Now, Cat has always been a firm believer that each of us has a story to tell and at least one book we can write about our lives. I am about to share this with you and what my new friend, Barb, has done. Barbara released her new book, a collection of short stories that will “touch” your heart, afford you some giggles, and so much more!
I am about halfway within reading her book, and each time I read one story and say it’s my favorite, I read the next one and change my mind, Seriously! I feel it indeed will be the next “Chicken Soup For The Soul” big hit! Here is more about the author and her new book.
Barbara Daniels Dena is a new independent author of her eclectic book debut of “For the Soul: A Collection of Short Stories,” released in August 2021. Almost a memoir, this unique collection of inspiring short stories of ‘good ole fashioned living,’ along with many past and present memories and life experiences that tug on the heart, warming stories, and fictional tall tails delighting readers worldwide. The book is available for purchase on Amazon Books, Amazon Kindle, and many fine online book sites.
Barbara began writing at an early age as a lover of “Make-Believe.” Today, her writing has developed from memories of family experiences, various compilations of events in her life, and her love of animals. She is willing to admit that her vivid imagination plays a role in her stories. The author is an Illinois native who has lived in many places; as Barb says, like a free-spirited “Gypsy,” she has lived and worked in Illinois, Washington, Idaho, Georgia, but Ultimately, coming home settling back in the Quad Cities area of Illinois.
Barbara is a proud mother of two grown children. She was a business owner, ran a Temp Agency, then transitioned into her passion for floral design, opened, owned, and ran several floral shops. Her favorite flower is the “Casablanca Lily.” Her favorite color is Red, and when she isn’t writing, Barbara spends her free time oil painting, enjoys quilting, knitting, and reading.
Her favorite book is “Death Be Not Proud” by John J. Gunther. Her first love is and always will be playing with her fur baby, a little Yorkie named Zoe. She continues to write from her cozy nook as she gazes over a pond full of geese and ducks. On many days it is more gazing than writing.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Memories and fiction fill this collection with humor, heartwarming compassion, and spine-tingling fright from the author’s own experiences and an imagination she can barely control. Quilts, children, and dogs have always played a large part in the author’s life. Therefore, it is not surprising to find stories of warm quilts wrapped around her tales or tails.
A trait the reader discovers in Barbara’s writing is that much like life, nothing within the covers of this book will be what one expects.
What Goodreads Readers Are Sharing!
For the Soul by Barbara Daniels Dena (Goodreads Author) J. Schlenker‘s review 5-stars Aug 21, 2021 “It was amazing! A delightful array of stories that show us we can derive joy from both the simplicities and the complexities of life.”
“Barbara Daniels Dena certainly warms my soul with her stories. I love the look into animal psyche she presents. I can tell her life experiences are throughout the stories. I was captivated immediately. I look forward to more from this talented author.”
The Authors Books Can Be Purchased on Amazon Books and Amazon KindleFor the Soul … Connect and follow the author on social media for new releases and updates!
An Intimate Author Interview: Shawna James ~ Courtesy of “My Book Place.”
Shawna James is an award-winning Canadian author & writer. Her debut novel “Despite the Devil,” released in November of 2020, as part of her “They Loved Collection” book series that hit #2 on Amazon Canada. Shawna has received 5-Star awarded book reviews, including a Readers Favorite, and is a winner of the Canada Book Awards, as she quickly began gaining reader fans from around the world.
Shawna has just released book two of this series and is offering both e-books at a special price in celebration of the title “As It Should Be,” which released in late July 2021 for all her reader fans on Amazon Kindle, Kobo, iBooks. Both books are available in paperback and e-book on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and many fine online bookstores.
James, a Canadian Author, earned her Masters degree in Education and works as a university instructor, fueling the bright minds of her students. When she is not writing in her favorite coffee shop or instructing, she enjoys the great outdoors and loves hiking with her puppies. Shawna also travels abroad, is an avid reader, and enjoys watching her favorite football games on Sunday afternoons. She continues to reside in the Vancouver, Canada, area.
