Winning Moves Fall Fun GA-3-US-Ends 10/13 @WinningMovesUSA @las930

Welcome to the Winning Moves Fall Fun Giveaway!

3 Winners in the Winning Moves Fall Fun Giveaway

This giveaway is part of our Fall Gift Guide – Stop by to see all the giveaways and great products.

Host is Michigan Saving and More

My co-hosts for this giveaway are Deliciously Savvy, This Frugal Family, Gifts for all seasons, Home Jobs by Mom, Ice Cream n Sticky Fingers, Miki's Hope

 

Below is a list of all the bloggers involved in the gift guide.

Comeback Momma, Deliciously Savvy, Giveaway Gator Here We Go Again Ready,, Home Jobs by Mom, Lisa-Queen of Random, Michigan Saving and More, My Crafty Zoo, My Silly Little Gang, Naturalhairlatins, Seeking Serenity and Harmony, Tales From A Southern Mom, This Frugal Family

Another one for Winning Moves! This selection that you may possibly win are really great games! Stock up for holiday gifts--or up coming birthdays. You may not be able to see anyone in person but that does not mean you are not thinking about them. Get them gifts that the whole family will enjoy playing together! And please do not forget the charities like Toys for Tots that can always use extra new games to hand out to children in need. Click into and read all the reviews below--then get down there and enter. There will be 3 winners--you just might be one of them!

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This giveaway's Sponsor is:

WINNING MOVES GAMES

WEBSITE ~ FACEBOOK ~ YOU TUBE ~ TWITTER ~ INSTAGRAM

Winning Moves USA (WMUSA) is a leading maker of board games, card games, and puzzles. Since WMUSA's first year of operation in 1995, the company has forged a close relationship with one of the world's largest game companies, Hasbro, Inc., owner of Parker Brothers and Milton Bradley. WMUSA also has a great relationship with Seven Towns, Ltd. (the owners of the Rubik's brand). As a result, many long-lived Parker Brothers and Milton Bradley games & Rubik's puzzles are now marketed by WMUSA!

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3 Winners receive a Winning Moves Fall Fun Game Bundle

Winner 1 receives Pass the Pigs, Tile Up Scrabble, and Metallic Rubik's Cube - $77.40 RV

Winner 2 receives Pass the Pigs - Pig Party, Risk Europe, Rubik's Orbit - $72.85 RV

Winner 3 receives Pass the Pigs - Big Pigs, Rubik's Christmas Tree, Scattergories - $69.85 RV

RUBIKS CHRISTMAS TREE

See review HERE.

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LARGE PRINT TILE LOCK SCRABBLE

See review HERE.

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PASS THE PIGS

See review HERE.

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PASS THE PIGS BIG PIGS

See review HERE.

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Pass the Pigs - Pig Party

See review HERE.

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RISK EUROPE

See review HERE.

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RUBIK’S ORBIT

See review HERE.

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RUBIKS METALLIC

See review HERE.

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Scattergories

See review HERE.

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THE GIVEAWAY

This giveaway/sweepstakes is in no way endorsed, affiliated, or associated with Facebook, Twitter or any other Social Media Networking Site. This Giveaway is valid to continental United States residents only, Entrants must be 18+ years of age to enter. This giveaway event will end at 11:59 PM (EST) 10/13/20. The winner will have 48 hours to email their information back to las93063 at gmail dot com or a new winner will be drawn, you may want to put this email address as safe as it could go to spam. The giveaway is not valid where prohibited! By entering you are authorizing us to collect the information on the form below, this information is used only to contact the winner! No purchase necessary, Void where prohibited by law, and the number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning. Winners are chosen randomly by the Giveaway Tools program. The sponsors are each responsible for shipping of the above prizes. No blog associated with this contest are responsible for prize fulfillment. If you would like to be a sponsor in a giveaway like this please email Laura Smith at las930 (at)gmail (dot) com. If you take an entry you must stay following for the entire contest or you will be disqualified.

If you are a blogger interested in our gift guides sign up here or more information is HERE.

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Sponsors interested in joining our gift guides can see the information HERE.

 

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All opinions expressed are my own honest opinions. For more information please check my Disclosure Statement. Our giveaways are in no way sponsored or promoted by Facebook or Google.

Save as Much as 25% with a Comprehensive Android Monitoring App

This is a guest post written for Miki's Hope by Sara Johnson

While we are all busy preparing for Christmas and looking for an opportunity to save, our best shot is coupons. Something unique caught my eye. If you have been looking for something that helps you keep track of loved ones to keep them safe or something to track your employees around the clock, then Xnspy may be a good start. It is a comprehensive android monitoring app, and my opinions about it are strictly mine, after trying it for quite some time. Luckily, there is a 25% coupon discount on it and I happened to avail it.

It is Always Affordable

The app actually is very affordable and comes in both android and iOS versions. It works on tablets, all kinds of Android devices. Moreover, it works on iPads, iPhones, and other iOS too. You can get the basic edition for as low as $8.33 and you can get the premium edition at only $12.49. With the discount offer, you can save enough to buy other gifts.

