Oprah and Tim Storey

Posted on April 6, 2015 by Joanne Guidoccio

Yesterday, Oprah sat under the oaks with spiritual teacher, life coach and author Tim Storey. Throughout the telecast, Oprah quoted from Tim’s book, Comebacks & Beyond: How to Turn Your Setbacks Into Comebacks.

For the first ten years of Tim’s life, there was joy and a definite rhythm to life in the Storey household, but all that changed when his father died. Tim watched as his siblings medicated themselves to deal with their loss. Even at an young age, Tim sensed that setbacks could be transformed.

At age seventeen, he received the calling to become a pastor and decided to devote his life to helping others find meaning in life. In 1992, Tim started a Bible Study at the home of actress Dyan Cannon. Seven people attended that first meeting and today the group known as “The Study” attracts more than 1000 attendees. In the past three decades, Tim has shared his inspiring message in seventy different countries.

When asked about a common denominator to setbacks, Tim pointed out that some people tend to live in the shame and guilt of their experiences. Frustrated by their inability to go back and “fix” the situation, they “nurse it, curse it, and rehearse it.” Instead, Tim urges everyone to accept the Now and take an inventory of what is working.

Another common thread is a sense of unworthiness: “I don’t think I deserve to experience this because of past setbacks.” Tim reminds us that God has forgiven our past mistakes and we need to renew the way we think. When a challenging situation arises, we should ask: “Why is it here? What is my lesson?” God often steers us into unknown corners (spaces and places we’ve never been) as part of his divine plan.

Tim also stresses the need to turn up the volume on our lives and get our “shouts” back. Disappointments can knock out the shouts and reduce our voices to whispers. To prevent that from happening, Tim advises shouting on purpose. He takes a moment each day where he inwardly shouts about what is going well in his life.

Quotable Quotes

Your dream has a voice.

A comeback is not a go-back.

Your life isn’t about a big break. It’s about one significant life transforming step at a time.

Play it down, pray it up, and look for the wisdom.

Darkness will surround, but it doesn’t have to get in.

If you’re trifling, the real YOU will say, “Get it together.”

There is a lesson in all our failures: We can fail forward.

Better Than Before – A Book Review

Posted on March 31, 2015 by Joanne Guidoccio

A fan of self-help literature, I look forward to each year’s crop of inspirational and motivational books. Right now, Better Than Before: Mastering the Habits of Our Everyday Lives is at the top of my Favorites List.

New York Times best-selling author Gretchen Rubin has expertly woven research, anecdotes, and personal insights in this excellent study of habit formation. She does not provide a one-size-fits-all approach or prescribe specific habits. Instead, she explores how to develop sustainable habits that will help us achieve our own versions of Everyday Life in Utopia (a chapter title suggested by her daughter Eleanor).

Rubin starts by outlining The Four Tendencies—Upholder, Obliger, Questioner, Rebel—and then suggests appropriate strategies in the Pillars of Habits section. While the concepts of Monitoring, Foundation, Scheduling, and Accountability are not new, they are presented using a lively, conversational style aimed at increasing self-knowledge.

I paid special attention to the following strategies:

Foundation Four – Begin with habits that help us sleep, move, eat and drink right, and unclutter. These habits will serve as the foundation for forming other good habits.

Power Hour – To deal with the small, one-time tasks (e.g. creating a photo album) that Rubin kept putting off, she decided once a week, for one hour, she would work on these chores.

Clean Slate – Fresh starts such as a new apartment, job or school and changes in personal relationships wipe the slate clean and can help us launch a new habit with less effort. But a clean slate can also disrupt good habits or break positive routines.

Lightning Bolt – While this is a very effective strategy, it cannot be invoked. A new idea triggered by an inspirational book, milestone birthday, pregnancy or another event can instantly transform habits.

Blast Start – When small steps are not working, a blast start can help us take the first step. This kind of shock treatment cannot be maintained, but it can give momentum to a new project.

Bright-Line Rule – A clearly defined rule or standard that eliminates any need for decision-making can help us achieve greater clarity. E.g. Answering every email within 24 hours.

Throughout the book, Gretchen Rubin shares her own successes and challenges along with those of family members, friends, and blog followers. Intrigued and inspired by the low-carb diet she adopted and the ripple effect it created within her circle, I picked up a copy of Why We Get Fat and What to Do About It by Gary Taubes.

And I couldn’t resist classifying myself: I am an Upholder, Abstainer, Marathoner, Finisher, and Owl.