Lyon Literary Services
New Release E-book at .99 Cents
Where did you grow up, and how did this influence your writing?: Growing up in Canada has influenced both novels in the ‘They Loved Collection’ as the setting of each ‘Despite the Devil’ and ‘As It Should Be’ is primarily in Canada.
Do you have any unusual writing habits? Coffee and apples fuel my writing hours.
Do you have any advice for new authors? Write what you love … and, keep the readers’ attention.
What is the best advice you have ever been given? Put your pants on before shoes. (LOL)
What are you reading now? Phil Collins autobiography … such a talented musician!
What’s your biggest weakness? Belgian chocolate!
What is your favorite book of all time? Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.
When you’re not writing, how do you like to spend your time? When I’m not writing I spend most of my time reading, hiking, traveling abroad, and catching my favorite football games on Sunday afternoons.
Do you remember the first story you ever read, and the impact it had on you? Inside, Outside, Upside Down.
What has inspired you and your writing style? Margaret Atwood is an inspiration. Her writing is unique, unconventional, sincere and holds the readers’ attention.
What are you working on now? I have just finished and published ‘As It Should Be’, the sequel to ‘Despite the Devil’, to be released in July 2021, and now working on a new project.
What is your favorite method for promoting your work? Author signings … the opportunity to actually meet the readers and hear directly from them.
What’s next for you as a writer? Have a childrens’ series that is currently under consideration.
How well do you work under pressure? What pressure? No pressure when you are doing what is your PASSION.
How do you decide what tone to use with a particular piece of writing? The tone is based on the message that needs to be conveyed.
If you could share one thing with your fans, what would that be? Be You. Events happen around us, not to us. Despite imperfect people and broken systems, stay true to yourself and love with all your heart.
Romance Women’s Fiction At It’s BEST.
Connect With Shawna James Author Websites and Profiles
“They were the fathers we never knew, the uncles we never met, the friends who never returned, the heroes we can never repay. They gave us our world. And those simple sounds of freedom we hear today are their voices speaking to us across the years.” Former President Bill Clinton
Such a man was 1st Lt Dean Harold Sherman, B-29 Airplane Commander.
“They Called Him Marvin” is a history. A history of war and of family. A history of the collision of the raging politics of a global war, young love, patriotism, sacred family commitments, duty and the horrors and tragedies, the catastrophe that war is.
SEPT. 1St 2021 Release of the Paperback
Special Book Review
Almost a memoir… A Chick Lit Cafe’ Review:
They Called Him Marvin by Roger Stark is a merger between American and Japanese events during WWII, and the very human reality of one American pilot and his love letters to his wife. The candor in their loving correspondence, and the stark reality of war, clash against each other within the pages of this book. Like the major and minor notes being pulled from an orchestra by a master conductor, history is brought to life and the full impact of war is felt.
I remember watching Tenco many years ago and weeping over the atrocities inflicted on prisoners in Japanese prison of war camps. The horrors of it stayed with me and I often steer clear of anything to do with war in books or films these days. However, I am so glad I came across this super book. The author has met Connie – the wife of Dean, whose love letters fill this book, and this brings everything to life, injecting real substance and making this book stand out from a lot of other war stories.
What I loved the most in this ‘almost-a-memoir’ is the view of the pilots from the Japanese perspective. The story of Riku and his family is very moving, and I appreciate the accounting of history from both countries, it is thoroughly moving as well as educational. Bringing the reader’s focus constantly back to Dean and Connie was an ingenious way to remind us that war involves real people, not just figures on a page.
This story is a beautiful account of a horrific time in history and should be read by everyone… lest we forget. Roger Stark presents us with a very human experience of WWII. This is the kind of book that should be on every high school curriculum. It is awash with facts, but expressed in such a way as to grip the reader and hold their attention.
Packed with historical content, and portrayed with a vibrant pen, They Called Him Marvin by Roger Stark comes very highly recommended by Chick Lit Café. TN Traynor. Almost a memoir…
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LET’S CELEBRATE WITH ROGER STARK WITH AN E-BOOK “FLASH SALE” Starting Today!!
E-book is now priced at $2.99 through September 4th, 2021…
All About The Best Selling Author & Writer Roger Stark
Roger In His Secret Writing Headquarters (lol)
“I am, by my own admission, a reluctant writer. But there are stories that demand to to be told. When we hear them, we must pick up our pen, lest we forget and the stories be lost.
