OCTOBER Give-Away WINNERS and NOVEMBER Give-Away

WHAT THE COMMUNITY IS SAYING ABOUT HOME STREET HOME - THE VIRGINIA BEACH CHRONICLES...

I just finished reading the book today! I could not put it down - it was WONDERFUL! I felt like I was there with everyone & everything as it took place. It gave me different insights to things I could not imagine going on. I cried at the end; when you were talking about Little Bear as I knew who you were really talking about."
----- Alice Dagenhardt of "Hope in the Upper Room", Virginia Beach

"...a uniformly rugged but redemptive novel about life among the homeless in Hampton Roads."
----- Bill Ruehlmann, professor emeritus of journalism/communications at Virginia Wesleyan College and book columnist for the Virginia Pilot.

"She provides an authentic picture from what I know of homelessness on the streets. Her story puts a human face on the whole issue of homelessness."
----- Jeffrey Andrews, retired Maring Corps major and president of Hope in the Upper Room, a non-profit devoted to giving the homeless a "hand up", not a "hand out".

"The book is realistic. It's not amatuerish, nor does it seek sympathy. There is definitely a market for this."
---- Anne Meek, board secretary for the Cultural Alliance of Greater Hampton Roads

$15.95

Click Here to Purchase this Book from an Amazon.com company

YOUR PURCHASE AT THE ABOVE LINK IS BACKED BY THE REPUTATION OF AMAZON.COM FOR QUICK SERVICE AND SECURE TRANSMISSION OF INFORMATION



*Click here to read Dr. William Ruehlmann's complete review of Home Street Home - The Virginia Beach Chronicles in the Virginian-Pilot.



From the back cover...

At 60, Ella Migliore, a gentle soul from a middle class background, finds her security wiped out by the 2008 market crash. Long estranged from her nuclear family, she is thrown into the brutal world of homelessness - a shadowy hell that swallows people bit by bit, even in the well-manicured streets of the Virginia Beach Oceanfront.


Bravely trying to make the best of a bad situation, she downplays the dangers until she learns firsthand just how vicious street life can be. Menaced by ex-cons at a free dining hall, bedding down on drenched church steps after a Tidewater tornado-watch storm, and terrified by lawless men in a homeless camp, she digs deep to find strength to carry on.


Her terrors are compounded when Ella is physically attacked by much younger campers while onlookers refuse to get involved. Her fear of being beaten to death drives her into the arms of a predator who takes control of her camp and her life. When he asks the unthinkable, she escapes, only to battle the worst threat of all - the thirst for revenge that twists her soul as she plans violent reprisals against those who've bullied her.

GIVE AWAY - GIVE AWAY - GIVE AWAY 

This month I'm offering the choice of Volume I, II or III, since so many of you have already bought the first volume.  Thanks to all who entered last month's GIVE-AWAY despite the fact it was a bit raggedy.  I dropped your names in a hat the number of times you had complied with entry requirements. Then my granddaughters chose the winner. All that depended a little too much on my organization and memory. This month I've gone high tech. Let's see if this is an improvement. Bear with me, as I'm learning how to run these things and have to get the bugs out. But they tell me Rafflecopter makes it all a breeze. So...go ahead and jump right into the contest. If you are already a member of the blog and/or the Facebook Fan page, Rafflecopter tells me you'll only need to add some info for them to know that.  Be sure to tweet and post as many days as you can in November. Those options are below. If you have any trouble with that, just e-mail me at georgiasaunders58@yahoo.com
CLICK ON "READ MORE" BELOW TO SEE THE RAFFLE COPTER ENTRY FORM

GOOD LUCK!

