Review From Here

By Tim Gleichner

About Pamela Samuels Young

Corporate attorney Pamela Samuels Young has always abided by the philosophy that you create the change you want to see. Fed up with never seeing women or people of color depicted as savvy, hot shot attorneys in the legal thrillers she read, Pamela decided to create her own characters. Despite the demands of a busy legal career, Pamela accomplished her ambitious goal by rising at four in the morning to write before work, dedicating her weekends to writing and even spending her vacation time glued to her laptop for ten or more hours a day.

The Essence magazine bestselling author now has four fast-paced legal thrillers to show for her efforts: Every Reasonable Doubt (BET Books, February 2006), In Firm Pursuit (Harlequin, January 2007), Murder on the Down Low (Goldman House Publishing, September 2008) and Buying Time (Goldman House Publishing, November 2009). New York Times bestselling author Sheldon Siegel described Buying Time, Pamela’s first stand-alone novel, as a “deftly plotted thriller that combines the best of Lisa Scottoline and Robert Crais.”

Pamela has achieved a successful writing career while working as Managing Counsel for Labor and Employment Law for a large corporation in Southern California. Prior to that, she served as Employment Law Counsel for Raytheon Company and spent several years with the law firm of O’Melveny & Myers, LLP in Los Angeles. A former journalist, Pamela began her broadcasting career as a production assistant at WXYZ-TV in Detroit, where she was quickly promoted to news writer. To escape the chilly Detroit winters, she returned home to Los Angeles and worked at KCBS-TV as a news writer and associate producer.

Pamela has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from USC, a master’s degree in broadcasting from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism and received her law degree from UC Berkeley’s Boalt Hall School of Law. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Southern California Chapter of Mystery Writers of America and is the Fiction Expert for BizyMoms.com.

Pamela is a frequent speaker on the topics of discrimination law, diversity, writing and pursuing your passion. She is married and lives in the Los Angeles area. To contact Pamela or to read an excerpt of her books, visit www.pamelasamuelsyoung.com.

My Review

I have to admit that this is the first legal thriller that I have read.  I tend to stick to mostly non-fiction, although my wife really pushed me to expand my reading horizons.  And, I am also a big fan of all the legal shows on tv so I thought that I would give this book a shot.  I am glad I did – not only was it mentally inticing, it read as if I was watching one of the shows I love so much only better.

This book is about Waverly Sloan – an attorney who has hit the lowest of the low and has actually been disbarred.  Everyone in his life seems to want something from him and now that he doesn’t have the financial means to provide like he has in the past he isn’t sure what he is going to do.  He is turned on to a quick money maker from an acquaintance of his and it seems like it might be the answer to his money woes.  But at what cost?

This book was a true page turner leaving me wanting more.  I would HIGHLY recommend it!

About Buying Time

Buying Time is a scandalous tale of blackmail, murder and betrayal, evoking John Grisham with a dash of Terry McMillan.

Waverly Sloan is a down-on-his-luck lawyer. But just when he’s about to hit rock bottom, he stumbles upon a business with the potential to solve all of his problems.

In Waverly’s new line of work, he comes to the aid of people in desperate need of cash. But there’s a catch. His clients must be terminally ill and willing to sign over rights to their life insurance policies before they can collect a dime. Waverly then finds investors eager to advance them thousands of dollars—including a hefty broker’s fee for himself—in exchange for a significant return on their investment once the clients take their last breath.

The stakes get higher when Waverly brokers the policy of the cancer-stricken wife of Lawrence Erickson, a high-powered lawyer who’s bucking to become the next U.S. Attorney General. When Waverly’s clients start dying sooner than they should, both Waverly and Erickson—who has some skeletons of his own to hide—are unwittingly drawn into a perilous web of greed, blackmail and murder.

Soon, a determined federal prosecutor is hot on Waverly’s trail. But when the prosecutor’s own life begins to unravel, she finds herself on the run—with Waverly at her side.

About Gary Fong

Gary Fong is a world-renowned photographer, inventor and entrepreneur who has made multiple fortunes in business and real estate. From his inauspicious beginnings in a tiny, hairspray-saturated apartment that doubled as his parents’ wig studio, he went on to become, at a very young age, one of the world’s most successful wedding photographers. After making millions by revolutionizing an industry traditionally reserved for small businessmen, he “stumbled” upon serial successes in photo printing, software, real estate and camera accessories by making unconventional decisions based on his own quirky impulses. Gary has photographed celebrities such as Sylvester Stallone, Paul McCartney and Ronald Reagan, invented and marketed the Lightsphere, and co-founded Pictage, which became the largest dedicated online digital/web solution in the United States and sold for $29 million.

