Introducing Ralph V. Brooks - Author of Six Books - Advocate for Advancing Childhood Literarcy

Today I am very honoured to share with my readers a guest post by Ralph V. Brooks.  Ralph has written six books.  In his post he tells us of his passion for helping children learn to read.  I have known Ralph for over twenty years.  He lives the values he writes about.  On his website (there is a link at the bottom of the post to his website) there is additional information on his work.

Introducing Ralph V. Brooks, Author, by Ralph V. Brooks

Right) Ralph V. Brooks, President of Brooks-n-Books, (Left) Darrell Ingram, Vice President


Ralph V. Brooks is a derived author from Eufaula, Alabama born from a background of hard-working and determined parents,
Mary and Ralph Brooks, Sr. With his father only having a third grade education and his mother an eighth, Ralph, Jr. was very much eager and committed to learning the fundamentals of reading. Upon making it to the fourth grade, Mrs. Emma S. Mask, Ralph’s English teacher, noticed a spark in his eyes for his embracing desire to learn to read. At the time, Brooks was struggling and falling behind his classmates who were learning to read and comprehend their assignments on a more advanced level.

Brooks states, “I was often afraid to pronounce certain words and felt so embarrassed that I could not seek help from those nearest to me”. Brooks’ motivation grew from his inability to read in 1972 to now being a notable author who has published six books to date. In 2004, Brooks wrote his first book “Day by Day Living with Epilepsy” as a self-help guide to educate individuals about seizures. In 2006, Brooks wrote “#89 the Road to Number One” a memoir about Brooks playing high school sports and being a player on the 1981 Football State Champions team in Eufaula, Alabama. Between 2018-2019 Ralph Brooks wrote and published four children’s books in both English and Spanish. One of the books named “Three Words” was dedicated to the Philippines to show appreciation for the abundance of love given to him and his best friend, Darrell Ingram, Vice President of Brooks –n- Books, during their travel that started in 2010 and continues today.

According to a 2011 report by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, “A first grader who reads below grade level is at a marked disadvantage, and teachers might have to spend additional time helping the child catch up. Children who don’t read at grade level by third grade are four times more likely to drop out of school”. With this being said, Ralph believes his books are one added value to help the fight against illiteracy and break the barrier of children reading below their grade levels."



Head over to our website


End of Guest Post.

Again I offer my thanks to Ralph V. Brooks.  I expect great things from him.  

Mel u

Train Your Brain: Ten Benefits of Everyday Reading - A Guest Post by Paula Headley

Today I am very honored to share with my readers a guest post by Paula Headly in which she talks about the benifits of daily reading.  I hope a few of my readers will contribute their own ideas with us.

Paula Headley is a young mother of one lovely daughter and successful freelance writer help-with-homework.com. In addition, she is writing, reading, and healthy lifestyle addicted. She always keeps herself busy with challenging tasks and really enjoys conducting researches in order to provide readers with fascinating articles. Paula writes about effective parenting, writing tips, reading, and numerous other topics. She is an avid book reader as well. You are welcome to follow her on Facebook. 

A Very Good Article by Paula Headley on Time Management Practices That Will Let the Busiest Parent Find Tine to Read

Train Your Brain: 10 Benefits of Everyday Reading

By Paula Headley

It’s no secret that picking up a book will engage your mind, but what else does reading do for you? Reading can provide a plethora of benefits. Have a look below to see exactly how daily reading can positively affect you.

1. Mental Stimulation

Several studies have shown that reading daily can significantly slow the progress of Dementia and Alzheimer’s- and it can even prevent these diseases altogether. This is due to the fact that your brain is kept active and engaged when it is reading. Just like the physical body, the brain needs exercise as well to fully function. 

So keep your brain healthy and strong by picking up a novel and start reading! 

2. Reduces Stress

When you are turning the pages to a great work of fiction or find yourself captivated by a love story, you will find that your worries have melted away. Reading is a great way to unwind and keep your mind off of negative things. 

Stress levels are significantly reduced when you are an avid reader. Your mind becomes distracted from the everyday stressors through a good book or article. 

