From Biography to Novel by John Bell

The Circumstantial Enemy started as a request from my daughter to chronicle her grandfather’s war stories. The family had heard them and over again – tales of trials and tribulations as a young Croatian pilot coerced onto the wrong side of WWII in 1941. “If you don’t write it, Grandad’s story will be lost forever,” she had said to me. Her request was hard to resist; my career as a CEO of a large company had come to an end and I had taken on some consulting work that required a heap of travel and plenty of lonely nights in hotels. That afforded me the time to write. And so began my journey as an author.

With enough copies of his biography published for the family and a few generations to come, I thought I was done as a writer. Not so. I went on to pen blogs about leadership, strategy and branding on my website CEOafterlife.com. Three years and a hundred+ blogs later, I thought back to Grandad’s story, wondering if I could fictionalize it into a thrilling novel. After penning a few chapters, I realized that I was in over my head. I didn’t write another word for a year because I was reading everything I could get my hands on about how to write fiction.

After nearly ten years of research, writing, editing, rewriting, and seeking an agent and/or publisher, my novel was released in October 2017.

About The Circumstantial Enemy

When Croatia becomes a Nazi puppet state in 1941, carefree pilot Tony Babic finds himself forcibly aligned with Hitler’s Luftwaffe. Unbeknownst to Tony, his sweetheart Katarina and best friend Goran have taken the side of the opposing communist partisans. The threesome are soon to discover that love and friendship will not circumvent this war’s ideals. Downed by the Allies in the Adriatic Sea, Tony survives a harrowing convalescence before being shipped to a prisoner of war camp in America.  But with the demise of the Third Reich, he considers the kind of life that awaits him in the homeland under communist rule. Will he be persecuted as an enemy of the state for taking the side of Hitler? And then there is Katarina; in letters she confesses her love, but not her deceit… Does her heart still belong to him?

The Circumstantial Enemy is an energetic journey to freedom through minefields of hatred, betrayal, lust and revenge. Rich in incident with interludes of rollicking humor, it’s a story about the strength of the human spirit, and the power of friendship, love and forgiveness.

About John R. Bell

John was born in Chigwell, UK and now resides in Vancouver, Canada. Before becoming an author of business books and historical fiction, he was the CEO of a Fortune 500 company and a global strategy consultant.

Holiday Happiness Starts With Change by Bever-leigh Banfield

It’s no secret that Santa likes good boys and girls, however there is quite a lesser known fact – that the key to holiday happiness is willingness to change. Uncle Harry may make off-color jokes at the holiday table every year, but this year, he doesn’t have to. You may have received granny panties from your grandmother since you were ten years old, but what if she flipped the script this time and gave you an Amazon card instead? Maybe your brothers and sisters bicker relentlessly causing you searing pain every time you jet home for the holidays. And maybe that pain has caused you to act in a manner you aren’t so proud of but you nevertheless undertake year to year.

Well, it doesn’t have to be that way. When difficulties rear their heads – from obstacles at work to tricky romantic entanglements you may encounter – all you have to do is change. And changing is often must easier and faster a process than you might think. When you change your thoughts, you change your feelings, and subsequently your behavior will change. You are the Thinker thinking your thoughts. You have total and utter sovereignty over everything filtering through your mind. You are The Changer and you are The Change. Change can occur in the blink of an eye, and when you change, you change your world.

We are emitting vibrations with every thought, word and deed we bring into your environments, whether we know it or not. Whether we accept that fact or take responsibility for the repercussions we may cause depends on who we want to be and if we decide to think, feel and believe from our highest evolving self.

You can turn on a dime from whatever isn’t working for you and those you touch and decide to switch up into what does work, even if you are not sure what that is. You can banish a negative thought in an instant, replacing it with a lofty one. You can chase away any unwanted emotion by feeling a loving one instead. You change like everything else in the cosmos. Even the reaches of outer space are expanding by birthing new stars and planets into the burgeoning billions of galaxies beyond our comprehension.

