Invitation to a Zoom Book Launch Party: How to Overcome Insomnia All by Yourself

You are invited!

Celebrate via Zoom as Antoinetta Vogels’ new book, “How to Overcome Insomnia All by Yourself: a Healthy Sense of Self Guide to Getting a Good Night’s Sleep” is launched!

The party will take place at 9:30 PM (EDT) on May 7.

All you have to do is sign in via Zoom! The link for the Zoom party can be found here.

If you do not have Facebook, never fear! The link for the Zoom meeting is https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83570091908. The meeting ID is #835 7009 1908 and the passcode is 193058.

Antoinetta has a bachelor’s in French and a master’s in music. She worked in the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra as a bassoonist, has two grown daughters, and lives in Bellevue, WA, USA.

In 2013, Antoinetta created the Sense of Self Method, a self-help program for people who want to get a good night’s sleep no matter what!

With her company, Healthy Sense Of Self, LLC, Antoinetta and her team provide education about what can be wrong in the way a person experiences their self and, consequently, others. Antoinetta has made it her life’s work to help people improve their life by reversing issues related to a negative self-image. She wants everyone to have the ability to be their most authentic self.

About the Author: Antoinetta Vogels is the Founder and CEO of Healthy Sense of Self™ LLC, author of “How to Overcome Insomnia All by Yourself” her newest book which will release in the fall. She also wrote “Healthy Sense of Self How to be True to Your Self and Make Your World a Better Place!” (2013), as well as the Online Course: Introducing the Sense of Self Method! (found on her website, www.healthysenseofself.com), the “Sense of Self Workbook” (based on the Online Course but also to be used independently) (2014), “A Guided Journal to a Healthy Sense of Self (2014), and “The Motivation Cure” (2017).

Through many years of searching for her Self, Antoinetta has come to conclude that from early childhood on, many of us have not been acknowledged as the autonomous people we truly are. She provides insight and tools to help you enhance and/or completely restore your ability to sense your Self and correct the ill-effects of childhood conditioning that reverberate in all aspects of our lives.

Antoinetta Vogels is a graduate of the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, Netherlands and a former bassoonist of the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra. She is a ballroom dancer, a mother of two and lives in Washington, USA.

Website | Goodreads | Twitter

Buy the book at Amazon.

The author will be giving away a print copy of 2 of the author’s books (US only).


Millennial Money Queens by Maria Alcantara – Spotlight and Giveaway

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Maria Alcantara will be awarding a $15 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

The ultimate personal finance guide for millennial ladies, finally live your dream life, banish debt, make more money and create true wealth.

Millennial Money Queens brings millennial women the crucial financial education and life-changing mindset training needed to succeed. Maria shares her decade-long experience along with top financial and psychology insights to empower you to live your dream life. Master your money mindset, start your dream business and invest like a pro.

In this book, Maria starts by giving your money mindset a makeover! We all operate according to belief blueprints we’ve inherited and developed, what she calls the money in our mind. Travel through time and learn how the blueprints for wealth and poverty were created and how they trickled through millennia all the way to our present society. During her career, Maria quickly noticed how some people could have astronomical sums of money and still feel poor, while others could create wealth time and time again while feeling like they were living their dream lives, sharing their fortunes, growing their riches and supporting the causes that mattered to them. They are vibrant, accomplished, healthy and wealthy individuals in every way. The first step to master money is to adopt their blueprint, which Maria has broken down into easy and clear steps, the cornerstones you need to finally have a solid foundation for financial freedom for the rest of your life.

Once your unshakable financial blueprint is in place, it’s time to get to work with the money in our world. The first step is to stop for most millennial women is to stop spending their well-earned money on debt, whether it is student loans or credit cards, the majority of millennial women spend extravagantly on interest payments. Maria shares the best proven strategy for millennial ladies to stop this money leak. Once your debt is in control, learn where else in your life there may be money leaks and how you can make the most of the current expenses we all have so you can live your desired lifestyle, this is the new way to budget. Whether it is in housing and moving to your dream home, transportation and driving your dream car or personal spending and funding your shopping sprees or trips to exotic destinations, learn about smart and conscious spending to truly live like a money queen. Spending is only a part of the money equation, to increase our wealth, we need to increase our income. We all have something unique to share with the world, Maria shares her secret process to help you find out what your superpower is that will allow you to build your million-dollar dream business. It’s time for millennial women to step into their power, to lead in entrepreneurship and create amazing organizations that will contribute to making our world a better place. With the access to technology and the education many of us have and can continue to gain, the sky’s the limit to what we can create! The final step is learning the money magic that will allow your wealth to grow exponentially. Investing has so far been kept out of reach for many millennial women who believed they weren’t ready to begin investing, who couldn’t afford the professional fees and who continuously postponed creating their portfolios, this ends now. Learn the best strategies to invest like a pro without the exorbitant fees and or the professional knowledge needed to succeed in the markets.