3. The More You Read, The More You Learn

There is a saying ‘Knowledge is Power’, and this is very true for those who are active readers. When you read a book, you are exercising your brain as well as learning. Each time you read something your mind will absorb the words like a sponge and store the information for future use, which can come in handy. 

One of the greatest things about knowledge is that it can never be taken from you. Needless to say reading provides a knowledgeable experience that truly belongs to you.

4. Expanding Vocabulary

Another great thing about daily reading is the fact that you are constantly coming across new words. Whether you know their meaning the minute you read them, or you have to do a bit of research to find the true meaning and proper use, the words that you read will become a part of your day to day vocabulary.

When you apply the words you’ve read to your daily life you will soon notice you are well spoken and articulate. Both of these skills are important for any profession and you will have the tools to seek to better understand those around you. 

Not to mention, reading is also an essential tool when it comes to learning new languages. Non-native speakers learn faster through context and reading is the best way to do so. 

5. Improves Your Memory

Since your brain is getting all sorts of engagement and ‘exercise’ when you read, your memory and cognitive functions will greatly improve. Whenever you are reading a book, you have to keep track of the characters (main and side), plots, sub-plots, and a variety of arcs the story may have. While it might seem like a lot to remember, when you are reading your brain has no trouble in placing all the details in the right place.

As a matter of fact, whenever you are reading you are creating a new memory. Each time a new memory is created within your brain, there are new synapses (or brain pathways) formed. While there are new ones forming all the time, old ones are also strengthened. Both of these aidin the function of your short-term memory as well as stabilizing your mood. 

6. Improves Your Concentration and Focus

Whenever you are reading a book, your concentration and focus is on just that- the story in front of you. Try reading ten to twenty minutes a day before you head into work. You will quickly notice how focused you are throughout the day and how easy it is to maintain concentration. 

7. Gives You a Sense of Tranquility

Reading will offer you a relaxing and unwinding experience. If you are looking to push these feelings a step further, read a book or text on self-healing, meditation, or spiritual texts. These published works can leave you with a peaceful and tranquil feeling. Not to mention those who read these types of literature have lowered blood pressure from the sense of calm as well as have uplifted moods.

8. Provides Free Entertainment

Who says entertaining yourself has to be expensive? While there are several bookstores online or in your community, there is a place you can access a whole world of books- the library. Having a library card will give you free access to all sorts of texts and publications allowing you to train your brain, stay relaxed, or simply become engaged in a story.

If you do not have access to a local library, there are several online sources that offer e-books or magazines for downloading for free. Either way, books or e-books are an excellent way to entertain yourself at little to no cost.

9. Enhances Your Writing Skills

Enhanced writing skills goes hand in hand with an enhanced vocabulary. Reading allows writers to find inspiration from other works as well as become exposed to technical styles, use of grammar, and flow of words. 

Similar to the way artists and musicians find inspiration from the greats, writers can fine tune their own prose by following similar examples of published works.

10. Strengthens Your Analytical Thinking Skills

When you are reading a mystery novel or thriller, your brain is hunting for clues to solve the mystery before you finish the last page. If you have ever had an experience where you guessed the killer in a mystery novel before it was actually revealed, this is your own analytical thinking skills at work. 

Being able to place clues or fit together puzzle pieces from your story will enhance your critical and analytical thinking skills. Especially if the story is well written and has a well-developed plot, you will find yourself searching for clues and trying to solve the mystery as soon as you can. This is also another great way you can exercise your brain.

So what are you waiting for? Pick up a book today and start training and exercising your brain with the simple task of reading.

End of Guest Post.

I hope you found this post as interesting as I did.  

Please share with us your thoughts on the benifits of daily reading.  

I hope Paula will contribute more posts to The Reading Life. 

 I think  her web page would be very valuable  to  college students and high school students throughout the world. 

Mel u

"Love to Read but Short on Time, Read Shorter Things" a Guest Post by M. R. Nelson, editor and founder of Tungstenhippo.com

Official Bio of M. R. Nelson, Editor and Founder of Tungstenhippo.com 

I am a scientist by training, and may finally be using the liberal arts portion of my education. I discovered a love of short form writing when two young children and a busy career interfered with my lifelong reading habit. I started the website Tungsten Hippo (http://tungstenhippo.com/) to attempt to recruit other people to my newfound passion, and eventually started publishing short writing through Annorlunda Books, a publishing company that I own and run.

