Cover Reveal: Vanilla With A Twist

Posted on by Joanne Guidoccio

I’m thrilled to reveal the cover of Peggy Jaeger’s summer novel…

Blurb

Tandy Blakemore spends her days running her New England ice cream parlor, single-parenting her teenage son, and trying to keep her head above financial water. No easy feat when the shop’s machinery is aging and her son is thinking about college. Tandy hasn’t had a day off in a decade and wonders if she’ll ever be able to live a worry-free life.

Engineer Deacon Withers is on an enforced vacation in the tiny seaside town of Beacher’s Cove. Overworked, stressed, and lonely, he walks into Tandy’s shop for a midday ice cream cone and gets embroiled in helping her fix a broken piece of equipment.

Can the budding friendship that follows lead to something everlasting?

Bio

Peggy Jaeger is a contemporary romance writer who writes Romantic Comedies about strong women, the families who support them, and the men who can’t live without them. If she can make you cry on one page and bring you out of tears rolling with laughter the next, she’s done her job as a writer!

Family and food play huge roles in Peggy’s stories because she believes there is nothing that holds a family structure together like sharing a meal…or two…or ten. Dotted with humor and characters that are as real as they are loving, she brings all topics of daily life into her stories: life, death, sibling rivalry, illness and the desire for everyone to find their own happily ever after. Growing up the only child of divorced parents she longed for sisters, brothers and a family that vowed to stick together no matter what came their way. Through her books, she’s created the families she wanted as that lonely child.

When she’s not writing Peggy is usually painting, crafting, scrapbooking or decoupaging old steamer trunks she finds at rummage stores and garage sales.

A lifelong and avid romance reader and writer, Peggy is a member of RWA and her local New Hampshire RWA Chapter.

As a lifelong diarist, she caught the blogging bug early on, and you can visit her at peggyjaeger.com where she blogs daily about life, writing, and stuff that makes her go “What??!”

Where to find Peggy…

Website/Blog | Twitter | Amazon | Facebook | Pinterest | Goodreads | Instagram | BookBub | You-Tube



Inspired by Sally Armstrong

Posted on by Joanne Guidoccio

Yesterday afternoon, I attended “International Women’s Day with Sally Armstrong” at the central branch of the Kitchener Public Library.

This Premiere 85 Queen Event was well-attended by fans (predominantly women) of the award-winning author, journalist, activist, and 2019 Massey Lecturer. Sally holds ten honorary degrees and is a member of the Order of Canada.

In an armchair conversation with Eva Salinas, editor and journalism instructor at Mohawk College, Sally shared anecdotes and insights from her extraordinary journey.

L-R: Eva Salinas, Sally Armstrong

Sally began with the compelling backstory behind the publication of “Eva: Witness for Women” in the Summer 1993 edition of Homemaker’s Magazine.

In 1992, Sally was sent to Sarajevo to write a story about the effects on war on children. While there, she heard rumors about rape camps. She gathered all the facts and returned to Toronto. Determined to get the story out faster than her magazine deadline would permit, Sally passed on the information to a male news editor and waited for the byline to appear. He ignored it.

Seven weeks later, a four-line blurb about gang rape in the Balkans appeared in Newsweek.

Sally and her team at Homemaker’s Magazine decided to do the story. Sally flew back to the region and interviewed Eva Penavic, one of thousands of females who had been brutally gang-raped during the conflict in the former Yugoslavia.

Over the past two decades, Sally has covered stories in conflict zones all over the world. Her eyewitness reports have earned her international acclaim and the Amnesty International Media Award four times over.

While we are not at the finish line, there have been positive changes with respect to gender equality and other human rights issues.

In the past, we relied on public and political will to enact changes (new laws, more shelters, etc.). In recent years, personal will has started to overtake public will. Most of this personal will is coming from young women such as Greta Thunberg (Swedish environmental activist on climate change) and Malala Yousafzai (Pakistani activist for female education).

Another example… In 2011, Sally traveled to Kenya to interview 160 child rape victims, some as young as three, who were suing the government for not protecting them and for failing to uphold the Kenyan constitution’s promise of greater equality for girls and women. In 2013, the High Court ruled in the girls’ favor, ordering the Police Service to conduct prompt and effective investigations into each of the girls’ cases and to comply with human rights standards in all cases of defilement.

