Friday, March 30, 2012

Join Us for A Conversation With Ana M. Torres

Tommy Hulette feels anything but loved. After his happy childhood is destroyed by his mother's suicide and his father's abandonment, he struggles to shed the family legacies of secrecy and sadness. Tommy's poignant story of loss, survival, and self-acceptance is the subject of A.M. Torres' debut novel, Love Child.

Like her main character, Ana is a native New Yorker; however, they have little else in common. Born to large and close knit family, Ana and her six siblings grew up in the East New York section of Brooklyn. At a young age she began keeping a journal of her innermost feelings, and these entries inspired her to construct another family dynamic, one very different from her own. This became the foundation for the ill-fated Hulettes.

Today Ana lives on Staten Island, where she is currently at work on the sequel to Love Child.


Click here to listen to the podcast

Like what you heard? Order your copy of Love Child today!
http://www.outskirtspress.com/lovechild

http://www.amazon.com/Love-Child-A-M-Torres/dp/143276411X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1332977384&sr=1-1#_

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/love-child-a-m-torres/1102635292?ean=9781432764111&itm=1&usri=am+torres+love+child

Ana M. Torres is also a regular contributor to Yahoo Voices. To read her short stories and articles, click here. http://contributor.yahoo.com/user/1395005/ana_m_torres.html



Monday, March 26, 2012

This Week's Podcast Guest: Ana Torres

Join us this Friday when author Ana Torres discusses her first novel, Love Child. It is the moving story of Tommy Hullette, a Brooklyn boy struggling to find his place in the world after his mother's suicide. Along the way, Tommy uncovers the painful family secret surrounding his birth.

Like her character, Ana was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. Her life-long passion for writing began when she was given a journal as a gift. It became a vehicle, not only to record her private feelings, but to exercise her imagination.

She hasn't stopped writing since. She regularly submits short stories as a Yahoo contributor, and she is currently working on the sequel to Love Child.

Tune in to the WITS podcast on Friday to learn more about Ana and her work.


Love Child is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble, as well as at http://www.outskirtspress.com/lovechild

Friday, March 23, 2012

10 Steps for the Perfect Author Platform

By Matthew Turner
Are you an aspiring author? It’s great, writing, isn’t it? The only trouble is it makes you one of a million wannabe writers, and despite the internet being an amazing tool, it allows everyone to go after their fuzzy dream of one day having a book in print.

Competition is tough and a writer needs all the help they can get. Therefore you need an author platform and here are 10 steps to creating the ideal one:

It’s About YOU, Not Your Book

Your book is important, but before people buy it they need to know who you are. Your author platform is about YOU, not your books. Create a strategy based around your skills, your unique self, and what YOU can offer the world.

Setting up a platform based around a book, or a character within a book is short sighted. A solid author platform can last a lifetime so make sure it has a solid core.

Have a Vision

You can’t get to where you want to go if you don’t know where you are. In the early stages you need to come up with a vision of the future, come up with a mission on how to get there, and create some aims and objectives about how to achieve this.

Create a Unique & Memorable Brand Identity

What do I mean by this? You are a unique being with a variety of great things to showcase. What pictures, logos, colours, and fonts will you use? Competition is tough so how will you stand out from the crowd? A strong Brand Identity, that’s how!

Know Your Audience

You’re great; don’t let anyone say anything different. The thing is you need to know your audience better than you know yourself, and base your content around what they need. I read a comment recently saying, “If Content is King, then the Audience is Queen”. This is sage advice!

Interact with Experts

There’s a Guru around every online corner, and guess what, they have a platform that’s usually great. Follow these experts; interact with them, and over time form friendships. Don’t SPAM and don’t be annoying. Become a valuable member of their tribe and you’ll see good things happen.

Carefully Choose Your Communications

You can’t use every communication tool out there so don’t try. Choose your tools carefully and have a good reason and purpose for each. By all means join Google+, but for the love of God have a reason for doing so.

Always be Networking

Online or offline you need to be always doing this. Meet new people and interact with a variety of industry folk; fellow writers, agents, editors and the like. Meeting new people is amazing and you never know where a new friendship can lead.

Create Calls of Action

Make it easy for readers to join up to your newsletters and what not. It’s tough getting people to your site, but keeping them coming back is harder. Whenever possible sign people up and your tribe will begin to grow.

Analyse & Improve

There’s always room for improvement so measure your activity and be striving for the best. Analytical tools are vital, and staying organised is key. Create schedules and spreadsheets and stay on top. Understand your progress and everything becomes easier.

Re-Visit Every Six Months

Every six-months you need to go back your strategy and re-evaluate your progress. Do you need to change your aims & objectives? Are you using the right tools? Keep moving forward and you’ll be a permanent fixture in the writing world.

Matthew Turner (aka Turndog Millionaire) is a Strategic Marketer who Blog’s about how aspiring authors can market themselves in a strategic manner. As an aspiring author himself follow him on his journey to becoming published at his Blog: www.turndog-millionaire.com and on Twitter: @turndog_million.

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Book with a View March 2012


Camptown Ladies
ISBN: 978-1-932859-86-7
Publisher: Bywater Books, 2011
Reviewed by Yvonne Perry

Roof-ripping love and laughter!

Mari SanGiovanni has hit the mark at the top of the gay humor meter with her second book, Camptown Ladies. The Santori family goes camping, not as paying guests, but as part of the work crew that got wrangled into helping the new campground owner whip the overgrown plot in Rhode Island back into camper-habitable shape. The ball-busting owner and head hauncho of the restoration project is a dyke named Lisa, who plans to restore more than the run-down bathhouses; she plans to install marble countertops in the boys bathhouses and have a five-star Italian restaurant on site! She also hopes to get her siblings’ minds off their love-torn hearts—both Marie and Vince have just ended relationships with significant others.

Things seem a little out of order when Lisa hires a decorator to assist with the interior design of the dilapidated buildings. Eddie is putting his heart and boa into it when—almost as an afterthought—Lisa hires a contractor who decides to rip the roofs off the buildings and install authentic Italian clay tiles. This is no ordinary contractor though; this is Erica—the beloved character we met in Mari’s first book, Greetings from Jamaica. Erica has just broken up with Vince. Will they get back together? And what about Marie? She has just lost her actress lover. Will she find love again?

