Author: blogespresso

Posted on

Interview with author Theresa Gage

Q1. Hello, can you please introduce yourself? Readers would love to know more about you.

I am Theresa Gage and I live in Washington state with my spouse and our two dogs, Joey, (a Chihuahua) and Luke, (a min-pin). When I’m not engrossed in my writing or reading a good book, you’ll find me working in my flower and vegetable garden. I’ve written articles for Working Writer and ezine.com and had short stories published through Art Ascent Magazine and Rumpus Magazine. I recently retired as a nurse.

Q2. What were the key challenges you faced while writing your book “Tangle With Fire”?

My key challenge was to slow down and think of scenes instead of chapters. I knew what I wanted to write, but trying to keep the pacing just right and continue with the storyline was the challenge. I took some classes from the writing coach and podcast host, Kevin T. Johns, which really helped me.

Q3. What books or authors have most influenced your own writing?

Terry Brooks influenced my fantasy writing with his Shannara series, but there are newer authors that I love their writing style too, such as Emma Hamm, Stephanie Mayer, A. G. Howard, and Brigid Kemmerer. A. G. Howard’s different world of Alice in Wonderland is amazing.

Q4. What’s your favourite spot to visit in your own country? And what makes it so special to you?

I like to travel, but nothing compares to Mt. Rainer’s beauty in Washington state.

Q5. What inspired you to write the book ‘Tangle With Fire’?

What inspired me to write the book “Tangle with Fire” was the disrespect my younger daughter showed to her grandmothers when they lived with us. They both had Alzheimer’s. Everyone deserves respect. Then I thought back to my childhood and how I was always the responsible one, while my brother lied and played pranks. Ideas started flowing and I came up with this story.

Q6. How long did it take you to write your book ‘Tangle With Fire’?

It took me two years to get it the way I wanted it. I had joined a critique group which helped to see my mistakes and what worked and what didn’t.

Q7. On what platforms can readers buy your books?

My book is available in softcover print and eBook by Book baby. Soon it is coming out on audible as well. https://store.bookbaby.com/book/tangle-with-fire. Amazon and Barnes & Nobles have it on eBook. In print come October.

Q8. Tell us about the process of coming up with the book cover and the title ‘Tangle With Fire’?

I wanted something with fire for the book cover and the designer did a great job. My main character, Aidan, has magical abilities using fire.

Q9. When writing a book how do you keep things fresh, for both your readers and also yourself?

I try to make things exciting or intriguing.

Q10. What is the most valuable piece of advice you’ve been given about writing?

One of the most valuable lessons I learned was to see things through my character’s eyes. How would they feel if something happened. Everyone is different and sees and feels things differently from others.

Buy Tangle With Fire on Amazon

Posted on

Caregiver’s Guide to Dementia

𝗕𝗼𝗼𝗸: Caregiver’s Guide to Dementia: Discovering Moments of Joy in the Unpredictable Journey 📚
𝗔𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗿: Stella Stone ✍️
.
.

🚀 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰:
“Caregiver’s Guide to Dementia: Discovering Moments of Joy in the Unpredictable Journey” written by the author Stella Stone is a must read. Through this book, the readers make us aware about Dementia. If we are aware of the basics of Dementia, we can care better for our loved ones who have it.

Most forms of dementia are irreversible and progressive. In rare cases, dementia is temporary but that requires prompt and accurate diagnosis to address the root cause. The one who is diagnosed with dementia may experience different emotions like fear, uncertainty, anxiety, etc. Caregivers need to have patience and be understanding and supportive.

In order to provide the best care to loved ones, it’s important for the caregiver to understand dementia. This is an insightful read from which I learned a lot about dementia. The author has suggested various health trackers apps which could help you to keep a track of your loved ones’ health.

This is a well written book. I am thankful to the author for sharing the knowledge about dementia with the caregivers. The title of the book is suitable. The language used in the book is lucid and I was able to follow it easily. Through your love, patience and care you can be a great caregiver. I strongly recommend this book to everyone.

