My Journey Through Babies, Blackboards, and Books

Posted on June 25, 2014 by Joanne Guidoccio

Welcome to my Second Acts Series!

Today, we have Soul Mate author Monica Knightley sharing a three-act play, complete with prologue.

Here’s Monica!

Had you asked twelve-year-old Monica what she wanted to be when she grew up you would likely have heard, “a teacher, a writer, and a mom.” Depending on the day, you may have also heard, “an anthropologist, a paleontologist, and a person who teaches chimpanzees to speak with sign language.” Actually, I was pretty high on the chimpanzee sign language option. But even then, I knew in my heart of hearts, that what I wanted more than anything else was to be a mother, a teacher, and a writer.

While I know this is a SECOND act series, my story must be told in three acts. And a prologue.

The prologue is that twelve-year-old Monica. That was the year I spent hours writing long gothic romances on that cheap newsprint style paper the schools used in those days. I even would check out the Writer’s Market from the library and look up all the journals and magazines that published short stories. Some would pay as much as five cents a word! Of course, I never sent anything out. But a passion had been born.

Fast-forward seven years, and I was a young bride, beginning my first act. Married at nineteen, and the mother of two by twenty-four, I was blissfully happy as a stay-at-home mom who played with my sons, baked bread, taught my sons to read, and dreamt of the day I would return to school and finish my Elementary Education degree. Oh, and write the Great American Novel. When the youngest entered school, I did too, returning to college to earn that degree. While juggling the responsibilities of a mom, I managed to graduate at the top of my class—Maxima Cum Laude. I was now ready for my second act.

That second act lasted nearly two decades, as I taught kindergarten and second grade. Teaching is one of the most fulfilling professions, and also one of the most exhausting. But I loved it. When I started teaching my plan had been to write during the summers. Ha. Ha. First, a teacher’s summer isn’t three months long, it is actually about six weeks. Just enough time to rest up a little for the next year, and spend some time with family. I never seemed to find the time for that writing—until about two years before I ended my second act.

One morning, three years ago, I woke up and realized I wasn’t getting any younger, and yet there was one lifelong goal I had not attained. For years an idea for a novel had been percolating in my mind, but I’d done nothing to make it a reality. With the dawning realization that publication is a slow road, (and, I really wasn’t getting any younger!) I decided it was time to get moving, despite the long hours I was still spending as a teacher. However, this novel required a lot of research, as it was to be set during the American Civil War. But I wanted to practice the craft of writing! So while doing research, I started working on a fun practice novel, one about a vampire with a Jane Austen twist, set in England. All of my favorite things! That practice novel, The Vampire’s Passion, was published by Soul Mate Publishing on April 9th of this year.

I am now fully in my third act, and enjoying every minute of it. A year ago this month, I ended my full time teaching career—I occasionally substitute teach. I just became a grandmother, and I have too many Works In Progress in my writing folder. Among them, a prequel to The Vampire’s Passion is being polished, and a Young Adult novel is almost ready for submission.

As we go through the various acts of our lives, I firmly believe we can never give into fear. Fear of the unknown. Fear of failure. We must simply go out there and give it our best try. These words from J. K. Rowling to the 2008 Harvard graduating class always inspire me: “It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default.”

I’m living the life I dreamed of. Today, I can look into twelve-year-old Monica’s eyes, and tell her, “Yes, you will be a mom, a teacher, and a writer.”

Blurb

The enigmatic, ethereally handsome, aristocratic Gabriel Augustine, professor of Nineteenth Century English Literature at St. Giles College in Oxford, England, is a man with many secrets. And it is not his vampiric nature that is his most deeply held secret. Though few know he is vampire, not human, none know the horror that has haunted him throughout his long existence. He has spent centuries attempting to atone for his greatest sin.

Claire Seymour needs to forget her past. She is ready to embark on any journey that will move her away from the pain that has been her constant companion since discovering her fiancé with her best friend. Four weeks at the University of Oxford in a class on her favorite author, Jane Austen, seems like a good place to start.

Neither is prepared for the other.

