SEX AND CHOCOLATE by Reese Johnson

I have lived in a very different environment than the majority of people. I was sentenced to 99 years in prison for robbing a white female motel clerk when I was nineteen years old. In that kind of setting a person sees a lot of different situations. Homosexuality is very prevelant and often, even those who aren’t gay wind up being someone’s girlfriend either for the protection it affords them, or because sometimes they can’t handle being alone. Often people coming into prison are gay and proud of it. These are the ones who like telling stories about their lives on the outside, and they’re the ones I’ve taken story lines from.

Sex & Chocolate is a novella about an interracial couple, Jim & Steve, who have just gotten together. Jim’s ex, Alan, unexpectedly comes back into Jim’s life to tell him he has AIDS, and the story continues with how Jim copes with Alan’s news and how Steve supports his new lover through that period in his life.

Although I was surprised to read that homoerotic romance is a top seller among straight women, I didn’t write Sex & Chocolate solely for titillation purposes, although there is a lot of that in the story as well. I wanted to write something that also had meaning and maybe get someone, whether gay or not, to think about the consequences of their actions. Unprotected sex can kill you, and AIDS does not differentiate between gays and straights. Even though AIDS might be an extreme as far as some readers are concerned, unprotected sex can also cause unwanted pregnancy, syphillis, gonherreha, herpes, hepatitis, and various other STD’s. And if I can write an entertaining story that also carries a message, then I’ve succeeded in what I intended to do in the first place.

Although I am published and have a new release entitled Soul Searchers, coming soon, I am new at the writing game. The best advice I can give anyone is to keep trying and don’t give up no matter how many rejections you get. I read once that Stephen King had over 700 rejections before he was published for the first time! Now that’s perseverance!

Reese Johnson is the author of Sex and Chocolate. You can visit his website here.

THEY PLOTTED REVENGE AGAINST AMERICA by Abe F. March

Where did I get the inspiration to write the book?

The unresolved dilemma in the Middle East constantly bothered me. Why wasn’t something done to resolve the situation? America has the power to insist and enforce UN Resolutions but refused to act in that manner. They coached, expecting the two sides to sort things out and come to an agreement. That sounded reasonable, but it didn’t work and the violence continued. Who is retaliating against whom was referenced in my first book, “To Beirut and Back.”

The invasion of Iraq was the catalyst. Although historians are now writing about what was in fact known before the invasion, that information was ignored. The real reason for the invasion was for Iraq’s large oil reserves. Israel was in favor of the invasion supported the claim of “harboring terrorists” as well as possessing WDM’s. It tended to deflect criticism of their actions against the Palestinians and the fact that they had their own arsenal of WDM’s.

I began to write and then placed the manuscript aside on several occasions asking myself why I would want to get involved in this mess. I’m retired. I don’t need the hassle or the criticism that would be forthcoming, so why bother? It’s not my problem. The realization that no politician would place his neck on the line to do the right thing by enforcement meant that the pressure would only come from the American people. And for that to happen, they must somehow feel some pain or the possibility of it. The assault on the twin towers on 9/11 placed the blame squarely on Al Quaida, however the root of the problem was again ignored. If the body suffers pain, does one just take a pain killer for relief or try to find out what caused the pain? The cause of the problem has its roots in the Israeli-Palestinian dilemma and the wounds continue to fester.

I decided to finish the book and seek publication. If it can open the eyes of some people and make a difference that will affect change, then it will have been worth the effort.

How did I get it published?

I sent query letters to publishers and agents and got the normal rejections, “Not suitable for us,” etc. I then sent an inquiry to a small publisher, All Things That Matter Press, and they asked to see the manuscript. After review, they agreed to publish it.

For aspiring authors

It is helpful if you write about something where you have some special knowledge. A subject that excites you will be reflected in your writing. Once you have written the story, have someone review it for content and editing. I would suggest that you don’t use friends or relatives. You require a disinterested person who will be brutally honest.

Abe F. March is an international business consultant and author, living near Landau, Germany with his wife Gisela. An active retiree, he enjoys hiking and exploring the local vineyards and can also be heard singing with a regional men’s choir. Mr. March’s career has taken him around the world to work in many areas from his birthplace in the USA to Canada, Europe and the Middle East.

