Felipe Adan Lerma

This week it’s a huge welcome to Heather Ramsay who has recently published her first novel. It’s definitely going on my TBR list as it sounds just the sort of book I enjoy. First, a little about Heather.

Heather Ramsay grew up in a town just outside of Toronto, Ontario. After spending a few years working and exploring California, she now resides in Pennsylvania with her family.

 Personal trainer, yoga teacher, and group exercise instructor by trade, her true passion is writing. An avid reader and make believer from a young age, Heather dreamed of one day publishing her own book. When not reading or writing, you can often find her training, spending time with family, or chasing around a toddler.

Heather also added this which will make many of us smile and cheer!

Hello, my name is Heather and I’m a bookaholic.

Reading is my vice. Some people prefer television, others…

Before the end of the winter, some photos of Ljubljana in the snow. After a long time, we were getting a lot of snow here. And I don’t like winter, low temperatures, cloudy and short days … I can’t wait to the end of the winter. And now it’s March and tomorrow it’s supposed to snow again 😦

Whatever Comes

Regina Puckett

Life is often so hard

It leaves you scarred

It takes without giving

So why keep on living?

Maybe it’s for the passion

Maybe it’s for compassion

Maybe it’s you just want more

So you open another day’s door

Ready to take on whatever comes

Blessed to face one of God’s suns

Royalties from downloads and page reads of Touching the Wire during Holocaust week will be donated to US Holocaust Memorial Museum  At the end of 2014, I published my first historical novel, Touching the Wire, a tale of courage, hope, and love set partly in Auschwitz, a place where courage was essential, hope was a luxury few could afford, and love was a rare shining beacon of compassion in a world dominated by the capricious brutality and hatred cultivated by Nazi Germany.

Much has been written about this heinous episode in modern history that informs and shocks. We like to think that it never happened before and that it could never happen again, but man’s inhumanity to man seems part of our genetic code, and we must be constantly aware of systemic racism, elitism, and religious bigotry that runs in the veins beneath the flawless surface of mankind’s…

or can I buy you a coffee? Oh god, it’s starting to rain. That’s okay. I don’t mind getting wet. Paris is the most beautiful in the rain. – Midnight in Paris Movie Quotes

Le Refuge

Le Refuge

Rue Lamarck

Lamarck – Caulaincourt

Lamarck – Caulaincourt

Rue de Beaujolais

Le Palais Royal

I’m sure many readers will resonate with this week’s guest Barbara Carter, living with a burst of creativity inside and not knowing how to express it – life always gets in the way!

BARBARA CARTER was born in Nova Scotia, Canada. She is a visual artist and writer and is currently working on a series of memoirs focusing not only on her personal journey but highlighting important issues such as: anxiety, depression, loss and grief and the not so great ways of dealing with inner pain. Also living with a narcissistic mother. Barbara has an amazing ability to shed light on the sometimes dark subject matter with her ability to use humor. She also instructs art classes and offers guidance in writing memoir. The focus of her work is on examining the past in order to heal and move on.

My story is about learning how to follow my inner voice/intuition/soul.

As a child…

This is a really impressive memoir, in part of what the reader can learn about bi-polarism and how it affects a person; in other parts it shows a writer insightful enough into the psyche of non-affected people to explain his feelings in a manner that grant us eye-opening and aha moments.
I have friends who suffer with the condition who didn’t have the gift to explain things as well as the author. Not following an entirely linear approach we get thrown in at the deep end and unwrap childhood and other ages later. Taking an extreme moment in the author’s young life, being arrested and imprisoned, as the starting point gives us an immediate sense of the volatility of the condition and brings in more than a mere sympathy perspective. How to make the police offers understand, the judge understand, anyone understand the difference between criminal activity and mental health…

GLEANINGS FOUND HERE AND THERE:

“Taz,” courtesy of Jon Ring.

When you suffer because of discrimination, there’s always an urge to speak out. But even if you spend a thousand years speaking out, your suffering won’t be relieved.

Only through deep understanding and liberation from ignorance can you be liberated from your suffering.

When you break through to the truth, compassion springs up like a stream of water. With that compassion, you can embrace even the people who have persecuted you.

When you’re motivated by desire to help those who are victims of ignorance, only then are you free from your suffering and feelings of violation. 

Don’t wait for things to change around you. You have to practice liberating yourself. Then you will be equipped with the power of compassion and understanding, the only kind of power that can help transform an environment full of injustice and discrimination.

You…