Deeply Hidden Mormon Conspiracy

Compelling and undeniably enthralling, The Mormon Candidate is a new political thriller by Avraham Azrieli.

This excellent mystery begins with an accidental death of a motorcyclist during a Veterans’ ride. But what protagonist Ben Teller uncovers is a conspiracy originating deep within the Mormon Church, aimed at protecting a prominent member who’s running for president. Both political and religious drama makes this intricate novel one you can’t put down.

The plot’s strong religious undercurrents will likely draw some Mormons to defensive protestations reminiscent of stormy Catholic reactions to The Da Vinci’s Code. Fictional at the core, The Mormon Candidate’s characters bring you right in from start to finish. Ben Teller is witty and intractable—you’ll want to stay with him for every flare-up of action and shocking discovery.

Growing up, author Avraham Azrieli attended religious schools, resulting in a lifelong fascination with the power of different faiths over our social discourse, ideological forces, and political processes. Having been trained both as a lawyer and a writer, he developed a keen interest in politics and justice.

In recent years, the rise to national political prominence of men like Harry Reid, Orrin Hatch, and Mitt Romney made many Americans curious about Mormonism – a relatively young faith (born in upstate New York while the Erie Canal was being dug). Mormons, who define themselves unabashedly as “peculiar people,” emphasize male dominance in the family, secretive hierarchical authority, and total obedience to LDS church leaders, elements that conflict with mainstream American values.

As a reader, Azrieli found very few novels that featured Mormonism, and none in the political/thriller genre, which caused him to embark on writing one. He conducted extensive research to make sure that the fictional characters’ story is told against a realistic and accurate background. (A bibliography of selected sources is appended at the end of the novel.)

The result is nothing short of exciting: in writing The Mormon Candidate, he managed to explore Mormonism, politics, and the dramatic way faith drives motivation and dictates action – both for good and for evil. With great attention to detail and the thrill of a suspenseful mystery, The Mormon Candidate is a timely and provocative novel you don’t want to miss.

Review copies and author interviews are available upon request. Contact Avraham Azrieli - Avraham(at)AzrieliBooks.com

Super-Sized Waistlines

According to the CDC: (http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/adult.html/)

• More than one-third of U.S. adults (35.7%) are obese.

• No state has met the nation's Healthy People 2010 goal to lower obesity prevalence to 15%. The number of states with an obesity prevalence of 30% or more has increased to 12 states in 2010. In 2009, nine states had obesity rates of 30% or more. In 2000, no state had an obesity prevalence of 30% or more.

• Obesity-related conditions include heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and certain types of cancer, some of the leading causes of death.

• In 2008, medical costs associated with obesity were estimated at $147 billion; the medical costs paid by third-party payors for people who are obese were $1,429 higher than those of normal weight.

Author and recording artist Bobby Tinsley says, “Everywhere you look today, it seems as though there is another advertisement for a super-sized portion of food! The enormous portion sizes we eat have caused a bulge around the waistlines of Americans... one that seem to be expanding more every day. On top of the increased food intake, people are becoming less and less active. This is a formula for disaster, and one of the many reasons obesity is at an all time high. Between my junior and senior years of high school I gained nearly 100 pounds due to massively overeating. It started out as something I was doing for Football, and quickly turned into a lifestyle of huge portions and high calorie foods. When I decided to pursue my dream of becoming a recording artist, I educated myself on the power of food, and used my new found knowledge along with a healthy exercise program to lose those pounds and get in tip top shape. Anyone can change their body and their life, it just takes the right knowledge, along with a long term commitment to accomplish their goals.”

Before

After

Tinsley discusses his struggle with obesity in his new book. The Difference is a book comprised of chapters that mirror each song on the author’s upcoming album by the same name. However, the book is much more than a simple commentary on his music. It’s a story that speaks to everyone about following their dreams and making a difference. Tinsley says, “Every person has a circle of influence unique to them. If we focus on making a difference in those lives, what may seem insignificant is the way we change the world.”

Bobby Tinsley is available for interviews, performances, speaking engagements, and the book is available for review. Contact: KR Winston - ctltemp(at)gmail.com

About the author:

Bobby Tinsley is a multi-talented singer/songwriter/producer who uses his musical ability to communicate through song touching people from all walks of life. Not a newcomer to the music scene, Bobby has worked with many of the top names in the industry and began to write, record, and produce for others simultaneously. His first CD, "Page 1," generated a Top 40 Christian CHR single with the song "Addicted."