OCTOBER WINNER OF A PRINT COPY of Home Street Home - The Virginia Beach Chronicles  IS:  Jessica Haight.
Three winners of a surprise consolation prize of  PDF copy of The Virginia Beach Chronicles - The Virginia Beach Chronicles are:
Marjorie Roy
Debby Alten
Kathy Lynn Kizelewicz Bailey

Surviving Emily

2011 – New Fiction Release Shares Trauma of Sudden Loss, Love’s Power to Heal

Surviving Emily
is released by Laurie Bellesheim

When Abigail went to wake her best friend Emily, she had no concept of the nightmarish horror she was about to encounter; unbeknownst to Abigail, Emily suffered from epilepsy, and she was the victim of Sudden Unexplained Death in Epilepsy. Emily’s death left a void in Abigail’s life, but Abigail was not the only one affected by the loss. Emily’s longtime boyfriend, Stephen, was shattered by the loss of the girl he planned to marry. In the years that pass, the two survivors find different ways to cope with their friend’s death. Stephen tries to drown his sorrows in booze, drugs, and meaningless encounters with faceless women; eventually, he pulls his life together, but he finds himself unable to commit to love again. Abigail buries her sadness so deep that even her husband doesn’t fully understand her loss; Abigail herself doesn’t realize how badly she was hurt by the events of her past until she encounters a client with epilepsy through her work in the Department of Children and Families.
Newly pregnant and struggling to deal with her epileptic client, Abigail crosses paths with Stephen once more. Stephen is in a foundering relationship with a caring and supportive nurse, but he finds himself unable to commit to the level that his girlfriend, Carolina, needs and deserves. Through a series of amazing events Stephen and Abigail manage to find peace with the events of that tragic day so long ago as well as the fortitude to continue on the paths that their lives had laid before them. Full of heartbreak and loss but ultimately hope, Surviving Emily is a compelling story that explores the meaning of everlasting friendship and the healing power of love.
Surviving Emily is based on author Laurie Bellesheim’s personal experience with Sudden Unexplained Death in Epilepsy; at the age of 18, Bellesheim lost a close friend to this silent killer. Prior to writing this, her first novel, Bellesheim worked as a social worker with the Department of Children and Families. A graduate of Southern Connecticut State University with a bachelor’s degree in social work, Bellesheim resides in rural Connecticut with her husband and their three children.
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For further information contact: Ray Robinson at 317-228-3656, via email at RayR@DogEarPublishing.net, or through the website at: www.dogearpublishing.net
Surviving Emily
Laurie Bellesheim
Dog Ear Publishing
ISBN: 978-145750-562-1 312 pages US

Available at Ingram, Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble and fine bookstores everywhere.
About Dog Ear Publishing, LLC Dog Ear Publishing offers completely customized self-publishing services for independent authors. We provide cost-effective, fast, and highly profitable services to publish and distribute independently published books. Our book publishing and distribution services reach worldwide. Dog Ear authors retain all rights and complete creative control throughout the entire self-publishing process. Self-publishing services are available globally at www.dogearpublishing.net and from our offices in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Dog Ear Publishing – self-publishing that actually makes sense!

Steeped In Books REVIEW of THE LAST PROPHET by Jeff Horton

Buy Now @ Amazon

Rating - PG/PG13
More details about this book
Connect with Jeff Horton on Amazon & Facebook 
Website http://website-www.hortonlibrary.com/

Mr. Horton was kind enough to send me a review copy of his novel, which I read over the course of several nights.  Here, for my readers' enjoyment, is my opinion of this work.

Plotted closely on the lines of Biblical apocalyptic narrative, The Last Prophet takes the reader on an imagined “what if” – what if an otherwise ordinary American man found himself playing a lead role in end times events as one of the two “witnesses” mentioned in the Revelation?   This is unapologetically religious literature that quotes heavily from these high drama scriptures, and has enough minor characters finding salvation through Christian belief to make it suitable for a tract.  One feels at times that’s what the story’s purpose is – to use the horrors of the ends times to persuade readers to get serious about God.  Nothing wrong with that, certainly; but let’s be clear about it.

As such, it does a good job of getting its point across in an entertaining adventure story.  Abe Addon, the U.S. president who is actually a demon taken on human form as the “False Prophet” to serve his master, Satan, i.e. “the Beast”, makes a believable, though quite conventional, lackey of old Horny.  The “last prophet”, Jonathan Elijah March (surprisingly enough a Gentile), knows quite well, along with his co-witness, Moe Princeton, and various angels that appear, that he and Moe must die three and half years into the seven-year period known as the Tribulation.  These deaths are to be a publicly celebrated and world-viewed event in Jerusalem, after which, both he and Moe are to be brought back to life.  John March’s battles with the demon masquerading as the U.S. president take him through the gambit of action hero suffering: his son Samuel is kidnapped, causing his wife, Lara, to worry frantically as any mother would.  He is followed; he is hated; he is threatened with bodily harm by Abe Addon’s devotees.  He continually faces the moral decision – will he sacrifice himself to his mission even though it will cause his little family to suffer? 