An Android Monitoring App Easy to Use

What attracted me is that it is easy to use. All you have to do is subscribe to the services, download the app, and install it on the target device. To subscribe to it, visit the website. You will receive an email with instruction to download and install the app.

Xnspy android monitoring app is a web-based software, with a comprehensive dashboard displaying the various features it offers. To monitor any feature on a target device, users simply have to click on the respective tabs on the dashboard. On the screen, users will see a detailed display of the feature selected. There’s a demo worth trying before purchasing the app. Here’s what you can expect:

• Monitor Conversations Stealthily

From the web-based dashboard, you can see all incoming and outgoing text messages, emails, and conversations via internet messengers. The app allows you to read entire conversations stealthily so that the target person doesn’t know. You cannot alter the messages nor delete them, but you can see all the photos and videos shared in the messengers. It also allows you to access the target’s Facebook messenger.

• Track Target Device

Often, we feel the need to track people whether they are employees or loved ones. With this app installed in the target device, we can know where the person using the device is. The inbuilt GPS tracker in the app provides continuous location history updates. You can know where the target device was when it sent or received text messages and calls. Employers can use this to keep track of their employees at any time and know if they are lying.

Screen Browser History and Screenshots

Parents and employers who are strict about time management can remotely access the browser history on the target device. This can help them know how much time the target person spends browsing and the sites frequently visited. They can take screenshots of the activity they witness for backups.

Screen Installed Apps

Xnspy allows users to block installed apps remotely. If you don’t want the target person to use a certain app installed on the device, you can be the one in control. Unless you authorize the target, he or she cannot use the blocked app.

Listen to Ambient Surrounding

Apart from the ability to record calls, upload them to your control panel and then delete the temporary files on the SD-card, this app can record ambient sounds too. This means that with this android monitoring app, you don’t have to hide behind closed doors and walls to hear what people say in your absence. By turning on the recorder remotely, you can hear everything once recorded files upload to your dashboard.

This year, you can celebrate Christmas by gifting yourself a comprehensive app. You can keep loved ones safe from online harmful activities like talking to strangers and cyber bullies. Besides, you can get the app at a discounted price to monitor your employees' activity and productivity. Let the New Year begin with something new and helpful for you.

Id there are any affiliate links they are not those of Miki's Hope. For more information please check my Disclosure Statement. Our giveaways are in no way sponsored or promoted by Facebook.

4 Non-Traditional Ways to Decorate With Christmas Lights

With all the pretty lights and decorations available during the holiday season, why do so many houses and trees end up looking the same? This year you don't have to go with the traditional Christmas light decorations you see everywhere. Get creative and do something out of the box.

Image via Flickr by RisforRndm

Cutting down a tree isn't for everyone, and not everyone is into fake trees, either. Instead, consider creating a Christmas tree on one of your walls with string lights. Buy some of those removable plastic wall hooks (you'll need a few, depending on how big you want your tree) and a few strands of matching indoor Christmas lights. What you're going to do is make a zigzag pattern across the wall in the shape of a Christmas tree, starting small at the top and getting wider at the base. Angle the hooks sideways and slightly upwards so they catch the light strands. Plug it in and you have a nice tree of lights.

String up Some Burlap

To create a festive garland with burlap, all you need is a string of white Christmas lights, some burlap (brown is fine, or you can go for red and green, too,) and a pair of scissors. Cut small strips of burlap (about an inch wide and four to six inches long,) then tie the burlap around the cord of the string lights. You should be able to fit a few knots between each light. When you string it up, the burlap looks rustic and festive, and you know your garland is 100 percent unique because it's handmade.

Decorate a Deciduous Tree

Make your outdoor lights display unique by focusing on the sparse simplicity of your deciduous trees. The exposed branches make a great canvas for hanging ornaments and lights. Before you reach for a string of lights, however, consider hanging other objects instead. Hang oversized tree ornaments from the branches of a tree in your front yard. Scatter these ornaments with glowing Starlight Spheres and Moravian Stars from Christmas Lights Etc, so that the tree looks beautiful day and night.

Upcycle Wine Bottles

To create beautiful centerpieces, all you need are a few empty white wine bottles with the labels removed, a strand of white lights per bottle, and some tulle. Stuff the tulle and the lights into the wine bottle, letting the plug end of the lights hang out of the neck (or you can drill a hole into the glass if you know what you're doing). Hide the cord under a table runner and plug in the lights. You'll have glittering wine bottles that cast a soft ambient light over your party platters or your holiday meal that took you maybe five minutes to make.

Celebrate Christmas without old-fashioned decor this year. Use your creativity to craft new and interesting displays with your lights. These projects are simple yet effective; you'll have decorations that are the hit of your party and the envy of your neighborhood.

This is a sponsored guest post. The links will take you to advertising-but will not be for Miki's Hope.For more information please check my Disclosure Statement. Our giveaways are in no way sponsored or promoted by Facebook.