The truth is that many of us are actively keeping wealth away from us with limiting beliefs about ourselves and money and we are lacking the financial education and tools we need to create our wealth. This will no longer be your reality, once you read this book, you will be fully equipped with knowledge, secrets, tips and strategies you need to finally master money and live your dream life. With captivating stories of real millennial women, so you can learn from their journey and timeless wisdom from humanity’s greatest minds, you are in for a life-changing transformation. Maria believes that the true power in knowledge is in its application, so to help you embody the concepts and make the most of all the opportunities the knowledge in this book will give you, Every chapter includes a money queen move to help you put into action all the invaluable information that is being shared. It’s your time to shine and become a millennial money queen.

Enjoy an Excerpt

Social media has the magic of being able to connect people worldwide, but it also has created a very insidious culture of idolizing money. Especially for a generation who is so far going down in modern history as one of the worst with money, especially us ladies. This book’s mission is to change that and instead to empower our generation with the financial literacy it so urgently needs.

Financial wellness today has a lot less to do with where you were born or how smart you are and a lot more with what education you receive and how you behave with money. So far, the financial education you’ve received is slim to none, and so, your money life is in shambles. That changes now.

Any of these RKOI kids can blow their money just as any millennial woman who is given proper financial skills can understand money, make it work for them and become a zillionaire, self-made, amigas. Get ready for your money makeover.

If you want to become a millionaire but think it can’t happen for you unless you win the lottery or marry rich, think again. Making money, getting out of debt and growing a fortune is based on a few simple principles you are about to learn.

Applying these principles leads to stories like the secretaries Grace Groner and Sylvia Bloom who died with massive multi-million-dollar estates. Ignoring them leads to stories of boom and bust like Kim Basinger, who, despite living with crippling anxiety, won multiple academy awards and still had to file for bankruptcy.

About the Author: Maria Alcantara is the founder of Millennial Money Queens, a leading financial empowerment movement for millennial women worldwide.

She is a chartered investment manager and money coach with over ten years of financial insights experience working with high-net-worth individuals to manage and grow their wealth. After a decade devoted to mastering money, she realized the gap existing between young women and financial education.

Deeply touched by the current state of millennial women’s finances, where many have fallen into debt, are unable to create inspiring opportunities for themselves and their communities, and are suffering financially, emotionally, mentally and spiritually, Maria created Millennial Money Queens to create a much needed shift. After working with millennial clients and friends, she expanded her method to impact a whole generation, our younger sisters and our descendants. She specializes in using behavioural economics and finance to help women achieve financial literacy, freedom and independence. The results are life-changing, with the right financial and psychological preparation, young women are finally able to create purpose, independence and the confidence to live fulfilled lives.

Born and raised in Brazil, Maria witnessed the polarity of money. She vowed at a young age to make a difference in the world. During her childhood, her family moved to Canada where she studied economics, psychology and finance. She started out with big dreams like saving the rainforests of the world and creating animal-assisted therapy programs. The defining moment happened when she was not able to get funding to make those projects come to life. Feeling discouraged and powerless was a huge catalyst. Sometimes in our lives, our temporary defeats hold our most precious gems, Maria decided to master money so that she could personally fund all the projects that were important to her and reflected her values of sustainability, health, welfare and abundance for all.

Thus she embarked on a journey to understand the financial world. She worked in banking, brokerages and wealth management, carefully observing how people handled money differently and the effect it had on their overall life satisfaction. While money can’t buy happiness, the lack of can certainly create chaos in one’s life. She found this to be true most clearly with millennial women. With promising futures and careers ahead, the women she spoke with, read about and worked with all shared tremendous baggage of feeling insecure when it came to money. While many millennial women are incredibly well educated, many are uncomfortable discussing money, including negotiating their hard-earned salary and requesting equal pay. Maria dove deeply into the history of women and money and found that outdated societal beliefs widely held by both men and women still influence our behaviour today. In order to create lasting change, millennial women need to be the rising tide. It is our time to rise to our potential and pave the way for the younger generations. Financial literacy including both the psychological and external world perspectives of money are key to empowering women worldwide. That is Maria’s mission in creating the Millennial Money Queen movement.

Website | Facebook | Instagram

Buy the book at the website.


Against the Wind by Tony F. Powell – Exclusive Excerpt and Giveaway

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Tony F. Powell will be awarding a $20 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.

Tony Powell was born on March 16, 1955 in Charlottetown, Labrador, NL, on the Northeast Coast of Canada, son of the late Benjamin and Effie Powell. Together they had nine children – seven boys and two girls. Six boys become bush pilots. Tony is married to Ida Powell, and they have one child, Ramsey, who is a medical doctor.

Tony will take you on his life’s journey. His stories are captivating, inspiring, and heart-wrenching. He never faltered in achieving his dreams and aspirations.

Tony has a great love for family and history. His greatest qualities are his positive attitude and calm nature, never allowing negative thinking to weaken his strengths and defeat his goals.

Tony’s early years took him to the rich fishing ground off the shores of Labrador. At the tender age of seven he would accompany his dad and the crew to haul the cod traps in an ol’ 10-metre motorboat. At age fourteen he was fishing as a share-man on his dad’s longliner in the furry seas of Northern Labrador.

