Life in Rotations by Farid Yaghini – Spotlight and Giveaway

March 25, 2025 By 2 Comments

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Farid Yaghini will be awarding a $10 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

Farid Yaghini’s unforgettable memoir takes you on a journey from escaping persecution in Iran to rebuilding a life in Canada and serving on the frontlines with the Canadian military. Filled with humour, heart, and unflinching honesty, his story of resilience, redemption, and the founding of Camp Aftermath will inspire you to believe in the power of hope and human connection.

Enjoy an Excerpt

On the fourth night, I woke to my mother shoving bread into my jacket sleeves. Everyone around us was scrambling, panicked. The smugglers were making their move. My mother, my two-year-old sister, and I were crammed into the back of an SUV, sitting on jerry cans. One popped open, drenching us in gasoline. The driver, cigarette in hand, barely seemed to notice.

Hours later, we stopped in the middle of the desert. Just as we climbed out, headlights appeared in the distance. Without hesitation, our smugglers jumped back into their vehicles and tore off, leaving us stranded in the open. We ran for cover, crouching behind a hill as the approaching vehicles roared past. Not border patrol—just more smugglers.

Separated from my parents, I was sent off with my cousins and a group of young boys. This should have been terrifying, but to seven-year-old me, it was an adventure. No rules, no bedtime. We hid behind restaurants, rode in the backs of pickup trucks, and dodged guards at the border. One smuggler, Shahpur, fascinated me—his hand always on the gun in his jacket pocket. The day he set it down on a car hood, I touched it, awed.

Weeks later, I was reunited with my parents. I hadn’t seen them in so long that I forgot to be scared. But when I overheard them whispering about never returning home, I finally understood. We weren’t going back to Iran. Ever.

About the Author
Farid Yaghini was born in Iran and fled to Pakistan with his family to escape religious persecution following the Islamic Revolution of 1979. At the age of nine, he immigrated to Canada as a refugee, navigating the confusion and frustration of adapting to a new way of life. Through it all, he carried a deep sense of resilience, hope, and an irrepressible knack for finding humour, even in the most challenging moments.

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Bad Order by Mike Elliott – Spotlight and Giveaway

March 13, 2025 By 2 Comments

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Mike Elliott will be awarding a $10 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

This is the incredible true story of railroad worker and union official Mike Elliott, targeted by his railroad employer, BNSF Railway Company, for his safety-related activities. As the union’s state legislative board chair, Elliott was the top safety official in the state, and the voice for over 900 rank & file locomotive engineers operating trains around the clock, every day of the year.

When his members reported a plethora of trackside signal malfunctions on the BNSF Seattle subdivision, Elliott went to the railroad first, asking that they fix the problems. When the BNSF failed to act, he contacted the government’s regulatory authority, the Federal Railroad Administration. That led to an FRA inspection of over 130 miles of the railroad’s track and signal systems turning up hundreds of federal defects – all with potential to put workers and the public at risk.

What followed was a retaliation plot reminiscent of the Nineteenth Century Robber Barons: A management-staged conflict at work, police called in, arrest, jail, criminal charges, and termination from his job – not once but twice.

The wrath, influence and power of North America’s largest freight railroad is unleased in full force and in an all-out attack on a whistleblower’s life, liberties, and career. An amazing journey of one man’s righteous battle against impossible odds and the nearly unlimited resources of a multi-billion-dollar corporation.

Enjoy an Excerpt:

His train was about three-quarters of a mile from the Longview yard office, which it passed less than seventy seconds later.

The approach signal to Longview Junction South was located at milepost 100.7. The Longview yard office was at milepost 100.3. If functioning as designed, this signal should have displayed a solid yellow aspect, indicating “approach and proceed prepared to stop at next signal, trains exceeding 35 MPH immediately reduce to that speed.” Burlington Northern dispatching records indicated that BN 111 passed the Longview Junction approach signal at approximately 12:20 A.M. Just after this time, the conductor of the local freight job, UP Train 59, was walking to the manually operated “hand-throw” switch at the north end of Longview yard. He later reported to investigators that the five locomotives of BN 111 passed him before he reached the switch, so he only saw the rear portion of the train, whose speed he estimated at 40 miles-per-hour.

While standing beside the switch, the UP 59 conductor heard what sounded “like thunder, just a rolling thunder.” At 12:24 A.M., BN dispatching records show that the Longview Junction South interlocking had a “power off” alarm. That marked the moment when southbound BN 111 collided head-on with northbound UP 09 at milepost 102.8. At least two motorists driving north on Interstate 5 witnessed the collision. One told investigators that he was traveling between 65 and 70 miles-per-hour when he passed UP 09, which he estimated “was probably doing 55.” What he saw was “a major explosion. It was unbelievable.” Another motorist reported that he saw the headlight of BN 111 coming at him; this because the railroad tracks were close and parallel to the freeway. He watched the train, waiting for the two converging trains to pass each other; instead, they slammed head-on into each other.

