Featured Author Patricia Stinson and book Range War Legacy

 

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Author Patricia Stinson is a retired elementary school teacher living in Minnesota. She loves animals and has a rescue dog called Nike, and two parakeets called Frik and Frak [I love it, how ingenious!]. She also loves horses, and rides both English and Western style [I can ride both Western and Australian].

Range War Legacy is an historical western based on the cattle and sheep wars in the United States. She was inspired to write it after reading an article in Wild West magazine; a woman interviewed for the magazine stated she saw some sheep herders actually killed when she was a child, but never revealed their identity. This piqued Patricia’s curiosity and she began to research the incident more.

Patricia’s book is currently available digitally at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and at Booklocker. She’s expecting a paperback version sometime in December of 2014. [Should be an interesting read!]

Range War Legacy tells some of the conflict between the sheep men and the cattle ranchers but also reveals the aftermath of the violence on her characters. Patricia says, “Inward death does not end when the war ends.” She hopes to inspire her readers to identify with her characters and ask themselves what they might do in the same situation.

 

Currently, Range War Legacy is rated 5* on Amazon. One review called it: "A fast-paced western!", while another said, "This is a story of courage, love and loss."

Patricia is currently working on another historical western called Wild River Journal that she expects to release in January, 2015. It will detail the Mexican and Navaho life within the white culture of the West in the 1860’s. [This, too, sounds interesting!]

You can find Patricia at http://www.psread.com, her blog http://gogoreadgo.blogspot.com, and on Twitter @pstinson23.

 

**Disclaimer: This is not an endorsement of the books mentioned, as I haven’t read them and cannot vouch for their contents.**

Featured Author Carol Graham and book Battered Hope

 

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Author Carol Graham lives on the northwest coast of North America, and own and operates two jewelry stores. [How cool is that?] She’s also a health coach and travels extensively as an inspirational speaker. She’s an active blogger with two children, three grandchildren, and rescue dogs. [Thanks for that, all my dogs are rescues too. Please spay and neuter your pets!]

Battered Hope is her memoir. You can find it on Amazon: http://www.amzn.to/1wEwEsN.  She reveals that it took twenty years to write, as doing so brought forth so much pain and many difficult memories. Her daughter encouraged her to write it, and her daughter’s little dog gave her the final inspiration to write and publish. Read that story here: http://www.batteredhope.blogspot.ca/2013/12/the-miniature-dachshund-who-started-me.html. It was released at the end of 2013 and is available on Amazon and a variety of other book sites.

Carol is a resilient woman who endured traumatic events that would cause most others to roll over and quit [I can sympathize with this, after my own battle against cancer!], Through cancer, rape, marital abuse, jail, attempted suicide, the loss of a child [how sad!], and financial ruin, Carol came through these trials and is a stronger woman today. This is a story of hope, perseverance, and faith that reads like a fiction, but it’s not! It’s a TRUE account of her life!

 

 

Battered Hope is currently rated at 4.7*. One Amazon reviewer says, "I found her story one of triumph." Another states: "This well written book is not for the faint hearted. Carol Graham's harrowing story should be a lesson to us all - Once Bitten, Twice Shy!" Yet another 5* review by Marie Angele Abanga: "Battered, maybe tattered, but definitely not shattered hope!"

She says her only reason for writing this memoir was to encourage anyone going through trauma to overcome their challenges, to be a victor instead of a victim. This is the basis of her inspirational speeches, and audiences routinely come away inspired by her words.

Carol knew nothing of publishing when she first released her book. She interviewed quite a few publishers before finally settling on one. Unfortunately, the publisher she chose was not reputable, and she had to fight a difficult battle to break her contract with them [something a lot of us independent authors should keep in mind when choosing who to publish with]. She also paid them for marketing, which netted her exactly zip.

Now, she’s started her own marketing plan. She does give-aways on GoodReads, which often brings in more reviews. She also blogs regularly, but in doing so, only subtly mentions her book (rather than plugging on endlessly about it). Her advice, after spending her whole life in sales, is this: “The only way to sell anything is to sell yourself first.” [This is where I have my biggest issue; I can barely write a resume. Technically and grammatically, it’s perfect, but the content is not!]

You can find Carol at her blog: http://www.batteredhope.blogspot.com, on her Twitter @BatteredHope, on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/carol.graham.90834776 and her Facebook author page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Battered-Hope/60931182413550. You can also hook up with her at Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/batteredhope, Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/+CarolGraham/posts, and LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/carol-graham/71/b2/446. Her GoodReads profile is: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/444146.Carol_Graham.

 

**Disclaimer: This is not an endorsement of the book in question, as I haven’t read it and cannot vouch for its contents.**

Featured Author Barbara Williamson and book An Extraordinary Life

 

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Author Barbara Williamson has lived the past 20 years in the quiet Nevada desert surrounded by cougar, mountain goats, deer, and a wide variety of wildlife. Together with her life partner, John, she has founded Tiger Touch Sanctuary and Education Center (find out more by visiting http://www.tigertouch.org ), currently home to thirteen exotic cats saved from horrible situations. [If, for no other reason, Barbara is a star for setting this up!]

Her book, An Extraordinary Life, her memoir, is a story of vulnerability and self-discovery, cleverly disguised as a sex book. Barbara and John were the creators of the Sandstone Retreat, a unique alternative lifestyle during the “sexual revolution of the 1960’s and 1970’s, during which time she was tagged as “the most liberated woman in America.”  She hopes her book gives the reader an insight into just how this revolution put the Nature back into human nature.

She wishes to stress to her readers that sexual pleasure is a necessity to our human souls and psyches, and inspire people who are unhappy in their lives to do what she did: CHANGE it! [I think, as a society, we are pushing sex farther and farther into the background of our lives, our real lives, though it’s most certainly frequently thrown at us on TV and movies!]

Now at age 75, Barbara’s life focuses on being and remaining healthy, slowing the aging process, all the while trying to extend her time on our wonderful planet, being productive and enjoying the quality of her life. Barbara says, “…nature (including human nature) is anything but static and predictable.” Her book is intended to be a “flashlight” so the reader can see what goes bump in the night.

An Extraordinary Life was released January 14, 2014 and can be purchased online at www.barbarawilliamson.org from publisher Balboa Press, and at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. She currently spreads her marketing plan throughout several forms of social media, as well as releasing periodic press releases with a video trailer. She’s also used some paid advertisement. Next, she plans to reach out to bloggers for reviews.

 

You can find her at her website above, at Twitter @AuthorBarbaraW, on her Amazon author page: http://www.amazon.com/Barbara-Williamson/e/B00NH9N3GO, or on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/barbara-williamson/95/636/530/.

 

**Disclaimer: This is not an endorsement of the book in question, as I have not read it and cannot vouch for its contents.**