It’s hard to believe the book drive has been going on for 10 years and this is the first I’ve heard of it. What a great cause to get books into the hands of children who wouldn’t otherwise have this opportunity.
You can read about this wonderful cause and how to do more on Dallas Woodburn’s blog here.
Every child deserves to experience the joy of the written word.
In 2000 my life hit rock bottom. I was totally spent and didn’t see any way out of the mire that I found myself in. This book tells the story how (with a little help) I managed to turn my life around.
Miraculously at the onset of the new millenium I started to embark on a series of truly amazing out of body adventures, and as the years have gone by I have learned to pass through solid objects, propel myself in whatever direction I wish to travel, and unbelievably, “will” myself back into my body when I became bored with the journey.
As if that wasn’t incredible enough, I have also been blessed by the Avatar of the age himself, Sri Sathya Sai Baba, who first entered my life in 2001. Since then I have had a series of truly wonderous experiences with Baba. The highlights of which were being held in his arms during an out of body experience in 2006 and seeing him in physical form at his ashram, Prasanthi Nilayam (abode of the highest peace) in Puttaparthi, Southern India in October 2009.
Paperback: 154 pages
Publisher: UKUnpublished (3 Oct 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 9781849440738
ISBN-13: 978-1849440738
ASIN: 1849440735
Author’s website: http://www.richardfholmes.co.uk/
Author’s Blog: http://richardfholmes.wordpress.com/
Twitter A/c @atmicsplendour: http://bit.ly/kuyNKf
Amazon Author page (buy): http://amzn.to/kTNhhP *
* See Richard’s full range of booklets also available via his website and Amazon
Richard has recently put together a video which can be viewed on You Tube here.
Richard also has a range of meditation CDs, including a free online meditation to enjoy, on his website.
Review for Astral Travelling, The Avatar and Me:-
This is a true story you will want to read from cover to cover in one sitting, because you will find it hard to put down. Having been to see Richard on two occasions and having taken part in one of his Vedic Chanting and Meditation Workshops, I was truly amazed by this gentle man and the outcome of each visit for me personally. In reading this story I feel privileged to have been able to ‘share’ his very personal journey. What comes across so strongly is the way in which he embraces everything that comes his way and his appreciation for the lessons he has learnt from the negative things life often presents. It is a story with immense heart to it and I feel reading it has changed me in some way, inspired me to open up to something I’ve only recently (and tentatively) started to explore. The account of his trip to Southern India was fascinating and is told with an honestly that is refreshing. This isn’t a book that ‘preaches’ but a book that chronicles one man’s special journey from being ‘lost’ to being ‘found’. A truly inspiring read. (cheerfulchic, Gloucester)
Priceless Love by Lavada Dee & Laurie Ryan
(a two story anthology)
“For Richer, For Poorer”
Taylor Hamilton, dissatisfied with a life designed by her parents, attends a friend’s fall wedding and finds small town life agrees with her. The problem is, her wealth doesn’t agree with the man she falls for. Is their love strong enough to find a bridge of trust where money isn’t an issue?
Healing Love by Laurie Ryan
“In Sickness and in Health”
Nicole Milbourne’s single-minded focus on a medical research career is thrown for a loop when charismatic Dr. Damien Reed shows her there’s more to life than studying diseases. Will an unexpected Christmas fill Nicole’s lonely heart and show her the healing power of love?
Length: 123 pages
Language: English
eBook: ISBN 978-1-4658-4203-9
Amazon (US) Kindle and Print (buy) : http://www.amazon.com/Holiday-Magic-Gift-Love-ebook/dp/B006896AQ0/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1321738334&sr=1-
Barnes & Noble (buy): http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/books/1036485537?ean=2940013486249&itm=6&usri=lavada+dee
They look and sound fantastic when well done. Not so much when they’re not. Who would have thought they would be so difficult to do and do well? Certainly not this girl.
Yeah, yeah, I bragged that I’d worked on my trailer for A Shadow in the Past and would be passing on the link when the time to reveal it rolled around. Read on and you’ll see why the big reveal is currently on hold.
