Tag Archives: guest posts

A Country Of Eternal Light

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Today it is my pleasure to welcome author Darby Harn and his speculative fiction novel, A Country Of Eternal Light.

Author’s description

“One of the most beautiful books I’ve ever read” – Sunyi Dean, author of The Book Eaters

 

A rogue black hole tears apart the solar system. Mairead’s life is already in pieces.

 

The Earth has less than a year to survive.

 

Asteroids rain hell; earthquakes rattle cities; manic tides swamp coasts. Mairead intends to give herself to the erratic waves that erode her remote Irish island, the same that claimed her child. When Gavin, an American, arrives to scatter his father’s ashes, she becomes torn between wanting for life and death.

 

Despite the tides, fuel shortages, and closing borders that threaten to trap him on the island, Gavin can’t seem to scatter the ashes. He doesn’t know how to let go any more than Mairead does and they find a strange comfort in their confusion.

 

Their affair draws Mairead back to the world of the living, but the longer Gavin stays, the more it seems there might be a future for them. There is no future.

 

Life closes down around them. The world they know shreds. Life drains into an inescapable abyss. And yet Mairead fights, both the gravity of her grief and the restless, dissonant desire to find some kind of peace no matter how brief.

Guest Post

In my books I’ve always have one minor character who insists on playing a larger role in the story. So I love to ask authors if there was such a character in their novel.

Darby Harn appears to be as plagued by them as I am, and just as grateful. I loved the details in his answer!

There certainly was.

Aoife (pronounced ‘ee-fah’) came out of nowhere in A Country Of Eternal Light. She is Mairead’s best friend and a fellow nurse, conscripted at least, at the nursing home on their remote Irish island of Inishèan.

She showed up in a brief scene at the home and then kept pushing her way into the rest of the novel. In many ways she’s the comic relief. It’s a dark book. It’s a sober book that deals with very difficult emotions. I think the book wanted for someone like Aoife. Her approach to the end of the world is to simply live her life to the fullest.

She’s more than just the comic relief, though. Aoife became an integral part of the story. She has an arc, which in many ways is as tragic as anyone else’s. Aoife may be the life of the party in many respects, but she also has her share of demons. My absolute favorite scene in the book involves Aoife and Mairead getting through a bad night with some recreational aids and Aoife’s spirit really comes out there. Her inhibitions fall away, or what few she has.

I love the character who is completely unexpected. I have a similar character in my Eververse series of superhero novels, beginning with Ever The Hero. I needed someone to open the door and check in on the heroine, Kit. That turned out to be Abi, and Abi wouldn’t leave the stage. Much like Aoife she became integral and in Abi’s case, she became a pillar of this series as it’s evolved.

I’m a pantser, so most of what I write is intuitive. That has its downsides sometimes, but one of the benefits of discovering your story as you go are characters like Aoife and Abi. I simply can’t imagine the books without them.

 

Darby Harn’s Story

Darby Harn studied at Trinity College, in Dublin, Ireland, as part of the Irish Writing Program. He is the author of the sci-fi superhero novel EVER THE HERO. His short fiction appears in Strange Horizons, Interzone, Shimmer, The Coffin Bell and other venues.

Find the Author

Website: darbyharn.com
Amazon Author Page: amazon.com/author/darbyharn
Goodreads: goodreads.com/darby_harn
Twitter: twitter.com/DarbyHarn
Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/Darby-Harn-255976537767428

Buy the Book

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Country-Eternal-Light-Darby-Harn-ebook/dp/B0921W3QNF

Yes, there is a giveaway

The author will be awarding a $25 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

Enter here to win.

This post is part of a tour sponsored by Goddess Fish. Check out all the other tour stops. If you drop by each of these and comment, you will greatly increase your chances of winning.

My Favorite Excerpt

Ma shuffles into the kitchen, coat on like she’s going somewhere. She sees the radio and remembers.

“Not today,” I say, but she switches it on anyway.

Six past and now time for today’s obituaries. Katie Burke, Kilmurvey, Co. Galway, 14th October, suddenly, sadly missed. Iranian quake toll rises. Russian oil fields under water. The Pope condemns American abortion initiative for all remaining pregnancies. Scientists hold vigil over Saturn, her rings scattered like a snowdrift across a country road. All her moons buckshot. Jupiter suffers the most, swollen and bruised like an aging prizefighter, determined to die in the ring.

The government handed out these little LED tickers. Alarm clocks, like, to put on the refrigerator. Counts down the seconds until the rogue black hole intersects the orbit of earth. A year from now. That’s all we have left.

If that.

The tides will drown us first. One of the comets will hit us. A planet or a moon will, or comes close enough to yank the earth from its orbit. What difference does it make? What difference is cancer? Parkinson’s. A heart attack. A bullet. A car. A black hole. All our deaths are projectiles, hurtling through blood streams or interstellar space or dark coastal roads at targets with no proper sense of the size of the barrel they’re swimming in.

