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The Elemental Magic Story Continues

9/23/2017

As you may be aware, I have a different publisher for my latest novel, To Rise Again. And I was pleasantly surprised to learn that fellow novelist Marnie Cate, who has been a great online friend for several years, is also with that publisher -- Creativia.

Marnie is the author of the fantastic "Protectors of the Elemental Magic" YA series.

Let's take a look at the fourth book in that series, "Envy: Protectors of the Elemental Magic."

Synopsis:

My mother sold her soul to the Goddess of Winter, and mine along with it.

Camille was one of four girls who were given the gift of elemental magic. When her arrogance and greed led her to bad choices, she paid for it with her life… and her daughter, Blanche’s.

Blanche Kingston Drygen would never be admired for her sweetness. Lusted after for her beauty, and desired for her wealth, the townsfolk of Starten thought of her as a cold-hearted business woman. They did not know the secrets the most predominant family in town hid. The Drygens owned everything and almost everyone, except their own fates.

If you are hoping for a sweet, cozy tale, I'm afraid the Silvers have the market on fairytales. While they reveled in the gifts bestowed upon them by the Goddess Danu, the Drygen family fell victim to the cruel Winter Goddess, Snowystra.

Blanche’s story is one of lost love and tortured lives. Sit back as she tells you the reality of her gift, and how the Drygens were cursed to never love.

Excerpt:

Circling me, I could feel her icy breath on the back of my neck. Gripped in terror, I couldn’t find the words to respond to any of her questions.

“Did she tell you my magic flows through your veins, too?” She placed the palm of her hand on my chest. “The beating of your heart is because I gave it to you.”

My skin began to burn and I jerked back.

With lightening reflexes, Snowystra was suddenly behind me, and she had a tight grip on my hair. She tilted my head and whispered in my ear, “I can stop your life with the blink of my eye.”

I froze in fear as my lungs began to painfully fill with sharp icicles. My breathing became labored and I was consumed with a coldness like I’d never known before. Mercifully, Snowystra released her hold on me and I dropped to my knees. I panicked, sure she was going to kill me. I clutched my neck, as if that simple movement could have done anything to save me.

“Play dead. Submit,” a silky male voice whispered.

I had heard this voice before, but where? I had no choice, except to listen to his advice. So, I closed my eyes and dropped to the ground. Forcing myself, I refused to suck in air. Instead, I accepted the burning pain in my chest, suppressing my screams as it became excruciating. I heard her cruel laughter ring out as I neared unconsciousness.

“You are strong,” the wicked Goddess said, sounding amused.

I’m glad my death pleases you, I thought, but before the darkness could take me, warm air violently rushed into my lungs. I began to cough, choking on the unexpected return of oxygen.

“Your mother has promised me a child soon.” Snowystra looked unimpressed as she added, “You could have given me one years ago. That Simon boy would have been an adequate choice, but you toyed with him for too long. Wasting your time on finding love is no longer an option. I have chosen Roger Kingston for you.”

“What?” The word slipped out before I could stop them. I immediately felt regret.

Thankfully, the wicked Goddess only cocked a contemptuous eyebrow at me. “He has a strong physique, sharp mind and he wants you. You will return to him and convince him you were a fool. You will grovel, if necessary. When he asks for your hand, you will marry him.” She paused in contemplation. “What a ridiculous world you live in. Still, if you must abide by the mortal world’s rules, you will marry the entrepreneur. And then, you will bring me the child.”

Check out Envy: Protectors of the Environmental Magic - Book IV

Biography
Marnie Cate was born and raised in Montana before adventuring to the warmer states of Arizona and California. Her love of Dame Judi Dench and dreams of caticorns and rainbows inspired her to chase her dreams. One great sentence came to mind and the world of elemental magic and the humans they lived amongst filled her mind. With Remember, the story has begun.

Other Works by Marnie Cate
Exigency: Protectors of the Elemental Magic (Book 2)
The story of Mara Stone continues. Her world was shaken but she is a fighter. Facing new adversaries, Mara is learning what it truly means to protect the magic.

Mazy: Protectors of the Elemental Magic (Book 3)
Mara Stone's story continues. Finally free of the darkness of Winter, everything began to crumble around me again. The promises to protect the magic was beginning to feel like a curse.