Tungsten Hippo is a site dedicated to making it easier for people to find good short eBooks to read. It does not attempt to provide an exhaustive list of short eBooks. Instead, it lists only short eBooks that I enjoyed reading. Each book is assigned to one or more categories- and a look at the categories will tell you what sorts of books I tend to read. I may eventually make it possible for other people to contribute to Tungsten Hippo, but right now, the books are all ones I have read and enjoyed.

The site consists of short summaries of books, blog posts about topics related to short eBooks, and quotes from short eBooks.

"Love to Read but Short on Time, Read Shorter Things"

By M. R. Nelson

It all started with a book about a goat.

Okay, that’s not completely true. It all started with a novel that I started reading five times, because I kept getting a few chapters in, then having my reading time gobbled up by my young children and the demands of work. By the time I got back to the novel, I’d forgotten so much that I had to start over. The effects of sleep deprivation might have played a role in this, too. My first child was a terrible sleeper as a baby.

Frustrated, I gave up on reading books for awhile. I  read magazines and websites instead. But I was missing something. I have always been an avid reader, and 700 word articles weren’t satisfying that urge. Worse, most of the short articles I was reading weren’t about anything I really wanted to know. I’d finish them and feel like I’d just eaten a bag of Cheetos: it was enjoyable, but clearly not nourishing. I like a bag of Cheetos every now and then, but I want my regular snacks to be a little more substantial. Similarly, I want what I read to enrich my life in some way. I want to learn things I feel good about knowing, and read stories that make me think.

I don’t remember how I heard about Midnight’s Tale, the aforementioned book about a goat. However I came across it, the blurb caught my attention, and the book was only $0.99. I bought it on a whim, and read it in a single evening. It isn’t really about a goat. Well, it is: the main character is most definitely a goat. But it was also about love and happiness, and how hard those things are to find in life. It was quick to read, but left me thinking for a long time.

I was hooked. Short ebooks were my new reading fix. They were long enough to tell a full story, but short enough that I could actually finish one in the short bursts of reading time my life at that point provided. I starting searching for more. 

The search was not always easy. I was happy to try self-published books: in fact, Midnight’s Tale is a self-published book. But my initial simplistic searches on “novella” demonstrated that this length of book is dominated by romance (a perfectly fine genre, but not one of my favorites) and self-published stories that often read like part of a novel, not a stand alone work. I wanted complete stories, not longer works that had been chopped up into shorter books to game Amazon’s algorithms.

Browsing Amazon’s Kindle Singles helped me find quality things to read, but I also wanted a way to find things to read that didn’t depend on the policies of Amazon or the whims of Amazon’s algorithms, whether or not they were being gamed by a savvy self-publishing author. I went looking for independent sites that would recommend short ebooks. I didn’t find what I was looking for, so I decided to build one. 

Tungsten Hippo is the result. Every Wednesday, I post a recommendation for a short ebook or collection of short writing. Every Friday, I post a quote taken from one of the books I’ve recommended. On Sundays, there are often blog posts, which might be a guest post from an author introducing a new short ebook, a “taster flight” post about three or four short ebooks on a similar theme, a “read together” post pairing a non-fiction short ebook with a fiction short ebook that explores a similar topic, or something else I feel like writing.

My hope is that Tungsten Hippo will provide the same sort of random discovery of new reading material that used to be the norm when we found books by going to the library or the bookstore and walking the aisles. I don’t mind algorithms suggesting things for me to read. Sometimes, they make good suggestions! But the algorithms work from similarity, so if I am relying only on algorithms, I risk missing some great things that are just outside their view because they are unlike anything else I’ve ever read. 

Given my love of short ebooks, it was perhaps only a matter of time before I started publishing them myself. I now also run an indie publishing company called Annorlunda Books, which publishes short ebooks and collections of short writing. My criteria for publication are simple: I like the book, and it taught me something or made me think. 