His latest book  is The Accidental Millionaire: How to Succeed in Life Without Really Trying.

You can visit his website at www.garyfongaccidentalmillionaire.com.

The Interview

Could you please tell us a little about your book?

One would think from the title that this book is a fantasy slackers guide to paradise, but what it really is is a humor memoir that shows how different the two different phases of my life were. Phase 1 is where I’m a person constantly driven by goals and expectations, and failing at all of them, until one day completely immersed in my own misery of having all of my expectations dashed, I nearly rear-ended a car that has a bumper sticker that says, “Since I Gave Up Hope, I Feel Much Better”

That bumper sticker changed my life. From that moment I gave up hope (because having hope really wasn’t getting me anywhere) and miraculously one unlikely thing happens after another on my way to building a fortune.

The basic message of the book is that the minute I stopped living to fulfill one goal after another, I became much more successful and a lot less disappointed. Here’s an amazing fact, it’s impossible to be disappointed if you expect nothing. That’s my favorite message of the book.

Who or what is the inspiration behind this book?
I was reading the book, “The Glass Castle” by Jeannette Walls, and her colorful description of her poverty growing up brought back a lot of colorful memories for myself as well. So just as a exercise of not wanting to forget what it was like being poor (as a person who created a lot of self-made wealth) I wanted to journal is much color as possible what it was like to have nearly nothing.

As I started to get into this habit of reconnecting my memories onto words, I started to jot down how hilarious moments from my colorful career starting as the cheapest photographer in town to becoming one of the most famous. The weddings that I saw in the early days had a fabric to them that I’ll not likely see again ever. Many were hilarious. So then the book became a humor memoir.

And then as I started to branch out into the happenstance occurrences that I stumbled into from wedding photography to software development, to inventing, to creating a large photo lab, and now is the owner of a plastics manufacturing company and a distribution warehouse, the whole thing is so unlikely that I realized that I had a story there. And the story that emerged was one of the power that comes from stopping this silly thing of setting artificial goals for yourself to jump over.

In the last year have you learned or improved on any skills?
In the last year, after quite a bit of studying I finally got to the point where my French language skills became effortless. Although I’m Chinese, I speak Spanish and now French.

And I’ve also taken up the violin. I bought a carbon fiber violin and using YouTube videos, I’ve learned to play pretty well without having to take any lessons. What did this is for in the future I have absolutely no idea. But what I know from my past is this: nothing I’ve done ever got wasted. I now have meetings in France with my business associates, in French, and really I just wanted to learn it to learn it.

What are you currently working on?

I’m currently working on a book called “huff and bluff, a story of greed and failure”. My editor and publishers are pretty excited about this one. It’s also a memoir (a follow-up to what’s happened to me after his book was written) but this was more of a black comedy. It’s the story of a predatory lawyer and my ex-wife who blew over $1 million in legal fees trying to claim that she was entitled to millions of dollars for her share of my company that I started from scratch. In the end, the judge gave her under $3000.

I think it’s a social commentary that hasn’t yet been written. Never do you hear from the rich guy who has to fend off a greedy attorney and ex-wife and chooses not to be bullied. And then to turn it into a comedy or humor memoir, that’s the big challenge and so far a lot of the book is done and it really is working.

Do you have any advice for writers or readers?

If you are an author, I learned a lot about how to get published. The first thing that a publisher does is try to figure out what category your book will belong under. Is it a how-to? Is it a biography? What we had to do was figure out what I had, and then in the editing process clarify what category this book belongs in.

This is something I did not know before. And honestly, it really does help to have the editor and publisher actively involved during the formation of your finished book. That way, they can give you their advice on how to categorize your book which I realized is one of the most important things that you can do.

This is the first book I’ve ever written, and the fact that it’s doing so well in the bookstores and on reviews is completely thrilling to me. It’s also tremendously fun to go to any bookstore wherever I am, and see my book in the biography section between Jane Fonda and Michael J. Fox.

What are some of your long term goals?

This is a great question because my book is anti-goals. We joke that this is a anti-motivational motivational book. What I’m really trying to say is that goals blind you from all of the other amazing opportunities that occur in the detours of life. When you set your sights on a narrow target, the best outcome you have is to reach that target which was defined by your limited imagination. As soon as I stopped trying to match my expectations, my life went into a fantasy world that I couldn’t even imagine.

So, obviously, I have no goals. And I suggest trying this for yourself. Here’s proof that it works: it is impossible to be disappointed if you expect nothing. And once you live a life free of disappointment, you enter this wonderland of peace and harmony with the universe that tends to throw you obstacles whenever you try to control things too much.

What do you feel has been your greatest achievement as an author?

