fbpx

Survival of the Fittest by: Jacqui Murray

This is part of a series. What’s that about?

Survival of the Fittest is Book 1 in the Crossroads series and part of the Man vs. Nature saga. It delves into man’s ability to survive the unsurvivable, make decisions that could kill him, and makes plans contrary to his instincts. Most (all?) animals operate on an internal compass–instinct. Man has free will—the ability to reject our gut in favor of our intellect or heart.

 

Five tribes. One leader.

A treacherous journey across three continents in search of a new home.

Short Summary:

Chased by a ruthless and powerful enemy, Xhosa flees with her People, leaving behind a certain life in her African homeland to search for an unknown future. She leads her People on a grueling journey through unknown and dangerous lands but an escape path laid out years before by her father as a final desperate means to survival. She is joined by other homeless tribes–from Indonesia, China, South Africa, East Africa, and the Levant—all similarly forced by timeless events to find new lives. As they struggle to overcome treachery, lies, danger, tragedy, hidden secrets, and Nature herself, Xhosa must face the reality that this enemy doesn’t want her People’s land. He wants to destroy her.

Book information:

 Title and author: Survival of the Fittest

Series: Book 1 in the Crossroads series, part of the Man vs. Nature saga

Genre: Prehistoric fiction

Cover by: Damonza 

Available at: Kindle US Kindle UK Kindle CA Kindle AU

 

Author bio:

Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman, the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy, the Rowe-Delamagente thrillers, and the Man vs. Nature saga. She is also the author/editor of over a hundred books on integrating tech into education, adjunct professor of technology in education, blog webmaster, an Amazon Vine Voice,  a columnist for TeachHUB and NEA Today, and a freelance journalist on tech ed topics. Look for her next prehistoric fiction, Quest for Home, Summer 2019. You can find her tech ed books at her publisher’s website, Structured Learning

 

Social Media contacts:

http://twitter.com/worddreams

http://pinterest.com/askatechteacher

http://linkedin.com/in/jacquimurray

https://worddreams.wordpress.com

https://jacquimurray.net

Chapter 1

Her foot throbbed. Blood dripped from a deep gash in her leg. At some point, Xhosa had scraped her palms raw while sliding across gravel but didn’t remember when, nor did it matter. Arms pumping, heart thundering, she flew forward. When her breath went from pants to wheezing gasps, she lunged to a stop, hands pressed against her damp legs, waiting for her chest to stop heaving. She should rest but that was nothing but a passing thought, discarded as quickly as it arrived. Her mission was greater than exhaustion or pain or personal comfort.

She started again, sprinting as though chased, aching fingers wrapped around her spear. The bellows of the imaginary enemy—Big Heads this time—filled the air like an acrid stench. She flung her spear over her shoulder, aiming from memory. A thunk and it hit the tree, a stand-in for the enemy. With a growl, she pivoted to defend her People.

Which would never happen.?Females weren’t warriors.

Feet spread, mouth set in a tight line, she launched her last spear, skewering an imaginary assailant, and was off again, feet light, her abundance of ebony hair streaming behind her like smoke. A scorpion crunched beneath her hardened foot. Something moved in the corner of her vision and she hurled a throwing stone, smiling as a hare toppled over. Nightshade called her reactions to those of Leopard.

But that didn’t matter. Females didn’t become hunters either.

With a lurch, she gulped in the parched air. The lush green grass had long since given way to brittle stalks and desiccated scrub. Sun’s heat drove everything alive underground, underwater, or over the horizon. The males caught her attention across the field, each with a spear and wwar club Today’s hunt would be the last until the rain—and the herds—returned.

“Why haven’t they left?”

She kicked a rock and winced as pain shot through her foot. Head down, eyes shut against the memories. Even after all this time, the chilling screams still rang in her ears…

The People’s warriors had been away hunting when the assault occurred. Xhosa’s mother pushed her young daughter into a reed bed and stormed toward the invaders but too late to save the life of her young son. The killer, an Other, laughed at the enraged female armed only with a cutter. When she sliced his cheek open, the gash so deep his black teeth showed, his laughter became fury. He swung his club with such force her mother crumpled instantly, her head a shattered melon.

From the safety of the pond, Xhosa memorized the killer—nose hooked awkwardly from some earlier injury, eyes dark pools of cruelty. It was then, at least in spirit, she became a warrior. Nothing like this must ever happen again.

When her father, the People’s Leader, arrived that night with his warriors, he was greeted by the devastating scene of blood-soaked ground covered by mangled bodies, already chewed by scavengers. A dry-eyed Xhosa told him how marauders had massacred every subadult, female, and child they could find, including her father’s pairmate. Xhosa communicated this with the usual grunts, guttural sounds, hand signals, facial expressions, hisses, and chirps. The only vocalizations were call signs to identify the group members.

“If I knew how to fight, Father, Mother would be alive.” Her voice held no anger, just determination.