At age seventeen Tony was guiding sports fishermen from all over the world, fishing for trout and Atlantic salmon in our rich Labrador rivers and streams. Their excitement became his enjoyment.

Tony begin his career as a commercial pilot at the age of twenty. His love of flight included seven years with Labrador Airways, coupled with three years flying the mission plane out of North West River, Labrador.

Tony’s dream was to have his own flying service. Pursuing his dream, he became owner/Chief Pilot of Labrador Travel Air, an aircraft charter company. With the newly constructed Trans Labrador Highway along our shores, Labrador Travel Air became history.

He has 45 years of flying experience and 27,000 hours of flight time on over 30 different types of single-and multi-engine aircraft on wheels, skis and floats, including a commercial helicopter licence, often logging 1500 hours in a single year. In Tony’s years of flight thus far he is very proud to have a proven record of never having any injuries to his passengers or himself.

Tony continues to fly seasonally on a legendary Beaver seaplane for Portland Creek Aviation, and has his own PA-18 Super Cub C-GTFP.

I invite you to come experience first hand Captain Tony Powell behind the controls of the legendary de Havilland pistonpowered Beaver during the seventies without heaters in -50°C temperatures. Watch him perform many lifesaving mercy flights while battling some of nature’s most severe weather conditions anywhere on the planet. His described flights will surely capture the attention of the most avid flyer as we witness him survive engine failures and even a crash landing amongst the huge trees in Labrador.

Come live out in real time his heroic shipwreck. Sit on his modified Mach Z Ski-Doo and feel the adrenaline flow through your veins as you race for dear life up the big mountain in the Race on the Rock at Marble Mountain, NL.

At age forty-eight, Tony was diagnosed with fourth and final stage cancer. Learn of his prognosis, and his courageous determination to survive. Experience his fight to beat the odds.

Throughout Tony’s recollections you will travel by air, water and land, experiencing historic events and fatal airplane crash scenes in Labrador, including the story of his Grandfather Powell sailing onboard the Dorothy Duff while delivering a load of salt cod fish to the Mediterranean Sea during WWI. It will surely chill you to your core.

Tony will welcome you to his childhood family home where you will find pure love overcoming many of life’s obstacles. Find out the true meaning of perseverance, courage and strength.

Tony has shown us what life’s struggles are all about and how he survived them.

This book is a true reflection of living our lives one day at a time. Each day we all journey Against the Wind and survive the storms of life.

Enjoy an Exclusive Excerpt

Tall Ships Enter Square Island Harbour

I can remember seeing many schooners docking at Dads wharf at Square Islands, including the ninety-three-foot Norma and Gladys, owned by Skipper Charley Kean, a good friend of my father. It was later acquired by the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, and became a floating museum, sailing about the province. I last stepped aboard the Norma and Gladys at Harbour Grace in 1976.

A frequent sight was the M.V. Catalina Trader, owned by S W Mifflin Ltd. out of Catalina. As a boy in the early 60s, I enjoyed trips from Square Islands to Charlottetown in this lovely ship. The captain was Freddy Brown, and some of the crew I remember were Stew Haynes, John Tippett, George Hunt, Sam Reid and John Manuel.

The most memorable schooner I remember docking at Dad’s wharf in Square Islands, Labrador, was the Sherman Zwicker, owned by Captain Maxwell Burry from Glovertown, Newfoundland. It was a 142-foot wooden auxiliary fishing schooner and carried a crew of eighteen men. It had been designed with a similar hull to her famous sister ship, the Bluenose, but had a 320 brake horsepower (240 kW) diesel engine installed from the beginning. Both the Sherman Zwicker and Bluenose were built at the same shipyard—Lunenburg, Nova Scotia.

I remember Dad telling us about how Square Island Harbour would fill up with sailing schooners during July in the 1940s, when they couldn’t get any farther north due to the solid jam of Arctic ice. Sometimes there would be more than a hundred of them at the same time, and he could cross the harbour by jumping from one schooner to the other.

Back in Charlottetown, in the fall of 1965 I thought if I had an ice cream maker then I could make some pocket money by selling ice cream. My brothers Lester and Sandy did it in earlier years, but the old ice cream maker was no longer useable. I had an idea: I put ten dollars in an envelope along with a note to my Uncle Max Powell, in Carbonear, explaining this is a down payment for a one-gallon ice cream maker and asking if it would it be ok if I paid it out over the winter. With the next trip of the MV Bonavista arrived my onegallon hand-crank ice cream maker. I was a very proud boy.

Myself and my helper—often it was my cousin Johnny Marshall— would make a gallon of ice cream and go from house to house all around Charlottetown and sell it for ten cents per cone. After paying my expenses and sharing the profits with my helper I would clear anywhere between thirty-five cents to one dollar per gallon. My biggest single expense was the cones, at a cost of three cents each. I would buy them in cartons of four hundred. Sometimes on Saturdays we would make two gallons when the sales were good. Only a young lad of ten years at the time, I was running a lucrative little business. Pocket money all winter and by spring ice cream maker was fully paid for.

