Happy Friday! I have another giveaway this week! This is your opportunity to win “The Black Shard” by Victoria Simcox!

About the book:

The Black Shard, Victoria Simcox’s fast-paced, intricately woven sequel to The Magic Warble, takes Kristina Kingsly and her schoolmates back to Bernovem … and into a thrilling, often dangerous adventure.

Kristina’s stay at summer horse camp is horrible to say the least, and it’s all because Hester and Davina are there as well, making her life miserable. When Hester’s cruel prank goes terribly wrong, it’s actually what sends the three girls back to the magical land of Bernovem. In Bernovem, Kristina is very excited to see her former friend, Prince Werrien. When he invites her to sail with him on his ship to his homeland Tezerel, putting it simply, Kristina can’t refuse.

Reunited with her gnome, dwarf, animal, fairy friends … and best of all, Werrien, things seem like they couldn’t get any better for Kristina. But when Werrien becomes fascinated with an unusual seeing stone, the “Black Shard”, Kristina is haunted by a ghostlike old hag. Struggling against suspicion, guilt, illness, and ultimately the one who wants to possess her soul, Kristina will see it’s in her weakest moment that she will encounter more strength than she has ever known.

About the contest:

You can enter for your chance to win 1 of 3 available electronic copies of The Black Shard by Victoria Simcox. Entry instructions are simple. You get one entry for each item:

Follow Victoria’s blog at: http://www.victoriasimcox.blogspot.com/

Like her on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Magic-Warble/118277634882514

Follow her on Twitter at https://twitter.com/VictoriaSimcox

Please leave a separate comment for each entry, including your email address so I can contact you if you win. All winners will be notified by email and have 72 hours to respond accepting their prize. Instructions on how to claim your prize will be provided by the author or her representative.

About the author:

Victoriawas born inScarborough,Ontario,Canada, to an Austrian immigrant mother, and a Dutch immigrant father. She now lives inWestern Washingtonwith her husband, Russ and their three children, Toby, Kristina, and William. Her other family members are aChihuahua, named Pipsy and two cats, named Frodo and Fritz. Besides being an author,Victoriais a home-schooling mother of twelve years and an elementary school art teacher of eleven years. In her spare time,Victoriaenjoys managing her two older children’s Celtic band. She also loves writing, reading, painting watercolors, hiking, good movies, and just simply hanging out with her family and friends.

About Princess April Morning-Glory:

At long last, Princess April Morning-Glory emerges as a lost treasure from the golden age of Hollywood.

Written and illustrated in 1941 by Letitia Fairbanks, the niece of silent film stars Douglas Fairbanks Sr. and Mary Pickford, the seemingly traditional children’s book is transformed into a modern-day fairy tale that will captivate child and adult readers alike.

Letitia was inspired to create portraiture for the characters of Princess April Morning-Glory from film stars of the day. John Barrymore, and Letitia’s cousin Douglas Fairbanks Jr., provided glamorous inspiration through their then-current films. The Wicked King’s (Barrymore) costume was sparked by his role as Louis XV in Irving Thalberg’s 1938 Marie Antoinette, while the hairstyle resembles his eponymous role in Archie Mayo’s 1931 Svengali. Prince Chivalry was inspired by her cousin’s (Fairbanks) sword-fighting role in David O. Selznick’s 1937 The Prisoner of Zenda.

Viewed as unconventional when it first debuted – up until then, no one had thought to meld a Disney-like moral tale with a swashbuckling adventure – the story centers on the prescient acknowledgment that we create our destinies by the choices that we make.

The main narrative is focused around the brave and courageous Princess April who must first transcend darkness and evil before she can realize her true potential. Intrigued by the Great World and its sense of adventure, a young Princess April decides to abandon the familiarity of her home in Fairyland and undertake a voyage into the unknown. Once outside the Enchanted Forest, she finds comfort and friendship in the company of various creatures who ensure her safe passage.

But returning home proves more difficult than at first she realized. In order to go back to Fairyland, a friendly wizard informs Princess April that she must first accomplish three good deeds. Can Princess April resist the temptation of darker forces and summon enough courage to continue doing good deeds? And if she dares to hold true to herself, will it someday lead her back home again?

My thoughts: This is truly a gem of a book. It’s story, which may seem mild to today’s children was ahead of it’s time. But what I (and my 9 year old daughter) loved about it were the illustrations. Not just the big colorful pictures, but how smaller illustrations were interspersed throughout the actual words, brought the story to life in a way I don’t think I’ve seen before. The hand written script and the images were a real joy to read and see. I’d recommend this book to anybody and everybody! What a treasure.

About Letitia Fairbanks:

Letitia Fairbanks, the niece of Douglas Fairbanks Sr. and Mary Pickford, lived a life guided by artistic passions. In 1939, wanting to commemorate her late uncle, Letitia began work on Princess April Morning-Glory, allowing a creative outlet for combining her lifelong loves: painting, writing, and illustration.