“There was just fire and devastation,” he said.

The impact of the collision ruptured the fuel tanks of six of the eight locomotives. Fire engulfed those six, as 10,000 to 15,000 gallons of diesel fuel spilled onto the tracks and over the banks of the Columbia River. The first fire-fighting unit arrived at 12:36 A.M., twelve minutes after the collision, and began knocking down the flames surrounding the locomotives. Although a total of forty-four fire and rescue units responded, the on-scene fire commander soon concluded that no one could have survived the flames; he ordered his units to stand down and let the fire burn itself out to consume the leaking diesel fuel and thus prevent further environmental damage.

About the Author: Mike Elliott was born and raised in Washington State. He enjoys the great outdoors of the Pacific Northwest, classic rock & roll music, vintage stereo gear, home cooked meals, and Seattle Mariners baseball. He lives in Tacoma, Washington.

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The Art to Online Dating by Fleur Lamot – Spotlight and Giveaway

February 26, 2025 By 2 Comments

 

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Fleur Lamot will be awarding a $10 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

A step-by-step guide to navigating dating and finding love on the World Wide Web, written by someone with firsthand experience on the topic, and who has also tested the theory on a number of case studies and through research. Authored from a female perspective, directed to a female audience, although potentially an eye opening and helpful read for a male reader too.

This book is not about making you a better person, nor is it a self help book. It is about changing your mindset when embarking on singledom and internet dating to not fear it, by equipping you with the understanding of people’s actions and motives.

Throughout the book you will be guided in setting up your online profile, picking your match, the all important art and the do’s and don’ts through every step of courting someone, all the way to going forward with your ultimate love match!

Reading this book will bring you confidence and or at least clarity. It will make you think about your past experiences and open your eyes to see where they may have gone wrong, and more importantly to ensure the same mistakes don’t happen to you on future experiences.

Read an Excerpt

This is a firsthand guide to using internet dating as a tool to its best outcome: to find love online. It is unemotional and it is a practical handbook. It worked for me, and it has since been tried and tested over and over, successfully working on the majority of people I interviewed. You will note a few of their cases documented, referred to as test cases later in the guide. There is no guarantee this will work for you, but it will give you an opportunity, and the more opportunities you get in life, the more chances you will have at succeeding. If this doesn’t work for you, at least you gave it a go and you will definitely have learnt something about yourself along the way.

This book is a step-by-step guide to navigating dating and finding love on the World Wide Web. It is written by someone with firsthand experience on the topic who has also tested the theory on a number of case studies and through research. The book has been written from a female perspective and is directed at a female reader/consumer. In saying this, a male reader would also find this book interesting, and potentially eye-opening and helpful. This book is not about making you a better person, nor is it a self-help book. Although there are a number of psychologists’ viewpoints here, I am not a psychologist; I am an ordinary person who has a successful career I am married, and I am a mother I am a businesswoman, and I built a very successful business from the ground up. This was achieved through my networking and relationship management experience as well as the professional mentoring and coaching that I was lucky enough to receive. I found love online using historical human principles, understanding people’s motives and actions, listening to the right people, as well as trusting my own instincts.

About the Author: I successfully found love online using historical principles, understanding people’s motives and actions, listening to the right people, as well as trusting my own instincts. I am now married and a mother. I am a business woman with a very successful business, built from extensive networking and relationship management experience. I have received professional mentoring and coaching, which has helped me achieve all of this.

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Where do ideas (for writing projects) come from? by Jonathan Weeks – Guest Post and Giveaway

January 31, 2025 By 7 Comments

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Jonathan Weeks will be awarding a $25 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

Where do ideas (for writing projects) come from?

There are a variety of ways you can “turn your brain on” and generate creative energy. Though it works a little differently for everyone, here are a few simple suggestions to get started:

GO FOR A WALK

Being outside on a warm, sunny day or even on a cool, foggy night can produce a stream of conscious thought. The brain reacts dramatically to setting and tone. Harness those thoughts into something useful.

PAY ATTENTION TO THE PEOPLE AROUND YOU

Have you ever tried just sitting in a public place and discreetly watching others? You will notice a lot of very interesting details. This might trigger some useful associations.

TAKE ON A NEW HOBBY

It’s never too late to pick up a new skill or engage in a new activity. Learn how to play a musical instrument. Get involved in an arts and crafts project. Take some photos of subjects that interest you. Get your creative powers flowing.

YOU CAN’T HAVE OUTPUT WITHOUT INPUT

No great idea is created in a vacuum. Exposing yourself to the creativity of others will enhance you own abilities. Read books. Watch movies. Listen to music. Be an active, not a passive watcher or listener.

THE POWER OF DREAMS

Some of my best ideas have come to me in dreams. But those ideas are fleeting. Dreams typically fade from our consciousness within minutes of waking. If you feel so inclined, keep a sleep journal near your bed and write your dreams down in it when you wake up. There may be a brilliant idea buried somewhere beyond the wall of sleep.

