THE PINK FOREST: A WOMAN’S INTIMATE CONFESSIONS by Dana Dorfman: “..I wanted to write a book that reinvigorates thinking.”

The Pink Forest was written with a certain sort of emotional bravery. The actuality of it is this is not the way most books are written. But the visionary in me said I had to do it. So, writing in the first person, I took some fascinating glimpses of life, merged my writing with my feelings and landed in The Pink Forest.

It was important to write The Pink Forest because I wanted to write a book that reinvigorates thinking. I felt this would be a very freeing experience for my readers and provide them with news ways to look at themselves and life. To introduce thoughts that we might have otherwise not considered helps resolve unresolved personal issues and create a better night’s sleep!

The Pink Forest unloosens the ties of life and allows us to walk through the dimension of fear. For this reason alone, this book had to be written.

Dana Dorfman is the author of THE PINK FOREST: A WOMAN’S INTIMATE CONFESSIONS. You can visit her website at www.danadorfman.com.

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MRS. LIEUTENANT: A SHARON GOLD NOVEL by Phyllis Zimbler Miller: “I felt this was a story worth telling…”

MRS LIEUTENANT: A SHARON GOLD NOVEL has a two-part “story behind the book.” The first part took place 38 years ago when I was a new Mrs. Lieutenant at Ft. Knox, Kentucky, learning how to be a proper army officer’s wife.

The young women who were part of the same experience had secrets even at our young ages of 21 and 22. And they came from backgrounds much different than mine. Plus the unpopular Vietnam War “played” in the background of our experience as we worried about our husbands being sent to fight in that faraway war. I felt this was a story worth telling.

Skip ahead about 18 years to Los Angeles and a meeting of the LA Chapter of Sisters in Crime, which I had founded. I told two female producers the story of my experience as a new Mrs. Lieutenant. They quickly optioned the story’s film rights.

Then they came back to me and said I had to write the book first Hollywood because people didn’t understand the story when it was pitched. I wrote the first draft of the book – but by that time the producers, as often happens in Hollywood, had moved on to their next project.

Then I took classes to learn how to go from being a journalist to a novelist, read book after book bought from Writer’s Digest Books, rewrote and rewrote the story. Friends who read the book really liked it, but everyone said “something is missing.” I hired an editorial consultant who put his finger on the main “something missing” – a clear timeline. And I rewrote again.

Meanwhile I got rejected by agent after agent and publisher after publisher. One New York editor said there was no more prejudice in the U.S. so the book was no longer relevant. Another said that the women couldn’t meet through their husbands. They had to meet through their own job, like at a law firm. (What part of Mrs. Lieutenant did the New York editor not get?)

Then in December of 2007 a friend forwarded to me an email she got about a writer not waiting for someone to say yes to her. This writer was self-publishing. I had an epiphany. That’s it! I said to myself. I’m going to be 60 in March. My business partner has been bugging me to have the book published through a print on demand company. I’m saying yes to myself. And that’s what I did, using Amazon’s POD unit BookSurge.

In the meantime I entered the book in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award, and MRS. LIEUTENANT was named a semi-finalist. This gave the book a page on Amazon, and by accident I noticed another author’s AmazonConnect blog. I was off and running on my own quest to learn internet marketing to promote my book.

BookSurge’s marketing guy suggested PumpUpYourBookPromotion.com for a virtual book tour. I said yes to this, too, because I already knew what a virtual book tour was. And here I am today – almost at the end of a very exciting month of guest posts and reviews on several book blogs.

I hope you read MRS. LIEUTENANT: A SHARON GOLD NOVEL. It’s been a long time in coming.

(And check out original 1970 army documents on www.mrslieutenant.com along with book group discussion guidelines, information on organizations that support military families today, and the first four chapters of the novel.)

Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of the women’s fiction novel, MRS. LIEUTENANT: A SHARON GOLD NOVEL.  You can visit her website at www.mrslieutenant.com.

THE WELL-FED SELF-PUBLISHER by Peter Bowerman: “…I hoped to raise the bar on self-publishing by giving authors a doable game plan…”

With a pretty cool track record of profitable self-publishing under my belt (52,000 copies in print and a full-time income for five-plus years) with my first two books, The Well-Fed Writer and TWFW: Back For Seconds (www.wellfedwriter.com), I saw a juicy opportunity with my third title, The Well-Fed Self-Publisher: How to Turn One Book into a Full-Time Living (www.wellfedsp.com)…

I won’t kid you. With a full-time publishing income from the first two books, along with a pretty strong following, I saw a few dollar signs – the chance for Lucrative Self-Publishing: The Sequel. If I stuck to my formula for “well-fed self-publishing,” no reason TWFSP couldn’t pay the bills for a few more years.