The fact that I didn’t really think much about the possibility of being a published author and what a cool thing that is. I just started jotting down my ideas, and it became a book. So the fact that the first thing I ever wrote became a published book available in bookstores everywhere is pretty amazing to me.

And I’m all about the reviews. The reviews are coming in for this book have been amazing. And it gives me a huge sense of a accomplishment.

Is there anything you regret doing/not doing?

I regret being consumed so much by my goalsetting habit. Here’s a good example. I met, in person, a famous inventor. And I was so thrilled to meet him, and I had 1 million questions for him. So I asked him, “how is it that you do what you do… how do you just invent things out of nowhere?”

And he said it’s much easier than you think. Anything that you see around you can be improved upon. For example that suitcase that you just walked in with (and I had one of those old-fashioned Samsonite suitcases) the powder blue kind that just had a handle on it. He said, “what would you do to improve that suitcase?” And I said, “well the first thing I would do is put wheels on it. I think it’s really silly that you have to pick this thing up and carry it around when you could easily roll it around.” Andy asked me what else I would do? And I said, “well, I would put a telescoping handle on it so that when I’m rolling this around I wouldn’t have to stoop over”. And he said well that’s also great idea what else would you do? And I said, “I would probably have a scuff proof back knee be made out of plastic so that I could drag up a flight of stairs without worrying about messing up the fabric.” And he said well there you go. There you have your million dollar idea. That is my gift to you, go take your idea, get a design patent, and live the rest of your life free of financial worry.

You know what I did? I did absolutely nothing. The reason why I did absolutely nothing was because I was so focused on my goal as a wedding photographer to book 7 weddings in July, and I only had four booked. So, I ditched this amazing idea (which would then have the design patent granted years later to some lucky inventor) so that I could accomplish my teeny tiny goal of booking three more weddings for the month of July. And I swore to myself, if I ever get an idea again, I’m not cannot let that one go. And so I invented something that went out to make me a commend this amount of money.

About The Accidental Millionaire: How to Succeed in Life Without Even Trying

The Accidental Millionaire is the memoir of Gary Fong, would-be slacker who revolutionized wedding photography, inventor of popular photography aids, entrepreneur, contrarian, bon vivant and a man who really, really didn’t want to become a doctor. A first-generation Chinese-American, Gary was raised in one of Los Angeles’ least-desirable neighborhoods and was forced to deal—in his own quirky and often very funny way—with the burdens of poverty, crime and his parents’ relentless aspirations. These issues almost overwhelmed him until he had a dramatic epiphany. Spotting a bumper sticker that read “Since I gave up hope, I feel much better,” Gary promptly did just that.

He stopped trying and started succeeding. At turns hilarious, insightful and instructive, The Accidental Millionaire is Horatio Alger-meets-David Sedaris. Turning the traditional self-help principles upside down, The Accidental Millionaire disdains the goal-oriented approaches of traditional self-help philosophies. Sometimes not knowing where you are going is the best possible way to get there.

When I saw Easy Lunch Boxes I just knew I had to have them!  I received  a container set of 4 from www.easylunchboxes.com ($13.95) and a lunch bag in red color ($7.95) to review on this site.

I knew that two of the containers would get daily use by my 5 and 6 year old daughters – they just love things like this and it really does make lunch time or snack time a breeze.  Since the containers are compartmentalized it really makes this fun for them.

There is one large compartment for something the size of a sandwich and then two smaller compartments for snacks – at least that’s what I have been using them for.  I actually put pasta salad in the large container the other day with goldfish crackers and grapes in the other compartments and my girls had a blast.  And, not only do these look nice and make life so much easier, they are so easy to clean.

Now, my hubby has also gotten into the action.  Seeing as how his appetite is much larger than my girls, he takes the other two containers in his lunch.  He uses one for his break where he usually has fruit, yogurt, and a sandwich.  The other container is used for his lunch where he usually take a sandwich and veggies and dip (or something along those lines).  Not only do these work perfectly for that, they also help control portion size.  And with the red cooler bag it keeps things cool until he is ready for them, and also has room for a bottle of water.

I would HIGHLY recommend heading over to Easy Lunch Boxes and checking out what they have to offer.  You won’t be disappointed.

*I was not financially compensated for this post. I received a sample of the product for review purposes. The opinions are completely my own based on my experience.*

About Kelly Lester and Easy Lunch Boxes

KELLY LESTER is the owner, creator, and mom behind Easylunchboxes.com. Though she is a singer and actress who can also turn a mean cartwheel, juggling is not one of her skills — except, of course, when it comes to her personal life. During the last two decades she has also been an entrepreneur, wife, and mother of three.