There is no right or wrong way to shake out a good idea. Whatever works for you is fine. Don’t be afraid to try something unusual. Ernest Hemingway often wrote standing up, believing it kept him clear and alert. Leonardo da Vinci slept in brief intervals throughout the day, claiming that it increased his productivity. Ideas come from outside and within. You need to be prepared to grab them when they present themselves.

Good luck!

Mays’s spectacular catch in 1954, Bill Mazeroski’s walk-off homer in 1960, and Kirk Gibson’s pinch-hit blast in 1988 are just a few of the memorable moments that have dominated highlight reels. The outcome of the Series has not always been terribly surprising—especially during the late 1940s and early 1950s when the Yankees captured five consecutive championships, breaking their previous record of four straight titles from 1936 to 1939. But despite its predictability at times, the Fall Classic has taken many unexpected turns. The 1906 Cubs lost to the weak-hitting White Sox after establishing a new regular season record for
wins. The 1955 Dodgers avenged seven prior October failures with an improbable victory over the seemingly invincible Yankees. And in 1969, the Mets finally shed their image as “loveable losers,” dethroning the powerful Orioles. In more than a century of World Series plays, a number of similar scenarios have emerged; twenty-two of those stories are told in Shocktober.

Enjoy an Excerpt

To understand why members of the White Sox conspired with gamblers to throw the 1919 World Series, one must take into account the financial climate of baseball in the early-20th century. Players weren’t paid exceptionally well (at least in comparison to today). Before the advent of free agency, owners held most of the advantages when it came to negotiating contracts. Players were more or less stuck with the clubs they had signed with until team executives decided it was time to get rid of them. Typical deadball stars were minimally educated and rough around the edges. In their free time, many gravitated to bars and pool halls, where men of questionable integrity could be found. Some players developed relationships with members of the underworld—especially bookmakers who were willing to tamper with the outcome of games in order to turn a profit.

Ty Cobb, one of the biggest names of the era, was paid $20,000 in 1919—equivalent to about $348,000 today. No one else was making that much at the time—not even Babe Ruth. Pitcher Eddie Cicotte, at a little over $9,000, was the highest paid member of the Chicago conspirators. The others were earning significantly less.

A common misconception among contemporary fans is the idea that Chicago team owner Charles Comiskey was a nefarious miser who drove his men to commit the crime of the century. Multiple myths have persisted regarding Comiskey’s penny-pinching ways—the most salacious being the story about how he delivered a case of flat champagne to his players as a World Series bonus in 1917. Other fallacies have been handed down over the years.

In reality, Comiskey was prone to acts of generosity. He allowed a number of Chicago organizations to use his ballpark for free and gave out complimentary grandstand tickets to school children. During World War I, he donated a significant portion of his annual income to the Red Cross. While it’s true that he could also be frugal, charging players for laundry fees, he actually paid his men pretty well. The White Sox Opening Day payroll in 1919 was among the highest in baseball.

While the specific motivations of each conspirator have been endlessly debated, it’s safe to assume that the primary incentive was financial gain. By his own account, it was first baseman Chick Gandil who approached gamblers with the idea of a fix. At the time, the club was divided into two social cliques with tension existing between the two. The educated players fell under the influence of Ivy League graduate Eddie Collins. The rest of the joiners cast their lot with Gandil—a former boxer with an attitude toward authority. Shortstop Swede Risberg played a major role in the fix as well, helping Gandil lure other players (ones who could be trusted to keep their mouths shut) into the fold. Boston-based bookmaker Joseph “Sport” Sullivan convinced New York underworld kingpin Arnold Rothstein to bankroll the plot. Others involved included “Sleepy Bill” Burns (a former pitcher) and Abe Attell (a former featherweight boxing champion). Both were associates of Rothstein’s.

About the Author: Jonathan Weeks has written several sports biographies and two novels, one of which was a posthumous collaboration with his late father. He grew up in the Capital District region of New York State and currently works in the mental health field.

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Domestic Violence the Unseen Impact and the Urgent Conversations We Must Have by Jo Cooling – Guest Blog and Giveaway

January 13, 2025 By 11 Comments

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. The author will be awarding a $10 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

Domestic Violence the Unseen Impact and the Urgent Conversations We Must Have

Introduction

I was on duty when a case came in that needed investigating. I opened the report, read the current concerns, and then read the history. There were fifteen previous reports, all relating to domestic violence. Another worker and I attended the home, and I decided to change my usual approach. I read through each report, explaining the actions Child Protection had taken in the past— Child Protection had referred the parents to counselling on numerous occasions— including parenting classes, anger management counselling, relationship counselling, and family counselling. Furthermore, removing the father from the home, moving the mother and children into safe accommodation and placing the children into foster care all on numerous occasions.