About the AuthorTony Powell was born and raised at Charlottetown, Labrador, Newfoundland Labrador, a proud member of NunatuKavut, Southern Inuit of Labrador. He is mixed blood Inuit and European decent, the son of the late Author Benjamin W. Powell of Charlottetown, Labrador, NL. His mom was the late Effie Mary Campbell Powell, born at George’s Cove, ten miles south of Square Islands on the southeast coast of Labrador. Married to Ida Powell of Conche, on the great Northern Peninsula of NL, they have a son, Ramsey Powell, who is a medical Doctor.

When Tony was a boy the main mode of transportation along the Labrador Coast was by a Team of husky dogs or snowshoes.

A travelling doctor and nurse visited our community once during the winter by dog team, and once during the summer by boat. The first scheduled Aircraft passenger service was Labrador Airways by single engine Otter in 1970 winter time only.

Website

Buy the book at Amazon, Amazon CA, Bookshop, Indigo Chapters, Barnes and NOble, Book Depository, Koob, Smashwords, or iBooks.


Reel to Reel by Isla Grey – Spotlight and Giveaway

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Isla Grey will be awarding a $25 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.

Lights, Camera, Action! From the very beginning, the world of cinema has captivated us. We have found ourselves laughing at our favorite comedies, crying when love finally comes to fruition, being beamed to other worlds or battling in the midst of action sequences. While movies might be the perfect entertainment, most have slight imperfections, mistakes, which go unseen, until they’re released and caught by the movie audience. These mistakes don’t detract from the film, and finding them are just as fun as watching the movie. For the past several years, Isla Grey has written a “Movie Mistakes” column for Bellaonline. “Reel to Reel” is a collection of some of those columns, spotlighting the fun goofs found in some of our favorite movies. Can you spot them? Grab the popcorn, sit back, and happy movie watching!

Enjoy an Excerpt

Love Story

Wealthy, preppie and angry hockey player – Harvard law student, Oliver Barrett IV, meets and falls in love with Jennifer Cavalleri, a head strong music student. Despite the misgivings of his mother and father, Oliver asks Jenny to marry him, and she accepts. The two marry and struggle to make ends meet during the first few years of their marriage as Jenny teaches school while Oliver finishes law school. Just as things start to look up for the young couple when Oliver gets a job at a big law firm, tragedy strikes. Here are a few movie mistakes to look for while watching “Love Story”.

In the second hockey game, against Cornell, Oliver’s dad is in the crowd. Oliver gets penalized and is sent to the penalty box for five minutes for fighting. His face is bleeding but there is no blood on his shirt. It cuts to a view of his dad and then back to Oliver. There are now splotches of blood on his left shoulder.

Jenny and Oliver receive the invitation to the dinner for his dad’s birthday. Jenny is reading the invitation out loud and the view of the two shows her holding the invitation down, near her lap. It cuts to a right-side view and she’s holding the invitation in her right hand, up in front of her face. Also, when it cuts to the right-side view, Oliver is holding a pencil in his left hand that he was not before.

About the Author
Isla Grey is from Central Virginia and at an early age developed a love of movies. She shared many Sunday afternoons watching old favorites with her grandmother that included everything from “Gone with the Wind” and “Rio Bravo” to “Titanic” and “The Mummy”. (Her grandmother may or may not have made fun of her when she covered her eyes during “Anaconda”.)

Working as Bellaonline’s Movie Mistakes editor since 2012 has given Isla the opportunity to indulge in two of her passions—movies and writing.

When Isla isn’t writing or watching movies, most of her time is spent with her ever active daughter and her band of cats. She also enjoys good music, reading biographies and ghost stories and taking quiet strolls.

Website | Facebook | Twitter
Buy the book at Amazon.


How to Overcome Insomnia All By Yourself by Antoinetta Vogels – Spotlight and Giveaway

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Antoinetta will be awarding a print copy of “Healthy Sense of Self – How to be true to your self and make your world a better place!” to one randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour (US Only). Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

It’s time for bed. You’re tired, but you know you’ll be tossing and turning for hours to come. At dawn, you fall into a deep sleep, but it is short-lived. Long before you’re ready, your alarm clock mercilessly informs you that it’s time to get up.

After decades of nights like this, Antoinetta Vogels managed to unravel the enigma of her sleeping problem and restore her ability to get a good night’s sleep.

In How to Overcome Insomnia All by Yourself, Antoinetta reveals how to become a healthy sleeper through self-knowledge. Using examples from her own life and firsthand experience with this sleep disorder, Antoinetta explores the childhood circumstances that can lead to unhealthy motivation, approval-seeking behavior, and chronic insomnia in adulthood. She offers practical advice and activities that you can use to heal the wounds of the past so you can enjoy a brighter future full of joy, healthy relationships, and restful sleep..

Enjoy an Excerpt

Some children grow up in a supportive environment, with parents who give them the freedom to discover their true Self and encourage them to feel good about who they are. Others of us are doomed to constantly earning parental approval over the course of our lives because we’ve never felt acknowledged or accepted. How we deal with that situation will differ, depending on our individual temperament, character, and the way we learned how to deal with our emotions.