Shortly after I launched my website, a few years ago, I put together really primitive book trailers for the two complete manuscripts I had at the time – Sarah’s Gift and The Anniversary. When I say primitive, I mean there was no sound track (music or narration) and it wasn’t even made with Windows Movie Maker (XP version). I converted the photos to .gif format and used Animation Shop that came with the version of Paint Shop Pro I was using at the time. You could still have transitions and some good ones at that. My biggest problem then was my 640×480 pictures were too big and part way through making one of the trailers, I would run out of memory… the computer, too… (grin) In the end, I had to resize my photos down to 320×240 in order to be able to get a single animated .gif saved so I could upload it to my website.
Fast forward back to the near distant past. When I accepted the contract from 4RV Publishing, I took down my novels page. Sarah’s Gift wasn’t Sarah’s Gift anymore. Not anywhere close to that first story I’d put together and had received more reject letters/e-mails than I care to remember. So why leave something that outdated and irrelevant up there? My other manuscript, I withdrew from the publisher since they’d had it for over two years and hadn’t done anything with it. Now, with the new first novel, this second manuscript in its current form doesn’t fit with my current direction. But I digress.
Back to book trailers. I experimented with the old Movie Maker (Windows XP version) and the new Windows Live Movie Maker for Windows 7.0. I decided that it was easier to start from scratch so I got my photos imported, my transitions and effects chosen, titles at the beginning and credits at the end. So far so good, you say. Not quite.
It was after I had the video set up the way I wanted that I decided to record the audio track. I knew what I wanted for it but it was almost half an hour long! I mean I wasn’t making a television show. So I found a good place to end the audio track. I’m still at about the eight minute mark but far better than what I had before.
So, plug my USB MP3 recorder into my laptop and download the file, open it in Audacity and I’m off to the races. Took a long time to cut the excess time at the end but I got there in the end. Then I thought some of my pauses were a bit too long so shortened them. I’d flubbed in a few places so was able to cut them out entirely (yay!) as I didn’t relish the idea of recording it over again. Import the audio track into my movie and save it.
I watched and listened and was feeling pleased with myself so took the plunge and uploaded it to You Tube. I sent the link to two people who have made book trailers and made excellent ones. People whose input I value. They both pointed out the same thing. I’m talking about one thing but the photo on the screen didn’t match. That was something that never occurred to me.
Back to the drawing board… I went back to my script that I read from and have marked what pictures need to be put where so now it’s a matter of getting the correct duration for them and their transitions to properly align themselves with my audio track. Oh, and those gaps I shortened before? I’m stretching some of them out again.
I read that the best size of photo to use for a book trailer was 640×480. I’ve been able to find “most” of the original book trailer photos in that size or larger so have scaled them to that size. Now I’m good to go. I think there were only two that I would have to hunt down and re-scan and they weren’t overly relevant to the scene(s) I narrated so I’m not overly fussed.
Irritating, aggravating and addiciting! Even though things aren’t going as well as I would have liked, I’m learning as I go and having a blast doing it!
Black Friday is the biggest shopping day of the year on the US calendar. In keeping with that fine tradition, loveahappyending is proud to support featured author Harry Leslie Smith‘s launch of not one, but two of his Books of Memoirs.
Twenty-two years old and ready for peace, Harry Leslie Smith has survived the Great Depression and endured the Second World War. Now, in 1945 in Hamburg, Germany, he must come to terms with a nation physically and emotionally devastated. In this memoir, he narrates a story of people searching to belong and survive in a world that was almost destroyed.
Hamburg 1947 recounts Smith’s youthful RAF days as part of the occupational forces in post-war Germany. A wireless operator during the war, he doesn’t want to return to Britain and join a queue of unemployed former servicemen; he reenlists for long term duty in occupied Germany. From his billet in Hamburg, a city razed to the ground by remorseless aerial bombardment, he witnesses a people and era on the brink of annihilation. This narrative presents a street-level view of a city reduced to rubble populated with refugees, black marketers, and cynical soldiers.