Guest Post-“Why Do You Write?”-John Beyer

When a person learns I am a professional writer the question which seems to be asked is “Why do you write?”Often I sit back before answering and query myself that very same thing. I write because I must write. Memories flood into my being about writing since growing up in Southern California and the very first short story – ‘Prisoner in the Sands’ – about a downed fighter pilot in the Sahara Desert during World War II. For some reason I ran across that story a few months back and though it was the musing of a young boy of nine it brought a smile. Even then I knew stories were to be told and perhaps even read by others.

Life is short but can be extended with a good book on a carefree weekend – to read is to travel, to explore, to fall in love, to experience every human emotion possible and thus it takes writers to allow us readers to feel such. I am proud that I can perhaps share what I can with the written word weaving a story or a tale here and there. To allow readers a chance to escape reality with a short story or a short chapter or two from one of my novels in the evening after a hard day dealing with the everyday hustle and bustle of life.

Sometimes escape is bliss – especially with good reading material in the hands with the understanding that it is only a story and reality is just around the next bend in the road. I write because I love to write and the characters and places invented by me tend to remind me of how fortunate I am to be able to put down on paper what is rapidly taking place within my brain. The added benefit is someone else may enjoy the piece too.

About the Author: (from the publicist)

John Beyer has been writing most of his life. He’s traveled to at least 23 countries (and was actually shot in the head in Spain in 2000 during a march between Neo Nazis and Communists two days after running with the bulls in Pamplona). He was caught in a
hurricane off the coast of east Baja (Bahia de los Angeles) while kayaking and lived to tell about it. Essentially, it’s hard to tell where experience leaves off and fiction takes over. You’ll want to read his books.

here is is most current!

About the book (from Amazon)

Russia had learned the hard way the extremes these fanatics would go to…

Ten years ago, Captain Yuri Shakirov stood in horror as young children were butchered by a hail of bullets from a group of Islamic extremists. As blood spattered the walls of this small Beslan school, Yuri's greatest fear was that this tragedy would someday be repeated.

Now America would encounter these same crazed murderers…

All the terrorists needed was a place where they could descend, like the cowards they were, and strike terror into the heart of every American. An average middle school in California seemed the perfect soft target. The terrorists saw it and pounced. And Yuri was once again thrust into the line of fire.

It would take strong determination and courage to stop what had happened in Russia from happening here. The Americans need his help, but can Yuri find the strength to go through this nightmare again?

Read a chapter or two here

Purchase the book here

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All opinions expressed are my own honest opinions. For more information please check my Disclosure Statement. Our giveaways are in no way sponsored or promoted by Facebook.

Guest Post-When Did I Realize I Wanted to be an Author?-Kait Carson

Thank you for hosting me, Michele. This is a fun blog and I feel very at home. Your causes are hot button issues with me. I’m a breast cancer survivor—visualize fist pumps here—and I ran a feline rescue in Maine. Six rescued cats (most special needs) call me their staff and four tropical birds provide backdrop tweets, caws, and dialogue to my writing time.

Interviewers often ask when I knew I wanted to be a writer. The answer to that is as soon as I figured out that words could be strung together to paint images and pictures. Since I started reading at age two (my father would read me everything except Prince Valiant comics and that, of course, was what I wanted read), the concept of words translating to pictures took root early.

Entertaining friends with made up stories followed quickly and when I learned to print, the stories went on paper. Life followed and writing continued, as a hobby. Something I did in the odd hours after work or the weekends when it was too cold or nasty to scuba dive. Something I would turn to full time when I had the time. You know, later.

Newsflash—stop the presses—later is now. Don’t wait for it. During my treatment, I pulled out two of the full-length novels that resided in my computer memory and got to work. The first became Zoned for Murder, the second, Death by Blue Water. Zoned was ready for prime time, but the author wasn’t. The thought of getting an agent, finding a publisher, all of the back and forth and sheer, gut-wrenching pain of rejections scared the heck of out me. What if I lost my nerve? So I self-published what became the Catherine Swope series. Emboldened by the modest success of the series, I took my courage in both hands and approached Henery Press with Blue Water and the Hayden Kent series. They bought it and suddenly, I had a traditional publisher. Now I’m ready for the next step in the process. The agent part. Fingers crossed—full steam ahead. How bad can it be? I’ve already shaken my fist in the face of death.

That same spirit forms the character of both of my series heroines. They are fun, adventurous, spirited, cautious when they need to be, and ready for anything life throws at them. Catherine is a former cop who left the force after a traumatic shoot-out. In Murder in the Multiples, she’s found her niche selling high-end real estate in Miami’s hot market. Bad things can happen in expensive homes and Catherine puts her investigative skills to good use. Hayden’s had an easier life, but death haunts her too. She battles her demons with frequent scuba dives that sometimes end in discovering bodies, or finding treasure among the clues.

Each of my heroines is an animal lover. Both have rescue pets. Catherine shares her life with Paddy Whack, a cat who wandered into her front yard as a kitten and she turned into a house cat. Her dog, Bullet, was a police dog. She acquired him when his handler died and Bullet was deemed too old to adapt to another. He’s Catherine’s shadow and running companion. Hayden adopted Tiger Cat at the side of the Florida Turnpike. She spotted a tiny kitten huddled in the median next to a packing box. Fearing for the kitten’s life, she pulled over and discovered not just a kitten, but also a body in the box. That’s a story yet to be told, but Tiger Cat moved to the Florida Keys with Hayden and dines on Florida lobster from time to time. Having staff that scuba dives can be a useful thing.

