Welcome Guest Author Janet K. Brown: Worth Her weight

Short BLURB FOR: Worth Her Weight:

How can a woman who gives to everyone but herself accept God’s love and healing when she believes she’s fat, unworthy, and unfixable? Can she be Worth Her Weight?

5 Questions for Janet K. Brown

STEPH: - What was the inspiration for the story?

 JANET:    I would probably have to say me. I suffered from food addiction and remained overweight much of my life. Twenty-one years ago, God healed me emotionally. I lost ninety-five pounds and have maintained the loss for 18 ½ years. Who knew that God might use me to write of many of my experiences?

     Of course, Lacey’s story in Worth Her Weight is totally fiction, but the fact is we all face emotional highs and lows and many of us suffer from low self esteem or caregiver burn-out. Others might turn to alcohol, gambling, or compulsive spending, but many of us turn to overeating. Any compulsion or addiction can ruin a life.

     Throw in a police chief that’s a hunk with control issues of his own, and I had a story.

STEPH: - How long did it take you to write?

    JANET:  I wrote the first draft in about nine months. That came about seven years ago. My local critique group at the time gave me great suggestions. I improved the story and pitched it to an agent at an American Christian Fiction Writers conference. I was billing it as a romance.

    He asked me, “Is the main goal of this story that the man and woman fall in love?”

     “No,” I said. “The main goal is that Lacey finds healing.”

     “Then you don’t have a romance. And if you don’t have a romance, you should add about twenty thousand words to the story.” It was about sixty thousand words.

     I added twenty thousand words and sent it to a publisher who told me. “We only publish romance, and that’s not a romance.”

     Discouraged, I put the manuscript away for five years. In 2012, I began to work on rewrites and spent another year doing that before I pitched it to Duke Pennell of Pen-L Publishing at the Oklahoma Writers Federated International conference in 2013. At last, I got a contract.

  

STEPH - How does the cover reflect the story?

   JANET:  I love the cover. Kelsey Rice with Pen-L came up with that, but I had some input. The woman is a plus-sized young woman who looks like she has a dream. She makes a perfect Lacey. The clouds with sunshine breaking through speaks of healing and hope.

STEPH: - How long have you been writing?

 JANET:    I’ve been writing something most of my life starting in junior high. I sold a few short stories when my kids were little, but it wasn’t until I retired that I joined writing groups, took workshops, and begun to attend conferences. I actually completed full length manuscripts and submitted them. That was nine years ago.

STEPH: - Fun Question: What's your favorite girl scout cookie?

JANET: Peanut butter patties. Anything with peanut butter in it catches my attention.

AUTHOR BIO:

 Janet K. Brown lives in Wichita Falls, Texas with her husband, Charles. Writing became her second career after retirement from medical coding.

     Worth Her Weight will be the author’s debut inspirational women’s fiction, but it makes a perfect companion to her recently released, Divine Dining: 365 Devotions to Guide You to Healthier Weight and Abundant Wellness. Both books encompass her passion for diet, fitness, and God’s Word.

Worth Her Weight marks Brown’s third book. Who knew she had a penchant for teens and ghosts? She released her debut novel, an inspirational young adult, Victoria and the Ghost, in July, 2012.

     Janet and her husband love to travel with their RV, visit their three daughters, two sons-in-law and three perfect grandchildren, and work in their church.

YOU TUBE BOOK TRAILER:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTotxQGtGn0

Buy links:

This inspirational women’s fiction is available through the publisher at http://www.pen-l.com/WorthHerWeight.html

Amazon:

http://tinyurl.com/kkw94b6

 Barnes & Noble

http://tinyurl.com/lk7cn4f

 Janet K. Brown

Twitter: @JanetKBrownTX

Website: http://www.JanetKBrown.com/

Facebook: http://www.Facebook.com/#!/pages/Janet-K-Brown-Author/143915285641707

Victoria and the Ghost: Available at http://www.4RVpublishingcatalog.com/Janet-Brown.php

Divine Dining: 365 Devotions to Guide You to Healthier Weight and Abundant Wellness. Available at www.pen-l.com/DivineDining.html

Welcome Guest Poet - Melissa Keir #poetrymonth

About Melissa: 

As a writer, Melissa likes to keep current on topics of interest in the world of writing.  She’s a member of the Romance Writers of America, the Mid Michigan chapter of the RWA, and EPIC.  Melissa is always interested in improving her writing through classes and seminars.  She also believes in helping other authors and features authors and their books on her blog.

