This Week's Podcast Will Feature Book That Teaches Readers How to Do Business with the Government

Please plan to join us this Friday as we welcome Ed Benjamin to the Writers in the Sky podcast. Mr. Benjamin will be discussing his new book Cash in on the Obama $3 Trillion Spending Plan!, which provides detailed information about how to offer your goods or services or receive a grant from the government.

Ed Benjamin, a retired Air Force Colonel, has spent years helping clients win over $12 billion in contract awards. Now, he has decided to share his successful approach to proposal writing with everyone. This book is for everyone, from the experienced entrepreneur to the novice who has never before pitched an idea.

Please visit the Amazon website to purchase Cash in on the Obama $3 Trillion Spending Plan!

Title of Document: Book Review
Book Title: Cash in on the Obama $3 Trillion Spending Plan!
Author: Ed Benjamin, Colonel, USAF (retired)
ISBN Number: 978-1-4327-4428-1
Publisher: OutskirtsPress.com
Genre and Target Market: government, business
Publication Date: 2009
Book Length in Pages: 186

Reviewed by: Sarah Moore

I am not revealing any great secret by sharing that our country is struggling through difficult economic conditions. The unemployment rate has risen above ten percent for the first time in more than twenty-five years and home foreclosures continue to be a regular feature on the real estate market. When President Obama took office nearly a year ago, one way that he determined to improve the situation was through a stimulus package that was part of a $3 trillion budget. For many people, all of the activity in Washington, which also funnels down to the state and local governments, seems to be a bureaucratic endeavor removed from their everyday lives. However, a new book by Ed Benjamin explains how any one of us can make money from the spending decisions of our government.

Cash in on the Obama $3 Trillion Spending Plan! is written by a man whose expertise on the subject is undeniable. Ed Benjamin, a retired Air Force Colonel, spent years involved in weapons system procurement for the military and since then has used this knowledge to help clients win over $12 billion in contracts. Whether or not you agree with the policies of President Obama, Benjamin shows you why there is no reason that you cannot benefit from the administration’s decisions.

This book is designed for everyone, from the experienced entrepreneur who is ready to extend his business into the public sector to the person who has never before considered proposing an idea to the government. Benjamin covers every aspect of the proposal process, from explaining how the government buys goods and services and what the basic qualifications are for being a part of this business to how to read a solicitation and write a proposal that gives you the best chance for success. The book even includes a great section listing helpful resources for every state. Once the readers take even a quick look through the contents of Cash in on the Obama $3 Trillion Spending Plan!, I believe they will be convinced that dealing with the government is not such an intimidating prospect after all.

Even though Ed Benjamin is clearly an expert in his field, he does not forget to include the most basic of concepts. The table of contents delineates every paragraph and the topic it features. In fact, the book is written much like a proposal—a proposal that encourages readers to get involved! Website links are shared through the book so that readers are able to retrieve more details about specific programs. There is not a single page in Cash in on the Obama $3 Trillion Spending Plan! that does not help its readers towards their final goal.

Cash in on the Obama $3 Trillion Spending Plan! probably is not a book that you will curl up with for a lazy afternoon at the beach. It’s not even meant to read from beginning to end. Instead, it is a manual that was created to get marked, creased, and well-worn as its owner takes the steps necessary to earn his or her piece of the $3 trillion pie. Ed Benjamin has written an accessible and content-rich tool that is based in experience and an obvious ability to teach. If you are ready to learn a new way to create your own success, get a copy of Cash in on the Obama $3 Trillion Spending Plan! today!

Getting Ahead in Your Corporate Career

Joe Lavelle was my podcast guest on June 19. He has some wonderful ideas to share about getting ahead in your corporate career. Not everyone has time to listen to a half-hour podcast, so for those who would rather read, I am posting the basic questions and answers he and I (Yvonne Perry) covered during the interview.

Accelerate Your Career Success The Employee Handbook That Your Employer Hasn’t Given You is for career-oriented professionals who want to accelerate their career growth and find strategies, knowledge, and tools to get promotions and raises faster.

Joseph R Lavelle (Joe) is an accomplished management consulting executive and business coach assisting with the technology challenges of diverse organizations including health delivery networks, health plans, healthcare software vendors, and several Fortune 500 companies. Joe has dedicated his career as a strategic business advisor to ensure that his clients achieve maximum performance. You will find Joe and his book at www.ActAsIfBlog.com.

1. In our current economy, what motivated you to write a book on career acceleration?
Actually I completed writing most of the book before the economy started to collapse, but the strategies and principles that I present in the book are independent of the economic climate, as it is always appropriate to seek to be the best you can be.

I was motivated to write the book because I want to help accelerate the careers of more than the people that I know and manage or coach personally. I want to impact a much bigger and broader audience.