A graduate of UCLA’s theatre department, Kelly has appeared in dozens of plays and musicals in the Los Angeles area. Kelly left show business for almost twelve years to found and run Art Plates, her own highly-successful gift manufacturing business and raise her three girls. Her handcrafted switchplates and soaps were sold in hundreds of museum stores across the country and direct to consumers via the Art Plates website.

After selling that business in 2006, Kelly defied the old adage that there are no second acts. In fact, sometimes there are actually many different acts. Since returning to performing, Kelly has appeared in a number of stage productions, films and TV shows. More about Kelly’s performing career HERE.

In her spare time, she enjoys listening to obscure musicals, and has an obsession with graphic design (especially fonts) and digital scrapbooking. When not in front of the computer, Kelly can be found in the kitchen preparing healthy lunches and dinners for her family (although she actually hates to cook and is actively trying to teach her daughters to take over the household culinary needs.)

Easylunchboxes.com was born out of Kelly’s innate ability to do things efficiently while on a shoestring budget, and her desire to send her daughters to school with simple, healthy food, with little to no extra packaging or ingredients. Her past struggle with weight control inspires her to teach and model healthy eating habits for her children, and has fueled her dedication to always send them off to school with a great lunch. Kelly’s healthy lifestyle was recently featured on MOM TRENDS.

Kelly combined her self taught business-savvy with her natural inclination to think “what would other parents want?” — to develop the perfect lunchbox system.. She is thrilled and proud to share her Easylunchboxes and lunch bags with other families who will benefit by their simple design, great price, and amazing functionality. Additionally, by promoting the waste-free lunch movement, EasyLunchboxes.com is helping the planet one lunch box at a time.

Kelly has been married to actor Loren Lester since 1988. They live in Woodland Hills, CA with their three daughters, Jenny, Lily, & Julia, and their dog, Albany.

THE GIVEAWAY

Easy Lunchboxes is giving away a Container Set and Lunchbox in your choice of colour. Please do not enter if you have won a prize from them in the last 3 months.

To Enter:

Visit Easy Lunchboxes and tell me which colour of Lunchbox you would choose if you won.

Bonus Entries:

1. Subscribe to my blog by email.

2. Follow my blog on Google Friend Connect.

3. Blog about the giveaway and leave me the link.

4. Follow me on Twitter and tweet the giveaway. You can tweet once per day. Please leave your Twitter handle.

5. Follow Easy Lunchboxes on Twitter.

6. Follow my Newtworked Blog (on the right sidebar)

7. Like Easy Lunchboxes on Facebook.

8. Add my button to your blog or site – 5 entries

Open to US & Canada.

Giveaway ends on August 1, 2010 at 11:59 pm EST. The winners will be selected by random.org and notified by email and will have 48 hours to reply back before a new winner is selected. Please leave your email so I can contact you if you win. Good luck!

About Jackie Johnson

Jackie M. Johnson is an accomplished author and freelance writer who has a passion for helping people who’ve experienced brokenness. Her first book, Power Prayers for Women has sold almost 200,000 copies. A Milwaukee native and graduate of Trinity International University, Jackie lives in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

You can visit Jackie online at http://whenloveends.com/ and at her blog http://anewdaycafe.blogspot.com/.

After a Breakup: 4 Ways to Rebuild Your Confidence and Self Esteem

Breakups can be harsh. Whether you’re the one saying goodbye or the other person is giving you the brush off, you may feel hurt, anger or other painful emotions. “What is wrong with me?” you ask yourself. You want to know if you are loveable, worthy, enough. How do you find your way forward on your own?

Repeated rejection, negative comments or harsh words can begin to wear away at your sense of self worth and value just as the constant dripping of water can lead to erosion of soil. How do you shore up your “emotional erosion” and find the strength and courage to move forward?

1) Plant seeds of truth. After a forest fire, erosion is contained by planting grass seed or groundcover and building retaining walls. After a breakup, emotional erosion is shored up by planting seeds of truth and building supportive walls around your heart to retain the truth and prevent future erosion.

The seeds of truth come from reading and hearing God’s word, planting them in your heart and applying them to your life. In time there is growth, heart hedges holding your life in place. Rooted in His great love and unconditional acceptance—and what He says about you—you can stand firm.

2) Know your true identity. How you see yourself affects how you feel and what to do or don’t. It affects your level of confidence. Popular culture tries to shape your self image—every second of the day— with alluring advertising that demands, in so many words, “This is who you should be.” So often we want to hide the broken and less-than-perfect parts of our selves. Yet as we come to realize that Christ loves us in the middle of our mess, that startling love helps us to accept both our strengths and weaknesses, the dark and the light, and our self image becomes less broken and more whole.

