GFP Tour - Doodling and Flidderbugs by Jonathan Gould - For the Young at Heart

Welcome to BK Walker Books Etc. Jonathan Gould. I'm so happy you could join me today in Melbourne, Australia.

BK: Please tell us a little about yourself...


Well, I’m tall-ish but not too tall. I’m slim-ish but not too slim. I’m smart-ish but not too smart. I like to think that I’m a whole lot of a lot of things, but not too much of any of them.


One thing I can definitely say about myself is I have a chronic need to make stuff up. It started when I was a kid who had invisible friends. Now the invisible friends are the ones that go into my books.


BK: Please tell us a little about your book....


Doodling is the story of Neville Lansdowne. Neville has a bit of a problem. He’s fallen off the world. Of course, it’s not his fault. The world had been moving far too quickly for him. Marooned out in space, Neville finds himself in the middle of an asteroid field which he begins to explore. Here he finds some rather unusual people who have made their homes out there, and experiences some most unexpected adventures.


I like to describe the story as Douglas Adams meets Lewis Carroll, with just a touch of Gulliver’s Travels. A lot of readers seem to agree with that.


BK: What inspired you to pen this particular novel?


I suppose it’s a kind of wish-fulfillment fantasy. I’m the sort of person who likes to take things slow, and I often feel that the world is moving too quickly. However, it was actually a comment from my wife along those lines some years ago that inspired me. I began to think about what might happen if the world moved so quickly that somebody actually fell off. And next morning, I was at my computer, writing it.


BK: When did you first consider yourself a writer?

Sometime before I was born, maybe towards the end of the second trimester. I was probably scrawling out something on my mother’s placenta with a barely-developed fingernail. Seriously, what I would regard as my first successful writing venture was the first university revue that I contributed material to (a university revue is a theatre show comprising songs and comedy sketches, often of a satirical or political bent). After that, other people starting calling me a writer so I figured I could take the label on.


BK: How do you keep your story flowing?


A good story needs to be well lubricated – and so does a good writer. Actually I’m not quite sure what that means. I just write what I can and when I can. A lot of the trick to getting a story that flows is the reworking and re-editing. It’s actually the hard work that makes something look simple and effortless.


BK: Do you ever run into writer's block, and if so, what do you do to get past it?


Full speed and head on. And let me tell you, it can hurt. I can especially find myself getting blocked because I work full-time and sometimes it can be hard to give your head the clear space it needs to come up with ideas. In order to get past it, you can either try to burst on through by forcing yourself to write, or try to find another way around the wall. Sometimes taking a bit of a break is the best thing to do, as it helps clear your mind and renew your creativity.


BK: What is your writing process like? Do you have any quirks, or must-haves to write?

It involves a lot of staring at a blank screen. A lot of finding other things to do and procrastinating. It also includes periods when I can bang out a lot of words very quickly. Whether they are good words or not, I can’t always tell but it feels nice to get them out there. As far as quirks go, the main one is that I like to hold a pen in one hand as I type. Not sure why – it may be because of something that happened back in my childhood.


BK: Where do you hope your books/writing will be in the future? 


Where do I want my books to be? On every book shelf and every ereader of every person on the planet – and hopefully a few other planets as well. As far as my writing goes, I have no real expectations. As with any writer, I’d love to do this full time and make a living out of it, but I’m aware of the realities. It would be nice, in a few years, to be able to have a steady income stream from it.


BK: What do you hope readers will take away from your books?


I’d like to give them a reading experience which is fun, surprising, warm and engaging. I’d like to make them laugh, and also make them think a bit. But most importantly, I’d like to leave them smiling.


BK: What is one piece of advice you received that you carry with you in your writing?


Be brave. Don’t be afraid to write what it is you want to write


BK: What is one piece of advice you would give to new and aspiring writers?


Come to your writing with an open ear and an open mind. Always listen carefully to any advice you receive. But in the end, it’s up to you to find your own path.


BK: Are you currently working on any new projects? What can we expect from you in the future?


I always have multiple projects on the go. One of them is a sequel to Doodling. It’s tentatively titled Scribbling and will continue Neville’s extraordinary adventures.


