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.
Here’s an inspirational cartoon from Caro Martini:
I’m happy to welcome Wild Rose Press author Sheila Kell. Today, Sheila shares her new release, Deadly Betrayal.
Blurb
When trusting the wrong person can be deadly.
From Romantic Suspense BEST-SELLING and AWARD-WINNING Author • What happens when a former FBI analyst quits her job to become a PI and ends up partnering with the man who left her fourteen years earlier? In Sheila Kell’s riveting novel of secrets, deceit, and romance, two people rush to find a killer while reckoning with their growing attraction.
Cassie McKay was tired of being passed over as a FBI field agent. She quits her job as a FBI analyst, moved back home with her mother, and takes a job as a PI. Only she hadn’t expected her partner to be the one man who’d left her years before.
Jack “JD” Walker had done a lot wrong in his life, but he hadn’t killed the mother of his child as the police believed, nor had he expected the only women he’d ever loved to come to his rescue. The two work diligently to prove JD’s innocence while someone is determined to make JD pay.
Deadly Betrayal is the first book in the Coastal Investigations series. If you enjoy a thrilling, edge-of-your-seat read, you’ll love this installment of Sheila Kell’s new romantic suspense series.
Excerpt
Before she could turn, a deep, gravelly voice said, “Cassie?”
She spun around, knowing who the voice belonged to, even though she’d last heard it on the man at seventeen years of age. Cassie’s breathless response of only “JD” undoubtedly expressed her surprise along with that flitter in her heart.
His vivid blue eyes turned icy cold. “Who is breaking the restraining order now?”
Confused, her brow scrunched up. “What?”
Without looking away, he shouted, “Gus, what is she here for? I’m not working on a case for her.” The stern voice hit like a slap to the face. What had happened to the JD she grew up with? The man she had one day swore she’d marry. Then Cassie remembered how he had abandoned her when he went off to college, and a fit of familiar anger and hurt surged within her.
“I gotta told you something, yeah. Well, I knowed ya been friends when you were young’uns, so I hired her to work with ya. I hoped it git rid of da prickliness.”
JD snapped his head to Gus. “She works here?”
As she turned back to Gus, she caught the man’s slow grin. “Sure thing, cher.”
She glanced back at JD. As handsome as ever. He sure had filled out nicely as a man. His shoulders were broader, the lines on his face distinguished, and the aura of danger still hung on him.
JD swiveled his head to stare at Gus as if they had concocted this meeting to taunt him or something.
She needed to explain that she wouldn’t be working there after all. “JD, I—”
He pointed at her, anger radiating from him. “I don’t want to hear anything from you.” He turned to Gus, his finger now pointing at the older gentleman. “I can’t believe you, Gus. Here I thought you liked me.” He exhaled loudly. “You can cram this job up your ass.” JD spun and exited, slamming the door behind him.
Cassie stood frozen, shaking. She wasn’t sure what the hell had just happened.
Buy Links
Amazon US | Amazon UK | Amazon AU | Amazon CA | Nook | iBooks | Books2Read
Author Bio and Links
Sheila Kell writes about the romantic men who leave women’s hearts pounding with a happily ever after built on memorable, adrenaline-pumping stories. Or, (since her editor tries to cut down on her long-windedness) simply “Smokin’ Hot Romance & Intrigue.” Her debut novel, His Desire (HIS Series #1), launched as an Amazon #1 romantic suspense bestseller and Top 100 overall, later winning the Readers’ Favorite award for best romantic suspense novel.
As a Southern girl who traveled the world with the United States Air Force, she remembers all the embarrassing moments of her fellow veterans to include in her books and laughs every time she does it. Having left behind her days as a College President, she can usually be found nestled in the Mississippi woods, where she lives with her cats and all the strays that magically find her front door. When she isn’t writing, you can find Sheila with her nose in a good book, dealing with the woodland critters who enjoy her back patio, or wishing she had a genie to do her bidding.
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Giveaway
Sheila Kell will be awarding a $25 Amazon or Barnes & Noble gift card to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during the tour. Find out more here.