Where to find Gretchen Rubin…

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Linked In | Amazon

Spotlight on Becky Lower

Posted on March 27, 2015 by Joanne Guidoccio

I am happy to feature Amazon best-selling author Becky Lower and her new release, Expressly Yours, Samantha.

Here’s Becky!

As is the case with most authors, I started writing complicated plot lines as soon as I could pick up a crayon. But there’s a world of difference between being a writer and being an author. The author thing didn’t happen until much later in my life.

For years, I’d entertain my friends with long stories about my complicated, dysfunctional family. While they enjoyed my stories, I was constantly told I should write them down instead of being a vocal storyteller. I ignored their good advice since I was busy with a job and had a rambling old house that kept falling apart.

Then, my life got shook up. The economic downturn happened and my job disappeared. While I scrambled for ways to pay the mortgage on the rambling old house, I saw an ad for an adult learning course offered at a local community college, on How To Write A Romance Novel. Even though it had been years since I’d written anything, I signed up for the class.

I’d like to say I went right from that class to selling my first manuscript to a major publisher. But reality didn’t match up with my dreams. That first manuscript is still under the bed. Oh, I worked on it, entered it in some contests, took the feedback and rewrote it, even won a contest based on the first three chapters. But it never quite gelled for me. I’ll get back to it some day, since it contains two of my most favorite things–time travel and the early American west.

As I slid the time travel idea under the bed, I asked myself what I really wanted to write. I’m a big fan of Julia Quinn’s Bridgerton series, but I didn’t want to write books set in England. Then, a friend of mine began to talk about her days as a debutante and her Cotillion Ball, and the lightbulb moment happened. The Cotillion may have begun in Europe, but it did eventually make its way into American high society. A bit of research later, and my Cotillion Ball Series was born. There are nine siblings in this well-to-do New York family, and each one has patiently (or, in Jasmine’s case, not so patiently) waited for their own book to be written. Expressly Yours, Samantha, is the seventh book in this nine-book series, and features the youngest boy in the family, Valerian. He’s a rider for the fabled Pony Express and fate brings him into contact with Sam Hughes, who is really a girl named Samantha, on the run from an abusive uncle.

Obviously, I like to write about American history and use it as a backdrop for my stories. I was fortunate to have the Cotillions begin during an era where there was so much going on in America–tensions were mounting between the North and South over slavery, the West was being opened to settlers willing to face the journey, the Pony Express, and then the Civil War. What an exciting time in America as events, both great and small, impacted the lives of those living through it.

But what an enormous amount of research was needed for each book. So, I began to write contemporaries in between each historical, just for a break from the research. I now have three contemporaries in print and a trilogy under way. All the books so far are about women who reinvent themselves when their first acts were finished. Kind of the story of my life, wouldn’t you say?

Blurb

Samantha Hughes has one day to escape from her wicked uncle, and a sign in the post office is her answer. She’ll cut her hair to pose as a man and become Sam Hughes, a Pony Express rider.

Valerian Fitzpatrick doesn’t want the weight of responsibility that his brothers have in the family business. Fortunately, the Pony Express offers a chance to make his own way in the world.

He assumes his new buddy, Sam, is on the run from the law, until she’s hit by a stray gunshot and he has to undress her to staunch the wound. Friendship quickly turns to attraction—and more—but when Sam’s uncle tracks her down, she is forced to run yet again.

Val’s determined to find her, but will a future with Sam mean giving up the freedom he’s always craved?

Bio

Amazon best-selling author Becky Lower has traveled the country looking for great settings for her novels. She loves to write about two people finding each other and falling in love, amid the backdrop of a great setting, be it on a covered wagon headed west or in present day small town America. Historical and contemporary romances are her specialty. Becky is a PAN member of RWA and is a member of the Historic and Contemporary RWA chapters. She has a degree in English and Journalism from Bowling Green State University, and lives in an eclectic college town in Ohio with her puppy-mill rescue dog, Mary. She loves to hear from her readers at beckylowerauthor@gmail.com.

Where to find Becky…

Failure is What Success Looks Like, Before It’s Born

Posted on March 18, 2015 by Joanne Guidoccio

I am happy to feature Soul Mate author Zen DiPietro and her upcoming release Guardians of Terath: Seeking Sorrow.

Here’s Zen!

In any creative process, you have to make a lot of bad things before you can make good things. I got my bad books out of the way right after college. I’m glad of that, because it paved the way for what came later.

It took me several years afterward to get back to writing, but when the idea for Seeking Sorrow came along, it started burrowing into my head with two particular scenes. I wrote the entire book around those two scenes. Not surprisingly, they’re two of my favorite sections of the whole book.

