Gail Gaymer Martin Answers the Age Old Question!

Gail Gaymer Martin Answers the Age Old Question!.

Ever felt like you were too old to start a new career?

Thoughts about home and hearth.

I ran across this quote and decided to share some quotes this week about  love for your country and making it better.

There seems to be a lot of things going on in this country. Plus you can see in the news things that are going on in other countries that are  aimed at hurting our people and country.

A.P.J. Abdul Kalam said, “If a country is to be corruption free and become a nation of beautiful minds, I strongly feel there are three key societal members who can make a difference. They are the father, the mother and the teacher.”

Kalam was the 11th President of India from 2002 to 2007. Before that he was a  scientist and administrator.

 

 

Perhaps it would do us good to think about some of the quotes from these men and women.

They might give us some insight on what we can do to make things better for our country.

 

She Does It Her Way-Jamie Langston Turner-A Southern Author

Jamie Langston Turner, is a Southern Author. Her newest book release is To See The Moon Again. In the book you learn The first step to letting go of the past is forgiving it…Every day of her life Julia Rich lives with the memory of a horrible accident she caused long ago. In the years since, she has tried to hide her guilt in the quiet routine of teaching at a small South Carolina college, avoiding close relationships with family and would-be friends. But one day a phone call from Carmen, a niece she has never met, disrupts her carefully controlled world.

Carmen is a study in contrasts—comical yet wise, sunny yet contemplative, soft yet assertive. As she sets about gently drawing Julia from her self-imposed solitude into a place of hope, she also seeks her own peace for past mistakes.

Together, the two women embark on a journey that takes Julia far from the familiar comfort of home and gives Carmen the courage to open her heart. Together, their sightseeing trip turns into a discovery of truth, grace, redemption, and, finally, love…

Jamie  began freelance writing in the early 1980s. Her writing consisted  of short stories, articles, plays, and poems for a variety of magazines as well as material for reading, science, history, music, and literature textbooks for ten years. Then in 1992, Moody Magazine called her. They had read a couple of her short stories and urged her to write a novel. She did, she wrote  Suncatchers, which was published in 1995 by Thomas Nelson. She published her second novel, Some Wildflower in My Heart, with Bethany House in 1998, followed by five others, also with Bethany: By the Light of a Thousand Stars (1999), A Garden to Keep (2001), No Dark Valley (2004), Winter Birds (2006), and Sometimes a Light Surprises (2009). Her eighth novel, To See the Moon Again, will be released by Penguin Publishers in September 2014. 

This is a tremendous author with a true calling and talent for penning words. Don’t miss her books.

Friday Author and Book Report: Patricia Potter

Patricia Potter

Patricia Potter is the USA Today Bestselling Author of more than sixty books, including historical romances, suspense and romance. Her complete list of books can be found at Romance Wiki. She has been published by Bantam, Berkley, Harper and Harlequin, and her books have been translated into twelve languages. She is a past president of the 10,000-member Romance Writers of America, Georgia Romance Writers and River City Romance Writers. She is an avid advocate of animal rescue groups, including Pets for Vets, and is the proud adoptive mother of two rescue Australian Shepherd mixes. You can connect with Patricia on her website and blog, She shares this site with five other best-selling authors. Her latest book, A Soldier’s Promise, released April 1, 2014. 

Prior to writing fiction, she was a reporter with the Atlanta Journal, an editor with a suburban Atlanta newspaper and president of an Atlanta public relations firm.

Southern Writers Magazine ran an interview on Patricia written by Annette Cole Mastron titled Potter’s Gold. I believe she does have that ‘Midas Touch’. One of the things I admire about Patricia is she is always willing to advise other writers when asked. One of the best pieces of advice she has given is “To succeed as a writer, one should be well read.”

 

 

The Soldier’s  Promise is her latest book. It’s about when a former army ranger Josh Manning comes to close-knit Covenant Falls, he knows he won’t be staying long. As soon as he’s renovated the cabin he’s inherited from a late fellow soldier, he and his ex-military dog, Amos, are getting out fast. That is, until Mayor Eve Douglas drops by.

