Focus on Distance Traveled
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 his recent release, Hidden Potential, organizational psychologist and best-selling author Adam Grant shares the character skills and motivational structures that can help people realize their potential. Here’s a thought-provoking excerpt:
You can’t tell where people will land from where they begin. With the right opportunity and motivation to learn, anyone can build the skills to achieve greater things. Potential is not a matter of where you start, but of how far you travel. We need to focus less on starting points and more on distance traveled.
For every Mozart who makes a big splash early, there are multiple Bachs who ascend slowly and bloom late. They’re not born with invisible superpowers; most of their gifts are homegrown or homemade. People who make major strides are rarely freaks of nature. They’re usually freaks of nurture.
Neglecting the impact of nurture has dire consequences. It leads us to underestimate the amount of ground that can be gained and the range of talents that can be learned. As a result, we limit ourselves and the people around us. We cling to our narrow comfort zones and miss out on broader possibilities. We fail to see the promise in others and close the door to opportunities. We deprive the world of greater things.
Book Blast: Poetry from My Heart
I’m happy to welcome poet Paul Guerin. Today, Paul shares his new release, Poetry from My Heart.
Blurb
“Poetry: writing that formulates a concentrated imaginative awareness of experience in language chosen and arranged to create a specific emotional response through meaning, sound, and rhythm.”
“Poetry: a literary work in which special intensity is given to the expression of feelings and ideas by the use of distinctive style and rhythm.”
Poetry means different things to different people. For me, it is all about feelings. If it captures the emotions of the reader, a poem will resonate and fill the soul. It can mean everything to one person and not much at all to another. The mood of the reader, and no one else, determines the outcome.
For example, love poems are wonderful when you are in love, and their passion is amazing. If you are facing adversity, however, love poems likely will just annoy you.
In this second book, Poetry from my Heart: The Journey Continues, I have again divided the poems into categories which will fit your mood no matter what you are experiencing at the time you choose to explore them. There should be something for everyone, whether you are in love, out of love, hurt, lonely, angry, abandoned, or facing other challenges in your life.
Poetry has a healing power that nurtures the soul and quietens the mind and so I hope that whatever your situation is in life, you have found something here that helped you safely on your own journey.
Excerpt
Silent sentinels
We’re rocky Sentinels in the trees
With mossy heads and jagged knees
We’ve stood here silently for years
We feel no stress we have no fears
A thousand years or more we’ve stood
Deep within our woodland world
Our greenly forest neighbourhood
With silent meaning still unfurled
With heads of moss and cobweb beards
We look so strong and brave
We have no needs, we know no fears
This forest home is all we crave
We proudly lay beneath the trees
Our walls are hard we feel no pain
We’re Stoney Sentinels on our knees
We guard our world of wind and rain
We have no roots we have no heart
We’re solid in the ground
We’re stony stoic works of art
We’re lurking here without a sound
When next you walk our forest floor
Remember not to make a sound
We’ll stare at you but won’t say more
Just Silent Sentinels in the ground
Author Bio and Links
Paul Guerin is an Irishman. He was born in September 1946 in Castletownroche, a small townland village in County Cork, Eire.
It was there in Castletownroche that his romantic imagination was sparked as he came to love and appreciate the magic of his surroundings. Those early experiences were the genesis of his poetry that emerged in later life.
As a young adult, Paul lived in London, England, where he became a chartered accountant.
At age 25, restless for adventure, Paul moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, where he still resides today.
Paul is happily married and is a proud father and grandfather.
Paul writes poetry as the inspiration comes to him. As long as his mind, body and soul are willing companions and his spark of inspiration remains alive, he will continue to write.
This book is Paul’s second publication in his Willing Heart series. His first book was published in the Spring of 2022 and is called Poetry from My Heart: A Journey through Feelings. The book reached #1 on Amazon’s Kindle chart in British Poetry and #2 in Poetry Anthologies November 2023.