His first book, To Beirut and Back – An American in the Middle East, was published in 2006 and is a memoir of his adventures that took him to Lebanon in the 1970s. Mr. March grew up in York County, Pennsylvania on the family farm, and he served in the USAF from 1957-61. His business career got underway with the computing sciences division of IBM’s service bureau where he held positions as manager of administration and operations analyst. He later joined an international cosmetic company where he rapidly achieved top distributor status and was promoted to Vice President of Sales Development and Product Marketing Management, an opportunity which took him throughout the USA and into Canada, Greece, and Germany.

With international experience and an entrepreneurial spirit, Mr. March started his own importing business headquartered in Beirut, Lebanon, for the distribution of cosmetics and toiletries to the Middle East markets. With an ease about him and a talent for developing business relationships, he also functioned as a locator of goods and services sought by Mid-Eastern clients before the civil war in Lebanon destroyed his successful business enterprise. Mr. March returned to the United States to start over, and was soon working on an international level once again. His subsequent work involved Swan Technologies, Inc., a personal computer manufacturer in West Germany, and back to the US to work with Stork NV, supporting a fleet of 1200 Foker Aircraft. He officially retired in 2001.

For more information please visit http://www.freewebs.com/abemarch

The Story Behind Blood Line by Rie McGaha

My husband used to drive big rigs cross country and one night he had a dream that he’d been attacked by a werewolf. He’s a big sci-fi fan! Anyway, as he was telling me the story, I thought, hey, this could be a book, so I started writing, asking him for more details and adding to it. Before I knew it, I had a book! I have always loved vampire and werewolf stories, but always felt werewolves got a bum rap, so my werewolves are different than any I’ve ever read about. They are intelligent human beings who just happen to have a little extra something whenever the moon is full. They’re also likable characters, tough when they have to be, and very, very sexy! I’ve also been working on the sequel, called Ancient Blood that delves into the life of one of the most lovable characters, Ganda. The reviews for Blood! Line have been awesome, but most of the comments are about Ganda and I am constantly being asked if her story continues, so the answer is Yes, it does!

Rie McGaha was born and raised in northern California along the shores of Humboldt County where her grandmother often took her to search for seashells and watch the humpback whales migration. Though her father was a bit of a gypsy and moved his family all over, Rie always enjoyed the trips back to Eureka, California where many of her 12 children and 23 grandchildren still live.

As a dreamer of dreams and being born with a a gypsy soul, Rie has lived all over the United States. Settling in SE Oklahoma with husband, Nathan, she enjoys a quiet life in the Kiamichi Wilderness where she takes in abused and neglected animals, nurses them back to health and tries to find them new homes. The ones that don’t find new homes remain with Rie and she currently has 18 dogs and 1 cat.

Between her husband, children, grandchildren and all of the animals, Rie tries to find a few moments to write. She is currently working on Ancient Blood, the sequel to Blood Line, and Caleb and Arion the second and third installments of the My Soul To Keep Trilogy. She also writes reviews for Romance Writers United.

For more information, visit Rie at www.riemcgaha.com or read her blog at http://riesreviews.blogspot.com/
www.youtube.com/NovelsByRie

The Story Behind Equality: The Quest for the Happy Marriage by Tim Kellis

My biggest influence, and the reason I have taken on the challenge of saving marriages, were my parents, who again just celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. And their influence wasn’t because of anything they ever said to me, but what they did, stayed married. What makes this more important was they had the typical marriage of couples from their generation, full of fights, but they managed to stick it out. They taught me that divorce was not an option, that quitting was not the path to take.

My mom actually had my career mapped out when I was a kid to be a priest, something I took very seriously. I was an altar boy (no, I do not have any stories) and studied the bible intently. Although I haven’t read the bible since I was a kid I have used a lot of what I learned in my book. And then I discovered girls.

My taking on the marriage issue is a combination of both my professional and personal paths. Personally speaking, I’ve learned from the pain of what I’ve been through in past relationships, particularly the one that led to writing the book, what causes relationships to turn negative. After a successful career, and at the height of the market in 2000, I met the girl whom I thought I was going to spend the rest of my life with. We fell in love, got engaged, fought and tried to get help from a marital therapist. When I realized the therapist wasn’t really helping I decided to tackle the issue myself.

