Spotlight on Larry Farmer

Posted on January 21, 2015 by Joanne Guidoccio

I am happy to feature The Wild Rose Press author Larry Farmer and his recent release, I Will Be the One.

Here’s Larry!

I grew up needing artistic expression. Writing was at the top of the list. I was too shy to express much of my writing publicly, but did finally take a college course in creative writing as an elective. And did well. I began to write long novels that I would throw away. I was never satisfied with them. As I got older I was afraid I would never pursue this dream/obsession even with the desire still so strong inside. Finally, I joined a writer’s group. I wrote and was critiqued as well as critiqued others. I also wrote on my own outside of this group, just trying to learn my craft. Finally I tried to get some of my stories published and was successful in that endeavor.

I Will Be The One is my second contract, my first novel, to be published with The Wild Rose Press. I am very excited about it since it is historically based, true story, first person account of my days in the Peace Corps in the Philippines during the last turbulent years of the Marcos regime. I was there for insurrections, assassinations, and the unbelievably awesome People’s Power revolution. It was made for Hollywood and that somehow seems to have gotten bypassed for all the drama and significance it brought forth. I want people to know. Here it is. I wrote an account of the day-to-day in the barrios and the Cold War aspects of it too. The Philippines, 1984-1986.

Blurb

Following his stint as a Marine during the Vietnam war, James needs something beyond the mundane conformity of his life in Vicksburg, Mississippi. As he enters the Peace Corps, a political reformer named Benigno Aquino is gunned down in the turbulent Philippines, half a world away. James has no idea fate will interweave events for him to witness the overthrow of a dictatorship and the miracle of a bloodless revolution.

Lois has joined the Peace Corps to explore the world outside her staid Ohio upbringing. As a teacher in a remote village she totes her own household water from a distant source, learns to accept locals wandering through her hut at all hours, and even becomes accustomed to gunfire in the jungle night. But when the visit of a suspected spy to her village threatens their lives, she and her friend James must make a decision of lasting import.

Bio

Born in Harlingen, Texas, on October 7, 1948, where I grew up and worked on a cotton farm, I graduated from Harlingen High School in 1966. I attended Texas A&M beginning in Summer 1966. In January 1970 I dropped out to enlist in the United States Marine Corps, where I served as an enlisted man, attaining the rank of Sergeant, with an honorable discharge after three years.

I worked as a computer programmer afterwards in Houston and as a civil servant for a US Air Force Base in Frankfurt, Germany. I traveled and worked in Europe for two years, which included flying to Israel in October 1973 to aid the Jewish State in the Yom Kippur War. I was also in Greece in the summer of 1974 when the war between Greece and Turkey erupted over Cyprus. I was stuck on the Greek Island of Ios for part of that war, until I managed to catch a boat to Athens just in time to watch the Greek military dictatorship fold.

I returned to Texas A&M in the Fall of 1976 to finish my Bachelor’s degree in Business Management and returned to Europe afterwards, and then also to Israel, where I lived for almost a year. I later taught English in Taiwan before returning home to get a Master’s degree in Agricultural Economics in 1980, which I received in 1982. I joined the US Peace Corps in 1984 and served for three years in the Philippines. In 1987 I began work for the Swiss government as a computer programmer until 1998. I have worked in the IT department of Texas A&M since 1998. I have three children, am presently divorced, and am Jewish.

Where to find Larry…

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Amazon

Tackling Table Topics

Posted on January 20, 2015 by Joanne Guidoccio

During the Table Topics session of each meeting, I take note of all well-crafted responses. While most toastmasters use personal anecdotes relevant to the topic, others like to start with a quotation that touches on the theme.

I enjoy reading and collecting inspirational quotations, but I don’t think I could come up with the most appropriate one in the space of forty to sixty seconds. And truthfully, I don’t want to waste precious seconds trying to recall a specific quotation.

