to her education to use by writing children’s books. She wrote her first book in college for her children’s literature course. She has self-published several children books on Amazon.


Currently, she is branching off into writing fiction YA, NA, and A novels on issues in society. She loves writing and would not change it for nothing in this world She is now published by Rhetoric Askew. Kimberley is the author of Our Friendship Matters.







Tuesday, July 21, 2020

#Giveaway Duty Bound Duet by Sydney Jamesson



GENRE: Psychological suspense

BLURB:

DUTY OF CARE:


On her death bed Emily Derbyshire’s mother made her promise to take good care of her little sister. Keeping her promise, twelve year old Emily did exactly that and became five year old Rita’s benefactor and bodyguard.

After eighteen years of sisterly devotion Emily receives some shocking news! Rita has committed suicide. When disturbing details start to surface, Emily puts her highflying career on hold to seek out those responsible. She hires an American private investigator Robert Blackmoor; a motorbike riding, no-frills, computer hacker who will use any means necessary to unearth the truth.

Not surprisingly, Robert uncovers secrets from Emily’s troubled childhood and chips away at the glossy veneer of deceit which masks the truth behind, not only Rita’s life, but Emily’s imperfect life too.

Together they assemble the pieces of a sinister puzzle, revealing a cruel and corrupt world of exploitation and murder: a Dark Web into which Rita has become entangled.

As dark forces encircling Emily tighten their grip, and with everything to lose, she must make a life and death decision that she may live to regret.

THE CARETAKERS:

Emily Parsons is a product of a difficult childhood: self-reliant, fiercely protective and willing to do whatever it takes to safeguard the wellbeing of those in her care. She has even slayed a monster, or two … or three in the name of poetic justice, and yet she is haunted by the image of a beautiful blond girl.

Sixteen-year-old Louise Travis has been abducted.

Louise’ fate rested in Emily’s hands, but she let her slip through her fingers like gold dust, only to be swept away by a malevolent band of brothers.

By once again enlisting the help of computer hacker, Robert Blackmoor, Emily must find Louise before she is lost forever in a Dark Web of heinous crimes, cruelty and corruption. The clock is ticking, and Emily’s investigation is drawing the wrong kind of attention, but she will not back down. She is duty bound to protect those she loves.

With skeletons from her past being unearthed, who can she turn to, and who can she trust with her own sinister secrets?


~~~~~~~~~~~~~

AUTHOR Bio and Links:


Sydney Jamesson is a USA Today bestselling author by night and an English teacher by day. She is nocturnal by nature and loves nothing more than staying up late, listening to music and being inspired to write. She has always written creatively; in her home is one enormous wastepaper basket full of discarded phrases, opening lines and pieces of dialogue that have hit her like lightning in the middle of the night. Her USA Today bestselling trilogy, THE STORY OF US sold worldwide, and she has been thrilled to continue Ayden Stone's and Beth Parker's epic love story in The Story of Us Series: Into the Blue, featuring Blue Genes, Blue Hearts and Blue Moon.

More recently, Sydney has focused on psychological suspense. THE DARKEST CORNERS was her first venture into the new genre: a complex love story filled with lots of angst, emotional scenes and edge of your seat suspense as a single father and a troubled young woman confront their deepest, darkest fears together. The twists come think and fast and the ending is unforgettable!

In her latest novels, DUTY OF CARE and THE CARETAKERS - THE DUTY BOUND DUET -readers explore the seedier side of the Dark Web; witness abduction, human trafficking, and a devoted sister’s willingness to do whatever it takes to safeguard the wellbeing of those in her care. It’s a real page turner, filled with incidents which are heart-breaking and heart-stopping in equal measure!

Author platforms:

Website:          https://www.sydneyjamesson.com/
Facebook:       https://www.facebook.com/Sydney-Jamesson-516585008400062/
Twitter:            https://twitter.com/SydneyJamesson
Goodreads:     https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7074207.Sydney_Jamesson      
Instagram:       https://www.instagram.com/jamessonauthor/


~~~~~~~~~~~~~

GIVEAWAY 




Wednesday, June 24, 2020

Dwarf Story by Professor W. W. Marplot




This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Professor W. W. Marplot will be awarding a $10 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.