And I have had a very successful career. Although I grew up relatively poor, the son of a cab driver and a secretary, I put myself through engineering school, spent nine years in the communications equipment industry, got my MBA and landed on Wall Street, becoming the first semiconductor analyst to focus on the communications market.

Engineers have real difficulty dealing with illogical situations. So when I met the woman I thought I was going to spend the rest of my life with and that relationship didn’t work out, my only real response was to try to figure out why. My engineering undergraduate degree is important for two reasons. The first is engineers do not understand things that are illogical, and going from planning on spending the rest of your life with someone to breaking up just didn’t make sense. And the second reason is engineers are taught problem solving, a big tool I used in writing the book.

The funny thing about this question is I was able to solve the problem not by having a successful relationship but by having an unsuccessful relationship. Plus I have come to realize that professional martial therapists are not really that interested in solving the problem. That would be bad for their business.

Included in the 100 books that went into the research for writing this one, were nearly 2 dozen relationship books. My joke on this issue is all of the books I read were non-fiction books, with the lone exception of the relationship books. My first title concept was “Men Are From Earth, Women Are From Earth” to demonstrate just this point. Last time I checked we were all from the same planet.

Every time I bring this issue up a critic points out that the book is just a metaphor to explain that men and women are simply different, so let me clarify before anyone asks. Yes biologically speaking we are different. One of the biggest objectives of my book is to refute Freud’s biology theory that we are born with our brains and, well there is really nothing you can do about mental problems, a major stumbling block to solving our marriage problem. This is actually the first relationship book written from a mental perspective, something I find humorous considering psyche is defined as “the mental or psychological structure of a person”.

But the most significant point on the metaphor with John Gray’s Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus, is the concept of the book is supposed to promote couples to appreciate their differences. Now this may make sense intellectually but it is very challenging to apply practically.

One of the biggest lessons we learned with our racial struggles was a concept referred to as “separate but equal”, a term coined by the Supreme Court in the late 19th century to continue to justify the separation of the races. And we saw the results of that concept. If you promote in any way the notion that you can keep 2 separate and that this will somehow make you equal then you cannot find balance in your relationship.

Equality is only possible when you bring those differences together in harmony, through what Dr. Martin Luther King referred to as “civil disobedience”. Manage conflicts by disagreeing, just be civil about it.

If you would like to read the result of all of this effort please visit the following link for a review of the book that was just posted last week:

http://www.bookreviewers.org/equality.htm

Renowned Wall Street analyst Tim Kellis takes on what could be considered society’s biggest problem today: divorce. The journey that led to him tackling such a significant issue was both personal and professional. After a successful career that eventually landed him on Wall Street, Tim met what he thought was the girl of his dreams, only to see that relationship end with bitterness and anger. The journey included work with a marital therapist, and after he discovered the therapist wasn’t really helping decided to tackle the issue himself.

Ambition and a strong aptitude for math helped lead Kellis to discover how to make relationships work. His math skills led directly to an engineering degree, nine years in the telecommunications industry, an MBA in finance, and finally on to Wall Street, where he became the very first semiconductor analyst to focus on the communications market.

After publishing a 300-page initiation piece entitled Initiating Coverage of the Semiconductor Industry: Riding the Bandwidth Wave, Kellis became a leading semiconductor analyst at one of the biggest firms on Wall Street. The experience he gained as a Wall Street analyst provided an excellent backdrop for becoming an expert on relationships, and resulted in his relationship book entitled Equality: The Quest for the Happy Marriage.

You can visit his website at www.happyrelationships.com or his blog at www.happymarriages.com.

CYNTHIA AND CONSTANTINE by Kathye Quick

Believe it or not, the concept for Cynthia and Constantine sprung up during a season of American Idol. I work for county government and once a month 7 of us get together to have lunch. We call it the Lusty Ladies Lunch Group. We keep in touch via email.

During this particular season, Bo Bice and Constantine Maroulis were competing. Two of the Lusties choose these guys as their favorites. While we didn’t agree on who should win that season, we did all agree that they had ‘romance book cover’ hair; the kind of hair Knights in Shinning Armor had in days of yore.