Pink and pets. The story of my life. What was your turning point?


About the Author (from the Publicist)

Kait learned to read at the age of two. Had to, her father wouldn't read her Prince Valiant in the Sunday comics. Her two favorite books are still Dr. Seuss's A Fly Went By and Louisa May Alcott's Little Women. Dr. Seuss was the first book she remembers reading, and the Alcott introduced her to Jo March, and exclamation points. Both changed her life.

Kait’s working life proved just as varied. A seasonal job selling fine china and glassware in the Washington, DC area soon morphed into a move to New York City and a job with a high-end Italian gold jewelry import company. The call of the tropics took her back to Miami and a job working for one of Miami's most colorful characters as he and his Dallas Cowboy owning partner developed a national restaurant chain. A stint with the fledgling Miami City Ballet provided more grist for the journals. That led to years working with estate planning law firms and lessons learned in the front lines of litigation. She wrote five novels during this time, honing voice and characterization, learning scene and setting. The books, some masterpieces of head hopping, live under her bed. She loved them all.

Today she’s combined her love of scuba diving with her love of writing to create a new series, the second book releasing this month: Death by Sunken Treasure.

You can purchase this book at Amazon and Barnes & Noble

You can find out more about this very interesting author:

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All opinions expressed are my own honest opinions. For more information please check my Disclosure Statement. Our giveaways are in no way sponsored or promoted by Facebook.

Guest Post-Do Readers Influence Your Writing?-Cheryl Hollon, Author of Shards of Murder

Recently I read and reviewed Shards of Murder ( see my review here ). I definitely enjoyed this book and asked if the author would write a guest post for my blog--well here it is. And yes, Cheryl Hollon, this is definitely one of those cozy mysteries where you wish the next installment was already in your hands!!

So without further ado I give you the guest post for this author!

Do readers influence your writing?

In my pre-published days, I would have quickly answered, “No. How would that happen?”

The books in the Webb’s Glass Shop Mystery Series are written in my little writing shed while I’m completely alone and quietly visiting the imaginary world of Savannah, Edward, Amanda, Jacob, Suzy and Rooney. There are no readers in my backyard retreat.
I create the mystery word by word, scene by scene, chapter by chapter, without a second thought about readers.

I was wrong. Everything has changed.

On Sunday evening, I returned from an exhilarating conference in Phoenix, Arizona, where I attended the Left Coast Crime Great Cactus Caper. There were over 700 attendees. The vast majority were readers. Cozy mystery series readers are a special breed. They read an enormous number of books each year – in series order, mind you – and they have definite expectations. At Left Coast
Crime,I met wonderful readers who are loyal, supportive, generous, kind and quite clear that they expect you to provide a cozy, satisfying, read. I’m good with that. I write what I would like to read. But I have to admit that I’m no longer alone in my writing shed. I hear the echoes of the conference attendees chatting about their favorite writers. How much they enjoy their books. How they wish the next book was released already. It inspires me to be that writer – the one they want to read.

About Shards of Murder: (from the publisher Breakthough Promotions.net)

When a glass-making competition turns deadly, glass shop owner Savannah Webb must search for a window into a criminal's mind…
As the new proprietor of Webb's Glass Shop, Savannah has been appointed to fill her late father's shoes as a judge for the Spinnaker Arts Festival, held in downtown St. Petersburg, Florida. With her innovative glass works, the clear winner is Megan Loyola, a student of Savannah's former mentor. But when Megan doesn't show up to accept her $25,000 award, rumors start flying. And when Savannah discovers the woman's dead body on festival grounds, the police immediately suspect her of murder. To keep from appearing before a judge herself, Savannah sorts through the broken pieces of glass scattered around the victim for clues as to who took this killer competition too far. . .

Meet the Author: (from the publisher Breakthough Promotions.net)

Cheryl Hollon writes full time after she left an engineering career designing and building military flight simulators in amazing countries such as England, Wales, Australia, Singapore, Taiwan and India. Fulfilling the dream of a lifetime, she combines her love of writing with a passion for creating glass art. In the small glass studio behind the house, Cheryl and her husband George design, create, and produce fused glass, stained glass and painted glass artworks.

Buy Links:

Pane & Suffering

Shards of Murder

You can visit Cheryl and her books at

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All opinions expressed are my own honest opinions. For more information please check my Disclosure Statement. Our giveaways are in no way sponsored or promoted by Facebook.

Guest Post by Author of The Case of the Yellow Diamond-Carl Brookins

I would like to introduce you to Carl Brookins. He is the author of The Case of the Yellow Diamond which can be found here on my blog along with a giveaway until 1/25. The book can be purchased here. I have a feeling a lot of author's feel the way Carl Brookins does--being a writer these days is a lot more then just sitting down and writing a novel--a whole lot more!!


Random thoughts on one writer’s journey. OR a writer’s rant.