Asked how she moves beyond difficult stories, Sally responded: “When I leave these places, their stories play on the back of my eyelids.” Often, she gets to return to the conflict zones and touch base with the women.

Quotable quotes from Sally Armstrong

“It’s not because we know more or we know better. It’s because we’re different. If we’re both at the table, we learn more.”

“We will be happier, healthier, and richer when we have equality.”

“Until you have justice, you can’t move forward.”

“Men need to stand up and say to other men: ‘What you are doing is not okay with me.’
And to women: ‘I’ll walk with you.’”

Sally’s books

Veiled Threat: The Hidden Power of the Women of Afghanistan
The Nine Lives of Charlotte Taylor
Bitter Roots, Tender Shoots: The Uncertain Fate of Afghanistan’s Women
Ascent of Women: A New Age is Dawning for Every Mother’s Daughter
Power Shift: The Longest Revolution

Spotlight on Living Lightly

Posted on by Joanne Guidoccio

I’m happy to welcome therapists and authors Kimberly Alexander and Dale Curd. Today, Kimberly and Dale share their new release, Living Lightly.

Blurb

Living Lightly is a daily devotional that offers a year’s worth of opportunities to commune, in the deepest and most beautiful sense of that word, with your self and your life. Partners and therapists, Dale and Kim Curd step through the universal doorways of life and offer us a nudge to slow down and experiences to help return us to our selves. Their personal reflections invoke gentle introspection, and come from their own healing journeys and from being active therapists. Living Lightly invites you to explore how your mind works, understand and express your feelings and be reminded that you are much, much stronger than you realize. Living Lightly is a great way to start or end the day.

Excerpt From July 14, Living Lightly

When we wrote this piece, we imagined all of our self in a beautiful bubble ~ our hopes, needs, feelings, wounds and energy ~ in the bubble, all the time. And others having their bubbles too. Today, imagine feeling safe and wondrous interacting with other bubbles. With love, Kim and Dale.

Withholding or oversharing information can reveal our problem with boundary setting. Healthy boundaries give our sense of ease and peace in life a quantum boost, and in our interactions we learn to focus our energy on managing our own state, rather than trying (impossibly) to manage others’.

In thinking about boundaries, I realize how little I share during times of crisis, when I am focused on the critical decisions and actions that need to be taken. People who are directly able to assist are involved with me very intimately, yet it may take several days, or even longer, before I share what is happening with my friends and family. Because of this I find myself sharing and recounting and reliving the episode after the fact. And others are left to experience, process and resolve the shock, the ups and downs and the resolution of the story in one telling. The whole process feels draining to me—both because I don’t enjoy reliving the experience and because I have to answer questions so that others can fill in the gaps in their knowledge.

My withholding the information in real time has blocked loved ones from sharing in my life and being connected to me. When I’m in crisis mode, I withhold information by default, to control my environment as well as other people. This tendency is rooted in my childhood—adults would pin their emotional needs onto me and I felt unprotected and unable to separate myself from the other. Without healthy boundaries, I am blocked as an adult from experiencing the support and love of others; I am simultaneously on the defensive while I go on offence, patrolling for non-confirming ideas or behaviours. It is exhausting and draining for me and for the people around me. While my withholding behaviour is most evident when I’m in crisis, I always behave this way.

At the other end of the scale are people who overshare, speaking compulsively and repetitively to relieve or soothe themselves without showing any awareness of the other. They shift their state by using the energy of someone who allows their energy to be drawn.

The way through is to practise setting healthy boundaries. For the most part, withholding and oversharing are done unconsciously. By making ourselves aware of our state, we can intentionally empower and enhance ourselves, our relationships and our interactions.

For me, healthy boundaries start with being aware of my own feeling state and being self-responsible for my needs, energy and actions—and seeing all of these create a bubble around me. When I meet another person, they have their own bubble. Healthy boundaries allow us to be together with our own bubbles intact. We can connect and interact, each of us having our unique experience in life, in parallel, free to choose for ourselves. Sounds idyllic, doesn’t it?