Realization and Response

After reading these reports aloud, I asked the mother, “What do you think Child Protection can do for you because from what I have read, we have tried everything.” The mother’s response was, “It sounds bad when you read the reports out like that. No one has ever done it like that before.” This moment highlighted the breakdown in their relationship and the ineffectiveness of repeated interventions. I recommended more in-depth, long-term counselling and warned that any further violence could result in removing the children for a lengthier period. This approach was aimed at emphasizing their toxic, codependent relationship and the need for a real change.

Sometimes, giving someone an answer isn’t helping them resolve the problem.

The types of Domestic / Family Violence

• Physical & Sexual
• Emotional
• Financial
• Verbal
• Abuse by proxy
• Familial Homicide

Cycle of Violence:

• Tension Building
• The Incident
• Honeymoon Period
• The Calm

The Facts

• Brain Development: Exposure to violence between ages birth and 3 years can cause permanent brain damage.
• Impact on Children: Affects behaviour, cognitive development, mental and physical well-being, and is a leading cause of homelessness.
• Prevalence: 1 in 6 women and 1 in 9 men experience physical or sexual abuse before age 15.
• Pandemic Effect: Domestic violence cases increased by 22 to 33% globally during the pandemic.

Discussion:

Examining critical incidents resulting in death or serious harm reveals that many domestic violence incidents had prior contact with the Child Protection System. The majority of perpetrators of family-domestic violence were once children exposed to violence, substance abuse, and parental mental health issues—issues that the Child Protection system failed to mitigate. This highlights the urgent need for reform.

Reforming Child Protection is not just a matter of policy; it is a moral imperative. Until we fix this broken system, we cannot claim to be effectively safeguarding our most vulnerable members of preventing the cycle of violence from continuing.

In the beginning, a tragic event started me on my journey to a destination and my love for helping children of all ages and their families.

However, what I was not prepared for was that the people who assisted me and paved the way for my advancement in my chosen career in Child Protection were the same people who tried to bring me down.

This book will give you insight into what it is like to work in Child Protection. It will show you the difficulties and sometimes dangers workers face on a daily basis. Furthermore, the novel will also highlight the satisfaction you get when you can assist a child and their family through a traumatic event.

My career at Child Protection spanned nearly a decade, and during that time, I was bullied by management. I observed management bully other workers; I was also aware of workers consuming drugs, both outside work hours and during work hours.

This novel is a behind-the-scenes look at what really happens at Child Protection when the public is not watching or listening.

Child Protection is not an easy career path, but it can be a good job if you like long hours, have a thick skin, keep your head down, keep your mouth shut, and abide by everything that management wants you to do, even when you know it is wrong or unfair.

about the Author: The life of Jo Cooling is like living in a theme park: one minute, it’s like riding a roller coaster, baking cupcakes, cookies, and slices. With a kitchen covered with chocolate, flour, and cooking utensils. Also trying to develop new tastes and ideas for her growing baking business.

Sometimes, she feels like she travels through life in a Dodge ’em car. All the while, she works to complete two novels while caring for two Cavoodles, who believe their mother was placed on this earth purely to play with them 24 hours a day.

But no matter how out of control her life can be at times, eventually, she ends up sailing around on the Walt Disney teacup ride on top of the world. However, when she relaxes, the Cavoodles see this as an opportunity to snuggle on Mum’s lap.

Jo’s work career has been just as colorful as her current life. She has worked in horse and car racing, sold lingerie, designed websites, been a Personal Assistant, and worked as a Law Clerk.

Jo looks at life like a box of chocolates: each day unwraps a new layer, revealing unexpected flavors and textures.

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My Top Five Embarrassing Moments by April Farlow

December 12, 2024 By 1 Comment

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. The author will be awarding a $15 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

Top Five Embarrassing Moments

I absolutely love this topic! My top five embarrassing situations – let’s go!

• I’ll start by going way back to Christmas when I think I was 7. I guess I have always loved a stage, but it helps if you know what you are doing when you perform. Without telling my mom, my best friend and I made up invitations for all of the neighbors on our road to come to a “Christmas Pageant.” We dreamed up costumes and finally my mom figured out our plans, but the invitations were out! We wrote out programs and all of the kids had a part. That would have been cute, but I decided we should have music to follow. I had taken a few piano lessons but could not play a note. Even still, I was the pianist and lead singer taking it all seriously and “playing the piano” for everyone to sing along. This went on and on until my mom had to encourage me to let some of the other kids play songs too.

It is the laugh of every Christmas over 30 years later!

• Keeping on stage, I teach communication classes for business leaders. In one class, I was teaching about being expressive with your hands and body language and all of the participants had to act out skits. I was at the front of the room demonstrating their assignment for a skit called “Marvelous Martha.” It started, “Come one, come all to see Marvelous Martha jump from a fifty-foot ladder into one tiny pool of water.” For this skit, you raise your hands really high to demonstrate the fifty-foot ladder and then squat down to show the tiny pool of water. Just as I squatted, I could hear my pants splitting. There were 12 police officers on the front rows and the look of shock and laughter made it very clear we all knew what happened.