Holding firm to her artistic identify, Letitia gravitated toward portraiture, landscapes, and still-lifes. She was also a biographer, co-authoring Douglas Fairbanks: The Fourth Musketeer, with Ralph Hancock. Her marriage to Hal Smoot in 1966 marked the beginning of a particularly joyful and creative period. Needle points and annual Christmas cards, which featured a painting from the previous year, not to mention her role as a wife, mother, step-mother and grandmother brought her much fulfillment. After a life rich in artistic accomplishment, Letitia passed away in September of 1992.

WEBSITE | FACEBOOK

About Kelley Smoot Garrett:

Kelley Smoot Garrett was born in Dallas, raised in Manhattan and has lived the life of a West Texas wildcatter as well that of an IT professional. At one time or another in her life she’s called places as diverse as Scourie, Scotland; Austin, Abilene and Midland, Texas; Singapore; Paris; and Auckland, New Zealand — home. She is proud to be the daughter of Sue Ashby and Harold Smoot and the step-daughter of Letitia Fairbanks Smoot. She currently lives with her husband Danny Garrett, three cats, and one happy only-dog, Moxie in the Texas Hill Country.

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About the book:

The mere mention of the insanity defense guarantees a lively debate. Opponents of the defense cite the loss of criminal culpability while proponents argue just as passionately that the insanity defense is the ultimate act of compassion. The protagonists would probably be quite surprised to learn that the same basic concerns consumed Americans in the nineteenth century. One factor – The Abraham Man – sowed the seeds of confusion and controversy that united the past with the present.

Some of the most celebrated civil and criminal trials in American history were argued under the shadow of the Abraham Man. The detailed stories of long forgotten legal cases bring the antics of the Abraham Man to life. Through the process, readers will follow the careers of notable Civil War era surgeons whose post-war professional development shaped the future of modern mental health care.

Excerpt:

 Some of the most celebrated civil and criminal trials in American history were argued under the shadow of the Abraham Man. Readers will delight in the detailed stories of long forgotten legal cases which bring the antics of the Abraham Man to life. Through the process, readers will follow the careers of notable Civil War surgeons whose post-war professional development shaped the future of modern mental health care. In addition, the reader will learn about the promise of the asylum movement, prominent practitioners of the era, the politics, and eventual decline of institutional mental health care.

Both readers and libraries will find The Abraham Man a refreshing, authoritative text replete with primary source documentation. The engaging narrative deftly weaves the history of science in the 19th century with evolving trends in legal practice. Throughout this period, the budding relationship between doctors and lawyers fashioned the foundation of modern medical legal practice. At every step along the path the Abraham Man sowed confusion and controversy, paradoxically contributing to more rigorous medical practice.

The book will clearly tap into the public’s modern fascination with forensic medicine. Professional readers, such as lawyers, doctors, and psychologists, will find The Abraham Man a valuable historical reference which still rings true after 150 years. Civil War aficionados will discover a fresh perspective and “the rest of the story” about some famous soldiers. Medical history buffs will be enlightened by the devices and stratagems doctors employed to uncover malingering, in many cases the forerunners of modern diagnostic technologies.

Purchase online at: http://www.amazon.com/R.-Gregory-Lande/e/B001H9TEZ0

My thoughts:  

This is a very topical and comprehensive look at part of the history of mental health. The Abraham Man is a term used to refer to a person who would fake illness or injury for sympathy or personal gain. It was interesting to read about the truly mentally ill and how some were able to fake it so easily amidst the chaos of the Civil War.

If you’re mostly a fiction reader like I am, you might wonder if this book is for you. YES, it is for you! Dr. Lande does a fine job of making the information engaging and lacing it with fascinating stories of various mental health cases. This was a topic I knew very little about, but I learned a great deal from this book and would love to read more from this author.

About the author:

 R. Gregory Lande, DO is a physician and retired US Army Medical Corps Officer. Dr. Lande completed his medical education at Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine. Shortly thereafter, Dr. Lande was commissioned an officer in the US Army. During his career in the military, Dr. Lande was active in a wide variety of clinical, academic and administrative positions. Upon leaving the US Army as a full colonel, Dr. Lande was awarded the Legion of Merit recognizing his career contributions. The next phase of his career involved administrative positions in hospital management, research, and teaching at various civilian facilities. Dr. Lande is the author of numerous medical and historical works. He lectures widely on both subjects.

Visit Dr. Lande online at http://www.medicallegalhistory.com/

The two million gallons of Corexit 9500A dispersant used after BP’s 2010 Gulf catastrophe made human rights abuses related to the 4.9 million barrels of oil released from Macondo Prospect after the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded 52 times more toxic than crude alone, according to new research.(1)

A new Georgia Institute of Technology and Universidad Autonoma de Aguascalientes (UAA) research report shows that testing Corexit mixed with BP oil on tiny sea life demonstrated increased toxicity up to 52-fold over crude alone, magnifying human and Earth rights abuses. Previous studies showed Corexit increased crude’s toxicity by 11-fold.

The lethal dispersant banned in the U.K.and Swedenwas used in BP’s oil “cleanup” with no discussion, debate, or explanation. Later, the stated rationale for using it in the Gulf Operation was to keep oil from sensitive wetlands and coastlines. It did the opposite.

Dispersants disperse or spread oil. Corexit made BP’s crude invisible from the air.