At times grim and other times amusing, Smith writes a memoir relaying the social history about this time and place, providing a unique look at post-WWII Germany. Hamburg 1947 is both a love story for a city and a passionate retailing of a love affair with a young German woman.
Hamburg 1947 can be bought in paperback format from Amazon.co.uk for £11.95 or Hardcover for £18.95
If you didn’t purchase Harry’s first book of memoirs, 1923: A Memoir, this is your chance to get it and Hamburg 1947 under one cover in The Barley Hole Chronicles – From Hell to Hamburg 23/47.
Barley Hole was for my great grandfather Canaan, the land of milk and honey. For my father, it was paradise lost and for my mother, Barley Hole was a curse. It was a place that haunted her spirit and her soul throughout her life. To me, Barley Hole is a name forever etched on the map of my family’s heart; it is where betrayal and injustice nearly thrust us into oblivion.
The Barley Hole Chronicles are an odyssey of the human spirit that stretch across time and geography to incorporate, diverse personalities, personal hardships, World Wars and the struggle for peace and love, in a society fallen from grace. These Chronicles document one Yorkshire family’s descent into the wilderness of poverty and hunger. It is a personal record of one young man’s struggle to survive the great depression, the Second World War and the hazards and wonders of life in post war Germany. The Barley Hole Chronicles are a summation of two memoirs by Harry Leslie Smith 1923 and Hamburg 1947. The Barley Hole Chronicles are a true account of a time and place when life, full of raw emotion, was never so real. It is also a social history of the 20th century at its bloodiest and deadliest time.
The Barley Hole Chronicles are available for the Kindle from Amazon.co.uk for £1.14 or from Amazon.com for $1.50 US.
Hamburg 1947 is available in Paperback for $17.95 US and Hardcover for $27.95 US from Amazon.com and will be available for the Kindle for $1.99 US.
And for Black Friday, Harry is reducing the price of The Barley Hole Chronicles to $0.99 US and his first book, 1923: A Memoir will be reduced to $0.75 US.
Author, Pauline Barclay has been busy behind the scenes working on re-editing and polishing her novel, Satchfield Hall, for a re-launch today. Along with the work between the covers, Pauline has a brand new cover designed by Cathy Helms of Avalon Graphics in the US!
When the news reached Henry Bryant-Smythe about his daughter’s indiscretion, he not only dealt with it, but stamped on it with such a resounding thud, that the consequences ricocheted through the years and well into the future. Henry Bryant-Smythe cared nothing for the consequences of his actions and even less for the feelings of those involved, with the exception of his own, and these he cosseted.
Celia Bryant-Smythe’s disgrace set in motion events that would affect the lives of many people, taking decades to unravel. Lives would be lost and destroyed and it would take until the death of the one man who had callously started it all, Henry Bryant-Smythe, until it was finally over.
Satchfield Hall is not about gentleness, tranquillity and privilege; it is about, power, love, lies and in the end revenge.
Satchfield Hall is available for the Kindle at Amazon.co.uk for £2.32 and at Amazon.com for $3.25. In addition, a paperback version will be released in the coming weeks.
About the Author
Years ago Pauline gained a BA (Hons) degree from the Open University, today she spends her time writing fiction and has three books published: Sometimes It Happens, Magnolia House and Satchfield Hall.
She’s a Yorkshire lass, from the UK but has lived in several different locations including, Suffolk, UK, Surrey, UK and the beautiful country of Holland. Today, Pauline lives on the beautiful volcanic island of Lanzarote in the Canary Isles with her husband and her two gorgeous rescue doggies.
Everyone has that person in his or her life….. The One Who Got Away.
For Lucy, that person is Jackson. Reunited after many years and many changes, Lucy and Jackson find themselves caught in a dilemma. Both of them are struggling with the fact that their old feelings for each other have been reawakened…
And now both of them are involved with other people.