Yet not everyone we meet in life is self-aware or self-responsible. Some people open their bubbles and their energy and emotions spill out, looking to flow into another. Or they pull energy away from another to fill themselves up. We can’t manage or control such behav- iours, but we can monitor, care for, advocate for and trust ourselves. In a moment of crisis I can be aware that I am feeling sad or fearful, that my emotions are heightened and that I am tense from lack of sleep and an adrenaline rush, so I can be responsible for my actions. I can let people know this is the state I am in. Ultimately, it is my responsibility, not theirs, to steer myself back towards a healthy, positive state.

Sleeping, eating, resting, getting support, taking breaks, asking for help, surrounding myself with helpful, positive people—these are all ways I use to get myself back. I shift my own bubble.

Mastering our own bubbles is a wonderful way to live. Awareness is the key factor. Instead of assessing others to make ourselves safe, let us first assess our own states and see to our own needs. That way we will be able to be with others, maintaining our energy. Acceptance, empathy, community, forgiveness, peace all become possible when our emotional safety no longer depends upon the other.

Buy Links – Print

Indigo | Amazon (CA) | Amazon (US) | Harper Collins

Buy Links – Digital

Kobo | Amazon (CA) | Amazon (US) | Google | Apple

Kim and Dale have created a much-needed “self-help” guide filled with powerful starting points for each day of the year. I immediately connected with their objective in writing this devotional: “We can remember a time long ago when we felt like we were floating, and we want to feel light again.” The authors start each snippet by identifying an issue and then offering anecdotes, quotations, poetry, and practical strategies. While I read the entire book in two sittings, I plan to revisit many of the reflections throughout 2020 and beyond.

Well done!

About the Authors

Kim Alexander spent twenty years in the tech start-up world, has travelled extensively and considers travel one of her greatest pleasures. In 2014 she completed her training as a therapist, merging her worlds of technology and therapy, by offering clients online video counselling. Kim is a lifelong learner, always engaged in activities and ventures that expand her self-awareness, from writing, raising animals, to listening to horses and trees.

Dale Curd is a mental health professional, the host of CBC TV’s Hello Goodbye and a co-host of Life Story Project on the Oprah Winfrey Network. The creator of an acclaimed Empathetic Listening Method, Dale leads specialized workshops for law enforcement, hospitals and corporations across North America.

Dale and Kim founded The Child Therapy List and The Men’s List, two global, online mental wellness professional directories, to help normalize therapy and end mental health stigma. They created LivingLightlyToday.com as an online community to acknowledge and connect with readers and inspire people to share in their passion for beauty. In 2015 Dale and Kim left city life to live on a historic farm in Muskoka.

http://www.livinglightlytoday.com is a growing online community of souls committed to living fully, exploring new experiences, making new discoveries in our inner and outer landscapes. Dale and Kim are so excited for your images and stories, of beauty and connection. Come join the journey—we are waiting for you!

Social Media Links

Facebook | Instagram | Twitter

Manifest “Tiny, Little Miracles” In Your Life

Posted on by Joanne Guidoccio

On Wednesdays, I share posts, fables, songs, poems, quotations, TEDx Talks, cartoons, and books that have inspired and motivated me on my writing journey. I hope these posts will give writers, artists, and other creatives a mid-week boost.

In the following segment from a Super Soul Sunday session with Oprah, Michael Beckworth explains how intention can help manifest the kind of life you want to live.


Spotlight on Halycon

Posted on by Joanne Guidoccio

I’m happy to welcome author C.L. Donley. Today, she shares her latest release, Halycon.

The Halcyon program has only grown in respect and mystique over their now fifteen years of matchmaking. When I went through it six years ago, they were still boasting 100% success of all the participants. Single, usually hopeless, candidates leave the program as part of a couple. The foolproof methods Halcyon uses to guarantee a soulmate comes from a blend of technology, biology, psychology, and, of course, sex. Naturally, with its high price tag, extensive, invasive testing, and painstaking process, only serious participants make it through, and everyone found success. Until us.

Goodreads * Amazon

What inspired you to write this book?

