Sunday, November 26, 2023

Sunday Post #99: Reading Challenges and Fluidart

 



Hello All! To those that celebrate, I hope you had a good Thanksgiving. For everyone, I hope you all had a good week.

I am happy to say that I have completed my Goodreads Reading Challenge as well as my Kindle reading challenge. This year I was able to find a favorite - a memoir. I hope all of you found at least one favorite this year.



This is my latest fluidart piece. I still don't actually know how I feel about it. Does anyone have any thoughts or feelings about this piece?



Post Rewind 

📌 Nov. 9th = Book Blast: Outsider


Goodreads

📚 The Earl’s Hideaway, No Ladies Allowed (by: Esther Hatch) = moved to read shelf

📚 Beguiling the Duke (by: Darcy Burke) = moved to read shelf 

📚 Power Play (by: Maria Luis) = moved to read shelf

📚 Drops of Gold (by: Sarah M. Eden) = moved to read shelf



Currently Reading 

📖 tbd in January 



Currently Listening

🎧 tbd in January 




*** If you don't have anything to say about this week's topic, you can comment on any other part of the post or just say "hi".



*** I am always having to edit many of my posts. If I made any grammar mistakes, I will eventually fix them.



*** The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer




Thursday, November 9, 2023

Book Blast: Outsider

 



This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Monica Buchanan will be awarding a $10 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

Monica Buchanan grew up in Jamaica. She revisits her lived experiences of abuse and neglect in early childhood and her younger adult years. Buchanan takes the reader on a palatable path that allows for reflection on one's own life. She writes about her survival journey, while looking through descriptive lens, she carefully details how exposure to early childhood abuse and neglect within her family helped form patterns, influenced choices, and shaped decisions in her adulthood.

By chronicling familial stories, the roles of parents, siblings, and community, she employs a story-telling and meaning-making approach, that is both painful and entertaining. Even though as a young child I was told I was the problem, I knew intuitively that I did not cause all my problems. I now know that what happened to me within the context of familial (and other) relationships had a name--emotional abuse and neglect.

Growing up I wished there were more people and resources that could help me make sense of my life as I struggled with low self-esteem, insecurities, felt lost, craved attention, and an overall sense of not belonging--I felt like an outsider and desperately wanted to be on the inside.

Buchanan reaffirms that: childhood experiences of abuse and neglect does not mean one has a commutable life sentence of pain and suffering. It does not matter where you are on your healing journey, you can set that stuff aside and reclaim your life. This book is for anyone who grew up in a toxic, abusive, and unhealthy home environment where they felt like they did not belong within the family unit. It is also a book about making changes, forgiveness, and letting go.

Read an Excerpt

Emotional Abuse and Neglect
 
Experience has taught us that we have only one enduring
weapon in our struggle against mental illness: the emotional
discovery and emotional acceptance of the truth in the
individual and unique history of our childhood.

Alice Miller

Impact of Early Childhood Emotional Abuse and Neglect

When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade. I do not know when or where I first heard this saying, but these days my life is lemons. Not the ripe, luscious, bright yellow lemons we often notice in the grocery store from afar, but sour, bitter, bad tasting ones—a whole lot of them—and there is no sugar to sweeten the lemonade I am making, so I just must swallow the bad tasting, intolerable concoction. I took the childhood garbage I ingested into adulthood. When and where did I learn to swallow this stuff and keep it down? I did not learn it as an adult; I learnt this behavior as a small, innocent, and unsuspecting child.

For many of us, the traumas and dramas of our early childhood experiences have turned us into survivors. MerriamWebster says a survivor is “A person who continues to live after an accident, illness, war, etc.” A more specific definition is “Someone who can keep living or succeeding despite a lot of problems.” The second definition certainly applies to me (and most other survivors of childhood abuse and neglect). Those earlier events have altered our psychological and emotional state in adulthood. Wegrow up to be adult-children who are not fully “alive” but rather, we endure an existence where we appear to be living a full life but are just getting by; we are surviving.

About the Author:
MONICA BUCHANAN has a PhD in psychology, as well as a master's degree and a bachelor's degree in Women's Studies. Buchanan is semi- retired, after a long and rewarding career in counseling, psychotherapy, and coaching, she now follows her passion and live a purposeful lifestyle. She continues to be enthusiastic and committed to development of strength-based community resources for adults and youths from marginalized and under-served communities, thus she remains an active volunteer. She focuses on mindfulness and relaxation and loves to read, write, garden, and take long meditative walks.

Website: https://www.monicabuchanan.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dr_monicab
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/drmonicabuchana n
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drmonicabucha nan
Twitter: a Rafflecopter giveaway

Sunday, October 29, 2023

Sunday Post #98: Regarding Fanfiction



Hello All ! I mentioned fanfiction in another Sunday Post. However I decided to make this week's post about it. The reason is that I have a short one-shot fic about the Shades of Magic brothers. 

I have it taking place after ACOL but before Threads of Power. There may be a spoiler or two. Also I recently noticed the typos. It is only my third fanfic and I don't have a beta reader.

If you are up to it please check out fanfiction.net/siran84, and please let me know if you see a poll question anywhere in my profile.



Post Rewind 

📌 Oct. 19th = Book Blast: The Highland Heir

📌 24th = Book Blast: The Undiet- Diet


Goodreads

📚 Beguiling the Duke (by: Darcy Burke) = added to want to read shelf



Currently Reading 

📖 The Earl’s Hideaway, No Ladies Allowed (by: Esther Hatch)



Currently Listening

🎧 Drops of Gold (by: Sarah M. Eden)




*** If you don't have anything to say about this week's topic, you can comment on any other part of the post or just say "hi".