When I expressed this concern to several seasoned toastmasters, they advised me to memorize a few short, all-purpose quotations that could be used to begin almost any impromptu topic. And not to worry about the author’s name. Simply start with “This reminds me of my favorite quotation…”

My List

Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud. Maya Angelou

Be the change that you wish to see in the world. Mahatma Gandhi

Don’t wait. The time will never be just right. Napoleon Hill

No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. Eleanor Roosevelt

Tough times never last, but tough people do. Dr. Robert Schuller

Change your thoughts and you change your world. Norman Vincent Peale

Keep your face to the sunshine and you can never see the shadow. Helen Keller

You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. Wayne Gretzky

Life begins at the end of your comfort zone. Neale Donald Walsch

Don’t follow the crowd, let the crowd follow you. Margaret Thatcher

Do you have a favorite quotation? Please share…

An Extraordinary Ordinary Life

Posted on January 16, 2015 by Joanne Guidoccio

Welcome to my Second Acts Series!

Today, we have author Susan Van Kirk sharing her rich and varied life experiences and introducing her debut novel, Three May Keep a Secret.

Here’s Susan!

I have lived an extraordinary, ordinary life. It has been ordinary in the sense that I grew up and never permanently moved more than twenty miles from my home town. I married, divorced, and raised three children; I taught 4,000 high school and college students over forty-four years; and now I am starting a Second Act as a writer. That would be the ordinary part. Extraordinary applies when I look back and see the blessings and people who have come into my life and made it richer in so many ways.

But it took more than one turn in the road to reach my Second Act.

Born right after World War II, I grew up in a world where women had few choices, and to marry was a lofty life goal. I mention this because today that stifling world seems so far away, but my generation and my thoughts were certainly shaped by that culture. I chose to be a teacher—a mundane choice given the times—but, in actuality, to be a teacher was all I ever wanted to do.

People would say I have had an ordinary life teaching school in a small town in west central Illinois. I married right out of college, and five years later I began having children. But when that marriage fell apart, I was thrown into a turbulent time of raising children myself, working full time on a small salary, and struggling with bills. Teaching high school students and helping them with their own struggles restored me. It gave my life meaning and put it back in balance. Eventually, I got on my feet financially, often working summer jobs to make ends meet, and my children went off to college.

After the last child left for college, I went to graduate school for an advanced degree. It was a scary proposition, living on my own in a university town and knowing no one. After all, I had left my parent’s house to reside in my husband’s house, and then I had stayed there raising children. But I discovered I loved my new-found freedom, and I finished in three summers. This degree enabled me to teach on the college level, and I left a high school job I’d loved and taught college students who wondered if they might want to be teachers. I enjoyed helping future teachers see a profession that might give meaning to their lives as it had mine. Eventually, it was time to retire, so in 2011, I left teaching.

Then, what to do? Because of my age I have spoken to people who decide—gnashing their teeth—that it’s time to retire, but they aren’t sure what to do with that time. I was never one of those people.

Act II began, but it had its roots in Act I.

Back in 2006, I told a story in my education class, an inspirational story about how a college friend of mine who had died in Viet Nam had literally reached through my life and helped a student of mine find direction in his own life. I did, and still do, believe that teaching puts a person in a situation where she can influence lives forever in a positive way. One of my college students said I should put that story in writing, so I did, and Teacher Magazine published it. I had a good time writing “War and Remembrance,” and the magazine also put an audio file of my voice reading my story on their website.

And then the extraordinary happened. From all parts of the country and even abroad, I heard from former students I hadn’t seen in years. After all, now we had the internet. One of them wrote, “I heard your voice and it was just like coming home.” They touched my heart again. Encouraging me to put more stories in writing, they reminded me of conversations we’d had, and moments when our lives had intersected in extraordinary ways.

And so I wrote a memoir, in 2010, called The Education of a Teacher (Including Dirty Books and Pointed Looks), a book about the realities of classroom teaching. I used fifteen stories from those years, some of them stranger than fiction, some of them sad, and some of them funny. While I was writing, I contacted former students who helped with the details and convinced me I was remembering correctly. And each exchange was a gift. As I look back on those stories now, they document an extraordinary life, a life that did—in a humble way—have an influence on the lives of others. That book led to Act II.