Six years ago, in a quiet conversation with my friend Marvin, I learned the tragic story his father, a WW2 B-29 Airplane Commander, shot down over Nagoya, Japan just months before the end of the war.
Bill Clinton has famously said: “They were the fathers we never knew, the uncles we never met, the friends who never returned, the heroes we can never repay. They gave us our world. And those simple sounds of freedom we hear today are their voices speaking to us across the years.”
Such a man was Marv’s father. A father he never knew. The telling of the story that evening by this half orphan was so moving and full of emotion, it compelled me to ask if I could write the story. The result being “They Called Him Marvin.”
My life has been profoundly touched in so many ways by being part of documenting this sacred story. I pray that we never forget, as a people, the depth of sacrifice that was made by ordinary people like Marvin and his father and mother on our behalf.
My career as an addiction counselor (CDP) lead me to write “The Waterfall Concept; A Blueprint for Addiction Recovery,” and co-author “Reclaiming Your Addicted Brain.”
After my counseling retirement, I decided I wanted to learn more about the craft of writing and started attending classes at Portland Oregon’s Attic Institute. What I learned is that there are an mazing number of great writers in my area and they were willing to help others improve their skills. I am grateful to many of them.
My next project is already underway, a memoir of growing in SW Washington called “Life on a Sorta Farm.” My wife of 49 years, Susan and I still live in that area.
We raised seven children, and have eleven grandchildren. We love to travel and see the sites and cultures of the world. I still get on my bicycle whenever I can.”
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Editor Note:Roger and I are having a great time working together again. I am honored and very blessed to call him a dear friend and fellow author. Together we have made some “Literary Magic” happen with his new novel. He has garnished a 5-Star Awarded Readers Favorite book review, and has already HIT #1 for the his the paperback edition in the category of “Literary Letters!” We make a great marketing team along with his wife and daughter.
I truly hope this beautifully written novel gets some book awards and a film deal. It is that GOOD! I hope all my reader friends, book reviewers, and book bloggers will give it a read. I do believe you will THANK ME LATER when do…
It might be a MONDAY, but this Cat is feeling frisky and would like to share some marketing tips and places to help all authors have some low-cost options to promote their books at either No Cost, Free, or Discounted and get exceptional results! I sure know there are many, many authors who might be releasing their very first book, so I want to help out and share some of my discounts and “Go To” places I use for all my marketing clients/friends.
First I would like to share that I am now a Freelance Marketer in Arizona and now Cat L ~ Marketer https://reedsy.com/cat-lyon is now listed on this great place all authors need to be set up on!
It’s called reedsy, https://reedsy.com/discover/ and I’m listed as a Professional Affordable Marketer on their Reedsy Market Place…
The market place side is where authors can find amazing services and providers looking for editing, proof readers, publishing, promo and marketing, and many other services. Professionals, including myself are put through a rigorous approval process to receive a recommendation and added to their list. You see my most current clients and projects I have been working on or currently working on.
My first highly recommended book promotion and is offering a deep discount to promote your book on is over on one of my FAV places, BooksShelf … https://www.booksshelf.com/ and they share what they offer in the month before in time for you to set your book up for the next months promo! Here is what they are offering for the whole month of September and you can Book it Now! All this for just $39.
We Invite You To Join Our PlatformSubmit Your Book FOR FREE Or Take Advantage Of The Sept. Promo Packages Below
70% off Savings at BooksShelf!
Grab your Golden chance to secure a spot on our September Promotional Campaign! Not only we’ll heavily promote your book on our website, you’ll get Twitter posts AND your book will get a review, which will also be promoted on BooksShelf.comAnd all of this at 70% OFF! They have a huge readership and do a great job in sharing your book once it is listed! Learn More and Get The Promo
Check out some of the other promotional options they offer while you are there.
Do You Want To Be PartOf Every Promotion Each Month AND Save Some Money Doing It?
Regardless if you decide on the BASIC, PLATINUM or anywhere in between you’ll be sure to have your book constantly on TOP SPOTS on our website every month, for every promotion! BooksShelf.com
Cat Loves BooksShelf!