Once I’d resolved to get this story out of my head and into text, it all poured out, and the product was Seeking Sorrow. And then Facing Fortune. And now the not-yet-named Book 3 of the series.

If you have a passion for something, keep at it. If the first few things you make aren’t any good, be glad for them, because you’re that much closer to making something that really makes you proud.

Excerpt

An earth-like world of high-tech humans faces the reality that their world is not as safe as they thought it was. Five people are thrown together to quietly get to the bottom of an unfathomable mana event that must stay quiet. If the population of Terath becomes aware of the truth, it will spark a civil war. That war would pit the majority of the population against the powerful minority with the ability to harness and manipulate mana. The resulting cataclysm would decimate the population and tear apart the foundation of society.

The five people chosen for this must reconsider everything they thought they knew about mana, even as they learn to trust one another’s abilities. They must embrace everything they never wanted in order to prevent the devastation of their world. One of them will be forever changed. Love will be denied, badassery will be unleashed, and Terath will never be the same.

Even success comes at a price.

Bio

Zen DiPietro is a lifelong bookworm, a fantasy/sci-fi writer, a dancer, and a mom of two. Also red-haired, left-handed, and a vegetarian geek. Absolutely terrible at conforming. Particular loves include badass heroines, Star Trek, British accents, baba ganoush, and the smell of Band-Aids. Writing reviews, author interviews, and fun stuff at Women of Badassery. Very active on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.

Where to find Zen…

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest | Goodreads

When Imagination is Involved…

Posted on March 13, 2015 by Joanne Guidoccio

Welcome to my Second Acts Series!

Today, we have Soul Mate author Layne Macadam chatting about her multi-act life and recent release, Obsession Down Under.

Here’s Layne!

Thank you Joanne for having me here today. I really enjoyed writing this piece as it got me thinking, which is always a good thing!

I look back on my life to date and believe there have been many acts so far, and God willing, there will be many more. My writing career started late, I guess, by many standards. Married young and with children now grown, I needed to do something I enjoyed and to feel a sense of worth. Because I love to read, it dawned on me I could write my own stories and make characters and situations turn out exactly how my imagination dictated.

My first book took several years to complete. I enjoyed the research and commitment it took to actually finish a manuscript of that length. I sent it off to various publishers and when a contract popped up in my inbox, it gave me an immense sense of achievement. Also what fascinated me was how the characters took on a life of their own. That was something I never anticipated, how could this happen? But when imagination is involved anything can happen and did!

As my book collection is growing so is my confidence in what I do and in what I am capable of achieving. It is a heady feeling this power I have at my fingertips. Obsession Down Under is the first story that is set in one of my favorite places on earth, a country town called Glen Innes in my home state of New South Wales, Australia, and for that reason it will always be special. The hero, Whip McGregor, has three brothers and a sister, so it is very possible, at some future point, I will write another tale on one of the McGregor’s from Highland Glen!

Blurb

Aspiring author Jessica Butler-Reid has never done anything exciting in her entire life. The daughter of a Minister and his aging wife, she sees her life heading down the same tedious predictable path has her mom’s, organizing church fetes, bazaars, and bake-offs. But when she innocently posts a help request on an Internet forum for some technical advice with her book, her life is changed forever when Australian cattle rancher, Whip McGregor, answers the call.

Jessica embarks on an adventure of a lifetime, but little does she know her decision to accept his offer of a two-week paid vacation to the land Down Under will, jeopardize more than one life and, have far-reaching consequences neither she nor Whip could have foreseen.

Bio

Layne lives with her husband, two dogs, and a cat on the mid-eastern coast of New South Wales, Australia. In addition to being an author she has a degree in history and holds down a full-time job.

She has always been an avid reader and voraciously consumes all types of fiction, but she particularly loves a happy ending, so writing romance seemed a natural progression for her. But as she sat at the computer one day — staring at a blank screen — it all seemed rather daunting. Yet once she finally started tapping on the keys, the words kept flowing, and what was meant to be a short story turned into a full-blown novel, Desire Unleashed, the first book in the “Desire” series.

Layne writes contemporary romance, paranormal, and sci-fi. With her passion for travel and a love of history an historical romance is not outside the realms of possibility.

When she’s not writing, you might find her tackling a craft project, walking by the lake, or in the kitchen creating some culinary delights.

Where to find Layne…

Website | Facebook | Twitter

Joanne here!

Layne, thanks for sharing your inspiring journey. Best of luck with Obsession Down Under.

Changing Channels

Posted on March 11, 2015 by Joanne Guidoccio

Welcome to my Second Acts Series!