But, before I finish this, my most immediate WIP is an epic fantasy (or at least what an epic fantasy ends up being when I write it) titled Magnus Opum. I like to describe it as Tolkien meets Dr Seuss. And it should be out in the next few days, so please keep your eyes posted.


BK: Where can readers find you?


I can be found at a few regular haunts:


My blog: http://daglit.blogspot.com
Twitter: @jonno_go
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/jonathangouldwriter
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4747714.Jonathan_Gould


Thank you so much for taking time to chat with me today. It's been a pleasure having you and I wish you much success in the future.


Jonathan is also offering a chance at a $25 Amazon Gift Card to one lucky commenter from his tour, and you can follow his tour HERE.

Title: Doodling

Genre: Comic fantasy
Blurb:

Neville Lansdowne fell off the world.

Actually, he did not so much fall off as let go. The world had been moving so quickly lately and Neville was finding it almost impossible to keep up.

Doodling is an engaging comic fantasy which relates the events that befall Neville after he finds himself abandoned by the world and adrift in the middle of an asteroid field. Douglas Adams meets Lewis Carroll (with just a touch of Gulliver's Travels) as Neville wanders through his new home, meeting a variety of eccentric characters and experiencing some most unexpected adventures.

Title: Flidderbugs
Genre: Satire/fable/fantasy
Blurb:

As Kriffle the Flidderbug investigates why his fellow 'bugs find it impossible to agree on the pressing issue of how many points there are on the leaves of the tree on which they live, he finds that the truth is more complicated, and ultimately more terrifying, than he ever could have imagined.

Flidderbugs is a political satire, a modern fable, or maybe just a funny little story about a bunch of insects with some very peculiar obsessions.

I am a Melbourne-based writer and doodler and a confirmed and proud dag.

Interests

Writing

My speciality is modern fairytales for the young-at-heart - Dag-Lit.

I have had two children's books published in Australia (see a review) and have now published a couple of ebook novellas: Doodling andFlidderbugs.

TV and Movies

Anything that makes me laugh, especially the "classic" British stuff, eg Monty Python, Blackadder, Fawlty Towers, Young Ones, Hitch-Hikers Guide...

I'm also a sucker for three cameras and a laugh track - I'm particularly partial to Big Bang Theory at the moment.

Music

Nothing that's being played on the radio now. Occasionally I'll discover someone who was popular ten years ago and feel very cutting edge.

Fashion

You've got to be kidding! I never go shopping for clothes. Luckily I have a wife and a mother who buy stuff for me so I don't have to walk around in the nude.

Technology

Another blank. I don't even own a mobile phone. And I've only just entered this world of social networking - so if you meet me somewhere out there, please be nice to me.

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Man in the Boy or Boy in the Man? Interview & a Few Laughs with Steven Novak - Goats Eat Cans

Well I hope you all go to the bathroom before you read this interview, Steven Novak is in the house and will have you peeing your pants if not just on the floor laughing! Welcome to BK Walker Books Etc., Will the real  Steven Novak, please stand up!

BK: Please tell us a little about yourself...

SN: A long time ago I was a thirty-four year-old man in the body of a twelve year-old boy. Now I’m a twelve year-old boy in the body of a thirty-four year old man. By the time I hit sixty I don’t know what the hell I’ll be. I’m thinking that I might have problems with my joints, though.

I really need to exercise more.

And eat less.

I also need to stop eating while exercising, as it sort of defeats the purpose.

Oh, I also make my living as a graphic designer, illustrator, and writer. Plus I’m married to a woman ten years my senior and I’m a step grandfather (which I guess is a thing) to two kids under the age of two.

I also had a vasectomy when I was twenty-five.
You probably don’t need to know that though.

LOL my kids just looked at me and asked what I was laughing at, but I'm pretty sure they don't need to know that either haha. 

BK: Please tell us a little about your book...

SN: Goats Eat Cans is a book about the always awkward, sometimes gross, often peculiar and occasionally terrifying things that have happened to me in my relatively short existence. There’s a little bit of everything tossed in there. I give a firsthand account of the previously mentioned vasectomy. I talk about the day I lost my virginity, and the time I cracked my head open, and I even delve into the absolute disaster that was the sale and subsequent publishing of my first book.