You were born to change the world, and you’re meant to do that from the inside out. Change, my friend, is an inside job. You’re doing it all the time, in fact, so it’s best to do it consciously. Once you decide to be a beneficent force, you are unstoppable. Try it this holiday, and you’ll see. You have a magical mojo within you, capable of transforming yourself, your life, and everything that exists. And here is how to start:

• Decide you want to change, that you’re willing and ready, and this is your time.

• Identify things you need to change. Call them out. Nail them down, whatever they are. Meditate on it if you don’t know what they are. Change can set you free.

• Commit to immediately implementing change so you can be healthier, happier, stronger, more at peace. Commit to being a benefit to others and serving the greater good. You’re vital, you matter, you have an effect.

• Dream a humongous ginormous dream that will make the world a better place. Set goals that can bring about lasting change for everybody everywhere. Your dream already exists somewhere, and it’s ready for you to call it forth.

• Make a plan and act on it. Brainstorm the steps you need to take. Jot down the ideas that pop into your mind. You may only be able to see the first step when you start. Keep going. Your plan will take shape.

• Determine the tasks you’ll undertake to execute your master plan. Be sure to set priorities and do what’s most important first. Inspire a team to help you build.

• Persevere no matter what twists and turns may appear along your winding path. No matter what people say or do, be brave, consistent, flexible, and inventive. Believe you’re the one for the job. Learn everything you need to know, and keep going until your dream comes true.

There’s someone you are meant to be and something you are meant to do. Go out and change the world!

Why Sentinels of the Night’s Scott Fleming is My Favorite Character by Author Anita Dickason

Sentinels of the Night is the debut novel for the Trackers Unit, a paranormal FBI team. I wanted each character to have a different ability. For many years, I have been fascinated by myths and legends of the Native American Indians along with Irish and Scottish folklore. It is from those ancient tales that I draw my paranormal ability.

Cat Morgan is the lead character in Sentinels of the Night. Her fellow agents believe she has a built-in homing device to find the bodies of murdered victims. They are mystified by her inexplicable ability and have dubbed her the Witchy Woman.

Nicki Allison is the research guru for the unit. She excels in logistics and research with an ability that defies logic. Ryan Barr is the unit profiler. If Nicki’s brain is hard-wired to a computer, Ryan’s has a direct link to the killer’s mind. Adrian Dillard has a singular talent for reading a crime scene and connecting the dots along with an uncanny sense when someone is lying. Blake Kenner joins the team in Going Gone!, the second Tracker novel. His spit and shine military background doesn’t seem to be a fit with the quirky abilities of the rest of the team.

Buy on Amazon

My favorite character, though, is Scott Fleming, the head of the unit. He is the mysterious power behind the team. He has been given an extraordinary level of freedom by his superiors. When he seeks out the agents for his team, he has a surreptitious list of qualifications. Case files of field agents are searched as he looks for anomalies in the agent’s investigation. Many qualified agents are passed over and not offered a position. His actions light a fire in the Bureau rumor mill. What is Fleming up too? Even the agents he selects are unaware he knows what they hide.

Excerpt from Sentinels of the Night

“Everyone at this table has a secret, including me. It would take time to earn their trust. He was a patient man.”

For more information on Sentinels of the Night and the second Tracker novel, Going Gone!, please visit Anita’s website, her Amazon Author Page and her book trailers: Sentinels of the Night

How to Enjoy London Like a Georgian by Gina Conkle

The Georgian era was a fascinating shift from pastoral to urban living. The economic boom brought scientific advances. Much of the populace elevated themselves to a better place in life—especially the merchant class. Entertainments abounded. Life’s little luxuries were affordable. People enjoyed a diversity of products pouring into London on a regular basis.

In researching the Midnight Meetings series, I came across many surprises. You could call this list 5 things for an interesting life in London:

1. The British Museum. Seeds for the world-renowned institution were planted in 1753 with the death of physician Hans Sloane. A naturalist with a love for all things exotic, Sloane had purchased the house next door to warehouse his unique collections. People traveled far and wide to visit the house in Bloomsbury, finding a hodgepodge of international oddities.