Well one thing lead to another and we began to serialize a story about them. We named our hero Constantine and his lady was Cynthia, one of the Lusties. We gave Sir Constantine a brother, Sir Braeden and his lady is named Jane, another Lustie.

The story just evolved on a weekly basis with email scenes going back and forth until I had 100 pages.

We thought that was the end of the adventure until I decided to flesh out Constantine and Cynthia’s story and turn it into a 55,000-word book. I was fortunate enough to have the Wild Rose Press express interest in the novel and then publish it.

And yes, you’ll either love this or hate this, but the antagonist of the story is named after one of the American Idol Judges. I’m sure you can guess which.

There will be a sequel to this book called Jane and Braeden because in the course of fleshing out the story so it would be long enough for a book, Jane’s character became an integral part of the book and now we need to hear her story also.

Kathye Quick has been writing since the sisters in Catholic School gave her a #2 pencil and some paper with ruled lines.

From stories about her family for Writing Week in fifth grade, to becoming editor-in-Chief of her high school newspaper, The Blueprint, to 1999 when she realized her dream of being published, Kathye’s love of the written word span numerous genres.

She writes contemporary and career romances for Avalon Books, romantic comedy and historicals for Wings Press, urban fantasy for Cerridwen Press, and most recently medieval historical romances for Wild Rose Press.

Kathye is one of the founders of Liberty States Fiction Writers, a group launched in January 2009 to help writers of all fiction genres in their journey to publication. She had been a member of New Jersey Romance Writers and Romance Writers of America since 1988 and considered it an honor to have been NJRW President in 1992 and 2001.

Kathye’s fifth hardcover romance for Avalon books, ‘Tis the Season, a holiday romance complete with Santa Claus, a sleigh ride and a New England snowfall earned a 2006 HOLT Medallion nomination.

Her debut historical romance, Daughters of the Moon, from Wings e-Press has been heralded as a flawless glimpse into the world of the ancient Greeks.

Writing as P. K. Eden with writing partner, Patt Mihailoff, Firebrand, an urban fantasy based on the fall of the Garden of Eden, has won two Reviews Choice Awards and many five-star ratings.

In August 2009, Avalon Books will publish her three-book contemporary romance series entitled Grandmother’s Rings. The books, Amethyst (August 2009), Sapphire (December 2009) and Citrine (early 2010) follow the Archer family siblings in their quest to find their soul mates using rings given to them by their Grandmother. Kathye used the birthstones from her family for her inspiration for this series.

While writing romances has been her dream for many years, the book of Kathye’s heart, is a non-fiction work entitled, Hi Mom, How Are Things in Heaven, a book that developed after the death of her mother and deals with coping with grief though humor. She is currently still working on the concept for this book.

In her “other” life, Kathye works for Somerset County government. She is married with three sons. You can visit Kathye’s website at www.kathyequick.com.

THE PYEWIZ AND THE AMAZING MOBILE PHONE by Herbert Howard Jones

Certainly it is true that when I wrote The Pyewiz and the Amazing Mobile Phone, it was partially inspired by a tradesman who was a pirate in all but profession. But there has always been an inner need in me to fulfill a long held idea, that writing a book might in fact be therapeutic. I discovered that whenever I wrote, be it a letter or an essay, I found that it eased certain mental tensions. The act of writing seemed to calm my mind, and fulfilled a part of me which would ordinarily seek activity in the real world. I discovered that it satisfied my need for action. It also clarified certain thoughts that I had about things in general. As my father once said, one finds inspiration in the act of writing. So I wondered, what would happen if I committed myself to a bigger project, a science fiction or fantasy project perhaps. Would it lead to some kind of personal epiphany? Would I discover the real me lurking behind my creation? Science fiction fantasy has the latitude to take the individual anywhere he wants. So I set about looking for a ‘big’ subject, a possible adventure story for young adults. Something that would fill 400 pages, which would equate to roughly a year in my life, if I were to write one page a day. Well one day, I found my big subject in the form of a ‘big’ workman, a man who came to shift some garbage for me. He had a couple of helpmates with him, and they all immediately struck me as being slightly old fashioned, anachronistic, people who might well have been around 300 years ago. They dressed in unfashionable clothing, and spoke in a kind of English ‘dialect’ all of their own. It was English but with a quaint East Sussex twang to it, filled with home spun colloquialisms which were without the usual bad language associated with workman. It was colourful and rich. I was spell bound! Then it hit me. Pirates! Yes, these guys could definitely have been pirates from another time and place, pretending to be workman! They became the inspiration for my book. I even took their names for my characters, Terry and Will. The big guy was to become my ‘Pyewiz’. After I paid them for the work they had done, I knew that they would continue to live on in my mind. And so almost immediately, the concept of the book took shape. I also felt that I wanted to take my science fiction fantasy adventure story not only to the ends of the earth, but out into space itself. Perhaps to Pluto. So I settled on Charon, one of Pluto’s moons and created a world for the Pyewiz there. I also gave him creature comforts, stem cells, a personal robot servant, galleons, muskets, all the piratical paraphenalia, but it was a world without water, only snow and ice. And to cap it all, I decided that the Pyewiz should have something special, a prop, a wonder widget, something unique to him – an Amazing Mobile Phone!