If you’re the kind of person that loves watching a nincompoop get hit in the groin with a football, this book is for you.

BK: What inspired you to pen this particular novel?

SN: I can’t really point to anything specifically. It definitely isn’t narcissism, because the book makes me look like a fool. In a weird way, I guess I could claim that the writing of it was therapeutic. Maybe? Maybe not. There’s certainly something to be said for trying to find humor in the things you’d really rather forget.

Would I prefer to never think about the time I was jumped by a group of guys while walking home from school and beaten a pulp? Damn straight.

Is it funny that my mother insisted they did it because they were “jealous” of me? Double damn straight.

BK: When did you first consider yourself a writer?

SN: I’ll let you know when it happens. I’m not a writer. I’m not anything close to a writer. I think I’m pretty funny – sometimes – but I’m not a writer. Writers hang out in coffee shops, and have curly mustaches and political agendas, and can type the word definitely without relying on spell check to keep them from looking like an idiot.

I hate coffee.

I hate coffee shops even more.

I also have blond hair.

And no one likes a blond hair mustache.

BK: How do you keep your story flowing?

SN: Plagiarism. Everything else takes too much effort.

BK: Do you ever run into writer's block, and if so, what do you do to get past it?

SN: Sure I do. All of the time. I’ve run into more writer’s block than Kim Kardashian has run into failed relationships. The thing that seems to work best for me is just to let it be. If the words aren’t coming, or the words that are coming are worse than a dance single released by one of the Real Housewives of Someone Should Kick Us In The Face, there’s really no point in trying. If I can’t write, I can’t write. When that happens I usually just move onto something else for a bit.

You’d be amazed at just how much a pizza can recharge the ol’ brain juices.

BK: What is your writing process like? Do you have any quirks, or must-haves to write?

SN: No quirks really – unless you consider the fact that I write in the nude and only in the nude to be a “quirk.”

Truthfully, I suppose it depends on what I’m writing. I’ve had writing jobs that I had very little interest in and I was basically on autopilot the entire time. I wrote a series of YA Fantasy/Adventure novels a couple years ago that actually required me to buckle down and take the process seriously. In the case of Goats Eat Cans the whole act of putting the stories together was pretty laid back. I needed the writing to be fun and therefore I needed to have fun writing it.

Also, for the record, I don’t really write in the nude.

I leave my socks on.

BK: Where do you hope your books/writing will be in the future?

SN: Honestly, if they find their way into the hands of a few people and those people enjoy them, I’ll be a happy man. If they can help me pay a few pills at some point that would certainly be nice as well. It’s not required though.

I’m also not counting on it.

I still have my hooking and I still have street corners, and my hooking and my street corners still pay the bills – after Silky takes his 70%.

BK: What do you hope readers will take away from your books?

SN: My only goal with Goats Eat Cans is to make you laugh. If you laugh I’ve done my job. If you chuckle I’ve still done my job - just not quite as well. If you stare blankly at the words and can’t find the humor in any of it I’ve failed. If you toss your kindle in the fire, find out where I live, and send a mail bomb my way, I think you might be overacting just a bit.

I’ll also be in a hundred little pieces.

And I’ll be dead.

BK: What is one piece of advice you received that you carry with you in your writing?

SN: My high school guidance counselor once suggested that I consider giving up art and start thinking about a trade school. I didn’t listen to him and I have the absolutely massive school loans to prove it. He was sort of a jerk.

Also, he wasn’t that bright.

I would have made a terrible plumber.

BK: What is one piece of advice you would give to new and aspiring writers?

SN: My only advice is to try and have fun with it. Even if you’re a depressed, German-speaking Jew in Prague with a personality disorder that happens to be writing a novella about a man transforming into a cockroach, you should still try to enjoy it.

If you can’t find some enjoyment in what you’re doing, what’s the point?

When writing becomes a job writing starts to suck.

BK: Are you currently working on any new projects? What can we expect from you in the future?