The tribe she described had arrived a Moon ago, drawn by the area’s rich fruit trees, large ponds, lush grazing, and bluffs with a view as far as could be traveled in a day. No other area offered such a wealth of resources. The People’s scouts had seen these Others but allowed them to forage, not knowing their goal was to destroy the People.

Her father’s body raged but his hands, when they moved, were calm.  “We will avenge our losses, daughter.”

The next morning, Xhosa’s father ordered the hunters to stay behind, protect the People. He and the warriors snuck into the enemy camp before Sun awoke and slaughtered the females and children before anyone could launch a defense. The males were pinned to the ground with stakes driven through their thighs and hands. The People cut deep wounds into their bodies and left, the blood scent calling all scavengers.

When Xhosa asked if the one with the slashed cheek had died, her father motioned, “He escaped, alone. He will not survive.”

Word spread of the savagery and no one ever again attacked the People, not their camp, their warriors, or their hunters.

While peace prevailed, Xhosa grew into a powerful but odd-looking female. Her hair was too shiny, hips too round, waist too narrow beneath breasts bigger than necessary to feed babies. Her legs were slender rather than sturdy and so long, they made her taller than every male. The fact that she could outrun even the hunters while heaving her spear and hitting whatever she aimed for didn’t matter. Females weren’t required to run that fast. Nightshade, though, didn’t care about any of that. He claimed they would pairmate, as her father wished, when he became the People’s Leader.

Until then, all of her time was spent practicing the warrior skills no one would allow her to use.

One day, she confronted her father. “I can wield a warclub one-handed and throw a spear hard enough to kill. If I were male, you would make me a warrior.”

He smiled. “You are like a son to me, Daughter. I see your confidence and boldness. If I don’t teach you, I fear I will lose you.”

He looked away, the smile long gone from his lips. “Either you or Nightshade must lead when I can’t.”

Under her father’s tutelage, she and Nightshade learned the nuances of sparring, battling, chasing, defending, and assaulting with the shared goal that never would the People succumb to an enemy. Every one of Xhosa’s spear throws destroyed the one who killed her mother. Every swing of her warclub smashed his head as he had her mother’s. Never again would she stand by, impotent, while her world collapsed. She perfected the skills of knapping cutters and sharpening spears, and became expert at finding animal trace in bent twigs, crushed grass, and by listening to their subtle calls. She could walk without leaving tracks and match nature’s sounds well enough to be invisible.

A Moon ago, as Xhosa practiced her scouting, she came upon a lone warrior kneeling by a waterhole. His back was to her, skeletal and gaunt, his warclub chipped, but menace oozed from him like stench from dung. She melted into the redolent sedge grasses, feet sinking into the squishy mud, and observed.

His head hair was sprinkled with grey. A hooked nose canted precariously, poorly healed from a fracas he won but his nose lost. His curled lips revealed cracked and missing teeth. A cut on his upper arm festered with pus and maggots. Fever dimpled his forehead with sweat. He crouched to drink but no amount of water would appease that thirst.

What gave him away was the wide ragged scar left from the slash of her mother’s cutter.

Xhosa trembled with rage, fearing he would see the reeds shake, biting her lip until it bled to stop from howling. It hardly seemed fair to slay a dying male but fairness was not part of her plan today.

Only revenge.

A check of her surroundings indicated he traveled alone. Not that it mattered. If she must trade her life for his, so be it.

But she didn’t intend to die.

The exhausted warrior splashed muddy water on his grimy head, hands slow, shoulders round with fatigue, oblivious to his impending death. After a quiet breath, she stepped from the sedge, spear in one hand and a large rock in the other. Exposed, arms ready but hanging, she approached. If he turned, he would see her. She tested for dry twigs and brittle grass before committing each foot. It surprised her he ignored the silence of the insects. His wounds must distract him. By the time hair raised on his neck, it was too late. He pivoted as she swung, powered by fury over her mother’s death, her father’s agony, and her own loss. Her warclub smashed into his temple with a soggy thud. Recognition flared moments before life left.

“You die too quickly!” she screamed and hit him over and over, collapsing his skull and spewing gore over her body. “I wanted you to suffer as I did!”

Her body was numb as she kicked him into the pond, feeling not joy for his death, relief that her mother was avenged, or upset at the execution of an unarmed Other. She cleaned the gore from her warclub and left. No one would know she had been blooded but the truth filled her with power.

She was now a warrior.

When she returned to homebase, Nightshade waited. Something flashed through his eyes as though for the first time, he saw her as a warrior. His chiseled face, outlined by dense blue-black hair, lit up. The corners of his full lips twitched under the broad flat nose. The finger-thick white scar emblazoned against his smooth forehead, a symbol of his courage surviving Sabertooth’s claws, pulsed. Female eyes watched him, wishing he would look at them as he did Xhosa but he barely noticed.

The next day, odd Others with long legs, skinny chests, and oversized heads arrived. The People’s scouts confronted them but they simply watched the scouts, spears down, and then trotted away, backs to the scouts. That night, for the first time, Xhosa’s father taught her and Nightshade the lessons of leading.