Follow Sheila on the rest of her Goddess Fish tour here.
Legendary composer Burt Bacharach died yesterday at age 94.
His songs could fit anywhere from Hollywood to Broadway, and they have never faded away. He has often been described as the “unapologetic epitome of cool.”
During his illustrious career, he scored over 50 chart hits in the United States and the United Kingdom, with artists including Frank Sinatra, Perry Como, Dionne Warwick, Barbra Streisand, Tom Jones, Aretha Franklin, Elvis Costello, and The Beatles all recording his songs.
The winner of three Oscars, two Golden Globes, and six competitive Grammy Awards, Burt Bacharach was hailed as music’s “greatest living composer” when he accepted the Grammy Lifetime Achievement honor in 2008.
My favorite quotations from Burt Bacharach:
Music breeds its own inspiration. You can only do it by doing it. You may not feel like it, but you push yourself. It’s a work process. Or just improvise. Something will come.
Never be ashamed to write a melody that people remember.
What the world needs now is love, sweet love, It’s the only thing that there’s just too little of.
The groovy thing about pop music is that it’s wide open. Anything can happen.
For me, it’s about the peaks and valleys of where a record can take you. You can tell a story and be able to be explosive one minute, then get quiet as kind of a satisfying resolution.
It wasn’t about writing songs to dance to. It was about recording music that felt right. I wanted to make it palatable. There are no guarantees.
You shouldn’t hold on to the past too much, even the good stuff.
Knowing when to leave may be the smartest thing anyone can learn.
My favorite song:
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.
I highly recommend A Year of Miracles by spiritual teacher Marianne Williamson. I have followed the 365 reflections and devotions over several years. Here’s one of my favorites:
If you think of yourself as being at the effect of a random universe that does not care about you, then you will experience your life that way. If you think of yourself as being at the effect of a loving universe that does care about you, then you will experience your life that way.
No matter what is happening in our lives, we choose how we wish to think about it. And the greatest gift we give ourselves is often our willingness to change our minds. Despite what might seem to be the saddest and most intractable situation, we have the power to believe that something else is possible, that things can change, that a miracle can happen. This gives us vision, which gives us conviction, which gives us power.
Source: A Year of Miracles
Partway through the second week of February 2022, a global phenomenon named Wordle captured my attention. At first hesitant, I dismissed the word game as another millennial fad. But I couldn’t ignore the growing number of people—many in the over-fifty group—who flaunted their successes in my Twitter feed.
Continue reading on the Soul Mate Authors blog.
I’m happy to welcome author Sally Basmajian. Today, Sally shares interesting details about her creative journey and new release, So Hard to Do.
Interview
What was your inspiration for your book?
In my writing group, we sometimes give each other prompts to encourage the creative flow of ideas. On one occasion, our assigned task was to write about an unconventional break-up. For no particular reason, I chose to make it a split between a mother and her adult daughter. Eventually, that scene became the opening hook for the novel.
A deeper inspiration came from the strong attachments I cherish, as a daughter and as a mom. I wanted to celebrate the mother/daughter bond in the book, even elevating it above the traditional romantic love connections that both my young and older heroines develop. I can’t tell you how pleased I am that some of the early Goodreads reviewers have commented favorably on this twist to the traditional rom-com approach!
What’s the best part of being an author? The worst?
When a reader tells me I made them laugh out loud, I feel my efforts have been worthwhile. Really, I’m aiming for is to provide people with much-needed diversion from the everyday trials of life. If I can help make their day brighter, I feel I’ve achieved my goal.
The worst part is letting someone down. A Goodreads reader wrote something along the lines of “I think she’s trying to be funny,” and it made me feel like an abject loser! If I failed to make her smile at least once or twice, I fear I haven’t done my job correctly. Fortunately, though, the vast majority of reviewers have appreciated my humor and cracked a grin, if not a hearty guffaw.
Describe your writing space.