Before used in the Gulf, it was known that Corexit would slow natural bacterial decomposition of crude, making oil persist longer in the environment,(2) and that there were more effective dispersants on the market. (Deborah Dupré, Vampire of Macondo)

It was also known that Corexit’s solubilizing action makes crude more bioavailable, causing it to bio-accumulate, meaning accumulate in tissues of organisms at the bottom of the food chain, and become more concentrated as it works its way up the chain – into our children’s school lunches, onto dinner tables, and in American’s bodies.

Even BP admitted Corexit potentially bio-accumulates.(3)

“[D]ispersing the oil… is making it impossible to recover the dispersed oil at the surface while plumes of the dispersed oil remain at depth, entering the food chain at many levels where it will bio-accumulate as it moves up the food chain,” stated marine biologist Dr. David Guggenheim.(4) “Dispersing the oil means more of it will likely travel with prevailing currents to destinations downstream, including Cuba, Mexico, the Florida Keys, and the eastern seaboard of the United States.”

The new toxicity tests showed Corexit increased mortality of rotifers, microscopic animals at the base of the Gulf food web.

Since 2010, 40% of the nation’s seafood supply, the fabled multi-billion-dollar Gulf industry, has been stalled under the torrent of oil and Corexit. In 2010, Americans ate four billion pounds of seafood annually, according to physician Dr. Russell Blaylock.(5) One-third of that was from southLouisiana– heavily promoted and consumed.

This new report comes on the heels of another research report showing Corexit made BPs crude oil travel faster and further.

Corporate government ‘Safe Seafood Myth’

In its “SafeGulf” campaign, state and federal governments encourage swimming in the Gulf and buying Gulf seafood. Don’t if you value your health and longevity.

Aquatic ecotoxicologist Dr. Chris Pincetich found EPA tests counted death by dispersant only if tested fish died within the first 96 hours.(6) If the fish was still alive at 96 hours, regardless of whether or not it died later, government researchers did not tally the fish as dead. The test dismissed longer-term and sub-lethal effects. Then the “Sniff Tests” began.

“They sent us stuff around the room to smell stuff,” said Dean Blanchard, the nation’s largest seafood processor before the historic Gulf crime began. “We had to guess which one was five parts per million, which had ten parts per million, which was Corexit and which was BP oil.”(7)

“It’s ridiculous,” responded New Orleans-based environmental attorney Stuart Smith. “… the smell test is only going to tell you if that fish recently has been exposed to hydrocarbons. It’s not going to tell you if that fish has been eating contaminated shrimp or contaminated crabs.”

“The fraud is that they hire laboratories who set artificially high minimum detection levels,” Smith explains. “So when all the tests come back, they say, ‘Non-Detect. Non-Detect. Non-Detect.’”(8)

Marine scientist Scott Milroy said seafood samples he gathered in September 2010 along Mississippi’s coast showed levels hundreds times higher than government sniffers found.(9)

Poisoning American’s food chain

“Our study indicates the increase in toxicity may have been greatly underestimated following the Macondo well explosion,” said UAA’s Roberto-Rico Martinez, who led today’s newly reported study published online by the Environmental Pollution journal, due for the Feb. 2013 print edition.

The researchers used BP-wrecked Macondo oil and Corexit, “the dispersant required by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for cleanup,” they state. The EPA obtains 90% of its funding from oil giants to protect industry instead of the people.(10)

“Dispersants are (EPA) preapproved to help clean up oil spills and are widely used during disasters,” Corexit researcherMartinezsaid.

Obama’s appointed EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson had trouble lying consistently about that.

“If it’s on the list and they want to use it, then they are preauthorized to do so,”Jacksonsaid.(11)

A few weeks later, at a congressional hearing in August 2010,Jacksontold Senator Mukulski, “There is no permit that EPA has given to allow use of these dispersants.”(12)

Gulf coast physician Dr. Russell Blaylock in 2010 asserted about seafood contaminants, “You can’t count on government agencies like the FDA and the EPA to protect you.”

Martinezand his research collaborator,SchoolofBiologychair Professor Terry Snell, used five rotifer strains in their study to test toxicity of oil, dispersant and mixtures. Rotifers are used by ecotoxicologists to assess toxicity in marine waters due to their fast response time, ease of use in tests and sensitivity to toxicants.

“In addition to causing mortality in adult rotifers, as little as 2.6 percent of the oil-dispersant mixture inhibited rotifer egg hatching by 50 percent,” Science Daily reports about the new study.

Inhibiting rotifer egg hatching is important because they hatch each spring, reproduce in the water column, and provide food for baby fish, shrimp and crabs.

“What remains to be determined is whether the benefits of dispersing the oil by using Corexit are outweighed by the substantial increase in toxicity of the mixture,” said Snell.

It had already been determined that Corexit and crude in air, water and food pose serious health risks, particularly pregnant women, the elderly and people with health vulnerabilities, as NRDC Senior Scientist Dr. Gina Solomon warned Louisianans and other Gulf Coast residents in May 2010.

