reading
What I am Reading: Eleven by Carolyn Arnold & Relax & Let Go
Eleven Rooms. Ten Bodies. One Empty Grave.
When Brandon Fisher joined the FBI Behavioral Analysis Unit, he knew he’d come up against psychopaths, sociopaths, pathological liars, and more. But when his first case takes him and the team to Salt Lick, Kentucky, to hunt down a ritualistic serial killer, he learns what nightmares are truly made of.
Beneath a residential property, local law enforcement discovered an underground bunker with circular graves that house the remains of ten victims. But that’s not all: there’s an empty eleventh grave, just waiting for a corpse. The killing clearly hasn’t come to an end yet, and with the property owner already behind bars, Brandon is certain there’s an apprentice who roams free.
As the FBI follows the evidence across the United States, Brandon starts to struggle with the deranged nature of his job description. And if the case itself isn’t going to be enough to push Brandon over the edge, he’s working in the shadow of Supervisory Special Agent Jack Harper, who expects nothing short of perfection from his team. To make matters even worse, it seems Brandon has become the target of a psychotic serial killer who wants to make him—or his wife—victim number eleven.
This book is Free Today. Get it Here
Also in my Kindle this month is Relax and Let Go.
This Book Will Help You To:
- Experience peace in situations that used to be filled with anxiety and stress
Embrace uncertainty instead of searching for perfect solutions
Focus on new opportunities—not on your fear of failure
Identify productive and unproductive worry
Lose the sense of lack in your life, and live with a sense of a completeness
- Little known secrets to reduce your stress that most experts don’t know
As well as:
- Experience the freedom to act how you feel without worrying about others’ opinions
- Put an end to your feelings of unworthiness and insecurity
- Enjoy less arguments and jealousy in your relationships with others
- Live in the moment or live the power of now
- Experience the fulfillment you have been searching for.
Get the book here.
.Share with us your thoughts on this FBI Thriller or the Self-Help Book.
Interview with the Reader #1
Celeste Williams
Favorite Read: The Bible
What role did books play in your early life?
In my early life, books, like Sweet Valley High, or Goose Bumps were key. As these books allowed me and my peers to have discussions.
Do you think that networking with other readers is also important?
I believe networking with other authors is important, because as a reader, an endorsement from my favorite authors have allowed me to give newer to me authors a chance.
How important is a book’s cover to overall marketing of a book?
I majored in marketing, therefore, for product placement and distribution it is important, as it draws readers. It also lets you develop your first thoughts of what you believe the book would be about.
If you had a chance to address a room full of authors, what would you want them to know?
I would want them to know that I appreciate their creativity and that it is important to stay true to their voice. They do not have to write in every genre, but if they are going to stretch themselves into different genres, to research and ensure the formula works.
Why do you read?
I read as a creative outlet. It gives me a way in which to visualize and conceptualized characters. I often compartmentalized books where I say, this one is made for television, and this book would work best on the big screen.
About Celeste:
Bio (brief): Native Chicagoan, currently living outside of Austin, TX. I am the daughter of Irene & Joseph. I am the sister to 10 siblings (6 brothers/4 sisters). Host of nieces/nephews (last count 30), and the godmother to 1. I am an avid reader. Growing up, when I read, I would always start from the back, and if the ending did not work I would not read the book. It was my Sorority Sister Karen Fletcher, who convinced me to start reading books from the beginning, when she gave me Francis Ray’s “Somebody’s Knocking on My Door” in 2008. It was then, where I decided since I was going to read for pleasure that I needed to read the books from beginning to end.
http://facebook.com/ChangingFaces2
Positive comments to Celeste:
Are we all doing too much?
Today I sat down. I grabbed a cup of ice tea, picked up the magazine I purchased last week, and I sat down. I took the pillows from the couch and made a makeshift ottoman on top of the pillows and put my feet up. I moved the magazine to my lap, turned my computer on just to hear some soft music in the background, and I began to read about flowers and using a marker to decorate.
Before I knew it, my eyes had inadvertently closed and I soon realized that this phenomenon that was taking place was called resting. I think I like this trend because what happened next was even more amazing. I took a nap. In the middle of the afternoon, I sat down, read a magazine and took a nap. When I woke up two hours later, I discovered something else astounding; the world did not end.
I was now rested and even felt relaxed. I did not feel the tension that had piled up between my shoulder blades and had been pressing down on my spine. I did not feel the pins that were usually boring into my temples trying to push my eyeballs out of their sockets. I was not overcome by the violent urge to sock someone in the face to end the incessant prattle. I felt calm and almost rejuvenated. I think I like this rest thing.