Where to find Monica

Website | Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Amazon

Joanne here!

Thank you for sharing your inspiring journey. I’m certain many readers will be uplifted by this post and consider moving their “someday” dreams to the front burner. BTW…The Vampire’s Passion sounds delicious!

Keep Stumbling On

Posted on June 23, 2014 by Joanne Guidoccio

“If you stumble, make it part of the dance.”(Author Unknown)

When I came across this quotation on my Pinterest travels, I immediately pinned it and within minutes, others were repining and liking it. I also shared this message with my friends, many of whom tend to fixate on each snafu in their lives, often ignoring the bigger picture.

I recall one friend who spent almost an hour listing everything that had gone wrong at a recent event she had chaired. When I read the glowing write-up in the paper, I couldn’t believe it was the same event. No mention was made of the last-minute menu changes or frantic scramble to replace the emcee who had come down with the flu. Without realizing it, my friend just kept stumbling on and everything turned out for the best. Much like what happened with many well-known inventions that were accidents stumbled upon by sloppy, distracted, and temperamental professionals.

Fried to a Crisp

As head chef at Carey Moon Lake House in Saratoga Springs (1853), George Crum catered to a wealthy clientele. One day, a customer complained about his potatoes and sent them back to the kitchen several times, suggesting they be cut thinner and fried longer. Crum lost his temper and decided to get back at the customer. He cut the potatoes extra thin, fried them until they were crisps, and salted them. To everyone’s surprise, the customer asked for a second helping. The news spread quickly about these Saratoga chips which later become known as potato chips.

All Covered in Goo

In 1879, chemist Constantin Fahlberg was experimenting with new uses for coal tar. He became so engrossed in his research that he forgot about his supper. Hungry and tired, he rushed out of the lab, forgetting to wash his hands. While eating, he noticed that his bread tasted unusually sweet. When he wiped his mustache with a napkin, he found the napkin tasted sweet as well. Curious, he stuck his thumb in his mouth and tasted more of the sweetness. He returned to the laboratory where he tasted every beaker and dish until he found the one that contained saccharin.

Unwashed Dishes

In his haste to leave for a long overdue vacation, Alexander Fleming did not bother washing any of the dirty petri dishes stacked up at his workstation. When he returned from his holiday, he discovered that most had been contaminated. While dumping the dishes in a large vat of Lysol, one dish caught his eye. The dish was practically all covered in colonies of bacteria, except for one area where a blob of mold was growing. After close examination, he saw that the mold had blocked the bacteria from growing. He concluded that this mold—later called penicillin—could be used to kill a wide range of bacteria.

Giving Up Vaudeville

Posted on June 20, 2014 by Joanne Guidoccio

Welcome to my Second Acts Series!

Today, we have author Mahrie Reid sharing the multiple acts of her extraordinary life.

Here’s Mahrie!

Thank you, Joanne, for giving me this opportunity to share my journey. The evolution others have shared, inspire me.

My books deal with the question: Who am I? It might be finding the external truth of who the character is legally or having the character find inner truth and sense of identity. Not surprising given my life history.

That’s nice dear, but…

The first part of my life was a vaudeville act. As a child, books sustained me, entertained me and taught me. I wanted to write books for others. At age eight I wrote my first ‘novel.’ But, as a minister’s daughter in the fifties, I was expected to be a nurse, teacher or office worker so I’d have something to ‘fall back on’ if anything happened to my [expected to have] husband. Writing was not a career choice for practical people.

I tried, oh how I tried, to meet those expectations. I worked my way through all three professions starting with nursing. My longest running full time career was as a Real Estate Appraiser. (It spanned ten years). Teaching, first in elementary schools and later in adult night classes, was the second most constant occupation in my rapidly changing life. Concurrent with or subsequent to my real estate career, I worked as a newsletter editor, an adult educator, an office organizational consultant, a library manager and a marriage commissioner and more.

Additionally I married twice and raised three children and two step-children. I lived in ten places, attended four universities and racked up twenty-eight full or part-time jobs in eighteen areas of work. Looking back, I decided that my constant change was a passive-aggressive response to the expectations of my generation and my family.