Today, we have Soul Mate author MJ Compton chatting about her inspiring journey and recent release, And Jericho Burned.

Here’s MJ!

When I was barely twenty-years old, I fell into a job that would dominate my life through the next three decades. I honestly thought I would retire from the local network television affiliate. Over the years, I held many positions there, working my way up the ladder through hard work and a willingness to learn and do more. Even after the station was sold to a smaller organization, I believed I was a valued employee.

One of the general managers (after the sale, we had a new General Manger every couple of years) called me on day and said, “I hear you’re a writer.” I just looked at him, because I knew the previous GM had eliminated with the promotion department as a cost-cutting measure. “I need someone to write news promotion,” he continued.

I replied: “Oh, I don’t do that kind of writing. I write fiction.”

“But you write.”

“I don’t deal with fact,” I said. “I make stuff up.”

“But I need a promo writer to write news teases.”

“I lie!”

And that’s how I became the acting promotion director—not just writing news teases on a daily basis, but purchasing spots on local radio stations, creating an on-promotion schedule from scratch and all the other tasks a two-person TV promotion department usually handles . . . on top of being the programming coordinator, a job that combined the past positions of Program Director and Program Assistant.

My children were young at the time. I would pick them up from their after school program, bring them back to the office with me for another hour or so, then take them home, feed them, and go back to the office or onto my home computer to work some more. Fortunately, my husband is an equal opportunity parent. I don’t know how we would have managed otherwise.

I worked double duty for over three years. I did get a very small raise, but nowhere near what a “real” promotion manager would have made in that position.

One morning, the newest GM hired a promotion specialist, stepped into my office, closed the door, and told me my position had been eliminated.

Oh, I received a nice severance package. I negotiated for my laptop computer which had been purchased for me as the promotion person. But after 30+ years of being a go-to person, I was gone.

Over the next several months, I worked with my then-agent on revising my books. I also did temporary office work, reached out to people in the industry, and went on job interviews. One day, the employment agency with which I was registered asked about my Excel skills.

Two weeks later, I was working temp-to-hire in a whole new industry. I got to play with spread sheets all day long without once taking a call from a cranky viewer. And I liked the work.

But every morning as I walked up the sidewalk to the employee entrance, I thought: “This is not my life.” I was no longer able to run home for lunch every day. My co-workers were not the creative, manic types one meets in broadcasting. The workplace was a culture shock. Some of the little dramas were the same, but I’d outgrown those. As I told my supervisor, “Been there, done that, have a drawer full of t-shirts to prove it.”

Temp-to-hire became gainfully employed. I gradually came to the realization that I’d had my career, while most of the people on my team were just starting out. Once I accepted the new position was a job, not the lifestyle local broadcasting had been, I was okay.

I’m calmer now. I’m content. This Day Job doesn’t intrude in my home life the way broadcasting did. I have more energy to put into my writing career. And now, when situations threaten to overwhelm me, I can remember what Eckhart Tolle said: “This moment is temporary.”

Hook

Lucy Callahan will do anything to save her sister, even if that means marrying a stranger. Even if that stranger is an undercover government agent out to destroy the cult holding her sister hostage. Even if that stranger is a . . . werewolf.

Blurb

Lucy Callahan will do anything to rescue her sister from a cult, even marry a werewolf she’s just met. But the werewolves are working undercover for the government, and Lucy fears a confrontation between the agents and the cult could be deadly.

Stoker Smith longs to be the best thing that ever happened to his human mate. He wants to take her home, start their family, and compose his music. And although his pack’s treaty with the government says he doesn’t have to work undercover now that he’s mated, he promised Lucy he’d get her sister out of the cult’s heavily armed compound. Lucy’s sister is now family and to a werewolf, family is everything.

But Operation Jericho quickly turns ugly, thrusting Lucy into the middle of her worst nightmare, where she must choose: her sister or the man she’s grown to love.

Bio

MJ Compton grew up near Cardiff, New York, a place best known for its giant, which turned out to be a fiction so incredible, PT Barnum himself borrowed it. That’s a tough act to follow, but MJ tried—by composing her own stories.

Although her 30-year career in local television included such highlights as being bitten by a lion, preempting a US President for a college basketball game, giving a three-time world champion boxer a few black eyes, a mention in the Drudge Report, and meeting her husband, MJ’s urge to create her own stories never went away.

MJ still lives in upstate New York with her husband. She’s a member of Romance Writers of America and Central New York Romance Writers. Music and cooking are two of her passions, and she enjoys baseball and college basketball, but she’s primarily focused on wine . . . and writing.

Where to find M.J.