  • 𝗠𝘆 𝗥𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴: 5/5

★ Book Is Available On Amazon

Posted on

Jasmine Tea

𝗕𝗼𝗼𝗸: Jasmine Tea 📚
𝗔𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗿: Sara Badawieh ✍️
.
.

🚀 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰:
Jasmine Tea written by the author Sara Badawieh is an intriguing read. The main characters of the story are Kenda and Ali. Before marriage, Kenda’s life wasn’t good. After her dad expired, Kenda’s mom decided to get remarried when Kenda was fourteen years old. Kenda didn’t like her step-dad Amo Jawad. His step-dad asked her to keep her room door open at night for him.

If Kenda agrees to it, he will pay his University fees and would also provide food for her. Kenda’s mom was aware of it but she stayed silent. The only way to escape from her step-dad was to get married. When her mother talked about getting married to Ali, Kenda agreed to meet him. Ali told her that he is a widower.

After getting married to Ali, Kenda was handed a baby to take care of it. Kenda was shocked to know that it’s Ali’s baby. Will Kenda accept Ali’s family and her new life? What does Ali want from Kenda?

The story is gripping. The twists and turns in the story made it more interesting. The cover photo of the book is nice. The language used in the book is lucid and I was able to follow the story easily. The characters are written well by the author. Go ahead with this book without any second thoughts.

  • 𝗠𝘆 𝗥𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴: 5/5

★ Book Is Available On Amazon

Posted on

The 7 Steps to Amazing Health

𝗕𝗼𝗼𝗸: The 7 Steps to Amazing Health 📚
𝗔𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗿: Dr. Wendy M. Schauer ✍️
.
.

🚀 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰:
“The 7 Steps to Amazing Health!” written by the author Wendy Schauer is a must read book. It is an instruction manual on how to live a life of health, happiness and vitality.

To be healthy, vibrant and alive, we need to make the commitment to do the necessary work. Without hard work, there is no way. By reading this book, readers would get to know how the diseases that many people have are because of their lifestyle choices. We can cure them by making lifestyle changes.

The author has mentioned the importance of water, nutrition, sleep and rest, exercise, positive mental attitude, spinal hygiene, etc. If we make necessary changes in these areas, our health can become better.

I am a fitness enthusiast and these days I am working on my fitness and health goals. I have got my hands on this book at the right time. I have gained valuable insights from this book that would help me in living a healthy life. Thanks to the author for the valuable knowledge that she has shared in this book. If you want to live a healthy life, go ahead with this book without any second thoughts.

  • 𝗠𝘆 𝗥𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴: 5/5

★ Book Is Available On Amazon

Posted on

Interview with author Michael A. Cimino

Q1. Hello, can you please introduce yourself? Readers would love to know more about you.

My name is Michael Cimino. No… not the famous movie director of The Deer Hunter fame, or the handsome young actor from Las Vegas (laughs).

I’m an ex-radio announcer and music journalist from New Jersey who happens to earn a living as a sommelier in upstate New York’s wine country. Oh, and by the way, I am the author of three books; Music Head – A Memoir of Purpose, Badfinger and Beyond – The Biography of Joey Molland, and A Beginner’s Guide to Wine.

Q2. What were the key challenges you faced while writing your book “Music Head – A Memoir of Purpose”?

Probably, the biggest challenge was going through the hundreds of hours of tape recordings that much of the book is based upon. When I was working in the music business I had the opportunity to interview, many famous musicians and I captured all of the interviews on cassette tapes.

Transferring many of the old tapes to the digital format took a lot of time, and then, of course, picking which interviews and what parts of the interviews to use in the book was a challenge as I wanted them to have a cohesive flow in order to not only tell the musicians’ stories but the story of music history as well.

Several of the stars I spoke with were instrumental in the founding of Rock and Roll, and are still stars today; like Roger McGuinn, who founded the very influential group The Byrds in the 1960’s, Gregg Rolie from Journey and Santana, and Pete Best, who was The Beatles’ original drummer.

Q3. What books or authors have most influenced your own writing?

The books that influenced me throughout my life are actually listed in the bibliography of Music Head, but it is hard to tell if any of those authors actually influenced my personal writing style.

