Moonlight Falls’ author, Vincent Zandri, is an award-winning novelist, essayist and freelance photojournalist. His novel As Catch Can (Delacorte) was touted in two pre-publication articles by Publishers Weekly and was called “Brilliant” upon its publication by The New York Post. The Boston Herald attributed it as “The most arresting first crime novel to break into print this season.” Other novels include Godchild (Bantam/Dell) and Permanence (NPI). Translated into several languages including Japanese and the Dutch, Zandri’s novels have also been sought out by numerous major movie producers, including Heyday Productions and DreamWorks. Presently he is the author of the blogs, Dangerous Dispatches and Embedded in Africa for Russia Today TV (RT). He also writes for other global publications, including Culture 11, Globalia and Globalspec. Zandri’s nonfiction has appeared in New York Newsday, Hudson Valley Magazine, Game and Fish Magazine and others, while his essays and short fiction have been featured in many journals including Fugue, Maryland Review and Orange Coast Magazine. He holds an M.F.A. in Writing from Vermont College and is a 2010 International Thriller Writer’s Awards panel judge. Zandri currently divides his time between New York and Europe. He is the drummer for the Albany-based punk band to Blisterz. You can visit his website at www.vincentzandri.com or his blog at http://vincentzandri.blogspot.com/.
Q: Welcome to Beyond the Books, Vincent. Can we start out by telling us whether you are published for the first time or are you multi-published?
MoonlightFalls is my 4th published novel. I’ve written about twice that many. I’m also a fulltime photojournalist.
Q: What was the name of your very first book regardless of whether it was published or not and, if not published, why?
I actually forget most of the circumstances, because this is going back some 20 years. The novel bore the curious title of “The Life and Death of Mike Sullivan” or something horrific like that. It didn’t get published because it was really bad.
Q: For your first published book, how many rejections did you go through before you either found a mainstream publisher, self-published it, or paid a vanity press to publish it?
Not many rejections. My agent at the time, Jimmy Vines, sold it in two weeks. Several publishers tried to buy it and it went up for auction.
Q: How did the rejections make you feel and what did you do to overcome the blows?
No one likes rejection. I worked harder. And drank a lot of beer.
Q: When your first book was published, who published it and why did you choose them?
Delacorte. They chose me.
Q: How did it make you feel to become published for the first time and how did you celebrate?
I felt vindicated and of course, high as a kite. How did I celebrate? By engaging in a year long party! I don’t recall a whole lot from that period.
Q: What was the first thing you did as for as promotion when you were published for the first time?
Interviews for the local print and TV media. The general rule of thumb is, start in your hometown and branch out from there.
Q: If you had to do it over again, would you have chosen another route to be published?
No, traditional publishing is the only way I will go, be it small, indy, and/or commercial press. That’s why it’s been eight years between books. For now anyway, I believe that publishers and writers should be separate entities. There’s a reason why the system works like that. I’m not knocking self-published authors. I’ve actually blurbed quite a few of them, deservedly. But for me, the only way I would self-publish is if I’ve already achieved a major bestseller that’s been reviewed well, sold the movie right, etc.
Moonlight Falls by Vincent Zandri (click on cover to purchase at Amazon)
Q: Have you been published since then and how have you grown as an author?
I’ve grown up, I guess. I was terribly immature when As Catch Can was published. I didn’t quite know how to deal with the success and I went through a bit of a crack-up period. I partied too much, got divorced, got married again, got divorced again, made a whole bunch of bad decisions that need not be repeated here. In any case, being published taught me that I should never have given up being a journalist since there is never any guarantee that your next book is going to generate any real cash. So I’ve returned to serious journalism while writing fiction. Plus I’m not nearly the party animal I once was. ‘d be dead now if that was the case! What’s replaced all that is traveling, travel writing, exploration.
Q: Looking back since the early days when you were trying to get published, what do you think you could have done differently to speed things up? What kind of mistakes could you have avoided?
Well, strange question…But if I had to answer truthfully and I will, I’d say, Don’t get married, don’t have kids, don’t buy a house, don’t buy a brand new car, don’t get into debt, don’t do anything that keeps you from having the freedom to write and travel. Full-time jobs get in the way! LOL! However, life gets in the way also, so who knows what the true answer to your question is.
