SPRING BREAK

On Spring Break!

 

 

 



A CHANGE OF MIND

COVER REVEAL

A Change of Mind

and Other Stories

by

Nick Wilford

A Change of Mind and Other Stories consists of a novella, four short stories and one flash fiction piece. This collection puts the extremes of human behaviour under the microscope with the help of lashings of dark humour, and includes four pieces previously published in Writer’s Muse magazine.

 

In A Change of Mind, Reuben is an office worker so meek and mild he puts up with daily bullying from his boorish male colleagues as if it’s just a normal part of his day. But when a stranger points him in the direction of a surgeon offering a revolutionary new procedure, he can’t pass up the chance to turn his life around.

 

But this isn’t your average surgeon. For a start, he operates alone in a small room above a mechanic’s. And he promises to alter his patients’ personality so they can be anything they want to be…

 

In Marissa, a man who is determined to find evidence of his girlfriend’s infidelity ends up wondering if he should have left well alone.

 

The Dog God finds a chink in the armour of a man with a megalomaniacal desire to take over the world.

In The Insomniac, a man who leads an obsessively regimented lifestyle on one hour’s sleep a night finds a disruption to his routine doesn’t work for him.

Hole In One sees a dedicated golfer achieving a lifelong ambition.

The Loner ends the collection on a note of hope as two family members try to rebuild their lives after they are torn apart by jealousy.

Genre: Contemporary speculative fiction

Cover Design: Rebekah Romani

Release Date: May 25^th 2015

Bio

Nick Wilford is a writer and stay-at-home dad. Once a journalist, he now makes use of those rare times when the house is quiet to explore the realms of fiction, with a little freelance editing and formatting thrown in. When not working, he can usually be found spending time with his family or cleaning something. Nick is also the editor of Overcoming Adversity: An Anthology for Andrew. You can find him hanging out on his blog or on Goodreads or Twitter.

Preorder Links: Amazon US, Amazon UK

Add it on Goodreads

 

 

 CONGRATULATIONS NICK!

 

 

MYSTERIES FOR MYELOMA



 

My good friend, Nancy Lynn Jarvis's, is participating in the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation fundraising event this March. Her husband, like Tom Brokaw, has multiple myeloma, a plasma cell cancer. He was diagnosed a little more than two years ago. If he’d developed this disease a decade ago, he’d likely be dead by now, instead he’s doing well. Fortunately great strides have been made and survival times keep getting pushed out because of research, new medicines, and new treatments.

 

The Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation has been instrumental in fundraising dedicated to finding a cure for the disease. Supporters have answered their call to do creative fundraising.

There’s a cat litter manufacturer who donates a portion of sales as part of a “Cats for Cancer” campaign. Ditto a Louisiana seafood producer who sells “Crayfish for Cancer.”

It seems this group loves alliteration and it occurred to Nancy that as a mystery writer she could donate books for sale and dub them “Mysteries for Myeloma.

Five of Nancy's books are real estate mysteries set in Santa Cruz. Nancy and her husband also edited a terrific cookbook called “Cozy Food: 128 Cozy Mystery Writers Share Their Favorite Recipes” which qualifies in the mystery category because all the recipes are from mystery writers.

This year’s Greater Bay Area MMRF - Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation event is a 5K Walk/Run which will be held in San Francisco at the Marina Green on March 22^nd. Nancy will be there selling books. All proceeds will be donated to MMRF. For people with e-readers or those who can’t make the event, profits from e-books purchased on Amazon that day will also be donated.

 

Nancy's Amazon Author page is http://tinyurl.com/6uq4gsx if you want to take a look at the books or get ready to buy one on March 22^nd.

 

E-books are only $3 or $4 each — such a small donation to make — but if enough people buy one, not only will they get a book they may enjoy reading, but we will raise some real money…perhaps enough to keep Nancy's husband and many others around for those who love them.

 

“Mags and the AARP Gang,” another book she's written will also be included for those who prefer humor to mysteries or cookbooks.


Please consider spreading the word about this wonderful fundraiser. Email your friends. Post about it on your blog. Tweet and share thru social media. Nancy and many others will be grateful.