I’ve published three non-fiction books. The first was my “trial run,” a book of job search advice I wrote from my viewpoint as a long time hiring manager. I thought I should try out publishing on my own work before asking others to entrust me with their books. I enjoyed the publishing process and was successful with my book, so decided to go ahead and solicit books from other authors. This led to two wonderful books:  Unspotted, a book by South African author Justin Fox that takes you into the Cederberg Mountains to search for Cape Mountain Leopards and meet the scientist trying to save them, and Okay, So Look, a humorous retelling of the Book of Genesis by professional comedian and amateur Biblical scholar Micah Edwards. I have also published two “taster flight” collections of classic short stories, Missed Chances and Love and Other Happy Endings. These were so much fun to put together that I’m sure I’ll do more. I have three original more books coming out this year, too: two non-fiction and one fiction. 

My kids are older now, and they both sleep through the night. My work life is as hectic as ever, but I have found my stride as a working parent and have more time to read. Novels and full length non-fiction books are back on my reading list. However, I still love short ebooks. I love how I can fit them in around my life when it gets busy. I love that they are the perfect “palate cleanser” when I’ve finished a longer book and am not quite ready to start another. I love that they let me try out more new authors, and also make me willing to give new genres a try. I love how a good short story can distill some aspect of the human condition down to its absolute essence.

If you’re tempted to try short ebooks, too, here’s how you might start:

Browse to TungstenHippo.com and pick a genre that sounds interesting. Or, try the “Quirky Stories Involving Animals” genre, where you’ll find Midnight’s Tale and several other delightfully offbeat things. Buy a book and give it a try. Repeat. Meanwhile, follow @tungstenhippo on your favorite social media. I maintain a presence on Pinterest and Tumblr, but I’m most active on Facebook and Twitter. 

If you want to be sure you don’t miss any books I post—and get a bonus random recommendation from the archive every week—sign up for the Tungsten Hippo Weekly Digest. It will arrive in your inbox every Sunday. I will never share your email address, not even with the other list I maintain, which is the Annorlunda Enterprises mailing list. Sign up for that to get announcements of new short ebooks from Annorlunda Books, and to get notification when I’m looking for advance readers for my upcoming releases. Annorlunda Books is also on Facebook and is on Twitter as @AnnorlundaInc.

Happy reading!

Here is the link for the page about Midnight's Tale:

http://tungstenhippo.com/content/midnights-tale

And here is the link for Annorlunda Books:

http://annorlundaenterprises.com/books/

Those are the two most important ones, I think- the first so people can find Midnight's Tale, and the second so that they can find my publishing company.

Here is the one for the Tungsten Hippo weekly digest page:

http://tungstenhippo.com/content/mailing-list

And one for the Annorlunda Enterprises mailing list:

http://annorlundaenterprises.com/mailing-list/

And here are the social media links for Tungsten Hippo:

https://www.facebook.com/tungstenhippo

https://twitter.com/TungstenHippo

http://tungstenhippo.tumblr.com/

https://www.pinterest.com/tungstenhippo/

And for Annorlunda Books:

https://www.facebook.com/annorlundabooks/

https://twitter.com/AnnorlundaInc

End of Guest Post

I offer my great thanks to Melanie Nelson for this very interesting and timely guest post.  Even if you have only fifteen minutes a day to devote to reading, in a year you could read 365 short stories, way more than most allegedly educated persons read in a life time.

Mel u

A Guest Post. -- "How India and Elephants Inspired a Crime Novel" byVaseem Khan author of The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra

People often wonder how a first time novelist got inspired.  Today I am honored to share with my readers Vaseem Khan's answer to that question. 

Not long ago I had the great pleasure of reading the debut novel of Vaseem Khan, The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra.   

I loved it and hope it is the first of many to come.   The subtitle of the book is A Baby Ganesh Agency Investigation, gives me hope it is the first in a long series of works centering on retired Mumbai Police Inspector Chopra, his wife Poppy and Baby Ganesh, a four hundred pound baby elephant he unexpectedly inherited from an uncle.

Vaseem Khan is from Mumbai and he totally brought the sprawling mega-city of twenty million to life, as seen though the eyes of a veteran police inspector, a head officer of a police station.  As portrayed police officers of all ranks are very tempted to fall into corruption.  The pay is not huge and giving into graft can bring riches.  Inspector Chopa in his thirty year career has never given in.  He is fifty and has recently had a heart attack and is being forced into early retirement.  He and his wife Poppy have no children, they live in a good  high rise community.  He worries what he will do once he retires, his wife wants him to just relax but he really has few outside interests.