For Arty to miss a day of school, either he is very, very sick or a fairytale-character turf-war has begun in his backyard — such as what begins this particular Wednesday. First, he finds an ax-swinging, bearded, sweaty warrior Dwarf scaring his dogs. Soon enough, Emma, Cry and other middle-school friends also find fairy creatures — Elves, Spriggans, Pixies, and a hoped-for Dragon — crashing into their normal homework-doing, backpack-carrying, phone-charging schooldays.


Why are these magical beings here? What should be done? Is that axe sharp? Can Pixies be given aspirin?
Arty with his friends — and spying jerks, and questionable strangers with long names — follow the clues and try to find out, even as things turn dark and dangerous.


The mythical beings are taking sides. The Gwyllion, that legendary Old Woman of the Mountains, has a sinister plan, turning the neighborhood into a fantasy battleground. One that awaits young heroes.


Read an Excerpt


Some can picture the battle in their mind’s eye, or in others’ eyes, or by using magic to help them see. For the rest, I can tell them what I know.


The Old Woman of the Mountains, a Gwyllion of great and strange powers, made herself stronger by taking one of each kind of fairy: to start a new kingdom in heaven, to steal the ancient place of rest, and to make new creatures and rule over all them and their world. And then, perhaps, ours.


More folktale legends joined the war, and on both sides. Some came to rescue their friends from the foul Gwyllion and her armies of Wights, Trolls, and dark spirits.


All who fight have their own special energies and enchanted abilities; some humans believe in them, most do not. But that does not always matter.


Now the battle rages, using nature, and the earth, and the sky.


In and out of the fight, many struggle to find their way back to Eastward Manor, knowing it as the path home. Some captives that can escape the Old Woman seek and find children and hide. This is a strange occurrence, the strangest of the whole story, for me. The fairies’ connection to these young people, all friends, can only be guessed, and is personal, so should not be guessed.


All the rest, of the living fairy creatures, struggle in the War. The dead only the earth can help.


To conquer the Gwyllion, I will use the spells, and counter-spells, and the ancient symbols that secretly kept the story alive for hundreds of years, waiting for this part of the tale. They complete a mystical alchemy of words and magic. I am here, I was born to be here, to help the armies of folkies, as Arty and Emma and the adopted human children call them: the Spriggans and the Dwarves and the Elves, with any birds and trees who have taken sides.


It was those human children that the Gwyllion did not count on. When Arty sent the counters-spell out to his friends of friends, as he says, the words were read, and spoken out loud, and contemplated. And passed to others, to friends, and to friends of friends, along and along. That is turning the tide—help unlooked for!


And Ted doesn’t know it yet, but our side has a dragon. My dragon.

About the Author: Professor Welkin Westicotter Marplot, of Coillemuir, Scotland, is a collector of esoteric tales of global wisdom and curator of ancient manuscripts. He is a recluse and, as he claims, has been collecting and collating adventure and fantasy stories for over a century.



#Giveaway A Secret Life by James S. Juliana






Join us for this tour from June 15 to June 26, 2020!

Book Details:

Book Title:  A Secret Life: Enduring and Triumphing Over OCD: Obsessive Compulsive Disorder by James S. Juliana
Category:  Adult Non-Fiction (18+), 176 pages
Genre:  Self-Help, Mental Health
Publisher:  Self-Published
Release dates:   October 2019
Tour dates: June 15 to June 26, 2020
Content Rating:  PG. This self-help book deals with adult subject matter of mental illness.


Book Description:

Are you one
 of the millions who reside within a secret life, a life which
constantly feels out of your own control: Are you plagued by repetitive
thoughts and/or actions which interfere with your daily activities? The
author lived for more than 40 years with an undiagnosed form of mental
illness, a phobia now known as OCD: obsessive-compulsive disorder. His
emotional pain and suffering were at times almost unmanageable. In his
mid-sixties, the author, a loving husband, father and accomplished high
school teacher and athletic coach, discovered a unique psychologist
within the Denver therapeutic community who utilizes a radical but
highly successful treatment that's allowed the author to control his OCD
 symptoms almost 100%. "A Secret Life" is one of the few books written
by an OCD sufferer and descries in detail the pain and chaos living with
 this illness can cause not just the victim, but those closest to him.
This story doesn't stop there, but provides readers with options and
advice dealing with OCD from someone who broke the curse of living a
secret life. Now he's ready to share his story in order to help others.