The gay-lesbian humor in this book is not for everyone. If you are prejudiced or can’t laugh at gay boys and drag queens parading around in silk bras, or the potty-mouthed dykes flirting with one another at the dinner table, this book probably isn’t for you. I give the book five stars because the well-developed story is very touching (in more ways than one), and because I love the way this author reminded me that love knows no limitations and how she kept me laughing out loud from beginning to end.

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Anastasia, Book One of The Ringing Cedars Series
Author: Vladimir Megré
ISBN: 978-0-9801812-0-3
Publisher: Ringing Cedars Press, 2005
Reviewer: Yvonne Perry
A friend of mine, whose opinion I trust, recommended this series of books to me. I didn’t think much about it the first time she mentioned them. One day I was at her house and she was again raving about these books and offered to loan the first two of the series to me. I took them home and immediately started reading. After less than a third of the way through the first book, I was hooked and knew I would have to read the entire series. The words were resonating deep within my being. It’s like some part of me was coming home to what I already instinctively knew but had forgotten.

From the time she was an infant and her parents were killed in the forest while trying to direct the healing power of the ringing cedar tree, Anastasia was alone in her Motherland. Her grandfather and great-grandfather live nearby but they allowed her to be raised by wild animals and the nature spirits of the Taiga in Russia. Thus, she remained pure in thought and possessed the ability to tap into Universal Intelligence. She sees with her “ray” and knows everything that is going on in the world without being contaminated by the greed, materialism, and competition of “civilized” society.

Vladimir Megré visited her because her grandfather and great-grandfather told him about the ringing cedar that can heal any disease. Anastasia was able to verbally communicate with him (actually she can speak any language) and urged him to write about his three-day experience with her. There he received enough unconventional wisdom (including how a UFO works) to fill more than eight books. I’m a gardener and I love the outdoors in warm weather. Now that I’ve read the first book I plan to purchase my own copy due to the valuable recommendations about gardening in such a manner that your own DNA is encoded into the seed or plant. Having this personal information, the seed then produces the exact components needed to nourish your body. I am going to try this as soon as the growing season returns.

I honestly believe that Anastasia imbued these books with an “energy” encoded in the pattern and rhythm of the words. I can feel her presence around me, guiding me toward being more loving and in tune with nature. These books can change the world—they are already doing so and I invite you to join the movement back to nature and purity of thought, word, and deed. My mind is ringing with the energy of higher consciousness and I'm more aware of every thought; that can be aggravating but at least I have the opportunity to modify what I'm thinking about and make it more positive and uplifting.
I highly recommend this entire series to anyone looking for a deeper meaning than just living day to day trying to survive.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Anna, Grandmother of Jesus
Author: Claire Heartsong
ISBN: 9780937147344
Publisher: S.E.E. Publishing, 2002
Reviewer: Yvonne Perry

I am forever changed!

Who were Jesus’ mother and father? What were they like? Who is this mysterious Mary Magdalene with whom Jesus was so intimate? This book explains that is a very believable retelling of the 600 years prior to the birth of Christ that set the stage for the life and ministry of this great teacher. It gives logical reasons for why the feminine aspect of the Creator must arise as part of the ascension process of the earth and humanity.

Anna, Grandmother of Jesus by Claire Heartsong brings illumination to the sacred philosophies and teachings of the concealed Essene and Magdalene communities of which Jesus Christ (Yeshua ben Joseph) was an initiate. Anna, the mother of the Virgin Mary, offers mystical insight into how the “light-conceived” Jesus acquired the knowledge and power to perform miracles, including raising his physical body after being in a tomb for three days.

The mysteriously “lost years” of Jesus are lost only in the Bible, which has been altered by patriarchal “powers that be” to gain control of the masses throughout the years. Other historical documents recently unearthed demonstrate Jesus’ presence in Egypt, England, India, Italy, and throughout the Mediterranean.

Is it Jesus’ death that you worship? It is his resurrection that shows his mastery of spirit. Travel with the characters, who were alive at the time of Yeshua’s birth, through the chronicles of time to discover the real purpose of his coming to earth. Was it our sins that nailed him to a cross, or was it his desire to openly demonstrate non-resistance and seed the Christ Consciousness into humanity? The awakening of the Christ within is propelling us through the current (2012) shift into purer thought forms.

The energy contained in this writing will touch your heart and bring clarity to the real ministry and miracles of Jesus. This book revolutionized my understanding of the life and ministry of Jesus. I fell in love with the real Christ (not the religious rendition of him) in a totally new way after reading it. I am forever changed!

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Life is No Coincidence ~ The Life and Afterlife Connection
Author: Sheryl Glick
ISBN: 9780595373239
Publisher: iUniverse, 2006
Reviewed by Yvonne Perry

Signs, Signs, Everywhere are Signs!

Have you noticed that the time between thinking something and seeing it manifested is far less than it used to be? Are you seeing that when your emotions, feelings, and thoughts are aligned that your desires (and fears) come into play much more quickly? Do you ever feel like you've known someone even though you just met them? You may think about an old friend you haven't seen in years and within days (hours or minutes) she shows up or calls you. This is synchronicity, not coincidence.

Synchronicity is the experience of two or more events that seem unrelated or unlikely to occur by chance; nevertheless, they occur together in a meaningful manner.

Things we never noticed or paid attention to before are being brought to our awareness. You may see symbols such as numbers on a digital clock or car tags, animals that reappear in your path, synchronicities (meaningful coincidences or event occurring in perfect timing), or other signs.
The week of 11/11/11, I was parked in front of a fruit stand at a convenience store while my husband went in to make a purchase. When I looked up I noticed that the number 11 was printed on several of the boxes. I counted more than five number elevens. Five years ago, I would have walked by without even seeing this.
Sheryl Glick's book is filled with stories like these that show how we are without a doubt connected through numbers, birth dates, names, and synchronicities. After reading Life is No Coincidence, anyone will become more aware of the signs from Spirit and be encouraged to look more closely at things that seem random.
A very interesting and easy read that will inspire you to pay attention!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Minion
Author: Justin Treece
Publisher: iUniverse.com (January 27, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1462070485
Reviewer: Dana Micheli

Dr. Kayden Archer’s life is falling apart….

