“What Would You Do If There Was Nothing You Had To Do?”

has been selected a WINNER by the 2013 National Indie Excellence Book Awards in the Spiritual Self Help category.

It’s also been named a FINALIST in the New Age Non-Fiction category.

And a FINALIST in the Next Generation Indie Book Awards Self Help category.

Thank you so much to my fabulous editors, Nancy Crompton and Samantha Stier, and to my excellent book cover designer, Jefferson Eliot. I’m also deeply grateful to Sheilaa Hite for being so sure of me – her encouragement, support, and wisdom have been a tremendous inspiration. This book owes much of its teachings to my beloved mother, Jane Winslow Eliot, who led the way for me.

Joy!!

Tom’s been been working for years to come up with a way in which he can do two things: create a concept wherein everyone wins, and develop a career that he can own – one that suits him as much as it does anyone else.

He spent over thirty years helping others be successful, and he’s written articles for magazines like Cinescape, produced events for larger projects like UKwithNY and his own events like MainMission:2000.

More recently, he’s been collaborating with Cheryl Snapp Conner who writes a Forbes blog. 

His own blog, Thinking Out Loud, is the beginning of an exciting new project he’s formulating which will enable writers and artists with their promotional efforts.

He says: “I firmly believe that, by virtue of helping others – spreading the love by supporting each other and shoring each other up – we not only grow with the experience, but learn and gain good and supportive friends and allies who appreciate our abilities and strengths.”

He’ll be joining WriteSpa on BlogTalkRadio this Thursday, May 23 at 6 PM EST. We’ll talk about creativity, money, happiness, entrepreneurship, and maybe he’ll even tell us a bit about his own book he’s writing.

I’ll be in NYC on May 29 to celebrate at the Harvard Club with my fellow finalists, winners, and indie enthusiasts.

Have you ever wondered how you can actually get what you want? What tools and skills you might need? Who are the people who might support you in your endeavors? How can you best map out a plan?

In her recently published book called The Spiritual Hedonist, Sheilaa Hite offers ten essential steps to achieving rewarding, lasting success with her trademark style of wisdom, humor, spirituality, and practical advice.

On this week’s WriteSpa BlogTalkRadio show, Sheilaa Hite shows you that making your dreams come true is actually much easier than you might think!  Thursday, May 16, 2013, at 6 PM EST.

Sheilaa Hite is recognized as one of the foremost intuitives and healers on the planet today, having helped more than 5,000 clients from every walk of life– including celebrities, show business personalities, sports figures, politicians, homemakers, students of all ages, business professionals, and members of the clergy and the military, as well as film studios and production companies.

“This is the purpose of life—to get what you want. There are deeper things, but this is fun.” –Karl Lagerfeld

Would humanitarians kill?

Steve Jackson wrote a thriller novel about people we think are “doing the good”: finding a cure for the incurable. He calls them “the caretakers of our hope.” But could these humanitarians be involved in a cruel duplicity, a personal deceit, phenomenal in its audacity, an evil means to a selfish end? Have they come to see the disease, our enemy, as their benefactor? Just how far would they go to protect that benefactor?

Would they actually kill?

Read his book to find out! Steve Jackson joined me on WriteSpa’s BlogTalkRadio Thursday, May 9 at 6:00 PM EST. He talked about what fueled this highly-charged story in the first place and how it evolved as he wrote it.

As an internationally recognized expert in several areas of high technology and their marketplaces, Steve Jackson has provided business leaders with the insight necessary to acquire and integrate complementary technology and its supporting organization. He has also assisted Fortune 100 companies in the analysis of emerging technologies helping them to make strategic decisions. Most recently, he founded (along with his wife, Claudia) the hugely successful independent publishing company known as Telemachus Press.

On Thursday, May 2 at 6:00 PM EST I spoke with author David G. Hallman about “Writing What We Know and/or Writing What We Imagine” on WriteSpa’s BlogTalkRadio show.

What are some of the vital differences between memoir and fiction?

David is the author of the intensely moving and beautifully-written memoir August Farewell. He’s also the author of a novel, Searching for Gilead.

He grew up in Waterloo, Ontario, studied community psychology, and was on the national staff of The United Church of Canada, carrying a wide range of social justice responsibilities. Environmental ethics was a major component of his his career. He was the coordinator of the World Council of Churches Climate Change Programme based in Geneva which involved him in UN global negotiations on climate change.

In addition to his books, he’s the author and editor of many articles and books on ecological themes including A Place in Creation — Ecological Models in Science, Religion and Economics, Ecotheology – Voices from South and North,  Spiritual Values for Earth Community, and a major study paper on Climate Change and Poverty — Science, Theology, and Ethics for the National Religious Partnership on the Environment (USA).

It was a great honor to have him on WriteSpa’s weekly radio show. Thanks for listening!

Happiness for sale!

The Happiness Guru offers everyone’s dream… for a price.

For Kairi, he offers even more. Much more.

Will she bite?

Will a charming stranger save her … or lead her deeper into a trap?

Is love better than happiness?

As whirlwind events escalate, Kairi is plunged into intrigue and danger. She has to determine what happiness really means—for her.

The Happiness Cure is JUST OUT! Available in paperback from Amazon! 

Here’s a marvelous opportunity to listen to the fabulous Samuel Peralta reading his poetry and talking about his writing process…

“Stunning, brilliant… Gorgeous imagery, beautiful author of Perfect“writing… Truly becoming one of my favorite poets. Ever.”

– Ellen Hopkins, #1 New York Times bestselling 

I fell in love with the poetry of Samuel Peralta back in 2009, when he founded a unique literary project called Semaphore.

He joined me on WriteSpa’s BlogTalkRadio show on Thursday, April 24, at 6 PM EST. Very honored. 

In the early days of the social network Twitter, while others streamed status updates, Samuel Peralta was one of the first to stream original poetry as @Semaphore. The project became an online phenomenon, with over four million downloads of 300+ poems, acclaimed for their emotive impact and craftsmanship.

Here are some things other people have said about Samuel Peralta’s poetry, which made me feel even better about loving his poems as deeply as I do:

Samuel Peralta is an extraordinary poet! We are so very honored to have him with us on WriteSpa’s BlogTalkRadio show at 6 PM EST Thursday, April 25, 2013!

Here’s a link to Samuel Peralta’s site.

What a lovely word!

All writers have a natural instinct for using and appreciating assonance. It means to create a resemblance of sound in a phrase by repeating the same or similar vowel sounds.

Sometimes I imagine that language was birthed through assonance—that exquisite, subtle combination of sound and meaning. The dawn of language must have been punctuated by a grunt of love or whisper of fear or murmur of contentment.

In honor of National Poetry Month, on this week’s WRITESPA we celebrate with one of my favorite writers: David Jaicks.

Dave Jaicks is an award-winning writer who has published in journals such as Open City, Fence, Hummingbird, The Haight Ashbury Literary Journal, and Passages North.

His most recent book, Horses In The Fog, is a collection of five short stories:

One is about a carpenter who gets paid from his last job in coins and meets a well dressed woman on the train.

Another one is about a group of dogs in the city find themselves all wearing sunglasses.

Another one concerns a young man on the brink of fatherhood thinks about camping on the moon.

Then there’s the rich man who aspires to be poor and what he does with his money to get there. This is the one Dave reads out loud on tonight’s WriteSpa’s BlogTalkRadio show. It’s worth listening to!

Dave Jaicks is also the author of Dog Park, Driving Home, and River Rock.

Here’s the link to contact Dave or to buy his books: davidjaicks.com