On the last day at work there is a nice party for him.  He also gets a very unexpected gift, a baby elephant.  He names him  "Ganesh" and takes him home and chains him up out front of the building.  Needless to say, Poppy is not real thrilled.  Near his last day a woman came into the station saying her son has been murdered but because he is from a poor family know one will really investigate his death.  Chopa is bothered by this and from that feeling the story unfolds.  

Poppy is a great cook and foodies will relish all the meals she cooks.

About this author

You should have a look at his very interesting webpage vaseemkhan.com

Vaseem Khan is the author of 'The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra', first in the Baby Ganesh Detective Agency series set in India and featuring a baby elephant! He first saw an elephant lumbering down the middle of the road in 1997 when he arrived in the city of Mumbai, India to work as a management consultant. It was the most unusual sight he had ever encountered and served as the inspiration behind his light-hearted crime novels. Vaseem was born in London in 1973, went on to gain a Bachelors degree in Accounting and Finance from the London School of Economics, before spending a decade on the subcontinent helping one of India's premier hotel groups establish a chain of five-star environmentally friendly 'ecotels' around the country. He returned to the UK in 2006 and has since worked at University College London for the Department of Security and Crime Science. Elephants are third on his list of passions, first and second being great literature and cricket, not always in that order. - from Goodreads.

How India and elephants inspired a crime novel

By Vaseem Khan

Following the release of my debut novel The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra, which follows a Mumbai police inspector forced into early retirement who cannot let go of the final case of his career – the death of a poor local boy – whilst simultaneously faced with the outlandish dilemma of taking in a baby elephant sent to him by his enigmatic uncle, I have been asked by readers why I chose India as a location for a crime novel and why I picked an elephant as a sidekick to the lead character, both rather unusual choices in the often constrained world of crime fiction. 

Firstly, it was perhaps inevitable that I would choose the subcontinent as a setting for my debut novel. Although I grew up in England I later spent ten incredible years in India, at a time when she was transforming into the global powerhouse that she is today. When I returned to the concrete urbanscapeof London’s East End, the kaleidoscope of fond memories that returned with me demanded an Indian canvas. With this book I wanted to take readers on a journey with me to the heart of modern India.

In particular I wished to showcase the city of Mumbai – once Bombay – where I was based. Mumbai is one of the world’s great metropolises, often called ‘the city of dreams’. People come to Mumbai to make their fortune, to become famous on the sets of the world’s most prolific movie industry, to start micro-businesses in the city’s slums. But where there are dreams there are also nightmares, and Mumbai suffers from high rates of crime, as well as many other social problems. Like most Indian metropolises the city is facing a cultural onslaught from westernisation – which brings both good and bad, as I describe in my novel. 

Inspector Chopra stands on the shadow line between old and new India. Old India is tradition, religion, the caste system, ubiquitous poverty; new India is wealth, skyscrapers and western sensibilities eroding the ancient way of life. The sights, sounds, smells, and even tastes of this modern India flesh out my canvas as Chopra and little Ganesha, his elephant sidekick, pursue an exotic gallery of villains and evildoers over the course of my series.

As for an elephant as a sidekick . . . Aside from the fact that I am passionate about these incredible creatures, there are some very practical reasons why an elephant makes perfect sense as a crime fighter.

Firstly, elephants are supremely intelligent creatures, one of just a few who are legitimately classified as being ‘self-aware’. They also possess excellent memories, a trait that has been amply employed by such renowned detectives as Inspector Morse – elephants really do not forget. Elephants are also known for their complex social interactions and ability to feel empathy. As a writer this emotional range is important to me – part of the charm of my series (as readers have expressed to me) lies in the relationship that gradually develops between the somewhat rigid Chopra and the, at first, despondent infant elephant that has been vouchsafed to his care. 

Of course, we mustn’t forget that Ganesha is a child and like all children is endowed with an unbridled sense of curiosity. As we shall see, this occasionally leads him into trouble, at which point his other singular and endearing quality will stand him in good stead – courage. 