2. Tell us a little bit about your book and what might we learn from it?
Quite simply, the book describes the best strategies for accelerating your career growth including getting promoted faster and getting bigger raises. I have developed and refined the strategies over the past 20 years and have used them personally. I have also mentored their use in hundreds of my direct reports and coaching clients.

3. Who will benefit most by reading Accelerate Your Career Success, The Employee Handbook that Your Employer Hasn’t Given You?
The strategies presented are intended to benefit all professionals who want to accelerate their career growth and who are working at companies where career advancement is possible. The strategies are equally effective in large companies with mature human resources and performance management systems and in small companies with little career development infrastructure.

4. What is so unique about the Act As If approach?
Great question! I used to ask the same question of those that worked for me and those that I coached because I thought everyone would have a similar approach to accelerating their careers. But my network convinced me that the Act As If approach is unique and that I should write a book and start speaking about it.

First, the strategies are proven and have been refined over my 20 year career. I continue to have a “day job” because I really love to help people grow faster and I really love that my team helps me to continue to innovate and adapt the strategies.

Second, since my very first management position (of which I was a total failure by the way), I became passionate about learning the inner workings of performance management at my companies. To be honest, I wanted to earn more money and have more responsibility and I learned that mastering the performance management processes of my companies gave me a competitive advantage. Since that time, I have been integrally involved in creating and maintaining the performance management systems not only for my companies but for my clients as well.

Third, I learned early on that I would get promoted faster if my team was the most (measurably) productive team. So I have put tremendous energy and time in coaching my team to help them be more productive and to show them how to measure that productivity.


5. How do you differentiate a successful person relative to someone is unsuccessful? What is your definition of success?
I believe that success is defined in individual terms, though most people I know define success by how much money the make and how fast they get promoted, at least in the early part of their career. I believe that success is simply achieving the goals that one sets forth.

I get great pleasure from helping people identify their goals and achieve them and I get even greater pleasure from “raising the bar” and watching people exceed their goals in ways they could never imagine.

6. Can you summarize what it takes for a professional to be successful in the world today?

Sure, first I believe that anyone can be successful and those people that are not are probably their own worst enemy.

Successful people do the following:

• They set goals and measure their progress toward that goal
• They seek and get real and honest feedback about their progress, especially the things they are doing wrong or need to improve
• They are generally optimistic and have a contagious positive attitude (the Act As If It Were Impossible to Fail attitude)
• They are voracious readers and learners And
• Most implement many of the strategies in my book!

7. Are there common characteristics of those that do not succeed?
I think so. As I mentioned a minute ago, many people are their own worst enemies. Negative attitudes, entitlement, and laziness will all lead to someone falling short of their goals.

8. Is it possible for everyone to achieve their dream of success?
I believe so. Because of my passion and success in career acceleration, I have often been assigned to manage underperformers. A great percentage of those people are very successful today as a result of implementing the Act As If approach.

9. What are your suggestions for career development during a recession?
My suggestions are not much different than in great economic times. The most successful people find unique and better ways to serve their clients or customers met or unmet needs.

Recessions can create more opportunities because of the financial pressures on clients or customers require them to do more with less. If you can help a client do that , you will be successful. If you can help MANY clients do that, you will be wildly successful.

10. What impact has technology (instant messaging, social networking, blogging, etc) had on the ability to accelerate success?
People can network like never before. They can access people and information that they would have never been able to before. Those that take maximum advantage of existing technologies with leapfrog their peers.

I would also say to be careful in the area of social networking. As anything else, it must be done within the context of a greater plan or you could spend a lot of time connecting and interacting and not enough time getting your job done.

11. What have you learned from writing your book?
Quite a bit actually. In my research and marketing efforts, I have connected with an incredible number of brilliant people that are as passionate as me about helping people succeed. My ideas and the book have benefited a great deal from these new influencers in my life and in my thinking.

Additionally, I was initially terrified about writing because I believed that I was not a very good writer. To overcome my fear, I focused on “what I had to say” instead of how effective a writer I was and that really helped me.

Finally, I learned that it also “takes a village” to get a book to the market, and though I have been deeply involved in every step of the process, I have worked with some phenomenally talented people to create the final product. So I now believe that I understand each step of the book business and I have access to a network that I will tap more thoroughly in the future.
12. Will you be writing more books? If so, what will they be about?
Yes , I have several concepts in mind that will build upon the Act As If brand and its strengths.


Let’s switch gears and talk about how your book was published and what you are doing to market it.

1. Who published your book and how has your experience with them been?
I decided to work with Booksurge because their process seemed pretty structured. Additionally, I liked the fact that they were an Amazon company and had tight integration with www.Amazon.com. Because I am a rookie and Booksurge’s processes are a little impersonal, my experience has been a little rocky.