Q: What has been the biggest accomplishment you have achieved since becoming published?
It isn’t PC, and sometimes it isn’t pretty, but I realize now that before all else, I’m a writer. I love my family and I provide for them, but they can’t compete with what lies beneath-the undying insatiable need to quiet my mind and get it out….I’ve moved through a drought period that would break most people…I had the rock star life…I had the locked in a room with nothing but blank paper and silent keys…I’ve had heartbreak, divorces, lost friendships, and more. But I’ve moved on through it all to where I am now…published with perspective…
Q: If you could have chosen another profession, what would that profession be?
Archeologist or Punk Rock Drummer!
Q: Would you give up being an author for that profession or have you combined the best of both worlds?
Victor Pross is a professional artist born and raised in Toronto now residing in British Columbia. He is known for his “extreme caricaturing”. He has many high profile commissions to his credit including painting Ron Howard’s caricature portrait as a gift for the famous director as well as painting various agents of the William Morris Agency. He has rendered numerous International celebrities and Canadian media personalities for commercial and private purposes. Victor Pross has been interviewed on television shows such as: Canada AM, Breakfast Television, News at Noon and has been pegged by Canadian Media as “Canada’s foremost caricature artist.” He has worked on various posters, comic books and CD covers bringing to each work his own unique style. He is currently instructing an art class as well as offering his services as an editorial caricaturist. Victor’s first book, Icons & Idols, will feature a collection of the artist’s paintings and drawings and is now available.
Q: Welcome to Beyond the Books, Victor. Can we start out by telling us whether you are published for the first time or are you multi-published?
Icons & Idols: Pop Goes the Culture is my first book.
Q: What was the name of your very first book regardless of whether it was published or not and, if not published, why?
I wrote and illustrated comics as a kid—but I wouldn’t want to see them published. I forget the titles.
Q: For your first published book, how many rejections did you go through before you either found a mainstream publisher, self-published it, or paid a vanity press to publish it?
I have perhaps twenty rejections from publishers under my belt. So I decided to go the self-published route and that is what I would recommend to any first time writer. It is very nasty out there and lot of these places wouldn’t know talent if it sat up and kissed their butts. That’s not hyperbole, that is a fact.
Icon & Idols: Pop Goes the Culture by Victor Pross (click on cover to purchase)
Q: How did the rejections make you feel and what did you do to overcome the blows?
It made me feel like crap. But I simply plunged on. What else could I do? Give up? Not me.
Q: When your first book was published, who published it and why did you choose them?
A place called AuthorHouse. They agreed to do an illustrated book and they are a large company. It all fit together.
Q: How did it make you feel to become published for the first time and how did you celebrate?
It felt wonderful. I didn’t really celebrate per se, but I did treat myself and a girlfriend to a nice dinner.
Q: What was the first thing you did as for as promotion when you were published for the first time?
I utilized the internet and had a book reading at a local book store in town. I read selections from my book and showcased original art work seen in the book.
Q: If you had to do it over again, would you have chosen another route to be published?
I would have self-published. If a mainstream publisher approached me, I wouldn’t turn them down. Don’t get me wrong. But man, it is a heart-breaking—ass breaking—process trying to get published.
Q: Have you been published since then and how have you grown as an author?
No, Icons & Idols remains my first book thus far. I have grown as a visual artist and writer simply because of experience.
Q: Looking back since the early days when you were trying to get published, what do you think you could have done differently to speed things up? What kind of mistakes could you have avoided?
It would have been better if I devoted each day to getting the book completed instead of taking days off at a time. It is hard work. There is no getting away from that.
Q: What has been the biggest accomplishment you have achieved since becoming published?
Icons & Idols is gaining attention. That is good! I think the book would appeal to most anybody.
Q: If you could have chosen another profession, what would that profession be?
I have always been interested in being an actor.
Q: Would you give up being an author for that profession or have you combined the best of both worlds?
No, I am a visual artist first, and a writer second.
Q: How do you see yourself in ten years?
Older and better.
Q: Any final words for writers who dream of being published one day?
Life is too short. If you have a passion for it—do it. If you are not into it and just fooling yourself—then do something else. It’s either/or.
Thank you for this interview, Victor, and we wish you much success!