Galaxy of Immortal Women: The Yin Side of Chinese Civilization

In a world where concern and curiosity about China are on the rise, Brian Griffith presents a different face of China and another side of its story. In A Galaxy of Immortal Women: The Yin Side of Chinese Civilization, he explores the countercultures of China’s founding mothers, village wise women, local saints, goddesses, and ordinary heroines. He tells a story of their accomplishments, values and religions, from the first Neolithic villages to globalized Shanghai. This is an account blending mythology, archaeology, history, folklore, literature, religion, and journalism into one vast, captivating story. In the future, this counterculture will increasingly influence and even inspire the world.

Griffith is an independent historian whose impeccable research reveals the important influence of women’s values and religions in shaping China. He shows how women’s visions and religious leaders changed folk culture, Daoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism. These women’s popular traditions offer an alternative kind of wisdom about health, sexuality, community, spirituality, harmony with nature, and partnership between men and women.

It might seem odd for a man raised in Texas to write about Chinese goddesses, but Griffith feels it’s a natural for men to admire women’s accomplishments. Also, from meeting great Christian, Jewish, and Muslim women in North America, he realized that these people commonly have their own versions of seemingly male-controlled religions. They ask their own questions and give their own answers. Rather that asking, "What does the ultimate authority require?" they tend to ask, "How good can our relations with others get?" Griffith wondered what woman-made religions might look like, and turned to learning about the vast women-created spiritual traditions of China. He found extraordinary people whose beauty, wisdom, and strength he could really admire.

Review copies and author interviews are available upon request. Contact Brian Griffith - pkbgriffith(at)yahoo.ca

Does Evil Have a Color?

Riveting!

Connie (Corcoran) Wilson writes about what we are terrified to talk about—the truth.

Wilson’s main character,  Tad McGreevy, has a power that many would consider a curse. He can see colors, auras, around everyone he meets. Every aura tells Tad whether the individual is good or evil. Wilson takes us through the story rooting for Tad, who has one goal: to protect those he loves from the evil that lurks among us.

Pogo is the hired clown at Tad’s 8th birthday party. After meeting Pogo (aka Michael Clay), Tad relives every terrifying detail of the Killer Clown’s actions,  fearfully relating the horrifying details to his disbelieving family in the middle of the night. They insist Tad is simply having bad dreams and must not tell anyone of his unique power.

The catch? Tad doesn’t know if the crimes he is witnessing occurred in the past, the present or the future.

With each line, Wilson holds our interest, keeping us glued to the story, connecting with us via Tad’s vulnerability.  The message: dark people and places can live quietly, right next door to you.  The Color of Evil is a frightening and intense story of the darkness that lurks in seemingly typical small town America.

Wilson displays her true colors as a formidable writer in creating this graphic page-turner of a tale.



Wilson is a graduate of the University of Iowa (English/Journalism) with a Master's and 30 hours from WIU (Western IL Univ), NIU (Northern IL Univ), Berkeley and the University of Chicago. She taught writing at 6 IA/IL colleges and has written for 5 newspapers and numerous blogs, including her own (www.WeeklyWilson.com). She is a featured contributor to Yahoo, named 2008 Content Producer for Politics for its forerunner, Associated Content, a 400,000 member blog.  Her short stories have appeared in numerous online and print journals.

She taught junior high school students for close to 20 years, then founded a Sylvan Learning Center and a Prometric Testing Center, which she owned and operated as CEO until 2003. She covers politics, movies and television for Yahoo and has written 10 books since 2003. Connie Wilson’s  2 children ( born 20 years apart) are Scott, who has twin three-year-old daughters and lives in Chicago with wife Jessica, and Stacey, a graduate of Belmont University in Nashville, who is currently living and working in Australia.

Review copies and author interviews  available upon request.

Contact: Connie Wilson - einnoc10(at)aol.com
Read more at www.ConnieCWilson.com and watch the trailer at www.TheColorOfEvil.com.

Books are available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble retailers.

No Easy Times for Innovative Women

The 1960s were no easy times for innovative women, especially in Catholic, New Orleans suburbia. Jeanette Vaughan eloquently and vehemently wrote a novel depicting the true-life story of Nora Broussard Greenwood’s vision of aviation and society’s very demands of that dream. Vaughan’s main character, Nora, had vision and strength. However, like any vision and pathway to a big dream, there are often obstacles one must overcome—even if they try and break you.