Hiding the evidence

Since the Gulf oil atrocity began, women and children have bled from all orifices, similar to dying and dead Gulf dolphins – just as Corexit is supposed to do, according to EPA whistleblower Hugh Kaufman. As early as July 2010 along the Gulf, poisoned men, women and children were coughing up blood.(13)

“’The… evidence strongly suggests that BP worked with the Coast Guard, the Department of Homeland Security, the FAA, private security contractors, and local law enforcement… to conceal the operations disposing of the animals from the media and the public,” say a team of journalists, including Charles Hambleton, Academy Award-winning documentary director of The Cove, and journalist Jerry Cope. They found the petrochemical-military-industrial-complex (PMIC) conducting Gulf animal disposal operations under cover of darkness.(15)

“Coast Guardsmen closed beaches and coastal island areas where dead Gulf animals were collected. Armed private security contractors and local law enforcement officials kept areas off limits where dead animals were dumped, mainly at Magnolia Springs landfill. The nearby weigh station where Waste Management trucks roll through with cargoes was also restricted by at least one sheriff’s deputies in a patrol car, 24/7.”

Until collapsing at work with “New Gulf Syndrome,” Robyn Hill was Beach Ambassador forGulfShores. Across from the beach, Hill “smelled an overwhelming stench,” explained Cope and Hambleton. “She… witnessed two contract workers dumping plastic bags full of dead birds and fish in a residential Waste Management dumpster, which was then protected by a security guard. Within five minutes, a Waste Management collection truck emptied the contents and the guard departed.”

Sperm whale carcasses were suspected of being destroyed atShellBeachinHopedale,Louisiana, the island’s “operational end” closed to unauthorized personnel and airspace. Cope and Hambleton provided photographic evidence of that area being prepped to receive suspected whale carcasses for disposal.(16)

“We’ve since heard many other stories from truckers who are trucking carcasses in refrigerated vans to Mexico,” Cope and Hambleton said. “Carcasses are just not showing up where they need to, which is as body counts for essentially this war on the gulf. (Emphasis added) ‘Every oil ‘spill’ related death has a cash value, animal or human.’” (Dupré, Vampire of Macondo)

Death by dispersant

Dr. Rodney Soto and marine toxicologist Dr. Ott were among the few professionals alerting the public to avoid Gulf seafood, water and air as the FDA allowed unsafe levels of seafood contaminants.

“Our findings add to a long list of evidence that FDA is overlooking risks from chemical contaminants in food,” researcher Miriam Rotkin-Ellman at NRDC has previously warned.(17) “We must not wait for people to get sick or cancer rates to rise. We need FDA to act now to protect the food supply.”

The scope of this environmental terror is unfathomable. Ott estimated 4-5 millionGulfCoastresidents are suffering or will suffer until death from the Gulf Operation human rights violations. Kaufman and Simmons both placed that number between 20 million and 40 million.

“They have oil in their bodies,” Ott said in October 2010 about her autopsies of people who’d been to the Gulf.

After only one week in Grand Isle, Louisiana, workers were poisoned. In one case, a man who worked one week in Grand Isle’s cleanup went home and dropped dead.

Ott said she knew people down to 4.7% of their lung capacity; hearts were enlarging to compensate; and GulfCoastpeople’s esophagi were dissolving. Only five months after the blowout, along with catching fish with “horrifying lesions,” fishers were finding shrimp without shells, fish with “black gill disease,” and fish with organs a different color than before April 2010. (Vampire of Macondo)

Mutations continued. By 2012, eyeless shrimp, fish with extra gills and fins and other abnormalities were commonly found. The Gulf ecosystem sustains more damage each passing day, according to Smith.

“I believe this is going to wreak havoc on people’s health for two decades unless we stop ignoring it,” Ott has said. “The longer it’s in your body, the more damage it’s going to cause.”

Even after the earlier research and warnings, Corexit carpet-bombing continued.

“We have been attacked by our own military,” a commenter writes under a video of the Air Force aerial spraying Corexit.(18)

“They’re coming in at night. They’re lying about it but they’re spraying dispersants all over our shrimping grounds,” said Blanchard.(19)

“And they were actually spraying this Corexit in the air all around where people were living, with kids and children, and continuously saying how safe it was,” another Louisianian, Clint Guidry, explained.

“The system’s broken,” shrimp king Blanchard says. “When a regulatory agency can’t regulate the people they’re supposed to watch, when they’re being bought off, we’re no better than a third-world country.”

Over 100 scientists, researchers, organization leaders, and other human rights defenders, some as distant as Norway and Greece, signed a Scientists Consensus Statement on the Use of Chemical Dispersants in the Gulf of Mexico,(20) calling on the Obama Administration to halt chemical aerial spraying in the Gulf region – to no avail.

Meanwhile, Obama claimed his “single most important responsibility as President is to keep American people safe.

“It’s the first thing that I think about when I wake up in the morning. It’s the last thing that I think about when I go to sleep at night,” Obama said, as he exposed 40 million people to Corexit carpet-bombing, referred to metaphorically in Congress as ‘Agent Orange.”