Herbert Howard Jones was born in London in 1955, and went to Eccles Hall, a boarding school in Norfolk. He left after a couple of years and attended IIford County High School in Barkingside where he where he met Bram Tovey, now conductor of the Vancouver Symphony orchestra, and pianist Derek Smith who later played with the Johhny Dankworth ensemble. They inspired Jones to take up music, which he still practices today.

Jones attended Lisburn college in Ireland and then worked in a wide variety of occupations. These included in law, as a porter at the BBC, in jewellery manufacture, publishing, and commercial art. As a BBC porter he was required to hump equipment between studios and could be spotted riding shotgun around London in the old green BBC vans of that time. He was eventually sacked for lateness!

He then found a job in a Hatton Garden jewellery firm in London. As an apprentice jeweller he was required to assemble twenty-two 14 carat gold gate bracelets a day. In the two years he spent in the business he had personally made nearly 12000 bracelets, which was quite a feat, but was mind numbing work, and not something he wanted to do with the rest of his life. At this stage he didn’t know what avenue to go down next.

But the clue lay in his early life. As a young boy, he showed an early interest in the arts, particularly writing, musical composition and painting, and has pursued them as interests ever since. At this time he met the daughter of the captain of the Titanic, which sank in 1912, and consequently became obsessed with the myth which surrounded the subject. Jones remembers handling Titantic artifacts in the lady’s cottage country, and thinking that they made beautiful art ornaments! They inspired Jones to start creating collages using old bric-a brac, attaching small objects to canvas and applying paint to them.

In his teens, Jones lived with the family of author Julian Branston, whose mother was a close confidant of British comic Kenneth Williams. They introduced Jones to writer and poet John Pudney, famed as the author of wartime poem ‘For Johnny’. As busy as he was, Pudney would give kindly critiques of Jones’ earlier writings, urging Jones to say ‘more with less’. Jones described his writing efforts at this time as pretentious and undisciplined, and was frankly lucky, that ‘Pudney gave him the time of day,’

Jones found John Pudney fascinating as, among other things, he knew Pablo Picasso personally, having met him as a reporter during the war. To the aspiring and awe struck Jones, this was all glamorous grist for this artistic mill. At this time he became fascinated by celebrity, which was hardly surprising considering that his benefactors frequently had prominent people down to dinner, including the Bishop of Liverpool and others.

When Jones worked for a firm of ‘showbiz’ solicitors in London, he ran errands for screen star John Mills, and composer Tony Hatch, but felt that life as a London commuter just wasn’t for him, and so he ‘dropped’ out and went to live in Deptford. Jones justified this to himself by saying this was his ‘down and out in Paris and London period’.

Jones moved around South London and finally settled in some lodgings in Lewisham which were also being occupied by the now international artist David Mabb, presently Head of Masters at Goldsmith’s college, from whom he acquired wonderful discarded art pieces. Mabb’s charismatic and confident personality had an inspiring effect on Jones who began to look at art in a new light. In Jones’ eyes, David Mabb was ‘one of the solid group of British artists who are exponents of a new kind of socially responsible art, which is dynamic and very much at the cutting edge.’ In Jones’ view, Mabb’s art not only succeeds powerfully as a room decoration, but it invokes a strong visceral response in the viewer. If Jones was going to paint, he wanted his art to be as eloquent as Mabb’s! At the time of writing, Jones is still struggling to achieve this goal. Jones cites US artist Ron English, as his other influence.