I wrote a novel, you see. I’ve always written, since I was a small boy. I discovered early on that I got better grades if I did the essay questions rather than multiple choice tests. I think that’s what led to my interest in writing for radio and television.

I’ve always had jobs or careers with a heavy component of writing. So when I got older and returned to my interest in novels which I also invested in heavily, my wife urged me to take a class, learn if I could write a novel and I did that. I now have written several, the latest is titled “The Case of the Yellow Diamond.” You can learn more about it elsewhere. I know that mid-list authors like me are expected to spend a good deal of energy and time promoting their books. But most of us have additional lives as well.

Until I retired, I did. I had a career as a college counselor and teacher. I liked it. I also helped my hard-working wife raise our two lovely daughters. So when I retired and our kids left home I thought I’d have a lot more time to write a bunch of novels, because I have several characters with stories hanging around my basement office, waiting for me to notice them.

Great, I thought. Long hours at the keyboard Just one “Crime and Punishment” after another. Words would be my world. Well, yes but then my first publisher came with a question. First, he pointed out that Dostoyevsky beat me to C&P a long time ago. His question was, what’s your plan to promote this book? Thus I entered the world of promotion and marketing.

There came trips to libraries and book stores. There are middle of the day calls to radio stations and early (very) morning sojourns to local television stations for three-or four minute interviews. Arrangements must be made. Press releases and publicity materials must be created and supervised through the process until after they have been distributed. Travel arrangements must occur.

Maybe you’re contemplating a book tour. I’ve done a few, over 400 at last count, including those with buddies in the Minnesota Crime Wave, Ellen and Kent. Blog tours, advertising and oh, don’t forget the conventions and our social media. Networking can be very important, but it all takes time, time away from writing, sleeping, eating and that next book or story.

And now, due to digital advances, we have new opportunities for something called self-publishing. Now there’s a time suck. Even if control is your thing, it all chips away at that ideal of writing for four hours every day, then relaxing, reading, playing with the kids or the cats. Except the other day when I got four emails from my excellent publicist requesting blog articles for sites she has contacted.

So what’s the point of this? Many points are (or is) the point. Being a writer is far more than spending one’s life putting words on paper (or a screen). Have I mentioned editing? If you want to be a successful writer of fiction, be prepared to be a multitasker. Learn to spread yourself thin, like mayo on a slice of fresh bread, like the gossamer threads of a newly spun web stretched between swaying green twigs of the apple tree outside your window.

No, you can’t go to the swimming hole just yet. First you have to finish that next chapter.

Do I wish I was selling more books? Of course, but am I happy with my life? You bet!

More about the Author and where else he can be found!

Before he became a mystery writer and reviewer, Brookins was a freelance photographer, a public television program director, a cable TV administrator and a counselor and faculty member at Metropolitan State University in Saint Paul, Minnesota. He is a member of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, and Private Eye Writers of America. He can frequently be found touring bookstores and libraries with his companions-in-crime, The Minnesota Crime Wave.

He writes the sailing adventure series featuring Michael Tanner and Mary Whitney. The third novel is Old Silver. His new private investigator series features Sean NMI Sean, a short P.I. The first is titled The Case of the Greedy Lawyers. Brookins received a liberal arts degree from the University of Minnesota and studied for a MA in Communications at Michigan State University.

He is married with two grown daughters and lives with his wife, Jean, a retired publisher and editor in Roseville, Minnesota.

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This is a guest post-I received nothing for posting this!
All opinions expressed are my own honest opinions. For more information please check my Disclosure Statement. Our giveaways are in no way sponsored or promoted by Facebook.

Book Excerpt-Caelum–Olde City Angels Book 1-Mandie Stevens

There is still a giveaway going on but I thought that maybe you would like to read a bit so I asked Mandie Stevens if she would allow me to put up an excerpt of this Adult Fantasy because I may not have explained it correctly. As I stated, this is not a genre I am used to reading. The author graciously sent me the following so all of you could get a real taste for this book.
If you would like to enter the giveaway click here The giveaway ends on 12/20.

Mandie Stevens is currently working on the 2nd book in this series--so keep a watch!!




“Eva.” A soft whisper called to me. As I turned around to see who it was, the shadow screeched my name and reached from the wall to touch me. I backed away and stepped off the curb. The shadows made my decision easier, and I headed to the bar.

My head snapped up when a crow cawed. There must have been nearly a hundred crows on the rooftop above. Hell’s spies had found me fast. I could sense the hatred rolling of them in waves. The demon already had an advantage.

The bar’s bouncer was a beady-eyed dwarf who honed in on me before I managed to cross the street. I tugged my shirt to conceal the knife, knowing it was too late to hide it but trying anyway.

“I need to see some I.D.” The dwarf stood on the chair, making him meet my height. I held out my hand and let it glow, letting him know I was an angel. He arched his brow. “Sorry, toots, but you have to leave your weapons at the door.”

I looked him up and down. “Not going to happen. I’m here to see Phenex.” I walked past him on his perch. The bar’s magik hit me, crawling over my body, sizing me up. Grumpy hopped off his chair, landing with a thud and a grunt. “Hey, did you hear me?”