Cat’s next affordable book promotion places and my “Go To” to help authors is over at both Book Goodies and Awesome Gang! I have been working with Deb Carney of https://bookgoodies.com/authors-start-here/ and my buddy Vinny of https://awesomegang.com/advertising-on-awesomegang/ for many years and they do an exceptional job when you advertise and promote your books with them! They have built their sites with a huge readership spread across genre specific sites and so much more.
They key is? YOU NEED to SIGN up for both “The Author Newsletters” when submitting a book for the first time on both sites and they will send YOU discounts, a lot! LOL. They do a fantastic job with promoting your books throughout the large social media presence and groups they have on many platforms.
Check all the amazing testimonials from current authors they have helped on both https://awesomegang.com/testimonials/ and they both give you a FREE Author Interview (Self-Serve Form) to submit that goes along with your Book Promotions! https://bookgoodies.com/category/interviews/ . . . AND? THIS IS BEING OFFERED On BookGoodies! ( “Everyone is busy one way or another with back to school this week so I am going to keep this short and sweet: BookGoodies Home Page Ads for $25 per week. No coupon needed. Just use this special link: https://bookgoodies.com/advertising/seasonal-features/ This is only being advertised to our newsletter list but you can share it with your author friends that might not be on our newsletter. They can sign up at the end of the form when they book their ad.
Let’s sell some books! Our paid advertisers will be getting some special promotional opportunities in the next few weeks. Stay tuned and whitelist dc@bookgoodies.com and deborah@bookgoodies.com so you keep getting our emails.
Deborah Carney BookGoodies Network of Sites for Book Lovers”
AND? Thanks to the hard work Vinny of Awesome gang has put in for you? Here Below is a LIST of BOOK SITES You Can List all your books on for FREE! YUP! FREE! 😊😺✨✨
Places To Submit Your Book For Free Promotion
“In my quest to help authors promote their book I am going to make a list of places where you can submit your book for free to get it in the hands of readers. I realize that it is hard to get your book in the hands of readers and hopefully this resource will grow.”
Written By Award-winning Author Ravina Hilliard A Dawn Hill Publication Author
This CAT always enjoy sharing new books when they are ready to release soon and when readers to get a ‘Sneak Peek’ before it drops! Dawn Hill has done it again with their amazing award-winning author, Ms. Ravina Hilliard and her book titled “The Billionaire Athlete”…
~The Avid Reading Cat
It’s been my endeavor to ensure variety in my protagonists, not that the task is easy. Billionaires tend to come in very few shapes and sizes, not literally of course. Most of them are scions of industry. Then again, we have actors from my soon to be published books – like Patrick Townsend from ‘Looking for Like’ and a race car driver Dean Winters from ‘All You Have To Do Is Call’.
The publishers have asked me to write one with a sports star. The choices are aplenty. Aforementioned Dean Winters is one candidate, but the truth is that he isn’t an F1 driver in the story, rather it is his back story. He is actually a manufacturer of e-vehicles. I know some of you are going … yawn.
“They tend to be hot-headed. Drama queens – and very good actors, not to mention artful manipulators.”
If I were to invest in a sporty character, what sport would I choose? And what got me thinking about it?
Let’s answer the second question first. Summer in the Europe provides fodder in abundance from Wimbledon, French Open in Tennis, Tour de France, the Euro cup which England sadly lost despite a stellar performance and ICC World Cricket championship which New Zealand won. Watching Tom Cruise hob-nob with David Beckham on Centre Court got me started. The same day, watching the Euro Cup finals not too far away in Wembley nailed it for me.
Tom Cruise spotted at Wimbledon this year.
If I were to choose, I’d probably choose football or as the Americans like to call it, soccer. Why? First, it gives me an opportunity to write about another Italian billionaire, with Italy winning the Euro Cup. The female leading lady could be a British WAG wannabe who is seeking payback for England’s loss.
We all know footballers have their own currency printing press, not literally, but each of their contracts run into tens of millions of pounds. Add to that sponsorship and ad revenue and bingo – you have yourself a billionaire. There aren’t too many of them around – Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo being two of them. Technically, net worth’s are shy of a billion but who’s counting?