Was I searching? You bet. But nothing replaced the desire to write. I found ways to write. I wrote for the job. I wrote to make sense of my life. I wrote for entertainment. I wrote about writing. But under it all, what I really wanted to write was novels.

When I retire, I am writing books.

The phrase sustained me until, in my fifties, I suffered a long depression. The time had come for me to own my talents and my purpose and to let go of the expectations of others. It helped that I was financially able to leave full time employment. The practicality in my history persists.

As a writer, my act is focused. I write novels, short stories and blogs. I associate with writers and I teach writers. I work with words. I am doing what I love. Accepting and following my passion freed me to give more to others. My life, and the lives of those around me, is richer because I’ve finally embraced my passion. Finally, I am content where I am.

What is your passion? Are you giving it the respect and time it deserves?

Mahrie’s books

What do you do if you find out your life is a lie?

Kelsey Maxwell searches for the truth and walks into the middle of a heap of trouble. Running from killers wasn’t what she had in mind when she set out on her quest. Dead bodies, a knife held to her middle and chases through the dock area add spark her previously dull life. A sexy ex-cop provides protection but in the end, Kelsey may have to shoot to kill in order to save her birth father. No matter what happens, her life is changed forever. Will she even survive to reunite with her father and connect with the sexy Sam Logan?

Be careful what you do, for your past may come back to haunt you.

Devon Ritcey’s past threatens her future. Her attempts at damage control escalate into a murder investigation. A hurricane isolates her on the island with a both cynical ex-cop and a killer. Propelled deeper into danger by the unfolding investigation, she races against time. Her survival depends on finding and stopping the killer before he strikes again.

Where to find Mahrie…

Website | Facebook

Joanne here!

So many elements of your story resonated with me. I also gravitated toward one of the “safe” career choices, all the while thinking…Someday, I will write! Mahrie, thank you for inspiring us and best of luck with all your literary endeavors.

Spotlight on Peter Darley

Posted on June 19, 2014 by Joanne Guidoccio

Whenever I attend readings, I enjoy listening to the author’s journey, the many twists and turns encountered on the winding road to publication. Sometimes, I find the journey even more fascinating than the actual reading. But in Soul Mate author Peter Darley’s case, the storyline and the journey are equally compelling.

Here’s Peter!

Hold On! has a history steeped in as many cliffhangers as there are in the story. It first attracted the interest of a literary agent in Florida, who told me that it would take her five months to get to it, and that if I found a publisher in the meantime, just to let her know.

A few weeks later, a publisher in Michigan literally pleaded with me for it (I still have the email.) Having a ‘bird in the hand’, I let them have it.

Almost a year later, the publisher folded – a week before Hold On! was due to go to press. I immediately contacted the literary agent in Florida again, only to discover that she had now retired.

A week later it was tentatively picked up by Writer’s Coffee Shop in Australia (the publishers who first published Fifty Shades of Grey.) We worked together on the project for four months, and then suddenly – silence. There had been no contention. No disagreements. No arguments. Nothing! They simply ignored all of my emails, and with no explanation.

Last October, it was snapped up by Soul Mate Publishing. Hold On! had finally ended its two year journey from Central England, to Florida, to Michigan, to Australia, to ultimately land in New York.

As to the novel, it is primarily a love story about two people who are on a quest to live their lives free, away from the trappings of convention and the oppression of authority figures. The police, a corrupt faction of the CIA, and the fact that our heroine, Belinda, was sexually abused as a child by a priest, combine to ask the questions: Is authority valid? And if so – who can possibly impose it?

It’s food for thought only, and the ‘threat’ premise is loosely based on the conspiracy theory – Was the US Government responsible for 9/11?

My own view is that such theories are utterly baseless, and have been refuted countless times. I am, emphatically, NOT a conspiracy theorist. This is why I feel that fiction is the most appropriate media for such ideas. However, they do provide opportunities for some terrific cliffhangers.

Bio

Peter Darley (P.D. to his friends) is a British novelist, whose professional history is in show business.