Stepping into the bar, I looked over my shoulder and gave him a smile, daring him to come after me. The energy of the place was chaotic, and the room was dark. Dim lights bounced off the mahogany bar, giving a warm, comfortable feeling. The music was something I hadn’t heard before, and the air smelled like vanilla. It wasn’t what I had expected. I pushed my way through the crowd to the back of the room.

Phenex stood by the pool tables in the corner of the room. When his blue eyes met mine, he smirked, taking his shot and sinking the cue ball. The wolf pack stood to the left of him, shaking their heads at his shot, and the elf laughed. The group didn’t seem to unsettle him, but I, on the other hand, wanted to get the hell out of there as soon as I could, I wasn’t used to being around this many supernaturals.

Phenex looked almost the same as he had before he’d left the constellation, but now his blond hair was down to his shoulders instead of being cut short. He wore a tight black T-shirt and black jeans, giving him the bad-boy feel. He was definitely not angelic anymore. He handed his pool stick to the wolf closest to him. “I’m out. I’ll catch up with you tomorrow.”

Taking the stick, the wolf laughed. “Whatever dude, you were cheating anyway.”

Phenex grabbed his beer and nodded towards a corner table that was empty. We slid into seats across from each other. He leaned forward, searching my face, then half-smiled. “What are you called these days?”

“Eva.”

He arched his brow. “Still?”

“What do you mean, still?”

A bar maid walked up to our table. “What can I get you?”

“I’ll take another Heineken. What do you want, Eva? Some milk?” He snickered at his own joke.

I hadn’t had a glass of wine in a long time. I wanted to make it good so I chose my favorite. “A glass of Chateau Latour Bordeaux.”

Phenex shook his head. “She’ll take a house Merlot.”

The barmaid bit her lip. “I’ve got a bottle of the Bordeaux, but it belongs to the boss man.”.

“The merlot is fine.” The girl scurried off to get our drinks. “You didn’t think I wouldn’t check up on you, did you?” He leaned back in his seat and took the last swig of his beer. “I’m Phenex.”

“I assumed you were. You always used the name when we came to this realm.” Our real names wouldn’t even translate while we were here.

He searched my face. “I take it you’re here on business?”

“Yes.” I sat back and crossed my arms. “Don’t give me crap, Phenex. It isn’t like you ever looked me up after you decided to leave Heaven.”

Phenex arched his brow. “It isn’t like I’m exactly welcome there.”

I leaned in and whispered, gritting my teeth, “Don’t forget, you left of your own free will. Paimon and Corson chose Lucifer, and you didn’t choose at all. You all left me!”

Timidly, the girl set our drinks down and scurried away.

Pulling out a cigarette, he lit it. “You could have come and visited.” He mumbled the words as he exhaled the smoke.

“You think I haven’t thought about you all every single day? You were my best friends, my brothers.”

“Calm down, you’re starting to glow. It will draw attention.”

I looked up. Most of the eyes in the room were on me. I slid back in my seat, trying to hide and get my emotions under control. A tall fae, with his blue black hair pulled back, eyed me from the bar.

“Who are you here for? It obviously isn’t me. Where in the hell is your liaison?” A frown crossed his face.

“Maybe it’s fate that brought me to where you are?”

“Fate.” He shook his head and took a pull of his beer. “The fates would never allow that. They crossed me out a long time ago. Who are you guardian for?”

“Elsie Ponce.”

The fae who’d been watching me stalked up to our table. The magik was so thick, his aura was layered blue then green then purple and pulsed off his body like the beating of a drum.

“His majesty King Oberon requires your presence, Angel.”




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Mandie Stevens has always been accused of living in her own world so she decided to put it to paper. When she isn’t writing you can catch her lounging on the beach reading. She has ridiculously little feet and would be happy eating seafood every day.

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Guest Post-Reading Outside My Comfort Zone-Maggie Kast

A couple of days ago I reviewed one of Maggie Kast's novels (A Free Unsullied Land). Now this wonderful author has written a guest post about reading outside her comfort zone. I know a bit about that myself! But truthfully many of those books have turned out to be marvelous. You really should try reading outside your comfort zone once in a while--you may be pleasantly surprised! And now for the guest post. Please note I tried to get all the book covers in the correct places--I may have messed up a little!!!


Reading Outside My Comfort Zone

My favorite books are novels, especially the kind called “literary,” and stories are mainly what I write. In order to do that, I have to read a lot of non-fiction: history for fiction set in the past, biology for plants and animals of a distant place; music for the sounds of other lands and cookbooks for their foods. All these kinds of writing are within my comfort zone, while science fiction, thrillers and horror stories have always been outside.

So what happens when a book without a genre comes to me as gift? Its marvelously reflexive title tempts: The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber. The first few pages draw me deeply into the pain of a couple saying good-bye, as Peter prepares to leave for a distant mission, eyes on the goal, while Beatrice, his wife, asks to make love one last time, even as they drive to the airport. I experience their emotions before I even begin to learn the story’s skeleton: the man is a Christian pastor recruited
by an organization called USIC (never further identified). They will deploy Peter to a distant planet where he will minister to Christian natives in need of spiritual sustenance.

