Scene 1; Act 5: Guest Author Mike Dolan;;Author of A Pecunious Life - How to Have a Life Abounding in True Wealth

Man, is it HOT!!!

But not nearly as hot as our next

guest on the Virtual Book Tour.

Rather than sit here in a pool of my own sweat, I present to you, Mike Dolan;;Author of A

Pecunious Life - How to Have a Life Abounding in True Wealth

Now, pardon me while I go stand in front of the open freezer door!

A Pecunious Life - How to Have

a Life Abounding in True

Wealth

Genre: Self-Help

Publisher: Infinity Publishing
ISBN:0741458195

Mike was born in the mile-high city of Denver, Colorado 43 years ago. He has lived all around this beautiful world of ours, from Europe to Alaska, to his current home in the Middle East. His education is that of the experiences life gives and school is far from being out for him. He is a lover of life, a life adventurist. He loves to travel, meet new people, and experience new cultures. He has been given a great opportunity to see life in a different light and wishes to share this with you.

Here is Mike in his own words:

This is a challenge for me to write. I’m not accustomed to writing about myself. I am a newly published author who believes in the best this life has. I’m a positive energy that is always willing to help those that seek out my help. I am an enabler, a catalyst that’s willing to set the bonfire of your soul aflame. I am nobody.. and yet I am everyone. I have the same feeling, the same hopes, the same desires, and the same dreams you do. Perhaps the one difference is my burning desire to help others come alive to find the dreams once held in my heart. My intent is to help as many people as I possibly can, to bring joy to as many lives as I can, and to empower as many people as I can to find the life of dreams again… My life has been comprised of experience, experiences that have lead me to this point in my life. I wish to share what it is that I have learned along the way so tthat we all will enjoy the time we have.

Today is a new day as is everyday of your life if you so choose. What do I mean by this? It’s simple really… New experiences in our lives always seem to be more exciting, more moving, more beautiful, more of everything. Each day has that energy within it, more specifically your experience of this life as that energy in it. You get to choose how you experience the days of your life. You don’t always get to choose what is within the experience, but you do get to control the way you experience it. Take everyday as a new day, as a new challenge, as a fresh start… Many may balk at this idea due to the nature of how they perceive their own lives, but I would challenge them to try it. If you work in an office where you life is dull, where all you do is sit in a cubicle and push paper. I challenge you to experience it for the first time as if it was your first day. Go in with a smile, say Hi to someone that doesn’t expect it… Experience your day as a new day…

Review

The book A Pecunious Life written by Author Mike Dolan has great advice for improving ones life, not only does the author write details of how to become more wealthy, but he incorporates his own experiences which are woven into lessons of life quality. Learning from the past, learning from mistakes, learning from beliefs or mis-beliefs, life-altering events, and exercises where the author asks you to sit in a quiet place and reflect on the lessons given.

The book is not really about becoming wealthy in the money sense, but wealthy in the spiritual and happiness sense. Could we be happy with less? Happiness is a state of mind-

I found this educational and easy to read and recommend it to adults in need of self-hep, spiritual guides, and for people who need a better life than they have right now.

Reviewed by Ami Blackwelder

A Pecunious Life can be purchased on Mike's website or at Amazon:

http://www.mike-dolan.com

http://www.amazon.com/Pecunious-Life-M-L-Dolan/dp/0741458195/ref=pd_rhf_p_t_1

Scene 1; Act 4: Guest Author Patti Hultstrand; Author of the Time Chaser Series

With the holidays nearly upon us, I am happy to present our next guest on the Virtual Book Tour.

Her name is Patti Hultstrand and she is the author of the Time Chaser Series.

The sound you hear in the distance are the firecrackers of the fourth proudly announcing the VBT guest of the day.

Patti Hultstrand, the stage is yours!

FINDING INSPIRATION

Inspiration in writing ...

One doesn't get up in the morning and say, "Think I'll write today." A person becomes inspired by those around them or by what has been done to them.

· The teenager with too many emotions to handle, becomes inspired to put these thoughts on paper to get them out of their head before they explode.

· The mother writes something in between the potatoes and the pot roast on her organized grocery list because that inspiration is overflowing in her creative mind, spilling into this world in a need to get free.

· The tire&auto repair station attendant sits in the restroom stealing whatever moments he can to write just a few more lines on that short story he's been working on for months.

· And a lonely woman writes about a man; the man that never came to take her away from her lonely life.

I know when I haven't been writing enough, when I write an email note to someone and it winds up being a page long, with anecdotal tidbits and just plain good stuff being said. The shame of it is, only the email recipient will ever get anything out of my inspirational moment.

It's said that everyone has at least ONE story inside them. As it happens to be, I have over twelve planned for this Time Chaser series alone, with "Time Conquers All" being the first book out in 2009 and its follow up second book, "Rescue in Time" coming out in about two weeks.

If you have that ONE story inside, you may want to let that story get out and onto paper. You'll know its name...call it YOUR inspiration!