2. Tell us ways you are promoting your book? Have they been successful?
I am starting to get really busy on the marketing and since the book has not been released I am not sure what will be successful. I have done an incredible amount of social networking the past year so that I am increasingly becoming known in the career strategist market. I am working with Writers In The Sky on a marketing program and I am advertising in key places that professionals “congregate”. Additionally, I have started to blog at http://www.ActAsIfBlog.com

3. Can you give aspiring authors words of advice towards getting published?
Getting published is really easy. You can do it yourself for under $1,000 these days. So my advice is to get busy, start writing your first book. And then self-publish it.

You will learn so much along the way that will be important to future efforts. Additionally, you will hopefully build a tremendous following that will help you “sell “ your future books to well known publishers if that is what you want.

4. What future projects do you have in the works?
I just joined a start-up Healthcare Management and IT Consulting firm which is keeping me very busy as I continue to oversee my Coaching and Recruiting business, Results First Consulting.

So, right now I am putting 100% of my additional energy into marketing Act As If It Were Impossible to Fail and I hope to learn a great deal about how to effectively market a career advancement book.
5. Where is your book available?
It will be available at http://www.ActAsIfBlog.com and http://www.Amazon.com

My Virtual Blog Tour for The Sid Series Continues This Week!

My virtual blog tour for The Sid Series ~ A Collection of Holistic Stories for Children continues!

The Sid Series is a collection of body-mind-spirit stories that focus on life skills such as overcoming fear, helping others, being true to one’s self, following inner guidance, caring for the body, having self-worth, appreciating diversity, dealing with change, accepting death, being environmentally conscious, and using spiritual gifts. http://thesidseries.com/

Here are the stops for this week. Please leave a comment on the blogs that you find interesting. For more information about marketing books via virtual book tour, see http://www.onlinepromotionmadeeasy.com/

• Sunday, November 29 Amy, the owner of Equinaut and Vitesis has invited Yvonne to stop by and share an article titled, “The Writing of a Children’s Book.” http://www.equinaut.net/.
• On Monday, November 30, Carolyn Howard-Johnson’s blog, The New Book Review http://www.thenewbookreview.blogspot.com/, will feature a book review written by Katie Chalfont that highlights how The Sid Series has influenced her three children.
• Tuesday, December 1 Barbara Techel and Frankie the Walk 'N Roll Dog welcome Yvonne at http://www.frankiethewalknrolldog.blogspot.com/. You won’t want to miss this article on pet death.
• Wednesday, December 2 Shayne Packer of Grandparents TLC http://grandparentstlc.com/ will host Yvonne as she offers an article about young age grandparenting.
• Thursday, December 3 Dallas Woodburn’s Writing Life http://dallaswoodburn.blogspot.com/ will introduce authors to Skype an Author Network’s virtual classroom feature.
• Friday, December 4 Elena Dorothy Bowman will post an article titled "Why I wrote The Sid Series." This article features why Yvonne wrote the book and discusses some of the spiritual gifts Sidney manifested at an early age. http://elenadorothybowmansbooks.blogspot.com/
• Saturday, December 5 Yvonne will upload to Youtube a book trailer for “A Powerful Potion,” one of the stories in The Sid Series. Jennifer Brown will post Yvonne’s “Love List” at http://www.jenniferbrownya.com/

Please share this information with others by clicking on the share button below.

New Author Julia Booker Shares Powerful Story of Survival

Writers in the Sky welcomes writer Julia Booker to our podcast series today to discuss her new book I'm Still Standing. In this book, Booker tells the story of Jenny and Erin Baker, a mother and daughter who experience every type of abuse imaginable. Jenny has Erin at a young age and falls into a series of destructive relationships. Erin has to make a decision to change when she realizes that she is repeating the painful patterns of her mother. While I'm Still Standing details lives that are filled with heartbreak, it also shares a story of hope and determination.

During the interview, Julia Booker will discuss why I'm Still Standing was such a personal and emotional book for her to write, why she believes women stay in abusive relationships, and what she hopes her readers will take away from reading the novel.

Click here to listen... to the entire interview.

Please visit the Amazon website to purchase I'm Still Standing.

Blast Off! The Surefire Success Plan to Launch Your Dreams into Reality

I am working with Author Allison Maslan on her January Amazon book launch for her new book Blast Off! The Surefire Success Plan to Launch Your Dreams into Reality. Blast Off is a truly holistic approach to success in life, and I really believe that most writers would resonate with its approach.

Go to http://www.myblastoff.com/booklaunch/ and sign up for the Blast Off launch reminder. That way, you won't miss the chance to receive all the great bonus gifts when you purchase her book.