Footnotes

(1) Science News, Gulf of Mexico Clean-Up Makes 2010 Spill 52-Times More Toxic; Mixing Oil With Dispersant Increased Toxicity to Ecosystems, Science Daily, Nov. 2012
(2) Jon E. Lindstrom, Daniel M. White, Joan F. Braddock, Biodegradation of Dispersed Oil Using COREXIT 9500, A Report Produced for The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation Division of Spill Prevention and Response, Institute of Arctic Biology and Institute of Northern Engineering, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK 99775, 30 June 1999
(3) BP says Corexit potentially bioaccumulates, (now deleted from the Internet)
(4) Ibid.
(5) Dupré, Censored Gulf survival news: Dr. exposes contaminated fish. Urgent special report, Examiner, 16 July 2010: http://tinyurl.com/83e9ruv
(6) Dupré, Censored Gulf news: Dr. Pincetich on Intel Hub Radio tonight (video), Examiner, 20 July 2010: http://tinyurl.com/874sas5
(7) Dean Blanchard, The Big Fix

(8) Stuart Smith, The Big Fix

(9) Standards for Gulf’s Catch Put to Sniff Test After Spill, Wall Street Journal,2 November 2010

(10) Josh Tickell, Fuel, Green Planet Productions, 2008
(11) Paul Quinlan, Less Toxic Dispersants Lose Out in BP Oil Spill Cleanup, The New York Times, 22 January 2006
(12) CNN, Corexit Dispersant Hearing:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tk8ATfN6Xok
(13) See Dupré: 1) Censored Gulf news: People bleeding internally, millions poisoned says EPA whistleblower, Examiner, 21 July 2010; and 2) Scientists find Corexit made BP Gulf catastrophe worse is not news, Examiner, 31 May 2011
(14) Dupré, Censored Gulf News: Coughing up blood and other horror stories, Examiner, 31 July 2010: http://tiny.cc/xhp1cw
(15) Jerry Cope and Charles Hambleton, The Crime of the Century, What BP and the US Government Don’t Want You to Know, Huffington Post, 4 Aug. 2010: http://tinyurl.com/2ckra9q
(16) Ibid.
(17) Fox News, Study: FDA Allowed Unsafe Levels Chemicals in Seafood after BP Oil Spill, Fox News, 12 Oct. 2011
(18) Ibid.
(19) Blanchard, The Big Fix
(20) David E. Guggenheim, Scientists Consensus Statement on the Use of Chemical Dispersants in the Gulf of Mexico, OceanDoctor.org, 26 July 2010: http://tinyurl.com/87fjfyp

About the Author:

New Orleans native Deborah Dupré reports censored human rights news stories. With Science and Ed. Specialist Grad Degrees from U.S.and Australian universities, Dupré’s been a human and Earth rights advocate over 30 years in those countries and Vanuatu. Her unique humanitarian-based research and development work, including in some of the world’s least developed and most remote areas, led her to write articles appearing in dozens of popular print and Internet media internationally.

Her latest book is the nonfiction, Vampire of Macondo.

Visit her column at Examiner: http://www.examiner.com/user-gdeborahdupre

About the Book:

The untold story of psychopathic genocide of Americans by the petrochemical military industrial complex, of how BP’s Deepwater Horizon catastrophe has sickened and killed thousands of people on theGulf of MexicoCoastand government covered it up. Hear heart-rending cries of the victims. Read thoroughly documented evidence of crimes by Big Oil, the military, the seafood and tourism industries, health care providers, and corrupt government leaders.

See the facts backed by over 1000 references. Meet the Vampire of Macondo.

Click here to enter the giveaway.

Vampire of Macondo Tour Page:

http://www.pumpupyourbook.com/2012/11/23/pump-up-your-book-presents-vampire-of-macondo-virtual-book-publicity-tour/

Eight-year-old Robert is eager to share his wish list with Santa at the mall on Christmas Eve. When he meets Glenn, who has only one request for Santa, Robert is confused over what he should do. Can he cast aside what he wants and ask Santa to bring his new friend a special gift?

Inspiration Behind A Christmas Kindness

How is it that children have the ability to reach out and help others in ways adults don’t always think to do?

One year, our oldest daughter–then only eight–went door-to-door in our neighborhood collecting money for Toys for Tots. Coordinated by the U. S. Marine Corps Reserve, this program collects new, unwrapped toys each year and distributes them as Christmas gifts to less fortunate children in our communities. This summer, my girls ran a lemonade stand so they could bring money to a local animal shelter.

Why don’t I think of doing such things? I guess it’s easier to write a check and send it in the mail. But what effort is involved in that? My children make it personal, and much more meaningful, by giving something of themselves.

With A Christmas Kindness, I hope to capture the generosity of a child’s heart–the way they look at the world as a place of endless opportunities to make a difference.

May you be blessed this holiday season.

Cheryl Malandrinos, writing as C. C. Gevry, is a children’s author and editor. She is a member of SCBWI. A Christmas Kindness is her first book with 4RV Publishing. Visit her online at http://ccgevry.com.