Besides, humans, in my experience, feel an immediate kinship with these magnificent creatures. Their size awes us. Their gentle natures inspire in us a sense of warmth and affection. After all, elephants and humans have worked together in many arenas – industry, the circus, pageantry, transport, and war. When you think about it, it is not beyond reason that an elephant might partner with a private investigator.

As I apply the finishing touches to the second book in the series – The Perplexing Theft of the Jewel in the Crown – about the theft of the legendary Koh-i-Noor diamond from the Crown Jewels which are being exhibited in India – I am pleased to see the relationship between Chopra and Ganesha grow and strengthen, and even more pleased to showcase more of the incredible country for which I retain a lifelong fondness and where such things are not entirely beyond the realm of possibility. After all, of all places in the world, India is where the impossible becomes merely improbable. 

The book is available now on Amazon and with a great special offer from the Book People

To find out more: http://vaseemkhan.com

Or follow me on Twitter @VaseemKhanUK or 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VaseemKhanOfficial

End of guest post

My great thanks to Vaseem Khan for taking the time to share this with us.  It is great to hear his second novel will be out soon.

Mel u

Morwenna Holman- Author of Heaton- A Guest Post on Spirit Writing.

Today I am very proud to present a guest post by Morwenna J. Holman.  She is the author of Heaton and Westerdale.  Westerdale which was written when she was visited by the spirit of Emily Bronte.  Many artists have felt inspirations from spirit visits.  Such visitations are depicted in the most ancient texts and art about the creative process.  Sometimes  when reading most intensely I have felt something akin to a spirit visitation.  

Morwenna is a remarkable person and I offer her my great thanks for sharing her insights on spirit writing with us.

About Morwenna Holman 

 

“I am a spirit writer, communing with the departed to write stories of their lives which are lost in the mists of time. I try to bring them to life again and capture the drama which existed at that point in time.

I am a committed vegan and am dedicated to the welfare of animals, especially cats which I rescue. Hence trying to sell these novels in order to provide a cattery for the abandoned cats of Morley, West Yorkshire, where I live.  My hobbies are walking and healthy living and I try to educate people on the holistic treatment of their cats.

Suffering from a lifelong depression and anxiety makes taking on the emotions of these departed spirits difficult and often upsetting but they always come with so much love I never feel alone.”

My Experience as a ‘Spirit Writer’

 

Morwenna Holman is a ‘spirit writer’, which means her novels are dictated to her by spirits, “communing with the departed to write stories of their lives which are lost in the mists of time.”  

 

Her first novel, Westerdale, was published in 2013, a story she wrote in her teens, when she said she was visited by the spirit of Emily Bronte.

 

Her latest novel, Heaton, is a prequel to Westerdale and is available now.

 

Morwenna sells her books in an effort to raise vital funds for Morley Holistic Cat Rescue. The charity desperately needs a new cattery for the many abandoned felines it deals with.

 

Although I expect every Spirit Writer has their own techniques that are individual to them, the ultimate desire is to create a passive uncluttered mind through which theSpirit can make contact.

 

It is much like retuning a radio when you prepare your mind to receive guidance, and the outer world must be turned off as far as possible. It is not very conducive tothe Spirit if you start adding up all the calories you have eaten today when they are trying to convey the outline of their life story!

 

With continual practice, however, I find the outer world does fade and I am not conscious of it unless something dramatic happens like a loud knock at the door. I usually turn off all phones and put some relaxing music on before I begin. I used to meditate to bring a calm state of mind but now I find that that is unnecessary, although many Spirit Writers still do it.

 

Certainly I still my mind and empty it of all thought thenconcentrate on my breathing, counting my breaths until they slow right down. When this happens I take my consciousness up into my third eye. This is the space between my eyebrows and is where our psychic power lies. This is where the re-tuning comes in as I turn from the material world around me to the inner world within my soul.

 

Once I feel my energy collected in my third eye, a sensation a bit like that floating feeling you get just before you fall asleep, I ask inwardly if any spirits would like to make contact. If I am writing with a particular spirit at the time then I will use their name, eg "CordeliaDeane - are you there and happy to communicate with me?" This is always said out loud. Sometimes the spiritssimply aren't around and you just have to accept that. Equally they may make contact with me, saying that they wish to commune but for whatever reason I cannot.There is a definite mutual respect.