SN: I’m actually working on putting together at least two more volumes of Goats Eat Cans and both of them will be available before the end of the year. Last year I illustrated a picture book for Featherweight Press that should hit stores in a few months. I’m also reworking a novel called Fictional Jerks for release early in 2013. After that, who knows? I’m sort of amazed I managed to plan that far ahead.

I’m going to try and lose fifteen pounds. That’s sort of a project. If you were looking at my belly instead of a monitor you’d realize just how much of a project it is.

I should really stop writing in the nude.

BK: Where can readers find you?

SN: All Goats Eat Cans related nonsense can be found at: www.goatseatcans.blogspot.com. Everything else is at: www.novakillustration.com. I also host a sometimes weekly podcast for my writers group at: www.litunderground.com.

Remember the weird kid with the greasy hair and the odd smell you went to school with? You know, the one who never talked to anyone? That creepy little jerk who sat alone at lunch? The oddball who never took a shower in gym class? The one you imagined might one day go on a shooting spree?

Believe it or not, that kid grew up.

He grew up, he got married, he never shot a single person, he wrote a book, and he even started taking showers after his workouts – most of the time.

Goats Eat Cans is his story.

Follow along as Steven Novak recounts the sometimes hilarious, sometimes hilariously painful, and sometimes painfully hilarious moments that have made his life so wonderfully frustrating. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, and you might even vomit. No matter what, you won't be able to stop reading.

Goats Eat Cans features 55 stories, 55 illustrations, 99 luftballons and enough nonsense to keep you chuckling and giggling for days on end – or hours – or at the very least a few minutes.

http://goatseatcans.blogspot.com/

Excerpt:

MY CAT SMASHING MOJO

I have a mortal enemy. His name is Jabar.

Jabar is a cat.

Is that lame—to have a cat as a mortal enemy? Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t. If I were you though, I wouldn’t rush to judgment. You don't know this cat. This cat is evil. He's cunning, he's focused and nasty and vile and just plain mean.

He’s smart too.

He’s real smart.

He’s so smart he’ll write your midterm, and he’ll get a better grade than you ever would have.

He's my Lex Luthor.

Of course, if he's Lex Luthor, that would make me Superman, and I can’t be Superman. I hate that goody two-shoes jerk. Plus, I look terrible in red speedos.

Okay, this cat is my Joker. Which makes me Batman.

Yeah, I can deal with being Batman. Not the corny seventies Batman, but cool, pissed-off Frank-Miller-Dark-Knight-Returns Batman. I’ll be the Batman who chews steel, spits iron, and calls Robin a fruitcake.

That Batman’s awesome.

You see, not long after purchasing and moving into our first home, the wife and I had a cat door installed in the door leading into our garage. We then had another installed in the side door leading from the garage to the back yard. This was so our two cats could come and go as they pleased. It was simple. It was cheap, and at the time, it seemed to make perfect sense.

The thing we never counted on was that, while the doors gave our cats the ability to get out, they also presented other cats in the neighborhood with a way to get in.

It really should have been obvious from the start, but it wasn’t.

Okay, so maybe I'm not exactly Batman.

I mean, besides being a hell of a hand-to-hand fighter, a billionaire playboy, and a heck of a detective, Batman was also a scientist. A scientist would have figured out the intricacies of the cat door situation long before installation began.

I first spotted him on a Tuesday morning. I was late to work. I hustled down the stairs and into the kitchen where I planned to snag my keys and head for the door.

He was right there, waiting for me.

There was a very fat cat with a big black spot over his right eye sitting on my kitchen counter. The chubby, eye-patched little bastard was squatting on my tiled countertops without a care in the world—like he owned the place.

Our eyes met and I swear to you, I saw him grin.

Before I could react, he leapt from the counter, shot through the cat door leading into the garage, zoomed through the one leading into the yard, and was gone.

Not only was he smart, he was fast—especially for a dude carrying a couple extra pounds.

Lets jump ahead to Wednesday night. I was awoken by the sound of two cats fighting downstairs. I figured it's just our two cats—because they’re jerks and they fight all the time—so I tried to go back to sleep. Plus, I was in the middle of a fairly fantastic dream involving me, the Enterprise, and an invading horde of hypersexual Orion slave girls.