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I may write books of no redeeming social value like my latest
release, Bombshell. But I think crime fiction even when written with
a sense of humor and some romance should still be accurate. I’m
always ‘investigating’, attempting to learn something, anything that would
make my books a little more realistic. All my stories are set in Minnesota,
usually my hometown of St. Paul. Minneapolis and St. Paul are known
as the twin cities. There’s really not much of anything ‘twin’ about them
anymore. Minneapolis is a big booming metropolis and St. Paul, well we say
it’s the worlds largest small town. If Minneapolis and St. Paul were sisters,
Minneapolis would get all the hot dates, but St. Paul is the one you’d bring
home to meet your mom.

A while back St. Paul offered its good citizens the opportunity to ride along
in a patrol car with a team of police officers during their shift. I determined
this would be a fantastic way for me to get the feel of exactly what a police
patrol experiences on an average night.

That may be, but my ride along began at seven in the morning, so much
for night duty. Mercifully for the two officers I accompanied it was pretty
boring. No kidding, their names were Mike and Pat. They described
the various codes coming across the radio. We responded to two traffic
accidents, little more than fender benders. A report of a suspicious individual
we never did see. An EMT call for some guy who fell off a ladder and a
handful of other forgettable incidents.

Toward the end of the shift they offered to drop me off at home. As we
pulled around the corner I wondered what the neighbors would think when
I was delivered to the door by the police. Most likely it would just serve
to confirm their suspicions. There was a gaggle of kids playing on the
boulevard halfway down the block, three of whom belonged to me.

“Up there with all the kids, that’s my house,” I said.

“All yours?”

“Mercifully no, the one jumping in the puddle, splashing the others and in
general being a pain in the butt, he’s mine.”

They gave a knowing nod.

St. Paul has a number of programs designed to put a positive spin on police
interaction with youth, especially young children. They have an Officer
Friendly who visits the schools warning kids about strangers and crossing
streets. They also hand out sports cards and let the kids look inside the squad
car. The moment we pulled up in front of my house the kids all gathered
round to peer inside and I suppose give me the once over in the back seat.
A few more kids came out of houses and ran over, there were maybe eight
neighbor kids milling around.

“Does that play DVD’s?” One of the kids pointed at the computer mounted
on the front dash.

“No, it’s our computer so we can check all sorts of things. Here, we can
even look for bad guys or see if someone has done something wrong.” Pat
said, hitting the keyboard and bringing up a screen.

“Yeah?” one of my kids questioned. Probably thinking he’d just stolen a
handful of cookies and exactly how good was this system anyway?

“Sure, we can put someone’s name in, well, like your dad,” he typed in
my name, Mike Faricy, waited a moment or two before the screen flashed.
I’d love to say it came up with a gold star or my drivers license image
with a halo. Instead a red bar began to flash across the screen that read
OUTSTANDING WARRANT.

Pat turned round to look at me through the mesh screen as I sat in the back
seat of his squad car.

“Hmm-mmm seems there’s a warrant out for daddy’s arrest.”

“You’re, you’re kidding, right?” I said.

“Not according to our records,” my two new pals had suddenly taken on a
very serious tone.

One of the neighbor kids took off running toward home. I’d labeled his
mother ‘Miss Information’ a year or two back; the whole neighborhood
would be on this by dinner time.

“Read him his rights?” Mike asked.

“Guys, come on, I’ve never been arrested, you gotta believe me. Honest.”

My youngest daughter half cried, “Daddy?”

That broke the ice. “Relax, unpaid parking ticket. But I’d get it taken care of,
sooner rather than later.”

“If you’ll let me out I’ll go downtown and do it right now.”

I did just that, a thirty-five dollar ticket from about a year and a half earlier,
it cost one-hundred-and-twenty-five dollars, but I’ve got a clean record.
By the time I arrived home my wife had received two phone calls from
concerned neighbors wanting to now where I was being held. No one
seemed surprised there had been a warrant issued. My son was bragging to
his pals that I was wanted by the police.

“What did we learn on our ride along?” my wife asked later that evening.
She smiled that sort of smile that added ‘you idiot’ without having to
actually say the words.

“Pay my parking tickets?”

“How about not getting one in the first place. Go kiss the kids goodnight and
let them know you’re no longer a threat to society.”

No, you won’t read about my arrest warrant when you pick up a copy of
Bombshell (amzn.to/R1cIb5). But I think you’ll have a fun read anyway.
Thanks for taking the time to read about my ride along, enjoy Bombshell,
as well as my other books on Amazon and don’t forget to tell two to three
hundred of your closest friends. Many thanks and all the best, Mike Faricy

BOMBSHELL Tour Information:

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About the Author:

Mike Faricy is the award winning author of mystery suspense thrillers woven together
with a rich strain of humor and even some romance. He and his wife live in Saint Paul,
Minnesota and Dublin, Ireland.

His entertaining tales are populated with the sort of quirky, oddball characters we’d
all like to know more about, but wisely prefer to keep at a distance. They serve not so
much as examples as they do warnings to the rest of us. None of his characters will be
saving the world from terrorism, international banking conspiracies or coups to topple
the government. Rather, they’re individuals inhabiting a world just below the surface of
polite society. The difficulties they find themselves in are usually due to their own bad
decisions, but then, bad decisions make for interesting tales.