Feeling like you don’t belong creates a negative self-image because the message you receive is that you aren’t good enough to be included. But feeling invisible can be a self-fulfilling prophecy—when you aren’t seen or heard or taken into consideration, it’s a natural reaction to shrink in on yourself and not do anything to stand out.

I remember very well how I felt on those occasions. It was a feeling that always haunted me. One day, when I was about sixteen years old, I stood on the beach looking out over the sea, and I noticed a pole rising above the water. I imagined that the sea was full of people and I was sitting on that pole, removed from everyone around me and unable to reach them. It felt terribly lonely. The endlessness of the sea only made that sense of isolation stronger.

About the Author:

Antoinetta Vogels is the Founder and CEO of Healthy Sense of Self™ LLC, author of “How to Overcome Insomnia All by Yourself” her newest book which will release in the fall. She also wrote “Healthy Sense of Self How to be True to Your Self and Make Your World a Better Place!” (2013), as well as the Online Course: Introducing the Sense of Self Method! (found on her website, www.healthysenseofself.com), the “Sense of Self Workbook” (based on the Online Course but also to be used independently) (2014), “A Guided Journal to a Healthy Sense of Self (2014), and “The Motivation Cure” (2017).

Through many years of searching for her Self, Antoinetta has come to conclude that from early childhood on, many of us have not been acknowledged as the autonomous people we truly are. She provides insight and tools to help you enhance and/or completely restore your ability to sense your Self and correct the ill-effects of childhood conditioning that reverberate in all aspects of our lives.

Antoinetta Vogels is a graduate of the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, Netherlands and a former bassoonist of the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra. She is a ballroom dancer, a mother of two and lives in Washington, USA.

Website | Goodreads | Twitter

Buy the book at Amazon.


Tiger Stripes by Hannah Renae – Spotlight and Giveaway

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Hannah Renae will be awarding a $100 Amazon GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

Four psychiatric wards

Three rehabs

Two jail cells

And a suicide attempt…

Hannah was told she would not make it to 25 with the way she was living. She had struggled with mental illness her entire life, but at 22 her demons came to a head at the grips of severe substance abuse, life-changing trauma, and two major deaths in her life.

Hannah’s struggles land her places no one ever hopes to grace; jail and psych wards lead her to the brink of death. Running out of options she’s left with two choices: live or die. This heart-wrenching memoir combines recovery with bittersweet romance told in a raw presentation that immerses the reader into the author’s dark state-of-mind in every page.

Tiger Stripes is going to add a valuable voice to the conversation about women’s mental health issues.

Enjoy an Excerpt

THE LETTER H

October 7, 2019

“HENRY! HENRY! HENNN-RYYYY!!!!”

I am screaming at the top of my lungs and can feel my throat tearing, becoming raw. I don’t know how many times I have said his name now, but it is all I know how to do because nothing is making any sense.

I am in a locked room and flashes of images are going through my head, but there is only one thing, one thought that I can focus on, that is pounding through my brain throughout this confusion and that is pouring out of my lungs to the point that my chest feels like it is going to rip.

“HENRY!” I choke on his name and a sob.

He cannot hear me, and he is not coming. He doesn’t know where I am and I don’t know where I am, but I know I am not supposed to be here—and I have to get out.

I beat at the metal door that barricades me from something unknown and choke on words that begin with H.

“HENRY!”

“HELP!”

“HENRY!”

“HELP!”

I repeat these words for what feels like a lifetime, until I forget how to speak and my begging turns to carnal screaming—shrieking.

No one comes. No one answers. I wait for footsteps, for the sound of the door unlocking, but all I can hear is the sound of my frantic breaths and the echoes of a lamentation that is anything but human.

I look down at my body. My feet are bare against the concrete floor; I cannot feel them. The jean shorts I am wearing show off my slender, scratched legs and remind me that I am small and feeble at this moment, but in an act of desperation, I put all of my faith in the power of momentum and I run. I fucking run as fast as I can from the three paces it takes to get from the wall to the ominous looming, locked door and attack it with my entire being, letting out my most vicious battle cry as I fumble towards it.

The door wins.

I try again.

And again.

And again.

And again.

And again.

I am degraded to a crumbling, bruised ball of flesh.

I can barely speak, my throat reduced to sandpaper.

Everything hurts and I can taste the bitterness of blood in my mouth. The floor is like ice against my bare legs. Through the tears in my eyes I see the moon shining through a window at the top of the room. It is full and brilliant and illuminates the white of the brick walls that surround me. I realize that there is writing on them. People have been here before me. People will be here after me. Why am I here though? I should not be.

I should be home, where I belong. In bed, with him. Safe. I feel anything but that word in this moment, as terror sweeps through every single one of my nerves.

I whisper in one last futile attempt:

“Henry?”

But there is silence. Horrible, deafening, fatal silence.

And it seems to last forever, until I hear it, or think I do. A click, the door unlocking, and the small room is suddenly filled with light. Fluorescence suffocates me.