While you are there, you can learn about the fantastic contest Allison is having. The winner will receive a free 1-on-1 life & career makeover with life and business strategist, Allison Maslan.

Below is her fan page on Facebook. There, you will find a countdown with daily information to help you participate in the contest, the book launch, and in creating the life you want and deserve!

Yvonne M. Perry is a fan of

Blast Off! The Surefire Success Plan To Launch Your Dreams Into Reality

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A Collection of Holistic Stories Explores Spiritual Sensitivity in Children

Write On! Publishing and Author Yvonne Perry Announce the Release of a Book of Holistic Stories that Help Parents and Teachers Understand Spiritually-gifted Children.

NASHVILLE, TN—November 29, 2009—In time for holiday gift giving, Write On! Publishing releases The Sid Series a new book of holistic stories for spiritually-gifted children of the New Age.

Some of today’s children are showing early signs of a having a deep understanding of spiritual concepts. But not many parents, grandparents, and teachers know how to relate to the spiritually-gifted child, much less how to help him or her develop spiritual intellect and use these mystical gifts properly. Using adorable and entertaining stories, The Sid Series gives examples of how these gifted youngsters experience the paranormal in their everyday lives. From seeing ghosts in his closet at night to healing with herbs infused with the magic of the full moon, Sid and Von-Von explore some of the many ways spiritual children of all ages express their unique and powerful views.

Inspired by adventures Yvonne has had with her first-born grandson named Sidney, each story in The Sid Series (ISBN: 9780982572207) focuses on skills such as overcoming fear, being environmentally conscious, helping others, being true to one’s self, and following inner guidance. This collection of body-mind-spirit stories highlights unique lessons about love, acceptance, self-worth, caring for the body, diversity, facing fears, dealing with change, experiencing the death of a pet, using spiritual gifts, and psychic experiences today’s children exhibit. There’s even a book about recycling that alludes toward organ donation.

“I enjoyed teaching my own children and my class at a mother’s day out program. Those days were filled with religious doctrine that didn’t fit my personal experience as a mystic,” says Yvonne Perry, the author of The Sid Series. “Today, I am the grandmother of a child who has exhibited the very same spiritual gifts for which I was shunned in the church. Now that I have found a metaphysical path that embraces my spiritual experiences, I see things much differently. I wrote The Sid Series to help others understand children who have experiences that may seem out of the ordinary.”

Yvonne holds a Bachelor of Science in Metaphysics from American Institute of Holistic Theology. She is a freelance writer who has specialized in articles and books that guide people on a spiritual path. She is also the publisher and editor at Write On! Publishing and the owner of Writers in the Sky Creative Writing Services. Yvonne and her team assist people with writing and editing projects, as well as media releases. She has also ghosted, written, or edited more than forty books.

Any parent or teacher with a child who speaks of imaginary friends, reincarnation, or past lives will find guidance and inspiration in The Sid Series. To preview each of the twelve Sid Series stories, and purchase individual e-books or the entire collection, visit http://TheSidSeries.com.

###
Contact
Yvonne Perry
(615) 415-9861
http://writersinthesky.com/contact.php

How to Activate and Listen to the Voice Within

I attended a lecture by author Janet Conner at Unity Church last week. Not only was Janet entertaining, I learned about soul writing and I’d like to share a few writing tips with you. She instructed us on how to write from theta brain waves that support creativity rather than beta waves associated with stress (where many people live their daily lives).

I’ll have Janet on my podcast in early February, but if you want to get a jumpstart on writing down your soul, get Janet’s book, Writing Down Your Soul: How to Activate and Listen to the Extraordinary Voice Within on Amazon.com.

Try this writing exercise using these seven steps:

1. Set your intention to connect with the voice inside you
2. Address the voice directly: Dear ______ (fill in the blank with whatever name you want)
3. Write by hand
4. Activate all five senses. Vision, hearing, and touch are automatic in this process, but include a candle, incense, aroma oil, or flowers for smell and water for taste
5. Ask open-ended questions as you write.
6. Write fast; don't stop to correct grammar, spelling, punctuation (very hard for me as an editor). Just let the words flow from spirit to paper without the interference of logic or correctness.
7. Be grateful; say thank you.

Let me know how you fair with this. Leave a comment to let me know you've tried it and what you experienced.

Powerful Book about Survival to Be Featured on Friday's Podcast

Please plan to join us this Friday as Writers in the Sky welcomes first-time author Julia Booker as she discusses her book I'm Still Standing. This novel tells the story of mother and daughter Jenny and Erin Baker. The two women endure every imaginable type of abuse, including rape, beatings, and emotional cruelty from the men in their lives. The book is filled with heartbreak, but also shows readers that they can survive through even the most difficult circumstances.