Melissa doesn’t believe in down time.  She’s always keeping busy.  Melissa is a wife and mother, an elementary school teacher, a book reviewer, co-owner of a publishing company as well as an author. Her home blends two families and is a lot like the Brady Bunch, without Alice- a large grocery bill, tons of dirty dishes and a mound of laundry. She loves to write stories that feature “happy endings” and is often found plotting her next story.

STEPH: How long have you been writing poetry?

MELISSA: I began writing poetry in junior high. I loved using the creative words to express my feelings. Of course being a teenager, feelings were the focus of my life. I have a huge number of my sappy love poems from that time. They all had rhymes and were mostly about lost or unrequited love as well as my feelings.

I left poetry for many years as I became a wife and mother. Finally, I went back to college when my children were both in elementary school. I was fortunate to have some wonderful instructors who breathed new life into my poetry (and reading) experiences.

STEPH: What your favorite style of poetry?

MELISSA: My favorite style of poetry is the free verse that evokes either feelings or thoughts by the reader.

STEPH: Who is your favorite poet?

MELISSA: This was a challenge. I love so many different poets but my two favorite poets are Langston Hughes and Margaret Atwood. I was given both of these authors in college for assignments. I really hadn’t known anything about them until I was *forced* to write about them and analyze their work. Now I can’t imagine life without their works.

STEPH: What's their favorite poem that they wrote?

MELISSA: I highly recommend Margaret Atwood’s short book “Good Bones and Simple Murders”. It has not only poetry but a unique look at life. One of my favorite pieces by her is “Gertrude Talks Back” where Hamlet’s mother basically gives him some advice.

Helen of Troy Does Countertop Dancing

The world is full of women
who'd tell me I should be ashamed of myself
if they had the chance. Quit dancing.
Get some self-respect
and a day job.
Right. And minimum wage,
and varicose veins, just standing
in one place for eight hours
behind a glass counter
bundled up to the neck, instead of
naked as a meat sandwich.
Selling gloves, or something.
Instead of what I do sell.
You have to have talent
to peddle a thing so nebulous
and without material form.
Exploited, they'd say. Yes, any way
you cut it, but I've a choice
of how, and I'll take the money.

I do give value.
Like preachers, I sell vision,
like perfume ads, desire
or its facsimile. Like jokes
or war, it's all in the timing.
I sell men back their worse suspicions:
that everything's for sale,
and piecemeal. They gaze at me and see
a chain-saw murder just before it happens,
when thigh, ass, inkblot, crevice, tit, and nipple
are still connected.
Such hatred leaps in them,
my beery worshippers! That, or a bleary
hopeless love. Seeing the rows of heads
and upturned eyes, imploring
but ready to snap at my ankles,
I understand floods and earthquakes, and the urge
to step on ants. I keep the beat,
and dance for them because
they can't. The music smells like foxes,
crisp as heated metal
searing the nostrils
or humid as August, hazy and languorous
as a looted city the day after,
when all the rape's been done
already, and the killing,
and the survivors wander around
looking for garbage
to eat, and there's only a bleak exhaustion.
Speaking of which, it's the smiling
tires me out the most.
This, and the pretence
that I can't hear them.
And I can't, because I'm after all
a foreigner to them.
The speech here is all warty gutturals,
obvious as a slab of ham,
but I come from the province of the gods
where meanings are lilting and oblique.
I don't let on to everyone,
but lean close, and I'll whisper:
My mother was raped by a holy swan.
You believe that? You can take me out to dinner.
That's what we tell all the husbands.
There sure are a lot of dangerous birds around.