The fighting didn’t stop.

It wouldn’t stop, and it sounded a heck of a lot more vicious than usual.

I dragged myself from bed, wobbled downstairs half-awake, and clicked on the lights. It was Jabar. He was in my house, and he was beating the snot out of my cats. The black-eyed devil spotted me and escaped in a blink.

The next night, the exact same thing happened.

The night after that, he did it again.

He was toying with me.

The wife and I decided to temporarily close up the cat doors and bring a litter box into the equation. After a few weeks, we tried the cat doors again.

The very next night, Jabar was back.

Damn it!

I’d had enough. If Jabar’s intention was to start something, he should considered it started. It was on! I was done fooling around. I was done playing the straight man, and I was through playing nice. No more games. No more second chances. No more lollygagging, no more pigeonholing, and no more lollypigeons!

If he wanted some of me, he was going to get some of me. He was going to get all of me he could handle, and them some!

I coiled my hands into fists and slammed my knuckles together. I lifted my head to the stars and proclaimed to the heavens above, "Bring it on, bitch!”

The wife heard me from the other room. "Bring what on? Who are you talking to?"

"Nothing...no one."

It was a Monday night—around 11 p.m. I was in the garage, and I was standing to the side of the door leading into the backyard. My eyes were trained on the flapping plastic covering the cat door just below my knees. Hoisted above my head was a brick.

My plan was simple: Cat comes into garage. Cat gets smashed.

Almost elegant in its simplicity, no?

Sort of like a Peanuts comic strip—with bricks and squashed cats.

"Steven, are you in he—" The wife stepped into the garage and immediately spotted me with a brick over my head, a wild expression on my face, and sweat pouring from my brow.

She stared at me for a moment, an indescribable look of confusion on her face. "Steven, what are you doing?"

"Nothing."

Her eyes moved from me, to my smashing brick, and back to me. She wasn’t buying my nothing excuse. "No, seriously, what are you doing?"

"I'm going to crush Jabar with this brick."

"Who's Jabar?"

The cat that keeps coming in here at night."

"How do you know his name is Jabar?"

"I heard the little girls across the street calling him that when they were playing with him in their yard."

Her expression changed. Suddenly, she was looking at me like I’d just taken a dump on the floor—like I dropped my pants and started humping the punch bowl at her company Christmas party.

"So, wait. You're going to stand here in the garage all night so you can smash the cat of the little girls across the street with a brick when he tries to come in our house?"

When she said it aloud like that, I have to admit, it sounded just a little idiotic.

So what?

I couldn’t let that deter me. The plan was the plan, and the plan was set in motion. There was no coming back and no backing down. I had no intention of allowing her to steal my need for vengeance! Under no circumstances whatsoever was I going to let her ruin my cat-smashing mojo. Not today! Not ever again!

"Yep. That's exactly what I'm going to do."

"No, you're not."

"I'm not?"

"No, you're not."

"But I want to."

"You're not smashing that cat."

"Oh."

"Put the brick down and come upstairs."

You've won this round Jabar.

Born in Chicago Illinois, Steven Novak has spent the whole of his life creating. After attending The Columbus College of Art and Design for four years he moved to California where he married his wife. The pair have been together for nearly a decade. He likes pizza. He’s sort of a nerd. He has terrible luck and worse personal hygiene. He also hates having to write bios about himself. He thinks bios are stupid. His work can be found online at www.novakillustration.com

Giveaway:

Follow Steven's tour for a chance to win a signed Chapter Art Illustration, and a signed paperback of Goats Eat Cans. Two lucky winners will be drawn randomly at the end of the tour - follow Steven's tour HERE

Thank you so much for chatting with me today Steven! Thanks for the laughs too :). You were great! Now go buy his book and don't forget to leave a comment here today for a chance to win some awesome prizes at the end of his tour...oh yeah and follow him some more for extra chances to win!

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GFP Book Tour - Interview with Mark Rinker Evil Ambulance with Giveaway

Welcome to BK Walker Books Etc. I'm so happy you could join me today. 