He is a graduate of the Birmingham School of Speech and Dramatic Art, and he studied television drama at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA.) His television credits include guest-starring roles is UK productions such as BBC’s Crime Ltd, Stanley’s Dragon for ITV, The Bill, and Sky One’s Dream Team, and numerous TV commercials. He has also worked as a model, presenter, and voice-over artiste for ten years, and has acted as an agent for several variety acts.

His lifelong admiration of heroes and love of roller-coaster-style thrills have been a huge influence on his writings.

He is a keen athlete and body builder, and lives with his partner in rural England.

Where to find Peter…

Facebook | YouTube

RELEASE DATE: July 9, 2014

New Release–Cold Ambition

Posted on June 18, 2014 by Joanne Guidoccio

I’m happy to present Rachel Sharpe’s debut novel…

Blurb

“It was my life-long dream to become a private eye. Little did I know that with my very first case, that dream would become a life-threatening nightmare…”

When Jordan James decided to embark on a career as a private investigator, she never could have imagined that a chance encounter would lead to her staring down the barrel of a gun on the roof’s edge of a high-rise building. As she begins to investigate her first case, the puzzling murder of a prominent businessman that has left Boston’s finest mystified for more than two decades, she finds herself suddenly immersed in a treacherous underworld brimming with betrayal, raw greed, and political subterfuge of international proportions. In the midst of this, she discovers she is falling for her mysterious client despite the hints of his dark past. Can this feisty Southern girl with a penchant for trouble solve this baffling case or is she doomed to become another tragic chapter in an international conspiracy?

Bio

Rachel Sharpe is the author of Cold Ambition, the first novel in the Jordan James, PI series. Although born and raised in the South, “Yankee” relatives first led Rachel to historic New England, which she has come to consider her second home and is the setting for the series.

After obtaining a Bachelor of Arts in English, Rachel began dedicating her free time to her childhood passion, writing, and in the fall of 2013, she signed her first book deal with Soul Mate Publishing. An active member of Sisters in Crime, Rachel currently resides with her husband in the Greater New Orleans area.

Links

Website: http://www.rachelsharpe.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/authorrachelsharpe

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/RachelCSharpe

Amazon: http://is.gd/fg1ksg

Oprah and Russell Simmons

Posted on June 16, 2014 by Joanne Guidoccio

Yesterday, Oprah sat under the oaks with best-selling author and philanthropist Russell Simmons. Throughout the telecast, Oprah referred to the many other hats this Renaissance Man wears–spiritual teacher, business yogi, hip-hop pioneer, and enlightenment peddler. She also quoted from his recent book, Success Through Stillness.

I was impressed by Russell’s clear and simple approach to meditation: Give yourself 20 minutes and sit there, no matter what. Acknowledge all the thoughts and accept that your mind may behave like a crazy monkey in a cage. Eventually, the mind will settle and transcend these pesky thoughts.

A gentle reminder from Russell–You don’t get muscles with one push-up, so be patient and let your meditation practice evolve.

Quotable quotes…

Reboot the mind and see what God has given us.

Meditation can reintroduce you to that part of yourself that has been “missing” for so long.

God’s miracles are floating in front of us.

Neediness is the cause of suffering. i.e. Needing things to be different.

Needing nothing attracts everything.

We have to define success; we can’t let the world define it for us.

You should need for nothing, but if you do need something, let it be enlightenment.

A Spectacular Salsa at Age 79

Posted on June 13, 2014 by Joanne Guidoccio

Born July 1, 1934, Sarah Patricia “Paddy” Jones started classical dance when she was 2½ years old. While dance was definitely her passion, Paddy put aside her dancing shoes when she married at age twenty-two. After her husband retired, they moved to Gandia, Spain. Two years later, he died of leukemia.

At age 69, Paddy resurrected her dancing dream and signed up for flamenco classes at Nico Espinosa’s Academy of Dance. Soon afterward, Paddy and Nico formed the salsa dancing duo “Son del Timbal” and achieved international success, winning several talent shows.

