Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Happy Canada Day and a few thoughts on gratitude

A big Happy Canada Day to all my fellow Canadians and an early Happy Fourth of July to my American friends. With a full day set aside for writing I can't help thinking about gratitude and all of the things I am grateful for on this wonderfully sunny and hot holiday.

Firstly I am grateful for living in such a beautiful country that celebrates diversity and multiculturalism. Unlike our neighbors to the south, we don't look at Canada Day as a celebration of independence and a turning point in our history - we are still a Commonwealth country if more for tradition than anything else. I celebrate Canada Day for the freedom given to us by the brave men and women that fought for our country in all past wars, for the diversity of our present day country that embraces people from all cultures while standing strong on the values that make us Canada, and for the privileges of living here like great natural resources, friendly neighbors to the south and a pretty darn good reputation as being a nice and hospitable folk.

Finally I am personally grateful to the publishers of my books - Soul Mate Publishing  for The Fog and Black Opal Books, for Showdown at Evil High. Both Debby and Lauri saw potential in my writing and I look forward to a long and happy relationship with both companies.


A Few Thoughts on Gratitude in Writing..

When I think about the word Gratitude, the first thing that pops into my mind is Oprah and her Super Soul Sunday's. I love watching the people that she interviews because in addition to wonderful advice, they seem to embody the word  Gratitude. Many of them have looked back on the lives that they created for themselves and pushed past the daily struggles to embrace the small things that have made them successful. From the families and peers that have supported them to the community that rally around their brand to make it the success that it is today.

I think as a writer it is important to inject gratitude into your characters. Too many times I throw my characters into impossible situations just to see how they can rise above. Not as many times do I stop to have them embrace and learn from their situation. In our daily lives we strive to learn from our experiences, hoping that it makes us better people. So too should our characters. How can we make them learn and grow from their experiences? How can they see the good in a situation and learn from their mistakes? How can they impart gratitude onto others?

On this day of celebration and reflect for Canada, I will be grateful for my blessings and asking my characters to give thanks as well... how about you?

Since my blog was too long yesterday, I had to bump Eris to today. So without further ado.....

Meet Eris Field !!!!

At 17, Eris left Vermont to attend Union University School of Nursing in Albany, New York where she met her future husband, a surgical intern from Istanbul, Turkey. After they married and moved to Buffalo, New York, Eris worked as a nurse at Roswell Park Cancer Institute.  When their five children finished high school, Eris returned to school and completed her Master’s in Psychiatric Nursing. She taught psychiatric nursing at the University at Buffalo for several years. </ Eris’ first publications were a biographical novel, Legacy of Change: The Saga of a Turkish Family from Empire to Republic, that she co-authored with her late husband and a textbook, Psychiatric Advanced Practice Nursing.  In her first novel, The Gift of Love, she shows how the hero, a grandson of a Father Baker boy, uses the treasures of Western New York to save a mute child and win the heart of the woman he loves..
Now, Eris lives in a ‘snow-belt’ town in Western New York and writes what she loves to read--contemporary, cross cultural romances. She is a member of the Romance Writers of American and the Western New York Romance Writers group.  Her interests include supporting the Crossroads Springs Institute in Kenya for children orphaned by AIDS and visiting as many fascinating cities of the world as she can.

Expat from Turkish Harem Rules Saved by Dutch Psychiatrist
The lattices created by the rules of our families and culture may stifle us but it is the lattices of our own making that strangle us.
 June 11. Orchard Park, NY. Soul Mate Publishing’s release, Lattices of Love, by Eris Field is a contemporary, cross-cultural romance about Emine Wheeler, a Turkish-American psychiatric nurse from Buffalo, NY, and Marc van Etten, a Dutch psychiatrist from Amsterdam--two people who must marry but for different reasons.

When Emine broke a long engagement and then refused a maneuvered marriage, her actions threatened her family’s honor. To prevent disgrace, Emine, who had always believed that there should be love in a marriage, accepts Marc’s offer of marriage, a marriage that would solve his problem of providing care for the troubled four year old he calls his daughter. Emine falls in love with her reticent husband who believes that people blame him for his wife’s suicide. Fighting for his love, Emine uses what’s available to her--the fragrant soaps of Edirne, the magic of Turkish baths, ancient recipes for Turkish dishes such as ladies’ curves and ladies’ navels, the mysterious gleam of Zultanite gems from Anatolia, and the crimson silk garments of every Turkish bride—but only Marc can vanquish his demons that stand in the way.
 Lattices of Love is an elegant story about suffering, forgiveness and love. Field has drawn on her experience as a Clinical Specialist in Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing and on her experience with Turkish-American women, including her three daughters. Lattices of Love can be ordered as an e-book from Amazon.com.

 Lattices of Love
Publisher: Soul Mate Publishing
Release date: June 11, 2014
ISBN: -61935-478-4

Meet Becky Lower !!!

Amazon best-selling author Becky Lower has traveled the country looking for great settings for her novels. She loves to write about two people finding each other and falling in love, amid the backdrop of a great setting, be it present day middle America or on a covered wagon headed west in the 1850s. Contemporary and historical romances are her specialty. Becky is a PAN member of RWA and is a member of the Contemporary and Historic RWA chapters. She has a degree in English and Journalism from Bowling Green State University, and lives in an eclectic college town in Ohio with her puppy-mill rescue dog, Mary. 

The Road To Comfort
 Juliette St.James has only done two impetuous things in her life, and the first resulted in her becoming a single parent at age 18. Now, she’s embarking on a cross-country trip to celebrate becoming an empty-nester. Not sure of what she will do now that she’s flying solo, she comes face-to-face with her worst nightmare—a cowboy.
 Cyclone Kelley is a former rodeo cowboy who has broken one too many body parts to continue on the rodeo circuit. But the one body part that can’t be fixed by putting it into a cast is his heart, which was broken when his wife died. He wasn’t home to save her, and feels he’s unworthy for any kind of lasting relationship with a woman, so his life has been a meaningless string of one-nighters.
 One broken car and an equally broken cowboy later, they are forced to decide if love is worth gambling on what could be. Or if tornadoes, and Cyclones, are better left alone.

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