Not that anyone here
but you would understand.
The rest of them would like to watch me
and feel nothing. Reduce me to components
as in a clock factory or abattoir.
Crush out the mystery.
Wall me up alive
in my own body.
They'd like to see through me,
but nothing is more opaque
than absolute transparency.
Look--my feet don't hit the marble!
Like breath or a balloon, I'm rising,
I hover six inches in the air
in my blazing swan-egg of light.
You think I'm not a goddess?
Try me.
This is a torch song.
Touch me and you'll burn. 

Margaret Atwood

Langston Hughes had an amazing life with two parents who basically didn’t want to raise him. His poetry opened up discussions about race and helped bring about the equal rights movement.

Genius Child

This is a song for the genius child.
Sing it softly, for the song is wild.
Sing it softly as ever you can -
Lest the song get out of hand.

Nobody loves a genius child.

Can you love an eagle,
Tame or wild?
Can you love an eagle,
Wild or tame?
Can you love a monster
Of frightening name?

Nobody loves a genius child.

Kill him - and let his soul run wild. 

Langston Hughes

STEPH: What inspired your poem?

MELISSA: My poetry is inspired by taking a unique look at the fairy tales and stories we heard growing up. I have poetry that focuses on the part Disney played in our life as well as how media’s emphasis on looks has warped our images.

A Twisted Fairy Tale

By Melissa Keir

Little Red Riding Hood?

Boy, they got that all wrong.

She was hot, you know, what a looker-

Not at all little, nicely rounded.

And she had hair to match that temper

like the sun, all fiery and golden.

After looking at her,

I never even noticed

a basket of goodies.

She walked in the woods everyday

with that wiggle and bounce in her step,

Trying to get my attention.

But I was too busy

with my work, and couldn’t

stop for her.

One day last week, maybe Tuesday?

She gave me that smile, you know the one.

And asked for my help picking

flowers for her sick Grandma.

Just the thought of her sick Grandma,

I had to help.

Then it happened-

As we were picking flowers,

She laid her cape on the grass-

She was all over me

like a treat to a starving man.

She was like an animal.

But when her boyfriend,

the Big Bad Hunter saw us,

She freaked- And blamed me.

She called me a Wolf

and said that I was after her basket of goodies.

So that’s the story, officer.

I’m innocent, not an animal

just misunderstood.

It’s girls like her who give

Fairy Tales a bad name.

FIND MELISSA AT:

http://www.melissakeir.com

http://www.melissakeir.com/blog.html

http://www.facebook.com/authormelissakeir

http://www.facebook.com/melissaakeir

http://www.twitter.com/melissa_keir 

Welcome Guest Poet: Linda Swift #poetry #npm

STEPH: Linda, it's great to have you here on the blog. How long have you been writing poetry?

LINDA: I first wrote poems when I was ten. Don't ask how long ago that was! And at that time I can recall reading one to the entire church membership at Sunday morning service celebrating Children's Day. I also read for a group of my mother's grownup relatives who had invited me to lunch to share my poems. I've written poems sporadically throughout my life and I'm currently putting together a collection of my poems spanning several forms and subjects which I am aptly calling "A Potpourri of Poems."

STEPH: Do you have a favorite poetry style?

LINDA: I like and write a variety of styles. Among my favorites are sonnets, ballads, and haiku, but overall I'd say lyric poetry--rhymed or unrhymed-- is my choice. I currently have two published poetry books at Amazon. One is prose poetry about flawed characters and puzzling events in the Bible titled Humanly Speaking: Conversations With God.  The other is a collection of haiku  arranged by four seasons titled Song of Every Season. Both books are beautifully illustrated and available in print ($11.99) and ebook ($1.49)

STEPH: Who is your favorite poet?

LINDA: Emily Dickinson because her poems contain so much in so few words. But Edna St. Vincent Millay is a close second. Then there's Sara Teasdale, Robert Frost, Henry W. Longfellow and so many more from the past. My favorites, as you can see, are poets who write simple, understandable poems about ordinary people and things but their words touch me.

STEPH: What is their favorite poem of yours and why?