A healthy view of yourself is balanced. A woman with a healthy self-esteem respects herself. She feels secure and worthwhile because of what God says about her. She has confidence in relationships and in life and generally more joy. She knows she has significance; she matters. With her sense of worth and value intact, she sits up straight and walks tall. Her head up, this confident woman is friendly, gentle and kind. She makes eye contact when she speaks, and she doesn’t constantly apologize for everything she says or does.

As you allow God to shift your self esteem from how you see yourself to seeing your worth and value through God’s eyes, realignment takes place. God empowers you to see differently, you begin to act differently. You change your perception, and you change your life.

3) Clear up the distorted perception of yourself. Sometimes we don’t see ourselves clearly. The lenses through which we’ve been viewing our lives have been distorted by things in the past. We need God’s better-than-20/20-vision to gain a clearer vision of who we really are, to come out of hiding, to be courageous, and to see ourselves as He sees us.

4) Know and live out of your identity. So often a woman looks to a man to affirm her worth and value. If he thinks she is great, she feels great. If doesn’t, her worth withers. What does God have to say about who you are? In God’s eyes, you are: His friend. a child of God—an adopted son or daughter, a prince or princess.

Once you’ve discovered your true identity, and choose to live in that truth you will begin to see yourself in a whole new light. You reawaken to who you really are—chosen, accepted and dearly loved—and find the courage to be yourself. Rooted and ground in what God says about you, your self esteem is more solid. You are better able to handle success or failure, deal with change, make decisions, and move forward to give and receive real and lasting love.

Remember to challenge negative thinking. Watch your “self talk;” often we are harder on ourselves than others. Appreciate your positive strengths and work on areas that may need improvement. Don’t put yourself down, build yourself up with God’s word. Love and respect yourself. Know that you are worth being loved well!

About When the Love Ends and the Ice Cream Carton is Empty

While most books for singles tell readers how to get the next guy, When Love Ends and the Ice Cream Carton is Empty encourages a healthy healing process. Practical and biblically based, each chapter guides the reader through a metaphorical day of restoration. Twilight recognizes and deals with endings, night validates and grieves the loss, dawn awakens hope, and day is the new beginning based on the solid assurance of Christ.

About Gary Fong

Gary Fong is a world-renowned photographer, inventor and entrepreneur who has made multiple fortunes in business and real estate. From his inauspicious beginnings in a tiny, hairspray-saturated apartment that doubled as his parents’ wig studio, he went on to become, at a very young age, one of the world’s most successful wedding photographers. After making millions by revolutionizing an industry traditionally reserved for small businessmen, he “stumbled” upon serial successes in photo printing, software, real estate and camera accessories by making unconventional decisions based on his own quirky impulses. Gary has photographed celebrities such as Sylvester Stallone, Paul McCartney and Ronald Reagan, invented and marketed the Lightsphere, and co-founded Pictage, which became the largest dedicated online digital/web solution in the United States and sold for $29 million.

His latest book  is The Accidental Millionaire: How to Succeed in Life Without Really Trying.

You can visit his website at www.garyfongaccidentalmillionaire.com.

My Review

I have to admit, I wasn’t sure what to expect when I picked up this book. I absolutely LOVED this book. Not only is there a great dose of humor, the path that has gotten Mr. Fong to the point he is today is one of the most engaging stories I have read.

Gary’s parents were immigrants and wanted nothing but the best for their only child. They struggled after Gary’s dad lost his job at Boeing and his mom took to styling and selling wigs, prepping them in their small 600 square foot apartment. Can you imagine everything in your home being covered with the lacquer emitted from hair spray? Gary knew by the age of 10 that he needed to take his life into his own hands.

Many of the aspects of this book are pulled from journals that Gary kept as a child and they are such a unique insight into a man who has truly lived up to his full potential. A keen business mind and the determination to try and make a career out of something that showed him a glimpse of success after college made Gary a millionaire.

This book is one that I would highly recommend – even though it is a work of non-fiction (which is not usually something that I would enjoy to be honest) the style of writing is extremely fluid and full of humor, intelligence, and the drive to succeed.

About The Accidental Millionaire: How to Succeed in Life Without Even Trying

The Accidental Millionaire is the memoir of Gary Fong, would-be slacker who revolutionized wedding photography, inventor of popular photography aids, entrepreneur, contrarian, bon vivant and a man who really, really didn’t want to become a doctor. A first-generation Chinese-American, Gary was raised in one of Los Angeles’ least-desirable neighborhoods and was forced to deal—in his own quirky and often very funny way—with the burdens of poverty, crime and his parents’ relentless aspirations. These issues almost overwhelmed him until he had a dramatic epiphany. Spotting a bumper sticker that read “Since I gave up hope, I feel much better,” Gary promptly did just that.