At one time, he had it all: a family that adores him, and a beautiful wife, Cindy, who is the center of his world. As Philadelphia’s top heart surgeon, saving lives was all in day’s work. He had purpose, money, and the confidence that comes knowing one’s place in the world.

But that all changes when Cindy is found brutally murdered. Archer is determined to get to the bottom of this seemingly random act of violence, but he uncovers more than he ever wanted to know. His beloved Cindy was having an affair and planning to leave him. As a parting gift, on the day of her murder she and her lover had cleaned out his bank accounts. Suddenly, everything Archer had is gone.

With nothing to lose, Archer goes on a mission to find her killers and exact revenge, but his plan goes horribly wrong. When he learns that his wife’s killer was also her lover, Kayden suffers a strange convulsive attack. When he recovers, he finds that he suddenly has the power to manipulate matter, and even control people’s thoughts.

Kayden has no idea what is happening to him, but he now has a new mission: he will use his new-found superpowers to punish the evil and avenge the innocent. Along with a band of vigilantes who have sworn their allegiance to him, Kayden begins to hunt and kill those who have wronged him and his loved ones.

At first, Grace Archer believes that her brother’s strange behavior is due to his wife’s murder. But then she learns the horrible circumstances surrounding Kayden’s birth, and she vows to help him work through it. When she turns to Deacon Gregory James for comfort, she learns that there is more to her brother’s story than anyone could have imagined. For Deacon James tells her about the Shudagon Prophecy, which predicts the rise of a son from Hell and the demise of mankind. The Deacon has been following the signs, and he believes that Kayden Archer is that evil son. Together, he and Grace must find Archer before he can destroy himself, and the world.

With a depth rarely seen in a first novel, Justin Treece’s first novel, Minion, is the heart-wrenching story of what happens when a good man learns he is destined for evil.

Every page of this book contains an impossible twist, and it ends with a cliffhanger that will leave you wishing for more. We’ll all have to wait for the next installment of Treece’s trilogy—--hopefully, the wait won’t be too long.

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The Organic Nanny’s Guide to Raising Healthy Kids: How to Create a Natural Diet and Lifestyle for Your Kids
Author: Barbara Rodriguez with Eve Adamson
Pages: 272
Release Date: February 28, 2012
ISBN: 978-0738214894
Genre: health, families, children, organic eating
Review by: Sarah Moore

I could approach the review of Barbara Rodriguez’s new book as one who has spent years in the writing and publishing industry and share with you that The Organic Nanny’s Guide to Raising Healthy Kids is crafted with an elegance and clarity of message that contributor Eve Adamson has brought to us multiple times before and that Rodriguez now displays as a true gift. Or, I could offer the perspective of an athlete who runs regularly and pays close attention to what I am putting in my body. In that case, I can assert that the wisdom Rodriguez offers concerning natural foods and health products is exactly the straightforward and practical information that will allow our children to start down a journey that puts them in tune with their mind, body, and spirit for a lifetime. Instead, though, I would like to give you my thoughts as a mother.

I have had the pleasure of knowing Barbara Rodriguez for several years and have had many conversations with her about my own children, particularly my concerns for their physical and emotional health as I raise them with the added pressures and challenges that come with single motherhood. From our first discussion, she spoke with a tenderness and a genuine passion for children as well for those who are blessed with the role of caretaker (whether that person be a parent, teacher, grandmother, or any other adult who is charged with the development of a child). She shared with me some wonderful projects that I could do with my children which not only allowed for quality time together but also gave them opportunities to tap into their emotional and spiritual selves. And, she showed me that it was possible to create simple meals that have allowed me to carve a few treasured moments out of our often hectic day. Just this event of nourishing our bodies together with whole foods and talking about what we are eating is so meaningful to all of us.

You do not just need to take my anecdotal writings to believe that Barbara Rodriguez brings credentials and compassion to her newly released book. She has worked for years as a nanny to celebrities, many of whom speak their praises for her within the pages of The Organic Nanny’s Guide to Raising Healthy Kids. Barbara is simply taking the methods and the ideas that have worked for her in dozens of homes and is now making the information available to the rest of us. In doing so, she is empowering mothers and undoubtedly will change the course of many lives for the better. As a mom who strives to “unplug” her family, explore the outdoors with all the beauty and messiness it has to offer, and raise a girl and a boy with as much of a natural approach as possible, Barbara Rodriguez’s work is a resource that I know I will turn to time and again.

If you are frustrated when you look at the list of ingredients in the meal that you are heating up for your family tonight and realize most of them were created in a laboratory, if you are worried about the statistics concerning childhood obesity and the reality that our children will be the first to have shorter life expectancies than their parents, if you just want a stronger and more meaningful connection to your kids in countless simple and beautiful ways, then please pick up a copy of The Organic Nanny’s Guide to Raising Healthy Kids and I know that your home will be blessed.

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Quantum Angel Healing: Energy Therapy and Communication with Angels
Author: Eva-Maria Mora
Publisher: Synergy Books, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-9845040-1-5
Reviewer: Yvonne Perry

A Book That Makes Communicating with Angels Easy

Do you believe in angels? Did you know that you can work with them for healing yourself and others? It's simple if you know how.

If you've ever wanted to communicate with angels, then you will Eva-Maria Mora's book, Quantum Angel Healing: Energy Therapy and Communication with Angels.

With topics such as cleansing the energy body, removing etheric cords and disoriented souls and entities, and an overview of the chakras and their functions, you will learn what to do when you feel your energy has been drained. There are 68 pages showing the correlation between an illness, the hidden belief (program) behind it, and which archangel is best to help clear it.

Self-knowledge is power and the first step toward recovery. This book teaches you to tell the difference between emotions and feelings and how they affect our health; and how to resolve any issues causing a disturbance in the body or electromagnetic field around the body.