LINDA: Oh, dear, how can I choose a favorite of Emily Dickinson when there are so many I love? Without titles, I will just mention first lines of a couple.  "Hope is the thing with feathers…" and  "Success is counted sweetest…"   And for Edna St. Vincent Millay it is her short poem that begins "My candle burns at both ends…" that is so memorable to me.

STEPH: What is your poem about?

LINDA: Moonflower is about love with an image of nature in the background. I have many more poems that include autumn, my favorite time of year (and season when I am most creative and have written the most poems). But we are romance writers and it is spring so I have chosen a poem which includes both.  The poem doesn't have a deep meaning; it is just a moment caught in time by a word picture that I hope will speak to your heart.

 Thanks for inviting me to participate in your celebration of Poetry Month. It's always a pleasure to share my poems with old friends and new.

MOONFLOWER

We stand together in the night
Shadowed by the gnarled old tree
Spreading its blooms of silver-white
To form a scented canopy.
A soft warm wind
Throws a blossom in my hair
And you stay my reaching hand
With a whispered, "Leave it there.
It's a moonflower for a moongirl,
Playing hide-and-seek with moonlight."
Silver silence fills our moonworld,
Two moonlovers in the night.

Bio:
Linda Swift and her husband divide their time between their native state Kentucky and Florida, stopping en route to visit their children in Nashville. She currently has thirteen books available in ebook and print, with seven short stories in ebook only. These include poetry, contemporary, historical, and speculative fiction. Linda invites you to visit her website for more information.
http://lindaswift.net/

Links to:

Song of Every Season
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=+Song+of+Every+Season+by+linda+swift&rh=n%3A283155%2Ck%3A+Song+of+Every+Season+by+linda+swift

Humanly Speaking: Conversations With God
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Humanly%20speaking%20by%20linda%20swift

Welcome Guest Author - Penny Ehrenkranz Interview #pennyehrenkranz #guestauthor

  

Author Penny Ehrenkranz

Penny: Hi Stephanie, thank you for hosting me today and giving me the opportunity to talk about Mirror, Mirror, published by MuseItUp Publishing. 

Giveaway Opportunity: 

I would like to offer an electronic copy of Mirror, Mirror to one of your readers.  They simply need to leave their names, comments, preferably about why they would like a copy of the book, and their contact information.

STEPH: What is Mirror, Mirror about?

PENNY: Mirror, Mirror is a time travel romance. Here’s the blurb: Lindsey Baker is intrigued by everything about the middle ages, but when she purchases an antique mirror and a costume to attend a Renaissance Faire, she suddenly finds herself transported back in time.  There she finds she’s been called by a witch to right a terrible wrong. 

Graham loves Prudence, but he can’t marry her because he’s landed gentry, and she is only the baker’s daughter.  Before Lindsey can return to her own time, she must convince Graham to marry against his father’s wishes.  Unfortunately, she also finds herself falling for the handsome gentleman.

Can she find her way back to her own time, or will she be stuck in a time when women had no rights?

STEPH: How long did it take you to write?

PENNY: This is a twenty-seven-page story, so it wasn’t a long involved project.  It only took me a few days to do the first draft.  Of course, after that came the revisions before submitting and the editing once it was accepted for publication.

STEPH: What was the inspiration behind the story?

PENNY: Our small community actually hosted a Renn Faire one year, which I was able to attend.  As I wandered around the faire grounds, I kept wondering what it would be like if someone who followed these faires around the country would be transported back in time to an era where they would be forced to live out their fantasies.

STEPH: How does the cover reflect the story?

PENNY: I think the artist, Suzannah Safi, did an excellent job of depicting a young woman who is conflicted by her circumstances.  The cover art also lets the potential reader know the story is set in bygone times.

STEPH:  Lindsey Baker is the heroine. What are her strengths? Weaknesses?

PENNY: Lindsey’s strengths lie in her determination to succeed and her belief in her own abilities.  She’s gutsy and doesn’t go into a panic when she finds herself in a new and unbelievable situation. Her main weakness is also part of her strength.  She simply cannot believe that she can’t do the things she was able to do in her own time, such as read and write. Her other weakness is Graham…

STEPH: Graham is the hero. What attracts him to the heroine?