BK: Please tell us a little about yourself...  


Well, I’ve lived in eastern Pennsylvania most of my life.  I’ve had some short stories published in the past, and this is my first novel.  It was originally set in New York, but I changed that after the first draft, moved it to PA, as I feel I know more about this state than any other.  


That's great! I too am from PA. I love the mountains :)


BK: Please tell us a little about your book.... 


Evil Ambulance is about an eighteen-year-old kid named Eric who moves into his uncle’s house at the top of a four-mile hill overlooking a small town in Pennsylvania.  Over the course of four nights, they are visited by a mysterious ambulance from the past, connected to a brutal murder spree from decades before.  


BK: What inspired you to pen this particular novel? 


 I’ve always enjoyed the horror genre and stories about possession, which Evil Ambulance certainly is.  I don’t have a great story of inspiration for the book; I merely caught an ambulance in my rearview mirror one night, and the idea came to me.  I looked around online, and couldn’t find any books and movies regarding a haunted ambulance, so I figured I’d write one.


BK: When did you first consider yourself a writer?  


I got an honorable mention in a local library’s writing contest, I’d say, when I was ten or eleven years old.  The story I submitted was titled The Death Stalker, and even though it was just six pages long (single-spaced), I had chapter breaks, a prologue, and everything.  My parents were encouraged by my writing, and supported it, despite the fact that the story was more or less a ten-year-old’s version of Friday the 13th.


BK: How do you keep your story flowing?  


Proper use of cliffhangers, and piecing out the mystery behind the ambulance in an appropriate manner.  It drives me crazy when authors end every single chapter with a cliffhanger (or every episode, if it’s television, as in the case of True Blood, a great show that just absolutely abuses the cliffhanger technique), but they certainly can be used effectively, keeping the reader intrigued about what will happen next.  Hopefully the reader will sympathize with Eric and will, like him, want to know what’s going on with this ambulance and what it was used for in the past, and what it’s doing here now.


BK: Do you ever run into writer's block, and if so, what do you do to get past it?  


I do have occasional problems with writer’s block.  Sometimes I’ll move on to something else, coming back later to what I’d begun.  I took about a year between drafts of Evil Ambulance, working on a different project, and when I came back to it, I had so many new ideas and thoughts on how the book should play out, that I more or less abandoned the first draft and started over, keeping only the few elements that worked in the initial version.


BK: What is your writing process like? Do you have any quirks, or must-haves to write? 


I like to listen to music and enjoy a cup of coffee or bottle of beer while working.


BK: Where do you hope your books/writing will be in the future?  


Hopefully available to a wide audience!  I have ideas for more YA Horror books, as well as other genres (YA and non-YA).  I’ve been working on my writing since I was very young, and will do so, I’d imagine, indefinitely.


BK: What do you hope readers will take away from your books?  


I just hope that readers of Evil Ambulance will be entertained by the story.  I don’t expect the book will change anyone’s life, necessarily, but will hopefully prove to be a fun time.


BK: What is one piece of advice you received that you carry with you in your writing?  


Be wary of adverbs.  


BK: What is one piece of advice you would give to new and aspiring writers?  


Be wary of adverbs!  Really, though, this probably is one of the best pieces of advice anyone could offer to an aspiring writer.  Stephen King touches on it a few times in his wonderful book On Writing.  I guess that’d be my second piece of advice: read Stephen King’s On Writing.  


BK: Are you currently working on any new projects? 


What can we expect from you in the future?  A book I started while between drafts of Evil Ambulance is currently called The King of Wolves, but that could change.  I’ve got about ninety percent of the first draft completed, and am looking forward to revising that one.  It’s a story about a guy who lost his wife and is losing his religious faith meeting a mentally disturbed young man, who takes up a friendship with him, much (he later finds) to the damage of his own mental health and well-being.  It’s not a horror novel, but it is dark and occasionally violent.


BK: Where can readers find you?    


I’m on facebook at facebook.com/markrrinkerpa, and twitter at www.twitter.com/markrrinker, and I have a page at http://markrrinker.blogspot.com.