Eve, a young widow, has a precocious son and a band of misfit pets. Definitely not his type. Besides, she deserves much more than he can give. Unless, against all his instincts, he’s ready to make one more promise.

This story idea evolved from a New York Times story about military dogs.

Be sure and get Patricia Potter’s books, they are well worth reading.

 

Toni Leonard Rogers, author of Primary Possession

A native of Arkansas, Toni Rogers has lived much of her life in the breath-taking Ozark Mountains where she married her high-school sweetheart and raised two children, a son and a daughter. “The only “real” job I’ve ever had for which I brought home a paycheck is that of high school English teacher. I don’t know if I should attribute my proclivity to read obsessively to my profession or if it is the love of reading and writing that led me to the occupation. I suspect the latter is truer. I am a sometimes singer, lover of laughter and beauty in all forms, light sleeper, heavy thinker, and proudest mom ever! I cherish the therapy that is writing, the ability to examine hurt and discontent, to explore pleasant possibilities through prose and poetry in order to keep life’s passing moments eternal. I give much of myself to others, but I still leave a little mystery for myself. I try to always see the world at 360 degrees. I believe there are times for calm, but I long for moments to let go with reckless abandon. I aspire to create contemplation in others but never to manipulate. I am spiritual without being religious. I am philosophical, and not always practical, assertive in my beliefs but not aggressive. I use satire to settle arguments, but I would fight for the people I love.”

Her book Primary Possessions is about Noti who sees ghosts and suffers strange dreams but, as her family’s dark history begins to surface, she must confront the cruelties of the past, present, and future. Noti Needran is a beautiful high school senior blessed with three lifelong best friends and parents who love her. In fact, almost everyone she knows likes her. She lives in a stately Antebellum mansion, is intelligent, makes great grades, and is on a decisive career path. Practically everything about her existence is enviable…well, except that one of her bff’s has begun to feel like so much more than just a friend, a trio of lifelong tormentors refuses to leave her alone, and a few familiar ghosts become more active every day. Noti deals with her bullies with dignity. She doesn’t even see her spirits as a distraction-until they begin to terrorize her both when she is awake and in her dreams. Noti confronts her ancestral past in a small southern town, hoping that nothing-time, place, even death-can conquer the heart.

Don’t miss her newest book,  Secondary Sighting. After having come to terms with her haunting ancestry, as Noti heads off to college, she hopes that life will now be something closer to normal. It won’t. Even as she makes new friends, they remind her so much of her childhood companions that she cannot escape an almost constant homesickness. Furthermore, she meets a dazzling Casanova who seems determined to earn her affection; however, there is always the boy who has adored Noti her entire life, and if anyone deserves her love, it’s him. Worst of all, she finds herself tormented by three images that look entirely too much like her – pale, blue-eyed blondes. The only distinction is that they are all ghosts. Noti tries to tell herself that these manifestations aren’t personally related to her, so surely they will not affect her. They will. Even worse, so will the malevolence responsible for their deaths. SECONDARY SIGHTING, the sequel to PRIMARY POSSESSION is of the New Contemporary Fiction Romance and Paranormal genres.

Looking forward to reading more of Toni Rogers’ books.

Friday’s Author-Lisa Wingate

Lisa Wingate

Lisa Wingate’s books hold positions on many bestseller lists, both in the United States and internationally. She skillfully weaves lyrical writing and unforgettable Southern settings with elements of women’s fiction, history, and mystery to create stories that Publisher’s Weekly calls “Masterful” and ForeWord Magazine refers to as “Filled with lyrical prose, hope, and healing.” Lisa is a journalist, an inspirational speaker, a reviewer for the New York Journal of Books, and the author of over twenty novels and countless magazine pieces. 

She is the author of 20 mainstream fiction novels, including the national bestseller “Tending Roses,” now in its 19th printing from Penguin Putnam. She is a seven-time ACFW Carol Award nominee, a Christy Award nominee, an Oklahoma Book Award finalist, and a two-time Carol Award winner. Her novel “Blue Moon Bay”was a Booklist Top Ten of 2012 picks. Recently, the group Americans for More Civility, a kindness watchdog organization, selected Lisa along with Bill Ford, Camille Cosby, and six others, as recipients of the National Civies Award, which celebrates public figures who work to promote greater kindness and civility in American life.