Julia Booker does not have a formal background in writing, but felt compelled to publish this very personal story. She shows a great ability to capture her readers' attention with the graphic but realistic depiction of her characters. Julia shares at the beginning of I'm Still Standing that she hopes her work while encourage women to leave their own abusive relationships.

Please visit the Amazon website to purchase I'm Still Standing.

Title of Document: Book Review
Book Title: I’m Still Standing
Author: Julia Booker
ISBN: 978-1-4327-4263-8
Publisher: OutskirtsPress.com
Genre and Target Market: memoir, abuse
Publication Date: 2009
Book Length in Pages: 125
Reviewed By: Sarah Moore


Books certainly have the ability to transport you into the lives of their characters, which may be a thrilling adventure, a terrifying experience, or something in between. A period piece can whisk the reader away to the royal courts in Europe or the frontiers of the Wild West. As you turn the pages of a science-fiction novel, you may be able to close your eyes and envision yourself exploring a new galaxy. And then, sometimes, there are those books that just hit you in the gut with raw emotion … plain and simple. You are handed the heartbreak and pain that a supposedly fictional person is living and the feelings could not be more real. Such is the case with the first release by author Julia Booker, entitled I’m Still Standing. The gripping story shared within its pages will affect you long after the final words are read.

I’m Still Standing tells the story, primarily, of a mother and daughter who find themselves caught in lives of constant abuse. Jenny Baker gives birth to her daughter, Erin, when she is just a young teenager and soon begins to numb the regrets of her life through drugs and alcohol. The men who Jenny brings into her home are abusive in all possible respects to both her and her daughter, as the reader is brought into scenes of beatings, rapes, and emotional cruelty. As Erin develops into a young woman, she is dismayed to find herself in danger of following the same path in life that her mother has chosen.

Julia Booker’s writing is so powerful because each word seems to come at the reader from a place of genuine and enduring pain. The author mentions on the back cover of I’m Still Standing that her book depicts a true story, which makes each episode of abuse and neglect even more compelling. There is no attempt to sugarcoat the harsh reality that exists in the lives of both Jenny and Erin. The scenes of violence are graphic, the language used between those who should be in loving relationships is explicit and hurtful, and all of the shattered pieces of Erin’s life are not brought back together with a shiny bow by the end of the book. Yet, through it all, the reader is also given a sense that there is reason to have hope. After all, as the title points out, Erin remains standing and growing stronger through her ordeals.

If you are looking for a light read to enjoy while on vacation, I’m Still Standing is probably not the right book for you. If, however, you are ready to make an emotional investment in women who are repeatedly told they are not worth the time, you should check out this initial release by new author Julia Booker. I’m Still Standing is a gut-wrenching literary experience that sends an important message to all of its readers, but especially women, about the damage of staying in an abusive situation. Hopefully, as the author encourages in her introductory letter to her readers, the words of I’m Still Standing will result in at least one reader deciding to leave an abusive situation. I cannot imagine a more important impact for a book to have.

The Sid Series Virtual Blog Tour Stops for This Week!

I hope you are enjoying being part of my virtual blog tour for The Sid Series ~ A Collection of Holistic Stories for Children. Here are the stops for this week. Please stop by and leave a comment on the blogs that you find interesting.

Sunday, November 22 Janet Riehl is hosting a question and answer interview about Yvonne's process for writing, publishing, and marketing The Sid Series http://www.riehlife.com/.

Monday, November 23 Yvonne will be the radio guest of Maxine Thompson on Dr. Maxine Show http://www.maxinethompson.com/.

The Shift Guru Barbara Joye http://www.theshiftguru.com/ will feature part 1 of a 3-part article on how Yvonne shifted from religion to metaphysics when her grandson, Sidney, (for whom The Sid Series was written) started manifesting psychic gifts.

Tuesday, November 24 Yvonne will also be Suzanne Lieurance's radio guest on Book Bites for Kids http://www.blogtalkradio.com/bookbitesforkids

Wednesday, November 25 The Shift Guru Barbara Joye http://www.theshiftguru.com/ will feature part 2 of a 3-part article on how Yvonne shifted from religion to metaphysics when her grandson started manifesting psychic gifts.

Thursday, November 26 Yvonne will be visiting Karen and Robyn - Writing for Children at http://karenandrobyn.blogspot.com/ where Karen Cioffi is the hostess. Yvonne will tell how she self-published The Sid Series.

Friday, November 27 Stephanie Ward will post information about Yvonne’s book on Stark Raving Bibliophile http://starkravingbibliophile.blogspot.com/. The Shift Guru Barbara Joye http://www.theshiftguru.com/ will feature part 2 of a 3-part article on how Yvonne shifted from religion to metaphysics when her grandson started manifesting psychic gifts. We hope to see you on both blogs that day.