DEFYING REASON

Please welcome Elizabeth Seckman, author of Defying Reason. Today she's sharing part of her writing journey with us.

 

UNIQUE RESEARCH

 

There is always something in a book that needs researched that a reference book or Google search just doesn't quite cover.

In the first book of the Coulter men series (Past Due), I needed to know if the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse was turned off during its move inland. None of the articles written on the subject mentioned whether or not it glowed, so I called people who lived on the island to get the answer. Which was no, it didn't glow.

For book two in the Coulter men series (Healing Summer), I wanted to know where a traveler could get lunch in one of the tiny half-horse Montana towns. While we vacationed in the region, I would ask cashiers and clerks, and on more than one occasion, someone offered to whip up some food.

For book three in the Coulter men series (Fate Intended), I needed some dirty words translated into Russian, so I hired a translator.

And for the fourth book in the Coulter men series (Defying Reason), I needed to know the rules on phone calls in and out of jail. Fortunately, a single shout out on Facebook had my inbox filled with real life prison contact stories.

For me, one of the funnest parts of writing the story is the unique research required by each one.

The Blurb:

Jo Leigh Harper comes from a long line of trouble-making, white trash stock.

Tanner Coulter comes from a longer line of wealth-creating, blue blood stock.

Jo graduated college top of her class, moving toward a future full of possibilities.

Tanner dropped out of college, trading a law degree for drinking games and one night stands.

A family crisis throws the rich party boy and the poor genius girl together. The attraction is immediate, though neither one is a heart-in-the-sand-drawing believer in true love. But as the summer sun heats up along the shores of the Outer Banks, so does the connection between them. Maybe, just maybe, they can win at love by defying reason.

 

Author Bio:

Elizabeth is a multi-published author of books for people who are believers in happily-ever- after, true love, and stories with a bit of fun and twists with their plots. The mother of four young men, she tackles laundry daily and is the keeper of the kitchen. She lives along the shores of the Ohio River in West Virginia, but dreams daily of the beach. 
 

Facebook/ Blog/ Website/ Buy Link

 

 

What avenues have you pursued for your research?

Please share your Unique Research story.

 

 

IWSG - UNCERTAINTY

 

 

Uncertainty is the only certainty there is,

and knowing how to live with insecurity

is the only security.

 ~John Allen Paulos

 

INSECURE WRITER'S SUPPORT GROUP

Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!

Posting: The first Wednesday of every month is officially Insecure Writer’s Support Group day. Post your thoughts on your own blog. Talk about your doubts and the fears you have conquered. Discuss your struggles and triumphs. Offer a word of encouragement for others who are struggling. Visit others in the group and connect with your fellow writer - aim for a dozen new people each time. Be sure to link to this page and display the badge in your post. (This information was taken directly from IWSG page.)

The awesome co-hosts are Chemist Ken, Suzanne Sapseed, and Shannon Lawrence!

 

 

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BURIED!

This picture is to demonstrate how I've been feeling since my last post regarding the goals I've set for 2015—buried! So maybe my goals were a bit ambitious, but I was sure I could achieve them when I wrote them down, but a month in, I'm no longer as certain.

Still, it's only a month in so I'm blaming the depressive qualities of winter – cloudy gray skies, a frozen dishwasher pipe, a flood on the kitchen floor, the drip, drip, drip of a leak that just wouldn't quit, and then finding out it's been dripping for months maybe years, and the wooden water soaked beams of the floor need to be replaced. Oh the joys of owning a 100 + house!

But there is no quit because each day the sun shines brighter and longer, I can feel the hope of spring. And while the muse has me working despite everything, I'm not yet working on any of the book goals I listed in January, but on the changes for Murder & Obsession suggested by my editor.

The novel I thought I'd finished is still in rewrite, so please excuse me while I concentrate on perfection. Although, I did enter WOW's winter flash fiction challenge, so that is something I can check off the list.

 

Oh, and once again I'm joining Mari L. McCarthy's 

21 days Declutter Your Life Journaling Challenge

Starting on March 1^st.

Okay, I admit it, I need all the help I can get!

 

I also recently wrote a post for Mari's blog Create Write Now that discusses how journaling helped me rediscover my muse after a year of illness.