This fabulous book to help practitioners as well as everyday people to use a heart-based practice and the wisdom of the angels to bring a more peaceful existence to the lives of everyone on the planet.

Friday, March 16, 2012

Author Blogging 101: 11 Sources of Organic Traffic

by Joel Friedlander

When we talk about building an author blog, we’re talking about getting more visitors. For most bloggers, readership size will be the way they usually measure their blog’s growth.

Nonfiction authors will have more ways to measure the success of their blogs, like converting visitors into subscribers or buyers, but you need to have visitors—traffic—to prosper in almost all cases.

In the first article about blog traffic in this series we looked at three kinds of traffic you can get to your blog:

1. Organic traffic, that is traffic from links in content that somehow relates to your own subject matter

2. Search engine traffic, sent to your blog in response to people’s searches

3. Paid traffic, coming from advertisements or other links you pay for.

Now we’ll focus on many of the ways you can develop organic traffic to grow your blog, your readership and eventually your book sales.

Two Kinds of Organic Traffic

The simplest way to understand organic traffic is to divide it into two kinds:

 traffic from links you create

 traffic from links other people create
Obviously, the big difference here is that you can control over the first kind, but have little say over the second.

Since links that will send traffic to your site have to be on other sites, placing these links means you have to have access to sites that allow you to create a link.

This leads us directly to the best places to create these organic links, and there are a lot of them. Let’s have a look at some of the options you have, then we’ll be able to come up with a strategy that will start to bring in traffic right away.

But First, a Word About “Do-Follow/No-Follow”

There are actually two ways links can help you, and it pays to understand them before we go any further.

1. Visitors—Someone visiting another website can click a link that will bring them to your blog.

2. “Juice”—A link from a site with more authority, a higher rank with search engines or a longer lifespan can confer some of that authority to your site by linking to it.

However, due to a fair amount of abuse in the past by people trying to artificially enhance their site’s ranking, many sites now tag the links people leave in comments on a blog as “no-follow” links.

This means that none of the blog’s authority will “follow” the link to the site being linked to.

However, since we’re focused on traffic in this article, this makes very little difference. Visitors can still click these links and go to your site, with “juice” or without it. So let’s focus on those visitors.

11 Ways to Get Started Linking for Traffic

If you think about it, you’ll quickly see that social media presents the easiest opportunities to create links back to your site. That’s because social media always allows interaction, and it’s through the tools of interaction on the social web that we can build a network of links that can grow to a huge web, each node of which is a point of entry to your blog.

Doesn’t that sound exciting?

Take it from me, it is.

Here’s a list of some of the places you can be thinking about as great places to start your link-building campaign.

1. Blog comments—One of the best tools to start your link building because it can also help you develop your relationships with other bloggers in your niche. In most commenting systems, the link to your site is embedded in your name, but some also allow you to add another link that will pull in your latest blog post.

2. Guest posts—When you post an article on someone else’s blog as a guest author, you have the chance to link back to a couple of relevant articles on your own blog. You’ll also get to add an author bio with links.

3. Status updates—Facebook, Google+ and other social networks encourage you to share great content, and you need a link to direct people to that content.

4. Twitter links—One of the most popular uses of Twitter is to create a great short headline and combine it with a link. Responsive followers will re-post your link to their own networks.

5. Forum discussions—It seems like there are forums for every interest online, and finding a couple in your subject area can be a real boon. Posting useful content will allow you to link back, when appropriate, to your own blog.

6. Social signatures—Every time you create an account somewhere, you’ll be asked to complete your profile. Don’t neglect these opportunities to link to your blog, and don’t neglect your “signature” file either, which appears whenever you post something. Links in signatures can be creatively crafted and quite effective.

7. Google profile—Even if you don’t want to use Google+, you should have a Google profile. It only takes a few minutes but it’s well worthwhile.

8. Email signatures—What’s in your email signature? Do you link to your writer’s blog or mention a recent book? Think of how many emails you send per week, and you’ll see these links can help you, too.

9. Article marketing—Nonfiction authors have been using article marketing for years to expand their influence, raise their search rankings and draw targeted traffic to their sites. It’s not hard or very time-consuming, and you can link back both from the body of your article as well as your bio at the end. When these articles are re-published by others, the links multiply.

10. Online press releases—Even if your budget is challenged, you can use free press release services to spread news and updates about your books or linking your books to current events through well-crafted press releases. Links in the article and in the contact info section of the release also multiply when news sites or other bloggers pick up the releases.

11. New services—There are social sites appearing constantly online. We would all go crazy trying to keep up with them, but ones that catch your attention, that are becoming popular, deserve a look. Recently services like Instagram, About.me and Pinterest have gained big followings. Each gives you an opportunity to put more links out in the big world.

Your Linking Strategy

The most important thing to remember about building this network of links is that it will take time.

Each of the places in the list above might only generate a few clicks, if that. It’s the cumulative effect of all those clicks that will eventually create a steady stream of visitors to your blog.

Some of these will take more time than others. If you’re trying to grow your blog, it’s a good idea to comment regularly on a select group of other blogs that have a lot of traffic, and where you can make comments that add to the discussion. That’s part of your basic blog marketing and networking, so it doesn’t require an additional strategy.

Getting into article marketing takes more time, but with a couple of dozen articles you can develop from your existing content, you can generate thousands of visits over time. Once the articles are done, it’s all automatic.

Forum and email signatures and social media profiles are quick to update. Change them when you have a special promotion or a particularly good piece of content to share. Otherwise, set them up and you’re done.

Guest posts and press releases are most often tactics we use in larger, strategic operations like a book launch or blog tour. But you can use them for special events and tie-ins to events that draw massive media exposure, too.

Getting Started on Your Link Campaign

As with everything else you do to market your blog, I think the best advice is to start with one or two things that are simple and repeatable. You’ll get the most effect initially by setting up all the static links like profiles and signatures, so do those first.

Then pick one tactic that appeals to you and spend 10 to 20 minutes a day on it. Don’t do this stuff for hours, because you will burn out and that won’t help you in the long run.

It’s amazing how quickly your network of links will grow with small, regular efforts. And every one of those organic links you’ve placed will be in content that appeals to the readers most likely to be interested in your own content.