For the first time in several months, I had a clear thought that started in my mind and went all the way through the thought process without my Alter Ego’s interruptions. You know when Alter Ego butts in and tells you to get up off your duff and go do this. Yelling at you with reminders of all the things you should be doing but are not. The irony of Alter Ego’s rudeness is for naught because when you get to the kitchen, and open the fridge to get your car keys, you are now thinking that you are hungry. Your car keys are not in the fridge, but in the bathroom because you ran out of toilet paper and were heading to the store anyway. Since you were going to the store you needed to know if there was any milk left and if you needed more OJ. This is was really the reason you went into the kitchen and opened the fridge. After you opened the fridge and saw the ice-tea you decided to pour a glass and instead of drinking it over the sink, you decided to sit down.
I am glad you decided to sit down and spend some time with me because here, in this spot, in this moment, the voices in my head are quiet. You are laughing at me and at the many times that has also happened to you. The magazine just happened to be there taunting you to pick it up and use it like a dirty rag. No matter, my chores are not going anywhere. I still need toilet paper, and those dishes should not be in the freezer, but the kitchen sink……but when I actually find where I left my keys, maybe I will go and do something constructive. In the meantime, I am just going to sit here because today I realized that sometimes, I am just doing too much.
I Feel Cheated
I was excited and ready to read my favorite author’s new book. Normally, I don’t really say anything negative about a book or a particular writer, but I feel cheated. I paid $20.00 for Julie Garwood’s latest book, “An Ideal Man” and was sorely disappointed. Of course, there was man meet woman, man rescues woman, burgeoning chemistry, they fight it, hot steamy sex scene, man rescues her again, they get married, have more sex, the end. All of the basic, formulaic elements to each of her stories are present in this one. I feel cheated because it is the same characters that were in the last four stories, the only difference is the location and the crime.
Ms. Garwood, I feel like you phoned this one in. I am a fan and have read everything you have ever written and I feel cheated. I want you to do better. I want you to stretch your writing ability and reinvent yourself and please your readers again. This stuff is fine for people who are just discovering your magnificent talent, but for those of us who have been with you since “The Lion’s Lady” want more. Well, at least I do.
Allow me to elaborate.
The main character in The Ideal Man, Max Daniels is an FBI agent, who falls in love with a gifted surgeon that he was protecting. There is a hitman that was hired to kill the surgeon. They go on the run and hide in South Carolina. There is also a crazed man after them who also wants pretty surgeon girl dead.
The main character Nick Buchanan in Heartbreaker was an FBI agent assigned to protect his best friend’s sister. Nick falls in love with Laurant who is being stalked by a crazy hitman that was sworn to kill her.
In Mercy, we meet Nick’s brother Theo, which works for the Justice Department and falls in love with a gifted pretty surgeon who is being stalked by the same hitman that was after Laurant.
We meet Theo’s pretty surgeon wife, and her brother John Paul.
John Paul, hates the FBI and law enforcement, but runs across a pretty damsel in distress and kills the hitman that has been drug through these three books. However, this damsel in distress is an analyst for the FBI. Another character drug through the three books is character named Noah Clayborne, FBI agent. Noah, falls for Nick & Theo’s computer genius sister. Jordan is stalked by a hitman and FBI agent Noah has to save her in Shadow Dance.
Their other sister Sydney has a friend who is in trouble and needs to be protected from a hitman, or mob guy or some dude who is trying to kill her ass too. Along comes the handsome FBI agent Sam Kinkaid in Sizzle.
Stop the madness.
If you really want to stretch yourself, why not write about the one African American sub character in Ideal Man, Simon Daniels?
He is a football player, who has an FBI agent brother, but at least we get a new angle. Something fresh, but of course, his father is an attorney, with FBI friends.
Ms. Garwood, if you are reading this, I love you and will always love you, but damn it woman, I need you to dig deeperI Get out of the FBI’s pants, walk away from law enforcement in the next book, and give us a man, who wants to be loved and is rich and famous, and have him be swept off his feet by a poor church mouse waitress.
Hell, have him pretend to be poor to get closer and win her over. Make it a happy ending and he buys her a diner, but please, for the love of Pete, Nick, Theo & Noah, give us something fresh.
.
Is your smartphone making you an idiot?
You are riding down the highway and your cell phone starts to vibrate, you know it is a text message, however, you are going about 45 miles an hour in rush hour traffic. What do you? Do you reach down and grab the phone to see who is texting you or do you ignore it until you get to a stop sign? 95% of people will pick up the phone and “see who this is?” and risk every life on the road including their own, for what, a quick message of “Where u @?”