That proven formula was the key to the second reason for writing TWFSP: I had devised a successful blueprint for profitable self-publishing, and I knew there were tons of authors out there banging their heads against the wall trying to get in the doors of conventional publishing houses – to no avail.

Not to mention countless others who had been admitted to The Publishing Kingdom only to discover that the emperor truly had no clothes. We’re talking anemic royalties, 18-24 months to publication, loss of creative control, surrendered book rights and the unpleasant realization that even after giving up all that, authors are still expected to shoulder the lion’s share of the book promotion burden themselves! All to earn – in most cases – far less than a buck a book.

As I saw it, for most authors (especially those in the non-fiction and non-fiction how-to genres), there were precious few reasons to go the conventional publishing route. Add to that all the authors who’d self-published – how can I put this delicately…oh the heck with it – like sloppy, clueless amateurs. It was frustrating to see good books tank because their authors stopped short of taking the relatively simple steps necessary to dramatically enhance the competitiveness, marketability and profitability of their titles.

As I saw it – and had empirically proved – it just didn’t take that much to do a book right. And through TWFSP, I hoped to raise the bar on self-publishing by giving authors a doable game plan for crafting their own self-publishing success story.

But, weren’t there a lot of books on self-publishing already on the market? Yes, there were some classic well-established titles, no question, but I believed there was room for one more, especially since mine had several key points of difference: a focus on painlessly developing a sales and marketing mindset; a real-world “case study” approach vs. a more theoretical approach; a radically different book promotion strategy vs. the increasingly ineffective reliance on mainstream media; and of course, a fun, lively, irreverent tone that’s been the hallmark of my books.

No, there are no guarantees of success, and yes, these steps involve some investments of time and money. But, in my experience, any money invested in a half-assed self-publishing effort will likely yield closer to zero results, and hence zero ROI. Invest more money and more of yourself (Remember: no one will ever care about your book as much as you), and your return could potentially dwarf those investments.

Self-publishing isn’t easy, but thanks to the Internet, a bit of creative thinking AND, I’d like to think, books like TWFSP (www.wellfedsp.com), it’s more feasible that ever before. Good luck!

Peter Bowerman is the author of THE WELL-FED SELF-PUBLISHER: HOW TO TURN ONE BOOK INTO A FULL-TIME LIVING. You can visit his website at www.wellfedsp.com.

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A SPECIAL SUMMER by Victoria Wells: “…I wanted to create something with a bit of a twist.”

I love romance! When did my love affair begin with the genre? I would like to say during my teenage years when I picked up my first Harlequin novel. Suddenly the adventures of Nancy Drew were no longer holding my interest. However, if one believes that we as fetuses interact and have awareness of our outside environment, I’m inclined to believe my affair started, as I lay nestled in the safety of my mother’s womb. You see, my mom an avid reader read during her entire pregnancy. One of her all time favorites she read aloud to me was the historical romance Gone With The Wind.

Having read so many wonderful romance novels I wanted to create something with a bit of a twist. In A Special Summer you’re not going to witness Summer Jackson and Nick Stiles falling in love in two weeks and riding off into the sunset. I wrote a story that I wanted readers to get an understanding of what it truly means to go through the fire for that special person you love. It was important for me to get the point across that we as humans all have flaws no matter how perfect we may appear on the outside. Readers will get a glimpse of a hero that is hurled into a world of uncertainties and doubts, as the heroine is the object of his insecurities. Oftentimes the hero isn’t portrayed as having to show just how vulnerable and jaded love has made him. It’s always the heroine having to deal with trust issues because of a past-failed relationship.

The beauty of this story is that it not only addresses the intimate dynamics of the couple, but that of their tight knit community of family and friends as well. These relationships are woven and intertwined to tell a story of passion, heartbreak, deception, and betrayal. As the story unfolds the reader will witness the redemptive spirit of this story as the power of forgiveness heals two wounded souls, making them one.

Victoria Wells is the author of the multicultural romance novel, A SPECIAL SUMMER. You can visit her website at www.victoria-wells.com or her blog at www.blog.victoria-wells.com.