Buy the Book:
Add to Goodreads

Guest Post

How Teaching Experiences Influence My OCD Outreach

            As a life-long classroom teacher and athletic coach, I realized years ago I was blessed by God with an inherent ability to successfully motivate adolescents to work hard, persevere and achieve beyond their perceived limitations, both in the classroom as well as in achieving their athletic goals. This special gift also allows me to be comfortable in sharing my life-long struggles with OCD with other sufferers.

I believe that the majority of individuals who live with a form of mental illness are embarrassed about their condition. I am convinced the number of reported and identified cases of OCD are significantly underreported or misdiagnosed, especially with children and adolescents. Fear and guilt are two powerful emotions which prevent many individuals from seeking professional assistance. Repeatedly, Dr. Gallagher has remarked to me during therapy sessions, that in over the twenty-plus years he has been practicing private therapy he has only worked with one or two other patients like me, who possess the inner strength or lack of fear to confront their OCD demons head-on.


Throughout my entire career in education, one of the most important lessons I taught to students was to not be afraid to set high goals and to reach for the stars, whether in academics or sports. Sharing my story of overcoming my OCD symptoms comes naturally to me.





Meet the Author:


Jim Juliana was a hard-working family man with a devoted wife and
adoring children. As a teacher, he taught numerous subjects over a
28-year career, was an assistant principal/athletic director for three
years and mentored generations of youngsters in the classroom and in
athletics. Juliana was a coach for forty years at the high school level.
 Coach Juliana has been a part of two state championship teams, a city
championship team and several league title teams. He spent two years as a
 college instructor and football coach. But Jim Juliana had a secret
life, one over which he had no control. For most of his life, he also
fought - and eventually defeated - an embarrassing and almost
debilitating OCD. OCD, or obsessive-compulsive disorder is an anxiety
disorder that effects three to five million adults in the US each year.
OCD involves irrational fears or repeated thoughts or obsessions that
drive an individual to engage in repetitive behaviors or compulsions.
Jim Juliana's life was finally changed when he found a therapist whose
treatment all but eliminated his OCD incidents. A Secret Life chronicles
 Juliana's battle against his OCD and gives readers options and
information for treatment based on his experiences.

​Connect with the author:  Website ~ Facebook


Tour Schedule:

June 15 – Book Corner News and Reviews – book spotlight / guest post / giveaway
June 15 - Working Mommy Journal – book spotlight / giveaway
June 16 – Splashes of Joy – book spotlight / author interview / giveaway
June 16 - Sefina Hawke's Books – book spotlight
June 17 – novelsnerd – book spotlight / author interview / giveaway
June 17 - T's Stuff – book spotlight / author interview / giveaway
June 18 – Library of Clean Reads – book spotlight / giveaway
June 18 - Laura's Interests - book spotlight / author interview / giveaway
June 19 – Hall Ways Blog – book spotlight / guest post / giveaway
June 19 - Rockin' Book Reviews – book spotlight / guest post / giveaway
June 22 – Books for Books – book spotlight
June 23 – Jazzy Book Reviews – book spotlight / author interview / giveaway
June 23 - Olio by Marilyn – book spotlight / author interview / giveaway
June 24 – Locks, Hooks and Books – book spotlight / giveaway
June 24 - Rainy Day Reviews – book spotlight / guest post / giveaway
June 25 – Pick a Good Book – book spotlight / author interview /giveaway
June 26 – Literary Flits – book spotlight / giveaway

Enter the Giveaway:






Tuesday, June 23, 2020

#Giveaway The Shadow of the Tudor Rose by Wendy Leighton-Porter












A graduate of Exeter University in the early 1980s, I spent 20 years as a teacher of French, Latin and Classical studies, before a change of career led me to writing children's fiction. Currently residing in Abu Dhabi, I live with my husband and our beautiful Tonkinese cat.



The Shadow of Atlantis is the first in a series of time-travel adventures, featuring 3 children and a rather special cat called Max. I'm now working on the 17th book, The Shadow of the Great Fire. The series also includes several novellas that feature Max the talking Tonkinese cat undertaking solo adventures. As I take my young readers on a magical mystery tour through the past, I'm hoping that my love of history, myth and legend will rub off on them too. 













In 1588, a plot to invade England and overthrow Queen Elizabeth the First is about to unfold. At this crucial moment in English history, four visitors from the future arrive in Elizabethan London. 



Twins Joe and Jemima Lancelot, together with their friend Charlie and their talking cat Max, embark upon their next journey into the past as they continue the search for their missing parents who are lost somewhere in the mists of time.



