@AmyLewisAuthor on Loss & Grieving Being Part of Life #Relationships #Marriage #Memoir #Women

Five Things Being a Young Widow Has Taught Me

I was 27 when my first husband died unexpectedly after an eleven-day illness. While our marriage was far from perfect (and I do mean far), I loved him with an open heart. Now 15 years later, I can clearly say his death became the turning point of my life. If I had a before and after picture, the day he died would be the point in time where my path radically diverged. Nothing beats being a wise, young woman and here are the top five things that widowhood taught me about life, death and loss.

1. Strength & courage are not qualities you either have or don’t. It’s an energy field that you can tap into that stretches and expands to meet the needs of that which you are facing in the moment. You have no idea how strong you are until you are faced with a situation that calls it out of you. The same goes for courage. Have faith that whatever is needed in the moment, you’ve got it.

2. Help is everywhere; all around you, all you have to do is look for it. Easier said than done, I know, but that doesn’t make it any less true. And I’ve experienced this countless times, when I really need something, if I can stay out of my fears, exactly what is required always comes to me – no more, no less.

3. Life is much more fun when you’re fearless. One thing became very clear to me after losing my husband:  his essence, his soul (whatever you choose to call it) was still about. I know it in my bones, and it was quite a shock to me. While I’m not ready to let go of my body just let, I am no longer afraid of death. In fact, I don’t even like the word death but “transition” still sounds little too New Agey for me. And once that granddaddy of fears dissolves, man oh man, does life get fun.

4. Loss is part of life, so give yourself the gift of grieving. We are all individuals and grieving is highly personal business. No two people do it alike. Don’t listen to anyone else about what you should be doing, feeling, thinking, experiencing. Get rid of all your conditioned thoughts about what grieving should look like. Give yourself the freedom to do it your own way. Grieving can actually be a creative process and experience. Give yourself the gift of expression and your uniqueness. And I don’t just mean from losing a loved one, loss comes in many forms.

5. You are not in control here. I know we spend our entire lives trying to pretend like we are in control, but we are not.  This can be a terrifying idea, or it can bring you peace. I remember the only thought that gave me solace right after he died was I could have done absolutely nothing to save him. It was essentially out of my hands. The more I tested it out, I learned when I give up trying to control everything, my life actually becomes easier not harder.

Diagnosed with Borderline Personality disorder, Amy struggled with depression and an addiction to sharp objects. Even hospitalization didn't help to heal her destructive tendencies. It took a tumultuous relationship with a man named Truth to bring her back from the depths of her own self-made hell.Amy's marriage to dark, intriguing Truth was both passionate and stormy. She was a fair-skinned southern girl from New Orleans. He was a charming black man with tribal tattoos, piercings, and a mysterious past. They made an unlikely pair, but something clicked. During their early marriage, they pulled themselves out of abject poverty into wealth and financial security practically overnight. Then things began to fall apart.

 Passionate and protective, Truth also proved violent and abusive. Amy’s own self-destructive tendencies created a powerful symmetry. His sudden death left Amy with an intense and warring set of emotions: grief for the loss of the man she loved, relief she was no longer a target for his aggression.

Conflicted and grieving, Amy found herself at a spiritual and emotional crossroads, only to receive help from an unlikely source: Truth himself. Feeling his otherworldly presence in her dreams, Amy seeks help from a famous medium.

Her spiritual encounters change Amy forever. Through Truth, she learns her soul is eternal and indestructible, a knowledge that gives Amy the courage to pursue her own dreams and transform herself both physically and emotionally. Her supernatural encounters help Amy resolve the internal anger and self-destructive tendencies standing between her and happiness, culminating in a sense of spiritual fulfillment she never dreamed possible.

An amazing true story, What Freedom Smells Like is told with courage, honesty, and a devilishly dark sense of humor.

Buy Now @ Amazon

Genre – Memoir

Rating – PG-13

More details about the author

Connect with Amy Lewis through Twitter

Website www.WhatFreedomSmellsLike.com

THE OTHER SIDE OF THE ICE (Northwest Passage) by @TheobaldSprague #AmReading #Memoir #TBR

Four people, my three children and myself, who were separated more than a decade and a half ago were now being given the rare opportunity to reconnect and perhaps start anew. June 16, 2009, dawned with a deep blue New England sky. A fresh, morning breeze out of the northwest played about Bagan and gently bumped her up against what might be one of her last secure resting places for the next five months. Her tired crew quietly stowed last-minute items and double- checked deck lashings and safety devices for events and places no one could predict or, as of yet, imagine. As the small crew scurried about silently, an invisible transition was occurring. After waiting for two years, Bagan was now ready to lead the way into a vast and deadly unknown.