Trustees of Sloan’s estate didn’t know what to do with Sloane’s things. They tried to give the collection King George II, but he didn’t want it. Parliament acquired the collection and by 1759 the official British Museum opened its doors to the public.

2. Hot air balloon-mania hit England in the 1780s. It’s been reported that 200,000 people (royalty included in that number) showed up at the Artillery Ground of Moorfields to see a demonstration by Vincenzo Lunardi. He ascended without incident (other than his cat, which he took along for the ride, getting sick). The charming Italian was quite popular. Hawkers sold Lunardi fans, garters, and bonnets.

3. Pets ranged from the regular to the exotic. Unusual pet ownership spread amongst all classes with animals like a mongoose, ring-tailed lemurs, and marmosets. The Tower of London had a zoo open to the public, featuring jackals, lions, monkeys, baboons, and even an Indian elephant. Great beasts from around the world were housed in the Tower as far back as the 13th century.

4. Fine furniture became egalitarian with Chippendale’s innovations to the industry. In the past, fashionable homeowners clamored for furniture fashionable made by high-end designers. Those men signed each furniture piece they made the way painters sign a painting. Then along came Chippendale. He published his Gentleman and Cabinetmaker’s Director (a design book) which changed how the English bought and made furniture.

Design books weren’t new, but Chippendale’s approach was revolutionary. He presented the furniture as part of interior design: think presenting whole sets for a drawing room rather than an individual piece on a page. Chippendale hired men to make furniture for him, but his book not only changed ensemble decorating, it fostered a Do-It-Yourself approach to fine furniture-making. Humble gentry purchased Chippendale’s books and crafted their own fine furniture (such as my character, Mr. Samuel Beckworth in The Lord Meets His Lady).

5. The resourceful woman created her own future. The nobility watched over their daughters lest those young women go astray, but other classes of London enjoyed a kind of bare-knuckle freedom. Life was harsh on the fair-sex. Yet, many women refused to be victims of the times. Some forged a good life in commerce. Publisher Elizabeth Nutt is one such example. She ran a cluster of shops near the Royal Exchange where she sold respectable publications.  She was also listed as “Mercury Woman”, a printer of seditious and sometimes salacious material on Grubb Street. She ran the business with her daughters.

London, no matter the era, was and is a place of opportunity for those who seek adventure on its streets. ~Gina

Anne Elizabeth’s favorite holiday traditions: Ornaments and Remembrances

Opening holiday storage boxes is an emotional experience. We carefully unwrap childhood trinkets, handmade ornaments, craft projects, old pictures, weathered stockings, and scented candles. Even as the wood in the fireplace snaps and crackles, emitting small plumes of smoke, we carefully fill the surfaces of the living room, every table, chair, and couch with our mementoes. Putting together an old recycled Christmas tree and placing the cool-lights around, we place the ornaments together.

For my husband and me, this has become a time of heartbreaking sorrows and soul-touching moments, remembering those who have passed or those who have become physically or mentally more fragile. We honor these precious souls by decorating ornaments with their names, quotes, or pictures to honor each spirit with a unique creation and then we place it on the tree. It does not erase the pain, but it helps us celebrate treasured souls and share experiences about what these individuals have meant to us.

As we dim the lights and plug in the tree, we are grateful for each opportunity to love. Every day is a gift, whether it is for a brief moment or a lifetime, it adds to life's journey. From our home to yours: May your holiday season be blessed with health, happiness, and delight, and may peace and joy flourish.

Do you have handmade ornaments? Do you treasure them? And, how do you remember those who have passed?

TIME

During the holidays, music fills the house. Some of our favorite singers are Eartha Kitt and Nat King Cole. The holiday classics make us nostalgic, and I love those times when my husband pulls me into his arms and dances with me. Oh, to dwell in those romantic moments, as we cuddle close and move slowly to the rhythm. This harmonious connection chases away every thought, except for one--being together. As my husband nuzzles my neck, I smile musing on the fact that this is my all-time favorite part of the holidays. Being together. Connection and music, whether it comes from the stereo or from our hearts, this time is the best gift of all.