As one who grew up studying the Bible, I’m usually put off by Hollywood drama that is supposed to be based on Bible stories but makes free use of poetic license to add a little more of a human-interest twist here, more of a love story there – adding tinsel town glitz to a drama that was already far above the average just the way it was.  That Hollywood arrogance always seemed to me a corruption of the greatest literature of the world, to say nothing of the affront to sacred scripture.  The Last Prophet never crosses that line for me, though Mr. Horton does add one bow to the drama preferences of the modern reader – Abe Addon takes a fancy to John Elijah’s girlfriend, Lara, attempting to corrupt her “just because she is such a pure spirit”, as fallen angels are so very prone to delight in doing.  This causes our hero a type of romantic stress that I don’t believe was in the original script. 

I am a bit amused by the fact that the modern day incarnation of the prophet Eliyahu (Elijah), for whom Jews everywhere leave an extra cup out at the Passover Seder every year because of his soon expected arrival to herald the coming of the Moshiach (Messiah), is a card-carrying American Christian Gentile in this story.  In addition, his co-witness, Moe Princeton, another American Gentile, is the modern day incarnation of Moshe (Moses).  Add to this the American False prophet, and you get quite an Americo-centric telling of this well-known Biblical drama.  I’d always figured the Anti-Christ/False Prophet would come from the EU, myself; more specifically from Germany (the one horn rising up amongst the ten horns), given that nation’s history with the Jews.  But I say amused, rather than offended, because…well…Americans do tend to think they should always get the lead role on the world stage.   And in the same way that the blonde-haired, blue-eyed Christ has replaced the dark-skinned Semitic gentleman who roamed Roman-era Israel with his very Jewish disciples, such transformations are so obviously culturally biased they are almost high camp. 

All in all, I enjoyed the book.  It was fast-paced and looked at an old story from a new premise.  I would definitely recommend it.    

Kicking off Steeped in Books with a Give-away!

To celebrate the beginning of Steeped in Books, I am offering a GIVE-AWAY of my new novel, Home Street Home - The Virginia Beach Chronicles.

See what the community is saying about Home Street Home - The Virgina Beach Chronicles.
Recent Review in the Virginian-Pilot


In the tradition of Grapes of Wrath and Oliver Twist, this work of literary fiction tackles the new reality of homeless communities  - the social dynamics and the many varied types that make it up.  The author, during three years of living the homeless lifestyle in Virginia Beach, felt compelled to bring the subject to the public in a fresh treatment - the magic of dramatic fiction. 

READ MORE ABOUT THE NOVEL HERE:

THE GIVE-AWAY

To enter the give-away:

1) Join and follow this blog. Leave a comment on this post.  Send me a valid e-mail address at georgiasaunders58 (at) yahoo.com  or post it in comments for this post.  Step one = 1 entry

2) "Like" the book's facebook page HERE and leave a comment there under the Give-Away post.  If you are already a member of the book's facebook page, just leave the comment under the Give-Away post.  Step 2 = 1 entry

The more you interact with the book's facebook page and this new blog, the more entries I will add for you.  The method of choosing a winner is the old "e-mail in the hat" method.  My granddaughters will draw the winning entry. 

The winner will be chosen  October 31st.  I will notify you by e-mail, post the winner on twitter and on the book's facebook page.  The winner will have 72 hours to get back to me with a mailing address so I can send you your prize. 

Feel free to leave your own facebook page for me to "like" in return.  I will be compiling a list for future events for those who want to get fan page "likes" in return for liking other pages.

Feel free to leave your own blog link and I will network with you.  Again, I will be adding to a list for future events to help us all promote our books, blogs and give-aways.