The docks at Goat Island were virtually empty. Those few who did saunter by took little notice of Bagan or her crew. At 11:00 a.m., 103 years to the day after Amundsen’s ship Gjoa left Oslo, Bagan’s 325-horsepower Lugger diesel engine was fired up in earnest and, with little fanfare, she slipped her lines.

As we slowly powered through Newport’s inner harbor, I picked up my cell phone and called Pierre Irving, a very dear sailing friend in Newport. Pierre and I had shared many hard-fought miles together, The Two Man Transatlantic Race in particular being some of our toughest. I wanted to call and simply say good-bye to him and his wife, Kathy.

Bagan made her way out of the harbor entrance, past Ft. Adams and Goat Island landmarks that I’d known and honored for years, landmarks that I was starting to realize I may never see again.

Not near his phone, Pierre’s outgoing voicemail message played. As it did, the enormity of what lay ahead of us hit me—8,500 miles through some of the world’s harshest maritime environment. The concept of navigating un- charted waters and as yet unknown perils to cross from the Atlantic to the Pacific swept over me and I couldn’t speak.

As Pierre’s voicemail beeped, my tears kept me from leaving the simplest of messages. I merely wanted to say that I’d see them in five months and wanted to wish them a wonderful summer.

I couldn’t.

The overwhelming thought of what my summer and fall held choked off any words. I wasn’t ready for it but unintentionally I’d severed the last connection to home and could only pray that we were ready for what lay ahead.

A sailor and his family’s harrowing and inspiring story of their attempt to sail the treacherous Northwest Passage.

Sprague Theobald, an award-winning documentary filmmaker and expert sailor with over 40,000 offshore miles under his belt, always considered the Northwest Passage–the sea route connecting the Atlantic to the Pacific–the ultimate uncharted territory. Since Roald Amundsen completed the first successful crossing of the fabled Northwest Passage in 1906, only twenty-four pleasure craft have followed in his wake. Many more people have gone into space than have traversed the Passage, and a staggering number have died trying. From his home port of Newport, Rhode Island, through the Passage and around Alaska to Seattle, it would be an 8,500-mile trek filled with constant danger from ice, polar bears, and severe weather.

What Theobald couldn’t have known was just how life-changing his journey through the Passage would be. Reuniting his children and stepchildren after a bad divorce more than fifteen years earlier, the family embarks with unanswered questions, untold hurts, and unspoken mistrusts hanging over their heads. Unrelenting cold, hungry polar bears, and a haunting landscape littered with sobering artifacts from the tragic Franklin Expedition of 1845, as well as personality clashes that threaten to tear the crew apart, make The Other Side of the Ice a harrowing story of survival, adventure, and, ultimately, redemption.

( TO WATCH THE OFFICIAL HD TEASER FOR “The Other Side of The Ice” [book and documentary] PLEASE GO TO: VIMEO.COM/45526226) 

Buy Now @ Amazon

Genre – Memoir, Adventure, Family, Climate

Rating – PG

More details about the author

 Connect with Sprague Theobald on Facebook & Twitter

Website www.spraguetheobald.com

Kelly Wilson's Top 5 Favorite Marketing Tools for Writers @LiveCheap #AmWriting #WriteTip #Memoir

Top 5 Favorite Marketing Tools for Writers

Book marketing is an essential part of the life of every writer. While we’d like to spend hours hunched over a notebook or laptop writing to our hearts’ content, the truth is that marketing our work requires time and attention in order to build a writing career.

In my several years of online marketing experience, I have come up with a set of book marketing tools that I absolutely cannot live without. They might take some time to master, but the benefits of making these part of your daily book marketing tool belt will consistently pay off over time.

Wordpress

If you’re wondering whether or not you should have a website, the answer is, “A thousand times, YES.” A website is the foundation of your book marketing efforts. You own that digital space, which means that nobody can take it from you; contrast this with social media - you don’t own any of that space, so they can take down anything of yours at any time.