This book is about two characters that go to a program called Halcyon, which is this sort of intensive matchmaking service that’s 6-months long and is pretty expensive, so only well-to-do people can afford it, which both of these characters are. It really started out as a small kernel of an idea in my mind, and it’s the first book I’ve done that isn’t directly inspired by an existing trope. Which gave me a pretty big challenge because it’s much harder to get an audience to connect with a concept they haven’t seen before. Being original is not exactly a walk in the park! It’s much easier and simpler to write something already in line with people’s interests and expectations.

Which of your novels can you imagine made into a movie?

I’m very visual in my approach to writing, so I imagine all of my books as movies, down to the trailer and score, haha.

Where did you come up with the names in the story?

You know, I thought the names were really clunky at first, and I still do in some ways. The hero’s name is Cliff, and his best friend’s name is Felix. I have no idea where those names came from, but they started out as placeholders and never changed. I went through a few names for Bria, the heroine, before I settled on it. It was actually Nia for awhile. And her last name is Forrester. It took me a minute to Google that name because it was naggingly familiar. Turns out Nia Forrester is the name of another romance author. Who’s great, by the way. And then, while I was writing Bria’s mom’s dialogue, I just heard the nickname “Bri.” And I thought, “well Bria’s a pretty name.”

If your book was made into a film, who would you like to play the lead?

I used Adam Driver as the inspiration for the hero in Halcyon. For the heroine, I used a plus-size model by the name of Precious Lee. I spend a lot of time finding real-life inspirations for the physical descriptions of my characters, and sometimes to inspire their personalities. I use Pinterest to find visual inspiration for places and people. You can check some of them out at pinterest.com/cldonleyauthor/book-inspirations.

C.L. Donley is a future New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author of multicultural and interracial romance, who believes romance novels that are impossible to put down are the only kind that should exist! Armed with a B.A. in English and M.A. in Writing, she is new to the romance game, having written her first novel, Amara’s Calling, after discovering the romance genre in September 2017. Donley writes in a style she calls “romantic realism” that is sophisticated yet simple, grounded yet unaplogetically escapist, and character-driven rather than plot-driven. This style creates a unique, modern reading experience ideal for book club discussions, personal epiphanies, satisfying re-reads, and the occasional spiraling reviewer! Love it or hate it, fans and critics alike can’t deny her talent, and always find themselves coming back for more!

She loves hearing from readers and discussing her favorite parts of her own books, so feel free to indulge her.

Website * Facebook * Twitter * Bookbub * Amazon * Goodreads

Follow the tour HERE for special content and a giveaway!

It’s Never Too Late

Posted on by Joanne Guidoccio

Welcome to my Second Acts Series!

Today, we have award-winning author Barbara Bettis sharing her multi-act life.

Here’s Barbara!

Thanks for having me today on your wonderful blog, Joanne. I’m sharing a little about my several acts in life, and a bit about my book that’s about to celebrate its First Birthday—For This Knight Only.

Act One

As a recently single mother of two sons and having just graduated with my bachelor’s degree, I was lucky enough—quite serendipitously—to stumble on a job with a daily newspaper in a town near where I’d gone to high school. The lure of small town (less than 6,000) life for growing children sealed and the fact my parents owned a farm near there were enough to seal the deal, so to speak. Didn’t matter that I’d always envisioned writing fiction.

There followed 12 years as reporter/photographer/sometimes editor. Although the town was relatively small, the paper served a large rural area comprising several other communities and schools. I have to admit, I absolutely loved the job, which included ‘stringing’ for the Kansas City papers and the Associated Press.

As my sons approached high school graduation, the intensity of the daily job after a dozen years began to tell. Small town life was a microcosm of city life and the demands could be stressful. I felt a change might be due. But what to do?

The years of newspapering added to my love of reading and made the decision pretty easy. I wanted to teach. So when my second son graduated, I moved to the other end of the state to return to school.

Act Two

Returning to college was a challenge. I had to remember how to write differently. That meant in essay form, with proper introductions and conclusions, and proper paragraphing. None of those one sentence paragraphs! Learning to writing newspaper style had been difficult—I had to give up the academic form and learn a whole new style. Now I had to relearn the academic format—but remember the journalistic format for my journalism classes and for teaching. And no matter how much I lobbied my literature professors, they weren’t favorably disposed to Associated Press style. (That blasted Oxford Comma!)

