Take off Your Bah Humbug Mask and Smile!

Adversity Helps our Character Grow

Before I post my article for this evening, I want to let you know that the promotion for the five autographed books has ended for this week. The five winners will be notified and hopefully I will get the books to them in time for Christmas, if they want them to be used for gifts.

Thank you for the great response. That shows me we need to do this once a week until I run out of books.

I will be starting another giveaway this Friday night through Monday evening like I did this week.

__________________________________________________

I just got through having a wonderful discussion with a man named Henry Newell. I was minding my own business. (Hard for me to do,) when he contacted me through the IM service at Facebook.

I was sharing back and forth with him, when he dropped a bomb on me. He is a quadriplegic. He was in a diving accident when he was 14 years old. He was told he wasn’t going to live, and if he did he would be a vegetable.  He is still here to tell his story.

Henry is a born again Christian that would put an average Christian to shame. His outlook on everything in live is incredible. He is such a positive person.

I want to invite you to read his story on the blog: http//:www.dailysignsofhope.com. This blog is run by myself and Michael Clark.

We have been in the trenches, and we write articles there that reach out to the people who suffer from anxiety, fear, self doubt, depression, addictions, hopelessness, and the many other usual suspects. 

Henry’s post  will be in a couple of weeks. We have guest bloggers on every Sunday. We are  backed up a little right now.

I will let you know here when he will be blogging, but why don’t check out the blog and bookmark it like 300 other people have in the first month of its existence.

Why should someone like Henry be so positive. It looks like life gave him a lemon. I can’t speak for him. He will be doing that himself, but I know why I am so positive after six major surgeries. It is because God has allowed me to have them! God has a plan for me. He had one before I was born. I now know that I am to reach out to people who suffer from the many mental afflictions we face when adversity strikes us.

I was near death at one point,  but I am still alive, and thanking God each day. I seek His will daily and strive to meet His will with every breath I take that He has given me.

During this Christmas time, don’t spend your time feeling sorry for yourself, by moaning and groaning. Remember the reason for the season. They was a little child that was born on Christmas Day. He was a very poor child. They laid him in a manger. Webster’s Dictionary says a manger is, ” A place where livestock eat.” Little Jesus laid in a filthy manger, and didn’t even have nice cloths to wear. He slept among the animals in the barn.

Now think of all the things that God has given you. A family, food, a home, friends, good health.

I know some of you do not have those things I listed, but be thankful that God has given you another breath. Each one may be the last.

So, put away your Bah Humbug costume, and be a light shining in the dark for others that are less fortunate.

May God bless you during the Christmas season and beyond.

Social Networking Can Change Your Future in Writing

Facebook is an Outstanding way for Authors to get Known.

Social networking wasn’t very will known as few as five years ago, as far as authors using it to promote their books.

Now there are thousands of authors using this approach to reaching out to readers.

My Space, Twitter, You Tube, Friendster, Linkedin, etc, have become an important part of an author’s publicity kit.

On Facebook you can show videos, pictures, images, audio, and media, that will give the “friends,” plenty of information  on the author’s book.

On Twitter, you reach millions of people with one push of a key.  You can also promote your book there, but many use it more for social contact, and then “lure,” the contacts into their websites, or onto Facebook.

If you can build each of your Facebook, Twitter, Blog subscribers, My Space lists to over 2,000, you will do very well when your book finally comes out.

Having these many “followers” on each of these avenues, will also impress agents and publishers.

If you haven’t started working with these promotional techniques, I strongly suggest you look into each of these channels and see if they are for you.

_______________________________________________________

There are six more days left on the latest book give away, of the book, Moments This Good: The Softer Side of Alzheimer’s, Written by Bonnie Nester. Bonnie wrote about her mother Ruth.

Here is a review about the book:

“Nester offers the reader a path to gentle acceptance, and even moments of playfulness and joy-and always, always models profound love and respect for her mother.”

                                                                                                        Ellen Waterson

                                                                                           Author of the award-winning memoir, Then There was No Mountain and I am Madagascar.

Bonnie has many examples for caregivers on how to be loving, and understanding at the same time.

I know the need for that as I have a 92 year old mother that battles dementia.

I highly recommend her book, and Bonnie has autographed it along with a personal note to the reader.

________________________________________________________

To have a chance to win this book, go to the right side bar and click on the icon that talks about subscribing to my free newsletter, Signs of Hope Press. Notice that it also says that you will be able to download a free eBook I have written called, The Top 25 Ways to Survive in a Troubled World. You can down load it when you receive the first newsletter.

So you get a free newsletter with several pages of good information. A free eBook with ways to cope, and chances to win free top selling books with many them having the author’s autograph, and personal note in them.

Go ahead and try. You have nothing to lose and a lot to gain.

OUT!

Discussions of Drugs, Alcohol, and Alzheimer’s

                             How to Face the Demons that Chase us

I am happy to announce that my blog, www.dailysignsofhope.com has a new partner. Michael Clark has joined me to share his battle with drugs and how he turned to God to help him conquer it.

I met Michael through Facebook. We built an instant friendship through sharing our hurts, defeats, and how we over came them. We are very similar, even though we went through a different channel. We both fought, anxiety, self doubt, low self esteem, depression, and even hopelessness.

I invite  you to mark www.dailysignsofhope.com as a favorite and check back often. Michael and I will be taking turns posting. Our different writing styles will reach out to different people, and hopefully help others to find help.

________________________________________________________

I have good/? news. I put the question mark there because it could be bad news, but not yet. I have been lucky enough to have an agent, and a publisher be interested enough in my work to have me send a proposal to them.

That was six weeks ago. I was told it takes up to three months before they answer back. Patience is not my best virtue, and this waiting game is hard.

You will be the first to know when I find out the results.

_______________________________________________________

Today I am launching another free book give away. The new book to be given away is called, Moments This Good: The Softer Side of Alzheimer’s, by Bonnie Nester. I have read the book, and it tears at your heat and makes you laugh at the same time.  Moments This Good: The Softer Side of Alzheimer’s, is somewhat like a diary of special moments in the lives of  Bonnie and her mother Ruth. It will help the many people of today who have aging parents who suffer from dementia or Alzheimer’s. I know because I have a 92 year old mother who is still with me that battles dementia, but she is still my loving mother.

Moments This Good: The Softer Side of Alzheimer’s is autographed by Bonnie. I met Bonnie at a Northwest writer’s conference. I have enjoyed her friendship a great deal.

To have a chance to win this wonderful book, you just go to the sidebar, and look for the icon that talks about subscribing to my newsletter.

When you get there, notice that you will also be able to download my free eBook called, The Top 25 Ways to Survive in a Troubled World. It is a very timely book that shows ways to cope in this not so friendly world.

So….. You get a free newsletter-free eBook- and a chance to win a free autographed book,  just for signing up for the newsletter. It won’t give you hives, and you gain a lot.

You can opt out of the newsletter any time you want at the bottom, and still keep the eBook.

Have a blessed day!!

OUT!