*** I am always having to edit many of my posts. If I made any grammar mistakes, I will eventually fix them.



*** The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer


Tuesday, October 24, 2023

Book Blast: The Undiet- Diet





This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Dr. Douglas Pooley will be awarding a $10 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

 







 

The UN-Diet Diet is a health reclamation strategy. It is designed to give the participant simple and effective tools to aid in improving overall health, effectively deal with weight management issues, and to serve as a guide for empowered aging. The program is aimed at those over the age of 55 with existing health compromise. It examines the true genesis of both health and disease through the lens of our evolutionary footprint, drilling down to the essence of what it means to be alive. It is here within the principles which create and maintain life, that we also find the keys to health and longevity.


Read an Excerpt

One unassailable truth is certain: If you buy into the above negative beliefs about getting older, the likelihood of finding satisfaction in life going forward is slim.

However, if you are genuinely committed to feeling better, the ideas I am about to present in the Un- Diet Diet, may open your mind to a different approach for reclaiming and maintaining health...one that just may potentially help save your life. Proceeding through the book, you are going to be shown a strategy for repair, health maintenance, and creative ageing that is in perfect step with our evolutionary footprint. It is here through man’s continuous adaptation over time that we uncover the roots of health and longevity potential.

The pandemic in 2020 has changed the world forever. It was particularly vicious for those over fifty-five, killing many and leaving even more seriously health compromised. The need for new direction when it comes to the fostering a healthy lifestyle has never been more imperative. I believe that for us to continue to successfully thrive we must reconnect with our inherent health potentials which have continuously adapted and evolved over hundreds of thousands of years.

About the Author:














Dr. Pooley has been in practice over 43 years, and during that time worked with over 20,000 individuals in close to 500,000 clinical encounters. He is married to his soulmate Patti Mugford-Pooley and lives in Lighthouse Cove in Canada. He has served his profession and community in various roles, and lectured nationally and internationally on professionalism as well as the importance of natural approaches to health and wellness. Doug is a former bodybuilding champion and continues to explore new frontiers in health and successful aging.

He is currently in his early seventies going on seventeen.

Website: https://theun-dietdiet.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheUndietDiet/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/DRDOUGPOOLEY/

BN: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-un-diet-diet-healthier- boomers-in-21-days-dr-douglas-pooley/1143853597
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Diet-Diet-Healthier-Boomers-Days- ebook/dp/B0CD436TVR/ref=sr_1_1

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thursday, October 19, 2023

Book Blast: The Highland Heir

 



This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Allison B. Hanson will be awarding a $25 Amazon GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.











 

Kieran has spent his life living in the shadow of his late older brother. Brody had been the heir his father had loved and wanted, while Kieran was born to a woman his father despised for her betrayal. Kieran has only ever felt the bond of family with his best friend, Ella.

Ella knew one day Kieran would be called on to do his duty to his clan and marry for an alliance. But she never expected his engagement would suddenly force her to see him in such a different way. They’d known each other all their lives, but aside from one exploratory kiss, she had never been attracted to him as a woman is to a man. Until now.

As the time comes for Kieran to marry, he realizes he has feelings he shouldn’t have for the lass who’s been by his side all his life.

When the marriage contract is breached, Kieran hopes it means freedom for them to be together, but instead, it leads to war and a secret that will change their lives forever.

Read an Excerpt

But now, he was expected to sit at the high table and take part in clan business.

Not that he had any idea what kind of business had brought the MacKenzie laird to their lands. His father told him little.

“How is your family?” Rolfe asked, making it sound as if he cared.

“Well, thank ye.” Neil glanced at Kieran and gave a nod. “Your son looks hearty.”

Hearty? Was that the word used to describe a man who stood at least four inches over his father’s tall frame and was wider in the shoulder than the laird as well? Kieran might have sniffed in offense except he knew how much the sound bothered his father, and he didn’t want to be scolded like a lad in front of the MacKenzie.

“Aye. He will make a fine husband to your Isla. Shall we sign the contract and then celebrate with a dram?” Rolfe suggested.

Perhaps Kieran wasn’t as hearty as he’d thought, for he felt the world had just tilted as the words echoed about in his mind. Kieran would make a fine husband? A husband to this man’s daughter?

“Marriage?” The word escaped Kieran’s dry throat.

Rolfe lifted a brow and frowned at Kieran.

“Why do you look so surprised?” his father asked.

Kieran might have answered if he thought he could get the words out. The truth was he looked surprised because he was, in fact, quite surprised. Why did his father act as if it were something they’d just discussed earlier in the day?

It surely wasn’t as if Kieran would have forgotten such a thing as being shackled to a wife he didn’t know.

“You’ve known for as long as you can recall that, as my heir, you would one day be joined in an advantageous marriage when an alliance was required.”

Yes. One day. He didn’t realize it would be so soon and with a complete stranger.

About the Author:



















One very early morning, Allison B. Hanson woke up with a conversation going on in her head. It wasn’t so much a dream as being forced awake by her imagination. Unable to go back to sleep, she gave in, went to the computer, and began writing. Years later it still hasn’t stopped.

Allison’s historical romances are filled with kilted heroes. She lives near Hershey, Pennsylvania, and enjoys candy immensely, as well as long motorcycle rides, running and reading.

Website: https://allisonbhanson.wordpress.com/
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/AllisonBHanson
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Highland-Heir-Allison-B-Hanson- ebook/dp/B0CHSJ27WN/

a Rafflecopter giveaway