       Journaling Is A Cure For Writers Block

 

 What about you, have you achieved the goals you set? Do you journal? How has it affected your writing?

 

 Do You Have A Goal?

 

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NEVER GIVE UP!

 

GUEST POST

NEVER GIVE UP

by

Ashley Fontainne

Do you have a dream? Something tickling the corners of your mind, wanting to be released, but you ignore it? Does fear of the unknown, how others will react, or the worry of failing keep it locked away?

Fear. No. More.

Unleash your creativity. Paint the first stroke. Mold your first piece of clay. Write your first story. Is it a scary thing to let go of your fears by showing the world what’s been crawling around inside your brain? Terrifying. Your stomach will clench in knots, your heart will pound, and your palms will exude gallons of sweat. Your brain will buzz with the annoying sounds of self-doubt.

Do. It. Anyway.

It took me reaching my forties to finally let go of my fears and publish my first novel. Since that moment in April, 2011, my life has changed in ways I never thought possible when I sat in my Creative Writing class in college, fiddling around with ideas for a book. It took the gentle urgings of a very dedicated professor to embrace my worries, and then let them go. Once I did, even though I truly was petrified when I clicked “submit” on Amazon, I also felt a tremendous sense of joy.

Now, four years, seven books and two movie deals later, I still feel anxious on the eve of a new release. The entire creative process is akin to raising a child, hoping and praying you have done your best, waving goodbye with tears in your eyes as they leave the nest for the first time. After all, the world can be a cruel, harsh place. Some will love your little bundle, others will despise it. It is a gamble each and every time.

But the rewards are well worth it. The sense of accomplishment is overwhelming. The biggest joy I receive with each new book is the knowledge that my words impacted the life of another human being. As a voracious reader, one who has found so much enjoyment in works of others, to even have the opportunity to try and do the same for others is amazing and humbling.

So, I challenge you today to step out of your comfort zone. Break the chains holding you back, and release your creative side, whatever it may be. Paint. Draw. Sculpt. Design. Write. Embrace the fear and use it as a tool to hone your work.

Not hold it back.

*****

About the Book:

My name is Sheryl Ilene Newcomb. And yes, my initials are S.I.N. A funny little piece of whimsical humor my parents found amusing when I arrived. 

Then, it turned out to be true. Looking back with wiser eyes now, my family and I concluded that the events leading up to my transformation started the summer I turned nine. But the day we realized there was a problem, and no turning back, was a week before I started my senior year at Junction City High. The day the fangs and claws appeared and the monster inside of me emerged. 

When mutilated corpses appeared near a pile of brush down by Caney Creek, everything changed. Because evil woke up and growled, its ominous rumblings heard by every living thing in Locasia County, Mississippi.

For More Information

• Growl is available at Amazon.
• Watch the book trailer at YouTube.
• Discuss this book at PUYB Virtual Book Club at Goodreads.

 

Purchase at AMAZON

My name is Sheryl Ilene Newcomb. And yes, my initials are S.I.N. A funny little piece of whimsical humor my parents found amusing when I arrived. 

Then, it turned out to be true. Looking back with wiser eyes now, my family and I concluded that the events leading up to my transformation started the summer I turned nine. But the day we realized there was a problem, and no turning back, was a week before I started my senior year at Junction City High. The day the fangs and claws appeared and the monster inside of me emerged. 

When mutilated corpses appeared near a pile of brush down by Caney Creek, everything changed. Because evil woke up and growled, its ominous rumblings heard by every living thing in Locasia County, Mississippi.

Book Excerpt:

It was all over—for now. The ending completed, and the living nightmare of what happened in our sleepy little town nothing more than a permanent stain embedded in my mind and body. I stared at the words on the page, the white paper covered in bright blue ink. The empty pages behind it waited, impatient for me to add more. They sat in mocking silence on the desk in front of me. A twinge of apprehension slithered up my back. 

What am I doing?

During the last three months, I thought I’d done a decent job of stopping the memories. None of what happened was something anyone could be prepared to endure. No longer did the vile sounds and unbelievable images pop up during the middle of the day. I felt a sense of pride I stopped them without the use of medication. With the support of my mom and dad and the Lord above, I worked daily to bury the horrific events.