WHEN A MAN LOVES A WOMAN by LaConnie Taylor-Jones: “I wanted my story lines to focus on real-life situations…”

From the time I learned to read, I always had a book in my hands. However, becoming a writer was never something I was particularly interested in or ever considered doing. In the fall of 1979, I read my first romance novel, The Flame in the Flower by the late Kathleen Woodiwiss and was hooked. I didn’t realize it then, but that night was the beginning of a twenty-five year journey that would eventually land me on the road to publication.

It was the challenge from my husband in the spring of 2003 that first made me seriously consider writing. One night I was in bed reading a romance novel and unfortunately, the story wasn’t for me. It was past midnight and my husband, obviously tired of hearing me whine said, “Honey, if you can write a better book, do it. Now turn out the lights, please.”

The inspiration for this story came from experience as a health educator. For the last fifteen years, I’ve taught health education primarily to African American women in community-based settings. Oftentimes, before I can lecture on the risk factors associated with chronic diseases disproportionally impacting African Americans, first, I must deal with the soci-economic deterrents women face. Generally, the premise of my books centers on a health and/or social related issue. Once I decided to roll the dice and write romance, I wanted my story lines to focus on real-life situations readers could relate to.

When A Man Loves A Woman is the sequel to my debut novel, When I’m With You. In this story, A.J. Baptiste is center stage. He’s a single father and pediatrician with eyes for Victoria (Vic) Bennett. However, Vic has sworn off men and promises to keep her heart closed to the option of love when her ex-husband betrays her. Readers will see how a woman’s life that was once shattered is made whole again.

LaConnie Taylor-Jones is the author of the contemporary romance novel, WHEN A MAN LOVES A WOMAN. You can visit her website at www.laconnietaylorjones.com.

STAND by Debbie Williamson: “I also was not overjoyed with walking through my past once again…”

When I started writing this book it was intended to be more of a journal to make sure my children understood the family history and who I was. I wanted them to know because I have always believed that the truth can heal you.

Putting my life in print for the world to read came after three years of journaling my experiences into pages that were meant to be for my children.

When I made the decision to publish it I had reached the four year mark journaling. It was after relentless visions and one very special message from my grandmother during an illness that I made my decision to write a book and leave my mark on this world. I struggled with the question: why would anyone care about my life and my experiences? I also struggled with knowing on some level my family was not going to be thrilled for the world to have an insight into their personal life.

I had a belief and a message from the other side that my story might not only help my children but maybe it could help other people lost in their own pain. I thought if I could get people to understand that you can heal from abuse instead of being a survivor that it would change the fight against abuse. I have always known it starts with yourself and healing you first is the only way you can protect it from spreading to your children. I stayed focused on this belief. It was something I knew I had to do.

I also was not overjoyed with walking through my past once again, to relive moments that will always be very painful let alone try to put them on paper. The beautiful part about healing is that every time you walk through your past and the pain it gets easier and the healing grows.

One of the more difficult parts of sharing my personal life was that it was not just my life I was sharing. It was also my children’s lives and their father’s life as well. I had been through so much with my children that I often wondered if sharing my life and my feelings about their father would destroy the love they had for me. I could not bear to think about life without them so I stayed focused on the message and trusted that they would understand why I had to write my story. The message I had to bring was bigger than me and my fears.

The most difficult part of the journey was struggling with my mother’s fears of shame and disgrace. She had never come to terms with her life and was in no way ready to share it with the world. It took a lot of explaining to get her to understand that I had good reasons to write the book and I had to make my mark on this world in the fight against abuse. She fought abuse in her way and this was mine. My mother’s change of heart came when I told her grandma had come to see me. She said she had been waiting for her mother to send a message letting her know she was ok. She agreed to do the book with me and offered her journals for her family’s history and hers. When I was to the point of adding mom’s story to the book she passed away and all I had were her writings and things she had shared with me in counseling. It took me months to read through her journals and I almost gave up during the research process on my family’s history, it was not an easy task and the emotional part of it was almost overwhelming.

Mom’s passing was so very difficult for me; I had wanted her to heal her broken heart before she left this world but it wasn’t meant to be. The last time I spoke with her she made me promise that I would not give up that I would finish the book and share our story with the world. She said she had prayed about my reasons for wanting to write the book and the answers she received were the same as mine: just do it. Not having her there by my side made it even more challenging; I questioned my motives and everything that I believed from that moment on. I kept my focus close to my heart right along with the promise I made to my mother and somehow I finished.