Two years later, though, I claimed my master’s degree and promptly found a job substituting for an English professor on sabbatical from an area four-year college.

Act Three

Luckily, when that professor returned from sabbatical, I was hired full time for English and journalism. The next several years were wonderful. I loved teaching and I continued to write occasional feature and news stories for area newspapers and magazines. Never thinking I would remarry, I met a great guy with whom I had so much in common. He was a retired newspaper editor and taught journalism at a nearby school. He supported me in a way I’d never experienced before. (He even joined me in some of my classes as I studied for my doctorate.)

Act Four

Much too soon, my husband fell ill and later died. As soon as possible thereafter I took early retirement from teaching, thinking I’d love the ‘life of ease.’ Not!

It wasn’t long before a friend and former student persuaded me to join her critique group. “You need something to do,” she insisted. So in self-defense, I began writing fiction. I’d always loved history, myths, learning about people who’d lived in earlier times. And, yes, some of the earliest tales I can remember reading were children’s stories about King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. So crafting a medieval book came naturally.

In the past few years I’ve taught English part time at a different local college, and have begun some editing for others. But best of all, I’ve continued to write historical stories about adventure, love, and happily ever after. Best of all, not one of my heroes dies way too early in life.

Any Affirmations or Quotations You Wish to Share?

Three, I think.

The first has been attributed to several people so I’ll just say it: Writing is easy. You just sit down at a typewriter (computer now) and open a vein.

The second is a paraphrase: Trust in God’s timing.

Third, from me: It’s never too late.

Blurb

He’ll do anything for land, even marry her; she’ll do anything for her people, except marry him. If only either had a choice. It’s a marriage only love can save.

Sir Roark will do anything to gain land, even beguile an unwilling lady into marriage. He knows she’s much better off with a man to take control of her besieged castle, to say nothing of her desirable person. But it isn’t long before he discovers that, although her eyes sparkle like sunlight on sea waves, her stubbornness alone could have defeated Saladin.

Lady Alyss is determined to hold her family’s castle, protect her people, and preserve her freedom— until her brother’s dying wish binds her to a stranger. Still, she’ll allow no rugged, over-confident, appealing knight to usurp her authority, even if she must wed him. Especially since he thinks a lady’s duties begin and end with directing servants. Alyss has a few surprises for her new all-too-tempting lord.

But when a common enemy threatens everything, Roark and Alyss face a startling revelation. Without love, neither land nor freedom matters.

Buy Links

Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Barb’s Books to Date

Knights of Destiny Series:

Silverhawk | The Heart of the Phoenix | The Lady of the Forest | For This Knight Only | A Winter Knight

Where to find Barb

Bookbub | Facebook | Twitter | Blog/Website

How to Interact with People Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing

Posted on by Joanne Guidoccio

I’m happy to welcome ASL Interpreter and author Kelly Brakenhoff. Today, Kelly shares valuable tips and advice about interaction with people who are deaf or hard of hearing.

Here’s Kelly!

As an American Sign Language Interpreter with more than twenty years of experience, I’ve worked in college classrooms for fifteen different majors. I actually attend classes with the deaf students and overhear both the most inspiring and the most inane professors you could imagine. The academic world is the setting for my Cassandra Sato Mystery Series because it’s such a ripe environment for murder and mayhem. Today, I’d like to share tips and advice for anyone interacting with people who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing, and for writers who want to write about a character with a hearing difference.

1. USE the words “Deaf or Hard of Hearing” when referring to a person who was born deaf or hard of hearing or who lost their hearing later in life. Avoid using the words “Hearing Impaired” because calling someone impaired isn’t a positive description and can be offensive. My Deaf friends sometimes say, “I’m not hearing impaired. You are sign impaired.”

2. In your job, or when interacting on social media, consider whether your content is accessible to people with hearing differences. Caption your YouTube videos, please. Auto-captions are horribly inaccurate. Captions are very easy to add manually before you upload your videos and YouTube provides step by step directions on their help pages. An alternative is to provide a written transcript.

3. Not all deaf people can lipread. They do not have special visual superpowers because they can’t hear. Lipreading is hard and even the most skilled people catch an average of 30% of the conversation. Try turning off your TV volume and watching the news. How much do you understand what the announcer is saying without the volume?