He stopped trying and started succeeding. At turns hilarious, insightful and instructive, The Accidental Millionaire is Horatio Alger-meets-David Sedaris. Turning the traditional self-help principles upside down, The Accidental Millionaire disdains the goal-oriented approaches of traditional self-help philosophies. Sometimes not knowing where you are going is the best possible way to get there.

About A Love Story Starring My Dead Best Friend

For months, Cass has heard her best friend, Julia, whisper about a secret project. When Julia dies in a car accident, her drama friends decide to bring the project—a musical called Totally Sweet Ninja Death Squad—to fruition. But Cass isn’t a drama person. She can’t take a summer of painting sets, and she won’t spend long hours with Heather, the girl who made her miserable all through middle school and has somehow landed the leading role. So Cass takes off. In alternating chapters, she spends the first part of summer on a cross-country bike trip and the rest swallowing her pride, making props, and—of all things—falling for Heather.

This is a story of the breadth of love. Of the depth of friendship. And of the most hilarious musical one quiet suburb has ever seen.

My Review

I was really excited to read this book as it was my first by the author. I thought that the title was extremely unique and thought the story sounded like it had a lot of potential. To be honest this book was just ok for me. There were parts of the book that I really enjoyed and some parts that I felt were totally unbelievable. Let me elaborate.

Cass and Julia are best friends and have been for what seems like forever. They share everything together even though they are extremely different. Cass is a math whiz and Julia is into the theater but somehow they make it all work. Even after Julia starts dating, she still makes time for Cass and Cass is just happy to see her friend so happy. But, then tragedy strikes. Julia is killed in a car accident leaving Oliver’s house (her boyfriend) and the whole dynamic of the group of friends changes. Was Julia the only thing that Cass had in common with the rest of the theater people? Will Julia’s super secret project “Totally Sweet Ninja Death Squad”, a musical that she had been working on before she died, become a reality? And how can Cass get past the fact that not only has she lost her best friend but the star of the play is Heather, a true enemy of hers from the past?

The overall tone of this book was one that I did enjoy. I loved how the author alternated the chapters between THEN and NOW so you could see how things progressed for Cass throughout. The emotion that is felt by Cass was mostly believable as well. But, the interaction between Cass and the rest of the theater people seemed a little overdone. Either they were really friends or they weren’t and sometimes I just wasn’t sure. And what parent in their right mind would allow their 16 year old to bike thousands of miles with the ashes of their dead best friend just to fulfill a trip that they had planned? That was totally unbelievable! She was sleeping in a tent on the side of the road with only a credit card for emergencies, some money she had saved up, and a cell phone. And, she didn’t even talk to her parents on a daily basis. This just didn’t seem like anything that would ever happen, or if it would it is the type of parent that should be reported to Social Services.

Overall I would recommend this book because I do feel that the writing was strong. I just think that parts of it could have been improved upon.

Thanks to Around the World ARC Tours for allowing me to be part of this book tour!

About Sue Provost

Sue Provost is an active spiritual director, religious education teacher for both children and adults, and author of Where is God in Your Life? Three Retreats in Christian Spirituality. Her vocation in the practice of spiritual direction supports lay men and women, as well as clergy and those in ministry formation, in discernment of God’s gifting and God’s calling.

Sue has a master’s degree in Spiritual Formation from Regis University, in Denver Colorado. She is on the board of directors for the national headquarters of Small Christian Communities Connect (SCCC), as well as being the chairperson for SCC in her local parish. She is a teacher of religious education to both children and adults. She writes a daily blog about the message of Jesus on her site “Let Your Life Sing” . Sue goal in writing this daily blog is to bring awareness of God walking with us on this earthly journey.

Her desire is to share her understanding of God’s love with others, so they can experience what she found in her own relationship with God. She feels that communication with God through prayer is the essential element needed to be able to see God’s movement in their lives.

You can visit Sue’s website at www.sueprovost.com.

God Is Always With You

Every day is a gift from God. We can spend the day disliking what we do. We can spend the day being angry and hurt, sad and alone. We can do that if that is what we want to do. Instead, I prefer to spend the day looking at all the good that has occurred in my life. I lost my job last October, but I did not lose my husband, children or grandchildren. I lost my job, but I did not lose the love God has for me. I lost my job, but I am still alive and able to find something else to work at. I lost my job, but I did not lose heart, because I knew that God was with me. I lost my job, but did not lose what was really important to me, my faith. There is always a plan that God has for us, but sometimes a door has to close for another door to open.