In April 2014, Paddy and Nico auditioned for the eighth series of Britain’s Got Talent.

Enjoy!

The Second Act of the Second Act

Posted on June 11, 2014 by Joanne Guidoccio

Welcome to my Second Acts Series!

Today, we have Soul Mate author Eris Field sharing the challenges and triumphs of her first and second acts.

Here’s Eris!

Act 1 of the First Act. At nineteen, a registered nurse and married to a Turkish doctor, I saw myself, not as an individual, but as part of a team. A team that worked together to build careers and to create a home and family that included five fantastic children. That stage of life is reflected in a biographical novel that I co-authored with my husband: Legacy of Change: The Saga of a Turkish Family from Empire to Republic.

Act 2 of the First Act. Taking care of the family, working, and teaching psychiatric nursing filled the next period of life in which I was both an individual and a part of a team. That stage is represented by the textbook that I wrote for psychiatric nurse practitioners: Psychiatric Advanced Practice Nursing: a Biopsychosocial Foundation for Practice.

Act 1 of the Second Act. As a widow, I struggled to find the me that was left over when I was no longer a part of a team. I went back to a very early love–romance novels. My first publication in that field was The Gift of Love and reveals, to some extent, my sense of being stripped of part of my identity.

Act 2 of the Second Act. Although we may start out as one individual, life adds layers of knowledge, exposes us to experiences, and teaches us values, molding the individual that we were into a new, burnished individual. Now, my writing centers on contemporary multi-cultural novels. The first one, Lattices of Love, is about a Turkish-American woman who wants a marriage based on love, not an arranged marriage. It is scheduled to be released by Soul Mate Publishing on June 11, 2014. The second, For Love of the Circassian, is about a beautiful refugee and the three men in her life: one who has her, one who wants her, and one who loves her. It is in review, and a third is in process.

The poet, Robert Browning said it well: “The best is yet to be, the last of life, for which the first was made.

Blurb

Emine Wheeler, a 26 year old Turkish-American professor of psychiatric nursing, wants to be free. She does not want to live any longer behind the lattices of old harem rules. Despite pressure from the Turkish grandmother she adores and her brother to accept marriage to a Turkish man they have approved, Emine is determined to marry for love, like her American father. She vows there will be love in her marriage.

At a psychiatric conference in Amsterdam, she meets Marc, a reticent Dutch psychiatrist who, believing that his colleagues blame him for his wife’s suicide, restricts his life to the safety of work and family that includes a troubled four-year-old he calls his daughter. However, when Emine encounters a problem with registration, he finds himself offering to help her.

Recognizing that Marc is the man of her dreams, Emine turns her back on the harem rule to avoid contact with men outside the family and accepts his help. Later, when Emine is faced with the choice of marrying a man she does not love or damaging her family’s honor, Marc offers a solution, a marriage of convenience. She will have the protection of marriage and he will have a mother for his daughter. Believing that her fierce love for Marc will be enough, Emine accepts only to discover that it is not, and when Marc falsely accuses her of betrayal, she flees. Marc realizes belatedly that he loves Emine beyond everything in his life but will his love be enough to entice her back?

Target line: To seek love requires courage but to let love own you requires risking everything.

Bio

Born in her grandfather’s home on Field’s Road, Eris spent her early childhood in Jericho, Vermont. At 17, she left Vermont to attend Union University School of Nursing in Albany, New York where she met her future husband, a surgical intern from Istanbul, Turkey. After they married and moved to Buffalo, New York, Eris worked as a nurse at Roswell Park Cancer Institute. When their five children finished high school, Eris completed her Master’s in Psychiatric Nursing and taught psychiatric nursing at the University at Buffalo.

Eris’ first publications were a biographical novel, Legacy of Change: The Saga of a Turkish Family from Empire to Republic, that she co-authored with her late husband and a textbook, Psychiatric Advanced Practice Nursing. Now, she lives in a ‘snow-belt’ town in Western New York and writes what she loves to read–contemporary, cross cultural romances.