When I dare to open my eyes, they do not find Henry. Instead I find a police officer looking back at me. He wears broad, black framed glasses that are too big for his face and he looks eerily familiar. A sudden memory of lying in a hospital bed comes to me but does not fully resonate. His face is forlorn and almost disappointed, as if he expected more out of me.

“I thought you were going to hurt yourself,” he tells me. “Promise you’ll stay calm and you can come out for a bit. We’ve got to get you fingerprinted.”

It’s then that I have the shattering realization that I am drunk and in a holding cell at a police station. The reason why escapes me though, as I try to grab onto flashes of sober memories but drown in my current state-of-mind.

I try to breathe with intent as I remember every single arrest-cliché in the book, and I cling to the fact that I am going to get my phone call. They will probably let me go—they have to. If anything, they will make me stay the night at the most.

I remember the silent promise I had once made myself—that the moment I got a DUI that I would put down the bottle for good. Jail was the worst it could get. It had been my crowning achievement at my last three rehabs that I had never graced the inside of a jail cell and I never planned to.

“Continue down the path you have been,” one of the staff members at my second treatment center had told me after sharing her own story about prison, “and jail is a guarantee.”

And here I am. Her words have come to pass, as promised.

I then remember what else she told me as we talked over a pack of Marlboro Reds on a warm Orange County night.

“Finish the 90 days,” she had said, “Or you will not make it and there will come a day where you will no longer be able to cry out ‘I’m a good person!’. You will lie. You will steal. You will become someone and something else. You will hurt everyone you love. You will lose everything, and just when you think you have lost it all, you will lose something else.”

About the Author:

If there is anything Hannah believes in, it’s hope, but that wasn’t always the case. For a long time, chaos was comfortable for Hannah, but at just 22 she would have to make her hardest decision yet: was life really worth living? Since picking up a pen Hannah has had a love for writing, and as an adult it would become her greatest tool in healing from an almost decade-long battle with severe mental illness and substance abuse. Her first book, Tiger Stripes, is a harrowing, raw telling of her year in and out of hospitals, treatment centers, and jail that finally led her on the road to recovery and freedom.

Hannah was born in Orange County, CA but has lived in the Los Angeles area for several years. She now lives in West L.A. with her boyfriend. When she is not writing she can be found reading, running, cooking, or finding the best vegan eats in L.A.!

Website | Instagram | Pinterst | Publisher Page

Buy the book at Amazon , Barnes and Noble, Kobo, iBooks, The Book Depositogry, or Chapters Indigo.


Success is in Your Hands, Follow your Successful study tips by Christine Reidhead – Guest Blog and Giveaway

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Christine Reidhead will be awarding a $25 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.

Success is in Your Hands, Follow your Successful study tips

Students face many issues, and competing things make concentrating on studying hard. However, there is a need to do a little studying at least to progress. For better grades, there is a need to develop and follow successful study tips. It is about studying smarter.

There are different types of study habits that it is not easy to figure out the good to bad ones on starting your college days.

First, to begin with, bad habits disempower students.

1. Procrastination
Studying for exams is stressful. Fear appears on your face and dreams. Thus, everyone starts stalling by spending time in some other activity. It can be on Facebook or anything else, it is just procrastinating.
• Instead, adopt better time management habits by preparing to-do lists and checking up on your progress.

2. Wrong place
A place where you fall asleep is not the right place for you to study, such as your bed or couch. Also, avoid places with a lot of distractions.
• Instead, choose the right place to concentrate and learn.

3. Turn distractions on
It may be fun to study even while your Facebook is on or in front of the TV, but the fact is you cannot do much.
• Instead, reward yourself by allocating some time to social media or TV after studying for a specific time or on completing a portion.

4. Studying one night before
There may be times you passed a few tests studying the night before the test. For a deeper understanding and higher grades, devoting, attention, and a lot of time is a must.
• Instead, write the main points and review them in the morning after breakfast. Best is taking a break before a test, walk or listen to music.

Good study habits to succeed
• Plan your time- Getting overwhelmed is easy with everything in college. But it is a must to have a course plan. Study every week, the entire material. Even then, something unexpected may come, and it may take a longer time to complete.

• Set goals- Developing this habit is helpful. You can study every week and set study goals. It can be the number of chapters, mastering a skill, understanding a challenge better, or even spending more time on studies than checking Facebook.

• Ask for help- It is easier to seek help so that you accomplish your set goals. There are different types of study habits, frame your type.

• Reward yourself- Encourage yourself by rewarding, it is positive reinforcement. It can be eating ice cream, watching a show, or sleeping.

The successful study tips are the ones that benefit you!


Mom and Dad’s Martinis by Jacelyn Cane – Spotlight and Giveaway

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Jacelyn Cane 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.