I think, the person who did influence the way I write was one of the people who was invited to teach the class on Australian wines when I was studying at the Sommelier Society of America. After his presentation I asked him a very simple question about Australia’s climate and he went off on this tangent for, like, twenty minutes and by the time he was done I was so confused that I don’t think he actually answered my question.

So from that time on I told myself that whenever I was communicating, whether it was educating someone about a wine, or writing about a musician, I would never ‘speak over people’s heads.’

I think reading and writing should be fun and educational, not some academic chore that one needs to complete. I also think that song lyrics have influenced me just as much as poetry and prose.

Q4. What’s your favourite spot to visit in your own country? And what makes it so special to you?

Most definitely, the Finger Lakes wine district in upstate New York. Honestly, I didn’t even know the Finger Lakes existed until I started studying wine. When I first visited the area it was to learn about winemaking and the growing grapes. Then I fell in love with the area and New York wines.

Whenever I was in the Finger Lakes I felt a part of something much bigger. A community of people working within an industry that brings us all together. Wine can do that. So can music. It feels a bit different now that I live here full time, but it is still my favorite place.

Q5. What inspired you to write the book ‘Music Head – A Memoir of Purpose’?

They say, and I don’t know who ‘they’ are, but it has been said that everyone should leave something behind for the rest of the world to remember them by after they’re gone. Some people have children who carry their lineage forward, some create art. I wrote a book that contains music history but it also contains my legacy. I touched upon this subject in the early part of the book.

Q6. How long did it take you to write your book ‘Music Head – A Memoir of Purpose’?

All of my life, practically! The idea has been floating around in my head for decades. When I was younger I was a scrap booker, and had all of these binders full of photos and concert ticket stubs and other memorabilia from my life. I always thought it would be cool to put together a definitive scrap book for my family.

Then, after I started seriously writing in the 1990’s, I thought to put together an autobiography of some sort. After editing the 10 year anniversary edition of my wine book in 2019 I began to compile the stories that make up Music Head, and then on winter break last January I completed it for the most part.

Q7. On what platforms can readers buy your books?

All of my books are available on Amazon.com. Other than that, there are a very small handful of shops in the Finger Lakes area that have supported my books.

Q8. Tell us about the process of coming up with the book cover and the title ‘Music Head – A Memoir of Purpose’?

Originally the book was going to be called Casual Conversations about Rock and Roll, but as it evolved I discovered that the book was really as much about me as it was about the musicians I was writing about, and that changed everything.

Throughout the book, and my life, I have continuously questioned ‘what is my purpose in this world?’ And, ‘who am I?’ Well, music has been the driving force throughout my whole life, so I am a ‘music head,’ and it seems I have found my purpose. It’s all in the book, of course.

As for the cover, my fiancée Debbie always loved the picture she took of me one winter day while I was sitting at my desk working on something. I had a full beard at the time, which is not my norm, and she suggested we use that. She said I looked like a writer! I guess it was my Finding Forester period!

I had the idea to use shiny black as the background in homage to The Beatles’ early singles on the Apple Records label and do the back cover print in the same color of green that The Beatles used. The green didn’t really work out that great so we changed it to gold. Deb used to work in magazine design. We worked on the cover together.

Q9. What would you say is your strength as a writer?

I think this harkens back to what I said about ‘who influenced my writing.’ I like to keep things simple and not try to impress anyone with overly flamboyant statements, or overly wordy passages.

Q10. What is the most valuable piece of advice you’ve been given about writing?

I don’t know if I’ve ever gotten any advice about writing. I certainly can’t recall anyone giving me any advice, but there are two things that spring to mind.

One is a line in the screenplay of The Last Emperor by Bernardo Betolucci. In the movie version he has Peter O’Toole say the line ‘words are important because they say what you mean, and a gentleman should always mean what he says.’ I have always found that statement to be very profound.

The other thing is; I’ve always believed that the universe has a plan. Why I wound up being a writer, I really don’t know, but surely everything happens for a reason.

Buy Music Head: A Memoir of Purpose on Amazon

Posted on

Broken Dreaming

𝗕𝗼𝗼𝗸: Broken Dreaming 📚
𝗔𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗿: Neal Solomon ✍️
.
.