I have never felt such a strong presence from the other side as I did in the last five months of writing. I knew that my grandmother and my father were with me the entire time. I hired a ghostwriter to help me interview my aunt for the information on my grandfather. She told me several times during the interview process that my father’s presence was so powerful she was having a difficult time concentrating. I was taken aback for a moment when she described his looks to me; she had never seen a picture of my dad, but her description was right on. It was comforting to know that she was a witness to my miracle.

The first time I held an actual printed copy of my book was very emotional. I sat in my office for hours and cried. I felt like I did after the life training program I had gone through, only it was much more powerful. I knew that somehow I would leave a mark on my generation that would be felt generations after I am gone. I knew that my message would be heard. I had followed the burning desire in my heart to make a difference and change the future for my children with the hopes of changing the future of someone else’s children as well.

I am grateful that I stayed on course and kept my focus.

I believe with all my heart that my message will find its own path. Sharing my life was the only way I could use the wrong that had been done in a positive way. My life has been a series of miracles, its how I chose to use these miracles that matters.

I was told when my journey to heal started that forgiveness would heal my life and along with it my family. I had never understood forgiveness until I found the courage in me to try it.

Forgiveness is not about your abuser. It is about you giving the pain that owns you back to the person who hurt you.

Debbie Williamson is the author of STAND.  You can visit her blog at www.myspace.com/williamsondebbie/.

RELATIONSHIP MAGIC by Edythe Denkin, PhD.: “Truth be told, I wrote this book mostly for men…”

I guess I have always wanted to be a princess…I have always been interested in Princess Stories and watched all the movies and read all the books I could. Every movie I saw, every book I read, I asked myself. What happens after the wedding? I knew, as a therapist, that Happily Ever After does not come naturally and that it needs work. Truth be told, I wrote this book mostly for men. When a woman has a problem, she is more likely to go to a therapist. Men will often try to do things themselves. This book can help them.

I was a teacher before I was a Family and Relationship Therapist. I learned a lot about how people learn by working with the 3^rd and 5^th graders in my class. In my work first as a teacher, and then as a therapist for children, I learned early on that people love stories. I saw that kids would learn new concepts better when they heard them in story form. I knew that storytelling would be a better way to get the point across. As a therapist, I knew that story telling goes right to the sub-conscious mind and that the conscious mind does not reject it. I realized that teaching concepts to adults would be hard because adults often fight new concepts, take things personally and want to be right in most situations. A story would take the “fight” out of the process

I wrote this book to be of service and to be of help. I can see from my private practice clients that RELATIONSHIP MAGIC is making an incredible difference in people’s relationships. I want to help other couples with this book. If couples can read this book, they will see that there is hope for them and that they are not alone.

Edythe Denkin Ph.D. is the author of the relationship how to book, RELATIONSHIP MAGIC. You can visit her website at www.edythedenkin.com.

FROM CRAYONS TO CONDOMS: THE UGLY TRUTH ABOUT AMERICA’S PUBLIC SCHOOLS by Steven Baldwin and Karen Holgate: “…some of the material was shocking…”

Steve: What inspired me to write from Crayons to Condoms is the incredible amount of frustration I sensed among parents. As chairman of the California State Assembly Education Committee, I was bombarded with letters from parents about the dismal state of their public schools and the refusal of school bureacrats to listen to their concerns.

I started to collect some of the worst stories and along with my co-author, Karen Holgate, we started thinking about putting them all together in a book. We made a first stab at the book over a decade ago and almost forgot about the project. Then about six months ago, I sent a rough draft to WND books and they loved it but wanted us to update it with some additional public school horror stories, which we did.

Karen: During the nineties, California implemented a new system of student testing called the California Learning Assessment System – or CLAS. This new “assessment system” focused on children’s attitudes, values, and beliefs rather than academic knowledge. When parents and grandparents learned about the invasive nature of the story prompts, and questions that delved into children’s and parents’ personal lives, they were outraged. As a grandmother with children in the public school system, I was one of those.

I found myself traveling to the state capitol in an effort to enlist the support of legislators to help stop CLAS. During this time, I also became aware of the federal legislation, Goals 2000 and School to Work (STW), which together appeared to encourage the type of paradigm shift that culminated in CLAS testing. The more I learned, the more alarmed I became. Soon I was traveling to Washington, D.C. to speak with members of Congress. As news about Goals 2000 and STW spread, I was surprised that I had become an “activist” and was traveling across the country speaking out about the troubling trend in education.

During this time, parents and teachers started telling me their stories and giving me examples of curricula, tests, and surveys that had nothing to do with academics. Some of the material was shocking in its graphic sexual depictions, while other examples were downright silly. For instance, one exercise told children to choose a tree, name it, visit it each day and talk to it – during school hours, of course. However, perhaps the scariest examples were those dealing with death education.