A month ago in December, 2014, Five Star Publishing produced my first cozy mystery, Three May Keep a Secret. Not surprisingly, it is the story of a high school English teacher, Grace Kimball, who lives in a small town called Endurance. She often sees her former students, and the reader laughs at what she remembers about their crazy antics in high school. But it is, after all, a murder mystery, and I have had to research and interview police chiefs, coroners, detectives, fire chiefs, and doctors. I’ve learned a whole new vocabulary of death in my new act. My main character, Grace Kimball, is a warm, interesting person, but she finds herself in the middle of a scary, dark place when the murderer sets his/her sights on Grace. She is also haunted by a past event, and her memory of this will not let her go. Five Star has now picked up my second mystery in the Endurance series, Marry in Haste, for 2016, and I am currently starting the third.

Act II is funny and fulfilling. I love talking to audiences, giving out surprise door prizes, and listening to the many people who come to book signings. I also feel happiest when I’m neck deep in research and trying to figure out how to solve a plot problem. Now, instead of teaching people, I’m entertaining them. But I’m still remaining true to what I did for forty-four years: I’m getting people to read. Between Pinterest, Facebook, GoodReads, and my website, I hear from many of those people whose lives mingled with mine, and I am gratified to think that I have led an ordinary life, but in many ways it has been blessed with extraordinary riches.

And, I’m laughing my way through Act II.

Blurb

Grace Kimball, recently retired teacher in the small town of Endurance, Illinois, is haunted by a dark, past event, an experience so terrifying she has never been able to put it behind her.

When shoddy journalist, Brenda Norris, is murdered in a suspicious fire, Grace is hired by the newspaper editor, Jeff Maitlin, to fill in for Brenda, researching the town’s history. Unfortunately, that past hides dark secrets. When yet a second murder occurs, Grace’s friend, T.J. Sweeney, a homicide detective, races against time to find a killer. Even Grace’s life will be threatened by her worst nightmare.

Against a backdrop of the town’s 175th founder’s celebration, Grace and Jeff find an undeniable attraction for each other. But can she trust this mystery man with no past?

Where to find Susan…

Website/Blog | Facebook | Pinterest | Goodreads

Joanne here!

Susan, thank you for sharing your inspiring and motivating experiences. The storyline for Three May Keep a Secret sounds delicious. I’m putting it on my TBR list.

Just Walk Away

Posted on January 15, 2015 by Joanne Guidoccio

It sounds so simple and so easy, but it takes guts to give up your idea (or someone else’s) of the “perfect life” and change direction. This is especially true if you or a close relative has invested time and money into a venture that once fitted your vision.

Walking away from any well-worn path can be a long and painful struggle for everyone involved. It helps to be surrounded by supportive family and friends, but ultimately the decision to change direction is yours and yours alone. Before embarking on this difficult and challenging journey, take time to reflect on your present situation and ask yourself the hard questions:

What do you really want?

Are you prepared to choose courage over comfort? By the way…you can’t have both.

If you need inspiration, follow the journeys of twelve high achievers who took time to reflect upon their less-than-desirable situations, make the decisions to leave, and then launch spectacular second acts.

Clean Jokes for Toastmasters

Posted on January 13, 2015 by Joanne Guidoccio

Use one of these jokes at your next meeting.

*********************

A doctor was taking her four-year-old to preschool. The doctor’s stethoscope was on the car seat and her little girl picked it up and began playing with it.

“Be still, my heart,” thought the physician, “my daughter wants to follow in my footsteps!”

Then the child spoke into the instrument: “Welcome to McDonald’s. May I take your order?”

*********************

Danny had recently passed his driving test and decided to ask his father if there was any chance of him getting a car for his birthday.

“Okay,” said his father. “I’ll tell you what I’ll do. If you can get your grades up to A’s and B’s, study your Bible, and get your hair cut, I’ll consider the matter very seriously.”

A couple of weeks later, Danny went back to his father who said, “I’m really impressed by your commitment to your studies. Your grades are excellent and the work you’ve put into your Bible studies is very encouraging. However, I have to say I’m very disappointed that you haven’t had your hair cut yet.”

Danny quickly responded, “While studying the Bible, I noticed that Moses, John the Baptist, Samson, and even Jesus had long hair.”

“I’m aware of that,” replied his father, “but did you also notice they walked wherever they went?”