I kept my back to the front of the room, invited the other instructor up to keep the session going and went to the bathroom with my back facing the wall. When I got to the bathroom, it turned out it was just the lining inside my pants, but everyone in the room knew what had happened. They were as surprised as I was when I returned to the room in the same outfit. We laughed about it and moved on, but I feel sure if you ask anyone who attended that class they remember that moment above anything else they learned!

• One of my girls went to a Birthday party and I was “regifting” our present. The problem, I didn’t realize they had put their name inside the tag on the ear. I was standing at the back of the party when the mom said, “who is this from, we can’t find a name?” When I saw what she was holding up and then saw her get really quiet I just slipped to the bathroom and acted like I didn’t know anything about it. So embarrassing!

• Years ago, I was in a tanning bed. It was one where there were a lot of small rooms lined up with thin walls that didn’t go all the way to the floor or ceiling. I was laying in the bed with the timer on when I heard someone open the door to my room and come inside. I was horrified because I knew I would have to get out to get my clothes, so I was loud when I said, “get out!” “I am in here, please get out.” “I am not dressed, please leave.” You don’t need me to finish the story because you already know what I missed. It was the next room over and there were a bunch of guys there working on the bed next door. They just looked at me and smiled as I walked out the door.

• When I started dating my husband, I heard about his family sing-a-longs and was excited to hear all of the music. We went to my in-law’s cabin, and it was the second time I had met everyone and so I wanted to get everything right. When the music started, I could tell that not everyone knew the words to the song I requested and so I started singing along with gusto. My husband is the best and always positive, so he didn’t mean it mean when he said it, but he turned around and whispered, “give us just a minute baby, we are trying to get the chords.” The problem, I wasn’t the only one sitting right behind him and so we all heard. It is still a joke every Saturday night that I have the words but never the notes!

I’d love for you to share your embarrassing moments, and if you want to hear more real, vulnerable stories from my life, I hope you will read “Pieces of You.” The book is written to help you discover who you are in light of Whose you are and there is plenty I have learned about myself through laughter and some hard along the way!

Knowing who you are has always been challenging, and in today’s world, more and more voices are coming from more and more places telling us who we should be. The result? A broken sense of identity that we’re struggling to put back together.

In Pieces of You, April Farlow shares how she discovered her identity is formed by the God who made her. Along the way, she’s learned that if we want to put the pieces of who we are together in a real, lasting way, we have to look to Whose we are for help.

It’s time to take a look at the unique pieces that make up who you are …

The pieces you compare …
The pieces informed by the father figure in your life …
The painful pieces …
The pieces of your relationships …
The pieces on which you’ve built your beliefs …
The pieces that give you rules and boundaries …
The pieces that show what you value …
The pieces that give you purpose …
The pieces that help you build a vision for what’s to come.

As we work to put those pieces together, we’ll look to the God who made us, knows us, and loves us to guide us. Because when you take all your pieces—the good, the bad, the broken, and the beautiful—and place them in your Heavenly Father’s hands, there, you’ll find peace. There, you’ll find security. There, you’ll find a real sense of who you are and Whose you are.

Enjoy an Excerpt

Over just a few hours, my Kaleidoscopes began to lean into each other’s stories. Things got real fast. And I think that’s because we took a break from measuring ourselves against each other. Instead of comparing, we chose to share.

And that’s a great place to start.

To stand confidently in both who you are and Whose you are, you must first learn to avoid the temptation to compare. Staying out of the comparison trap is an essential piece of the puzzle that is discovering and embracing our identity.

After our meeting, my friend Angela went home and looked in her daughter’s school folder. There, she found a worksheet her seven-year-old, Elle, had filled out. “Color yourself and then write words to describe yourself in the circles,” the instructions said across the top. That’s precisely what Elle did. She colored her hair and eyes to match hers and wrote six words to describe herself.

Funny
Artistic
Pretty
Love
Kind
Smart

For Angela, her daughter’s list was not only accurate, but it was also a stark contrast to the list she and the other women had made. Angela told me about it later: “I wonder at what age we stop believing the good? I wonder what happens to cause us to begin seeing the negative before the positive?”

I wonder the same for all of us.

About the Author: April Farlow has spent the last 20 years motivating audiences to get out of their comfort zone, speak up, and represent their values. In corporate environments, one piece is missed—the ability to talk about forming your identity in God. Today, as a speaker, author, coach, and non-profit leader, April is changing this by sharing her faith journey and helping others do the same with clarity and conviction.

In 2017, after speaking to a group of foster youth, April founded Lydia’s Place, a ministry serving young adults who have experienced foster care or homelessness. April and her husband have four girls and live on a mini-farm outside of Athens, Georgia.

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Pondering the Muse: Or the Care and Feeding of the Elf in Your Attic by Dorothy Rosby – Guest Blog and Giveaway

December 9, 2024 By 8 Comments

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. The author will be awarding a $20 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

Pondering the Muse: Or the Care and Feeding of the Elf in Your Attic

A presenter at a creativity workshop I attended described her muse with a word that would have been bleeped if she’d said it on television. I was stunned. Not about the word. I’ve heard it before. I may have even said it before.