I switch the radio off. “I don’t want to hear this.”

Thank you!

Darby Harn — we appreciate your sharing your book A Country Of Eternal Light with us! Best of luck with sales, and with all of your future writing.

Smile More Stress Less

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Today it is my pleasure to welcome author Geoffrey Saign and his self-help book Smile More Stress Less.

Author’s description

Want one easy method to end anxiety, stress, sadness, loneliness, fear, & anger? While maximizing happiness, inner peace, and self-awareness?

 

One quick way to cut through all negative emotions? And have fun doing it?

 

~Savvy & easy workbook exercises ensure success!~

 

In just minutes a day this playful yet smart approach can:

 

*End inner and outer conflicts

*End anxiety, worry, fear, anger, boredom, and self-doubt

*Increase healthy relationships with everyone in your life

*End illusions in your life and maximize clarity

*Rewire your brain to live with deep intelligence

*Become your own AAA+ rated super-counselor

*Help you discover the Power of HERE

*Allow your natural joy to blossom

 

This hands-on, A+B = C approach will supercharge your brain function, improve your emotional intelligence, and change your life!

 

~Finalist Forward INDIES Self-Help Book of the Year 2020~ (Winner TBA 6/17/2021)

Guest Post

When I got the chance to ask Geoffrey Saign, author of Smile More Stress Less, any question, I wanted to know what single piece of information in his book he though people would find most surprising. Here is his answer.

There are two takeaways in SMILE MORE STRESS LESS that readers might find new or surprising.

1) All of humanity is living in self-created illusions, and these illusions create ‘stress’ in the body and mind. If you don’t understand this fact, you will simply repetitively create illusions your entire life, and mechanically react to everything and everyone around you. This is absolutely essential to understand. The good news is, half the challenge of change is seeing what the problem is. SMILE MORE STRESS LESS provides the other half; how to end the illusions that you are creating in all areas of your life, gain clarity, and wake up intelligence—which is the deeper extension of intuition.

2) Much has been said about living in the Present, in the Moment, in the Now (and there is a book, The Power of Now)—these are all illusions. There is only HERE. It’s extremely critical that we are clear with the words we use for ourselves and life. Psychological time is an illusion. SMILE MORE STRESS LESS goes into this in detail, and provides clarity. Psychological time creates stress, and thus present, moment, and Now all feed that illusion and stress.

My hope is that readers can be free of all illusions, have clarity, wake up intelligence, and spend more of their life in joy and happiness.

About the Author

Geoffrey Saign began reducing stress by practicing mindfulness at the age of fifteen. For fifty years he studied many modalities for mind-body calming and awareness, including Qigong, tai chi, kung fu, meditation, biofeedback, positive psychology, and many others. He co-designed and taught a cutting-edge, research-based self-awareness class to young adults for ten years. In 2020 the author experienced a major breakthrough in mind-brain-body awareness, which led to him Living with intelligence HERE, and the resulting book, Smile More Stress Less.

Find the Author

Bookbub — https://www.bookbub.com/authors/geoffrey-saign
Goodreads — https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56254077-smile-more-stress-less
Website — https://geoffreysaign.net/smile-more-stress-less/

Buy the Book

Kindle/KU/Paperback — https://www.amazon.com/Smile-More-Stress-Less-Happiness-ebook/dp/B08N6ZR4W6
Audible — https://www.amazon.com/Smile-More-Stress-Less-Happiness/dp/B08VTQBZSM

Yes, there is a giveaway

The author will be awarding a $30 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

Enter here to win.

This post is part of a tour sponsored by Goddess Fish. Check out all the other tour stops. If you drop by each of these and comment, you will greatly increase your chances of winning.

My Favorite Excerpt

You Can End Daily Stress With Playfulness & Humor

One way to change rote, stressful thought patterns is to use playful exaggeration. It is a simple, repetitive method that will produce immediate and significant results, and we will use it often in this book in different ways and situations.

Let’s try it with dirty dishes. You see dirty dishes in the sink. Thoughts enter your mind about how irresponsible the person was in leaving them there. You feel annoyed and irritated. You notice this Self-Created Stress reaction inside yourself, and you interrupt it. You say out loud or think:

Oh no! My hands will never recover from this!

This is going to ruin my whole life!

It’s the end of the world as I know it!

Smile as you do this. Smiling brings about a strong positive emotion, and strong emotion helps change the brain by wiring a new neural pattern that’s even stronger.

Every time we change our thought pattern or interrupt old thought responses, we are changing our brain—teaching it—and allowing a new neural pattern to develop. We are telling the brain, This old pattern of thought is no longer useful or acceptable. The brain always listens. EVERY SINGLE EFFORT IS WORTHWHILE. This cannot be overstated.