Jacelyn Cane’s mom and dad liked their martinis dry: straight gin on the rocks with a dab of vermouth and a hint of water – and they liked them often. They also liked to party; they danced, socialized, and drank – they were good at all three. Sometimes this behaviour led to humorous situations – antics in the pool, at the club, the cottage or in the car, for example. Other times, however, the experiences were not so funny – family fights and times of neglect, trauma, and abuse. By weaving together a series of episodes that take the reader to light and dark places, author Jacelyn Cane tells a poignant cautionary tale for anyone affected by alcoholism and/or family struggles. The author is using a pseudonym and most of the names in the book have been changed to protect people’s identities. “Mom and Dad’s Martinis: A Memoir” is a great read for anyone who has experienced a childhood mixed with joy as well as sorrow. It is a story of love, acceptance, forgiveness, and hope.

Enjoy an Exclusive Excerpt

I am allergic to wine.

But I once tried an old ’39.

Besides getting smashed

I broke out in a rash

So now gin and tonic does fine.

That’s my favourite of eight limericks I wrote for an assignment in grade six. Every one of them dealt with alcohol.

The first time I got drunk was on New Year’s Eve when I was fourteen. My parents were at a party, so Duncan and I helped ourselves to the fully stocked bar, adding water to the bottles so they looked full. It was fun at the time.

“Duncan, pour in a little rum,” I said. “They’re not big rum drinkers, so they won’t miss that.”

“Okay.” He poured a bit of rum into the pitcher. “And how about some rye?”

“Yah, that’s good. What about a bit of gin?”

“No way,” said Duncan. “They know their gin like the back of their hand. Here’s some bourbon. That hardly ever gets touched.”

A year later, my friend Stephanie Mortimer and I raided my parents’ liquor cabinet one night when my parents were out. We took a bottle that was almost empty and added a little bit from several bottles until it was full. Then we went out in a field and drank the entire bottle. We sat on our jackets because the ground was cold. I plugged my nose as I took swigs of the gross mixture. Tall grasses surrounded us and rubbed against our cheeks. Stephanie was petite. She got so drunk that she passed out in the middle of a road while we were walking to a party. A man in a station wagon drove by and picked us up. He was an elderly gentleman wearing horn-rimmed glasses. He laid Stephanie in the back seat, and I sat beside her. I gave him the address of the party. “Can you drive us to 49 Burdock Road? That’s where Stephanie lives.” Out cold in the back seat, Stephanie started foaming at the mouth.

The man looked back and saw the foam. “Your friend is very sick. I’m taking her to the hospital.” He turned the car around and headed for North York General.

“No, please. Just take her home,” I begged. “She’ll be fine.”

The man sped to the Emergency entrance, made sure she was safely in the hospital and drove off. Stephanie lay there with white bubbles oozing out of her mouth. My heart started racing, and I could hardly breathe. A doctor came out to talk to me.

“Can you tell me what your friend has injected, inhaled or ingested?” He ran a hand through his grey hair.

I pictured the look on my mother’s face. “She hasn’t had anything that I know of. We were just on our way to a party, and she passed out on the road.”

“Come on, now,” he said. “Tell me the truth.”

“Like I said. She’s had nothing that I know of,” I said, feeling sick to my stomach.

I waited and waited. The doctor came out again.

“I know your friend has had something. You’d be helping us a lot if you could shed some light on the situation, so we can help her.”

This time, I flashed on my father, and the look he got when he had three or more drinks, and one of us kids answered him back. “I’m telling you, I don’t know anything.” Finally, the doctor called me into the room where Stephanie lay motionless.

About the Author Jacelyn Cane was born and raised in Toronto. She lives with her husband, and near her three children and step-daughter. She is a retired elementary school teacher who also worked in social justice education with the United Church of Canada. She has worked in theatre and as a reporter. She was educated in Toronto, earning a B.A. in Political Science and an M.A. in Canadian History from York University. Later, she earned a B. Ed. at the University of Toronto. She is passionately involved in numerous social justice issues such as climate crisis concerns and Indigenous rights. She loves meditating, writing, reading, music, laughing, and being around nature. She is motivated by a deep sense of spirituality. Her number one love, however, is being with family and friends.

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Buy the book at Amazon, Chapters Indigo, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Smashwords, or iBooks.


Forgiveness: Your Key to Harmony and Inner Peace by Laura Throne – Exclusive Excerpt and Giveaway

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Laura Throne will be awarding a $20 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.

FORGIVENESS: YOUR KEY TO HARMONY AND INNER PEACE by Laura Throne will take you on a fascinating journey through the author’s real-life experiences as she provides practical advice to achieve a more intentional, conscious and aware approach to life. It will show you how accepting change and facing the unknown can create wonderful new opportunities.

This memoir details the author’s own wake-up call about how she restored her emotional, mental and spiritual wellbeing after a devastating, miserable marriage, and regained her physical health after a chronic disease. Her story will help you discover small miracles in your everyday life you can be grateful for. See how difficult life situations and challenges can help your soul grow and evolve so you can reach your true potential.

FORGIVENESS will help you to remember that you are loved, worthy and complete. In the same way, you are valuable, powerful and significant in this world. Practicing forgiveness liberates your soul and sets you free, and kindness fills your heart with joy.