No, I was shocked that she’d speak about her muse that way and still expect it to come back. But she said her source of inspiration is spoiled and has to be reminded who’s boss.

Another presenter described her muse more kindly. She said hers was like a beautiful angel. Mine isn’t nearly that elegant. I think of my muse as sort of an elf in my attic. She’s playful, mischievous and a little unreliable. And taking good care of her is important because I’m not only an author, I’m a columnist with regular deadlines. I can’t afford to run out of ideas.

I think we all have a muse of some sort, whatever type of work we do. We’re driving somewhere or dozing off at night and suddenly we have a brilliant idea for a poem or a new casserole or an invention that will not only fold our laundry but put it away too. The muse has just visited. And it’s so magical that we wish our elf or angel or BLEEPED would come bearing gifts more often. Unfortunately, we can’t just snap our fingers and get them to show up. But I do think there are things we can do to encourage them.

For one thing, while my elf only comes down from the attic when she’s darn good and ready to, she expects me to work every day whether I’m feeling inspired or not. She won’t just waltz in with a good idea if I sit on the couch eating corn chips and watching Monk reruns all day. I know. I’ve tried that.

And she doesn’t want to be around me when I’m tired and grumpy either. I can’t blame her for that. Nobody else does either.

But I think everyone’s muse is like that. They’re more likely to bring us ideas when we’re well rested, but they still get a kick out of stopping by just as we’re dozing off. Then we have to fumble for a pen and paper or our phone to write down the brilliant idea they brought us. And when our spouse complains, we mumble something about elves or angels or worse and then they’re as inspired as we are. Not really.

But we do have to make a note of the big ideas when our muse brings them, which she does at the most inconvenient times—when we’re showering, having our teeth cleaned or rappelling off a cliff. She expects us to stop whatever we’re doing and make a note. And if we don’t, she takes the idea away and it’s gone, maybe forever. That explains why there still isn’t a gizmo that will fold and put away our laundry.

Sometimes I wonder if our muses may even give their big ideas to someone else if we ignore them. Or worse, maybe they stop visiting altogether if we snub them too often. We have to welcome them, let them in every time they knock. We need to keep a notebook by the bed, in our purse and in our shower. No maybe not there.

Sometimes I make a note in my phone, but I used the notebook I carry in my purse the strangest time my muse showed up. I was parked by the side of the road, not because the muse had arrived while I’d been driving but because I’d been pulled over by a highway patrolman.. An idea came to me as I was waiting for him to come back from checking my outstanding warrants or whatever they do back there. I didn’t have any, by the way.

Anyway, while I was waiting I had the brilliant idea to write a column about being stopped for speeding. Thank you elf! I took out my notebook and started jotting down every memory I had of being pulled over. I had…several. I didn’t even notice the patrolman when he came back to my car. When I finally looked up, he was standing by my window looking at me strangely. I guess he couldn’t see the elf sitting in my passenger seat.

Christmas comes but once a year; chaos never ends! Happy Halloween, merry Christmas and joyful Lumpy Rug Day. That’s real, by the way. Lumpy Rug Day is celebrated every May 3, though “celebrated” might be too strong a word. It’s the American way to create a celebration for everything, then turn it into a chore or worse, a nightmare. ’Tis the Season to Feel Inadequate is a collection of humorous essays about how we let our expectations steal the joy out of Christmas and other holidays and special events. It’s understanding for those who think Christmas form letters can be honest—or they can be interesting. And it’s empathy for anyone who’s ever gotten poison ivy during Nude Recreation Week or eaten all their Halloween candy and had to hand out instant oatmeal packets to their trick-or-treaters.

Enjoy an Excerpt

from the essay “Merry Christmas from the Envyofall Family”

There are two things that make me feel like a boring person. Actually there are more than two, but the ones that come to mind this time of year are writing a Christmas letter and reading everyone else’s.

When I write a letter I come to the painful realization that the year has flown by and I’ve been terribly busy but I haven’t done a thing worth mentioning. Worse, when I read all the newsy holiday letters I receive I think the writers must have had more days since last Christmas than I had, and apparently more money, energy and ambition as well.

I don’t think I’m alone in my feelings of inadequacy either. Consider the following actual letter I made up. You’ll see in brackets what an unfortunate reader might be thinking as she reads this holiday greeting from the Envyofall family.

Merry Christmas from the Envyofalls!

We hope your year was as wonderful as ours was! [I’m pretty sure it wasn’t.] We started the year with a January vacation in Hawaii. [Now I know it wasn’t.] Since the children are both doing so well in school we decided taking them out for two weeks would be acceptable, and they enjoyed themselves thoroughly. [I’ll bet their teachers did too.]