Awethology Light – Contribution Story
Beginnings: Protectors of the Elemental Magic (Novellette)
The story of Genevieve Silver and the origins of the protectors of the magic. With the balance of the elemental world shaken, four elementals take on the task of protecting the magic.

Connect with Marnie Cate online:
Website: www.marniecate.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarnieCate
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00UJNT7J8
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/Marnie_Cate
Twitter: @Marnie_Cate

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Getting You There, With Ann Finnemore

9/19/2017

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My guest blogger today is hypnotherapist, Ann Finnemore.

Ann runs the Getting You There hypnotherapy, coaching and massage therapy consultancy, with her husband Steve.

Getting You There helps clients achieve their health and life goals through hypnotherapy, remedial massage therapies, stress management, life coaching and career coaching.

By Ann Finnemore

I love the work that I do with people to help them achieve their ambitions and dreams. I enjoy the face-to-face work and the studying, researching and writing about the methods we can all use to get over our mental blocks and find the motivation and determination needed to succeed.

I realise that, in many ways, I’ve been lucky to have grown up with people around me who fostered that belief in myself that anything is possible, if you just go for it.

My earliest memory of this was of when I was about seven and a teacher named Mr Dace asked me what I wanted to do when I grew up. Crazy about animals (as I still am) I said something very uninspiring and he became quite cross and said something to the effect of: “You could be anything you what to be – remember that and go for what you really want”. I always have remembered that and have kept that attitude with me since.

That said, it took me a long time to get around to writing a book. Although I write a lot in the forms of blogs and articles, I kept putting off focusing on getting a much larger piece of work together. I gave myself all sorts of excuses from “I won’t have enough to say for a book” to “I don’t know how to get an ISBN”. The reality though was that I wasn’t taking my own advice as a therapist and coach – the very advice I share in my book “Life in the Driving Seat: Taking Your Road Trip to Happiness”. I was making excuses and I wasn’t taking full responsibility for getting it done.

Fortunately, I met a book coach (Sarah Houldcroft, from Goldcrest Books International Ltd). Sarah works with authors of fiction and non-fiction, and she told me she was running a workshop for business women to learn how to write a book for publication. That workshop was a real turning point for me. Finally, I understood the process of putting a non-fiction book together and, with Sarah as my coach, I was on my way.

I knew what I wanted to share – the tools and techniques that I use with clients to enable them to discover and use their own abilities to achieve whatever they want to in life. I was keen that this shouldn’t be a dry, self-coaching instruction manual, but a book that could inspire as well as be of practical help.

For that reason, I wrote the whole book using the metaphor of going on a car journey. From working out where you want to go to, through getting everything you need for a successful journey, to arriving with energy and excitement – looking forward to future journeys.

(To view the book on Amazon, click on the cover image).

Writing the book was an education for me. I developed an even greater admiration than before for writers of fiction – the dedication, time and planning required to make a cohesive and interesting fictional tale is way beyond what’s needed to write non-fiction. The length of fiction books is greater too. Fiction authors really are amazing!

I also learned that there were a couple of areas of my advice that I was ignoring myself. The main one was a realisation I had when I came to write the chapter about the need to tell others about our plans in order to get both support and accountability. I realised that, other than my husband Steve, Sarah and one other person, I hadn’t actually told anyone that I was writing a book. I had held back from telling friends, family and other contacts partly because I’m an introvert and so often keep quiet about projects, but also because of a bit of fear of failure and judgment. Just what I was writing about letting go of! From that point on, I started to let everyone know – and the support I received was fabulous and really spurred me on.

I’m pleased with the reception my book has had, and am already considering writing more. I have some therapy-related haiku waiting to be compiled and some self-help guides. I’d love to think I might write a story one day, but am not yet ready to put in what that takes. Meanwhile I’m learning from authors I see around me – like Stewart and others I follow on social media. I’m enjoying every lesson too.

Getting You There website
Ann Finnemore on Twitter

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Five Lifestyle Changes That Helped Me Seriously Reduce My Anxiety

9/18/2017

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By Lydia Schoch

My guest blogger today is Lydia Schoch, a science fiction author who lives in Toronto.