All of his books are stand alone, read them in any order you wish. Russian Roulette
introduces the bizarrely devilish Devlin Haskell as a PI with a foot on both sides of the
law. Dev’s adventures continue in Mr. Softee and the soon to be released Bite Me. Mike
is currently working on his latest top secret project. He graduated High School from St.
Thomas Academy and earned a BA in history from St. Norbert College.

His latest book is the crime fiction, Bombshell.

Connect with Mike: Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

Purchase Bombshell: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

About the Book:

Dysfunctional, bumbling, crazy babe-magnet Dev Haskell, P.I., becomes the envy of
every guy with a heartbeat when he’s hired to watch over a team of gorgeous English
roller derby stars. Though he’d rather be standing guard in the shower room, he suddenly
finds himself under arrest and found guilty before he’s even charged. He’s got an
attorney who drinks too much, a beautiful woman with a bad attitude, a feisty team of
females ready to kill him – and no answers. Bombshell is another fast paced, engrossing
suspense thriller from Minnesota’s master of the bizarre, Mike Faricy.

If you’re like most people, you didn’t grow up with a totally nurturing, accepting, empowering family. Luckily, you can build your own dream family, starting right now. You can fill your new family with people who will give you exactly what you most need.

My friend Marilyn told me about a family-building exercise she performed years ago that was very helpful to her. She came from a family that squashed her sense of joy and self-esteem. As an adult, she had learned that she could create her own family through her friends. In addition, this exercise advised putting together an imaginary group of people she’d like to have in our family.

“That part of the exercise was fun for me,” Marilyn told me. “The second part was harder. I had to imagine what those new family members admired about me!”

Difficult though it was for her, the exercise was transformative for Marilyn, giving her a new way of seeing herself. Here’s who she chose and what she imagined them telling her about herself:

1. Morgaine le Fay (King Arthur’s half-sister and a powerful healer in the Arthurian legend):  “It’s difficult having a druid soul in a Christian world, isn’t it? I’m pleased that you’re seeking your true essence even though it may not be in step with the society around you. You have the makings of a priestess; you’re interested in healing, both psychic and physical, in natural ways, and have an abiding respect for the earth. Your reawakened interest in flowers and gardening will keep you grounded and centered, as will your love of cooking.”

2. Calamity Jane (an adventurous woman in the Old West who wore men’s clothing, performed trick shooting in the Wild West show, nursed victims of smallpox, and was a chronic alcoholic): “What I admire about you is that you were able to quit drinking and change your life as a result. I never managed it for myself so I appreciate the difficulty of the feat. Your independence and resourcefulness are just beginning to bloom. You are forging ahead, taking risks in a more civilized, socialized way than I did, but it’s pioneering nonetheless. I sure can identify with your shyness among strangers. It’s OK.”

3. Eleanor Roosevelt (First Lady of the U.S., who supported the New Deal policies of her husband, Franklin Roosevelt, and was an advocate for civil rights): “We’ve both suffered from being adult children of alcoholics and from not being what our partners needed from us. Your political, civic, social consciousness is strong. You’ve used your caring for the disenfranchised to protest inequality and work with your friends in feminism. Continue to use your caring for the betterment of the world. Learn from me to overcome stage fright and become more vocal in your involvement.”

4. Lassie (a fictional collie in the book Lassie Come Home and in a number of movies based on the book): “You have the makings of a good dog. You’re fiercely loyal to your friends. You’re intelligent enough to follow the good rules and to ignore or disobey the bad ones. You watch over your friends and try to protect them from harm. You speak up when someone threatens those you love. You dislike people who try to dominate others. Your instincts in such areas are good. You like to go for walks – and you always find your way back home.”

Marilyn still has the paper on which she created this family. She says she would probably pick the same people today with a couple of additions. She would add Buddhist teacher Pema Chodron, whose spiritual philosophy is closest to hers, and cellist Yo-Yo Ma for his creation of beautiful music, his graciousness toward his fellow musicians, his curiosity, and his humility. (And, she says, she needs at least one man in her family!)

Who would you like to have in your ideal family? Choose anyone – living or dead, someone real or a character from a book, TV, or the movies – whose qualities you appreciate and would like to emulate. For each one, write down a message from them to you. Have each one tell you what they value about you and why they’re glad to be in your family.

Keep your new family members in your mind to turn to when you want advice or comfort.  You can continue to add people throughout your life, making your family as big as you want.

Marilyn is one of over 30 people who tell their stories in my new book WAKING UP HAPPY: A HANDBOOK OF CHANGE WITH MEMOIRS OF RECOVERY AND HOPE  (WakingUpHappyBook.com). As each storyteller learns lessons in their life, I add exercises – like this one from Marilyn’s chapter – that you can do yourself to create those same changes in your own life. Give this exercise a try, and see if it provides new perspectives for you. Share your discoveries, ideas, and insights at my website WakingUpHappyBook.com.

I look forward to hearing all about your new family!

ABOUT JILL MUEHRCKE

Juliana (Jill) Muehrcke is the award-winning author of many books and articles. Founder and editor of the international magazine Nonprofit World (snpo.org), she has studied at the University of Colorado and the University of Michigan and has a BA degree, specializing in English and psychology, from the University of Washington. Jill is listed in Who’s Who (MarquisWhoswho.com). In her spare time, she enjoys teaching yoga and eating ethnic food. For many years, in several cities, including Seattle, Honolulu, and Madison, she has written restaurant reviews.