Buy Links for Moonlight Serenade

Amazon (Kindle) | Amazon (Paperback) | Barnes & Noble

Joanne here!

MJ, thanks for an inspiring and motivating post. And Jericho Burned sounds delicious. I’m putting it on my TBR list.

Happy International Women’s Day!

Posted on March 8, 2015 by Joanne Guidoccio

The Reinvention of AND(REA) (Y) (IE) (I)

Posted on March 4, 2015 by Joanne Guidoccio

Welcome to my Second Acts Series!

Today, we have The Wild Rose Press author Andrea Downing sharing several spectacular acts and introducing her recent release, Dances of the Heart.

Here’s Andrea!

If a butterfly can undergo metamorphosis from a creepy crawly caterpillar into something beautiful and extraordinary, why shouldn’t a human being, with all his/her numerous sensibilities, be able to change at will?

I’m not quite sure how many Acts, exactly, there are to my story, but Act One was certainly as Andrea, a girl born into a quite ordinary, suburban New York family. “Andrea” didn’t last very long; I always hated the name, at least until an acquaintance told me she thought it a very glamorous appellation and also wanted it. But I digress: Andrea became Andy very early.

I wasn’t sure about that spelling. It looked boyish. Commonplace. Pedestrian. And I had dreams of going on stage, attended drama school one summer, and generally tried out for every play at school. So Andy became Andie, which looked and felt a bit more suitable. That was Act Two.

And that lasted until the Beatles came on the scene. S-x, dr?gs & rock ‘n’ roll. Anything British was “super” and so Andi, minus the ‘e’ (slightly more exotic that way) headed off to live in England. Act Three? Maybe. Or perhaps that was the real Act Two. I’m not sure to be honest, but it lasted a very long time between getting an M.A., getting married, having a daughter, moving eight times (or was it nine? No ten!), getting divorced, and watching daughter head off to university back in the good ol’ USA. Somewhere in there I started writing. A bit at first—the odd story (odd being a useful word here in both senses), poems, travel articles, a novel or two now in boxes, even a screenplay. And, over forty or so years, I became totally Anglicized! Parking lots became carparks, sidewalks became pavements, elevators morphed into lifts before my very eyes. Not only that, but I actually learned to drive on the ‘wrong’ side of the road. But now comes Act Four: The Reinvention of Andi…

Cristal, my darling daughter (named for the champagne), decided to stay in New York after graduation, and I was faced with the reality of living on another continent away from her. The situation came home to roost when I got ill, and we thought Cristal might have to take leave from her job for a while to look after me, and then the British Government also started to get nasty about what they called non-domiciled aliens. See my antennae? What’s a girl to do? Head home and reinvent again!

It wasn’t easy leaving friends of many years, abandoning a place I had called home and a way of life I knew. Good-bye Branston Pickle, HP Sauce, Cadbury’s Twirls and TCP. I now live five blocks from my daughter when she returns to live in her New York apartment from working for the UN in Colombia. But here’s the crux of Act Four, the Reinvention of Andi Downing. I finally decided I had nothing to lose by sending off my writing—a western novel—to a publisher, and guess what? I now have two published western novels and two published historical western novellas under my belt. As author…Andrea Downing!

So, is Act Four the Finale? Shakespearean dramas have Five Acts!

Blurb

Successful, workaholic author Carrie Bennett lives through her writing, but can’t succeed at writing a man into her life. Furthermore, her equally successful but cynical daughter, Paige, proves inconsolable after the death of her fiancé.

Hard-drinking rancher Ray Ryder can find humor in just about anything—except the loss of his oldest son. His younger son, Jake, recently returned from Iraq, now keeps a secret that could shatter his deceased brother’s good name.

On one sultry night in Texas, relationships blossom when the four meet, starting a series of events that move from the dancehalls of Hill Country to the beach parties of East Hampton, and from the penthouses of New York to the backstreets of a Mexican border town. But the hurts of the past are hard to leave behind, especially when old adversaries threaten the fragile ties that bind family to family…and lover to lover.

Buy Links

Amazon | The Wild Rose Press | Barnes & Noble

Bio

Andrea Downing likes to say that when she decided to do a Masters Degree, she made the mistake of turning left out of New York, where she was born, instead of right to the west, and ended up in the UK. She eventually married there, raising a beautiful daughter and staying for longer than she cares to admit. Teaching, editing a poetry magazine, writing travel articles, and a short stint in Nigeria filled those years until in 2008 she returned to NYC. She now divides her time between the city and the shore, and often trades the canyons of New York for the wide open spaces of Wyoming. Family vacations are often out west and, to date, she and her daughter have been to some 20 ranches throughout the west. Loveland, her first book, was a finalist for Best American Historical at the 2013 RONE Awards. Lawless Love, a short story, part of The Wild Rose Press ‘Lawmen and Outlaws’ series, was a finalist for Best Historical Novella at the RONE Awards and placed in the 2014 International Digital Awards Historical Short contest. Dearest Darling, a novella, is part of The Wild Rose Press Love Letters series, and came out Oct. 8th, 2014, and Dances of the Heart, her first contemporary novel, came out in February, 2015.