Should Lucy stay in a comfortable, routine relationship with her boyfriend, Matt, even though he doesn’t make her feel the way Jackson does? Should Jackson keep going with the flow in his marriage to Sloane, his overbearing wife who is pressuring him to start a family?
What begins as a friendship rekindled, leads to a romance caught on fire as Lucy and Jackson question the decisions they made in their younger years and wonder if they are truly meant to be together.
The One Who Got Away is available for the Kindle at Amazon.com for $2.99 US and at Amazon.co.uk for £2.14.
Well, it’s almost ready to reveal. I’ve spent a lot of time today with my face in the computer working on it. And starting from scratch with the Windows 7.0 version of Movie Maker, it’s not so difficult to work with at all. So selecting my photos, transitions, effects and what not took a lot of time, albeit enjoyable. Then I spent a period of time where I was sequestered off in the bedroom recording the audio track of the first two chapters using my Sony MP3 recorder. It didn’t seem like it at the time but when I opened the file in Audacity, it was the better part of half an hour!
Another bonus to Audacity, is I was able to edit out any flubs I made since I don’t read out loud well (and believe me, I flubbed in a few places) and shorten some long pauses when I wasn’t able to move to the next screen on the iPad in a timely manner. My first recording might have lasted 30 seconds and I shut it down on my own. Second time around things went swimmingly but still a few moments but I perservered and finished the recording.
Back in touch with humans, I self-taught myself in the workings of Audacity. It’s a really cool program and am looking forward to doing more things with it than I did today. Anyway, I worked away at editing the audio track… reducing the length of gaps, removing moments of tongue-tideness and cut it down to about 8:00 minutes.
I’ll reveal the finished product here soon so stand by for the official announcement of its unveiling.
‘Gold and Glory!’ The pirates took up the chant. ‘Gold and Glory! Gold and Glory!’ Instantly our men surged from their hiding places, weapons primed… Between snatches of smoke and billowing sulphurous fumes I caught glimpses of fighting… Musket shot whistled through the air and splintered the deck timbers. A dozen pirates became two dozen, and then three as Logan’s men massed on the deck…
1719, and the high seas are plagued by the lawless. Pirates rule the crystal waters of the Caribbean, hunting heavily-laden merchant ships with savage ferocity. Entire crews are condemned to die beneath a cutlass blade unless they swear allegiance to the black banner.
Penniless Becky Baxter (13) is determined to escape a life of poverty. Cropping her hair and dressing in breeches, Becky leaves the backstreets of Bristol far behind to embark on a new life of adventure and fortune on the high seas. But when the ship she’s sailing on is captured by pirates, Becky faces a stark choice: join the pirates, or pay with her life…
Publisher: SilverWood Originals (an imprint of SilverWood Books)
Length: 240 pages
Language: English
Print: ISBN 978-1-906236-46-5
Amazon (UK) paperback (buy): http://amzn.to/p84Ahd for £7.99
Amazon (UK) Kindle (buy): http://amzn.to/pptP82 for £3.58
Amazon (US) paperback (buy): http://amzn.to/qTOIEV for $14.00
Amazon (US) Kindle (buy): http://amzn.to/oFhCQT for $5.00
Author website (buy): http://helenhart.co.uk/
John wants retribution for his daughter’s broken life. And he wants to fix it. Nickii, his wife, wants for the pain of this quest to stop threatening his health. All Jackie wants is for a miracle rewind to take her back to being a young mother living with her husband and children.
Set in the 1980s, Dear Dee is a story of a family struggling to come to terms with living with mental illness. It highlights in part how a family in need of help and advice could fall through the net of care and support. At times sad, but also uplifting and, hopefully, raising the odd smile the book tells how they eventually find a sense of peace after tragedy.
Paperback: 195 pages
Language: English
ISBN: 9781848971479
Classification: Fiction
Publisher : Olympia Publishers http://www.olympiapublishers.com
Dear Dee can be purchased from Amazon.co.uk for £6.29 and from Amazon.com for $11.99 US.