In June Maxwell and I celebrated our twentieth anniversary with a month in Italy. [What a coincidence! My husband and I celebrated our anniversary in June too—at the Olive Garden.] You can see photos of both vacations on our family website. [You can see our vacation photos too—if my phone is working.]

About the Author
Dorothy Rosby is an author humor columnist whose work regularly appears in publications throughout the West and Midwest. Her humor writing has been recognized by the National Society of Newspaper Columnists, the National Federation of Press Women and the South Dakota Newspaper Association. In 2022 she was named the global winner in the Erma Bombeck Writers Competition in the humor writing category. She’s the author of four books of humorous essays.

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Curveballs by Gail Taylor – Spotlight and Giveaway

December 4, 2024 By 1 Comment

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Gail Taylor will be awarding a $10 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

Here you are on the brink of a journey all about self-discovery and chasing dreams. With personal stories and tools that shaped the author’s path, she focuses on embracing authenticity. You’ll explore how living with purpose and passion is achievable. This personal-growth book combines cutting-edge technology and music interaction, reflecting the author’s belief that music can transform and positively impact individuals and communities.

Enjoy an Excerpt

Many people spend years—decades, even—in jobs that are safe, but not challenging. Stable, but far from rewarding. I refer to that choice as settling.

If you are in this situation, you might tell yourself you are staying in this role for your family or for their future. Sometimes you plan to leave these unfulfilling positions as soon as you have saved a certain amount of money, or have paid for your home or schooling.

I have seen firsthand when opportunities present themselves to folks in these situations whereby they pass on the new challenges and the chance to chase their dreams. You may convince yourself to stay where you are because the field you want to join is too competitive, your skills and talents are rusty and insufficient, or you are too old for a new career . . . a refrain many of us have heard, or uttered. I am so thankful I never believed any of these falsehoods.

When I decided to come out of retirement, three years into it, it was to start my own business: Gail Taylor Music. My goal was to become a keynote speaker, using my stories and music to help others become their best selves. When I mentioned this to my new entertainment lawyer, his first reaction was, “Write a book.” And so here we are.

If you have read the introduction to this book, you know something about my rather tumultuous early life and how I turned things around. For twenty-five years as a financial advisor, I helped clients with investments and with building retirement plans. I absolutely adored my job and imagined staying in this role until I retired, sometime in my seventies. Things might have worked out that way, but when I was fifty-eight, I started taking piano lessons.

The lessons were meant to be a hobby, a diversion from days spent neck-deep in numbers, analytical thinking, and playing it safe with clients’ nest eggs. Instead of just learning an instrument and having a bit of fun, I fell in love with music as it flooded back into my life. After spending two years with my new passion, I decided to retire sooner than planned and dedicate my time to studying this incredible art form. I was financially independent, so I made the decision, at sixty-one, to sell my business and turn over a new leaf.

It was not just an affair I was having with this new interest. I realized I wanted to spend as many hours in the day as possible learning all aspects of music. For someone with no musical background, I was in for an exciting journey and lots of new experiences. Due to advancements in technology, I was able to study online with the Berklee School of Music. It was so exciting. They did not require me to audition. The curriculum was worth every penny of the tuition I paid. I studied bass guitar, piano, keyboard, ear training, and songwriting. After a few years, I began to toy with the idea of reinventing myself as a musician.

When I shared my new passion with people, I was pleasantly surprised by their supportive reactions. “Oh, that is so inspiring,” they would say. I heard this often, from people I knew well and strangers sitting next to me on an airplane. It was as if I was suddenly in the same category as mountain climbers and long-distance swimmers. It felt so amazing to know I could inspire others to pursue their dreams.

About the Author: Gail Taylor, a Canadian songwriter, keynote speaker, entrepreneur, and author, is celebrated for inspiring others to take charge of their lives. With forty years of studying personal growth and peak performance, she proves that designing your own life is possible, regardless of your beginnings. Her expertise has made her a sought-after guest on numerous podcasts.

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Our Global Crisis by Brian McLean- Spotlight and Giveaway

November 25, 2024 By 1 Comment

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This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. The author will be awarding a $10 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

Modern society has reached a critical juncture in its existence. Like past civilizations ours has reached a point where its future is far from certain, with its decline, or even collapse, being distinct possibilities.

The Incas, the Mayans, the Romans, the Rapanui, and many others, had seemingly successful societies, yet collapsed when faced with challenges that threatened their continued existence.

Are we to suffer the same fate? What could possibly cause our downfall?

Climate change and environmental issues? Perhaps. It is now almost a certainty that these events are destined to inflict catastrophic damage to our global society. Our coastal cities and island nations, as well as our global economy and agricultural output, will be irreparably damaged. Many of Earth’s species, as well as the lives of many millions of people, will be displaced or lost forever.

Such a fate may still be averted, but that opportunity has largely passed. Even if we are able to correct the climatic and environmental issues threatening our society, we must still recognize and address the ultimate source of our problems. For if we fail, a far worse fate potentially awaits us.