I shivered at the disturbing recollections. When the crystal clear images of the final battle exploded inside my head, they turned my slender torso into a shivering pile of goose bumps. I was unable to stop the screams of agony and anger when my mind replayed the events at night. Physical and mental anguish would slam into my body and soul as I fought not only the animal inside of me, but the one that stared at me from inside my mind. 

The eerie visions of the final confrontation were as terrifying in my mind’s eye as the actual day they occurred. Dark, jade-green eyes lit from within bored through my own with their anticipatory killing stare. The growl from its furry throat would seem as loud in my memories as it did when it happened. The flexed muscles of the creature jerked in its readiness to shred me down to a bloody pile of mush. The bright moon’s rays shimmered off of its stark white fangs. One swipe of the enormous paw or bite from the strong jaws would end it all. My cries of sorrow erupted at night when the images of the dismembered corpses appeared inside my mind. They were seared into my memory banks. I hadn’t experienced a moment of heart-stopping, frozen-to-one-spot freakouts in two months during the daytime. I whittled them down to only haunting my dreams at night.

Progress, plain and simple. 

A sound caught my attention, so I lifted my stare from the ruled, white paper on the desk and looked out my bedroom window. My sharp, one-eyed gaze glanced over to the pool and settled on the old, rusty swing at the edge of our backyard. I recalled with a slight smile the day last week when I took my first step out of the house and sat outside for almost an hour. The warmth of the sun and the gentle urges of my mother’s voice lured me into the water—at least the shallow end. I considered it a big leap in my recovery progress since I had developed a strong distaste for water. I had sat on the bottom step, the cool water barely up to my shins, and fought the urge to run back inside and lock myself inside my bedroom. The task of quelling my paralyzing fears had taken every ounce of mental strength to overcome. It was beyond weird at my age, but I felt safe in my adolescent bedroom. It was my territory. But I also knew it would become my prison if I didn’t learn to live outside its four walls again. Like a normal, sane person lives.

A quiet snicker from my lips bounced off the walls of my room. Sanity. Normalcy. Those ships sailed away eons ago, pulled under the dark waters of the mighty Mississippi River, never to be seen again.

 

Book Trailer at YouTube:

About the Author

Award-winning and International bestselling author Ashley Fontainne is an avid reader of mostly the classics. Ashley became a fan of the written word in her youth, starting with the Nancy Drew mystery series. Stories that immerse the reader deep into the human psyche and the monsters that lurk within us are her favorite reads.

Her muse for penning the Eviscerating the Snake series was The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. Ashley's love for this book is what sparked her desire to write her debut novel, Accountable to None, the first book in the trilogy. With a modern setting to the tale, Ashley delves into just what lengths a person is willing to go when they seek personal justice for heinous acts perpetrated upon them. The second novel in the series, Zero Balance focuses on the cost and reciprocal cycle that obtaining revenge has on the seeker. For once the cycle starts, where does it end? How far will the tendrils of revenge expand? Adjusting Journal Entries answered that question: far and wide.

Her short thriller entitled Number Seventy-Five, touches upon the sometimes dangerous world of online dating. Number Seventy-Five took home the BRONZE medal in fiction/suspense at the 2013 Readers' Favorite International Book Awards contest and is currently in production for a feature film.

Her paranormal thriller entitled The Lie, won the GOLD medal in the 2013 Illumination Book Awards for fiction/suspense and is also in production for a feature film.

The suspenseful mystery Empty Shell, released September 29, 2014. Ashley then delves into the paranormal with a Southern Gothic horror/suspense novel, Growl, scheduled for release in the Spring of 2015. Plus, she will be teaming up with Lillian Hansen (Ashley calls her Mom!) to pen a three-part murder mystery/suspense series entitled The Magnolia Series. The first book, Blood Ties, is due out the Summer of 2015.

Ashley also hosts The WriteStuff, a popular BlogTalk Radio show, each Friday night at 10 p.m. CST. 

For More Information

• Visit Ashley’s website.
• Connect with Ashley on Facebook and Twitter.
• Find out more about Ashley at Goodreads.
• Visit Ashley’s blog.
• Contact Ashley.