I live in an eccentric house in the historic town of Niagara-on-the-Lake. The front of the house was built in the 1830s; the more livable back section in the early 2000s. My writing office is upstairs in the old part of the house, where the insulation is nonexistent. I freeze all winter and broil all summer! You can’t beat its charm, though. The ghosts up here are friendly, and I have an arsenal of fans and heaters that I deploy when the weather decides to go all Canadian on me!
Which authors have inspired you?
As a kid, I loved Lewis Carroll, and I can still recite most of “Jabberwocky.” Probably a lot of my love of the ridiculous can be traced back to the two Alice books, and to this very day, I am vigilant in shunning the frumious Bandersnatch!
In more recent years, I’ve been inspired by the fantastic Neil Gaiman, who tells stories like no one else, and Terry Pratchett, who makes me chuckle. In the rom-com category, it’s Sophie Kinsella, all the way!
Besides writing and reading, what are some of your hobbies?
I have so many! I religiously walk my dog—a sheltie that barks at virtually everything and still hasn’t learned that skunks are not his friends—around the gorgeous Niagara region. I encounter all kinds of chatty townspeople and the occasional wild animal, including a turkey that used to chase us down the parkway with murderous intent. I wrote a short story in his honor, but he was eventually offed by the local constabulary, poor bird. I also go to Line Dancing classes every week, and I even get called upon to lead a couple of the numbers. It brings out the martinet in me, and I find myself shouting orders at my co-dancers, as if our failure to perform “Uptown Funk” properly might result in permanent expulsion from the local community center. I golf three times a week in the summer, and never improve, but my teammates are amazingly supportive. Then there’s music—I was once an aspiring pianist, and I love to listen to music by Ravel, Chopin, and Bach. Oh, and so much more. It’s weird I write at all, come to think of it.
Any advice for aspiring writers?
Visualize your success, however you define it—and don’t be discouraged by rejections. The important thing is to keep writing and submitting. Do listen to constructive feedback from people whose opinions you value, and apply what you learn. Then carry on! Even if you’re being rejected 90% of the time, you’re ahead of the game, according to the Duotrope stats. Just keep submitting.
Blurb
Suze Foster has always been devoted to her daughter. As a child, Jannie required extra support in school, but now-at age 29-she’s a rising executive. Suze, thrilled with Jannie’s success, is finally free to follow her own dreams.
Without Suze’s dedicated attention, though, Jannie flounders. In a careless moment, she floods her apartment. Enter our hero, Aram-her hot but significantly older neighbor.
He saves the day, and for Jannie, it’s love at first sight.
Not so much for Aram, though, who falls head over heels for Suze when they accidentally meet. Unaware of Jannie’s feelings, Suze is equally smitten.
In this twisted triangle, can a happily-ever-after be achieved? Or will someone’s heart break and the mother-daughter bond be severed forever?
Excerpt
He was the most good-looking man she’d ever seen. Luxuriant locks. She bet that’s how a Harlequin Romance would describe his hair. And under the full beard, maybe even a cleft chin. And most definitely, a sensuous lower lip. Ooh la la.
As she mused in an X-rated way about his mouth, Jannie remembered something from a book she’d read where the heroine had a habit of biting her lower lip. It drove men mad.
So she tried it. Nibble, nibble.
Aram just looked at her. His breathing didn’t accelerate. His chest didn’t heave.
She tried again. Nibble, nibble. The prolonged silence was beginning to be uncomfortable.
“Are you all right, Jannie?” Aram finally asked. He studied her.
Well, that hadn’t gone so well. But she’d never tried to flirt with an older man before. Maybe they needed something more obvious.
She attempted to look coyly up at Aram through her eyelashes. This wasn’t as easy as all those romance authors made it sound. She felt her forehead contract, her nose wrinkle and her upper lip pull away from her teeth in her effort to do the impossible.
“Jannie, are you having an allergic reaction? Shellfish, maybe? Isn’t that crab I smell coming from your condo? Do you carry an EpiPen?”
She stamped her foot in frustration. It was supposed to look fierce and cute, but she could tell from Aram’s face that he was way more startled than turned on.