Website | Goodreads | Facebook | Amazon Buy Link
Giveaway
Paul Guerin will be awarding a $10 Amazon or Barnes & Noble gift card to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during the tour. Find out more here.
Follow Paul on the rest of his Goddess Fish tour here.
Spotlight on Return to Lerici
I’m happy to welcome multi-published author and poet Rachel Dacus. Today, Rachel shares her new release, Return to Lerici.
Blurb
A suspenseful, uplifting story of second chances, family bonds, and redemption.
Sisters Elinor and Saffron rarely see eye-to-eye, but they agree that an unknown half-brother appearing in their lives can only spell trouble. The Greene sisters want to support their ailing mother, Betsy, as they gather in their cottage in Lerici, Italy. But they don’t want Betsy to keep searching for Baby Boy, the only name they have on faded adoption papers.
While the Greenes debate, Baby Boy finds them. A rough childhood has led Daniel to a life as a thief. When he learns of his connection to the wealthy Greenes, he decides to scam them. He goes to Italy and using a fake identity observes them at close range. Watching these people makes him ache for what he never had—a loving family.
Betsy is touched by the young man’s story and guesses their hidden connection. Discovering his true identity, she asks the family to help him. But Daniel’s shady past is catching up and putting the Greenes at risk. Should they bring their lost lamb into the fold—and can he claim his heritage if it endangers his family?
Excerpt
Robert sang a few words. “How about this?”
“I don’t know it, but it sounds good.”
“It’s my own. I wrote it.”
He began to strum, accompanying his soft voice, and Betsy had another jolt of recognition. It was the voice. There was so much of a similarity in the timbre that it made her ache. She wondered what Elinor would think if she came in while he was singing and heard Nathan’s singing voice coming out of this young man.
The song soothed her every aching muscle and bone. It did her body good and her nerves too. Like a fond memory, it wrapped her in the sensation that life was good and harmonious, that there was honey in every breeze and heaven just around the corner. He had a gift, this fellow. He definitely had talent. So how had he wound up tinkering with plumbing in Lerici? Maybe her intuition was true, and he had come for them.
Betsy lay back as he sang, her arm across her eyes, and thought of days past when musicians sang just for her, and she went home with one of them. Days long before Nathan and his stuffy circle of academics. The music was pulling her back to a time when she could relax and be herself, and her stuffy daughter didn’t criticize her every impulse and comment. She understood that Elinor felt criticized by her; what Elinor didn’t realize is that she’d adopted Betsy’s habit of sharp comments. And somewhere—God knew where—she’d picked up that skepticism that was going to burn her sweetheart down, if she didn’t marry the wonderful Tonio soon.
Robert strummed a last chord, his voice fading into the silence.
She sat up and looked at him. They stared at each other for a moment.
“You remind me of someone,” she murmured. “My ex-husband, Nathan.”
Why didn’t Robert look surprised?
Author Bio and Links
Rachel Dacus is the author of six novels, four time travel books in the Timegathering Series and two books of women’s fiction. She has also published four poetry collections. Rachel’s work has appeared widely in print and online, in journal that include Boulevard, Gargoyle, and Prairie Schooner. Her poetry is in the anthologies Fire and Rain: Ecopoetry of California and Radiant DisUnities: Real Ghazals in English. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Website | Facebook | Instagram | Amazon Author Page
Giveaway
Rachel Dacus will be awarding a $15 Amazon/Barnes & Noble gift card to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during the tour. Find out more here.
Follow Rachel on the rest of her Goddess Fish tour here.
Riveted from the start, I struggled to put down this well-plotted, character-driven novel. Set in a picturesque town on the Ligurian coast, the storyline alternates between the members of the Greene family: half-sisters Elinor and Saffron, their mother Betsy, and Daniel, aka Baby Boy. I immediately connected with all the characters. I could empathize with Elinor’s wish to live a calm, predictable life while also appreciating Betsy’s more dramatic antics. I enjoyed reading about Saffron’s relationship with the spirit of nineteenth-century poet Shelley and learning more about his connection to the Greene family. And I found myself rooting for Daniel, the underdog who struggled with a rough childhood and brief foray into a life of petty crime.