Each of us needs to fully grasp and understand just how much God loves us. We need to see how He is intimately concerned about every single detail of our lives. Reading that God loves us in His Word and understanding that He died for our sins, can still be merely intellectual pursuits. However, receiving His Spirit and experiencing His Life in and through us, is something we can never deny as being ultimate, personal love (Girzone 1998). However, the way in which to feel that ultimate personal love is not readily apparent to us.

Unfortunately, our culture encourages the need to be constantly in motion. We have the need to be productive and fill all our time with something. We become nervous when we encounter empty space, when there is a gap in a conversation, when we do not know what to say, when we are sitting in a waiting room and there are no magazines on the table to read. For most people, just doing nothing is unthinkable.

It can be difficult to encounter God while the focus of our lives is on the importance of earthly power and possessions. We cannot notice God working in our lives when we do not take the time to stop and notice anything. We do not know how to step out of the world of progress. We are moving so fast through our lives that we take no time to notice what is happening around us when the noticing is not necessary to fulfill our goal. In essence, we are programmed not to accept who we are, but we are driven to judge ourselves and others by earthly success, productivity, and accumulation of things. Consequently, we have no real appreciation for ourselves or the others we encounter. We are trapped in a jail of our own creation.

Move out of your own jail and find out what it is God wants you to do. You may already be doing it, or you may need to leave something in order to do it. Do not be sorrowful. God is with you.

About Where is God in Your Life

As Christians, our spiritual journey constantly brings us back to Jerusalem, to the death and resurrection of Jesus, which gives meaning to all that we do. Strengthened by God’s Spirit we join on the walk to wherever, we share meals, and we tell our stories. We remember. God, as we go along our life’s way, will help us to be aware of His presence with us. He will open our eyes, makes us expectant, eager to be met by Him. We will never complete our spiritual journey.

Quite often people do not know how to develop a relationship with God, in order to be able to feel God’s love for them and to be able to share that love with others. They need to be given the tools necessary to develop a relationship with God and to understand how that relationship is celebrated in community.

Through the development of three two-day workshops, I have presented a program that will show readers and participants how to recognize God in their lives and to feel His love. I have designed these workshops to help people to continue their spiritual journey to greater connection with God. Finally, I have created these workshops to help others to see the importance of the Christian faith as a spiritual roadmap to be used on the path to God.

About Kailin Gow

Kailin Gow is the author of over 30 books for all generations, but her specialty is the young adult/teen genre. Her books have been recommended by PBS Kids, the PTA, homeschooling organizations, and on the Best Teens Books list. She is a mentor for young women, has founded 3A for Autism (Actors, Artists, and Authors for Autism), and runs a publishing and production company known as Sparklesoup, a mid-size publisher and production company.

Her latest young adult fiction novel is Rise of the Fire Tamer.
You can visit her website at www.sparklesoup.com or join her Facebook Author page at: http://www.facebook.com/pages/YA-Books-from-Kailin-Gow/104549539596369.

The Interview

Could you please tell us a little about your book?
The series is about five teenage gamers who wins a contest to visit the inventor of their favorite game, The Wordwick Games, and to stay in his castle, Word Castle, for a week. When they get there, they learn they are the first to play the 10th level of the game and enter a new virtual world in this game, called Anachronia. Little do they know, Word Castle is a portal to actual worlds, and soon they are caught in a story and game that seem more than just a game. Everything they know as real and everything they know about themselves will be challenged as they make their way to become the ultimate ruler of Anachronia.

Who or what is the inspiration behind this book?

My books are character-driven so I picture characters first and then see them in a situation or world. I’ve started writing more fantasy and paranormal fiction because I read a lot of fairy tales and “spooky” books with my preschool daughter, and I love how these stories build her imagination and creativity.
My 4-year-old daughter London inspired me to write a book about gamer teens. She loves video games (and hanging out with her teen and young adult sitters LOL), and I wanted to write a series that would help girls (and boys) develop a sense of good sportsmanship, leadership principles, self-esteem, and teamwork with this series. At the same time, I wanted to break stereotypes (especially among teens) with the characters in this series.
The story came about from my own experience having played video games and even having scripted and produced a video game before. However, this isn’t a video game, but a novel much like The Chronicles of Narnia and other fantasy adventure young adult novels.
The Wordwick Games is also a way of introducing SAT words into everyday vocabulary. Incorporating SAT words into the novel as Ruler Words, their meaning and usage are reinforced over and over again in the story.

Who is your biggest supporter?

My family and friends, of course. And my awesome readers! It is for my readers that I write what I write.

Your biggest critic?

My husband, my editor, and I.