PENNY: Graham actually believes Lindsey is his own love, Prudence.  He doesn’t know Lindsey was magically transported to his time to convince him to marry Prudence. Through an old crone’s sorcery, Lindsey appears to all who see her as Prudence.

He has loved Prudence since they were children.  Of course, he is also a bit confused that “his” Prudence is suddenly so headstrong and determined to prove she is far more capable than women should be in his time.

STEPH:  Tell us about your writing space.

PENNY: I have three places I enjoy working.  My office is located near my bedroom and has a wonderful wraparound desk for my desktop computer and tons of bookshelves for all my reference books and little treasures I’ve collected over the years. In this room, I have a window that looks out through my sunroom into my side garden. I also like to sit in my Ikea chair with my feet on a footrest and my laptop secure on my lap.  When I sit here, I’m joined by both my small LhasaPoo dogs and commonly my cat as well. Here, too, I have a lovely view of my side garden through a wall of picture windows.  Lastly, when the weather is warm, I enjoy sitting on my patio with my laptop, enjoying the birds and butterflies and flower aromas.

STEPH:  Do you have any advice to aspiring authors?

PENNY: My best bit of advice is to have faith in yourself as a writer.  If you enjoy writing, if you’ve studied the genre in which you want to write, if you’ve perfected your grammar and writing skills, then don’t be afraid to submit.  What one editor might not like, another might love.  It sometimes just comes down to being in the right place at the right time with the right story.

STEPH: Fun Question: What's your favorite sport or hobby?

PENNY: Is reading a sport? LOL.  I’m not very sports oriented, so I will answer with my favorite hobby being crocheting and crafting.

STEPH: What book did you read recently?

PENNY: I’ve read several recently including the Divergent series, which was well written, and Orphan Train, which I loved. I tend to enjoy fantasy and science fiction, but I belong to a book group that forces me to expand into genres I might not try on my own.  Orphan Train was on our book group list, and I’m glad I had the opportunity to read it.

STEPH: I'm reading the Divergent series now and I'm totally hooked! Love it. Just finished Insurgent and it has the BEST ending for a 2nd book in a series that I've read yet! 

BUY LINKS FOR MIRROR MIRROR :

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Mirror-Penny-Lockwood-Ehrenkranz-ebook/dp/B006R0A3KY/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

MuseItUP: http://museituppublishing.com/bookstore/index.php/now-available-in-ebook/mirror-mirror-detail

Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/mirror-mirror-penny-lockwood-ehrenkranz/1108148500?ean=2940032955863

ENJOY THIS EXCERPT:

After Stefany left, Lindsey adjusted the water spigots on her tub.  A few drops of bubble bath went into the water, and the soothing scent of lavender filled the moist, steamy air.  While the tub filled, Lindsey tried on her Renaissance outfit for the upcoming Faire. She couldn’t believe her good luck at finding the perfect pieces.  She tested the bath water to be sure it was the right temperature. Then she picked up her antique mirror to get a better view. Was this a scryer’s mirror at some point in time? It slipped from her wet hands into the bathtub.

“Nuts,” she mumbled as she leaned over the tub.  She pulled one sleeve up on her blouse and fished around in the bubbles for the mirror. When she pulled the mirror from the water, spots appeared in front of her eyes, and she felt faint.  While she watched her reflection in the old mirror, the background changed.  She no longer saw the inside of her bathroom.  She closed her eyes as the room around her went black.

AMAZON REVIEWS:

 4.0 out of 5 stars

Time Travel or Magic, August 30, 2013

By Marva Dasef "YA Fantasy Author" (Eugene, OR) 

This review is from: Mirror, Mirror (Kindle Edition)

Lindsay loves antiques, spending a large portion of her time searching through dusty shops. One day, she finds an old mirror which has to have. Hey, for only $9.99, why not? She takes the mirror home and proceeds to dress up for the upcoming Renaissance Faire in full medieval wench array. Checking her image in the mirror...zap! She falls on her butt in a muddy courtyard amidst a pile of dirty laundry.