 

Sometimes this re-tuning can take a while and often it is several minutes before contact is established. I close my eyes throughout this whole procedure but after a good link is established I can open my eyes and start to write what they are telling me. I must remain very passive throughout the initial contact period, just as a Spiritual Healer does when channeling spiritual energy to use forhealing. After contact is made it can all get really lively and my mind is then in an active stage, listening to the spirit's voice which is always felt in the centre of the forehead, in the third eye. Usually they will confirm their name and start the two-way conversation with the simple word, "Blessings".

 

Then comes the fun as they recount the latest activities in the story they are relating to me and I type or write it and they give their comments. I always speak out loud to the spirit so my inner voice can use all of its energy to concentrate on what they are saying. I have seen it written that the spirits are controlling your mind but I do not agree with this because I always feel in total control and able to get out of the communication if I so wish.

 

Often in a sensitive individual like myself the emotions of the spirit recounting a particularly tragic storymanifest themselves physically, and many is the time I write with tears streaming down my face! The spirit usually sends me pictures of what happened and exactly what the characters look like so I can describe them in detail and, if I was an artist, I could draw them too. All this is quite tiring as often after an hour or so of communing there is the feeling of "holding" the spiritual frequency and then I know it is time to break the contact and rest. All this can be very draining and I rarely do more than one hour a day because of it. I am alsodisabled and often ill. It requires both physical and mental stability and health to spirit write.

 

Occasionally I have overstepped the mark with writing as when I attempted to put down the last tragic chapter ofRainharrow. This was a feat that left me in tears for weeks due to the intensity of the last few pages from the perspective of absorbing the three characters' feelings - all of them in despair, mental anxiety or physical illness. My stomach ached for Cathy, my heart raced for Edwin and my mind buckled under the anxiety and fear Paul felt.

 

Being a lover of the 1800s I always ask for spirit from that era to talk to me, much as a dentist deals with teeth and a chiropodist with feet I immerse myself in those past ages because I know I can write in that classical style and hopefully do justice to the tale I am told.

 

I would say being a Spirit Writer is the most amazing part of my life but it is also one of the hardest and I hope that people world-wide are touched and entertained by these stories from days gone by. 

 

Heaton is available now from Amazon andFeedARead

End of Guest Post

I strongly endorse Morwenna's writings and I have the greatest respect for her work with cats.

I hope to do a Q and A with her soon.

J. Cafesin. - A Guest Post by the Author of Reverb and Fractured FairyTales of the Twilight Zone

Novelist. Essayist. Realist. Idealist.

J. Cafesin 
Author Bio

J. Cafesin is a novelist of taut, edgy, modern fiction, filled with complex, compelling characters so real they'll linger long after the reads. Her debut novel, Reverb, has been called “riveting; compelling; an original and unique read,” by recent reviewers. Other works include her fantasy short story series, Fractured Fairy Tales of the Twilight Zone. Her second novel, Disconnected, called “unabashedly unafraid, completely honest writing,” released July 2014.

Her essays and articles are featured regularly in national publications. Many of the essays from her ongoing blog have been translated into multiple languages and distributed globally.

http://jcafesin.blogspot.com 

 J. Cafesin lives on the eastern slope of the redwood laden Oakland Hills with her husband/best friend, two gorgeous, talented, spectacular kids, and a bratty, but cute Shepherd pound hound. Find her on Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads. 

Today I am very honored to be able to share with my readers a guest post by J. Cafesin, author of Reverb.  Reverb is a highly regarded very exciting work focusing on a musician.

Reverb synopsis:

James Whren is brilliant, beautiful, rich, and taken—with his genius for creating music. He's desired by many, yet commits to no one but his muse. Just twenty-eight, and at the pinnacle of his career, on the eve of his brother's funeral his father shatters his life, and James is left abandoned in hell with no one real to save him. 

His odyssey to freedom takes him beyond the looking glass, to the reflection of friends and lovers. Humbled and alone, James escapes to the Greek island of Corfu. But instead of finding solace there, loneliness almost consumes him. 