Author Bio and Links
After leaving the corporate world, Sally Basmajian discovered the joy of writing. Her fiction and nonfiction stories have appeared in newspapers such as The Globe & Mail and in several anthologies. In 2022 she won prizes for memoir pieces (Northwestern Ontario Writers Workshop, Gulf Coast Writers Association), and was thrilled to have a poem selected by the journal Antithesis. She expects to be busy in 2023, when her first two novels appear: in January, a light-hearted romance, So Hard to Do (published by Creative James Media) and in October, a much darker one, Fountain of Evil (Moonshine Cove Publishing, LLC).
Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | TikTok | Book Links | Amazon Buy Link
Giveaway
Sally Basmajian will be awarding a $10 Amazon or Barnes and Noble gift card to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during the tour. Find out more here.
Follow Sally on the rest of her Goddess Fish tour here.
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.
Here’s a thought-provoking reflection from international speaker and bestselling author Joyce Meyer:
Are you enjoying the life and blessings of God in your everyday life? Or have you made a series of choices resulting in disappointment, pain, or feeling that everything you do requires great effort and produces little reward? Don’t spend your time and energy mourning all the bad decisions you have made; just start making good ones. There is hope for you!
The way to overcome the results of a series of bad choices is through a series of right choices. The only way to walk out of trouble is to do the opposite of whatever you did to get into trouble—one choice at a time. Maybe the circumstances of your life right now are the direct result of a series of bad choices you have made. You may be in debt because you have made a lot of bad choices with money. You may be lonely because of a series of bad choices in relationships or in the way you treat people. You may be sick because of a series of unhealthy choices: eating junk food, not getting enough rest, or abusing your body through working too much and not having enough balance in your life.
You cannot make a series of bad choices that result in significant problems and then make one good choice and expect the results of all those bad choices to go away. You did not get into deep trouble through one bad choice; you got into trouble through a series of bad choices. If you really want your life to change for the better, you will need to make one good choice after another, over a period of time, just as consistently as you made the negative choices that produced negative results.
No matter what kind of trouble or difficulty you find yourself in, you can still have a blessed life. You cannot do anything about what is behind you, but you can do a great deal about what lies ahead of you. God is a redeemer, and he will always give you another chance.
Source: Strength for Each Day by Joyce Meyer
Welcome to my Second Acts Series!
I’m happy to welcome author Darlene Dziomba. Today Darlene, shares her reinvention story and new release, Up Close And Pawsonal.
Here’s Darlene!
I am running the final lap of my first career act, thirty-four years working in Finance for the University of Pennsylvania. Working in Higher Education comes with some tremendous non-work benefits. Amongst them is that once you reach age fifty-five, if you have twenty years of work service, you can take retirement. It is not a retirement with a lifelong pension or lifelong paid medical benefits. However, I can buy health insurance at the University’s rate from the University providers. An essential requirement for my second act.
I reached the years of service long before I reached the age requirement, and I used the intervening years to assess options. It was vital for me that my second act be something I would enjoy. I had spent decades employed at a task for which I had an aptitude. Now I wanted work that would give me satisfaction.
I made a list of the top things I enjoyed: travelling; gardening; reading and talking about books; being around animals. Then I thought about what careers could include those things and what training I would need for those careers. I ruled out attending Veterinary School because of the time and financial commitments, but becoming certified to raise and train service dogs was an option.
I conducted a lot of research. I made a lot of lists. I spent a lot of time figuring out potential earnings and when I could realistically transition from my salaried job to a job where my earnings would be substantially less.
Then a friend and I went to Bouchercon in Toronto. We are huge mystery fans and have been to many Bouchercons. I was listening to a panel of authors talk about mysteries where the protagonists were pet groomers, pet sitters, and pet walkers, and this idea came to me. I was a volunteer at an animal shelter and learned a lot about shelter operations. I love animals and books. I decided to write a book where the protagonist works in an animal shelter.
Animals and talking about books were some of the things I enjoyed doing. I had been told all of my life that I am good at telling stories. I set out on my path.