🚀 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰:
Broken Dreaming written by the author Neal Solomon is an interesting read. The story hooked my attention from the first page itself. The main character of the story is Ramsey. A few weeks ago, he started having strange dreams. In his dreams, he saw a world that is entirely different from the world he is in. In the other world, Ramsey could see people everywhere, cars, screens, food, large buildings, etc. He told about these dreams to his best friend Darren who made a suggestion to journal those dreams.

Very few people survived the war. After the war, the focus of those people were on survival instead of on social divides like wealth, race, gender, etc. The people Ramsey meets in his dreams are not part of the Group. His experiences of his dreams seem real and vivid to him. In his dreams, Ramsey saw himself attending University with his friends: Nate, Raj, Lana, CJ, etc.

Ramsey finds himself feeling as if this was how the world was before the war. However, when he looked at the old pictures in the books, the two worlds don’t look similar. Read this story to know what Ramsey will discover about both worlds.

I appreciate the vivid imagination of the author in creating this fantasy world. The cover photo of the book is nice and the title couldn’t have been better than this. I am definitely looking forward to reading the next book in The Broken book series.

  • 𝗠𝘆 𝗥𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴: 5/5

★ Book Is Available On Amazon

Posted on

Interview with author Nigel and Laura Bloomfield

Q1. Hello, can you please introduce yourselves? Readers would love to know more about the two of you.

Nigel- Absolutely! Thank you for speaking with us! I’m Nigel. My wife and I wrote The Happy Giraffe Budget which talks about our experience of creating a completely new way to budget and manage money. I’m sure we’ll talk more about that later though.

We have 3 kids and it seems like most of our time is spent just trying to keep up with them!

Laura- I feel like we are pretty boring people… Nigel has a 9-5 job, I’m a stay at home mom, we live in Utah, we play board games for fun… but then I think about our 19 years of marriage as a whole and we’ve had some exciting and challenging experiences along the way. We’ve lived in 15 homes, Nigel graduated from 2 different universities, we had miscarriages and a stillborn, traveled, filed bankruptcy, owned a restaurant, wrote a book, created a non-profit, we drive an electric fiat that looks like a coke zero car… that definitely makes us sound more exciting than we really are.

Q2. What were the key challenges you faced while writing your book “The Happy Giraffe Budget”?

Nigel- Well I’m pretty sure I was Laura’s biggest challenge! I wrote a lot of the guts of the book. My writing style is really boring though. So she had her work cut out for her, to turn what I wrote into something people would want to read.

The other big challenge was that neither of us are really writers. I deal with spreadsheets and finances for work. So just getting this all written down and organized was a big task. I would go to local writing classes to learn, but it was obvious that I didn’t fit in. Everyone else was in love with writing. I just wanted to write this one book. But we worked through it. Laura’s work is really what made the book amazing.

Laura- I’d say my biggest challenge was just finding time to do it! When we started this project, I had three little kids and a thousand responsibilities. It was hard to find time that I wanted to spend on editing a book. But we had this idea that we really felt like it could help others, so we wanted to share it. That and seeing Nigel work so hard and have this dream encouraged me to eventually make the time to write it.

Q3. What was an early experience where you learned that language had power?

Laura- My parents are amazing teachers. They didn’t teach school, but they taught us in our home and taught us at church. My dad taught seminars at certain points in his career, too. I remember that my dad was going to be teaching a seminar in Las Vegas on my 12th birthday, so my parents took me with them on the trip. As the 6th of 8 children, it was exciting to get my parents to myself, even if it was to sit through business meetings all day! But I watched my dad captivate a room full of businessmen/women and professionals. He was entertaining and exciting, and yet informative and helpful. Even I was interested in what he was saying! I realized that using words could be powerful, and that I wanted to do that, too. To be able to change lives with my words.

Nigel- For me it was high school english with Mr. Lyons. He made reading and writing so incredibly interesting. Well written works had so much meaning and…power, as you put it. We analyzed poems and books of all kinds. I’m always grateful that he taught in a way that opened up a whole world of thinking differently.