What is the most important thing in your life right now?

Being able to achieve balance. As a writer, it’s important for me to have that so I can draw from everything in experience and to provide that for my readers – the emotions, the experience, the senses, and thoughts.

What are you currently working on?

The Ascension (The Wordwick Games, #2) is in the editing/print process and will be out October 2010. The Return, Book 3 is already outlined and slated for a 2011 release.

Bitter Frost, a heart-wrenching love story between two lovers whose kingdoms are at war with each other, was just released. The Phantom Diaries, a paranormal romance for older teens to young adults, was just released as well. I’m finalizing the second books to these series to be released this Fall/Winter.

The Stoker Sisters, a series about vampire sisters, is set for a late summer, early Fall release as well.

What do you feel sets this book apart from others in the same genre?

Rise of the Fire Tamer (The Wordwick Games, #1) can be compared to the Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis, Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Adventures of Sinbad, and even The Maximum Ride books by James Patterson.

It is different in that it incorporates the world of words into the games so that The Wordwick Games series is also educational and an SAT prep book (but don’t tell teenagers that!)

Parents and teachers will love this aspect of the book, but at the same time, the story is fast-paced and compelling so that readers will keep on reading.

This book series is packed with a myriad of reasons it should be on your must-read list –

1) The Wordwick Games is the kind of popular fiction series you find on the bestseller list, but is educational at the same time. Your teen and young adult would not only read the kind of book they love reading, but will be absorbing SAT words at the same time.

2) Lessons on relationships, leadership, and good sportsmanship.
Groups like the Girl Scouts, the Boy Scouts, and Leadership Training Workshops would find the book full of examples (played out in the plots and subplots of this book) portraying circumstances where these issues are brought up and examined.

3) Read it and see if you’re not drawn into the story at least. The pacing, the characters, and the plot will help readers, even reluctant readers, to keep reading.

4) Although there is a lot of romance in this book series (clean though), this series will appeal to girls and boys, age 13 and up.

5) There is a discussion sheet for this book for groups that will examine issues of leadership, choices, relationships and friendships, and historic lessons in this book. The discussion sheet is available on the publisher’s site, http://www.theEDGEbooks.com.

About Rise of the Fire Tamer

After winning a contest for a popular game called Wordwick Games, five teens Gemma, Sparks, Rio, Kat, and Jack, are invited to stay at Wordwick Games inventor Henry Word’s mysterious castle and play the newest level of Workwick Games. Little do they know, the castle is the doorway to a wondrous world call Anachronia where words can be used as weapons, power, and commodity. There is unrest in Anachronia, and if the five teens can follow the rules of Wordwick Games and prove to be the best player, one of them will be crowned Ruler of Anachronia.

I found this on one of my favorite sites, Simply Stacie, and thought I would join her in participating in this.    This is something new for me called the Chic Click Carnival hosted by Tip Junkie. The purpose is to introduce yourself to another fellow peep using the Visit Our Peeps window.

So to introduce myself…I am a 35 year old mom of two girls (ages 5 and 6) and I live in Appleton, WI.  My blog, Review From Here,  started as a place for me to keep track of the books I read and to help promote authors.  But, I have started to branch out doing product reviews and am loving it!  And, it is a great way to make new friends all over the blogosphere.

Right now my favorite post on my blog is a book review that I did for “The Book of Unholy Mischief” by Elle Newmark.  This book is one of the first books I read that really got me excited about spreading the word.

My favourite peep of the week is Creations by Kara which I found through the Visit Our Peeps widget. I love crafts and cooking and when I saw her recipe for Banana Zucchini Muffins I thought, yum, yum!

Really, do yourself the favor and visit this site – you can see the “peeps” by visiting the widget on the right (I tried to embed this into this post but couldn’t get it to work).  Happy Sunday!

I was at the store the other day, in the cereal aisle, looking at what was on sale.  Did we really need cereal?  No, not really.  But, my girls (ages 5 and 6) love cereal and it is a cheap and easy snack that isn’t necessarily all that unhealthy (well, compared to candy, lol).  So, I saw this box of Keebler Cookie Crunch Cereal on sale for $1.29 and decided to get it.

My kids seriously can’t get enough of this cereal.  I haven’t tried it – I’m not too big on cookies and don’t think having them in cereal would help, but they have each had 3 bowls today.  As far as I can tell, that means it’s good – at least as far as they are concerned.  Is it extremely nutrional?  I doubt it.  Does it taste good?  Apparently so.  My hubby took a taste and said that it wasn’t too bad – he compared the flavor to Cocoa Puffs.

So, if you are looking for a good deal on a new cereal that you or your family might love, you might want to give this a try.