Where to find Andrea…

Joanne here!

Andrea, I’m impressed and inspired by your journey. If you ever run out of storylines, consider writing your memoirs.

The Tao of NGU NGI

Posted on February 25, 2015 by Joanne Guidoccio

Welcome to my Second Acts Series!

Today, we have The Wild Rose Press author Peggy Jaeger sharing the rich and varied experiences of her first act and her emerging second act.

Here’s Peggy!

When I discovered Joanne’s SECOND ACTS blog, I felt like I’d walked into a virtual room decorated just for me. Reading through the entries of the wonderful and artistic women she’d spotlighted made me a little nervous about what I could add to this glorious mix of wisdom, guts, tenacity and talent. For days I thought about what I should write. What could I possibly impart to the readers and writers to inspire them during the next phase of their lives – be it a writing life or one in general.

It came to me – like many ideas do – in a dream.

A little backstory about my Act 1, first.

I was an only child of divorced parents who didn’t like being on the same planet together, much less in the same room. They split when I was an infant. Like many children of divorce, I shrouded myself from hurt with a very busy fantasy life. When the harsh reality of my divorced world became too much to deal with, I would slip into my room and write. And write and write and write.

Pure escapism and very cheap therapy.

My adolescence wasn’t much better. I was obese, shy, the class “brain,” and teacher’s pet. My one way of avoiding a trip to the dark side of teenage angst? Writing.

In college I found my voice, my love of caring for people, and my true self. I worked for several years as a Nurse and was lucky enough to incorporate my profession into my writing life. I had many nursing articles published in professional trade magazines. I completed my Master’s Degree in Nursing, got married, had a kid and continued to write everyday I could.

I like to joke that during my 30’s and 40’s I was a wife, mother, nurse, cook, chauffeur, nanny, contact lens technician and business owner. And most of all, writer.

While banging out the magazine articles on motherhood, empty nest syndrome and ophthalmic care, I was also secretly writing fiction. I say secretly because I never – ever – showed those works to anyone, including my husband. Fiction writing – particularly romantic fiction – was my secret candy stash: my one guilty pleasure. Since I’d read my fist Nora Roberts book I’d had a secret ambition to be a romance novelist. I was twenty at the time when I penned my first romance story. Suffice it to say it was awful and leave it there.

But I never gave up on my dream to write romance and have it published.

So enough backstory. Here’s the present day 411.

When I was deciding what to write for this posting I had a dream about a phrase I developed during a particularly rough patch of my life. I used to repeat the phrase numerous times during the day just to keep me sane and focused. That phrase I laughingly call THE TAO OF NGU NGI (pronounced na-goo na-guy). It stands for Never Give Up, Never Give In. When all looked bleak and times were shaky, the Tao pushed me through to the other side and helped me come out stronger, more able, and a victor.

As I enter this next phase of my life there are many changes coming. Fast! I retire in April from a job I have held for over 15 years. I will be having 2 books published in 2015 by the Wild Rose Press and have 3 more in line for the continuation of the series, and three more in development. I will be eligible to get an AARP card ( if I want one). All because I vowed to never give up on my dream of being a published author, and to never give in to all the voices and advice of people who told me at various times that I was : too old, not a good enough writer, too verbose, writing popular pap and not real literature, and ( my favorite) no one wanted to read a romance by a woman over the age of 50.

God puts dreams in our hearts for a reason. It is our duty and responsibility to see that those dreams come to fruition. One of my favorite quotes is “every set back is a set-up for something new and exciting.” Don’t give up on your dreams. Ever. Practice the Tao of NGU NGI and doors and opportunities will open for you. My best advice to anyone pursing a dream is just this: never give up on it. It may take 5 minutes, 5 years, or a generation to fulfill, but I truly feel you are never too old, and no dream is ever too big, to pursue.

I know this firsthand.

Blurb

I know this firsthand.Figure skater Tiffany Lennox is busy with rehearsals for an upcoming ice show when the only man she’s ever loved comes home after a two-year overseas stint. She needs him to see her for the woman she’s become and not the child he knew to ensure he stays home, this time, for good. With her.