Q4. What inspired you to write the book “The Happy Giraffe Budget”?

Nigel- I’ll let Laura talk about how we came up with the Happy Giraffe name! In the book we tell our story about how we failed at budgeting many times until we had this idea that ended up working really well for us.

As we talked to other people and looked around, we realized that we had come up with something very unique. I couldn’t find anyone who managed their money or did a budget like we did. We also realized that a lot of people struggle with budgeting. It’s hard to figure out! So we started to feel like it was really important to write this book and help others learn from our experience.

Laura- Like Nigel said, we just really want to help people. We felt like we had experiences that helped us overcome the battle of budgeting and we wanted to share that with others. My grandpa would say “leave people better than how you found them” and I try to do that in my life. Finances are so hard, and I was once so terrible at them. I know how this one aspect of your life can affect everything! If I can help even one person figure that out and live a better life, then it was all worth it.

In processing through how to do that in the most interesting way (because let’s face it… budgeting is not interesting!), we were drawn to the format of “Who Moved My Cheese,” where it’s an almost childlike story and then you pull principles from it. Being that giraffes are born awesome, it seemed like the best animal to use as a main character, and the rest fell in place after that.

Q5. I understand the book is linked to a nonprofit? Tell me how that came about.

Nigel- Yeah! That’s a little different! As we got close to finishing the book we were talking about how to get this out into the world. How do we publish the book and how do we follow it up with teaching and helping people?

We found that most people who teach about budgeting actually charge a lot of money to do it! That felt really wrong to us. These are people who are already having financial troubles. They need help, but it seems like the wrong time to take more money from them.

So we decided to create a nonprofit and help as volunteers. Which has been such a great decision. The hardest part has been convincing people that the help really is free! We have free spreadsheets and everything else people need on HappyGiraffe.org.

Laura- It’s true… we’ve had friends encourage us to charge for our spreadsheets or our services, but that just doesn’t seem right to us. Plus, there’s this cool feeling when you find out how many thousands of people have downloaded your spreadsheet or how someone has been affected by reading your book, that makes you want to keep working and keep helping. Those rewards wouldn’t seem so empowering if they had a dollar sign attached to them.

Q6. What books or authors have most influenced your own writing?

Laura- This is not a good question for me… I actually hate self help books! Actually, I think the only one I’ve made it all the way through was by Brene Brown, so let’s go with her. John Bytheway and Hank Smith are also authors/teachers that have greatly influenced my teaching style, and therefore my writing style.

Nigel- Apparently college text books have had the most influence on how I write! I just want to get the facts all out there. No fluff. I liked school that way. You just study and memorize!

Q7 What’s your favorite spot to visit? And what makes it so special to you?

Nigel- I love Reno and Carson City, Nevada. That’s where I met Laura. I was working a summer job and I installed the satellite dish for her and her roommates. Best summer of my life! I came home broke and married!

Laura- I love Carson City/Reno/Tahoe as well. But not because I’m a romantic like Nigel… I just love going to my favorite childhood hangouts and restaurants, and seeing my favorite people.

Q8. On what platforms can readers buy your book?

Nigel- The physical and ebook versions are on Amazon. We just released the audiobook version too! We did that one a little differently so it is also available on Barnes and Noble, I was really excited about that one, and lots of other places.

Ask your local library to get it! We made it cheap for them so more people could have access to it.

Q9. What is the most valuable piece of advice you’ve been given?

Laura- I don’t know if it was advice as much as reprimanding, but when I was in 6th grade my best friend ended up going to a different middle school than me. This was back in the 90s, and sagging your pants had just become a thing, and trying to fit in as an awkward 12 year old, I made an effort to sag my corduroy pants and show off a bit of my plaid boxers. The next time I hung out with my friend I told her about what I had done. She simply looked at me and said “why?” That simple question to my simple mind threw me that day, and I’ve tried to consider it with everything I do since. Why am I doing something or acting a certain way or living a certain way? And if there’s not a good, healthy, answer that involves respecting me and respecting those around me, then I try not to do that thing. Obviously I’m not perfect at it, but I do try to govern my life by the simple question of “why?”