Thank you!

Geoffrey Saign — we appreciate your sharing your book Smile More Stress Less with us! Best of luck with sales, and with all of your future writing.

Twenty-four Short Stories

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Today it is my pleasure to welcome author Michael Ross and his anthology Twenty-Four Short Stories.

Author’s description

Why can time consumed reliving memories provide enough motivation to carry on? Why keep a diary if you don’t want people to read it? Why let prejudice cloud your judgement? Why do the most simple of smells bring memories back to life? Why is it possible to believe the impossible? What does it feel like to take another person’s life? Will the good deeds we do come back to us in different forms?
These are of some of the questions posed in this imaginative collection of short stories involving, amongst others; a private detective with super powers, a lovable car salesman, a dour public health inspector, a vicar’s daughter with a dark secret, a sculptor with a destructive obsession, a young man with a passion for language, a reluctant public executioner, two sisters whose petty disputes hide something deeper, a job hunter with an unusual skill.
There are so many diverse characters and in this intriguing and imaginative collection of stories everyone has a tale to tell.
A collection of stories that will surely leave its mark on the reader.

Guest Post

I got the chance to ask short story author Michael Ross what single question he tried to answer that he thought people found the most vexing. Here is his surprising answer.

Letters in the Sand is by far the shortest story in the collection and in at I tried to tackle the loneliness of depression; that feeling of being unable to cope, walking away from the world. It probably sounds rather silly but I just want to put my arm around the narrator and ask him if I can help. I undertook a course on suicide awareness and I know how much good can come about just by human touch and interest.

The imagery of the tide wiping away his writing in the sand is poignant but, I thought, necessary.

Sorry to be so damn miserable – I think I am right in saying it is the only sad piece in the book so don’t be put off – please.

About the Author

Born and raised in Bristol, England. I spent my adult life in business, the majority of that time marketing cars. I eventually owned the largest Saab specialist in the world, before a divorce put an end to that part of my life.

This led me to leave Bristol to live halfway up a mountain in the Welsh Valleys; start a part-time six year English Literature course at Bristol University, and attend creative writing classes in Cardiff. My interest in English literature flourished and I have since won several prizes for my short stories. My first book, ‘Twenty Short Stories – Settling a score,” reached No 1 in the Short Stories Best Sellers and is still available, as is “Twenty-One (more) Short Stories,” and “Another Twenty-Two Short Stories.”

Also available are the first 5***** crime thrillers in the Tanner and Pin-up series:
Hand over Fist
Hand in Glove
Plus a 5***** light hearted rom-com “Chasing What’s Already Gone.”

I still live very happily halfway up that mountain in the Welsh Valleys with my wonderful partner, Mari, and our two rescue dogs, Wavy and Wenna.

Find the Author

Website: http://michaelrosswriter.net/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/michaelross.writer
Twitter: https://twitter.com/mikerosswriter
Email:mikerosswriter@outlook.com

Buy the Book

The book is free on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Twenty-Four-Short-Stories-anthology-ebook/dp/B09416592Y

Yes, there is a giveaway

The author will be awarding a $25 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

Enter here to win.

This post is part of a tour sponsored by Goddess Fish. Check out all the other tour stops. If you drop by each of these and comment, you will greatly increase your chances of winning.

Enjoy an Excerpt

From my window, I spot my fellow students grouped in excited conversation, circling around, probing each other with thoughts and words, questions and answers. After two years, we know each other well. I know they all wish they could play the violin as well as me, and in my turn, I wish I could be as happy as them. I wind down by running through scales for twenty minutes, and then I hear the old grandfather clock in the hall strike eleven—my other life beckons.

In Chinatown, it is easy to find a restaurant where you can spend £100 a head on a meal. At my parent’s place, six people can eat like kings for less money.

The walk from the rehearsal rooms takes the best part of an hour. I cast aside my musical mantle as I walk, so that by the time I reach Uncle Wong’s, I am prepared for my twice-weekly four-hour shift. This is the only payment my father and mother have ever asked of me. It is nothing.

Two years ago, my parents ushered me into the tiny lounge area above their restaurant, and wordlessly, my mother passed me my gift. My eyes moved to my father and then back to my mother. I could not speak. It was beautiful. Feeling its dark ebony grain, I turned it tentatively through my fingers, tilting, and twisting—gazing, unsure of my breath.

“Baba. Mamma. It’s beautiful, but you cannot afford it.”

“Shush, my son.” The look on my mother’s face said that my joy was all they required.

Thank you!

Michael Ross — we appreciate your sharing your book Twenty-Four Short Stories with us! Best of luck with sales, and with all of your future writing.