And as much as I love technology, I love living even more! It is not just a text messaging that has gotten out of control, but our inability to disengage from our cell phones that are turning normal everyday people into ignorant, raging morons. Don’t be offended, for if you are not the offender in this instance you have been at least once in the near past. Here are some prime examples of idiot phone offenses that are lowering our intelligence quotients and our ability to be kind to one another.
App Addlepate: Yes, this is person who has an app to perform every function they can possibly think of but fails to train them how to be a better person. Better people take a moment to appreciate the live person in front of you versus the virtual connection reaching out to you. Is there an APP to teach you life skills?
Bluetooth Blockhead: Yeah for you, you have a bluetooth, but honestly, do you have to walk up behind me, conversing with your imaginary friend with your outside voice? Having a bluetooth is great for hands free calling if you are on a long road trip, but really, your GPS comes bluetooth enabled, so once outside of the car, take the stupid thing off. You don’t look important, you look like someone who spends too much time on the phone and your extra money is being used to pay for unneeded cell services.
Conversation Cretin: I am trying to have a face to face, one on one conversation with you, please pay attention, I don’t need to have a conversation with the top of your head while you respond to frequent buzzing that appears to have your remotely programmed like Pavlov’s dog.
Dining Dimwit: I have a girlfriend that I refuse to go out to eat with and lately, I just hate to spend time with her. Why? Her phone never stops going off! Her husband, her kids, her father, all seem to have an incessant need to connect with her the minute she leaves their line of sight. One, it is rude and tells the person with whom y
ou are with, that they are not important and unworthy of your time. Two, your family and kids have no respect for your time, and last but not least, it is just plain rude.
Dialing Dunderhead: How many times do you need to apologize for your butt, your purse, your dog or the 3-year-old speed calling on your phone because you refuse to lock the screen.
Facebook Fanatic: Yes I love my friends and enjoy their post, but no I am not going to respond to every posting on my wall, every request to add more fish on Farmville, join your Mafia, or accept your hearts of blessings. Do it at home on your own time.
Fast Food Fool: At the counter at the sandwich shop, on the phone, trying to place an order, talking to the young lady behind the counter, while yelling at your spouse, child or in law on the phone. Why not just finish the call, place your order, pay for the order, pick up the order and call the person on the phone as you head back outside.
Instant Message Imbecile: Yes, I know you need an answer soon, but does it have to be right now? You are reducing my productivity by forcing me to stop and answer you. If I did not answer your last 5 instant messages, maybe I am busy. Maybe I fell down the well and Lassie went to get Timmy, and maybe I just don’t want to answer you.
Loud Lamebrain: I know you are upset, I know they don’t understand, but really, neither do I. I don’t understand why everyone in the room, the hall, the bathroom, the restaurant and any other public place has to be tortured with your conversation and lack of mastery of your emotions? Tone it down and shut it up!
Meeting Moron: You are in a meeting, why is your phone on unless the conference call is coming in on your line and everyone in the room should be privy to the conversation. If not, please turn off your phone, my time is valuable too, don’t waste it by sending messages to your friends.
Picture Pinhead: You do realize that even if you don’t open it, you will still be charged for receiving the picture of the dancing penis that was not funny when you were 12 and is not funny now. If you are in an accident and I am your insurance agent, send me a picture mail. If not, send it via email that does not cost me anything, and 9 times out of 10, I don’t really want to see it.
Sync Simpleton: How many times of day do you need to sync it to your lap top? You don’t need to beam me your V-card, I have your business card and a card scanner, I have your info. I know how to reach you, besides your text messages has ALL of your contact info, just like your email.
Tunes Twit:. I have one friend that I like to call every day just to see which song will be playing today. How many ringtones do you really need, and why do I have to listen to “Single Ladies”, or “Blessed” or any other subjugation of your musical choices simply because I need to call you? You are an adult, your phone should ring, if you are available answer it, if not let it go to voice mail.
Twitter Twerp: Really, do we need a play by-play of your day? Enough said.
Voicemail Victim: I don’t really want to leave a message, but if I do, will you please take the time to listen to what I have to say, before you call me back to say “I saw you called.” Yes, I called. I left you a message telling you what I wanted, listen to it and call me back with an answer.
I know technology is a wonderful thing, but please, stop allowing your smart phone to make you an idiot. Remember the simple manners your mother taught you and put those into play. Now if you will excuse me, I need to send out some hearts, blessings, rob a pimp and steal a car as I build my mafia connection, and build my new life in YoVille.
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