Chapter One:

The low rumble from behind startled her, just as the foreign surroundings put her senses on full alert. With a dagger already in her hand, Tamea quickly turned to meet this new threat while the sound grew in intensity. As the ground beneath her growled in anticipation, she noticed a bend in the road, next to a building clearly marked “GAS.” These vibrations, in the form of forty or more machines with people riding singly and in pairs, invaded onto the property.

Since Tamea harbored a general curiosity for all machines, she did not fight the compulsion to follow the direction her instincts dictated. She squinted to get a better look at the metallic apparitions as the sunlight bounced off the surfaces. Even though she had no first-hand experience with these machines, she did not seem to fear them. Something had called to her from her past, back to this building and these machines.

Tamea sheathed her dagger at the small of her back, as she made her way across the street. Some of the riders remained outside attending to their machines, while others had gone inside the building. She examined the machines, wanting to touch their smooth and glistening forms. They were different shapes and sizes, but most seemed to bear the same name and symbol, a shield with a banner across the middle. She wondered if this symbol signified their country, bearing its name, much like a military unit.

She scanned the machines, each in turn, gliding through their presence. Tamea felt a prickle on the back of her neck as she passed one particular machine. Moving back to it, the compulsion grew to an intense desire to touch its deep burgundy finish. Her pulse quickened and her instincts grew more aware. She could not explain why a machine would make her giddy with excitement. She was devouring the machine as she would a man, taking in its features with her eyes and feeling its textures with her fingers in a form of communication as old as time. There had been only one man she had ever scrutinized in this manner, getting to know his intimate details and communicating with her fingertips in place of words.

Then her heart skipped several beats when she came upon more identifiable markings on this machine. Under the national symbol of HARLEY-DAVIDSON was a name in light gray lettering, “PARKER”. Her fingers followed each letter as if they were embossed on her heart.

“You know, it’s considered rude to touch someone’s bike without permission,” a man said in an even tone, not giving away how he really felt about the implied offense.

Tamea swung around in surprise as her hand moved quickly to the dagger stashed at the middle of her back. She found him standing behind her with a glass bottle in his hand. Her lips parted slightly at the familiar sight of his face, with those endless blue eyes that could look deep into her soul. Even though she knew every crevice of his body, she had not been prepared for the attack on her senses. His blue pants seemed glued to his muscular thighs. He allowed her the pleasure of following his lines up his backside as he walked past her to throw out the empty bottle.

The dangling fringe attached to the edges of his black jacket moved freely as he turned and moved back to his bike. Wavy, sandy-blond hair softly touched the nape of his neck. His hips were lean and his body flared up into an expansive chest.

Tamea’s hand had been frozen on the partially extracted dagger in the hidden sheath at her lower back. She secured the weapon as she moved out of his way so he could swing one of his muscular legs over the bike, straddling it possessively between his thighs. At that moment, Tamea craved to be that bike.

For ordering information, please consider the following:

Order direct from the publisher for FREE SHIPPING http://www.azpublishingservices.com/BookStore.php 

Order from Amazon and you will pay for shipping here. http://www.amazon.com/shops/azpublishingservices

Also available on Kindle

For a longer list of eBook and print distribution points go to:  http://www.timeconquersall.com/

There is a character blog on timeconquersall.com website.

Oz Remembered!

Here's a great interview I did on BlogTalk Radio yesterday. Lots of good info
and a few laughs along the way!

Oz Remembered!

Scene 1; Act 3: Guest Author Katie Salidas & Immortalis Carpe Noctem

In our continuing program to feature quality authors of quality books, I am most pleased to present our next guest on the Virtual Book Tour: Guest Author Katie Salidas and her newest book: Immortalis Carpe Noctem

As a fan of Latin, I'm already intrigued by the title, so the contents should be nothing short of spectacular.

Commodo existo nostrum hospes!

Katie Salidas

Immortalis: Carpe Noctem

Bleeding to death after brutal mugging on the campus of UNLV, Twenty-five year old Alyssa, is rescued by the cold and aloof, vampire, Lysander. Taking pity on her, he shares the gift-and curse-of immortality. She awakens as a vampire and is soon devastated by harsh realities of her new way of life: the loss of her friends, her independence, and her humanity.
As if having her humanity stripped away was not enough to make life interesting, Alyssa finds out her “turning”, did not go unnoticed by the rest of undead society. Old enemies; an ancient sect of vampire hunters, known as the Acta Sanctorum, as well as a powerful Vampire mistress, each set plans in motion to destroy both Alyssa and Lysander.
Only by accepting her newfound immortality, seizing the night, will Alyssa hope to survive. She and Lysander must fight together against two sets of enemies bent on destroying them both.

You cannot deny that vampires are HOT in today’s market. Between Urban Fantasy, Dark Fantasy, Paranormal Romance, Erotica, and let’s not forget the super popular YA market, vampires are taking over.