4. People who are Deaf and Hard of Hearing are interested in more than just their ears. People who are born deaf don’t know anything different. They aren’t necessarily upset that they don’t hear music, birds, etc. They can drive. They have families. They can be doctors, lawyers, etc. Many of my friends say, “I can do anything except hear.”

5. Regarding technology: People who use hearing aids and cochlear implants are not cured. They use technology to maximize the benefit of what hearing they have left. Once the device’s batteries die or they remove the technology to go swimming, shower, or to sleep, they are still deaf or hard of hearing.

6. If you’ve met one deaf or hard of hearing person, you’ve met one deaf or hard of hearing person. Each person is an individual with different skills, needs, and communication styles. Most Deaf/Blind people can either see some or hear some. Helen Keller was very unique in that she didn’t see or hear at all. If you don’t know how they like to communicate, ask. Don’t be shy or afraid to approach them. Even fingerspelling your name and knowing how to sign “please” and “thank you” is appreciated.

7. Where can you learn American Sign Language and how hard is it to learn? Check out your local community college, or school continuing education program. Some churches with a large number of deaf members have classes or clubs and would welcome you. Learning ASL is just like learning any second or third language like Spanish or French. With practice you can learn everyday phrases for conversation, although it takes years of study to become fluent.

8. How can writers understand what it feels like to have a disability if they don’t personally experience that disability? For example, I’m short and left-handed. Neither of those are disabilities but thinking about it helps me write accurate characters. Could I imagine how it would feel to be turned down for a job because I’m short? Would I feel angry and frustrated because there’s nothing I can do about my height? As a left-handed person, do I understand what if feels like when the whole world is set up for other people and not for me? Yes, I do. Do people tease me or was I bullied as a child for being small? Yes. Use those feelings when you write characters who aren’t like you. Your feelings are real and universal, even if you experience them to a smaller degree. Amplify them for your story.

9. Should you use a sensitivity reader on your writing project? In my second book, I was worried that I’d gone too far by choosing controversial topics. I wrote strong dialogue for my Deaf characters, but I didn’t want them to come off like jerks. When I showed those sections to my Deaf friends, they overwhelmingly said, “Yes! This is exactly how we feel.” A friend gave me more stories to illustrate the point. One of those stories ended up in the book. I’m very grateful for their viewpoint and advice.

10. What’s the big thing I wish people understood about deafness? As a group, deaf and hard of hearing people are tired of always being the ones to bend to the majority of people who can hear. They feel like hearing people rarely bend to accommodate them. An example of how you can be more accommodating to people with differences is found in my children’s picture book, Never Mind. Duke the Deaf Dog doesn’t like it when people tell him “never mind” when he asks them to repeat something he missed. Maybe we could all be more patient instead of brushing aside people who have a hard time keeping up with the conversation.

Kelly’s Books

Buy Links

Death by Dissertation | Dead Week

Bio

KELLY BRAKENHOFF is an American Sign Language Interpreter whose motivation for learning ASL began in high school when she wanted to converse with her deaf friends. Her first novel, DEATH BY DISSERTATION, kicked off the Cassandra Sato Mystery Series, followed by DEAD WEEK. She also wrote NEVER MIND, first in a children’s picture book series featuring Duke the Deaf Dog. She serves on the Board of Editors for the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf publication, VIEWs. The mother of four young adults and two dogs, Kelly and her husband call Nebraska home.

Website | Facebook Page | Goodreads | BookBub

On Writing Romantic Suspense

Posted on by Joanne Guidoccio

Writing romantic suspense involves the skillful juggling of romantic elements and nail-biting suspense. A daunting task but so rewarding when all the essential ingredients come together in a well-crafted, character-driven novel.

Here are eight tips:

• Ask yourself: what is intriguing about the premise? What will attract readers to the book? In Sue Grafton’s Alphabet Series, protagonist Kinsey Millhone is a twice-divorced private investigator who is permanently stuck in the 1980s. In the Gilda Greco Mystery Series, the protagonist is a teacher turned lottery winner who moves back to her hometown and then finds herself embroiled in murder investigations.

Continue reading on the Sisterhood of Suspense blog.