She is a member of the Romance Writers of American and the Western New York Romance Writers group. Her interests include supporting the Crossroads Springs Institute in Kenya for children orphaned by AIDS and visiting as many fascinating places as she can.

Where to find Eris…

Website | Soul Mate Publishing | Amazon

Joanne here!

What a beautifully layered life! Thank you for sharing your journey, Eris, and congratulations on the release of Lattices of Love.

Spotlight on Taming Miss Tisdale

Posted on June 4, 2014 by Joanne Guidoccio

Fall in love with romance again…

Blurb

Miss Tamsin Tisdale believes herself to be completely unsuitable for London life. After a myriad of social mishaps, and the potential ruination of her family name, she’s shipped away to her cousin’s northern estate. Only after she accepts the type of existence Society dictates she must follow will she be welcomed home.

Marcus Winston, the Duke of Grayson, has a lackluster reputation. The last in a dying line, he’s endured a protected life—rank with privilege, but encumbered by isolation. After a brief encounter with rebellion, he learns the devastating consequences of his carelessness and willingly accepts living life from inside his gilded cage.

However, a chance meeting with the brazen Miss Tisdale gives Marc the opportunity to reinvent himself into the man he’s always dreamed of being. But when his deception comes to light, and ghosts from both their pasts threaten to unravel the intimacy they’ve come to cherish, will either of them set their fears aside long enough to embrace love? Or will Miss Tisdale’s stubbornness divide them?

Excerpt

Marc watched the faint outline come across the dense morning fog, becoming more discernible as it approached. The tall, thin figure was riding along at a perilous speed, given the morning’s lack of visibility. He thought perhaps it was some gangly young man misguided in the fog. It wouldn’t be the first time someone accidentally stumbled upon the vast property that made up his family’s immodest estate.

Then the fog parted in an almost biblical manner, revealing his gross inaccuracy.

Were those . . . breasts?

Marc closed his eyes and thought for a moment. Typically, women didn’t ride alone at such an hour and they certainly didn’t wander unexpectedly across his property. It’d been quite a while, his last birthday to be exact, since his last intimate encounter with a woman—a gift, compliments of St. Regis—so there was always the possibility that perhaps his half-drunk, sex-starved mind had conjured up the sensual image.

He shook his head, opened his eyes, and looked back again toward the horizon.

Yes, those were most certainly breasts.

And she was most definitely not a young man. The woman’s riding habit pulled taut against her body as she raced toward him. Her hair was blowing behind her—various hues of auburn and gold, like wild flames curling about in the wind. Then a decidedly feminine voice burst through the morning’s silence, interrupting his self-doubt.

“Oh, thank goodness I found you!”

This was no mirage. She was indeed very real.

And loud.

Marc watched, dumbfounded, as the girl—no, woman—slowed her approach. “Pardon?” he called back, certain he couldn’t possibly have heard her correctly.

“I’m so happy I’ve found you,” she repeated, nearly breathless. “Well, not you specifically, anyone really. I’ve been riding in circles for close to an hour now, and I’d just about given up all hope of finding someone when I spotted you. My cousin warned me about the altitude of these hills and how I mustn’t underestimate the density of this blasted fog. Of course, I didn’t listen and got myself thoroughly turned about. You see, I’m forever regretting not listening.”

She rode closer still and he could see her quite plainly now. She was tall and lanky, her riding habit revealing a rather trim frame. His focus quickly shifted from her slender build to her smile. It resembled nothing of the demure, timid smiles he’d become accustomed to seeing within his social circles. This smile was wide, revealing a number of straight ivory teeth, and seemed to extend to every facet of her face. Even her eyes, large and dark, appeared to be smiling.

Were they brown?

No, blue.

They were an impossibly dark shade of blue.

Then she gave her head a little shake, throwing a mass of unruly ginger curls over her shoulders, captivating him entirely.

Bio

Jessica Jefferson makes her home in northern Indiana, or as she likes to think of it—almost Chicago. She is heavily inspired by classic sweeping, historical romance novels, but aims to take those key emotional elements and inject a fresh blend of quick dialogue and comedy.