Nigel- That’s a hard question. I like what Laura said! A big change in my life was when I realized that money wasn’t going to fix everything and it isn’t the measure of success. A lot of people have told me that, but I’m glad it eventually sunk in just how true that is.

Q10. What’s next for you? Are you writing more books?

Nigel- I think this was our one book! At least for me! I’ll keep my day job. But I’m hoping to keep growing the nonprofit and help people budget happier! I’m ok that it doesn’t make us any money at all. It’s nice to have something to work on that feels meaningful.

Laura- I agree, maybe not more books… unless we do some type of kids book version. I’d love to help kids understand money better, too. But next is starting up our classes for the non-profit and just moving forward with our crazy lives!

Buy The Happy Giraffe Budget on Amazon

Posted on

Little Bird by Sarah Mirza

𝗕𝗼𝗼𝗸: Little Bird 📚
𝗔𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗿: Sarah Mirza ✍️
.
.

🚀 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰:
I love reading Children’s books. Recently I got my hands on Sarah Mirza’s book “Little Bird”. The main character of the story is a little bird who lays in his egg fast asleep. For the initial 10 days, a little bird was in his shell. Then one day on Monday, a little bird broke through his shell. 

Grab a copy of this book to know about the journey of a little bird from the time he comes out of his shell to the time he goes into the outer world.  

This is a beautifully written story. I appreciate the storytelling skills of the author. The cover photo is eye-catching and the illustrations are pretty. I had a great time reading this book to the little readers in my house. They all enjoyed every bit of this story. Parents should definitely add this book to their children’s bookshelf.

The story teaches a valuable lesson to the readers. I recommend kids to discover that lesson themselves by reading this book. Great work done by Sarah in this children’s book.

  • 𝗠𝘆 𝗥𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴: 5/5
Posted on

The Silver Sparrow

𝗕𝗼𝗼𝗸: The Silver Sparrow 📚
𝗔𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗿: Katy Jordan ✍️
.
.

🚀 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰:
After reading “The Black Bullet”, I was eagerly waiting for the next book in the Colour Coded series. “The Silver Sparrow” i.e. the second installment in the series was worth the wait. 

The main character of the story is Sparrow. He has shared all of his secrets with Neon. Neon is now threatening Sparrow that he will reveal those to others. It has been a month since Neon took a direct stab at Sparrow. 

Neon is still alive. He has not won yet and the group hasn’t failed yet. Sparrow is determined to find whose medical help Neon took after Bullet shot him. 

This book takes the readers on a thrilling roller coaster journey. The cover photo of the book is nice, the writing style is impressive. The language used in the book is lucid and the readers could follow it easily. The characters are written well by the author. I loved every bit of this book.

  • 𝗠𝘆 𝗥𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴: 5/5

★ Book Is Available On Amazon

Posted on

The Gen Z Money Manual

𝗕𝗼𝗼𝗸: The Gen Z Money Manual 📚
𝗔𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗿: Mark Bolton ✍️
.
.

🚀 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰:
“The Gen Z Money Manual: Mastering Our New Economy” written by the author Mark Bolton is a great book that one should read. In this book, the author has given some suggestions on goal settings. Mark has mentioned that it’s important to set realistic goals, goals should be written down and placed at a place where you can see them everyday. After writing our goals, we can sort them into categories. This book made me realize that I don’t set a timeline to my goals, that’s why I failed to achieve them.

It’s important for us to plan effectively and review our goals daily. The author has shared insights on high interest Credit Card debt, education and student debt, etc. The author has mentioned the pros and cons of side hustles. The emotional investing content is my favorite from the book. It gives us much needed wisdom. We shouldn’t be fearful, greedy or too excited while making investment decisions. All the chapters of this book will give you the wisdom that could save your life or could help you achieve more in life.

This book is not just meant for reading it, it’s action and output oriented. If we apply the knowledge that we get from this book, we can definitely do better in our lives. Mark has done great work in this book. His writing style is amazing. The title of the book is suitable and I had a great time reading this book.

  • 𝗠𝘆 𝗥𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴: 5/5

★ Book Is Available On Amazon

Design a site like this with WordPress.com
Get started