She soon finds herself scrubbing shirts and getting the 411 from a crone, who gleefully lets Lindsay know she's been grabbed up from the future to help a young scullery maid named Prudence capture the hand of Lord Graham. While he loves Prudence, his father will not allow his only son to marry the maid.

Lindsay realizes she has to solve Prudence's problem by getting Graham to stand up to his old man. She uses her 21st C. smarts to unite the star-crossed couple and, by so doing, get her ticket back through the mirror to her own time.

I enjoyed this short time travel by magic short story. I'm not a big romance fan, but I couldn't help but root for Lindsay's match-making skills to unite Graham and Prudence. I got the fantasy story I like, and the romance readers get a sweet romance with a happy ending.

4.0 out of 5 stars

Good reading!, June 7, 2013

By DB - 

Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)

This review is from: Mirror, Mirror (Kindle Edition)

A very short time travel. A nice little story of love in the Middle Ages. All I can say is that it was to short!

5.0 out of 5 stars

Yesterday=Today, June 2, 2013

By Lady Bug Lin "Ladybug Lin Reviews" (United States) 

This review is from: Mirror, Mirror (Kindle Edition)

Have you ever wondered what it must be like to, without warning or design, be like Alice and fall through the equivalent of the rabbit hole, or melt into the Looking Glass?

Penny Lockwood Ehrenkranz takes us, her attentive readers, on just such a ride in this, her latest Muse It Up Publishing historical romp.

Poor Lindsey, Penny's heroine...buys an antique mirror rumored to have belonged, in days gone by, to a

scryer. Is it true? How can one tell?

Into the bathtub it falls, and through the tendrils of time, Lindsey is swept...called by the ancient scryer...There's a task she must perform...all on her own. If she fails, will she remain locked into this ancient piece of history?

Penny Lockwood Ehrenkranz is a brilliant author who gives you, right from the opening dilemma all the way through the satisfying conclusion, delightful reading pleasure.

Mirror, Mirror is a fantastic, powerful read. My only criticism is I wish it had been longer. Still it is a DYNAMIC story worthy of all our eyes, so I take great pleasure is awarding it 5 shining stars.

Well Done Penny.

5.0 out of 5 stars

Couldn't Put It Down, March 27, 2013

By Janet Glaser 

This review is from: Mirror, Mirror (Kindle Edition)

I opened Mirror, Mirror, to the first page and never stopped reading this amazing story till the end. Ms. Ehrenkranz easily moves us from contemporary time to the Middle Ages. The shift is so well done and smooth. But the reader knows where she is at all times because the language and descriptions are appropriate for the time change. Loved the twist at the end. Very satisfying.

5.0 out of 5 stars

A delightful time travel romance!, April 7, 2012

By S.Durham 

This review is from: Mirror, Mirror (Kindle Edition)

Mirror Mirror is a delightful short story about a modern young woman, who, by way of an ancient scrying mirror, quite literally `falls' into the year 1421.

When Lindsey Baker, who loves all things renaissance, finds herself abruptly transported back to the fifteenth century, and is tasked with convincing the handsome Master of the manor (Graham) to marry against his father's wishes, identities and emotions become befuddled, passions ignite, and Lindsey must sort it all out before she is lost, not only in time, but to the man she's fallen in love with.

Ms. Ehrenkranz has created a gutsy heroine (even humorous at times) in Lindsey Baker, making this a cleverly plotted romance and an absolute page turner all the way to the surprising end!

5.0 out of 5 stars

Fun dip into the middle ages, March 28, 2012

By Edith (Nürnberg, Deutschland) 

This review is from: Mirror, Mirror (Kindle Edition)

As a fan of the middle ages, I was intrigued by the blurb of this story and didn't get disappointed. The writing is great and beautifully reflects the time shifts. Lindsey's a vividly drawn character and ideal for the mission she's whisked away to although she might not agree. The ending had me balk at first until a fantastic twist made me laugh out loud. Nice one, Ms. Ehrenkranz!