Enjoy an Excerpt

Raising children is an exhausting and demanding 24/7 job, therefore it is vital to take a break once in a while. We make “mistakes” and that is OK. We are all learning. Sometimes we push them or ourselves too hard to be the “perfect” parent or the “perfect” child. There is no need to do that. Every child is different and unique. Every child has distinct skills and various interests. Some prefer creative activities over playing sports. Others love sports but are not so keen on reading or math. It is important to allow our children to try different sports, instruments and creative activities so they can decide what to do. Positive reinforcement and praising the children’s unique skills can cause miracles and boost their self-confidence. It is also crucial to allow our children to make “mistakes.” Finally, children need lots of free time to play and relax. Every child is equally valuable. We can build a harmonious relationship by hugging, kissing, nurturing and comforting them. Additionally, we can create strong bonds by paying attention to them. Children are excellent teachers if we are ready to listen to them. I regularly and openly communicate with my children, and this builds a deep connection between us. When children feel loved, safe, nurtured and understood, the relationship with their parents becomes harmonious, joyful and pleasant.

About the Author: Laura Throne lived in four different countries between 2005 and 2020, and now resides in Canada with her two children. Forgiveness is her first book. By writing her memoir she hopes to inspire people to connect to their heart and soul. She hopes that her personal story will help you to remember that you are loved and worthy. In the same way, you are powerful and significant in this world. Practicing forgiveness liberates your soul and sets you free, and kindness fills your heart with joy.

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Favorite Vacation Destinations by Mike Tranter PhD – Guest Blog and Giveaway

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Michael Tranter PhD will be awarding a $20 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.

See our five star review here.

Favorite Vacation Destination

1. Florence, Italy. I love visiting Italy in general but Florence is something really special. I enjoy Renaissance art and this is the place to be for that. Paintings, sculptures, and buildings from that era are at every turn. I remember walking around the streets and church where Beatrice, the lover of Dante, was buried, and thinking that so many people throughout history would have walked those same cobbled streets.

2. Tokyo, Japan. I was lucky to visit Japan through a scientific conference, and I stayed a little while after it, so I could be a tourist. It really didn’t disappoint. There was so much energy and buzz about it, that I found myself just constantly staring at all the buildings (new and old) and the aesthetic of it all. I am used to a big bustling city, from living in London for so long, but Tokyo, and all of Japan was amazing. I was lucky to get the chance to visit.

3. Himalayan Mountain Range. I have climbed mountains in the Himalayas, and some other places over the world. I love being outdoors and active, trekking and mountaineering amongst the tallest mountain region in the world was immense. On the summit day, we woke up early for the climb, which meant I got to see the sunrise over the mountains, which was breathtaking.

4. Buenos Aires, Argentina. A fun fact that not many people know, is that I used to dance the Argentine Tango (admittedly, not very well, but I enjoyed it). The city, the people, the culture, the vibrancy of it all, it was one of my favourite places. I went to a show and saw professionals dance the Tango, which was an amazing experience. Also, they enjoy meat and red wine. So, for me that was an absolute bonus.

5. Scotland, UK. I love Scottish history and visiting the country was great, it was really beautiful. The people were also very friendly and I just have an amazing time whenever I visit. I am yet to venture into the highlands though, which is something I want to do. Although Scotland is notorious for the amount of rain it gets, so…..maybe I’m not in too much of a hurry!

A Million Things To Ask A Neuroscientist answers some of the most asked questions about the brain, making the science fun and accessible to everyone. Inside, you will journey through some of the most interesting and strange things that our brain does every single day.

Have you always wanted to know just what a memory actually is, or why we dream? What is our consciousness? Why do some people seem to ‘click’ with others? And can our brain really multi-task?

Enjoy an Excerpt

The clearest idea about why we dream is that the brain needs time to process the memories and emotions that we experienced during the day and convert them into long-term storage. This makes a lot more sense when we look at the brains of people who are sleeping and see that the hippocampus, the part for memories, and the anterior cingulate cortex, which is involved in assigning emotional context, are particularly active. In fact, on days where we have lots of new experiences, the brain can still be processing this information up to seven nights later. This also partly explains why stressful and emotional events in our lives can significantly affect the quality of our sleep.

One team of scientists demonstrated this by having people play video games for several hours before sleeping. Over 60% of people reported having dreams about the game, suggesting that our short-term memory is particularly active during our dreams.

Furthermore, the actual events of the dream are believed to be the combination of the short-term memories we recently experienced, and the long-term memories that our brain thinks are relevant and need to be connected with each other. This supports the view that sleeping and dreaming help to cement our memories from short-term storage in the hippocampus to long-term storage all over the brain. This process happens mostly in NREM sleep and the application of emotional context – how we feel about them, occurs in REM sleep, our deep sleep.

About the Author: Dr Mike Tranter is from the North of England and studied how drugs work in our body, but it wasn’t long before he found his true calling as a neuroscientist. After a PhD in neuroscience, he spent years in research labs all over the world, studying how the brain works. Although, it is his prominent rise as a science communicator, opening up the world of neuroscience to everybody, that he enjoys the most.

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