Finding themselves at the heart of a web of conspiracy, can the young time-travellers solve the mystery of the Tudor Rose?








~ Good reads ~








Top Ten List:





1. I have lived in Abu Dhabi in the UAE for the past 6 and a half years. The next book in my series (number 18)  - The Shadow of the Shifting Sands -  is set out here.



2. Although I’m originally from the UK, my permanent home is in France. When we first moved in, we discovered we were sharing the house with a previous occupant – it’s haunted!



3. I became a full-time writer after a career of teaching French, Latin and Classical Studies, but at the age of 5, my dream job was to be Dr Who's assistant (a famous TV show in the UK) - I must have been into time-travel even back then!



4. If I could meet any famous figure from History it would be King Richard III – I’d like to know what really happened to his nephews, the two princes in the Tower.



5. I would dearly love to be able to time-travel. If I could choose just one place to visit, it would be the Ancient Roman city of Pompeii, on the proviso that I could escape before Mount Vesuvius erupted. 



6. I love Tonkinese cats. My feline hero, Max (short for Maximus), is a prime specimen of a large lilac male, based on my own cat.



7. I have a genuine phobia of snakes. When I encountered a snake in my living room in France, I think they probably heard my screams in the next valley!



8. I was once involved in a high-speed crash whilst riding a camel in Cairo … and, unfortunately, I had a party of my students with me to witness it, so it was quite embarrassing! 



9. I believe in being a lifelong learner. You’re never too old to learn, be it a foreign language or a new skill. I’m a recent convert to kayaking – I never realised how much fun it is. I’m still trying to get to grips with Arabic, though, despite being a linguist. It’s a hard language to master and I can manage a few key phrases, but it hasn’t helped that everyone speaks such brilliant English out here!



10. I love baking. Mince pies at Christmas time are one of my particular specialities, and I even won a pie-making contest for my French Onion Tart a couple of years ago! During the recent lockdown, I seemed to go into baking overdrive  - self-isolation has not been good for the waistline!







To view our blog schedule and follow along with this tour visit our Official Event page 



















Saturday, June 20, 2020

Building Self-Esteem by Joseph Burgo, Ph,D.














How Learning from Shame Helps Us to Grow




Self-Help




Date Published: May 2020




Publisher: New Rise Press









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Despite what most people believe, shame and self-esteem are not opposites.









"With the skill of a master storyteller, Burgo vividly brings to life, through his clients' struggles and his own, our shared journey to accept a startling truth: shame can either hobble us or help us thrive; it all depends on what we do with it. Savor this book's lessons and exercises. You'll come away with the kind of self-compassion that makes us all better people. "-- Dr. Craig Malkin, Lecturer, Harvard Medical School and author of the internationally acclaimed book, Rethinking Narcissism.









Challenging widely-accepted views within the self-esteem movement, author Joseph Burgo argues that self-esteem does NOT thrive in the soil of non-stop praise and encouragement, but rather depends upon setting and meeting goals, living up to the expectations we hold for ourselves, and finally sharing our joy in achievement with the people who matter most to us. Along the way, listening to and learning from our encounters with shame will go further than affirmations and positive self-talk in helping us to build authentic self-esteem.









Richly illustrated with clinical stories from Burgo's 35 years in private practice, Building Self-Esteem also describes the myriad ways that unacknowledged shame often hides behind a broad spectrum of mental disorders including social anxiety, narcissism, addiction, and masochism














For fans of Brené Brown and John Bradshaw









#BuildingSelfEsteem #self-esteem #self-help #bookbuzz


















About the Author





Joseph Burgo began writing short stories when he was 12 years old, wrote and published his first fantasy novel with Pocket Books (Simon & Schuster) at the age of 23, and then went on to become a clinical psychologist and author of self-help books. His articles and commentary have appeared in major publications such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, the Washington Post, and USA Today, as well as on sites such as CNN, CNBC, Forbes, Vox, and Glamour. He also contributes regularly to Psychology Today and writes the popular blog After Psychotherapy where he discusses personal growth issues from a psychodynamic perspective.





As a clinician, he has practiced psychotherapy for more than 30 years, holding licenses as a marriage and family therapist and clinical psychologist. He earned his undergraduate degree at UCLA and his masters and doctorate at California Graduate Institute in Los Angeles. He is also a graduate psychoanalyst and has served as a board member, officer and instructor at a component society of the International Psychoanalytic Association. He continues to practice psychotherapy by Skype with clients around the world.













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