Source: St. Joseph’s Church bulletin

*********************

My husband and I were standing in line at the ATM in Lucca, a small town in Italy. History, music, religion, and art surrounded us, including ramparts, a statue of the composer Giacomo Puccini, and a beautiful cathedral.

Ahead of us, two tourists were chatting, “You can always tell we’re near civilization,” said one to the other, “when there’s a bank machine close by.”

Source: Violet Hughes, Reader’s Digest

My Word for 2015

Posted on January 9, 2015 by Joanne Guidoccio

This past week, many of my online friends announced their words for 2015. While I had never participated in this annual exercise, I realized (much to my surprise) that I had inadvertently stumbled upon my own word for the year.

Toward the tail end of 2014, I encountered several personal and health challenges. My first responses were negative ones that fortunately did not linger beyond a day or two. I purposely chose to end the woe-is-me talk and steer clear of “whatever” or “It is what it is.”

Instead, my thoughts gravitated toward a different word, an old-fashioned word – ONWARD. The idea of moving forward, despite less-than-desirable circumstances, inspired me to consult other health professionals, tweak habits, and jump-start a prolonged writer’s block.

While many of my issues have been resolved, I have chosen to keep ONWARD as my go-to word for 2015, maybe even longer.

ONWARD ♦ AVANTI ♦ EN AVANT ♦ WEITER ♦ ADELANTE ♦ AVANTE

Have you selected a word for 2015?

From Emotional Roller-Coaster to Emotional Freedom

Posted on January 7, 2015 by Joanne Guidoccio

Welcome to my Second Acts Series!

Today, we have life coach Catherine Simmons sharing intimate details of the challenges and triumphs she has experienced on her life journey.

Here’s Catherine!

As a kid I was a bit of a dreamer. I was very keen to believe in the impossible even though my parents are very practical people. My favorite show on TV was “The Tomorrow People”, and it was this show that tuned me in to science fiction, and the possibility of humans evolving special powers – like telepathy.

Growing up I was always the quiet one, and still am in many situations. Even so, I loved drama and singing in the choir. I never thought of these as practical career moves though, instead I pursued my love of biology and how life works.

After leaving high school, I followed a degree course in Applied Biology. This appeared to be a very sensible undertaking as it wasn’t purely academic and would allow me to get a “proper” job. My first paid employment after graduating was as a lab assistant, where my boss was leading research into muscular dystrophy. While there, I gained practical experience in the principles of how genes are expressed to make our physical bodies the way they are. I also obtained a Master’s degree in Molecular Genetics by research, and could have continued my studies….

….but I didn’t feel like I was making any practical inroads towards helping to cure disease. It seemed like there was a lot of study of “parts” of the biology, and no way to really fix it. I was disenchanted, so I took a job at a Biotech company that was in the research stage of drug development. This was surely going to be a way to help people! However, although everyone worked really hard we didn’t get any closer to success, and the company folded after I’d been there five years. During that time I’d developed a knack for being a support person and facilitator, and was lucky to land a position at one of the UK’s red-brick Universities. The position involved being lab support services manager for their shiny new biotech incubator building. It was this third job that was the start of my metamorphosis.

The Millennium had arrived, and it was a time of excitement, busyness, and life events: both my husband and I had new jobs, we moved house (before selling our home) and had two children under three (one of which who was not impressed about going to sleep at night!). On top of that we had begun plans to immigrate to Canada. My job led me to suffer the stress of inertia, due to University politics and the newness of the operation, and my mind was constantly engaged in trying to come up with new ideas and solutions. Eventually the constant thinking and lack of sleep led me to experience a psychotic break.

Having never taken drugs in college, suddenly being thrown into a psychedelic experience was bizarre and frightening. All my senses were working overdrive and I was talking ten to the dozen. I dare say that if this has happened to me in the Dark Ages they would have said I was possessed by demons. I ended up in hospital for a while with the other folks who were having an “alternate” experience of life. It was certainly an interesting time. After I was over the initial shock of it, the “little biologist observer” in my head found it more and more interesting – I was getting a new perspective. Sure, I always knew that everything I saw and sensed was perceived in my mind, and was a construction based on past experience…but to realize that this was true first hand, was a revelation. Not only that, there were things that I was perceiving that were outside of my “normal” experience.