I participated in a Writing Workshop to get feedback on my draft. I joined Sisters in Crime and took a dozen courses, listened to numerous webinars, and lurked on listservs following writers’ thoughts about the craft and the business of writing. I meekly asked friend after friend to read my drafts and give me feedback.
It took years to go from an idea to a finely crafted book. Then I spent years trying to obtain a literary agent while writing the second book in the series. I eventually decided to self-publish my work. In 2022 I self-published Clues From The Canines.
In March, 2023, I will publish Up Close And Pawsonal. I have planned out my publicity and promotions by applying all that I have learned in the past year from other self-published authors and the SinC Grand Canyon Writers Marketing and More Network.
My advice to those pondering a second act is to be open to exploration. Your second act may not be the first, the fifth, or the fifteenth thing you think of trying. You may get an idea that requires you to develop skills you have never used or to use your skills differently. Keep going. From “I wonder if I can write a book where the protagonist works in an animal shelter?” I arrived at published author.
I’ve had to work hard, and I’ve had to learn new skills. There have been times when I was frustrated. However, I have enjoyed learning to write and crafting the Lily Dreyfus series and enjoying what I do is my top priority in Act Two.
Blurb
A casual evening of listening to music by a local cover band turns into a murder investigation when a drive-by shooting destroys the tranquility of the night and critically injures two of the band members. Lily Dreyfus stressed and unsettled from having been at the concert, is informed that one of the dead band members is the nephew of her coworker at the Forever Friends Animal Shelter. Lily will leash together a set of seemingly unrelated events to seek the perpetrator and make them heel.
Author Bio and Links
Darlene is a member of Sisters in Crime National and several regional SinC groups. She combined her passion for the written word and animals into the Lily Dreyfus series. Darlene volunteers at the Animal Welfare Association, a New Jersey animal shelter, where she chats with the dogs while completing her assignments. She has a 30-year career in Finance at the University of Pennsylvania and is an avid reader, gardener, and traveler. Darlene lives in New Jersey with her four-legged best friend, Billie.
Earlier today, Hazel McCallion died peacefully in her sleep at the age of 101.
A businesswoman and politician, Ms. McCallion served as the mayor of Mississauga from 1978 until 2014. A successful candidate in twelve municipal elections, she was acclaimed twice and re-elected ten other times. One unsuccessful opponent compared running against her to “challenging somebody’s favorite grandmother.”
During her term in office, Mississauga grew from a small collection of towns and villages to one of Canada’s largest cities. Politically savvy and pragmatic, she ran government like a business. At one point in her mayoralty, ratepayers went an entire decade without seeing a property tax increase.
In 2011, geriatrician Dr. Barbara Clive assessed Madam Mayor and stated, “At 90, her gait is perfect, her speech is totally sharp, and she has the drive to still run this city. She’s the poster child for seniors.”
My favorite quotations from Mayor Hazel McCallion:
I could never toe the party line. I’d wear the carpet crossing the floor.
Think like a man, act like a lady, and work like a dog.
I am a joiner and always have been. I can tell you it works.
I’m not saying all seniors should be running a city or running a business, but I am saying seniors are good for a lot more than simply running a bath, baking cookies or babysitting grandchildren.
I say it the way it is. I don’t play around. That has been my success, in my opinion, for Mississauga.
I never had the opportunity to go to college or university myself; it wasn’t financially possible. But I really believe education is so important because the future of our Canadian economy is going to be brainpower.
I learned to do with little. And that’s why today, I only spend the taxpayers’ money like I spend my own, which is seldom. The people of Mississauga love that.
I’ve been called other things too, and some of them uncomplimentary and sexist like the “Queen of Sprawl,” “Attila the Hen,” “The Mom who runs Mississauga,” and the “Mississauga Rattler,” so it’s little wonder that my favorite nickname is Hurricane Hazel.
From Premier Doug Ford of Ontario:
“Hazel was the true definition of a public servant. There isn’t a single person who met Hazel who didn’t leave in awe of her force of personality. I count myself incredibly lucky to have called Hazel my friend over these past many years.”
Joanne Guidoccio 