Our special guest today is Barbora Knobova, author of the relationship book, Tales for Delicious Girls. Barbora is a writer, love coach and expert in Delicious Life. She writes hilarious, sharp-witted, caustically apt, ironic, moving, true books for strong independent, smart, fearless women. She has written several self-improvement books and teaches women about the importance of self-love in relationships and life in general. Barbora speaks eight languages and has found her home away from home in New York, London and Milan. She is always on the move, accompanied by her beagle Brinkley, the nasty dog from her new book in Tales for Delicious Girls. You can visit her website at www.barboraknobova.com.
Five Delicious Tips for Self-Love
My book Tales for Delicious Girls encourages women to love themselves truly, appreciate and respect themselves, put themselves first. I believe in the power of self-love because we cannot be loved unless we love ourselves. Therefore, I would like to share with you the following five tips that might help you fall in love with yourself.
1. Treat yourself like the most precious person in your life.
Think about all the people you love. I bet there are so many wonderful people in your life. How do you treat them? With love and respect? Treat yourself the same way. You are the most important person in your life so treat yourself as such! You deserve it.
2. Be perfect in your own eyes.
We women tend to be overly critical to ourselves and very often we focus on what we don’t like about ourselves. Guess what? No one is perfect so let go off those negative feelings and statements. Stop making lists of your imperfections once and for all. Start making lists of your virtues instead!
3. Look into the mirror of your self-love.
Your relationships with other people reflect the relationship you have with yourself. They are the mirror of your self-love. If you don’t like the way your friends, family or colleagues treat you, look at the way you treat yourself. Change your attitude to yourself, show yourself lots of love and respect, and your relationships with other people will change too.
4. Cherish your inner and outer beauty.
You’ve heard it a thousand times: Beauty comes in all shapes and sizes. Your real beauty comes from within – and this is not a cliché! Attitude is everything. Be proud of yourself and decide to feel beautiful now. Because if you feel like the most beautiful girl in the world, that’s what you will be.
5. Decide to love yourself truly.
It’s all in your head. You can decide now to start loving yourself just a little bit more and it will turn your life around. Be your own best friend and treat yourself as such. Put yourself first and for once in your life focus on what you want and on what makes you happy. Your happiness is in your hands and the key to it is your self-love.
About two years ago, Susie Larson had an idea for a book that directly connects our personal freedom to the freedoms of authors. As an author and speaker, she travels around the country speaking at women’s conferences and retreats. In her travels, she has found that though American women are literally free, most are not totally free. In fact, Susie feels she is still marching towards her own personal freedom as a lot of women and authors are doing themselves.
Susie says freedom is something for which we must contend and that all of us have been beaten up and bruised by life. “We’ve all had experiences that have affected us in a negative way,” she tells us, “and most times, without realizing it, we allow those painful experiences to stunt our growth, confirm our fears, and minimize the impact we could make in this world. We tend to make rules around our insecurities. We make excuses for why we don’t venture out into the unknown places God has for us. But to truly be free is to believe that Jesus can redeem every shred of our painful pasts. If we really want to be free, we have to walk by His side and face the lies we picked up when life let us down. As we experience new freedom and courage, we will grow in our conviction to see others know this same liberty. Most often, our world-changing call is directly connected to one of our painful life experiences.”
Embracing Your Freedom, Susie’s latest book, calls women to tenacious courage and gritty faith that we might live free and content for the freedoms of others.
On another note, we asked her how she was promoting her new book so that it will help other authors learn through experience. She says, “Writing a book is a significant endeavor, but some books simply take more out of us than other books do. Embracing Your Freedom was one such project for me. Though each of my books involved certain challenges, none of them stretched me, drained me, or cost me as much as this one did. But that’s okay. The opposition I faced while writing this book only confirmed to me the importance of its message.
“Since the release of the book, I’ve done a number of radio interviews, speaking engagements, blog interviews, and book giveaways. I will travel to ICRS this summer for a book signing and more media interviews. I’ve highlighted the book in my weekly devotional blog and my quarterly E-zine. Friends have promoted the book on Twitter and I recently joined the rest of the Tweeters out there!
“In about a month, my next book Growing Grateful Kids hits the bookstores. This book releases right when my busy spring speaking schedule kicks in. Already, there is a lot of buzz around this book and we are excited about it! Our efforts to market this book will include speaking engagements, radio interviews, blog interviews, online promotion, and book giveaways. We will do a number of book signings and will most likely plan a book release party to celebrate the release of Growing Grateful Kids.