Nora conquered what women were prohibited to do; she “traded her formals for a flight suit and learned how to fly,” and for the first time she felt free. Freedom, however, has a price, and that price almost made her lose her children and her heart. She caused uneasiness to societal rules and had to pay the penalties for her independent spirit.

A story so truly captivating, you will feel undefeatable and inspired, or possibly start a new chapter in your life.  Nora makes you understand that dreams are what you make of them—how you forge through is based on your choices and those choices will have outcomes. Flying Solo is a narrative that will inspire your own pioneering will, teach you lessons, and may inspire your dreams to soar. One can identify with the well fleshed out characters. The aviation pieces make you feel like you are in the cockpit. A total page turner from the start.

Flying Solo is available for review, and Jeanette Vaughan is available for interviews.

Contact: Jeanette Vaughan - jeanettevaughan(at)ageviewpress.com

Active Duty Soldier Writes Fiction about Interrogation

Author interviews and review copies are available upon request. Contact Jeffrey Hopkins - hardoakpress(at)gmail.com.

Jeffrey Hopkins has discovered a way to escape the stress and strain of active duty military service and to make a difference in the world. He writes fiction based on his experiences and all proceeds from the sale of Broken Under Interrogation will be donated to Veterans’ causes. Hopkins founded an independent press company in 2010 called The Hard Oak Press. Broken Under Interrogation is being converted into a screenplay.

The book is very intense. Unlike anything you’ve ever read. It is like looking at a horrible car accident. No matter what you do, you cannot look away; it’s like watching a train wreck unfold before your eyes.

“Jeffrey Hopkins writes with such brutal force that reading his novel BROKEN UNDER INTERROGATION at first seems a story too explosive to explore. But at the same time his gift for the art of writing prose is so concomitantly eloquent that it is impossible not to stay with him: the trust he offers in the opening chapters, chapters that survey where our country is now and has recently been hit the center of the target of sociological observation. The book is powerful on many levels and while the readers who seek thrillers will be more than satisfied, those of us who look for more than action - for substance that comes from examining the past to reshape the possibilities for the future - there is much to be gained by spending time with this book.”

-Grady Harp

Hall of Fame Amazon Reviewer

The story portrays three main characters:

John Powers - former U.S. Army Intelligence Officer, the mastermind behind an insane vigilante campaign to rid his town of drug dealers. John suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and upon getting discharged from military service, cannot give up targeting "enemies". He uses the techniques, tactics, and procedures he learned in Iraq to take the fight to the "enemy" in his hometown of Peoria, Illinois. John acts as the intelligence officer and de facto commander of the "secret Army," the brains behind the operation and the rational brake to the operation. He is obsessed with collecting evidence on drug dealers and requires evidence to "prosecute" them.

Mike Miller - a former U.S. Army Infantryman and the operations officer of the vigilante plot after meeting John Powers in the Veteran's Administration Hospital. Miller suffers horrible flashbacks from his multiple combat deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan. A methamphetamine addict, Miller thrives on the violence of their operations. He is a ruthless, violent bastard. He enjoys killing and comes to enjoy torture.

Garrett Moore - a brutal Interrogator for the Police Force. He's washed-up has-been, and he knows it. His character is opaque, and you never really find out his ultimate motivations until the thrilling conclusion.

John Powers is apprehended by the Police in Peoria, IL and undergoes a series of brutal interrogations at the hands of the Police Force. John tries his best to divert the interrogator from Mike and the rest of the Secret Army by sharing anecdotes from Iraq, and also embarking on flashbacks from Iraq, and suffering brutality at the hands of Garrett Moore.

Jeffrey M. Hopkins has been on three deployments to Iraq, and one to Afghanistan. He has written another novel, The Gideons, and he is currently working on a third. He was graduated in 2003 from the University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign with a degree in Philosophy. Hopkins served in Iraq during the 2006 -2007 Sectarian Violence. He says, “All of the scenes from Iraq could have very well happened during that chaotic, bloody, and violent time when millions of Iraqis perished at the hands of Shi'ite death squads and Sunni terrorist groups.”

Find out more at www.hardoakpress.com and www.wordpress.com/hardoakpress.

Children’s Miracle Network Spokeperson Pens Book

We have all heard the sayings; “Follow your dream!”, “Make a Difference!”, “Believe and Achieve!” Parents, teachers, and motivational speakers have been saying them to us our entire lives. But, how many of us have actually done it? Bobby Tinsley has!