I know this firsthand.For all his wanderlust and hunger for professional success, Cole Greer comes home wanting nothing more than to rest, relax and recover. He is delighted in being Tiffany’s hero and has a special place in his heart reserved for her. But faced with the oh-so-desirable woman she’s become, he starts questioning his determination to keep their relationship platonic.

I know this firsthand.When forced by the television network to go back on assignment, Cole – for the first time in his life – is torn between his career and his heart.

Buy Links

Amazon | Nook | The Wild Rose Press

Bio

Peggy Jaeger’s love of writing began in the third grade when she won her first writing contest with a short story titled THE CLOWN. After that, there was no stopping her. Throughout college and after she became a Registered Nurse, she had several Nursing Journal articles published, in addition to many mystery short stories in Literary Magazines. When her daughter was born, Peggy had an article titled THE VOICES OF ANGELS published and reprinted in several parenting magazines, detailing the birth and the accident that almost turned this wonderful event into a tragedy. She had two children’s books published in 1995 titled THE KINDNESS TALES and EMILY AND THE EASTER EGGS, which was illustrated by her artist Mother-in-Law. While her daughter grew, Peggy would write age appropriate stories for her to read along with, and finally, to read on her own. Her YA stories are usually mysteries involving smart and funny 12-13 year old girls and an unusual collection of friends and relatives. They all take place in the 1980’s.

In 2005 she was thrilled to have an article on motherhood placed in the CHICKEN SOUP FOR VERY MOTHER’S SOUL edition. She has won several awards in various Writer’s Digest short story and personal article categories over the years. Recently, she has placed first in the Dixie Kane 2013 Memorial Contest in the Short/Long Contemporary romance Category, and in the Single Title Contemporary Category, and third place in the ICO Romance Contest for 2013.

A life-long and avid romance reader and writer, she is a member of RWA and her local New Hampshire RWA Chapter.

Peggy has embraced the techno age and writes for three blogs, all detailing events in her life. One titled, 50 pounds for 50 years is a personal blog about weight loss, one about her life as an EMPTY NESTER and her most recent one MOMENTS FROM MENOPAUSE, a humorous and informative guide through this time in a woman’s life.

Her first romance novel, SKATER’S WALTZ will be released on March 4, 2015 from the Wild Rose Press.

Where to find Peggy…

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest

Joanne here!

Peggy, thanks for sharing your inspiring journey. You are an excellent role model for reinvention (at any age). BTW…I have decided to embrace NGU NGI as my mantra.

From Prisons to PR

Posted on February 20, 2015 by Joanne Guidoccio

I am happy to feature The Wild Rose Press author Marilyn Baron and her new release, The Widows’ Gallery.

Here’s Marilyn!

I’ve always wanted to be a writer from the time I read Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I wrote my first poem at age 11 that was published in Highlights, the magazine you see at the dentist office. My first “book,” East West Island, featured all the children in my third-grade class, and my teacher read it in installments every day. I directed my first play at age 13, starring my brother and sisters and some of the neighborhood kids to raise money for the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum. I wrote the scripts for the school assembly programs and served as editor and feature editor of my junior high school and high school newspapers. Although my father encouraged me to major in elementary education, because he thought you couldn’t make a living as a writer, I majored in Journalism (Public Relations) and English (Creative Writing) in college and pursued a satisfying corporate career with AT&T in Public Relations. I did a one-year stint in the Florida State prison system (Translation: I was an information specialist at the Florida Department of Offender Rehabilitation) and then quit to run my own public relations firm. But I’ve always wanted to write fiction.

I pursued that dream in earnest when I joined Georgia Romance Writers, where I got my start with craft workshops, conferences and the camaraderie and support of fellow writers. I volunteered for such jobs as on-line newsletter editor and handling publicity for the chapter’s annual Moonlight & Magnolias conference. My road to publication has been a long one—more than 10 years. Along the way I’ve won four writing awards, published seven books with The Wild Rose Press, with two other books coming soon; five humorous paranormal short stories; and self-published two books and a musical called Memory Lane about Alzheimer’s with my sister.

My first publishing experience was writing short stories with TWB Press, a small publisher of science fiction, supernatural, horror and urban fantasy and thrillers. My fifth short story, The Files Death Forgot, was released by TWB Press February 15. Then my first full-length novel, Under the Moon Gate, a historical romantic thriller set in modern day and WW II Bermuda, was contracted by The Wild Rose Press (TWRP). At the time no one seemed to want books set in World War II but that was my favorite period in history and Bermuda was one of my favorite places to visit so I never gave up on it. My editor loved it and I found a home.