You are building hundreds or thousands of doorways to your author blog, and as you grow more and more people will come through those doors to visit you.

Next up, we’ll look at the other kind of links, the ones you have no control over, but which can have the biggest impact of all.

.Joel Friedlander is a self-published author and book designer who blogs about book design, self-publishing and the indie publishing life at TheBookDesigner.com. He's also the proprietor of Marin Bookworks, where he helps publishers and authors who decide to publish get to market on time and on budget with books that are both properly constructed and beautiful to read.

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Virtual Interview with Author Gaetano Vivo

Today I have the great pleasure of being the host on Day 11 of the Virtual Blog Tour of author

Gaetano Vivo whose book Messages from the Angels of Transparency: Powerful Words from Gentle Souls launches on Amazon on Tuesday March 20, 2012.

Italian born, Gaetano Vivo is one of Europe’s most experienced and sought-after Reiki Masters, practicing in the UK, the US and Italy. He is a member of the Complementary Medical Association of Great Britain, the International Council of Holistic Therapies, the International Association of Reiki Professionals and the Noetic Association of America. From a young age he has experienced the ‘calling’ of ‘others’ who wish to pass on teachings and wisdoms in order we may make lighter work of our time here on Earth. Although, due to being brought up in a strict Catholic community, he was forced to ignore this information, he never forgot what he had received. For decades, Gaetano has been treating clients from all walks of life, regardless of faith or creed, believing that the healing power of love is open to all of us. When not touring he divides time between his homes in England and Italy and takes great delight in his garden.

Gaetano's new book Messages from the Angels of Transparency: Powerful Words from Gentle Souls addresses the questions, "Could wise and wonderful beings contact us from beyond this world and unveil our true potential? Would knowing that we really mattered enable us to uncover the truth behind our reason for living?" This fascinating book offers answers, spiritual practices and comprehensive meditations by teacher, healer and author, Gaetano Vivo, which have the potential to strengthen, heal and transform lives and bring hope and inspiration. It also clarifies the true nature of Reiki as a simple, yet profound tool for accessing and accepting the power of universal energy—what we might call ‘love’ or ‘God'—and touches on our fundamental dilemma: Who are we and why do we exist? More than 20,000 people have already enjoyed Gaetano’s earlier offerings in both English and Italian. This book offers the reader a chance to digest messages from ‘higher beings’ for greater understanding of our own personal evolution. Anyone seeking to live a happier, better life, and has felt the desire to undertake life with greater confidence and self-worth, will relish this book.

Yesterday, Gaetano visited Debra Simpson at http://debrasimpson.com/gaetano-vivo-messengers-of-the-angels-of-transparency, where they talked on his story, transparency and 2012 thoughts.

Today, I'd like to share with you a recent interview I had with Gaetano when I got to ask him some questions on higher dimensional healing, and working/communicating with Archangels/Angels. I hope you enjoy it.
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Yvonne Perry: What is higher dimensional healing?
Gaetano Vivo: Simply, it is universal energy that brings healing to yourself, others and the planet. If you are already a healer you will enhance your energies by using this higher dimensional healing energy and if you have never healed before you will connect to the energy and be healed by raising your vibrations and that of the planet, simply and easily.
The angels gave me a symbol called Xantia, I am using it on people and teaching them its meaning and how to use it. It is a higher dimensional healing tool that helps us to heal ourselves: our body, mind, spirit and soul. It is something so needed at present on the Planet.

Yvonne Perry: How do you work with the archangels?
Gaetano Vivo: With Archangel Michael, I learned to cut the cords that bind me to people with whom I had interacted and who had left imprints in my aura that didn't need to be there anymore. Archangel Michael taught me how to cut those cords (made of fear, resentment, anger and hate) so my aura could be more expansive and filled with love, light and joy.

Archangel Raphael, who is the Green Archangel, helped me heal my heart. He helped me come to know my inner child, to love him, and to nurture him with love and laughter.

Finally, Archangel Metatron inspired me to get to know my real self, the sensitive person I have always been. Archangel Metatron is the guardian of the Third eye and he is here to help us all to be more sensitive. He helped me become more intuitive, with my third eye wide open to see, perceive and feel more.

Yvonne Perry: In what ways can you communicate with angels?

Gaetano Vivo: There are several ways of communicating with the Angels; the first one is to call upon them and to feel their presence around you. You can call upon a specific number of Angels, or a single angel….an individual Angel, according to what you need them for.

It is important that you call them out loud and not mentally, they want to hear the vibration of your voice and your intention. The Angels of Transparency are childlike angels who help you heal your inner child. Calling upon them gives you a great joy in your heart.

We are born with two Guardian Angels and during the course of our life, and through the lessons we learn those Angels change in order for us to learn more and more lessons.

When you feel at peace and relaxed, possibly you will feel a wind or a draught - these are common ways of feeling an Angel next to you.

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I hope you enjoyed this interview with Gaetano Vivo and that you’ll check out his book Messages from the Angels of Transparency: Powerful Words from Gentle Souls at http://www.gaetanovivoblog.com/book-launch/pages/pre-launch.html

Here's why:



11 Higher Dimensional Mentors Share Their Wisdom
FR*EE 3-Day Online Event
March 13th, 14th & 15th, 2012
12pm Pacific/3pm Eastern/8pm UK

Here's Gaetano's wonderful guest line-up:

Gaetano Vivo - Reiki Master, channeler, author of Messages from the Angels of Transparency: Powerful Words from Gentle Souls
Lynn Serafinn - Coach; marketer; author of The 7 Graces of Marketing and The Garden of the Soul
• Wayne Kealohi Powell - holistic health educator, speaker, minister, author
Dr Jude Currivan - cosmologist, planetary healer, author, futurist
Asia Voight - intuitive counsellor, animal communicator, teacher, author
Barbara Meiklejohn-Free - shaman, author, custodian of ancestral wisdoms
Lorraine Recchia - angel communicator, angel reader, television host
Eva-Maria Mora - medical intuitive, author, founder Quantum Angel Healing
Susie Anthony - spiritual mentor, super-luminal guide channeler
E.Dee Conrad – channeler, bestselling author of A New Dawn Awaits
Celia Fenn - Channel for Archangel Michael, spiritual facilitator, writer, speaker
This special 3-Day telesummit is Gaetano’s FR*EE gift to you,
to celebrate the launch of his book, which is coming
Tuesday March 20, 2012.