Is there something special you do with your mate, a friend, or family member?

HOLIDAY SENSATIONS

On Christmas Eve, it's a tradition in our home to make hot cider. I'll pull out the chipped crockpot with the broken handle. After rinsing the detachable bowl and top, I'll add fresh cider, granny smith apple slices (leaving the skin on), the peel of half of a lemon and the entire peel of a whole orange. Then I'll add three cinnamon sticks, a dash of allspice, and anise, and as soon as it heats to a boil I'll add a tablespoon of maple syrup. After stirring in the syrup for a full minute, I turn the heat down to warm and prepare to serve it about twenty minutes later. The scent of mulled-goodness fills the room as I make popcorn with real butter and a dash of pink salt. It might not be the most gourmet approach, but for us, the taste sensations are delicious. Have a blessed holiday season!

Are there any special recipes that you make during the holiday season?

RAISE YOUR VOICE

Holiday songs remind me of my childhood. Attending church with my parents and brother, and listening to the exuberance with which the congregation sang inspired intense warmth and comfort. Voices lifted in song varied from out-of-key to perfectly pitched tones, and it was wondrous! Each individual contributed to the joy as we created these beautiful sounds together.

After services, most of the congregation was full of cheer and would hurry outside for hot cocoa or tea. With cups in hand, we walked as a group down to the live action crèche. It was here that we sang the last Christmas song of the night, Away In The Manger. Of course, the goats bleated and donkeys brayed along with the clucking chickens and mooing cow; and all the sounds blended together. To this day, I still wonder if the animals were commenting or singing along.

Do you have a special holiday song, and why is it a favorite?

SNOWFLAKES

Living in Southern California, snow is a rarity. In Julian, we see snowstorms now and then, but nothing can compare to the snow seen in the rest of the United States. Yet, we are full of glee the moment a flake drops from the sky. I always rush outside and turn my face upward in hope of tasting the first snowflake. When I was little, I believed that each snowflake tasted differently, because my brother said that this was so. Even though, I'm all grown-up now, in my imagination I still pretend that there are sorts of unique flavors out there, and I'll keep catching snowflakes in remembrance of him.

Are you ever tempted to catch snowflakes on your tongue? What's your favorite childhood winter memory?

Q&A with M. Lachi, The Ivory Staff

Was a possible audiobook recording something you were conscious of while writing?

I’d considered its adaptation to film as I’m sure many fiction writers do. I definitely feel having an audio rendition is the next best thing.

Are you an audiobook listener? What about the audiobook format appeals to you?

As a legally blind author, often when I say I ‘read’ a book, I mean I listened to it. With an audiobook, when you have a great narrator, it can be just as engaging as watching an action film. Some great examples are the Harry Potter books, the Dresden File books or my new favorite series The Ember War.

What do you say to those who view listening to audiobooks as “cheating” or as inferior to “real reading”?

Books are about consuming information. Does the consumption method really matter? I don’t care if you jump backwards into your pants or put them on one leg at a time; I just care that you’re wearing pants before you leave the house. But as a consumer of both mediums, there is something to be said about reading a book in your own head, ascribing your own voice, pausing for your own emphases, re-reading certain steamy or horrific parts.

What gets you out of a writing slump? What about a reading slump?

Actually, a lot of the time, reading helps get me out of a writing slump…….

In your opinion, what are the pros and cons of writing a stand-alone novel vs. writing a series?

Having written a stand-alone as well as the first novel of a series, I can say that, each have their benefits. In a standalone, we get to realize the full transformation of each character………………….

Have any of your characters ever appeared in your dreams?

Not that I can recall; but they, more often that not, completely usurped my daydreams.

What bits of advice would you give to aspiring authors?

I say, write the story. Get it out of you and into the greater universe.

Do you have any tips for authors going through the process of turning their books into audiobooks?

If you have a narrative with colorful scenery and dialogue and you are able to create an audio rendition of your work at a reasonable rate, I say go for it!

What’s next for you?

I have completed a sci-fi thriller and have secured a literary agent to shop it to major imprints and independent presses.