The drugs to make me well again brought me down into a deep depression for some time, but when I’d recovered enough to start to begin processing the experience, I became interested in the more metaphysical aspects of life. I decided to take a course in Reiki to see what it was like. To be honest I was skeptical, especially about the attunement process, but to my amazement I could actually feel the energy. I didn’t believe this was any kind of special power, but just that most of us live our lives being unaware of it.

Following our move to Canada I had another breakdown (too much excitement too soon) and was again admitted to the hospital. This time I was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder. Having a fresh label of mental illness was a huge blow, especially as I didn’t have the first clue what it was or what it would mean for me. Despite the diagnosis, I landed a job at an early stage Bio-pharmaceutical company and worked there grudgingly for nine years.

I loved the people I worked with, and enjoyed helping them find solutions to their problems and help with project goals, but in the back of my mind I always knew that this was not a solution to the eradication of disease. The integrated treatment model and personalized medicine with teams of professionals with a variety of skills seemed so much more sensible. Plus, I knew from all my experiences that the mind has such a huge effect on the health of the body and vice versa. The more I researched and thought about the subject in my own time, the more I learned there were others out there who had already gone down this path.

One of my favorite leaders in the field is Bruce Lipton. As a biologist he explains so well how our thoughts affect the way our genes are expressed, and affect our lives so much more that we imagine. I was drawn also to energy psychology and Emotional Freedom Techniques (tapping) as ways to change limiting beliefs and enable not only to cure certain diseases but to move forward from trauma.

After a divorce in 2010 and losing my job in 2012, it seems I was finally in a position to pursue my real dream of becoming a life coach. I took courses in EFT and became a qualified practitioner. There was still something missing though. The EFT was working, but up to a point. I knew about the Law of Attraction and in 2014 enrolled in Christy Whitman’s Quantum Success Coaching Academy – I now feel I’m building on my skill set to really support clients to value themselves for their uniqueness and to design lives for themselves that they love. I really believe that we have the capacity to heal ourselves from depression, lack of self-confidence, overwhelm, trauma and the diseases that are associated with them. The first step we have to take is to ask for help and support to do it.

Bio

Catherine Simmons is a Life Coach, Facilitator and Speaker. In 2014 she was a panelist at Professional Development Week for the Canadian Association of Pharmacy Students and Interns in Vancouver, and a speaker at the Canadian Mental Health Association’s Bottom Line Conference in Calgary. Her mission for 2015 and beyond is to support women to reach their life and career goals in a way that values their individuality and uniqueness.

Where to find Catherine…

Website | Facebook | Twitter (Life Coaching) | Twitter (Mental Health)

Joanne here!

Catherine, thank you for sharing your inspiring journey. Best of luck with your mission for 2015–you are in a unique position to make it a reality.

Celebrating La Befana

Posted on January 6, 2015 by Joanne Guidoccio

Growing up, we celebrated the feast of the Epiphany with a special meal and treats. While my brothers and I attached more significance to Christmas Day, my mother considered January 6th to be the Italian Christmas. She would regale us with tales of la Befana, the friendly witch who delivered gifts to good children and lumps of coal to the bad ones.

While I’ve heard many variations of this tale, I prefer my mother’s version.

The Magi stopped at la Befana’s house on their way to visit Baby Jesus. The gracious hostess treated them to a meal and offered them shelter for the night. She also gave them directions. Touched by her hospitality, the three kings invited her to accompany them on their journey, but she declined. She had too much housework. After they left, she changed her mind and decided to join them. She packed up some toys for the newborn child and set off on the journey. She never caught up to them. Disappointed but practical, she decided to share her bounty of toys. To this day, she delivers her gifts to Italian children on the night before the Epiphany.

Does anyone else celebrate the feast of the Epiphany? I would love to hear about your traditions.

HAPPY BEFANA!

Living Your Dream is Never a Failure

Posted on January 5, 2015 by Joanne Guidoccio

Welcome to my Second Acts Series!

Today, we have Soul Mate author Camille Faye sharing her inspiring journey from existential crisis to literary publication.

Here’s Camille!