Giroud is a prime example of an incredibly attractive athlete. Loaded, and wears the hell out of that suit!
There are plenty of other reasons. Athletes, footballers in particular are fit. Not going to the gym three times a week fit. I can run around chasing a ball for 90 odd minutes fit. Most of the players in the latest Euro cup were still strutting around after two hours. They tend to be hot-headed. Drama queens – and very good actors, not to mention artful manipulators.
Have you seen them fake injuries on the field in order to earn a free kick? There are a few Oscar-worthy performances in all the big matches. They’re large-hearted, passionate (at least about football) and players for the most part – in a decidedly sexual way.
My hero would be a nasty piece of work on the outside – hard-headed Alpha Male who is as rich as God, arrogant, overbearing, physically rough-edged but later will reveal a gooey and tender heart. His language would be foul. At first, he’d treat the female lead like a bit of shit – remember The Billionaire Needs a Bodyguard?
Then, our hero would fall in love after some TLC from the vengeful WAG who maybe, just maybe is into some light S&M. Our Bitch would spring the trap, leaving our footie hero devastated when he realizes that she’s been gaming him.
How do I get them back together? Hmm. Let me think about that. Most certainly, there’d be a match or two in the play. Where do the thrills come from? Oh, just wait and see. I’m not going to give the whole plot away, but I will leave you with a hint. Think corruption scandal, match-fixing (oh yeah, it does happen, even in football), and football hooligans – remember Green Street? Our WAG is going to get beaten up. Badly.
And here’s the icing on the cake. I’ve yet to see an ugly footballer. They’re all handsome, sexy, tidy, gorgeous hunks of masculinity with my fingers now itching to create a thriller romance with one of them. I can imagine in my mind’s eye the cold-hearted calculating British bitch of a ex-WAG targeting an Italian footballer and falling into his love-cum-lust trap, inconceivably finding a Happily-Ever-After. My mouth is already drooling. And ladies, there are other parts that are also … okay, let’s keep it U-Rated for now.
And let me get to work.
Sigh. With a saddened heart I bid you goodbye, but only for the moment.
Hope you’ve enjoyed reading this as much as I’ve enjoyed writing it.
“My mother instilled in me early on the importance of a handwritten thank- you note. I’ll never forget how proud I was to receive my first set of monogrammed stationery. I would give anything to know where she’d purchased it now. It was a lovely shade of pale pink and looked very hoity toity! Long story short, I was all that.”
In September 1999 Kim Carter (then North) was on the way to drop her son at school before heading to work downtown when she suffered a grand mal seizure behind the wheel of her Grand Prix. She was 33, a mother of three and had never had a seizure in her life.
Carter and her 10-year-old son survived the terror and no one was hurt but the event set her on a long path to recovery. Carter credits her immediate survival to the brave couple who helped guide them to safety. But as the weeks of medical exams, medications and despair turned into months, she said it was writing that saved her life.
“It was my safe place. I had lost so much of my independence that was the one place where I could still be productive,” said Carter. “Even if it was just for me, even if it was a hobby, it was soothing.”
It is an honor Carter never could have imagined when she was pecking out plots on the desktop computer she set up in her laundry room. After the traffic incident, Carter had developed agoraphobia. She worried that she would have another seizure at any given time.
She had only learned about what happened that day after the fact. How her foot stiffened on the pedal and sent the car shooting down GA 138 at 70 MPH. How a passing couple realized what was happening and drove their car next to hers to warn other drivers out of the way. How her 10-year old son, Austin, would climb down to the floor, push her foot from the gas and press hard on the brakes until the car rolled across several lanes of traffic and came to a stop near a Saturn dealership.
Carter spent three days in the hospital and underwent weeks of medical testing. She searched for and found the couple that helped her. She even appeared on several televisions shows and in an AJC story. It was an emotional time, said Carter, and the seizures just wouldn’t stop.
It was hard to shake the anxiety and depression that her condition was bringing to her life. She was a mother of young children but had limited mobility and her marriage was headed for divorce.