Saturday, November 28 Yvonne will post a press/media release about the book's debut. This will go to multiple online sources.

For more information about The Sid Series, please see http://thesidseries.com/. To purchase the book on Amazon.com, please visit http://tinyurl.com/AmazonSidSeries

New Author C. Michael Thompson Discusses His Book Today

C. Michael Thompson brings his experience as a teacher into his first novel, Twinsational. This book, which is aimed at readers between the ages of ten and thirteen, focuses on one day in the life of twins Mark and Michelle. The brother and sister team encounter the school bully, first crushes, and an episode that has one of them on the run from teachers and the principal for most of the day.

Twinsational shares important messages about friendship, honesty, and the special relationship that exists between siblings.

Mr. Thompson will be discussing how he developed the idea for his book, the person to whom he dedicated this first release and why, and the plans he has for more books in the future.

Click here to listen... to the entire interview.

Please visit the Amazon website to purchase Twinsational.

Are you following me on my blog tour?

My tour stops will provide interesting and unique information about my book, how and why I wrote it, how I published it, and some little known tidbits about me as a real human (and not just a freelance writer, editor, and marketing guru). It will also be an opportunity for authors to see how a virtual blog tour works and give you some ideas about what to post on your own tour. See the tour schedule at http://tinyurl.com/SidTour.

I encourage you and your friends with children to subscribe to the RSS feed you don't miss any of the stops! Tomorrow I'll be at http://www.bloggingauthors.com/

sharing an article titled “Does Your Child Have An Imaginary Friend?”

Purchase The Sid Series book on Amazon! http://tinyurl.com/AmazonSidSeries or learn more at http://TheSidSeries.com

Yvonne Perry

The Future That Brought Her Here: A Memoir of a Call to Awaken by Deborah DeNicola

The Future That Brought Her Here: A Memoir of a Call to Awaken by Deborah DeNicola

Today we welcome Deborah DeNicola to our writing blog. She is discussing her book The Future That Brought Her Here; Memoir of a Call to Awaken.


YVONNE: Tell me something about yourself and your writing background.
DEBORAH: I’ve been writing since I was 7, poems, stories at first. I’ve been a free-lancer, so I’ve really written in every genre. I’ve published 5 collections of poetry and have won, among other awards, a National Endowment of the Arts fellowship for my poetry in 1997. I compiled and edited a poetry anthology, Orpehus & Company; an anthology of contemporary poetry on Greek mythology from The University Press of New England. Another collection of my poems, Original Human, is forthcoming from WordTech Press in 2010. None of my books are self-published.

I consider myself foremost a poet; I mean my master degree is in poetry, but currently, in addition to poems, I am putting together a book of essays on Dream Image Work, the technique I use for understanding dreams. I was trained by a Dutch Jungian Analyst, Robert Bosnak, who founded “embodied dreaming.”

I’ve got a short essay on my web site called “Dreaming Aloud” on the correspondences between poetry and dream image work: http://intuitivegateways.com/essays.shtml.

I’ve always written; I get antsy if I’m not working on some piece of writing. For years I spent a month or two at writing colonies. When I was teaching at colleges, I’d get January and August off and often go off to sequester myself and write. It took eight years to write this memoir because of the research in it and the traveling I did, and because I had no idea where I was going.

YVONNE: What is the title of your book? Give us the basic story line so we’ll know what it’s about.
DEBORAH: The Future That Brought Her Here is about a spiritual awakening. I was dragged kicking and screaming into the occult world by spontaneous events. I’ve been practicing meditation for over twenty years and suddenly my third eye opened. At the same time I became claire-sentient; I could sense spirits’ presence and feel energy. I actually began the book as a novel but one day an inner voice told me I must come out of the spiritual closet.

I was an adjunct college professor at The Massachusetts College of Art, Lesley University’s graduate program in Creative Arts and Learning, and at Massasoit Community college. My colleagues were not open to my experiences. Even poets I knew backed away from me. I had considered myself “intellectual,” I had owned an independent literary bookstore in Portland, Maine and hadn’t been interested in the occult for the major part of my life.

When I look back, I sense that I had a magical childhood with imaginary friends and I wonder how imaginary they were. Those senses shut down for most of my life until a few strange experiences in 1987 and then in 1994 with the publication of my book from Alice James Books, Where Divinity Begins.

I recall the energy being around me but I couldn’t really see it until September of that year. That sent me on a quest for more knowledge about what was happening to me. The book is the story of that quest and the conclusions I come to about it: that humanity is undergoing an evolutionary leap of consciousness. I never expected to be a “New Age” person. Actually the New Age is really just the return of ancient, esoteric knowledge.