Her hobbies include meditating, lifting weights, and reading as many books as she can get her hands on. She blogs at http:lydiaschoch.com, and can also be found on Twitter under the handle TorontoLydia.

So, without further ado, I'll hand over to Lydia to tell us five lifestyle changes she made that helped her to seriously reduce anxiety.

Having anxiety is like being followed around all day by someone who is whispering ugly lies into your ear about everything you can possibly imagine. It’s an exhausting way to live no matter who you are or what else is going on in your life.

Before we jump into this list, I’d like to make it clear that I am not at all against the idea of taking prescription medication if your health requires it. My anxiety happens to be well-controlled without the use of medication, but this isn’t necessarily going to be true for everyone.

With that being said, there are ways to manage anxiety that don’t require the use of medication. I wish I’d known about all of them years ago when I first began noticing that some of my thoughts had become persistent and unhelpful, so that’s why I’m sharing them with you today.

I Started Exercising Regularly

When I first began working out a few days a week several years ago, I had no idea that the same routines that were slowly helping me to lose weight and grow stronger would also have such a positive effect on my mind.

It’s harder to ruminate on the same problems over and over again while you’re in the middle of a workout. When I’m lifting weights, I have to focus on having the right posture and form in order to avoid getting seriously injured. There is definitely something to be said for focusing on something that important a few times a week.

Exercising also isn’t only about keeping your mind busy. When I’m dancing or out on a brisk walk, there is so much going on around me that it’s easier to brush aside a frightening or persistent thoughts because I have plenty of distractions to keep me busy.

I’ve also found that there is a correlation between how much I exercise and how relaxed my mind is at the end of the day. Earlier this year I had to take a few weeks off from my regular workouts thanks to an ankle injury. I was surprised by how that required time off negatively affected my mental state.

It was harder to shake off my worries until I was able to get back into my regular habits because I wasn’t physically able to go to the places that had been such a good distraction in the past. Burning off all of that excess energy was just as good for my mind as it was for my body, although I hadn’t fully realized just how true that was until it was temporarily taken away from me.

One of the other reasons why exercise has been so helpful in reducing my anxiety is that it’s changed the way I think of my body. Learning exactly how much I can push myself and seeing the wonderful results of months of hard work has given me a wonderful boost of confidence. Watching myself grow stronger and fitter made me wonder what else I could accomplish if I put my mind to it.

This was by far my most effective home treatment for anxiety. A long, brisk walk can boost my mood within half an hour or so, and I’ve only noticed better results from it the longer I’ve stuck with this habit.

2. I Drastically Cut Back on Sugar

When I say that I cut back on the sugar in my diet, I’m talking about added sugars like honey, white sugar, or molasses that can be found in everything from bread to fast food to pasta sauce.

I still eat fresh fruit every day, and that isn’t something that I’m ever planning to change.

A cookie might taste really good, but after a lot of trial and error I’ve learned the white sugar in it is going to affect my mood negatively over the long haul.

While I haven’t eliminated all added sugars from my diet, I have seen some fantastic results from cutting back on them quite a bit and replacing them with extra whole grains, vegetables, and healthy sources of protein. It took a week or so to notice a difference, although it took me longer than that to figure out what was causing it.

Yes, I still have occasional treats. The difference is that they’re much more rare now than they used to be and I know that over-indulging may very well lead to me feeling anxious a few hours later.

3. I Eliminated Caffeine from My Diet

I’ve known for a long time that even small amounts of caffeine can make my heart race, but I what I didn’t realize was that consuming foods and beverages that had even small amounts of caffeine in them was also negatively impacting my mood.

Consuming any amount of caffeine makes it easier for me to worry and harder for me to brush aside frightening thoughts when they do pop up. While I don’t know why it has such a huge effect on my body, I’ve met others who experience anxiety have had similar reactions to caffeine.

Some people might be okay with consuming less of it. I personally had to eliminate it from my diet in order to see optimal results, but your mileage may vary. Since I was never addicted to caffeine, I began noticing a difference in my mood within a few days of cutting it out of my diet.