Written as a sequel to The Invisibles, Return to Lerici can be easily read as a stand-alone novel.
Start with a Gateway Habit
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 his best-selling book Atomic Habits, James Clear shares practical strategies for habit formation. Here’s an excerpt from the “Make It Easy” section of the book:
Even when you know you should start small, it’s easy to start too big. When you dream about making a change, excitement inevitably takes over and you end up trying to do too much too soon. The most effective way I know to counteract this tendency is to use the Two-Minute Rule, which states, “When you start a new habit, it should take less than two minutes to do.”
You’ll find that nearly any habit can be scaled down into a two-minute version:
“Read before bed each night” becomes “Read one page.”
“Do thirty minutes of yoga” becomes “Take out my yoga mat.”
“Study for class” becomes “Open my notes.”
“Run three miles” becomes “Tie my running shoes.”
The idea is to make your habits as easy as possible to start. Anyone can meditate for one minute, read one page, or put one item of clothing away. This is a powerful strategy because once you’ve started doing the right thing, it is much easier to continue doing it. A new habit should not feel like a challenge. The actions that follow can be challenging, but the first two minutes should be easy. What you want is a “gateway habit” that naturally leads you down a more productive path.
You can usually figure out the gateway habits that will lead to your desired outcome by mapping out your goals on a scale from “very easy” to “very hard.” For instance, running a marathon is very hard. Running 5K is hard. Walking ten thousand steps is moderately difficult. Walking ten minutes is easy. And putting on your running shoes is very easy. Your goal might be to run a marathon, but your gateway habit is to put on your running shoes. That’s how you follow the Two-Minute Rule.
People often think it’s weird to get hyped about reading one page or meditating for one minute or making one sales call. But the point is not to do one thing. The point is to master the habit of showing up. The truth is, a habit must be established before it can be improved. If you can’t learn the basic skill of showing up, then you have little hope of mastering the finer details. Instead of trying to engineer a perfect habit from the start, do the easy thing on a more consistent basis. You have to standardize before you can optimize.
Happy New Year!
The Sum of This Year
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 A Year of Writing Dangerously, author and teacher Barbara Abercrombie shares anecdotes, insights, and solutions. She ends the book with the following advice:
You have some stories or essays now, or your first draft in some stage of completion. Or maybe you have a pile of scribbled pages or notebooks, or a computer full of notes.
Give yourself credit for anything you’ve written this year. Turn on your sweetheart voice, and let it tell you how brave you’ve been to write anything at all.
And then figure out what you’re going to do with your manuscript or notes.
Don’t give yourself the excuse of feeling overwhelmed. You’ve come this far; now get on with it.
Source: A Year of Writing Dangerously
Merry Christmas!
Book Blast: A Curse of Magick
I’m happy to welcome novelist Diane Gallagher. Today, Diane shares her new release, A Curse of Magick.
Blurb
“A desperate princess, a handsome warrior, and an ancient magick to determine their fate.”
As daughter to the High King, love doesn’t come easily to Gráinne. Having turned down hundreds of suitors, she is being forced to marry Finn, an old, ugly yet powerful general. While outside the marriage hall, Gráinne bumps into Diarmuid, Finn’s handsome foster son. From that moment, Gráinne knows if she is to have any chance at love, he is the one she must marry. She begs him to take her away from this unwanted wedding. When Diarmuid refuses, Gráinne, desperate, places a curse on him; help her or die.
Diarmuid is a warrior who only wants to serve loyally, but when the princess sets her sights on him and casts her curse, he must make the most difficult choice of his life. Does he help her, taking their chances with a vengeful Finn, or does her refuse her, leaving her to her fate, and risking his own death?