Bobby has become a spokesperson for The Childrens Miracle Network, and through his work with the organization visits children and their families on a regular basis to encourage and uplift them through his music. He wrote a personal song for CMN called "Smile" which has become a hit with children in the hospitals.

The Difference is a book comprised of chapters that mirror each song on the author’s upcoming album by the same name. However, the book is much more than a simple commentary on his music. It’s a story that speaks to everyone about following their dreams and making a difference. Tinsley says, “Every person has a circle of influence unique to them. If we focus on making a difference in those lives, what may seem insignificant is the way we change the world.”

Bobby Tinsley is available for interviews, performances, speaking engagments, and the book is available for review. Contact: KR Winston - ctltemp(at)gmail.com

About the author:

Bobby Tinsley is a multi-talented singer/songwriter/producer who uses his musical ability to communicate through song touching people from all walks of life. Not a newcomer to the music scene, Bobby has worked with many of the top names in the industry and began to write, record, and produce for others simultaneously. His first CD, "Page 1," generated a Top 40 Christian CHR single with the song "Addicted."

How Do I Find Paying Writing Jobs?

photo by Tracy Olson

There are many different online freelance marketplaces where you can acquire writing jobs. There are two major websites top on my list.

www.guru.com

www.elance.com

Each of these websites has a search agent which can e-mail jobs based upon the desired search criteria which you would like. Most of the websites do usually charge a monthly or quarterly subscription fee and take a cut of the job. This can be a great investment because you will have access to writing jobs that you would not normally have seen.

There are many other ways to acquire writing jobs other than using online freelance marketplaces. This is where you can use your creativity in selling yourself. Many companies in need of writing will not normally look online first. They may go towards local contacts and sources that they have because they feel more comfortable using someone who they can physically meet with. You can take advantage of these needs by cultivating contacts within your region. Look into joining your Chamber of Commerce as well as other civic groups. Be sure to bring business cards with you and have a thirty second speech explaining what you do and who you are. Do not work at directly selling yourself to them at first but rather make the connection and allow them to come to you. People are more willing to do business with you when they actually know you rather than just a face on a website or an anonymous bid to a project they post.

Another key when acquiring writing jobs is to make sure that you have a website. Many writers do not have a website, and this can give you a competitive advantage. You can publish some of your past jobs on the Internet so that if people are interested, they can look at your website. You don't have to worry about e-mailing them any information, and they will contact you if they're interested. If you work on SEO, people searching the Internet for writing could also stumble across your website and provide another source of leads for you.

When looking for writing jobs, you must sell yourself and think creatively outside the box. If you set yourself up well, you will find that you will be inundated with work by consistently prospecting for new business using some of the techniques explained above.

Award Winning Publishing, Now Stateside

Award Winning Publishing, Now Stateside

BrightRED Publishing appoints Parkwest Publications to distribute best-selling educational line for High School students

Well-known since 1983 for the North American distribution of general interest books of the early days of the BBC in America as well as middle school hands-on educational books from award-winning Tarquin Publications… Parkwest is excited to announce that they’re doing the same for the hugely successful line of educational books from BrightRED Publishing, Edinburgh, Scotland. Parkwest and BrightRED have teamed up to bring to US and Canadian high schools and students this range of popular, superbly designed, and most important, effective educational titles from a new star in the UK’s publishing firmament – BrightRED Publishing.

BrightRED, though a young company, has already won the UK Independent Publishers Association’s  award for the Educational Publisher of the Year two years in a row (2010 and 2011).  Formed in 2008 by Sarah Mitchell, Richard Bass, John MacPherson and Alan Grierson, BrightRED’s titles target students in high school with books that are in full-color, are bright, accessible and easy to use and cover the complete course.  Quite simply they help high school students of all abilities to know their subject and achieve better marks  in their exams.

BrightRED brings their passion stateside… to inspire young minds to think creatively and achieve their full potential. BrightRED has excited the publishing world with their impressive business acumen, dedication to bringing high-quality educational titles to children, and the drive to be the best in their business.  

Parkwest’s well known and trusted distribution of quality UK books has built an impressive reputation in the US market which will benefit even more with this new and exciting partnership with BrightRED.

American and Canadian high school students, parents and teachers will be thrilled by the possibilities for solid achievement with these BrightRED books.  

      

 Learn about BrightRED and Parkwest by visiting

www.parkwestpubs.com and www.brightredpublishing.co.uk.