“Marketing books is like raising children. Certain principles apply across the board, and yet each one is so different, so unique, it requires special attention and special direction to ensure the best possible outcome.”
If you would like to find out more about Susie Larson and her new book Embracing Your Freedom, visit her website at www.susielarson.com. Susie will be on virtual book tour with Pump Up Your Book in January and February 2010. If you would like to visit her official tour page, click here!
February ‘10 Authors on Virtual Book Tour include:
Maria Andrade, author of the relationship book, Heart Magic: Keeping Love Alive and Well Carla Buckley, author of the apocalyptic novel, The Things That Keep Us Here James R. Goldberg, author of the current affairs healthcare book, The American Medical Money Machine Angela Henry, author of the mystery novel, Schooled in Lies Barbora Knobova, author of the relationship book, Tales for Delicious Girls Susie Larson, author of the inspiration/motivation/devotion book, Embracing Your Freedom: A Personal Experience of God’s Heart of Justice Alan Markowitz, author of the gritty memoir, Topless Prophet Kaylin McFarren, author of the women’s contemporary fiction, Flaherty’s Crossing Judi Moreo and twenty-five other authors of the motivational book, Life Choices: Navigating Difficult Paths Gary Morgenstein, author of the relationship book, How to Find a Woman…or Not Ogo Ogbata, author of the historical fiction novel, Egg-Larva-Pupa-Woman Victor Pross, author of the art/humor book, Icon & Idols: Pop Goes the Culture Misa Ramirez, author of the mystery with romantic elements novel, Hasta la Vista, Lola! Jay Slosar, author of the psychological book, The Culture of Excess: How America Lost Self-Control and Why We Need To Redefine Success Kay Marshall Strom, author of the nonfiction book, The Second-Half Adventure: Don’t Just Retire – Use Your Time, Skills & Resources to Change the World Marnie Swedberg, author of the nonfiction book for writers, eBooks: Idea to Amazon in 14 Days Michele Wahlder, author of the self-help/inspirational book, Alphatudes – The Alphabet of Gratitude Bill Walker, author of the soul searching romance novel, A Note From an Old Acquaintance Chris Wardle, author of the children’s book, The Lighthouse of Mr. Tinfish Pamela Samuels Young, author of the legal thriller, Buying Time Vincent Zandri, author of the thriller novel, Moonlight Falls
Click here to see their official tour pages to find out where you can pick up your copy of their wonderful books!
This ad is brought to you by Pump Up Your Book, an innovative public relations agency specializing in online book promotion and virtual book tours. You can visit us at www.pumpupyourbook.com to find out how we can take your books to the virtual level!
Charles Franklin Emery III was born in Los Angeles, California in 1956. He joined the US Navy Submarine force in 1977 and spent the following six years on Fast Attack and Fleet Ballistic Missile submarines as a Sonar Technician and Sonar Supervisor. He forged a career in commercial Nuclear Power and is now a Consulting Engineer to various electric utilities. He is an avid fisherman and hunter, enjoys working on his 1964 Plymouth Savoy and collecting colonial American coins. Drag Racing is also a passion and his 1964 Plymouth Savoy Nostalgia Super Stocker provides the needed outlet. He now resides with a Boston Terrier horde and his wife Sherry in Port Saint Lucie, Florida. Charles owns and operates his own publishing imprint, Bunkiedog Press. The website address for Bunkiedog Press is http://www.bunkiedog.com. Bunkiedog Press has published Dad, Dog and Fish & A Man and His Maniac: The Bunkie Story and “A Man and His Maniac: The Bunkie Story” – Second Edition. He is currently working on the memoirs Moondoggie and the Boston Terrier Horde, Gearhead and Bubblehead.
Welcome to Beyond the Books, Charles. Can we start out by telling us whether you are published for the first time or are you multi-published?
As the owner and operator of Bunkiedog Press, I’ve published three books. They are A Man and His Maniac: The Bunkie Story, Dad, Dog & Fish and A Man and His Maniac: The Bunkie Story – Second Edition.
Q: What was the name of your very first book regardless of whether it was published or not and, if not published, why?