Space travel? Aliens? I wonder what I am reading but refuse the urge to see how others have classified it, wanting to let the book work its unique magic. In Faber’s imagined universe USIC and its colony are rather cold, but the planet’s warm air swirls,
flows and tickles, with a “churn and hiss like ocean waves,” and the natives, while distinctly strange, are gentle and loving. A hooded face looks disturbingly like “a massive whitish-pink walnut kernel.” or “a placenta with two fetuses. . .nestled head to head, knee to knee.” The Book of Strange New Things is their name for the Bible. For readers to whom the Bible is familiar, what a gift to find it strange and new!

Peter’s life unfolds as he explores his new mission, struggling to maintain communication with Beatrice, while life on earth collapses in a series of floods, droughts, and wars. This cannot end well, I think, but the beautiful rendering of both realms and the pain of the couple’s dwindling connection keep me turning pages.

Several versions of the book cover are riffs on the story. Two hands drift apart against a night sky, one reaching down from the top, the other up from the bottom, in what seems like a vertical transposition of Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam, separation
replacing connection.

Another cover images the swirling, wet air.

Recently I did check out reviews and an interview, and learned that Faber’s wife of many years grew sick and died while he was writing this book. In a conversation reported in The Independent, Faber says, “When your partner is dying of a disease that
you don’t have and you know that you are going to outlive her, they are on a different planet. . .The book ended up embodying that, even though it wasn’t planned.” This connection to reality only makes the book more poignant to me, for I have felt that
separation from parents, husband, and children, as described in my memoir, The Crack between the Worlds: a dancer’s memoir of loss, faith and family.

Reading outside my comfort zone took me to another planet and a new level of artistry. What about you? What old or new, dull and disappointing or wonderfully strange places have you found by reading outside your comfort zone?

Maggie Kast is the author of The Crack between the Worlds: a dancer's memoir of loss, faith and family, published by Wipf and Stock. She received an M.F.A. in writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts and has published fiction in The Sun, Nimrod, Carve, Paper Street and others.

A chapter of her memoir, published in ACM/Another Chicago Magazine, won a Literary Award from the Illinois Arts Council and a Pushcart nomination. A story published in Rosebud and judged by Ursula Leguin won an Honorable
Mention in their fantasy fiction contest.

Kast’s essays have appeared in America, Image, Writer's Chronicle and elsewhere. Her first novel, A Free, Unsullied Land, is forthcoming from Fomite Press in November 2015. An excerpted story, “The Hate that Chills,” won 3rd prize in the Hackney Literary Contests and is forthcoming in the Birmingham Arts Journal.

Website URL: maggiekast.com
Blog URL: http://www.ritualandrhubarbpie.blogspot.com
Facebook URL: https://www.facebook.com/magdance1
Twitter: @tweenworlds
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/hp/?dnr=zA9_R7IwxvqvfyKjWoynR9fyxdqvYeeAGYo
Skype: username: maggiekast

All opinions expressed are my own honest opinions. For more information please check my Disclosure Statement. Our giveaways are in no way sponsored or promoted by Facebook.

Traditional Pharmacies and Internet Pharmacies

picture from www.dreamstime.com

Like any other industry, the pharmaceutical industry has changed a lot in the last couple of years. Similar to other companies, pharmacies had to implement internet options allowing people to purchase products from their home. Some organizations managed to adapt to this newfound situation, some of them not as much. At the same time, we have seen steady increases in the number of online pharmacies all over the world. This is not particularly surprising given the high profit margins of medicines. Thus, we have seen a clash between traditional and new online shops.

Traditional pharmacies have existed for decades. Most of them are very popular in their neighborhood because they are synonymous with good health, friendly service and caring pharmacists who will answer any and all questions about the medications and the interactions between all that the person is taking. Keeping in mind their importance, they enjoyed a lot of respect. Naturally, with the introduction of online shopping, most of them had to convert and open webpages with appropriate services. This was the only way to remain relevant in the changing market. However, this doesn’t mean that it improved their business. In fact, most of traditional shops have seen a decline in profits. First and foremost, they had to create webpages, which meant they had to pay additional workers and the additional costs that accompany selling over the internet. At the same time, most of them continued working with the same clientele. This meant that they couldn’t cover the costs which are accompanied by adding an internet option.

Also, most of the pharmacies were making a large profit on items such as cosmetics and supplements. If you had a good pharmacist, this profit could be even larger. These are the products which can be used by anyone and it is easy to persuade someone to buy them even though they came in only for prescription drugs. Without that social interaction and influence of direct marketing, customers are no longer inclined to buy more than they need. This resulted in lower sales in traditional pharmacies. Internet pharmacies are all those companies which are doing business exclusively over the internet. Seeing opportunity in this, many entrepreneurs decided to open their own online shops and start selling medicines to a larger number of customers. These new stores have numerous benefits.