One day, she sat on the swing set in the backyard and resolved to do something to help her find some peace. So she moved an old desk into the laundry room, set up her computer and started writing.
When the kids were at school or at night when she felt she needed to decompress, she was at her computer coming up with characters.
“I remember thinking, I have always been a reader. I thought about all my favorite authors and I thought about what I liked and didn’t like about certain books,” said Carter. “I said I was going to write the way I want books to be.”
Initially, no one knew what she was doing. But gradually she would print out her pages, roll them up with a rubber band and share them with neighbors.
In 2002, she began working on her second book. This time she did a lot of research. She visited a warden at the prison and an inmate on death row. She went to the Fulton County Examiner’s Office and began networking.
The process got her out of the house and lifted her mood. She began outlining her stories using sticky notes and story boards. Though she was in and out of the hospital several times with health issues, her kids were thriving and her hobby kept her engaged.
Over time she reconnected with a family friend and after a shared dinner, they married in 2004. Her late husband, Julius Herron encouraged her writing and she began sharing more and more of her manuscripts.
In 2005, she self-published her first book, “No Second Chances,” and threw a big launch party at the performing arts center in Newnan. They made the rounds of book fairs, sold books online and when they traveled they would give away books to people all over the globe and watch orders come in from around the world.
Then the seizures came back.
Julius set up a new desk and office for her. She cried over her old beat up desk but began writing again.
For her next book titled “And The Forecast Called For Rain,” Carter worked with a small publishing house. When the book was released she had a signing at Barnes and Noble and sold more than 200 books. But despite what felt like success, the deal with the publishing house wasn’t a good one. Carter was disappointed and tired.
Her self esteem plummeted.
“I felt like I wasn’t really a writer,” she said. So she stopped writing for about a year. She began to feel depressed and the seizures started up again. Julius thought it was because her mind was idle. “
Four years ago, when the couple visited a convention for owners of greyhound dogs, they met Kelly Keylon, co-owner of Atlanta Water Gardens. The became fast friends and Keylon also encourage Carter to write again. “You have talent. You do not want to give up,” he said to her.
Keylon was so sure of Kim that he founded Raven South Publishing to publish her books. They had to learn how to run a publishing company from the ground up and learned a lot as they worked with printers, cover artists, and editors.
Carter began tackling her writing again. One story was inspired by a girl’s trip to Biloxi, Miss. During a cemetery tour, Carter spotted a tombstone with a baby lamb on top. It said only, “Baby Belle.” She wanted to learn more about this little baby who seemed to have no family. It was so heavy on her mind, it became a plot twist in her book “Sweet Dreams, Baby Belle.”
It turned out to be the book in which Clara and Iris, the nosey widows who launch a second act as investigators were first introduced. She patterned the two characters after her mother and her mother’s best friend. “Readers love ‘Baby Belle”but I think what they loved the most were those two characters,” Carter said. So she decided to focus a series around them.
“Clara and Iris offer a humor break but they are also very smart women,” she said. She has now finished and just released her eighth book, a historical novel called “Dark Secrets of The Bayou“… A chilling gripping suspense filled historical mystery novel like no other she has written to date.
“I love doing book clubs and meeting people who read and hearing what they think about the books,” she said. At the end of the book club meetings, she leaves everyone with a note to send out to someone that has influenced their lives in big and small ways.
Carter also continued her connection to Baby Belle. She and Keylon have donated five large angel statues to the Old Biloxi Cemetery to watch over all of the babies buried there. The Killer Nashville nomination has helped give Carter the boost she needed to continue to reach higher and write the kinds of books that readers want to read.
Kim Carter Visiting Another Cemetery
“I just remain so shocked and humbled that people are reading, purchasing and enjoying what I have written,” she said. “For anyone who is writing and struggling, don’t give up. Just keep doing it even if you are just doing it for the love of writing.”
NEW NOVEL BY AWARD WINNING WRITER KIM CARTER
Released on Amazon and Amazon Kindle
Dark Secrets of the Bayou Kindle Edition
by Kim Carter (Author) Format: Kindle Edition and Paperback
"CAT'S BOOK LIBRARY 4 READERS" 