I had already met Steve Baldwin, then a California Assemblyman. Steve was the father of young boys whose primary concern was education. During one of my trips to Sacramento, I learned that he and I were hearing the same kinds of horror stories and the initial idea for a book was discussed.

After Steve term-limited out of office, he and his family moved to the east coast. However, we both have continued our interest in educational issues and our contact with parents. From Crayons to Condoms: The ugly truth about public education is a compilation of stories written by parents, teachers, and students. It is a tribute to those who have suffered as a result of laws passed by liberal legislators and educators who have their own agendas.

As Steve and I point out in the book, it is our hope that after reading From Crayons to Condoms that instead of saying, “That’s not happening in my child’s school,” parents will instead ask, “Is that happening in my child’s school?” We encourage parents to question what their children are being taught, to support good teachers and schools and to oppose that with which they disagree. The book gives positive steps parents can take to effectively fight when necessary.

Steven Baldwin and Karen Holgate are the authors of the nonfiction book, FROM CRAYONS TO CONDOMS: THE UGLY TRUTH ABOUT AMERICA’S PUBLIC SCHOOLS. You can visit their publisher’s website at www.wnd.com.

LOVE’S MAGIC by Traci E. Hall: “The more I researched, the deeper I fell into history…”

Love’s Magic came about because I love reading historical romances that have a plot, a few ghosts, a couple who just don’t see how perfect they really are for one another, and a loving if sometimes interfering family.

I chose this time period because there was so much going on, and readers can relate to it because of Robin Hood. The more I researched, the deeper I fell into history. Boadicea is a mysterious character in her own right – we get to see more of her world in Boadicea’s Legacy, which comes out in 2010.

In the meantime, Love’s Magic – Celestia’s story – is out now, Beauty’s Curse comes out in June 09. If you would like an autographed bookmark, please send me an email and I can get your information!

Here’s a fact I haven’t posted anywhere else! I read the population charts in order to find unusual but authentic names. Nicholas was originally going to be called Basilus – but my critique group hated, so I went with the safer choice.

Traci E. Hall is the author of the paranormal romance LOVE’S MAGIC.  You can visit her website at www.traciehall.com.

THE MEMORY OF WATER by Karen White: “The story haunted me and I knew I had to use it in a book…”

A few years ago I was reading a women’s magazine and came across an article written by two adult women—sisters—who’d been raised by a mother suffering with Bipolar Disorder. They related how when they were as young as six and eight years of age, they were responsible for getting dressed and fed and finding their way to school. As a mother of two, this horrified me. I couldn’t imagine how traumatic this must have been for both the girls and what far reaching consequences it would have.

The story haunted me and I knew I had to use it in a book. I just needed the right book to come along. As with all story ideas, they need to simmer on my mental back burner for a while so that the flavors can strengthen and I have the chance to add more elements to make the story richer.

At about the same time I read the article about the two sisters, my own children entered their teenaged years and a whole new dimension to sibling rivalry erupted in our house. I bought a puppy to help me deal with it (but that’s another story entirely) and as writers often do, threw my emotions and their erratic behavior into that simmering pot along with the two girls raised with a bipolar mother, and out came the central plot for The Memory or Water. What if? I asked myself. What if two siblings are raised by a mother with a serious mental illness and become half of the other’s soul because of the experience? But what if something terrible happens and the sibling rivalry that has always stewed between them erupts and tears them apart for ten years? And what would happen if they were forced to reopen old wounds and bring the darkest memories of their past to the surface in order to save a life?

And then I tried to do what I attempt to do with each novel—I stepped out of my comfort zone to write about something completely unfamiliar to me and made the protagonist of The Memory of Water, Marnie Maitland, an avid sailor. She’s been living in the Arizona desert for ten years, far away from the ocean and her Lowcountry childhood home. To understand what Marnie once loved so much and what she now fears, I faced my own fear of deep water and took sailing lessons. I can’t say that I’m a proficient sailor now, only that I can at least understand what a thrill it can be to trick the wind into moving your boat, and the unpredictable strength of the sea.

Ultimately, this is a story of two sisters both united and divided by their love for their mother and for each other, of the family tragedy that is mental illness, and the power that forgiveness has to heal the past.

Karen White is the author of the fiction novel, THE MEMORY OF WATER.  You can visit her website at www.karen-white.com.