There are many ways to build a website, but Wordpress is my favorite. It’s easy to use and fairly intuitive, especially if the idea of building or maintaining a website is particularly scary. Choose a domain name that fits your business – mine, for example, is “Wilson Writes” – and follow the directions for set up. Choose a theme that you can customize and tinker around. It’s worth the time!

Photoshop

Besides content, the most essential element of a website is a wide range of photos. Photoshop, while it takes some time to learn, offers a ton of options to manipulate photos and work on website design. Complete basic photo editing or create something unique using the limitless tools contained in the software. I like to use it to make funny memes and then post them on my website, because sometimes life is too funny NOT to take a photo of it and then make a meme.

Mailchimp and/or Feedburner

When your website is finished, don’t wait for people to visit you. Make sure to put an email capture program on the site to get the addresses of those who visit your site, and then post regular blog articles to keep readers engaged. I like to use both Feedburner and Mailchimp.

Feedburner sends out a daily digest of articles posted to your blog, while Mailchimp allows you to send customized newsletters out to readers. Both are useful, and the list captured via Feedburner can be downloaded into Mailchimp for easy use.

Bookbuzzr

BookBuzzr is a valuable book marketing site that allows authors to set up profile pages that highlights their books. These pages are easy to set up and create more of an online presence for you and your books. There’s a lot more to what BookBuzzr offers based on what you are able to pay, but two of my favorite free options are the BookBuzzr book widgets and the Book Tweeter function.

Hootsuite

Social media can feel overwhelming. You may start with updating Twitter, end up on Facebook via Instagram and pretty soon, an hour of your writing time has gone by. Hootsuite makes it possible to save time and effort by consolidating your social media profiles all on one platform.

Use Hootsuite to keep track of your mentions and retweets so that you can connect with those readers. Schedule out Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn status updates throughout the day, spending 20 minutes at the beginning of the day so your writing time is still all about writing…and not social media.

There are, of course, additional valuable tools for book marketing, but these are my favorites on my professional tool belt. What book marketing tools would you add that you can’t live without?

Bio: Kelly Wilson is a Portland, Oregon author and comedian who loves a bargain and likes to do as much online book marketing as possible for free. She is the author of Live Cheap & Free, Don’t Punch People in the Junk, and Caskets From Costco, along with numerous articles and short stories for children and adults. Kelly Wilson currently writes for a living and lives with her Magically Delicious husband, junk-punching children, dog, and cat, with a stereotypical minivan in the garage. Read more about her at www.wilsonwrites.com.

For twenty years, Kelly Wilson thought that she had been marching through the stages of grief in a straight line. She had been following the formula, crossing each processed grief experience off her list.

Except that Kelly was totally deluded. And she didn’t discover that until Jim, her beloved father-in-law, died. She found herself drying off from her shower the morning after his death, really hoping that he couldn’t see her naked. Or, if he could, that he was averting his eyes.

From that moment, Kelly's path through grief resembled a roller coaster, spiraling and twisting and turning, circling back around. Echoes of past trauma, including childhood abuse and cheating death, would no longer be ignored. She somehow needed to get from the beginning to the end of this grief adventure, and she doesn't have a good sense of direction.

But what is always present during a journey through grief, regardless of the path chosen?

Hope.

Caskets From Costco is a funny book about grief that demonstrates the certainty of hope and healing in an uncertain and painful world.

Buy Now @ Amazon

Genre - Memoir, Humor

Rating – PG-13

More details about the author

Connect with Kelly Wilson on Facebook & Twitter

@TheobaldSprague on His Words Reaching Never Before Felt Feelings #Climate #Memoir #Family

Where do you get support from? Do you have friends in the industry?

MY FAMILY AND OTHER WRITERS, FRIENDS

How much sleep do you need to be your best?

A SOLID, UNINTERRUPTED EIGHT HOURS… BUT WITH TWO DOGS…

Is there anyone you’d like to acknowledge and thank for their support?

MY FIFTH GRADE TEACHER POESY BARLOW.

Every writer has their own idea of what a successful career in writing is, what does success in writing look like to you?

GOOD, SOLID SALES

Tell us about your new book? What’s it about and why did you write it?