At that time I was all about intellect and my reading tastes were biographies, fiction and poetry. I was a skeptic, which is why I’ve done so much research for a memoir.

Although, when I think about it, I did always have strong intuition and very vivid dreams, prescient dreams in a few cases. The book is also about being called to different places and seeing through my third eye visions of what I think are past/parallel lives. (Since there is no time, or rather “linear time” is something we have agreed to construct, these lives all are happening at once in the eternal NOW.)

The book is also about heartbreak and depression and the difficulty of integrating my father’s death when I was an adolescent. Essentially, it’s about healing, Jungian psychotherapy, archetypal psychology, medieval history, and some quantum physics thrown in for grounding.


YVONNE: What inspired you to write this book?
DEBORAH: Some amazing things were happening to me. I suddenly had new senses. I was a writer, so I figured I was destined to write about my experiences. I didn’t want to at first. I wrote half a novel before I started it again as a memoir.

Also I had written twenty poems in a sequence about my father’s death and afterlife that I had published piecemeal in journals, (and it won me the NEA award. At the time I was teaching Dante and that inspired me to think about the afterlife). I wanted to publish the poems altogether. They fit well into the story because it’s also about how imagination heals and creative process heals.

YVONNE: Is this the first book you have written?
DEBORAH: It is my first prose book. Though I’ve written a lot of academic prose. I actually won an essay contest from Packingtown Review this year. http://www.packingtownreview.com/pieces/5

YVONNE: How long did it take to write this book? Any interesting tidbits about your writing method or how the book developed?
DEBORAH: As I said above, it took eight years and probably six rewrites. It developed in pieces although I did brainstorm for the chapters, when I started it I hadn’t yet taken the trip to France. I talk about creative process in the book.

YVONNE: How did you publish your book? Tell me about your publishing experience and what you learned from it. Please go into detail if you wish.
DEBORAH: I sent it to agents at first and got some nice feedback but I think in the New Age genre they wanted a proven author. A lot of them said they thought it was good writing but it wasn’t their subject matter. Then I started sending directly to publishers. Nicholas Hays accepted it for their imprint, Ibis Press. Most of their work is Jungian, and they publish a lot of occult classics.

YVONNE: Did you work with an agent? If so, how did you find the agent? Was it beneficial to you?
DEBORAH: As I said I didn’t get an agent.

YVONNE: Where is your book(s) available? Do you have a Web site or blog where we can learn more about you or your book?
DEBORAH: My book is available through all the major distributors and it is on Amazon.com. bn.com and my publisher’s site. The book’s site is www.thefuturethatbroughtherhere.com. It hit number #1 in Social Science and Psychology categories on September 15th on Amazon when I did an email blast and it stayed there for awhile! I do have a web site with a complete bio, essays, poems, and a new blog page: http://blog.intuitivegateways.com/

YVONNE: As far as marketing, do you do more online publicity or print/radio/TV promotion? Tell me some ways you have promoted your book. Give examples and links to any sites you feel might help other authors.
DEBORAH: I’ve had to do all the promotion myself. Other than the Amazon blast, local readings, conferences, book clubs, some advertising on social media sites and the workshops I give, I haven’t done much else yet. I have promoted it through my own web site that has a brand new blog about dreams. I’ve gotten 11 excellent reviews on Amazons by customers and three journal reviews.

YVONNE: Have you hired a publicist to help promote this book? If so, what was your experience like?
DEBORAH: A publicist cost $20,000 and I couldn’t afford one. I now have a marketing coach who is helping me with my business as a dream workshop facilitator and speaker.

YVONNE: Any other comments or things you would like for us to know?
DEBORAH: The book came out late in June, so it really hasn’t been out that long. I am still planning on it falling into the right hands of someone in the major media. Of course, everyone wants Oprah to read his or her book. But this book is about the Power of Black Madonnas and I think it’s perfect for Oprah. How you get it to her besides sending a copy, I have not yet discovered.

I am just getting my complete press kit together now, so even though I sent out review copies, I will do another big mailing as soon as possible. It is difficult for an author theses days without a publicist.

When Dan Brown published The DaVinci Code, I was a little distraught because we have much of the same information on Mary Magdalen, for example, though mine is more scholarly but also more personal. Later I was grateful he had broken open that story and brought it into the mainstream. My research into the Gnostic gospels had been going on since the early ninety, long before Brown’s books. My book didn’t come out till 2009 and by then Brown’s book was renowned. Still, I think my personal story of my encounter with those themes is enlightening in a different way.

My book actually traces the story of the coming evolution of humankind as far back as the Egyptians, through Israel and the Gnostics, to Gaul or ancient France, to the medieval Catharsis, the Templar Knights, the Rosicrucian’s, The Freemasons to present New Age practices.