Not that I think that is a bad thing. I’ve been a die-hard vampire lover since I read my first novel, The Vampire Diaries, by LJ Smith. I believe I was about 10 years old at the time

There was just something about those creatures of the night that struck me. Vampires, in romance or erotica novels, always seem to be chosen and turned at the peak of their lives. They are at their most virile. Males are hard bodied and don’t have an ounce of flab on them. (Every woman’s dream, right?) They have piercing eyes that can reach into your very soul and mesmerize the pants right off of you. (Not that many of us might mind that… LoL.)

Of course, let’s not forget that they are the ultimate bad boy. And women, we cannot deny that somewhere deep down, there is a lingering desire for the danger and excitement they offer.

The teeth too have their own sex appeal. They are not only phallic on a subconscious level; they represent the very real danger that makes you tingle with anticipation.

Ok, I’m starting to get off topic here. With vampires, I was hooked, plain and simple. And from that moment on I devoured anything, vampire related, I could find.

Combine that love, with a desire to create and that sparked the idea to write my own stories.

But, it’s not enough to just write a vampire story. You have to give a little oomph to it. Like it or not the, “sparkly vampires” that were created in Twilight, show us a perfect example of this concept. Whether or not you like them, Mrs. Meyers did something different. She took an old idea and added a fresh twist. The market is hugely competitive at the moment; so, to stand out, you have to have something to give your audience that they might not get with another story.

Many vampire novels gloss over the change and go straight into “normal” life as a vampire.

But I’ve always wondered… What would it really be like to turn into a vampire? What would it be like to say good-bye to everything you hold dear? What would it be like to hunger for blood? Blood from humans you once considered friends?

Those are the questions I wanted to explore with my novel Immortalis Carpe Noctem.

I wanted to take readers on a front row tour, so to speak, through the changes and hardships faced by a fledgling vampire.

In Immortalis Carpe Noctem we meet Alyssa. She’s your average Twenty-something girl living on her own, working her way through college. In one bad night, her imperfect world goes from bad to worse as she is brutally beaten and near raped before being “saved” by a vampire. Of course I use the term “saved” a bit loosely here as her new life as a vampire isn’t exactly the way Hollywood might have shown it.

Basically I wanted to take the Vampire to a more Human level. They are still to be feared and awed, only now, you might even care for them. See what you think!

The youngest of four children, Katie has always had a desire to entertain. Since, early childhood, she's dreamed up fantastical characters and scribbled them into pages of various journals and notebooks. Taking an interest in vampires at an early age, she devoured every book, featuring those blood sucking creatures, in any genre she could find. She claims that, of all the monsters out there, vampires had always been the most interesting.

It was only natural that a love of reading about vampires, and a love of writing, turned into a desire to write her own stories.

A Las Vegas native, having grown up in the famed City of Sin, Katie loves to feature it as a recurring setting for many of her stories.

Blog
http://myimmortalstories.blogspot.com/

Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/ksalidas?ref=profile

Facebook Author Fansite
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Katie-Salidas-Author/214780936916

Myspace
http://www.myspace.com/katelv

LinkedIn
http://www.linkedin.com/profile?viewProfile=&key=58814031&trk=tab_pro

Twitter
http://twitter.com/QuixoticKatie

GoodReads
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3395431.Katie_Salidas

Immortalis is sold at:

Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/Immortalis-Carpe-Noctem-Katie-Salidas/dp/0984419608/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1268581182&sr=8-1

Smashwords (multi format ebook)
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/10237

Barnes & Noble
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Immortalis-Carpe-Noctem/Katie-Salidas/e/9780984419609/?itm=1&USRI=immortalis+carpe+noctem

Kindle
http://www.amazon.com/Immortalis-Carpe-Noctem-ebook/dp/B003AYF3NW/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2

Publisher (Author Signed Copies)
http://www.risingsignbooks.com

Family of Oz progress

It has been 2 weeks since the muse of Ozma struck and I have been busy writing the third and final episode of the Royal Magician of Oz Trilogy, which is titled: Family of Oz.

The writing goes at a furious pace and I am averaging a chapter a night and stand now at 23,004 words and counting.

During this time, I tend to go to ground and forgo all social interaction and activities related to family and friends.

Fortunately, my family and friends know this and understand that I must complete the Royal Command given to me by her Majesty, Princess Ozma, Royal Sovereign and Ruler of Oz.

My goal is to see Family of Oz released sometime early next year. I hope to do so at Magi-fest, the annual gathering of the International Brotherhood of Magicians.
This will be the 80th year of Magi-Fest, of which I attended many of them back in the 70's and early 80's.

Add to this, the many and complicated projects I have on my plate and one can understand why I sometimes look and feel overwhelmed.

Nonetheless, I "endeavor to persevere."

Trivia question: Can anyone identify where the above quote, "endeavor to persevere" originated?

James C. Wallace II
Royal Liaison to Princess Ozma