Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Zumba-thon to benefit Diabetes Research


Zumbathon

Saturday, September 4, 2010 - 11am to 2pm

Charleston, WV

On the Boulevard in front of Magic Island 

All proceeds to benefit the

Diabetes Action: Research and Education Foundation

Register in advance or at the entrance, no set price for registration.

Any Donation is Appreciated.

 
I have the registration form.  Please email me if you would like to register!

 For other information please contact Corey and Rachel:


ZUMBA® and the Zumba Fitness logos are trademarks of Zumba Fitness, LLC, used under license

Monday, July 26, 2010

Viola, A Woeful Tale of Marriage a good read

As a new Wings-ePress author, I was recently given access to the Wings Yahoo groups and connected with another fellow author, Katherine Pym.  Katherine's book, Viola, A Woeful Tale of Marriage was just released this month.  Katherine asked me to read her historical novel and provide a few comments she could include in her reviews and marketing which I was happy to do.  I'll have to say, I was pleasantly surprised!  Pym, much like myself, is an old soul--her soul being much older than mine...several centuries older to be exact.  I'm drawn to the early 1900's where Pym is drawn to the 1600's. Anyway, on to the book.

Viola is set in 17th century London and Pym does a wonderful job of bringing this century back to life and giving us a peek into that time period where religious strife and plague were the main concerns.  Even though we nowadays tend to associate that time period with puritanical values and actions, Pym provides us a world that is anything but.  Take a look--Viola is available in paperback and eBook, of course.

Honored to be awarded the Seven Seals Award from ESGR

ESGR Recognizes Alliance

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Passage from The Alchemist

                                 The Alchemist
One of my favorite books of all time is The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, so I couldn't help but want to have a part of it read at my upcoming wedding.  How could I not?  The story of a young shepherd looking for his meaning in life only to discover that his meaning was to find love...I mean, come on...how perfect for a wedding?  Here is the passage I've decided to include in our ceremony:



 
“When he looked into her dark eyes, and saw that her lips were poised between a laugh and silence, he learned the most important part of the language that all the world spoke -- the language that everyone on earth was capable of understanding in their heart. It was love. Something older than humanity, more ancient than the desert. Something that exerted the same force whenever two pairs of eyes met, as had theirs here at the well. She smiled, and that was certainly an omen -- the omen he had been awaiting, without even knowing he was, for all his life. The omen he had sought to find with his sheep and in his books, in the crystals and in the silence of the desert. It was the pure Language of the World. It required no explanation, just as the universe needs none as it travels through endless time. What the boy felt at that moment was that he was in the presence of the only woman in his life, and that, with no need for words, she recognized the same thing. He was more certain of it than of anything in the world. He had been told by his parents and grandparents that he must fall in love and really know a person before becoming committed. But maybe people who felt that way had never learned the universal language. Because, when you know that language, it’s easy to understand that someone in the world awaits you, whether it’s in the middle of the desert or in some great city. And when two such people encounter each other, and their eyes meet, the past and the future become unimportant. There is only that moment, and the incredible certainty that everything under the sun has been written by one hand only. It is the hand that evokes love, and creates a twin soul for every person in the world. Without such love, one’s dreams would have no meaning."



e-Books continue to grow

I came across this article today from The Tech Herald, which excited me considering Coincidence will be an e-Book as well as available in paperback.


Amazon: Kindle eBooks outselling traditional hardcovers

by Steven Mostyn
 
The digital eBook format is continuing to draw customers away from traditional print publications, according to online retailer Amazon, which has a vested interest in the market’s growth via its Kindle electronic book reader.

Although not prepared to divulge actual sales figures regarding the emergent popularity of eBooks, Amazon has revealed that it is currently selling around 80 percent more digital books than hardback books through its online store.

“The Kindle format has now overtaken the hardcover format,” enthused Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos in an official statement outlining that for every 100 hardcover books sold during the last month, the online store sold 180 eBook versions.

Clearly pleased with the Kindle’s “astonishing” progress, Bezos was keen to point out that Amazon has been selling hardcover books for 15 years, while the availability of Kindle content has yet to reach the three-year marker.

Amazon’s chest beating comes after the Internet retail titan recently hacked down the price of its 3G-equipped Kindle device, which dropped from $259 USD to a more pocket-friendly $189 USD – a factor that likely played into the increase in eBook sales.

The Kindle price drop was brought into play after rival eReader manufacturer Barnes & Noble dropped its dual-screen Nook from $259 USD to $199 USD.