4. I Began Meditating Regularly

This habit took the longest amount of time to start showing results for me. Learning how to identify unhelpful thoughts and get rid of them isn’t something that most people figure out right away. To be very honest with you, my first few experiences with meditation were anything but successful.

Sitting silently and not thinking about anything was much harder than I thought it would be. It took me time to adjust to this routine, and even longer for me to see how it was affecting my life during the rest of the day.

Once I’d been doing it regularly for several weeks, though, I gradually began to realize that my thoughts weren’t affecting me as much as they used to because I’d grown so used to acknowledging them without necessarily believing them or following them down every unhelpful path they wanted to wander.

5. I Stopped Watching Violent Media

For example, I read and really enjoyed The Walking Dead graphic novels when they first came out over a decade ago. At first I was excited when a television show based on this series was released, but a few seasons into it I realized that it was negatively affecting both my waking and my dream life.

Particularly gory episodes of that show often caused me to have equally disturbing nightmares in the days that followed. I had many dreams about being chased by zombies and experiencing other scary scenes from that show.

While some people can read or watch content like that without having it affect them, I found that I was much calmer when I wasn’t being exposed to those kinds of images. It took a couple of weeks to really notice results from this lifestyle change.

Give It Time

With the exception of certain types of exercise, none of these lifestyle changes had an immediate affect on how I was feeling. Much of it was a gradual sense of improvement, but it led to a much happier existence for me once I’d gotten into the habit of doing all of them and had figured out that they were all working for me.

I’d recommend giving each of these tips some time to work before you decide whether or not they’re helpful for you. I hope you found them helpful, and I’d like to thank Stewart for allowing me to share this post with you on his site.

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A Dead Cert To Keep You Turning The Pages

9/17/2017

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Personally I can’t see the attraction. How anyone can glean any enjoyment from sweating over which horse wins a race, or whether a little ball drops into a certain red or black numbered slot on a roulette wheel is beyond me.

Some people certainly do, though. My Father-In-Law, for instance, liked a flutter on the gee-gees, but he never, ever bet more than he could easily afford to lose.

Not so, others, however. Gambling can quickly take over and destroy lives. One such man who knows all about that, first hand, is the author of this true story of a gambler out of control, Jason Haddigan.

It’s a roller coaster tale, telling how his addiction began as a child feeding fruit machines, taking in his life on the road scamming bookmakers to fuel his gambling, which simply saw him returning almost every penny in lost bets, and ending with his extradition from the USA, having played – and lost – in the casinos of Las Vegas. A particularly poignant thread running through the book is his relationship with his Mother and Father.

The well written and gripping story, tells how he lived off the proceeds of gambling for many years, including betting on horses, dogs and his own snooker and pool skills. He took to scamming bookmakers across England and Scotland and also gambled regularly in Las Vegas. A winner and loser of sometimes breathtaking amounts, the reader is treated to the incredible highs and lows which that brings, along with details of his numerous trips to the fabulous Luxor Hotel in Las Vegas and his women, children and booze-fuelled lifestyle.

Of course, he eventually lost everything and ended up in prison, as well as being banned from most betting shops nationwide.

I've given this excellent book 5 stars in my Amazon review...and I was so captivated by it that I took it on my recent cruise, reading it in Santorini, Marmaris and Syros!

While it's not cheap – the paperback will do you for almost a score (see, I picked up some of the betting terminology) – it makes fascinating reading for all sorts of reasons, including those I’ve mentioned above. But for me, the highlight is the incredible final chapter, An Appointment With The Mexican Mafia, which reads like it comes straight from a thriller novel.

Oh, and I’ll end this review with one last thought – what does Jason Haddigan have in common with the late Sir Roger Moore? The answer: they’re the only two people whose autobiographies I’ve ever read, and I think it’s a dead cert that this one will become a bestseller. Jason Haddigan may have been a compulsive gambler once…now his book is compulsive reading.

How And Why I Conned The Bookies, by Jason Haddigan, and published by Waterside Press, is available on Amazon, here.

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The Elemental Magic Story Continues

Getting You There, With Ann Finnemore

Five Lifestyle Changes That Helped Me Seriously Reduce My Anxiety

A Dead Cert To Keep You Turning The Pages

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