A Man and His Maniac: The Bunkie Story
A Man and His Maniac: The Bunkie Story by Charles Franklin Emery III (click on cover to purchase at Amazon)
Q: For your first published book, how many rejections did you go through before you either found a mainstream publisher, self-published it, or paid a vanity press to publish it?
I tried the traditional publishing route with little success, never made it out of the slush pile and got sick of form responses. I had some good responses from some agents that liked the work but they felt there was not a big enough market for my book so I bypassed the traditional and vanity presses and started my own imprint, Bunkiedog Press.
Q: How did the rejections make you feel and what did you do to overcome the blows?
Rejections are tough but it comes with the job. Folks need to know that if you put yourself out there, you’ll find folks that hate your work as well as those that love it. Just keep writing, you’ll get there. Maybe.
Q: When your first book was published, who published it and why did you choose them?
I published it through my imprint, Bunkiedog Press
Q: How did it make you feel to become published for the first time and how did you celebrate?
It’s great to see your work in print. The dogs and I had some beef jerky to celebrate
Q: What was the first thing you did as for as promotion when you were published for the first time?
Not enough, that’s for sure. I sponsored some giveaways and used word of mouth
Q: If you had to do it over again, would you have chosen another route to be published?
Nope.
Q: Have you been published since then and how have you grown as an author?
I’ve published three books. They are A Man and His Maniac: The Bunkie Story, Dad, Dog & Fish and A Man and His Maniac: The Bunkie Story – Second Edition
Q: Looking back since the early days when you were trying to get published, what do you think you could have done differently to speed things up? What kind of mistakes could you have avoided?
Nothing. My biggest mistake was not getting initial work edited to the point of perfection. It’s still not perfect but I use eyes other than my own for reviews/editing. That’s essential.
Q: What has been the biggest accomplishment you have achieved since becoming published?
Bringing families together with my books. Very gratifying.
Q: If you could have chosen another profession, what would that profession be?
Professional Bass Fisherman. Talk about a good gig
Q: Would you give up being an author for that profession or have you combined the best of both worlds?
I have a day job that feeds the family. I write and publish and that feeds what little literary ego I have left. I’m good.
Q: How do you see yourself in ten years?
If I’m not dead, I’ll be fishing… and writing
Q: Any final words for writers who dream of being published one day?
Keep at it and think outside the box. Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t do something.
Our special guest today is Kim Smith, author of the cozy mystery novel, Buried Angel. She is also the radio hostess for her own radio show, Introducing Writers! on Blog Talk Radio. If you’d like to find out more about her, visit her website at www.mkimsmith.com.
The Secret Life of Worker Bees
Many authors are not full-time at what they love to do. They are only part-timers at the writing game. The rest of the time, they go to a nine-to-five job where they put on the clothes of a whole other person.
That would be me.
In my daytime hours, Monday through Friday, I am what is known as the IT Supervisor, and in some worlds I am called a Network Administrator, but in reality, I just hold down the fort and troubleshoot things and tear my hair out when they don’t work right.
Take the day the network died.
Buried Angel by Kim Smith (click on cover to order online)
I suddenly began getting hollers from all over the office about not being able to get into files. Then, I couldn’t get a printer to respond. Immediately, I went to my network board and began working. It didn’t take long to know that somewhere at some place, things had begun to fall apart. Soon, nothing worked right.
This is what we all know in the IT world as a day from Hades. Nothing frustrates more than a computer system that won’t work. I struggled through for a few hours trying different this and different that before admitting that I was not an island and I needed help.
I called up my dear friend who is a very excellent technician and he came out to see if he could help me figure out the problem.
See? Even worker bees need help sometimes!
It didn’t take him long (with the assistance of a laptop, and some fancy software) to determine that my network was totally dead.
“Dead?” I gasped.
“Ding dong, the witch is dead dead,” he replied.
We began assessing things that had happened during the morning before this terrible disaster had befallen. I explained that I had moved some old equipment out and had tried to untangle a few cables. Nothing major.
“Aha!” says he.
“What aha?” asked I.
“This aha,” he replied. Then he pulled a network cable out that was disconnected.
“What’s that?” I eyed it.
“Your problem,” he said, plugging it in.
Surely enough, the network began responding and things picked up nicely. In a few short moments, life was good.
Apparently, I had disconnected the network from its main source of power. The wall outlet.