Thank you so much for taking time to chat with me today. It's been a pleasure having you and I wish you much success in the future.

Eighteen-year-old Eric Donnelly moves to a small town in Pennsylvania, to live with his uncle, Dan, while his parents finalize their divorce.  Dan has recently purchased an old house which sits atop a three-mile hill overlooking the town of Riverwood; a house which is host to the decades-old presence of Victor Devlin, a homicidal ambulance driver responsible for a series of brutal murders years before.  Eric soon finds himself alone, as the spirit of the ambulance driver begins to inhabit his uncle’s body, and each night Devlin’s ambulance appears in the driveway, eerily glowing, calling to Eric. 

Excerpt

Two people had been unfortunate enough to be home when Victor had showed up at the front door of the house on Winding Way. The house at the top of the hill. No neighbors up here. It wasn’t his fault; the cops had forced him there, chased him there. He hoped they were happy with what they found there: a young couple each with a new, red smile drawn across their necks. The result of their chasing him, forcing him into a corner.

You can’t trap a wild animal and not expect him to lash out—at everyone and everything around it.

He scolded himself, continued saying the words, tried not to think of the police upstairs. If the incantation didn’t work before they got down to the basement—

Yes, I am a wild animal.

His own voice shouted at him inside his head, demanding he focus, shut out distractions, focus on the words and—

He stared straight ahead at the wall, repeated the words, over and over, faster, then slower, trying to find the right pace—and blocked everything else from his mind.

Giveaway:

$20 Amazon Gift Card to one randomly drawn commenter from entire tour.

Follow Tour HERE

Mark R. Rinker was born in California, but has spent most of his life in eastern Pennsylvania. His short story, “Dog Mask” was published earlier this year by Dark Gothic Resurrected magazine, and Evil Ambulance is his first novel.   

markrrinker.blogspot.com

http://facebook.com/markrrinkerpa

(twitter) @markrrinker

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Virtual Release Party for I Believe by Eldon Taylor - Book Blitz

Announcing I Believe, the latest release

by New York Times best selling author,

Eldon Taylor.

Join the launch party for I Believe: When What You Believe Matters!

Hundreds of bonus gifts will be given away to everyone who participates. Plus, enter to win grand prizes worth over $5K from personalities such as Lindsay Wagner (Bionic Woman), James Van Praagh, Bob Doyle, Hay House, InnerTalk, Norman Shealy and Caroline Sutherland. For more information, visit http://progressiveawarenesspromotions.com/it/12c/indexB.html

Q. Why did you write I Believe?

I have spent over thirty years investigating why people self-sabotage or limit themselves, thus experiencing so much less than their highest best!  What I have found is the reason rests solely in their beliefs—not their spiritual belief so much as their life beliefs.  I found this to be true when I was conducting lie detection tests and discovering criminality, and equally true when I worked with elite athletes, business executives, professionals and lay people alike.  The bottom line is this: What you believe always matters!  It’s like a web that fastens itself to belief-anchors, causing disheartening mediocrity in place of the glorious success we all seek.
 I Believe spells out the power of belief and how it influences everything from our health and longevity to our success with relationships and life.  Astounding as it may seem, belief can (and has) defied our so-called laws of science and it has done so over and over again. As ordinary and trite as it may seem, belief nevertheless makes all the difference in success in all walks of life.  Knowing how we acquire our beliefs, and which beliefs serve us while others sabotage us, is critical to maximizing our individual potential.  I Believe: When What You Believe Matters! was written to empower you with the roadmap to decipher and re-write the programming governing your life.

Excerpt

Trying, Losing and Persisting

You never lose unless you quit. Vince Lombardi is often quoted as saying, “The difference between winning and losing is quitting.” There are thousands of stories about people who failed miserably time after time before finally achieving their goals. They succeeded because they never quit.

Knowing your own limitations is different from quitting, which is a mental state. You may see a ballplayer walking off the field, but long before taking this action, his mind set sail through all the possibilities, reasons, and rationalizations for giving up. He may have even rehearsed the event—to try it on, so to speak—before the actual action. So as I said, it’s first a mental action, like my son’s strikeout.