Lisa is one of a select group of authors to find success in both the Christian and mainstream markets, writing for Bethany House, Penguin and Tyndale House. Her bestselling books have become a hallmark of inspirational Southern fiction. Her works have been featured by the National Reader’s Club of America, AOL Book Picks, Doubleday Book Club, the Literary Guild, American Profiles, Woman’s World magazine, Woman’s Day magazine and others.

Lisa said she didn’t  remember a time when she didn’t write. “I started writing books before I started school, and I never quit writing. I had a very special first-grade teacher in  Massachusetts , who recognized a little ability and a lot of desire in a shy transfer student. Mrs. Krackhardt wrote on my report card that she expected to see my name in the pages of a magazine one day, and I suddenly felt incredibly special. She started reading my stories to the class, and I was hooked. I quickly discovered the joy of having an audience, and set out on many, many writing projects.Even though I always dreamed of becoming a writer, I didn’t begin pursuing the goal in earnest until after college, marriage, a career as a journalist and technical writer, and then the birth of my oldest son.”
Her newest book, releasing this month, The Story Keeper is about a successful New York editor, Jen Gibbs, who is at the top of her game with her new position at Vida House Publishing — until a mysterious manuscript from an old slush pile appears on her desk. Turning the pages, Jen finds herself drawn into the life of Sarra, a mixed-race Melungeon girl trapped by dangerous men in the turn of the century Appalachia. A risky hunch may lead to The Story Keeper‘s hidden origins and its unknown author, but when the trail turns toward the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains, a place Jen thought she’d left behind forever, the price of a blockbuster next book deal may be higher than she’s willing to pay.

 

Lisa lives on a ranch in Texas, where she spoils the livestock, and raises boys. One may wonder how she wrote 20 books in 12 years with kids at home. “People often ask me if I need quiet in order to write. With boys in the house, if I’d waited for quiet, the writing would never have happened. I learned to lose myself in a story amid the noise of life and I loved it that way. Now that the boys are grown and the house is quiet, I’m redefining the writing routine again.”

Lisa also writes for Southern Writers Magazine. She and Julie Cantrell write an article each issue called The Writer’s Jar. Conversations about writing with different artist.

 See their article in July/August issue www.southernwritersmagazine.com

For more information on Lisa Wingate check out her website at www.lisswingate.com

 

What Does He Say About Misfits?

Welcome Doyne Phillips. He is going to share with us about “Misfits”

Doyne Phillips

 

 

 

 

In every aspect of our society there are misfits, those that just don’t fit the mold. We have seen this is in sports, arts, music and writing. In sports we saw this in the 1968 Olympics with a competitor in the high jump named Dick Fosbury. Fosbury chose not to use the three common styles of high jump and came up with what was called the Fosbury Flop. Dick Fosbury flopped right into the record books with a Gold Medal.

 

 

 

In the art world we have Vincent Van Gogh. We look back at what we now recognize as a great artist and yet at his death at age 37, his accomplishments were known only to a small group and appreciated by even fewer. Many of his 2100 works are now priceless.

 

Music has many examples. The most famous was the little studio in Memphis called Sun Studios, owned by Sam Phillips. Sam created a studio where those who were unacceptable elsewhere were welcomed. Sam was recording at the time what was known as “race” music. In 1951 Sam recorded a Clarksville MS group called the Delta Cats with a piano player named Ike Turner. The song recorded was “Rocket 88” which is considered the granddaddy of rock n’ roll.

 

This led to a migration of many misfits from across the region. Musicians who didn’t fit the mold of southern blues, gospel, or country found their way to Memphis to record where they were accepted. Artists like Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley and Sam Phillips’ self-proclaimed greatest discovery Chester Arthur Burnett better known as Howlin’ Wolf, all came to follow their dream.

Maybe you have been told you don’t fit the mold. If so look at you potential. The misfits mentioned above went on to become very successful in their field. They kept on until they found the right fit. You must continue on until you find your right fit.

If you have an example of a writer that was a misfit and found their fit let me know. I would love to share their success with others. I am looking forward to hearing from you and I hope to hear that misfit that overcame was you.