FREE GIFTS TOO!
When you buy Gaetano’s book on Tuesday March 20, 2012, Gaetano would like to give you the MP3 downloads from the "Accessing Higher Dimensions Telesummit" PLUS an invitation to attend a special 1-hour "Inner Child Meditation" led by Gaetano in April.

AND… you'll also receive a complete library of beautiful personal development gifts from authors, speakers, coaches and other enlightened professionals from around the globe.

To claim your FREE pass to the Accessing Higher Dimensions Telesummit

Thanks for reading! As usual, please feel free to share your comments and thoughts below. I love reading your feedback.
AND… be sure to follow Gaetano tomorrow when the next stop on the Virtual Blog Tour is Sheila Akin Pearl, who will share her recent interview with Gaetano on human awareness, cutting cords and communicating with Angels. To visit that "stop" on the tour, go to www.AgelessPearlsOfWisdom.com.

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Editor's Corner March 2012

This month’s issue is packed full of great information from our readers about writing, editing, publishing, and book marketing. Thank you to those who contributed material to help other writers and authors get a better grasp on what’s happening in the book industry.

As you know I am writing a book titled Shifting into Purer Consciousness ~ Integrating Spiritual Transformation with the Human Experience. It will be launched with a blog tour in May followed by a free telesummit in June. If you would like to be part of the blog tour, please let Katie [at] writersinthesky [dot] com know you want an article to post on your blog on a particular day. Here’s a short description about the book.

Have you survived a near-death experience, had an out-of-body occurrence, or kundalini awakening, a dissociative episode, or some type of spiritually-transforming experiences? Maybe you awoke from a strange dream too vivid NOT to be real. Regardless of what has happened, you may need help integrating the higher cosmic frequencies that are now penetrating the earth.
I’d like to let you know about Do As One, a website, http://doasone.org, that has thirteen rooms including a Universal Meditation Room, a Universal Breathing Room, a Meditation Room, and a Universal Om Room. People all over the world can connect using any type of conscious breathing technique and send focused intention into the world, twenty-four hours, seven days a week. As you know there is power in numbers and the more people focus their energy in the same direction, the more and faster results we will see toward world peace. I’ve found it a great way to add my energy to that of likeminded others as I meditate, chant om, or breathe. I encourage you to participate whenever you can.

Contact Katie [at] writersinthesky [dot] com to learn how you can add your tips for online promotion to book marketing blog: http://onlinepromotionmadeeasy.blogspot.com.

Yvonne Perry,
Owner of Writers in the Sky Creative Writing Services
http://writersinthesky.com
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Friday, March 9, 2012

The Business of Writing

By Debra Moore

You’re a writer. Congratulations on pursuing your dream! I’m a writer—and a numbers geek. After twenty-five years of working in financial positions all over the United States, I opened my bookkeeping service, Moore Bookkeeping, to allow myself more freedom with my time. I wrote THE BUSINESS OF WRITING to help writers feel confident in the money side of their writing careers.

I realized from my own experience and the experience of other writers I know that the number one question a writer asks after starting to live the dream is this—what do I do about the money?

Right now, you’re in one of 3 places:

• You’re getting started and aren’t making a lot of money yet.
• You’ve been writing and are making some money.
• You’ve been writing and are making more money than you ever imagined.

So what to do?

Even if you hire out your financial work, you need to know what’s happening with your money. There are too many horror stories about people entrusting their finances to an “expert” only to find themselves mismanaged, robbed or flat broke. You don’t want to be that writer, and I don’t want you to be that writer.

So, along with all of the other information in the book, I’d like to share with you my Top Ten Financial Do’s for Writers.

1. Pay your bills on time.
2. Keep every receipt.
3. Before you start your business, consult an accountant familiar with this industry.
4. Create your Money Journal and stay organized.
5. Decide exactly what you’d like your business to accomplish and visualize what it looks like when it’s successful. Begin planning for that day.
6. Use a cash flow spreadsheet and update it at least monthly to be sure where your company stands.
7. Start a new Money Journal with each new tax year. (You may ultimately decide to enter every check into your computerized accounting system. If so, you’ll record the details on your Income and Expense Worksheets broken down by month into your program, being sure to add one more column—check number.)
8. Use your Money Journal to gather information, but transfer the information to an accounting program or hire someone to do it for you.
9. Hire a CPA to do your income taxes. The benefits will far outweigh the costs.
10. Accept that good bookkeeping is what holds the long-term success of your dream together, and a little time spent each month will pay big dividends at tax time.

Debra Moore is a romantic suspense author with an accounting background. Check out her informative book, The Business of Writing, for sale at Amazon for $3.99. Or visit her websites, www.readmoore.com and www.moorebookkeeping.com

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Writers in the Sky Announcements

As a subscriber to Writers in the Sky Newsletter, you are entitled to share your announcements with our readers. See guidelines at http://writersinthesky.blogspot.com/p/submit-your-material.html and send your material to us before the 24th of each month to make the next month’s issue. Anything posted in WITS Newsletter is also shared with our blog readers at http://writersinthesky.blogspot.com.

Author James Ross’ new book, Pabby's Score, is now available for purchase!

Pabby and Shae, teens with special needs, hoping to expand their experience outside Footprints of Hope foster care center arrive at Prairie Winds Golf Course on the east side of St. Louis.

Innocence and youthful enthusiasm get caught in an undercurrent of sinister events. Civil injustice prompted by an unethical attorney arrives in the form of a bogus insurance claim. Alcohol and greed taint a dishonest judge. An Internet dating site feeds an affair. Shady police work attempts to stain the reputation of head pro, J Dub Schroeder. As the court spins out of control an ethics board investigation and an edgy game of instant messaging tempt the hands of fate.