There are people I’ve worked with in the past who persist at quitting. They’re not aware that they’re giving up, per se, any more than my son was aware that he’d surrendered to striking out before the first pitch was thrown.

Becoming aware of this tendency in ourselves is the only way we can end these self-destructive, self-sabotaging patterns. Persisting should be all about allowing our efforts to become better and better. We persevere at practice—reinforcing our improvement instead of mentally rehearsing our failure expectation. As Marilyn vos Savant is credited with saying, “Being defeated is only a temporary condition; giving up is what makes it permanent.”

Winning

I believe that inside every human being is a winner. Each and every one of us possesses a unique ability—a talent, if you will—and chief among all of our abilities is the one called “Doing our very best.” I believe that this ability is what makes us champions.

I remember being confused as a young man about such statements as “All men are created equal.” It doesn’t take an Einstein to see how untrue this statement is—or is it? I tell a story on myself in my book Choices and Illusions, in which I made just this inquiry. It seems appropriate here to share what I learned.

Imagine a rocket scientist who, after much work, launches an interstellar voyager. Imagine the pride he feels in the accomplishment. Now imagine a so-called menial laborer. On his hands and knees for endless hours, he scrubs and polishes a floor. He has worked so hard and with so much pride that he has scrubbed his knuckles raw. Now he stands back and beholds his labors. The floor absolutely glistens—every square inch of it. It never looked that good even when it was new. Now . . . which man senses the most pride, the rocket scientist or the floor scrubber?²

Even at a young age, I understood that feeling. The fact is that when you do your utmost, you enjoy the same state of specialness, the same ecstatic feeling, the same sense of purpose and pleasure as anyone else, regardless of the act (launching rockets or scrubbing floors).

I believe there are no real losers because in the end, you cannot escape yourself. You—both here and in the hereafter—will learn to persevere, and in time you’ll turn the act of trying or the pattern of losing into winning because that’s who you ultimately are! You’ll acquire the habit of applying your best to all that you do, and as the rocket scientist–floor scrubber story illustrates, that means you’ll always come out ahead. You were created a winner, and a winner you were meant to be. Believing in yourself makes winning happen, so the only question is what you’re going to do to reinforce a strong, vital faith in yourself—for what you believe always matters!

Always remember the following analogy from Alfred Adler. It’s one of my favorites, and it will help you remember to believe in yourself along the way, even when you feel you’re drowning.

What do you first do when you learn to swim? You make mistakes, do you not? And what happens? You make other mistakes, and when you have made all the mistakes you possibly can without drowning—and some of them many times over—what do you find? That you can swim? Well—life is just the same as learning to swim! Do not be afraid of making mistakes, for there is no other way of learning how to live!³

Reflection

The only way you lose is by quitting. Failure becomes permanent only when you give up. When you visualize quitting, you’re rehearsing the event. Can you think of examples from your own life when you were so convinced you’d be unsuccessful that you never even tried? Isn’t this often the most basic frustration that people have during a midlife crisis? Do you dare to look again at those dreams you once had and discarded—and to try again, this time with persistence, determination, and tenacity?

For information on the book launch, please visit http://progressiveawarenesspromotions.com/it/12c/indexB.html

About Eldon Taylor

Eldon Taylor is an award-winning, New York Times best-selling author of more than 300 books, audio, and video programs. He’s the inventor of the patented InnerTalk technology and the founder and president of Progressive Awareness Research. He has been called a “master of the mind” and has appeared as an expert witness on both hypnosis and subliminal communication.

Eldon was a practicing criminalist conducting investigations and lie-detection examinations for many years. He is listed in more than a dozen Who’s Who publications, including Who’s Who of Intellectuals and Who’s Who in Science and Engineering. He is a fellow in the American Psychotherapy Association and an internationally sought-after speaker. His books and audio-video materials have been translated into more than a dozen languages and have sold millions worldwide.

Eldon is the host of the popular radio show Provocative Enlightenment. He has interviewed some of the most interesting people on the planet. His shows are thought-provoking and always fresh in both their perspective and the exchange.

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