MY LATEST BOOK WHICH HAS JUST BEEN TURNED OVER TO MY AGENT IS CALLED “THE REACH” (WORKING TITLE). IT’S A REWRITE OF A BOOK I DID ABOUT 15 YEARS AGO. I USED TO WORK ON BOATS AS PROFESSIONAL CREW. I SAILED BOATS ALL OVER THE GLOBE. DURING THE TIMES OFF-SHORE MANY, MANY SPOOKY THINGS WOULD OCCUR. SO MANY SO THAT AT ONE POINT I THOUGHT, “IF GHOSTS CAN HAUNT HOUSES, WHY NOT THE OCEAN, ESPECIALLY THE OCEAN?”

If you could have a dinner party and invite anyone dead or alive, who would you ask?

E.B. WHITE, GREGORY PECK, KATHERINE HEPBURN, THE BEATLES, KATHERINE DENEUVE, FRANCOIS TRUFFAUT

When you are not writing, how do you like to relax?

READING, OUTSIDE WATCHING NATURE, CLASSIS MOVIES

Do you have any tips on how writers can relax?

GO FOR LONG WALKS IN THE COUNTRY. SURROUND YOURSELF WITH THAT THAT’S LARGER THAN YOU AND YOUR TROUBLES. PLAY WITH CHILDREN AND PUPPIES.

How often do you write? And when do you write?

I TRY TO WRITE EVERY DAY STARTING AROUND 10:30 IN THE MORNING UNTIL AROUND 1:00 P.M. NOTICE I SAID “TRY”.

Do you have an organized process or tips for writing well? Do you have a writing schedule?

GO FULL BORE ON THE FIRST DRAFT. DON’T ANALYZE, DON’T EDIT IN YOUR MIND, DON’T LISTEN TO THAT LITTLE DEVIL ON YOUR LEFT SHOULDER TELLING YOU THAT YOU HAVE NO TALENT AND THAT OTHER PROFESSION BECKON.

Have you met any people in the industry who have really helped you?

NOT FACT TO FACE AS MUCH AS THINGS LIKE THIS; READING ABOUT WHAT OTHER WRITERS HAVE TO SAY ABOUT THEIR LIVES AND STRUGGLES.

What do you hope people will take away from your writing? How will your words make them feel?

I PRAY THAT MY WORDS REACH NEVER BEFORE FELT FEELINGS. I AM ALSO A DOCUMENTARIAN AND MY GOAL EVERY TIME I PRODUCE A FILM IS TO HAVE THE AUDIENCE SIT IN THEIR SEATS FOR A FEW MINUTES AFTER THE FILM HAS ENDED SAYING QUIETLY, “I NEVER KNEW THAT.’

( TO WATCH THE OFFICIAL HD TEASER FOR “The Other Side of The Ice” [book and documentary] PLEASE GO TO: VIMEO.COM/45526226) 

A sailor and his family’s harrowing and inspiring story of their attempt to sail the treacherous Northwest Passage.

Sprague Theobald, an award-winning documentary filmmaker and expert sailor with over 40,000 offshore miles under his belt, always considered the Northwest Passage–the sea route connecting the Atlantic to the Pacific–the ultimate uncharted territory. Since Roald Amundsen completed the first successful crossing of the fabled Northwest Passage in 1906, only twenty-four pleasure craft have followed in his wake. Many more people have gone into space than have traversed the Passage, and a staggering number have died trying. From his home port of Newport, Rhode Island, through the Passage and around Alaska to Seattle, it would be an 8,500-mile trek filled with constant danger from ice, polar bears, and severe weather.

What Theobald couldn’t have known was just how life-changing his journey through the Passage would be. Reuniting his children and stepchildren after a bad divorce more than fifteen years earlier, the family embarks with unanswered questions, untold hurts, and unspoken mistrusts hanging over their heads. Unrelenting cold, hungry polar bears, and a haunting landscape littered with sobering artifacts from the tragic Franklin Expedition of 1845, as well as personality clashes that threaten to tear the crew apart, make The Other Side of the Ice a harrowing story of survival, adventure, and, ultimately, redemption.

Buy Now @ Amazon

Genre – Memoir, adventure, family, climate

Rating – PG

More details about the author

 Connect with Sprague Theobald on Facebook & Twitter

Website www.spraguetheobald.com