In 2009 I went through an existential crisis. My son was 18 months old, I had an adjunct teaching job, and I was driving myself nuts trying to care for him all day while teaching freshman Comp classes at night. If I’d had a full-time teaching job (including that much fuller paycheck), I’d probably have stuck it out, but my course load had dwindled to one class per semester so I was making a pittance.

To me, this situation spelled F-A-I-L-U-R-E.

Up until that point in my life, I’d been the classic overachiever and did well in school, so that’s probably why I chose teaching as a profession in the first place. One hard lesson I learned during this dark-night-of-the-soul period is that life isn’t completely under our control. No matter how perfectly you lay the ground work, you can’t force things to turn out the way you expected.

Since my teaching career wasn’t taking off, I decided to be a stay-at-home-mom. I also decided to pursue a huge bucket list item: write a novel. After all, I’d been a college writing instructor and never seemed to have the time to do my own writing.

Within a year, I’d produced my first version of my novel, Voodoo Butterfly, and gotten a full manuscript request by an agent working in New York City. Needless to say, I was absolutely over the moon. But he didn’t pick it up.

So I joined a critique group, The Lit Ladies, and over the next few years about a dozen agents and editors requested full or partial manuscripts. None were quite the right fit. Doubt crept into my mind and I thought many times about just giving up. And I wrote this…

My cells tried to run the old programming of uncertainty, hopelessness, and inadequacy, resisting the spiritual transformation I’d just undergone. Doubt crawled inside of me like thousands of tiny spiders.

These lines from Voodoo Butterfly describe how my main character, Sophie, feels as she tries to adjust to her new life as the owner of a New Orleans voodoo shop. Sophie, a native Missourian, knows nothing about voodoo or her strange surroundings in the crazy city of NOLA. Over the course of the novel, facing down inner demons becomes Sophie’s specialty and I used her character to help face down the monsters of doubt and despair in my own life.

Becoming a writer was my big picture so, rather than give up on that dream, my stubborn German ancestry kicked in and I kept on. In 2013, I entered a few Romance Writers of America chapter contests and–hallelujah!–Voodoo Butterfly finaled in the NW Houston Lone Star Contest. My publisher and editor, Debby Gilbert of Soul Mate Publishing, was one of the judges and she offered me a contract.

Since the release of the book in October of 2014, Voodoo Butterfly has had steady sales and lots of awesome reviews on Amazon. One day I’d like to get back in the classroom, but for right now I focus on the two life areas that make my soul happy: family life and writing.

I have two bits of advice for anyone who wants to pursue a writing career.

1. Write every day. I commit to 15 minutes which normally turns into about an hour or two.

2. Follow your bliss. If it’s not writing, that’s okay. Whatever it is, when things get hard, do as Dori says and, “Just keep swimming! Just keep swimming! Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming!”

Blurb

When twenty-five-year old Sophie Nouveau inherits her grandmother’s voodoo shop she knows nothing about voodoo. Or her family’s history of Mind Changers who have the power to change evil people into good. To complicate matters, someone doesn’t want Sophie in New Orleans and sends a series of death threats to scare her away from her new enchanted life.

Tipped off by her grandmother’s ghost, Sophie realizes her mind changing spell’s been missing one magic ingredient: true love. If Sophie cannot experience transformative love, she cannot make her spell work, and she will be powerless to fight back when confronted by the one who wants her dead.

Bio

Camille Faye lives in Missouri, loves on her family, and writes during the baby’s nap time. She grew up in a haunted house, which sparked her fascination with the paranormal. Before becoming a writer, she reported for an NBC affiliate and taught writing at universities in Missouri and Illinois. She found the muse for her debut novel, Voodoo Butterfly, during a family trip to New Orleans where she dreamt of a woman who had the power to change evil people good. The Northwest Houston RWA named her novel, Voodoo Butterfly, a 2013 Lone Star Contest finalist. Camille’s stories are inspired by her travels to 27 countries and counting!

Where to find Camille…

Website (Camille) | Website (The Lit Ladies) | Amazon | Twitter | Facebook

Joanne here!

Wow! I could feel goosebumps rising as I read your inspiring and motivating post. Best of luck with Voodoo Butterfly.