Savant-like tendencies, dementia and flying falcons intertwine with Native American customs, thoroughbred racing and a trip up the river road to Lighthouse Point. A retired barrister hints about a corrupt underground society. Can revealing a dark secret settle PABBY’S SCORE?

Website: www.AuthorJamesRoss.com
Purchase link: http://golftwitt.com/46ey
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Read the first chapter for free and then decide if you want to download the 3-hour-long mp3 audio book of More Than Meets the Eye ~ True Stories about Death, Dying, and Afterlife for only $7.00 http://deathdyingafterlife.blogspot.com/p/chapter-1.html
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Summer applications are now being accepted for A Novel Idea. This summer, we are adding a Little Middle class for rising 5th and 6th graders.
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Each story in The Sid Series ~ A Collection of Holistic Stories for Children focuses on life skills such as environmental awareness, helping others, being true to one’s self, overcoming fear, and following inner guidance. http://TheSidSeries.com
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While taking a metaphysical class, WITS team member Dana Micheli met an amazing illustrator. If you are looking for someone to create an original piece for your book cover, you may want to connect with Dian Daversa on Facebook.
http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Diane-Daversa-Fine-Art/109782219119036
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Whose Stuff Is This? Finding Freedom from the Thoughts, Feelings, and Energy of Those around You is a guidebook for empathic people who have been unknowingly carrying energetic burdens that belong to someone else. See all purchasing options at http://whosestuffisthis.blogspot.com/p/purchase-book.html.
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Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Podcast Schedules for March 2012

We Are One in Spirit Podcast Schedule

We Are One in Spirit Podcast allows for people of all walks of life to discuss their spiritual journey and life-transforming experiences that remind us that we are all ONE IN SPIRIT. Uplifting, enlightening, and insightful topics include healing, empathy, intuition, spiritual/psychic gifts, metaphysics, soul development, afterlife, spirit communication, and more. This interactive podcast has with a Q&A session at the end of each guest presentation. To join the call, dial 1-605-475-6350 and enter participant access code 356172. The metaphysical shows are archived at feed://nashvillewriter.audioacrobat.com. You will also find us on iTunes.

Spiritual teacher, Eva-Maria Mora was Yvonne Perry’s guest on March 1. These two discuss Eva-Maria’s new book, Quantum Angel Healing:Energy Therapy and Communication with Angels. Eva-Maria Mora was your typical successful, busy executive when her life took a complete, astonishing and life-saving U-turn. Her life changed forever when doctors delivered a shocking diagnosis to her six months after the birth of her son; she only had a few weeks to live. As she prayed for guidance and support, Mora experienced a spiritual awakening when she was visited by an angel. She began communicating with angels regularly and gained a new perspective on why people get sick, how they can heal themselves and how they can find their life's true purpose. In Mora’s new book, she reveals how to restore health and balance to your life and the lives of others through connecting and communicating with angels.

On March 8th Sheryl Glick, will be joining us to discuss her new book, Life is Not a Coincidence. Sheryl is an accredited Reiki Master Teacher, Practitioner and Medium offers healing sessions, leads group healing workshops and empowers her students to develop their healing and psychic abilities. Sheryl Glick shares her journey from disbelief to understanding, from struggle to accepting the grand scheme of things. Sheryl’s new book, Whispers From Spirit: Transforming Yourself By Aligning Yourself To Healing Energy lays out a plan for the reader to become aware of the many spiritual interventions happening to all of us for the divine purpose of improving the quality of our physical and spiritual existence.

March 15-Kathryn Tull is a published author and poet, a Certified Provider of Continuing Education with the State of California Board of Behavioral Sciences, has been utilized for her expertise on domestic violence on radio and television, and has presented trainings and keynote speeches nationally and internationally. Her newly released book The Next Bold Step: Learning to Love & Value Yourself, and Know That You Matter! speaks to all adults who have ever found themselves feeling unacknowledged, or unheard – maybe even invisible to someone else.

March 22 - Italian born, Gaetano Vivo, is one of Europe’s most experienced and soughtafter Reiki Masters, practicing in the UK, the US and Italy. He will be discussing his new book, Messages from the Angels of Transparency: Powerful Words from Gentle Souls. Could wise and wonderful beings contact us from beyond this world and unveil our true potential? Would knowing that we really mattered enable us to uncover the truth behind our reason for living? This fascinating book offers answers, spiritual practices and comprehensive meditations by teacher, healer and author, Gaetano Vivo, which have the potential to strengthen, heal and transform lives and bring hope and inspiration. Anyone seeking to live a happier, better life, and has felt the desire to undertake life with greater confidence and selfworth, will relish this book.

March 29 - Yvonne will host a question and answer session with anyone who wants to discuss a spiritual topic. To join the call, dial 1-605-475-6350 and enter participant access code 356172. Depending upon your phone service provider, long distance fees may apply.

WITS Podcast Schedule

Writers in the Sky Podcast is a Nashville-based talk show about writing, publishing, and book marketing. An educational tool for people who want to learn more about the craft and business of writing, this show offers interviews with authors and writers, as well as the latest news about books currently on the market. You will also learn about publishing methods and marketing techniques as we interview publishers and publicists. Listen to archived shows via RSS Feed. Download WITS Podcast on iTunes for your iPod or iPad.

March 9: Tune into the WITS podcast when Ana Torres discusses her novel, Love Child.
Tommy Hulette has a good life. He loves playing stickball with the other kids in his Brooklyn neighborhood, and he's happy living with his beautiful mother, loyal caring father, and little sister, Greta. But Tommy's world is shattered forever when his mother commits suicide and his devastated father send him and Greta to live with a brother they had never even heard about. Tommy begins to learn that his family is full of painful secrets that threaten to push him to the edge of despair. Will he be able to cling to life, or will he succumb like his mother?

Friday, March 2, 2012

Could There Be More to Reality Than What We Can See?

Angels & Higher Dimensional Healing with Author Gaetano Vivo & Leading Experts

Could wise and wonderful beings speak to us from beyond this world to help reveal our true potential?


That's one of the questions author and Reiki Master Gaetano Vivo asked, when he was just a child. When Gaetano was a little boy growing up in Italy, he had visions of Angels who offered him support and guidance. Their gentle words helped him answer many of the questions he had about life. These Angels told him about higher dimensional realms, about healing, and about consciousness in ways his young mind was able to comprehend. But whenever he tried to speak about these things with adults, especially in Gaetano's ultra-conservative social environment, they usually became upset. As a result, his connection to the Angels was put aside as he tried to play by the rules of "normal" society.

But when he grew up and became able to make his own decisions, he had a powerful desire to find out more about what the Angels had taught when he was little. He studied as much as he could about higher dimensions. He learned many healing modalities, and became a Reiki Master. He taught others all he learned.

Then, a few years ago, new Angels returned to Gaetano, bringing him deeper insights that would take him to the next stage of his understanding of higher dimensional realms and our relationship with them. These insights became the foundation of his book Messages from the Angels of Transparency: powerful words from gentle souls. Originally published in Italian, this brand new English translation of Message from the Angels of Transparency published by O-Books is having its official Amazon launch on Tuesday March 20th, 2012.

To celebrate the launch of this new translation, Gaetano is presenting an uplifting 3-day telesummit with a panel of world-renowned experts on the subject of higher dimensional realms, consciousness and healing. It's FR*EE to attend:


Accessing Higher Dimensions
March 13th, 14th and 15th, 2012
12noon Pacific, 3pm Eastern, 8pm UK
Register FR*EE at

Here's the line-up of guest panellists for this event:

Gaetano Vivo - Reiki Master, channeler, author of Messages from the Angels of Transparency: Powerful Words from Gentle Souls
Lynn Serafinn - Coach; marketer; author of The 7 Graces of Marketing and The Garden of the Soul
Wayne Kealohi Powell - holistic health educator, speaker, minister, author
Dr Jude Currivan, Ph.D. - cosmologist, planetary healer, author, futurist
Asia Voight - intuitive counsellor, animal communicator, teacher, author
Barbara Meiklejohn-Free - shaman, author, custodian of ancestral wisdoms
Lorraine Recchia - angel communicator, angel reader, television host
Eva-Maria Mora - medical intuitive, author, founder Quantum Angel Healing
Susie Anthony - spiritual mentor, super-luminal guide channeler
E.Dee Conrad - channeler, bestselling author of A New Dawn Awaits
Celia Fenn - Channel for Archangel Michael, spiritual facilitator, writer, speaker

When you register for the telesummit, you'll also find out how you can receive a collection of beautiful free gifts from dozens of Gaetano's friends and colleagues when you buy Gaetano's book Messages from the Angels of Transparency on March 20th.

To register for this uplifting, FR*EE telesummit, and to find out about the book and the gifts, just fill in the form at http://bit.ly/AngelsTelesummit.

You can also submit questions for Gaetano or any of our special guest panellists on that page.

If you cannot attend the live event, register anyway so you can access the audio replay.

I do hope you'll join us on the Accessing Higher Dimensions Telesummit on March 13th-15th, and that you'll check out Gaetano wise and wonderful book Messages from the Angels of Transparency.

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Book Review for The Organic Nanny’s Guide to Raising Healthy Kids: How to Create a Natural Diet and Lifestyle for Your Kids by Barbara Rodriguez with Eve Adamson

Review by: Sarah Moore
Pages: 272
Release Date: February 28, 2012
ISBN: 978-0738214894
Genre: health, families, children, organic eating

I could approach the review of Barbara Rodriguez’s new book as one who has spent years in the writing and publishing industry and share with you that The Organic Nanny’s Guide to Raising Healthy Kids: How to Create a Natural Diet and Lifestyle for Your Kids is crafted with an elegance and clarity of message that contributor Eve Adamson has brought to us multiple times before and that Rodriguez now displays as a true gift. Or, I could offer the perspective of an athlete who runs regularly and pays close attention to what I am putting in my body. In that case, I can assert that the wisdom Rodriguez offers concerning natural foods and health products is exactly the straightforward and practical information that will allow our children to start down a journey that puts them in tune with their mind, body, and spirit for a lifetime. Instead, though, I would like to give you my thoughts as a mother.

I have had the pleasure of knowing Barbara Rodriguez for several years and have had many conversations with her about my own children, particularly my concerns for their physical and emotional health as I raise them with the added pressures and challenges that come with single motherhood. From our first discussion, she spoke with a tenderness and a genuine passion for children as well for those who are blessed with the role of caretaker (whether that person be a parent, teacher, grandmother, or any other adult who is charged with the development of a child). She shared with me some wonderful projects that I could do with my children which not only allowed for quality time together but also gave them opportunities to tap into their emotional and spiritual selves. And, she showed me that it was possible to create simple meals that have allowed me to carve a few treasured moments out of our often hectic day. Just this event of nourishing our bodies together with whole foods and talking about what we are eating is so meaningful to all of us.

You do not just need to take my anecdotal writings to believe that Barbara Rodriguez brings credentials and compassion to her newly released book. She has worked for years as a nanny to celebrities, many of whom speak their praises for her within the pages of The Organic Nanny’s Guide to Raising Healthy Kids. Barbara is simply taking the methods and the ideas that have worked for her in dozens of homes and is now making the information available to the rest of us. In doing so, she is empowering mothers and undoubtedly will change the course of many lives for the better. As a mom who strives to “unplug” her family, explore the outdoors with all the beauty and messiness it has to offer, and raise a girl and a boy with as much of a natural approach as possible, Barbara Rodriguez’s work is a resource that I know I will turn to time and again.

If you are frustrated when you look at the list of ingredients in the meal that you are heating up for your family tonight and realize most of them were created in a laboratory, if you are worried about the statistics concerning childhood obesity and the reality that our children will be the first to have shorter life expectancies than their parents, if you just want a stronger and more meaningful connection to your kids in countless simple and beautiful ways, then please pick up a copy of The Organic Nanny’s Guide to Raising Healthy Kids and I know that your home will be blessed.

The Organic Nanny's Guide to Raising Healthy Kids can be purchased through Amazon.com.

Check out Barbara Rodriguez's website here!