I have just finished reading Brown’s new book, The Lost Symbol, which focuses on the Freemasons, and he comes to the exact same conclusion I do in my book, (along with thousands of other people) i.e., we are in for a Golden Age of Peace if we can survive this chaos which is preceding it. In any event, I am focused on that message, living that message, teaching the truths of spiritual laws. I’ve discovered so-called “miracles” are actually quite in keeping with nature, or natural law. I did not have the strange extra-sensory powers I have now until I was 47. I’m living proof something’s going on.


YVONNE: Thank you for giving us the opportunity to get to know you and learn about your book. I wish you well.

Deborah DeNicola is the author of five poetry collections and she edited the anthology Orpheus & Company; Contemporary Poems on Greek Mythology. Among other awards she won a Poetry Fellowship in 1997 from the National Endowment for the Arts. Deborah has been a recipient of many writing colony residencies. Her most recent book is her spiritual memoir published by Nicolas Hays/Ibis Press, The Future That Brought Her Here. Another full collection of poetry Original Human is forthcoming from Custom Word Press in 2010. She teaches dream image work and mentors writers online at her web site www.intuitivegateways.com.

For a limited time, you can purchase The Future That Brought Her Here from Amazon and receive bonus gifts. Click here for details: http://www.thefuturethatbroughtherhere.com/bonusoffers/ To learn more about this virtual blog tour, please visit: http://virtualblogtour.blogspot.com/2009/10/future-that-brought-her-here-by-deborah.html

Author C. Michael Thompson to Join Podcast on Friday

Please plan to tune into the WITS podcast this Friday when our guest will be first-time author C. Michael Thompson. He will be discussing his new release Twinsational. This book focuses on eleven-year-old twins Mark and Michelle as they deal with the typical issues that preteens face during a day at school. But, there are also some exciting adventures that challenge their friendships and their good standing at school along the way!

C. Michael Thompson, or "Mike" as he is known, has a background as a teaching of young children and brings this experience to Twinsational. The book has important messages about friendship and honesty. It is intended for readers around the ages of ten to thirteen, but will also be enjoyed by parents who read the book with their children.

Please visit the Amazon website to purchase Twinsational.


Title of Document: Book Review
Book Title: Twinsational
Author: C. Michael Thompson
ISBN: 978-1-4327-3033-8
Publisher: OutskirtsPress.com
Genre and Target Market: children’s fiction
Publication Date: 2009
Book Length in Pages: 116

I have been a voracious reader my entire life, spending hours combing the stacks of books in the kids’ section of the library as soon as I was old enough to get my own card. It was not unusual to find me sitting in my favorite tree with a book in hand on a Saturday afternoon. As a child and young teenager, I loved finding stories in which kids my age were involved in adventures into which I could easily transport myself. I had no need for outlandish plots or exaggerated characters. Just give me a great book about average kids and the crazy situations they manage to create. I am now well into my thirties but, through my work in the writing industry, still enjoy the discovery of a book to which kids can really relate and enjoy reading. I have found such a novel in Twinsational, the new release by author C. Michael Thompson.

Twinsational shares one day in the life of Mark and Michelle (known to most as Shelly) Johnson, eleven-year-old brother and sister twins who have each other’s back no matter the situation. The book has all of the elements that most preteens can expect to encounter on a daily basis—the class bully, good friends, demanding teachers, and first crushes. The day begins with the first of many confrontations that the twins have with their nemesis, Bubba, as they walk to school. Once they arrive on campus and meet up with friends, a series of events causes Mark and his friend David to elude the watchful eye of teachers and the new principal, with sister Michelle and her friend Kianna acting as accomplices. As the story unfolds, readers get a real sense of the loyalty shared between the characters in this book and a lesson in making the decision to do the right thing.

For me, the greatest strength of Thompson’s writing is his ability to capture a genuine sense of the way in which preteens interact. Young people who read Twinsational will not feel as if the author is condescending in his depiction of Mark and Michelle, nor will they find the characters written as adults before their time. Instead, you really feel that you are being placed into a typical middle school and I am certain that readers in this demographic will love reading a fun story about such a realistic group of peers. Mr. Thompson spent several years as a teacher, and even though his students were younger than the ones depicted in Twinsational, his ability to capture the language and priorities of the preteen population is obvious.

We all know that when our children read on a regular basis, they are increasing their chances for success in many areas of life. This is why I am so pleased when a new author comes along who offers a book that will get kids excited about the written word. Twinsational by C. Michael Thompson is a wonderful novel that I know will get kids talking about the experiences had by the brother and sister team. With the last page of the book implying that there are more adventures ahead for Mark and Michelle, I hope there will be great “twinsational” conversations among young readers for a long time to come.