I’ve been writing for TWRP ever since.

I don’t have an agent yet so I was thinking of dedicating my next book “To the Agent I Never Had.”

Unlike many writers, I don’t stick with one genre. I’ve written women’s fiction (coming-of-middle-age novels); historical romantic thrillers; a psychic suspense series; fantasy; and my latest novel released February 11 is a women’s fiction with four romances, called The Widows’ Gallery. I enjoy the diversity, but all my books and stories have one thing in common. They all use humor to tell the story. And they all have a happy ending.

I like to use art as a theme because I studied Art History in Florence, Italy, where I spent six months in college. In fact The Widows’ Gallery is partially set there. I frequently set my books in places I’ve traveled to and, like a sponge, I put to use a lot of what I see and hear. Every time my sister calls me she prefaces her remarks with, “Now, don’t use this in a book.”

The best piece of advice I’ve learned from interviewing such bestselling authors as Daniel Silva, Steve Berry and Janet Evanovich is, “Finish the book.” Their rationale is you can always correct a bad manuscript but you can’t correct a blank page.

Blurb

Childless heiress Abigail Adams Longley and three other widows on a Mediterranean cruise bond over a Renaissance masterpiece in Florence, Italy, and find love, friendship and joy in their joint venture to open an art gallery at the Longley mansion in Lobster Cove, Maine.

Since the death of her husband, Abigail has been lonely and drifting in a house that’s too big and a town that’s too small. When she literally runs into sexy widower and whale-watching excursion captain Tack Garrity on the dock, she’s entranced by his adorable five-year-old daughter.

But will Tack, who has harbored a secret crush on Abigail for almost two decades, be able to capture her heart? A secret pact her husband made with Tack could either tear them apart or bring them closer together and change their lives forever.

Excerpt

Abigail Adams Longley looked around at the three women flanking her in Hall 10/14 of the Uffizi Gallery. They were all staring at The Birth of Venus like wide-eyed art students. Admittedly, the painting was as compelling as when the Medici family originally commissioned the tempera on canvas in the fifteenth century. But for Abigail, seeing the painting again wasn’t cathartic. It was beautiful, but that wasn’t the feeling she was going for. Peace. Why couldn’t she get some goddamned peace in this life?

Abigail glanced at the square-cut, four-carat diamond on her finger, gazed at the sparkle of the ring she hadn’t removed since the day Louis had proposed. And now, a whole year after his death, she still hadn’t taken it off. Conventional wisdom dictated that you weren’t supposed to make any major life decisions until a year after a spouse’s death. Well, it had been a year already, and she hadn’t wanted to make even one decision—major or minor—about where to live, where to go, or what to do. Whoever said money can’t buy happiness had devised another dead-on axiom. She had all the money in the world—in fact Louis had left her a big chunk of the globe. He’d left her set for life, monetarily. But she would have traded every cent for the chance to be with him again. Louis was gone, and the sooner she faced the fact that she was alone on this planet, the better off she’d be.

Buy Links

Amazon (EBook) | Amazon (Paperback) | The Wild Rose Press | AllRomanceeBooks

Bio

Marilyn Baron is a corporate public relations consultant in Atlanta. She’s a member of Romance Writers of America and Georgia Romance Writers (GRW), recipient of the GRW 2009 Chapter Service Award and winner or finalist in writing awards in single title, suspense romance, novel with strong romantic elements and paranormal romance.

Marilyn writes in a variety of genres, including: Humorous women’s fiction (The Widows’ Gallery, Stones, and Significant Others; a psychic suspense series (Sixth Sense, Homecoming Homicides and the soon to be released Killer Cruise); and historical romantic thrillers (Under the Moon Gate and the prequel, Destiny: A Bermuda Love Story) for The Wild Rose Press; and humorous paranormal short stories for TWB Press (A Choir of Angels, Follow an Angel, The Stand-In Bridegroom, Dead Mix and The Files Death Forgot).

Marilyn is a member of the Roswell Reads Steering Committee and belongs to two book clubs. A native of Miami, Florida, Marilyn now lives in Roswell, Georgia, with her husband and they have two daughters. She graduated from The University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida, with a Bachelor of Science in Journalism [Public Relations sequence] and a minor in Creative Writing.

When she’s not writing, she enjoys reading, going to movies, eating Italian food and traveling. She often sets her stories in places she’s visited, including Bermuda, Australia and Italy, where she spent six months studying in Florence during her senior year in college.

Where to find Marilyn…

Website | Savvy Authors (22nd of each month) | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads