The Book Bin

Choices, choices: Publishing Conscious Calm: Keys to Freedom from Stress and Worry

As a psychologist with a busy integrative psychotherapy practice, I sat with the idea of writing a book for a long time. My approach is integrative and holistic, including the fact that emotions are experienced in the body, and the knowledge that insight alone often is not enough for lasting, transformative healing. I include more traditional, Western psychology and science as well as energy psychology techniques (like EFT, Emotional Freedom Techniques) that lean on science and wisdom from the East, and people’s lives change. It’s gratifying, inspiring work. I was used to hearing “You should write a book!” from clients and some colleagues, but as I began to take this more seriously, I needed to think it through.

 

A book I would want to write would need to be useful to people, and therefore would need to include an integrative perspective. So as I thought about publishing, this was one consideration – the book would not fit neatly into a more trade psychology mold, or a New Age model, or a strictly Energy Psychology niche. Another consideration was my own impatience; once I had a sense of how to write about the integrative but simplified information about our internal stress traps, and knew from experience that this information, along with a step-by-step guide, really could help free people up, I wanted to get the book out there. A traditional model of publishing would simply take too long, even if I found a more traditional publisher willing to take on this hybrid, multi-disciplinary self-help book.

 

After much research, I decided on a model that worked for me. I founded an independent self-publishing company, and then connected with Lightning Source, a distributor and print-on-demand company, and Ingram Books. I found and worked directly with the cover and interior designers, and the editor. From completion of the manuscript to availability at online stores, the process took five months instead of two years, including gathering endorsements and getting the cover design just right. Conscious Calm is available through order at bookstores, since it shows up in the Ingram catalog. And the book is available at Amazon world-wide, as well as many additional online booksellers in the U.S. and abroad. Conscious Calm can get in the hands of people who want to get freed up from internal stress traps, and it will stay in print and available for years. I have the choice about when and how to publish the e-versions of the book for even greater distribution globally. For me, this is a model that provided quicker turnaround for publication, and allows for greater freedom and flexibility as the book heads out into the world.

***

About Dr. Laura Maciuika

Dr. Laura Maciuika is a clinical psychologist and transformation mentor who has been bridging realities her entire life. Raised by Lithuanian parents, she spoke mainly Lithuanian at home and English outside. Visiting Lithuania as a child, a student, and later as a psychologist and teacher, helped her learn how to move between world views, expanding her own as she supported other psychologists and teachers in broadening theirs. She began graduate school at the same time she started her training in mindfulness and meditation practices, and combined psychology training with studies in energy healing modalities. Her deep interest in transformation led to a dissertation on profound, transformative learning, and to ongoing study of inner healing and transformation practices from around the world.

Dr. Maciuika’s has worked in community mental health, schools, as a clinical supervisor and administrator, as a Lecturer and Adjunct professor, and as a workshop leader and speaker on topics including stress management, trauma and healing, and energy psychology including EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques). Dr. Maciuika continues to combine world views and modalities in her mission to provide practical information to people seeking freedom from stress and old internal patterns that no longer serve them. Dr. Maciuika sees individual clients in her Integrative Psychotherapy practice in northern California, and also writes and teaches about inner freedom and transforming your life to the next level of success and happiness.

Visit her website at http://lauramaciuika.com, and follow her blog at http://consciouscalm.com.

How To Get Published by 'The Right Track' Jill Limber

How to Get Published is a continuing feature at The Book Bin where we ask authors to tell us their publishing stories.  Was it a rocky road or did it come easy for them?  Did they start with an  agent and get a NY publisher interested in their book or did they self-publish?  What words of wisdom do they have for all of us who would like to be published one day?

  Today’s guest is Jill Limber, author of the contempary romance novel, The Right Track (Boroughs Publishing Group)    .  Jill is taking a different approach and telling us what inspired her to write her book.

The Right Track is my third book, but my first contemporary. It was such a change from writing historical romance I decided to write about something I was very familiar with. The plan worked, because I submitted it to a New York publisher without the help of an agent, and it was picked up right away.

 

This book was perhaps the most fun to write of all my books. The fun part involves the setting of the book. It takes place on a private railroad car as the hero and heroine travel across the United States.

 

The setting is a real car, built almost one hundred years ago, and the book was written on that car. My other job is being a professional chef and the owner of a catering company. I have worked as a personal chef for the owner of the railroad car for years.

 

The inspiration for the book was a complete no-brainer, and I didn’t have to do a lot of research. When travelling by train, even if you’re working, there is enough downtime to get a fair amount of writing done. The hardest part is to not get too distracted by the scenery and lose your concentration.

 

I remember writing one scene as we started up into the Rocky Mountains. We had spent the night in the station in Oakland California, and the car had been switched from the back of the Coast Starlight up from San Diego to the rear of the California Zephyr for the second leg of our trip to Chicago. It had rained during the night, but the day dawned clear. It was in the spring and as we left the city, there were wild flowers everywhere.

 

We climbed into the foothills of the Rockies, where the views are always spectacular. By the time we got to five thousand feet or so, the snow started to fall, and within an hour, the forest was transformed into a winter wonderland. Needless to say, I didn’t do as much writing that day as I had hoped. Between gazing out the windows and treating the owners and staff to fresh baked cookies and hot chocolate, as well as the usual three full meals, there wasn’t a lot of time left over.

 

I suppose my best advice for someone starting out is the old standard: Write what you know. It is easier to craft a great story if you are on familiar territory. 

A multi-published author and former RWA President, Jill Limber’s latest books are Montana Morning, A Heart That Dares and The Right Track. As a child, some of Jill’s tales got her in trouble, but now she gets paid for them. Residing in San Diego with her husband and a trio of dogs and one very ancient cat, Jill’s favorite pastime is to gather friends and family for good food, conversation and plenty of laughter.

You can visit her website at www.JillLimber.com.

 

The Long Road to Publication by Guest Author B.A. Chepaitis

As wrote in my book Feathers of Hope, if the road to Hell is paved with good intentions, the road to Paradise isn’t paved at all.  That’s also true of the road to getting published.  It’s not paved, and there are very few signs. 

My journey on that road started when I had a six month old son.  The winter was long and cold, and because I was housebound and ran out of books, I decided to write one.  It was a detective novel, and after I wrote it, in those pre-internet days, I went to the bookstore and got a book of agents, and sent it out to some of them.

One of them took it on, but she never sold it. I lacked confidence and didn’t know how to appropriately nudge her.  That had a lot to do with the results.  I let it drop.  So did she. 

Years passed, and I wrote another book, got another agent who didn’t sell what I wrote, got divorced, and had some interesting dates I’d rather not talk about.  After writing a really complicated 500 page epic novel over the course of a long weekend, I decided to relax by going back to a short detective piece.  I pulled out my old manuscript, made it dark and edgy, set it in the future and made my people empaths and telepaths. My main character became a woman named Jaguar Addams, who rehabbed criminals by making them face their deepest fears.  This story, and all those that followed, were over 40 pages long and so totally unsellable.

Hmm.  What next? I sent the stories out to magazines and got rejected.  Repeatedly.  At around the same time someone I knew invited me to a science fiction convention, and I went. This may seem totally unrelated, but in fact, it’s crucial, and let that be a lesson to you. As a writer you should always be prepared to do the illogical.

An important editor was at that convention, and my companion and I bought her a drink.  Or two.  Or more.  Another lesson:  If you meet an editor, never shove your manuscript at them.  Always say, “Can I buy you a drink?”

As we drank I mentioned what I was writing, and she was interested.  When I got home I sent her some Jaguar Addams’ stories.  She wasn’t buying short story collections but she asked me to let her know when I had a novel using Jaguar, a woman she liked a lot.

At the time my second marriage was falling apart.  I was in school, working full time, and my son was ten years old. I had no time to write a novel.  So for two weeks I gave up sleeping and turned a short story into a novel. For reasons I still can’t explain, I used the third short story instead of the first, and they liked it, but wanted the first one first.  Of course they did.  Which meant I slept even less, and wrote that one, too.  

And that book, The Fear Principle, about Jaguar Addams’ case with hitwoman Clare Rilasco, was my first sale. 

 Just this month I published the fifth novel in that series, The Green Memory of Fear, so I count all those sleepless nights well spent.  And my advice for writers  -  do what’s necessary, whether you can do it or not. 

***

About B.A. Chepaitis

BARBARA CHEPAITIS is author of 8 published novels, including the critically acclaimed Feeding Christine and These Dreams, as well as the sci-fi series featuring Jaguar Addams. The fourth novel in that series, A Lunatic Fear was a nominee for a Romantic Times Bookclub award.

Her scripts have placed semifinalist with Niccholl’s Fellowship and finalist with Sundance Screenwriter’s award.

She is founder and director of the storytelling trio The Snickering Witches, host of WAMC Writer’s Forum, a Teaching Artist with the Lincoln Center-based Aesthetic education program, and concentration direction in fiction at Western State College of Colorado’s graduate program in creative writing.

You can visit her website at Wild Reads and her blog at M&C Literary Lunch

You can also follower her on Twitter and Facebook

10 Things You Didn't Know About Weight Loss by Nicolette Dumke

10 Things You Didn’t Know About Weight Loss

(from Food Allergy and Gluten-Free Weight Loss)

By Nicolette Dumke

Why is the population of the United States getting heavier and heavier with every passing year? We go on diets, we want to lose weight, and yet our average weight continues to increase. It’s because we are misinformed about how body chemistry affects weight loss and gain.

Here are the top ten things you may not know about weight loss:

1. Diets rarely work. Achieving permanent weight loss is extremely uncommon. After dieters reach their goal, they usually re-gain most or all of the weight they lost. They may even be heavier than when they started; if they lost muscle mass, their metabolic rate will be lower than before their diet.

2. Trying to lose weight does not mean having be hungry. Most diets which demand “No fat! No snacks!” have made us hungry, but hunger is part of why such diets don’t work. How long can one resist being hungry? Then when we finally eat, we overeat. In addition, hunger indicates falling blood sugar levels and rising insulin levels. High insulin levels affect enzymes that control fat metabolism and tell the body to store food rather than burn it and not to burn body fat.

3 “Counting calories is the way to lose weight” is a fallacy. Conventional diets say that all that matters when you want to lose weight is the number of calories consumed minus the number burned by physical activity. Although calories do have an effect, they are not the primary determining factor in how much we weigh. Our hormones, such as insulin, cortisol, leptin and others, are what really determine our weight, and we can control them. If your hormones are saying, “Deposit that food! A famine is in the land!” you will not be able to lose weight even if the number of calories you consume is very low.

4. Skipping breakfast, or other fasting, tells your hormones that you are at risk of being food deficient because you are living in a land of famine; this inhibits weight loss. Eating moderate amounts of food at three hour intervals (or two hour intervals if you get hungry that soon) is the best way to lose weight, and you’ll never be hungry! Eat breakfast within an hour of arising in the morning, and have small protein-containing snack between meals and a protein-containing bedtime snack.

5 “Fat is bad for your health – clogs the arteries – and should be eliminated” is a fallacy. This idea was derived from the calorie math described in #3 because fat contains nine calories per gram compared to four calories per gram for proteins and carbohydrates. (This is where the almost-no-fat, plenty-of-carbohydrate diets got their start). However, our bodies need fats of the right kind to make hormones, build cell membranes, and deal with inflammation.

6. The right fats promote weight loss! This sounds heretical, right? (And it doesn’t mean you should load up on unhealthy types of fat). Yet it is a scientific fact. Fats help with weight in two ways: (1) A meal or snack that contains fat will keep us satisfied much longer than a low-fat meal or snack, especially since these may be high in carbohydrates. Therefore, a person consumes less food! (2) Some fats, especially those that contain omega-3 fatty acids, reduce inflammation. With less inflammation, leptin, our master weigh control hormone, functions more efficiently. When it is functioning optimally and a person overeats, leptin will boost the metabolic rate and decrease appetite, thus automatically returning the person to a healthy weight. People whose weight fluctuates in a five pound range regardless of what they eat have a normally functioning leptin system.

7. Individuals may deny – or be unaware of - having problems with inflammation, but this is a fallacy if they are heavy. Sometimes inflammation is obvious; it causes redness, warmth, and/or pain. However, chronic inflammation can be silent. Overweight individuals may not know it, but they are experiencing silent inflammation. As we gain weight, our bodies do not add more fat cells. The fat cells we already have become larger and are just filled with more fat. They leak as they are stretched more and more. Then immune cells called macrophages come in to clean up the mess. The macrophages release inflammatory chemicals in the cleanup process. Some of these interfere with leptin functioning. In optimally healthy people, leptin is responsible for automatically maintaining weight at the right level. When leptin is made ineffective by inflammation, the dysfunction is called leptin resistance, meaning that even though a person might have normal or high levels of leptin, the leptin does not work to suppress appetite and speed metabolism to maintain a healthy weight.

8. Although #7 sounds like a depressing vicious cycle, there are ways to break the cycle. Briefly, these include consuming the right fats to reduce inflammation, eating to keep blood sugar and insulin levels stable, and eating anti-inflammatory foods. The additional good news is that as the slimming process begins, leptin resistance abates. Then when an individual reaches optimal weight and has inflammation under control, the struggle to maintain a healthy weight will end. The newly-functional leptin system will control both appetite and weight.

9. There are two commonly held fallacies about eating carbohydrates: (1) Very low or no-carbohydrate diets are the best way to lose weight, and (2) A diet low in fat and high in complex carbohydrates is the best way to lose weight. The USDA Food Pyramid promoted this second type of diet, and the weight of Americans increased every year when the Food Pyramid was our national standard. The truth is that we need carbohydrates for good health. Strictly limiting carbohydrates deprives us of the phytochemicals they contain which help reduce inflammation and allow our leptin to function properly. Furthermore, carbohydrates are not all alike. Simple carbohydrates are not all bad and starches are not all good for us. The glycemic index is a measure of how each carbohydrate affects blood sugar levels. This test is done using human volunteers, unlike calorie testing which is done with a machine (calorimeter). The best way to lose weight is to maintain stable blood sugar and insulin levels by eating carbohydrates with low or moderate glycemic index scores and balance these carbohydrates with protein.

10. Exercise, if excessive, prolonged, or done when we are hungry, can keep us from losing weight or even cause us to deposit fat. (Read the whole story about this here: http://www.foodallergyandglutenfreeweightloss.com/exercise_right.html). Moderate exercise, such as walking, gardening, house cleaning, or moderate bicycling or swimming, is the best way to lose weight because it does not “unsettle” our hormones. In addition, moderate exercise decreases leptin resistance, which was discussed in #7, thus making weight loss easier and normal self-regulating weight control possible. There may be other things that you never knew about weight loss, but ten is the limit for this list. To find out more about how to lose weight permanently without hunger or struggle, read Food Allergy and Gluten-Free Weight Loss or visit http://www.foodallergyandglutenfreeweightloss.com. The principles in the ten points above apply to everyone. This book will help people with food allergies or gluten intolerance lose weight while staying on their special diets, and it will help non-food-sensitive people lose weight as well.

About Food Allergy and Gluten-Free Weight Loss

Food Allergy and Gluten-Free Weight Loss answers the question, “Why is it so hard to lose weight?” Because it’s hard to put a puzzle together if you’re missing some of the pieces. We’ve been missing or ignoring the most important pieces in the puzzle of how our bodies determine whether to store or burn fat. Those puzzle pieces are hormones such as insulin, cortisol, leptin, and others. In addition, we’ve been given some puzzle pieces that don’t belong or fit in the weight-control puzzle. Much of what we’ve heard about dieting and exercise is incorrect and can cause loss of muscle mass instead of fat or even result in weight gain. The idea that weight is determined solely by “calories in minus calories out” is an assumption not based in reality. Most weight-loss diets require us to endure hunger much of the time, but hunger means that our blood sugar is falling or low and our insulin level may be rising. Prolonged hunger leads to the release of adrenal hormones, and the hormonal cascade which follows results in the inability to burn our own body fat as well as causing any fat we eat to be stored rather than burned to give us energy. Another problem with most weight loss diets is that they strictly dictate food choices, lack the flexibility that those on special diets for food allergies or gluten-intolerance require, and deprive us of pleasure. Individuals with food allergies face additional weight-loss challenges such as inflammation due to allergies which can lead to our master weight control hormone, leptin, being unable to do its job of maintaining a healthy weight. Those with gluten intolerance often eat a diet too high rice. Rice is the only grain which is high on the glycemic index in its whole grain form; thus eating too much of it will raise insulin levels and cause the body to deposit fat. Although the recipes in this book were developed for those on special diets, non-sensitive people will enjoy them as well, and the weight loss principles in this book will help anyone lose weight. (A chapter of recipes made with wheat and other problematic foods is included for those on unrestricted diets). The most frustrating deficiency of conventional weight loss diets is that they don’t work long-term. Low-calorie, low-fat diets can lead to loss of muscle mass, and with less muscle to burn calories, this type of diet effectively reduces metabolic rate so we need less food. Rare is the person who loses weight by counting calories and keeps it off after they liberalize their diet! However, continual dieting for the rest of your life is not the way you need to live, and you do not have to be deprived of pleasure in order to lose weight. Overweight is not due to a lack of willpower. Rather, it is due to a chemical imbalance in our bodies. Once we begin to correct that imbalance by applying the principles in Food Allergy and Gluten-Free Weight Loss, we can lose weight without hunger or deprivation and can maintain a healthy weight permanently and easily by regaining normal self-regulating hormonal control of our weight.

Nicolette enjoys helping people with food allergies and gluten intolerance find solutions to their health and weight problems. She began writing books to help others with multiple food allergies over 20 years ago and the process culminated in The Ultimate Food Allergy Cookbook and Survival Guide. She says, “This book contains everything I know to help with food allergies,” and it has helped many people come back from near-starvation. Her other books address issues such as how to deal with time and money pressures on special diets, keeping allergic children happy on their diets, and more. A few years ago, while listening to the struggles of an allergic friend on the Weight Watchers™ diet, she remembered her own weight struggles* many years ago and thought, “There has to be a better way.” This was the beginning of a new quest, and she is now helping those who are overweight due to inflammation (often due to unsuspected food allergies) or high-in-rice gluten-free diets, as well as those who are not food sensitive but want to lose weight permanently, healthily, and without feeling hungry and deprived. Her unique approach to weight and health presented in Food Allergy and Gluten-Free Weight Loss is based on body physiology and reveals why conventional weight-loss diets work against rather than with our bodies and therefore rarely result in permanent weight loss. * (Nickie’s weight loss story, briefly, is that in her early 20s she could not lose on a calorie-counting diet in spite of repeatedly further reducing the number of calories she ate and swimming vigorously and often. Then she found a diet based on blood sugar control, lost weight without being hungry, and still weighs what she did in her mid-20s). Nickie has had multiple food allergies for 30 years and has been cooking for special diets for family members and friends for even longer. Regardless of how complex your dietary needs are or how much or little cooking you have done, she has the books and recipes you need. Her books present the science behind multiple food allergies and weight control in an easily-understood manner. She has BS degrees in medical technology and microbiology. She and her husband live in Louisville, Colorado and have two grown sons. You can visit Nickie’s websites at http://www.foodallergyandglutenfreeweightloss.com and http://www.food-allergy.org.

How to Get Published by KJ Steele, author of "No Story to Tell"

How to Get Published is a continuing feature at The Book Bin where we ask authors to tell us their publishing stories.  Was it a rocky road or did it come easy for them?  Did they start with an agent and get a NY publisher interested in their book or did they self-publish?  What words of wisdom do they have for all of us who would like to be published one day?

 Today’s guest is KJ Steele, author of the literary fiction novel, No Story To Tell(Fiction Studio)

Getting published can often be a bit of a tricky business for the aspiring author. Too much focus put on it during the writing of one’s novel, can disrupt the delicate flow of the emerging story. Too little focus can well leave you with a wonderfully written novel, that has no niche for it in the marketplace. My experience often straddled this dichotomy.

I was fortunate in a way, in that I never actually set out to write a novel. I had taken a writing class where our first assignment was to: create two characters and a conflict, and write a paragraph. When my pen engaged the paper, it literally took off, with me scrambling to keep up to the words streaming through my mind. When I tell people that my novel, No Story to Tell was a story that demanded to be told, I am not exaggerating.

Because I had not set out to write a novel, I was able to proceed for some time without the burden of publication expectations weighing me down. I was able to just write for the sake of writing. Once the manuscript began to take shape, however, I began to realize that I’d have to immerse myself in the business side of writing, as well.

Upon realizing this, I knew the first thing that I needed to do, was to have the work critiqued by well-qualified teachers, preferably writers themselves. I sent a sample of the  novel to the Humber School for Writers, and was accepted into their mentorship program. Over the next few years, the manuscript evolved under the informed guidance of one of their excellent mentors, and Booker nominated author, DM Thomas.

I believe strongly that any work which will eventually reach the marketplace should be able to stand up to this sort of rigorous standard. Fortunately, mine did, and I knew it was ready to move it forward to the next stage, which was finding an agent, or a publisher. And, it was here, that I, like most new authors, found myself stymied.

For the most part, agents and editors were very positive with their feedback. They liked the work, and the quality of the writing. But, they could not take it on. Why? Invariably, it was because the novel was too dark for the books they brought to the market. So, there I was. A completed manuscript that the industry saw had merit, but which also held some challenges, as well. A very frustrating place to arrive at.

Fortunately, it was at that point that someone suggested I send the manuscript to Lou Aronica, of The Fiction Studio for some editorial advice. Lou has been the publisher, and deputy publisher at some very successful publishing houses. He is also a New York Times best-selling author. This was exactly what I needed. Someone who could provide the bridge between what was written and what the market was willing to accept.

Lou took my manuscript on an editorial basis. He read it and offered back some truly excellent advice. He immediately grasped the essence of my novel, and identified where I needed to make changes. Because of his understanding of the work, I was able to trust his advice, something I did not find with some of the other editors I’d dealt with. Lou knew his business. I set about weaving a couple of new themes into the novel, and saw its complexity and richness intensify. 

I still didn’t know how I was going to get the novel into the marketplace, but I did know that it was now truly complete. Lou provided the answer for this dilemma, as well. Unbeknownst to me, he had started an, invitation only, writer’s collective for works he loved. He invited me to publish with them. Becoming published in this way has been a wonderful experience. With Lou’s expertise, my novel’s introduction into the industry, has been guided by a very accomplished hand, and I am fortunate in that.

I know what it is like to be a yet-unpublished author reading these words. I was there once, as well. The best advice I can give, is to keep pushing forward. Write from the deepest, most honest place within yourself. Don’t write to the market. Write the story that so desperately wants to be told. There will be time later, with the right guidance, to streamline the work into a story the market will be comfortable with. And try to remember that if you have a good story, and you write it with excellence, someone will be willing to take it on. But, they will not come looking for you. It is your job, to find them.

KJ Steele is an emerging writer who has learned that the process is not so much about choosing what to write as it is about having the courage to write what chooses to be written. Having spent the first half of her life creating an amazing family with her husband, Victor, she intends to spend the rest of it creating equally amazing fiction.

You can find out more about her and her book by visiting her website at http://kjsteele.com, on Twitter at http://twitter.com/KJSteele4 and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/No-Story-to-Tell/122592254511039

 

How to Get Published by 'Real Eyez Realize Real Liez' by Robert Nelson

How to Get Published is a continuing feature at The Book Bin where we ask authors to tell us their publishing stories.  Was it a rocky road or did it come easy for them?  Did they start with an  agent and get a NY publisher interested in their book or did they self-publish?  What words of wisdom do they have for all of us who would like to be published one day?

 Today’s guest is Robert Nelson, author of the urban thriller, Real Eyez Realize Real Liez (CreateSpace).

In late 2008 I landed myself a stay in the ever-so-luxurious NC Department of Corrections. Amongst the chaos, stress and angst of Prison Life, I dove into the pages of my various notebooks as a way to vent. I started with poetry and particular song lyrics that I scribbled according to the rhythms bouncing around inside my noggin. I sent most of it home and my family and friends seemed impressed enough to start passing it around. Surprisingly, this accidentally developed my first inner ripples of an actual ring of fans.

 

I continued the best I could despite the interruptions of the Correctional Staff I continued to right as vigorously and as controversially as possible. See, C.O.’s have a free range policy on routinely trashing anything, literature or otherwise, that they might deem harmful to an inmate or other inmates. Which means, after I let the wrong people glance over my work my cell was invaded and all the notes and scribbles any other author concur as essential were confiscated. This happened repeatedly over the next 14 months. Write, trash, write, trash, until eventually I knew the story so well that I could commit it to memory until I could transfer to a camp more conducive to my creative processes.

 

After which, I cranked out the rough draft of Real Eyez Realize Real Liez in a blissful 31 day spree. Of course I was criticized by my peers and my Spades partners for sitting stone still hovering over a table amidst the monotonous whirlwind daily prison activities. As the pens drained and pages turned I filled my notebooks until my release in 2010.

 

Over the next year I worked 11 hours a day, went to school for 4 hours every night, fell in love, partied like a madman, and sat hovering over my illuminated keyboard until the first installment of the Real Eyez Realize Real Liez Trilogy was birthed and self-published through Createspace.com. It wasn’t easy, but through endless trial and error and dedication I’m currently a vendor of record with Barnes&Noble.com, Createspace.com and Amazon.com. The hardest part I found was getting the cover absolutely 100% perfect while there is a week long wait in between ordering drafts from Createspace.com. Though thankfully, they installed an auto-option so you don’t need approval to order a draft. Or maybe it was the sheer number of drafts I had been ordering. The rest of the actual self-publishing process was a breeze and seemed to fall into place naturally once you rifled through the BS and started talking to people who could actually help you. So the best advice I could give is to either A.) find a worthwhile agent FIRST…  or to never settle for less in the self-publishing industry. There is always a better offer or an easier way to do things right around the corner.

 

In closure, the grabbing appeal of Real Eyez Realize Real Liez is not only the struggle and strife I went through to bring it out of the fences to the real world and publish it, but the lessons I learned during the writing itself. Through my tutelage underneath the Aryan Brotherhood and the thousands of hours of eavesdropped Gang Knowledge I absorbed; I entered Real Eyez into a state of realism unheard of in modern day Urban Literature. With my pen, I intend to grab the reader by the scruff and bash their face into the ugliness of the modern day underworld. Then through the tribulation and transformation of my characters, Real Eyez actually teaches the reader HOW to defeat the spread of the Gangsta Lifestyle into Suburban America. The lessons are there; all the while shrouded in a veil of gunfights, conspiracy, blood money and the cocky smart-ass humor I’m so infamous for.  Endless respect to all my fans and for The Book Bin for letting me share this with you all.

Robert Nelson was born and raised in Garner, North Carolina where he earned the connections and street credibility needed to bring a sense of authenticity to his work. Consequentially, this lead to his stay in the luxurious NC-DOC where through a lot of retrospection he developed a strategy to defeat what he had become. Through the guidance of the Aryan Brotherhood and the variety of other hardened criminals he  played cards with he focused his energy into developing his skills as a writer to keep the youth from making the same mistakes he did. If he can open just one pair of eyes through his writing, everything he’s put into these pages would have paid off.

 

 

How to Get Published by 'Babes in Bucksnort' Davis Aujourd'hui

How to Get Published is a continuing feature at The Book Bin where we ask authors to tell us their publishing stories.  Was it a rocky road or did it come easy for them?  Did they start with an  agent and get a NY publisher interested in their book or did they self-publish?  What words of wisdom do they have for all of us who would like to be published one day?

 Today’s guest is Davis Aujduvd’hui, author of the humor/satire book, Babes in Bucksnort (Outskirts Press).

I had never dreamed of writing a book, let alone writing a series of books. Consequently, I had never dreamed of becoming a published writer. That all changed when I sat down at my computer. I began to write a story based upon zany characters I'd developed in order to entertain a former colleague of mine when I'd been a social worker. That's when I really got the writing bug. I quickly began to craft a series of books based upon my hilariously wayward nun who loves her bourbon and her Marlboros - Sister Mary Olga Fortitude.

The question that remained was how I would go about becoming published. I felt like Alice in Wonderland. I had no knowledge whatsoever about the publishing industry. I was about to receive an education.

I bought a reference book called The Writer's Market. With The Writer's Market in hand, I began to search through the listings of agents and publishers who might be interested in my first book. Many of them were able to be approached via email. That was how I began my search. I began to fire off query letters, sometimes attaching sample chapters in those instances when the listings indicated that the agent or publisher was open to receiving unsolicited material.

While I was pleased that I received some very positive feedback, no one offered me a contract. I didn't lose heart. Having a book published via a traditional publisher is very difficult, especially in these tough economic times. I soon learned that there are over 400,000 books published every year. It's a highly competitive business. That's when I decided to consider other options.

The beauty is that, if one can write well, it's possible to get published. This is due to the proliferation of publishers that will help an author self-publish a book. In some of these cases, the author retains creative control of his or her book and retains all rights to the book. That was how I made my decision to go with Outskirts Press.

The pitfall to self-publishing is that the author usually has to pay the publisher to publish his or her book. There is also very little if any marketing assistance provided. This means that an author has to be willing to put a lot of time and effort into marketing if the author has any hopes of creating a financially successful book. That became the task which lay before me.

This was the beginning of a new adventure. The publishing process didn't take as long as it does with a traditional publisher. My book hit the market about two months after I began the process. It was an exciting day when I received my first copies of the book I had written two years earlier.

Most of my reviews were excellent. My readers loved the book and the professionals who reviewed the book also gave me resounding thumbs up reviews. The vast majority of my reviews were rated at five out of five stars. Many of my readers expressed the sentiment that they couldn't put the book down and that they couldn't wait for the next book in the series to be published.

They wouldn't have to wait long time. I was once again signed by Outskirts Press to publish my first sequel to Misadventures. It is another deliciously silly satire called Babes in Bucksnort. It was published in 2010. My next book to hit the market will be Have A Heart.

For now, I am excited about the blogs which Mindy Schwartz of Full Circle Administrative Services has completed for me. Within them, I keep my readers updated about the progress of my series. I also tempt them with tasty nuggets as to what my books are about. My first blog is: http://bestsatireseriesofthedecade.blogspot.com

I have also written vast array of articles about my own personal experience. I cover topics such as recovery from alcoholism, recovery from sexual addiction, coming to a place of acceptance of being gay, and recovery from mental illness to name but a few. That blog is: http://authordavisaujourdhui.blogspot.com

For any other aspiring authors, I would say this. If you've written a good book, believe in yourself. It is possible to become published. Just keep on trying and don't give up.

Davis Aujourd’hui is the author of the Sister Mary Olga Fortitude series of hilarious satires. The first book is entitled The Misadventures of Sister Mary Olga Fortitude. It was followed by Babes in Bucksnort.

Davis possesses a rich life experience that has enabled him to draw from it in order to create a colorful canvas upon which to paint very human lives. He is a retired social worker, having worked for Adult Protective Services in New York State for nearly twenty years. He developed the characters within his series of books in order to entertain a colleague by using the gift of humor.

As will be the case with Sister Mary Olga in his third book, he is a recovering alcoholic. He also happens to be gay as are several of the endearing and humorous characters within his novels. He can speak from his own experience. He has possessed all of the foibles of his cast of characters who are naughty, nasty, and nice.

Davis lives in Upstate New York where he is currently sharing his life with his partner of seven years. He is socially-minded and spirituality is the most important ingredient in order for him to maintain a happy and successful life.

Visit this blog for information on the series: http://bestsatireseriesofthedecade.blogspot.com

Visit this blog for information on the author: http://authordavisaujourdhui.blogspot.com

Connect with him on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Davis-Aujourdhui/138584429540046.

How to Get Published by 'Empire of Light' Gregory Earls

How to Get Published is a continuing feature at The Book Bin where we ask authors to tell us their publishing stories.  Was it a rocky road or did it come easy for them?  Did they start with an  agent and get a NY publisher interested in their book or did they self-publish?  What words of wisdom do they have for all of us who would like to be published one day?

 Today’s guest is Gregory Earls, author of the general fiction novel, Empire of Light (Simon and Fig).

My wife was born and raised in Milan, a city based in the north of Italy. The first Christmas we spent together here in the states, I wanted her to feel at home. So one night I took her to see a movie, Gomorrah, a critically acclaimed move that took place in Naples, which is based in the south of Italy. It was about half way through when I asked her if she was digging the film.

She replied, “Ma dai! I don’t understand what these people are saying. I’m going to sleep.”

What I didn’t understand at the time was that even though Italy shared a common language, Italian, the dialect and local colloquialisms between the north and south were just unusual enough to make the inhabitants of these two regions feel like they lived on different planets. My wife needed an interpreter.

After years of hustling in the film industry, and banging out scripts, the literary world seemed just as bizarre to me. For example, after years of being confined to one hundred and twenty pages, I couldn’t wrap my head around the freedom of writing a novel. What the hell was I going to do with sixty-five thousand words? You know those chickens who spent most of their lives trapped in cages, then suddenly an hour before their beheading, they’re released into the a fenced yard so they could be stamped “free range.” Envision a chicken’s brain trying to comprehend the idea of space. 

That chicken was I.

Luckily, my good friend, Stacey became my interpreter in this new world. She was a published author who had volunteered to help me edit my manuscript, and then point me in the right direction when the time came to find an agent and, hopefully, get published. I had just begun sending out inquiries to publishers and agents, when Stacey was blessed with an epiphany, and decided to launch her own small press, Simon & Fig.  She took a chance on my novel, Empire Of Light, and thank God she did because after a scant month of mailing inquiries and I was about two rejection letters away from stuffing my manuscript down some agent’s throat. 

About a week before Stacey offered to publish my book, a major Hollywood agency showed mad interest in the book, a colleague informing me that I had made it pretty far up the pipe before they finally dropped it. Screw them. Simon & Fig had my back and I hope I can reward their faith by giving them an acclaimed book. Some black in their ledger would be nice, too.

So please hit up Amazon.com and support the cause, and enjoy the read!

When Gregory Earls isn’t eating at Roscoe’s House of Chicken and Waffles, he pays the bills by taking up space at 20th Century Fox in the Feature Post Production Department. He’s a proud graduate of Norfolk State University and the American Film Institute, where he studied cinematography. He’s an award-winning director who has amassed a reel of short films, music videos, and (yes) a wedding video or two. Steadfastly butchering the Italian language since 2002, he hopes to someday master the language just enough to inform his in-laws how much he loves their daughter, Stefania, who was born and raised in Milan, Italy. Gregory currently resides in Venice, California where he goes giddy every time he spots that dude who roller skates and plays the electric guitar at the same time. During football season, he can be found at the Stovepiper Lounge, a Cleveland Browns bar in the Valley where he roots for the greatest football team in the history of Cleveland.

Visit his website at www.gregoryearls.com.

 

 

How to Get Published by 'Act of Grace' Karen Simpson

How to Get Published is a continuing feature at The Book Bin where we ask authors to tell us their publishing stories.  Was it a rocky road or did it come easy for them?  Did they start with an  agent and get a NY publisher interested in their book or did they self-publish?  What words of wisdom do they have for all of us who would like to be published one day? 

 Today’s guest is Karen Simpson, author of the contemporary speculative fiction novel Act of Grace .

When I finished my first novel, I promised my character Grace that I would find her a good home. I kept my promise, but it didn’t happen the way I always imagined it would.

After about ten years of writing, critiques groups and workshops, I queried and finally got an agent out of New York. I was hopeful, she was hopeful. She did her best to sell the manuscript, but it seemed that while many of the editors loved my work they turned Act of Grace down because they didn’t think there was a market for a speculative fiction novel that dealt with issues of race.

“I’ll keep trying.” My agent said; however, I could tell she was discouraged.

Now, I knew I was suppose to wait on my agent to do the magic that agents do, but as the rejections from editors continued to piled up I realized I was probably going to have to do something different to pave the way to publishing success. I knew I didn’t want to self-publish my book so I began to consider the option of finding a small or independent publisher.

One November morning my agent sent me a flurry of rejection emails from editors and I got angry. I typed “African American Literary Publishers” into Goggle and up popped the name Plenary Publishing.

Sometimes you have to take a leap off the cliff into the unknown and trust that God and the ancestors will throw you some wings on the way down. I followed Plenary’s detailed submissions directions, pressed the send button and waited and waited and waited. I waited so long I almost forgot that I had submitted to them. Great blessing sometime come to those who wait. On May 13, the day after my birthday, I received a request for the full manuscript of my novel Act of Grace. A month later I had the contract in my hands.

The editing of the novel went smoothly. Of course, there were the general delays that come with any publishing project but I am very happy with my novel and have received excellent reviews.

My advice to new writers is if you are serious about getting published, work at writing as you would a career or job. Learn the craft by become a part of critiques groups, go to as many conferences as you can afford. Read all kinds of novels and writing books, but, in addition, read books and blogs about how to conduct the business side of writing. A good book to start with is The Essential Guide to Getting Your Book Published by Arielle Eckstut and David Henry Sterry.

 

Karen Simpson is passionate about the craft of writing fiction, the art of quilting, and the discipline of historical research. She received her bachelor’s degree in Animal Husbandry, M.A. in Foreign and International Trade and a M.S. in Historic Preservation. A historic preservationist trained in heritage interpretation and administration, the subjects and themes of her fiction are often taken from the stories she discovers while doing research for museum exhibits. In 2009 Simpson was awarded the Speculative Literature Foundation’s Older Writers Grant.  She is lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Act of Grace is her first novel.

You can visit Karen Simpson’s website at www.karensimpsonwrites, her blog at www.lafreya.blogspot.com or connect with her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/lafreya1

How to Get Published by 'Telegraph Island' John Milton Langdon

How to Get Published is a continuing feature at The Book Bin where we ask authors to tell us their publishing stories.  Was it a rocky road or did it come easy for them?  Did they start with an  agent and get a NY publisher interested in their book or did they self-publish?  What words of wisdom do they have for all of us who would like to be published one day? 

  Today’s guest is John Milton Langdon, author of the historical fiction novel, Telegraph Island (Tate Publishing & Enterprises).

It is true to say that I had no ambition to become an author, even 'though the poet John Milton was an ancestor, but circumstances dictated otherwise.  In 2004 when I was working in Abu Dhabi, my wife and I visited a small Omani town called Khasab which is located close to the Straits of Hormuz.  One of the attractions is an area known as the Fjord because of its similarity to Norwegian scenery.  The transliterated Arabic name for the fjord is Khor as Sham.  We sailed into the fjord on a dhow and moored at an island located about half way along the waterway.

The island is named Telegraph Island and anyone with Google Earth on their PC will be able to locate it quite easily as the co-ordinates are 26° 11' 43.13"N and 56° 20' 34.31"E

I discovered that a small group of British telegraph operators had lived and worked at the repeater station on the island in the middle of the eighteen hundreds and also that it was one of the links in the chain of repeater stations on the electric telegraph between Britain and India.  This was at the very beginning of the age of electronic communication that we take for granted these days.

Standing in burning sunshine on a barren lump of rock, surrounded by a sea edged with equally barren but precipitous mountains, I could only marvel at the fortitude of men who could live and work under such appalling conditions.  Water, food and all the other essentials of life had to be supplied by sea.  They lived in Arab style huts made of barasti and must have suffered enormously in the heat and humidity.  The operators spent long hours listening to incoming messages in Morse code which they then had to retransmit along the next section of the cable.  It was small wonder that many became ill and the phrase ‘gone round the bend’ was coined by sailors recovering mentally sick personnel from the island which is beyond a bend in the inlet.

I felt there was a story to be told about these men, with the development of the telegraph system as a background theme and consequently an unplanned visit to a remote and uninhabited island provided the inspiration for my story, and my retirement from full time employment gave me the time I needed to write it.

When I completed the first chapter I gave my late wife a copy of the text to read and her verdict was, "I like the story but----."

When I had received the same opinion for each of the first four chapters, I realised I needed advice and sent the text to a professional reviewer.  His report was long and detailed but the first line provided the key that solved my problem.  He wrote, "I like the story but you are writing a report not a novel."  He was correct.  After more than 40 years working as an engineer it was not a surprising conclusion; it was the only way I knew how to write.  Initially it was quite difficult to persuade my practical engineer's brain that it was now acceptable to use my imagination and describe my characters more fully and to include conversation and emotion.

I anticipated writing only one book; it would begin in England and end on Telegraph Island.  I didn't have a specific plan to follow and allowed the characters and events to develope logically and essentially the story wrote itself.  I noticed quite often that a particular situation in the story could have several different outcomes depending on the personalities of the characters involved.  I would choose one of the options and continue writing.  If I liked the way the story continued to develope I would keep the text; if I didn't I would try another option.

As I was writing the final chapters of the book I started to search for an agent or publisher.

I don't remember exactly how many letters and samples of text I posted but it must have been about a hundred and the extremely frustrating result of this intense activity was the almost total lack of response.  Those few who were courteous enough to reply, simply informed me that they were not accepting new authors.

I started researching on the internet, discovered Tate Publishing and was very happy to receive a positive response from them.  I was prepared to contribute to the costs of publication because my writing had become my retirement hobby and had never been an attempt to make money.  I reasoned that my hobby could have been model railways and I could have spent money on locomotives and track instead.

My next problem was the length of the book I submitted to Tate Publishing.

It was about twice the length of the maximum work they normally produced and consequently it was unacceptable.  That was an extremely disappointing outcome and initially a reason for abandoning the whole project.  However, and after some thought, I realised the existing book could be modified slightly and divided into two volumes.  This was acceptable to my publisher and as a result Against All Odds was published in 2005 and Telegraph Island in 2006.

I had accumulated a great deal of data whilst researching for the first two books and realised that I had enough information and ideas to write another book.  In actual fact I was able to write two more and Full Circle was published in 2007 and Ring of Gold in 2009 by Tate Publishing.

My writing activities came to a halt when my wife's cancer returned in 2009 and I have written very little since her death in 2010.  Hopefully the desire to finish the two books I started to write in 2008 will return.


John Milton Langdon, Klagenfurt, Austria.

Author John Milton Langdon is a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers and has a master’s degree in maritime civil engineering.  Langdon retired and became a professional writer after an active and rewarding engineering career.  Initially he worked in Britain but from 1972 until 2008, he dealt with project development in Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Nigeria.  Langdon lives in the Austrian town of Klagenfurt which has a history stretching back to mediaeval times.  Langdon has three children and five grandchildren from his first marriage and two step sons from the second.  Langdon has many interests including travel, the British canals, music and literature but hiking in the mountains surrounding his home is a preferred leisure activity.

His latest book is the historical fiction novel, Telegraph Island.

You can visit John’s  website at www.jmlangdon.com.