Her latest book is Waking Up Happy: A Handbook of Change with Memoirs of Recovery and Hope.

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

Listen to Jill on the Joy Cardin Show at http://wpr.org/search/ideas_program_search.cfm?StartYear=3&keyword=muehrcke&x=0&y=0.

Book Details:
Genre: Self-Help
Publisher: Tap Into Freedom Publishing
Publication Date: October 2011

Synopsis:

Stressed out? There is plenty of real external stress, sure, and a serious stress epidemic going on. Then there is what we do on the inside, often without even realizing it. Conscious Calm focuses on the internal patterns of stress creation we may not even notice, and describes how to get free of these patterns for good to find lasting calm.

Integrating psychology and neuroscience, and combining practical wisdom from both East and West, Dr. Laura Maciuika explains the inner stress traps that so many of us fall into. She reveals 9 Stress Secrets that can keep us stuck in cycles of feeling more and stress, and describes 9 Keys to Conscious Calm and simple, step by step ways to use them for lasting stress relief, deeper calm, and greater happiness.

My thoughts:

I was so happy to have the opportunity to read this book. It came up at just the perfect time. There are always times when stress from work, family, etc. start to overwhelm us and we just wish we had a magic wand to make it all go away. Well, we’ll never have that, but this book will get you about as close as you can come. Conscious Calm gives you real, no-nonsense tools to deal with stress and worry. The explanations of how these tools and exercises work are great and enjoyed the anecdotes as well.

You definitely want to follow the advice Dr. Maciuika gives at the beginning of the book which is to actually DO the exercises. Don’t say, “Oh I’ll do that later.” Really take the time to do them. They’re very simple and easy to understand and as with anything, practice makes perfect.

I highly recommend this book!

About the Author:

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.

The Inspiration for The Canker Death

  There were a number of inspirations for my debut novel, The Canker Death.  On the factual plane, the inspiration came from the fact that an FTP server I was running on one of the old Unix systems in my basement got hacked.  I have a collection of unusual computers that run esoteric operating systems.  Where most people’s computer knowledge ends is where mine begins.  This fact alone gave me the idea for a main character who was based quite a bit on various facets of people I know – computer geeks, that is.  But, I didn’t want to write a novel that was only tailored for sci-fi lovers.  I wanted to write something that was accessible to everyone, so I worked hard to make sure that the technical stuff was accurate and true, but that understanding it in any detail was not at all required for enjoying the novel.  Additionally, as I was getting started, I made a number of decisions about where the book was going to go.  I had been a high school English teacher for about a decade, and, while my main area of expertise was the teaching of writing, specifically creative writing, I whole-heartedly enjoyed reading and teaching the classics: Melville, Shakespeare, Hemingway and the like.  I loved how classic authors could take an often simple story and layer it with allegory so that everything represented not only itself, but an entire higher plane of story that was comprised of allusions, themes and symbols.  So, I knew I wanted to write something that echoed back to those writers, something that I knew would take years and years to create.  Coupled with this, though, was my love of fun, fantastical literature.  Fast-paced stories with cool ideas really grab my attention and hold it.  I can usually read two or three such books to one classic novel.  Often times, these fast-paced, page-turners have nothing more to offer than a quick escape from reality.  They’re just entertaining stories.  So, the challenge of taking these two somewhat opposing styles of writing and blending them together was what really inspired me.  When I combined a main character I felt I knew well with the goal of writing a novel that combined these disparate genres, and then added all that to the beginnings of a plot I had stewing wherein a computer hacker, himself, gets hacked, I knew I had all the pieces I needed.

—–

 About the Author

 James R. Bottino is a self-admitted computer geek and a creative writing teacher rolled into one.  He earned a BS in English Education from Illinois State University and taught high school English in a suburb of Chicago for several years.  After teaching all day, he studied creative writing in graduate school at Northern Illinois University.  All the while, though, in the deep corners of the night, when no one was looking, he led a double life hacking and building computers and networks.  Eventually, unbeknownst to him, word of his activities leaked out, and employment offers started coming in.  In the end, he switched his hobby with his profession and became a senior computer / networking administrator for a scientific research laboratory.  Just six months into this position, however, tragedy struck when, at the age of 31, James was diagnosed with cancer.  Given ten to one odds of living out the year and knowing that his infant daughter would never remember him if he died, he began the fight of his life, enduring massive doses of chemotherapy that killed the cancer but nearly killed him as well.  After years of struggle, he survived, but only after enduring systemic nerve damage from the treatments that left him permanently photophobic, phonophobic and with frequent difficulty in using his hands.  These events focused his efforts and helped him to prevail in his dual goals: being a father to his daughter and completing his first novel, THE CANKER DEATH.  James currently lives in a suburb of Chicago, with his wife, daughter, two Australian cattle dogs and far, far too many books and abstruse computers.

James R. Bottino can be contacted at: “nokinis(at)thecankerdeath(dot)com”

http://www.thecankerdeath.com

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