Our Global Crisis is an eye opening look at the common weakness shared by societies and civilizations both past and present. But analysis of the problem alone will not solve the global crisis we now face. Thus, the final chapter is dedicated to the simple, yet critical solutions, necessary for our very survival.

Enjoy an Excerpt

Humans stand at the pinnacle of evolutionary success. Highly intelligent and curious, with the capacity to reason, it is within our nature to be caring and compassionate. Capable of modifying our environment, we have created an interconnected global society of such magnitude and complexity that it stands apart from all others that have come before it. Yet our society has reached a critical stage in its development. Like past civilizations, ours has reached the point where it is most susceptible to failure.

We face this critical point in our continued existence due to shortcomings in our nature. For although we are the product of countless millennia of evolutionary improvements, we are nevertheless an imperfect species.

Our imperfections have contributed to our setbacks on many occasions. Civilizations and complex societies, including, the Incas, the Mayans, the Romans, the inhabitants of Rapa Nui (Easter Island), and others, all suffered significant setbacks, or collapse, seemingly at the height of their existence. Our global community too, now faces its own challenges.

The question we must ask ourselves is: Do we have the desire and the willingness to change, not only our society, but the very nature of who we are? Changes that will allow us to thrive and adapt to realities we face as we enter the Anthropocene era. The answer?

Perhaps.

About the Author: Brian McLean, ART, is a former Medical Laboratory Technologist and Information Systems Specialist. Drawn by his passion for the outdoors, he shifted from a successful career to spend nearly two decades working for a family run orchard business. A passionate conservationist and environmentalist, Brian is also a keen observer of human nature and humanity’s interaction with the biosphere. Based on those observations, he has been meticulously compiling and crafting Our Global Crisis over the last 22 years. Currently, he is working to restore riparian and temperate forest ecosystems affected by clearcut forestry practices, and when he needs to decompress, he spends time under the stars delving into his other passion, astrophotography.

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How to React When Woken at 3am by Drunk Argentinian Backpackers While Staying in a Youth Hostel and Other Lesser Known Travel Tips by Simon Yeats – Spotlight and Giveaway

November 15, 2024 By 5 Comments

This post is part of a virtual book tour of the LESSER KNOWN TRAVEL TRIPS series, How to React When Woken at 3am by Drunk Argentinian Backpackers While Staying in a Youth Hostel and Other Lesser Known Travel Tips by Simon Yeats. The author will be awarding a $25 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

Book 4 of an original and hilarious book series of travel misadventures and dubious personal introspection by Australian author Simon Yeats, who from an early age learned that the best way to approach the misfortunes of this world is to laugh about them.

Simon shares his comedic insights into the unusual and uproarious elements of living life as an Aussie ex-pat and having a sense of Wanderlust as pervasive as COVID hysteria in the early part of this decade.

From how to negotiate traffic in Los Angeles when your car can only drive at 5 miles/hr, to what to do when locked out of your hotel room in your underwear, to the emotions of attempting the world’s second highest bungee when you have a pathological fear of heights, to how to deal with the trials and tribulations of staying in a youth hostel with travelers who have no respect for the other guests.

Simon Yeats has gone into the world and experienced all the out of the ordinary moments for you to sit back and enjoy the experience without the need to empty your bank account, get squeezed sitting in a middle airline seat, or deal with border security at the Ukraine/Russia boundary.

Enjoy an Excerpt

Big Wednesday was my first day at work as a liftie on the Burgess Creek lift at the Steamboat ski resort as a wide-eyed 20-year-old. I do not remember the exact date, but I am absolutely certain it was a Wednesday because everyone who was present at the resort that day referred to it as ‘big Wednesday.’

Overnight, between ‘ordinary Tuesday’ and ‘big Wednesday,’ the town and resort received a mammoth amount of snowfall. It absolutely dumped. A biblical amount of snow. Even though I do not recall snow being mentioned once in either the old testament or the new testament. But I could have missed the reference.

And Moses went up the mountain at God’s direction and there was fresh dump of powder snow, and he cried out, “ye verily, gonna cut me some wicked turns.”

To get to work on my first day, I take the shortcut straight down the hill to the main road and bus stop. I am decked out in my official Steamboat resort onesie ski suit. The snow level is over my belly button. It is like wading through waist high surf for a half mile.

I scramble onto the bus, and I am on my knees huffing and puffing while dripping with sweat.

An inauspicious start to the day.

About the Author:
Simon Yeats has lived nine lives, and by all estimations, is fast running out of the number he has left. His life of globetrotting the globe was not the one he expected to lead. He grew up a quiet, shy boy teased by other kids on the playgrounds for his red hair. But he developed a keen wit and sense of humor to always see the funnier side of life.

With an overwhelming love of travel, a propensity to find trouble where there was none, and being a passionate advocate of mental health, Simon’s stories will leave a reader either rolling on the floor in tears of laughter, or breathing deeply that the adventures he has led were survived.

No author has laughed longer or cried with less restraint at the travails of life.

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