Meeting well known people and those active in the arts and entertainment industries had the effect of shaping Jones’ view of the world, and he vowed that one day, he too would make a contribution. It was only in his fifties that
Jones has seriously sought publication. The Pyewiz and The Amazing Mobile Phone is his first book.

At the present time Jones is busily writing his second book and is painting. He hopes to have his first exhibition of art in London in the near future.

Jones’ most thrilling life moment: ‘being six feet away from Frank Sinatra when he came to the London Palladium!’

You can visit his website at www.science-fiction-fantasy.com.

THE TABLET OF MY HEART by Elizabeth Walker

When I was eight years old I lost my voice. Not literally, figuratively. It was buried under the weight of sexual molestation. When I “lost my voice” I found a pen. I couldn’t get past the shame I felt in order to tell someone so I started writing my fears and my secrets between the covers of a tablet that became my childhood diary. While I did eventually tell, my writings had a lot to do with leading me to the point where I understood that I needed to. In black and white the tablet held fear, anger, confusion and finally, healing – But in essence the tablet held my heart.

Years down the road and after 10 years of marriage, I found myself a single mother with four young sons who’s hearts were broken by the absence of their father. As if divorce is not hard enough on a child, my kids’ father was not just absent from their home he was smack in the middle of a cocaine addiction and had little interest and little contact with them at all.

In the process of fighting the odds of ending up on welfare, going back to work, moving them from the only house they ever remembered living in, and convincing them in the midst of the earthquake that had become their lives, that we were going to make it – I saw in their faces the same distrust, the same disbelief that I felt when I was a child in the middle of loss and abuse, the first time someone told me “It’s going to be ok. This storm won’t last forever.”

So…..I couldn’t tell them we would make it to the end of this pain, I had to show them. That illustration began with telling them (gradually) about my childhood story. The story of victory over the pain of the abuse that I endured as a child, so that they could see that healing happens, not just hear it. In order to get to a victory, there first had to be trial. That story of victory began in my childhood journal.

As I thumbed through the writings an idea was born. During this mission to help my sons learn to let go of their anger and heal, maybe I could reach even more people. I decided that I would publish portions of the journal and donate from the proceeds to an organization that helps abused children. That outreach, I decided, would be the best illustration of healing that I could possibly paint for them.

Originally I had planned to publish only the poetry but as I read through them I thought that they might better serve their purpose if I added a little background to the prose. I found myself in touch with pieces of my heart that I had not entertained for years. The project kind of took off without me and took on it’s own form right beneath my nose. The narration turned into a flowing story and the poetry became just a piece of the bigger picture. By the time the manuscript was finished I had in my hands what began as an emotional hurricane and ended as a generously watered garden. A journal of abuse and more importantly healing, that read like a story. My story.

The boys (my kids) and I made it through some incredibly difficult times in the past few years. They had a hands on lesson in the devastation left in the wake of addiction, as they are still sorting through the wreckage. I learned, once again, that I was stronger than I thought I was, though I believe that my strength was a product of my kids’ faith in me. They went from having mom and dad, to just mom, to day cares and babysitters as I took on two jobs to make ends meet, to crummy neighborhoods and frightening neighbors – but we made it! We made it together. We’re wet, but we made it to edge of the storm.

By no means are we a “perfect family” by definition but they are experiencing hope and healing and I have witnessed a beautiful thing happen in them; I have watched them defy the term “hurting people, hurt people” as they have learned by demonstration that – helping people heal, helps heal. The Tablet of My Heart has a little something to do with that in their lives – we hope that publishing it might have a little bit to do with that kind of healing in some one else’s life too.

A portion of the proceeds from The Tablet of My Heart are donated to Childhelp USA for the treatment and prevention of child abuse. Visit them at www.childhelp.org.

Elizabeth Walker is the author of the memoir, The Tablet of My Heart. You can visit her website at www.tabletofmyheart.net. To read an extended bio, click here!