 

 

Don’t Talk To Strangers-Amanda Kyle Williams

  Meet Amanda Kyle Williams, author of Don’t Talk to Strangers. If you love thrillers you will love her new book.

This book is exceptional in keeping you riveted to every page. In the woods of Whisper, Georgia, two bodies are found: one recently dead, the other decayed from a decade of exposure to the elements. The sheriff is going to need help to track down an experienced predator—one who abducts girls and holds them for months before ending their lives. Enter ex–FBI profiler and private investigator Keye Street.

He lives for the struggle.
 
After a few weeks, Keye is finally used to sharing her downtown Atlanta loft with her boyfriend, A.P.D. Lieutenant Aaron Rauser. Along with their pets (his dog, her cat) they seem almost like a family. But when Rauser plunks a few ice cubes in a tumbler and pours a whiskey, Keye tenses. Her addiction recovery is tenuous at best.

And loves the fear.
 
Though reluctant to head out into the country, Keye agrees to assist Sheriff Ken Meltzer. Once in Whisper, where the locals have no love for outsiders, Keye starts to piece together a psychological profile: The killer is someone who stalks and plans and waits. But why does the sociopath hold the victims for so long, and what horrible things must they endure? When a third girl goes missing, Keye races against time to connect the scant bits of evidence. All the while, she cannot shake the chilling feeling: Something dark and disturbing lives in these woods—and it is watching her every move.

Suspense Magazine says “Williams weaves an electrically charged plot, sinister and evil, one jolt after another… the shock is a charge hard to accept. If real-life events have you wondering how well you know your neighbors, then this read will be a chart-topper for you.”

This book is her third in the Key Street Series. Her thrillers debuted in 2010 with The Stranger you Seek, followed by Stranger in the Room. She is currently working on her fourth in this series. Publishers Weekly hailed her first book as an “explosive, unpredictable and psychologically complex thriller that turns crime fiction clichés inside out.” 

Amanda is passionate about animals and has been active in the humane community for many years.  She is one of the founding directors atLifeline Animal Project, a nonprofit, no-kill animal welfare organization. Amanda is also a supporter of The Fugees Family. Please click the links below to learn more about these wonderful organizations:

http://lifelineanimal.org/
Lifeline Animal Project is an Atlanta-based non-profit organization working on collaborative solutions to end pet overpopulation and stop the euthanasia of healthy and treatable dogs and cats in shelters. Lifeline’s focus is to promote the adoption of homeless pets and to initiate and support effective spay and neuter programs.

For more information on Amanda go to her website http://amandakylewilliams.com/

and be sure and look for her in the upcoming September/October issue of Southern Writers Magazine www.southernwritersmagazine.com

 

 

 

 

 

Friday’s Author and Book Report-Sandra Balzo

Sandy Balzo

Small Towns-Big Crimes. That’s Sandra Balzo. She’s a master of creating small towns and infusing crimes in her stories, which makes it perfect reading for a mystery buff like me. Once I start her books, my family knows immediately that they can forget I exist until I finish the book. She catches me on the first paragraph and keeps me turning the pages.

She is an award-winning author of crime fiction that includes eleven books in two different mystery series. The Maggy Thorsen Mysteries set in Wisconsin and Main Street Murders set in the High Country of North Carolina.

I’ve learned that the film rights for the Maggy Thorsen Coffeehouse Mysteries have been optioned toward development for television film. Garnering starred reviews from Kirkus and Booklist. Balzo’s novels are recommended to readers of Janet Evanovich, Charlaine Harris, Harlan Coben, Joan Hess and Margaret Maron

Hit and Run from her Main Street Murder series releases September 2014.

Hit and Run

Journalist AnnaLise Griggs’ return to her hometown in North Carolina’s western mountains has led to some unexpected surprises – most notably the discovery that legendary womanizer Dickens Hart is her birth father, and she an heir to Hart’s huge fortune. Founder of the White Tail Lodge – a High Country knock-off of the Playboy concept – Hart now claims he wants to ‘do right’ by his offspring. To that end, he’s invited all his former lovers and potential heirs, including AnnaLise and her own mother, Daisy, to what Hart envisions as a festive Thanksgiving weekend at his sprawling lakeside mansion. But not everyone is in a celebratory mood, and when a body is discovered, AnnaLise is left with the impossible task of identifying a vicious killer.