Until Elisabeth, and her son, Cameron. 

Reverb is a love story, a psychological thriller paced with romantic suspense. Spun from The Magus, also about a man who learns to love someone other than himself, and way beyond 50 Shades of Gray, Reverb is told like Crime and Punishment--modern, clean, edgy verging on sharp. Like nothing you've read, guaranteed.

Making It With My Muse

How do you get good at anything?

Practice.

How do you get great?

Obsession—Practice most all the time.

Pick any famous author, artist, musician, and they'll all have obsession in common. And while we, the public, enjoy the fruits of their creative labor, those closest to these individuals were/are generally left wanting.

Charles Schulz, creator of the Peanuts comic strip, “was an indifferent and often inattentive father and husband.”

Rod Serling, of Twilight Zone fame, “worked 12 hours a day seven days a week, [and] his wife, Carol, tended to their daughters, Jodi and Anne.”

Adrienne Armstrong, wife of Billy Joe Armstrong of Greenday said of her husband after the release of the album American Idiot, “I think it challenged us to a new level, pushed us pretty far, the farthest I ever want to go.”

The creatives above are all men. All married and all had/have children.

Now lets explore a few famous women.

The romance novelist Jane Austen never married. She was, in fact, 'relieved in later life to have avoided the pitfalls of married life, not least the huge risks of childbirth, “all the business of Mothering.”' 

Georgia O'Keeffe, the surrealist artist “wanted to have children but agreed with him [her husband, Alfred Steiglitz] that motherhood was incompatible with her art. She needed to focus all of her attention on her painting.”

Oprah Winfrey, the media mogul has never married, “the very idea of what it means to be a wife and the responsibility and sacrifice that carries — I wouldn't have held that very well." And she never had children. “If I had kids, my kids would hate me. They would have ended up on the equivalent of the "Oprah" show talking about me; because something [in my life] would have had to suffer and it would've probably been them."

Ms. Winfrey had the guts to address the unvarnished, unspoken truth when she referred to the “responsibility and sacrifice,” in being a partner and parent. The investment of time, physical and psychic energy it takes to keep a marriage vital, and the even greater demands of being a conscientious parent, interferes, and often waylays the creative process.

Men have historically been the breadwinners in the family environment. And while this trend is slowly changing, the fact is women who seek personal excellence, especially in the arts, often have to choose between pursuing greatness and being, at least, an available partner and parent. Even today, men rarely have to make this choice. Regardless of this disparity, anyone, man or woman, obsessed with becoming great [at anything] should recognize the 'sacrifice' and costs to pursuing brilliance.

As a wife, mother, and a writer, my creative muse is constantly vying for prominence over the needs of my husband and especially my children. When my kids were babies, the creative process encountered fewer distractions. I could stay rapt in story, run dialog in my head while changing diapers or pushing them on the swing at the park. Small kids, small problems. Big kids, big issues. Now the parent to a tween and teen, my siren is often overwhelmed by the very real traumas and trials of adulthood my children face every day. To help them navigate these tumultuous times, I question, probe, even invade their space to stay connected, be there for them as a sounding board, a trusted confidant to lean on, to envelope them in a hug and hold them when they're falling.

I chose to marry, to have kids. And while I willingly choose to be present, available for my family, forfeiting the relentless pursuit of my creativity is a battle I engage in daily. Much of my fiction focuses on this internal war, as in my novel Reverb, through James Whren's obsession with his music, the cost to the lives he touched and the price he eventually paid absorbed in making it with his muse. My recent novel, Disconnected, explores the propaganda of the 1960s still being sold today, as Rachel struggles with the reality that we can't 'have it all,' be everything we want to be, and still be there for our kids and family.

We glorify the brilliant author, the renown artist, successes in business, often secretly wish to be one of the famous. But to become great at anything means obsessively working at the job or craft, honing a skill set with relentless practice, which is the fundamental reason why genius is so rarely achieved. The price those who solely engage with their creative muse must pay is actualizing a full and balanced life.

End

My thanks to J. Cafesin for this fascinating post. I will soon be talking about her very exciting and insightful novel Reverb.

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