Sheesh. And for this, I give up the real love of my life. Writing. Yes, every day I say goodbye to my WIP and tootle off to be subjected to such humiliation.
Dolen Perkins-Valdez is the author of Wench, a debut novel to be published by Amistad/HarperCollins on January 5, 2010. Her fiction and essays have appeared in The Kenyon Review, StoryQuarterly, African American Review, PMS: PoemMemoirStory, North Carolina Literary Review, Richard Wright Newsletter, and SLI: Studies in Literary Imagination. She is a 2009 finalist for the Robert Olen Butler Fiction Award. A graduate of Harvard and a former University of California President’s Postdoctoral Fellow, Dolen splits her time between Seattle and Washington, DC. Learn more about Wench at http://www.dolenperkinsvaldez.com, http://dolen.blogspot.com, or http://twitter.com/dolen.
Q: Welcome to Beyond the Books, Dolen. Can we start out by telling us whether you are published for the first time or are you multi-published?
Wench is my first book-length publication. I have previously published short fiction and academic essays.
Q: For your first published book, how many rejections did you go through before you either found a mainstream publisher, self-published it, or paid a vanity press to publish it?
I was fortunate enough to sell my novel to the first mainstream publisher who received it. Having said that, I was rejected by several agents before I found one who was interested.
Q: How did the rejections make you feel and what did you do to overcome the blows?
They made me more determined to succeed! How did I overcome the blows? Lots of wine.
Q: When your first book was published, who published it and why did you choose them?
My first book is being published by Amistad/HarperCollins. I was thrilled to have them publish the novel because I am such a great admirer of other books they have published. Edward P. Jones’ The Known World and All Aunt Hagar’s Children. Ravi Howard’s Like Trees Walking. William Henry Lewis’ I Got Somebody in Staunton.
Wench by Dolen Perkins-Valez (click on cover to purchase)
Q: How did it make you feel to become published for the first time and how did you celebrate?
I celebrated over dinner with my husband. It was a great feeling of accomplishment. I have worked very hard for a long time with little return. It is gratifying.
Q: What was the first thing you did as for as promotion when you were published for the first time?
I began to Facebook and Twitter regularly.
Q: If you had to do it over again, would you have chosen another route to be published?
No. I don’t even know another route. There is a great deal of luck in the publishing business.
Q: Have you been published since then and how have you grown as an author?
My first novel will be released January 5, 2010. I hope to publish more in the future. I would like to become a better short story writer. I am always growing and learning.
Q: Looking back since the early days when you were trying to get published, what do you think you could have done differently to speed things up? What kind of mistakes could you have avoided?
I don’t think there is any way to speed things up. I had a baby during those years and that slowed me down a bit. Would I change that? Of course not!! Actually, I would say the biggest thing I have learned is to be more patient.
Q: If you could have chosen another profession, what would that profession be?
Without a doubt, I would be a jazz pianist. I crave music so badly it hurts to listen to it sometimes. I am absolutely positive that I was a musician in another life.
Q: Would you give up being an author for that profession or have you combined the best of both worlds?
I would love to do both. Wouldn’t that be fun?
Q: How do you see yourself in ten years?
I hope that I have accomplished a small, but admirable body of work in ten years. That is my goal.
Q: Any final words for writers who dream of being published one day?
Hang in there. Believe in yourself even when nobody else does.
Whoever you are, whatever your skills and experiences, you can use what you have gained in life to help change the world. In connection with The Finishers Project, The Second-Half Adventure will enable you to analyze where you have been, where you want to go in the second-half of your life, and how to start preparing today.
Through the stories of individuals and couples who have found meaningful involvements—from business people to housewives, from engineers to artists—this book will help you infuse your special God-given years with purpose and eternal significance.
Kay has written thirty-six published books, numerous magazine articles, and two screenplays. Four of her books have been chosen as book club selections, eleven have been translated into foreign languages, and one was optioned for a movie. Her writing is also included in numerous volumes and compilations, including the bestselling Conversations on Purpose for Women (Zondervan 2005) and various editions of the NIV Devotional Bibles.
In addition to her writing, Kay taught writing classes through the California State University system for ten years, and still teaches at writers conferences around the country. In 2008, she was invited to India to teach writing in order to give a voice to those not normally heard. A sought-after speaker, Kay is in demand for retreats and special events throughout the US and around the world.