Instead of having drugs in numerous places, they can store everything in just one spot. Specialists from You! Drugstore underline importance of this because it significantly reduces costs and allows companies to track inventory much better. Certainly, it is a big advantage over traditional stores. Have in mind that most of the internet pharmacies were developed by people who have some experience with internet sales. This gave them an inherent advantage over owners of old, traditional stores. Because of this, they managed to position better on search engines and make a name for themselves in a very short time. But, even though there are numerous advantages to them, shoppers need to be careful when buying drugs from a firm which is doing business exclusively over the internet.

Due to this massive influx of new companies, some of them entered the game without proper documentation. There are still
many legal loop holes when it comes to this business allowing them to pass through unpunished. Because of this, you need to be careful when purchasing online and order only from companies that have the necessary certificates.

This is a sponsored post-I may have received product or monetary compensation for posting this. For more information please check my Disclosure Statement. Our giveaways are in no way sponsored or promoted by Facebook.

"Please Remember: Holocaust Remembrance Day” by Gene Klein

I was contacted by Smith Publicity and asked to please post this--I agreed! Hopefully others will also be posting this exact same guest post--this is truly a wonderful piece. April 15th--today is Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Please consider the article below, “Please Remember: Holocaust Remembrance Day” by Gene Klein, one of the few survivors alive of the Holocaust, specifically of Auschwitz.

Of his prose he says, “Here is what I want you to remember after we are gone, when our memories must become yours, so that future generations will have the knowledge and compassion to avoid the mistakes of the past.”

Here is the guest post by Gene Klein


Please Remember: Holocaust Embrace Day

Picture from Amazon of Jill Klein's book

Gene Klein (with Jill Klein, author of We Got the Water: Tracing my Family’s Path through Auschwitz)

It has been 70 years since I was liberated from a Nazi concentration camp. I was just a teenager then; I’m 87 now. Holocaust Remembrance Day is April 15th, and I have been thinking about what I want you and your loved ones to remember about the Holocaust. I speak frequently about my experiences, and I am able to remind people about what happened, provide them with vivid descriptions, and answer their questions. But I am among the last of the survivors, and one day—sooner than I would like to think—we will all be gone.

Here is what I want you to remember after we are gone, when our memories must become yours, so that future generations will have the knowledge and compassion to avoid the mistakes of the past:

Please remember the life we had before it all started; before the name-calling, the bricks through the windows, long before the cattle cars and the camps. I was born into a middle class Hungarian family in a small town in the foothills of the Carpathian mountains. Our town was charming. We sat in outdoor cafes on summer evenings, and skated on the river on winter afternoons. My father owned a hardware store, was an avid soccer fan, and loved to tend to his garden. My mother took care of my two sisters and me, and was preoccupied with getting me—a naturally skinny kid—to eat more. We were not wealthy, but we had everything we needed. In the most basic of ways, we were not unlike you and your family. And we felt as secure as you do now.

Please remember that all of this was taken away. Within a few weeks in the spring of 1944, my father’s store was confiscated, my Jewish friends and I were told that we were no longer welcome at school, and we were forced to wear a yellow star. Then we were forced from our home, crowded into cattle cars, and taken to Auschwitz. When we arrived, the men were separated from the women, and then my father was separated from me. My father had been a POW in World War I, and during his years of imprisonment he learned to play the violin and to speak five languages. He was intelligent and humorous. I loved him the way any 16-year-old boy loves a wonderful father. The way you love your father, if you are lucky enough to have a good one. So imagine this: a man in a black uniform sends you to one direction and your father to another. You don’t know why, until the next day a veteran prisoner points up at the smoke coming out of a chimney and says, “Your father is up there.” Please remember my father.

Please remember that it is terribly easy for one group to strike another group off the roster of humanity, to see others as vermin or pests, as an affliction that must be destroyed. It happens again and again. And once it does, people are capable of inflicting terrible hardship and pain on others, and to feel they are righteous in doing so. None of the SS officers who ordered me—a starving teenager—to carry heavy steel rails up a hillside thought of themselves as monsters. They were adhering to their beliefs, and they were serving their country. We must be constantly vigilant for the descent that takes us from self-righteous beliefs, to the dehumanization of others and into the sphere of violence.

Please remember that while we are capable of all of this, we can also rise to amazing heights in the service of others. For two weeks I had the good fortune to have a respite from hard labor while I was assigned to work with a civilian German engineer who was surveying the landscape where future roads would be built. He saw the terrible conditions I was living under and decided to help. Everyday he hid food for me from the SS kitchen where he ate lunch. Chicken, milk, rice, and cheese left under a bench in the back corner of a barracks. He cared, he took a risk, and he saved my life. Please remember him.

And finally, remember that no one should be judged because of his or her nationality, religion or race. We were sent to the camps because propaganda was believed, individuality was erased, and hate was rampant. When asked if I am angry with Germans, I think of the German engineer, and know that individuals must be judged by their own personal actions. If I can hold this as a guiding principle after what happened to my family and me, then you can, too.

Please take my memories as yours, share them, and carry them forward. It is by doing so that you can help keep the next generation from forgetting, and help fill the space that we survivors will leave behind when we are gone.

All opinions expressed are my own honest opinions. For more information please check my Disclosure Statement. Our giveaways are in no way sponsored or promoted by Facebook.