Murder on the Orient Espresso, a MaggyThorsen Mystery, is her latest release in this series  aboutMaggyThorsen, co-owner of the Wisconsin gourmet coffeehouse, Uncommon Grounds, is in South Florida at an annual crime-writers’ conference with herbeau, local sheriff JakePavlik, who is due to speak as a ‘forensics expert’.Maggy’s pledge to behave solely as a tourist becomes trickier than she anticipated when the conference’s opening night event turns out to be a re-enactment of Agatha Christie’s classic, Murder on the Orient Express. As Maggy and Jake reluctantly set off on the night train to the Everglades to solve the ‘crime’, it’s clear that, as in the original novel, nothing is quite what it seems. And amidst rumors ofcareers taken, manuscripts stolen and vows broken, it seems that in the Everglades – as in life – the predator all too often becomes the prey.

Murder on the Orient Express

Sandy turned to mystery writing after twenty years in corporate public relations, event management and publicity in Wisconsin. She currently splits her time between South Florida and the High Country of North Carolina. Her novels have been nominated for both the Anthony and Macavity awards.

By the way, don’t be surprised if you laugh aloud in one of her Maggy Thorsen novels. Sandy has that special way about her writing when you least expect it.

Sandy’s advice to writers is “Never give up”.

Southern Writers ran an interview on Sandy where she talks about her writing, becoming successful and her techniques of writing. For more information go to www.southernwritersmagazine.com.

To find out more information on Sandy Balzo’s books visit Sandy online at http://www.SandraBalzo.com

 

 

 

 

Terri Marie, an Author You Should Meet

Terri Marie

Terri Marie loves to write stories. She loves the fact that her books put smiles on the faces of her readers, and hope they impart a lesson. If you find yourself wanting to sit down again, and turn another page you’ve make her happy. And I hope you recommend her to your friends, so they too will get a smile.

Instead of a brush and paints to create a picture for us she uses words in books that not only give us pictures but take us into the world she has created for us to see for ourselves how it looks, feels, and smells. We get to meet her characters and come to know them and enjoy being around them.

Terri is the author of three popular series: A Billionaire in Disguise, The Ties that Bind, and the Montclair Brothers. Her latest release is Waves of Reckoning, which is book 3 in The Montclair Brothers Saga.

Waves of Reckoning

This book is about Tyler Montclair who had done his best to raise his brothers with good morals and values; family always comes first, be kind to others, obey the law, and don’t ever pick a fight…but if one lands on your doorstep, you’d best finish it–especially when the circumstances involve standing up for a woman.

Now the brothers face a battle that will make or break them. Should they rely on what’s been ingrained in them? Or is it time to become the judge and jury? Avoidance and revenge, beckoned them, but so did justice. One wrong decision and their family’s bond could change forever. Will they survive this war? Or will the Montclairs be torn apart in violent waves of reckoning.

Then the end of this month a new book releases in The Montclair             Brothers, book 4 will be Tides of Vengeance.

Tides of Vengeance

The Montclair Brothers know they can’t always wait for the law to do what’s right. After all, they’ve been known to do whatever it takes to save one of their own, while banding together to create one indestructible force. Losing a battle is never an option for this family, and they never run from a fight.

With strong women backing them, how could anything go wrong?

Working together has always gotten them through dangerous situations. But now, will the Montclair men be forced to divide and act on blind faith?
Their darkest hour has arrived, and death is on their doorstep. Will they sink or swim in the treacherous pull of the tides of defeat? The group of friends will be forced to fight with a vengeance against the enemy.
Or is there more than one?

Terri Marie believes in helping other writers. In the July/August Anniversary issue of Southern Writers Magazine she wrote an article called, Alone on the Mountain.

 

Southern Writers Magazine

To find out more about the article and the magazine go to  http://www.southernwritersmagazine.com/

To find out more about Terri Marie visit her website http://www.authorterrimarie.com/ and don’t hesitate to contact her on her website. She loves to hear from her readers.