Here’s a peek inside her book:
The fact is, boomers are on the cusp of becoming senior citizens (though they would never use that term!). Whether aching with disappointment over the passage of time or proud of their accomplishments, every seven seconds another one turns fifty. That’s 12,000 people a day. Nearly 4.5 million each year.As boomers enter the second half of life, because of their sheer numbers, they are poised to rock society all over again. As I write this, approximately 35 million Americans are age sixty-five or older. By the year 2030 that number will have doubled to a whopping 70 million.
Some who look at this burgeoning population have raised a collective gasp of alarm. “What are we going to do with all those old folks?” they cry. “What will happen to our society? It’s only going to get more and more decrepit!”
Those people underestimate baby boomers. Boomers have never done anything in the same old way things had always been done before, so why would they start now? The fact is, they are already in the process of reinventing retirement. And without a doubt, they are the ones to do it. Not only because of who and what they are, but because they are approaching their second half healthier, more educated, and more full of vigorous years than any generation that preceded
them. They may be getting older, but they definitely remain a vital force to be reckoned with.
…
Now consider for a moment: What if boomer retirees, whose passion is for God, were to take Christ’s teachings seriously? What if they were to determine to use their acquired skills and expertise to demonstrate God’s love to the world in practical ways? Imagine what could
happen!
“The unique values and sheer numbers of the boomer generation have not taken God by surprise,” Don Parrott of Finishers noted. “I believe He has been preparing exactly the kind of workforce He would need from North America at this time in history.”
You can find out more about Kay Marshall Strom or her new book, The Second-Half Adventure: Don’t Just Retire – Use Your Time, Skills & Resources to Change the World at www.kaystrom.com.
We’ve got a free book giveaway going on at Pump Up Your Book today only!
Jackie Griffey, author of the cozy mystery novel, The Devil in Merrivale, will be giving away a free electronic copy of her book from now until 11 p.m. tonight.
When she’s not reading one, Jackie Griffey is more than likely working on a cozy mystery or a romance-suspense novel. She and her family live in Arkansas and she loves to meet and hear from readers and fellow writers. Her web is www.jackiegriffey.com and her blog, Breaktime With Jackie is jjgbreaktimewithjackie.blogspot.com.
About The Devil in Merrivale
Murder isn’t the usual order of business in the little town of Merrivale, Tennessee, so the brutal stabbing death of popular high school student Denise Davis sends a shock through the community. Sheriff Cas Larkin is determined to find the killer, and the last thing he needs is distractions like the increasing reports of missing cattle and other livestock.
But as he digs deeper, Cas uncovers another mystery–a strange “club” the members are afraid to talk about, and for good reason. One of the recruits is brutally beaten when he refuses to take the club’s activities seriously. He also refuses to talk about those activities–until they turn turn deadly.
There’s something dark and sinister going on in Merrivale, and if Cas can’t figure out what it is and put a stop to it, there’ll be the devil to pay.
Moonlight Falls’ author, Vincent Zandri, is an award-winning novelist, essayist and freelance photojournalist. His novel As Catch Can (Delacorte) was touted in two pre-publication articles by Publishers Weekly and was called “Brilliant” upon its publication by The New York Post. The Boston Herald attributed it as “The most arresting first crime novel to break into print this season.” Other novels include Godchild (Bantam/Dell) and Permanence (NPI). Translated into several languages including Japanese and the Dutch, Zandri’s novels have also been sought out by numerous major movie producers, including Heyday Productions and DreamWorks. Presently he is the author of the blogs, Dangerous Dispatches and Embedded in Africa for Russia Today TV (RT). He also writes for other global publications, including Culture 11, Globalia and Globalspec. Zandri’s nonfiction has appeared in New York Newsday, Hudson Valley Magazine, Game and Fish Magazine and others, while his essays and short fiction have been featured in many journals including Fugue, Maryland Review and Orange Coast Magazine. He holds an M.F.A. in Writing from Vermont College and is a 2010 International Thriller Writer’s Awards panel judge. Zandri currently divides his time between New York and Europe. He is the drummer for the Albany-based punk band to Blisterz. You can visit his website at www.vincentzandri.com or his blog at http://vincentzandri.blogspot.com/.