With both their lives on the line, Gráinne and Diarmuid must fight to use Ireland’s ancient magick to escape from Finn, either bringing them together in passion or in death.
A Curse of Magick is a passionate tale of love, betrayal, revenge, and redemption. A retelling of an ancient Irish myth, A Curse of Magick takes the love and romance of Romeo and Juliet, and the exhilaration of King Arthur, and mixes it together for a satisfying adventure all will love.
Excerpt
Once the cave opened, Diarmuid grinned at Gráinne in the dim light. The walls of the caves were lined with crystals. Even in the darkening light of the sunset they twinkled and reflected the deep orange glow. Gráinne gasped.
“Wait until you see it with a fire,” Diarmuid said. “I’m going to go and gather as much dried wood as I can find. Wait here.”
As he left the cave, Diarmuid listened carefully. There was no sound of Finn’s men. He didn’t expect another message from Oisin saying they were on the move. He knew they were on their own now. He gathered up a tangle of branches he found at the foot of a tree. He hauled them back into the cave and dropped them in a heap on the cavern floor.
“Hand me that bag, will you?” Diarmuid pointed to a small bag he’d left near Bran. “That’s the flint bag. We can never lose that, or we will be in trouble.”
“I know that,” Gráinne bit back. “I have my own. Look.” From just under the collar of her dress she pulled out her own leather bag.
Diarmuid grunted and turned his attention to the fire.
He piled the branches carefully so that air would draw from below and used his flint to light the fire. As the fire sparked and took, the light reflected against the crystals that covered the ceiling of the cavern, making it look like a thousand tiny stars twinkled above them.
“Oh, how beautiful!” Gráinne cried, pressing her hands together beneath her chin.
“Yes, it was Angus that showed this to me. It is like magick, isn’t it?”
Gráinne nodded and smiled at Diarmuid, looking up at him from beneath her lashes, her momentary ire forgotten.
Author and Bio Links
Diane Gallagher is a novelist and Druid priest. She is the author of three novels: A Curse of Magick, Greenwich List, and the Bastard of Saint Genevra. She has long roots stretching into her Celtic past, although she splits her life between two islands—Vancouver Island on the west coast of Canada, and Sicily off the toe of Italy’s boot. She writes young adult romance based on ancient Celtic myths of the powerful women of Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. She currently teaches creative writing at Cherry Hill Seminary.
Website | Facebook | YouTube | Instagram | Twitter | Amazon Buy Link
Giveaway
Diane Gallagher will be awarding a $15 Amazon or Barnes & Noble gift card to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during the tour. Find out more here.
Follow Diane on the rest of her Goddess Fish tour here.
Keep Gliding Steadily Forward
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.
A long-time fan of bestselling authors and coaches Marc and Angel Chernoff, I look forward to reading their emails and blog posts. Here’s an excerpt from a recent blog post:
Accept the feeling of not knowing exactly where you are going, and train yourself to love and appreciate this sensation of freedom. Because it is only when you are suspended in the air, with no destination in sight, that you force your wings to open fully so you can fly. And as you soar around you still may not know where you’re traveling to. But that’s not what’s important. What’s important is the opening of your wings. You may not know where you’re going, but you know that so long as your wings are spread, the winds will carry you forward.
Truth be told, some of the greatest outcomes that transpire in your life will be the ones you never even knew you wanted. As long as you keep your mind open to new perspectives and yourself moving forward, there really are no totally wrong turns in life, only paths you didn’t know you were meant to travel. And you never can be certain what’s around the corner. It could be everything, or it could be nothing. You keep gliding steadily forward, and then one day you realize you’ve come a long way from where you started.
All details aside, someday all the pieces will come together. Unimaginably good outcomes will likely transpire in your life, even if everything doesn’t turn out exactly the way you had anticipated. And you will look back at the messy times that have passed, smile, and ask yourself…
“How in the world did I get through all of that?”
Note: I highly recommend subscribing to Marc & Angel’s website.
Joanne Guidoccio 