“Managing the lives of the People is more than winning battles. You must match individual skills to the People’s requirements be it as a warrior, hunter, scout, forager, child minder, Primary Female, or another.  All can do all jobs but one best suits each. The Leader must decide,” her father motioned.

As they finished, she asked the question she’d been thinking about all night. “Father, where do they come from?”

“They are called Big Heads,” which didn’t answer Xhosa’s question.

Nightshade motioned, “Do they want to trade females? Or children?”

Her father stared into the distance as though lost in some memory. His teeth ground together and his hands shook until he clamped them together.

He finally took a breath and motioned, “No, they don’t want mates. They want conflict.” He tilted his head forward. “Soon, we will be forced to stop them.”

Nightshade clenched his spear and his eyes glittered at the prospect of battle. It had been a long time since the People fought.

But the Big Heads vanished. Many of the People were relieved but Xhosa couldn’t shake the feeling that danger lurked only a long spear throw away. She found herself staring at the same spot her father had, thoughts blank, senses burning. At times, there was a movement or the glint of Sun off eyes, but mostly there was only the unnerving feeling of being watched. Each day felt one day closer to when the People’s time would end.

“When it does, I will confess to killing the Other. Anyone blooded must be allowed to be a warrior.”

Jacqui

K-18 Technology

Master Teacher

Adjunct Professor, CSU, UCSD

Amazon Vine Voice

TeachHUB columnist

NEA columnist

Webmaster, Ask a Tech Teacher

Freelance journalist

How we co-authored Einstein’s Compass a YA Time Traveler Adventure

Grace: In honor of my relationship to the Mystical Traveler and the blessings I have received through the teachings of MSIA, I wanted to write a novel that expressed the forty-six years of what I knew of God, the Mystical Travelers and the invisible. I wrote to John-Roger in 2012 requesting the inner guidance to write a novel based on Al

Albert Einstein’s journey to discovering his theory of time and light with the premise: what if Einstein had assistance from the Mystical Travelers to discover his theory of time and light. It was in Israel 2014 while traveling with J-R and our MSIA group that the story began to come to me.

I have always thought of Einstein as a fascinating person. In reading about him, I discovered Einstein was a spiritual person whose father gave him a compass that sent him on his scientific journey. Since he was on a quest to understand the universe, I wondered, what if he was a modern mystic in his time? Moreover, what if he had assistance from spiritual beings to understand the universe?

Through physics, he found his answers. Our book of fiction follows his biographical history from age six to twenty-six and adds a new level of mystical spirituality — that he had help from mystical beings who assisted him in his hero’s journey and his miracle theory. Einstein believed that we have to go beyond what we can see and measure in the physical world. Our book, “Einstein’s Compass” goes beyond what we know and adds a possible fictional explanation for how he came up with his miracle theory and changed the world.

In 2014, I began to write the first chapters of “Einstein’s Compass, a Novel of What If?” Through email and social media, I shared my rough draft chapters with friends. Laren Bright — a book specialist who has been a friend for many years and lived in Los Angeles — would reply to my chapters with how he loved the story’s premise and offered ideas of how to phrase a sentence or two. I live in Lubbock, Texas and found Laren’s emails little treasures. Our emails went back and forth for about two months when I asked Laren if he would like to join me in writing “Einstein’s Compass.” He said yes. Therefore, began our four-year relationship of co-authoring.

Laren: Sometime in 2014, my friend Grace Allison contacted me about editing a fiction book she was working on. I have known Grace since the early 1970s and over recent years did some work for her on her self-help/self-awareness books. While my focus lately had been on promotional writing for authors, because of my long-term relationship with Grace, I decided to give it a shot.

After working on a few chapters for her, I realized that I was adding more content than an editor normally would. And I was very impressed with her ideas and where it looked like the story was going. So I suggested that what we were doing was co-writing, and Grace agreed.

I am by nature a collaborative writer. When I was writing television animation scripts on staff at Hanna-Barbera and Warner Brothers Animation, it was common for writers to work together. However, working with Grace was unique.

I quickly saw that we each brought particular strengths to the process that complemented each other very well. Grace was amazingly creative with ideas for the story and was wonderful with researching both the historical material of the times Albert Einstein was growing up and also the information on Atlantis — which came from some very interesting sources. For my part, having written close to a hundred stories for television, maybe more, I had a pretty good sense of storytelling and structure and my work writing promotional materials gave me a solid foundation in the craft of writing and using language. I really enjoy going over and over and over something to make sure the language works well.

Our process, which developed pretty organically and without much discussion among us, was for Grace to write a draft of a chapter and then send it to me. My job was to craft the language and refine or develop the story. I also was on the lookout for inconsistencies in the story and problems with the logic of how things worked. Then I would send it back to Grace for her review. Once we got the whole thing completed, we assembled the individual chapters into a manuscript and it was my job to go through the entire manuscript to smooth out any rough edges and hopefully spot anything that was off track. Then Grace gave it her final review.

The only time we hit a conflict between us was at the end. I find when I write, the story reveals itself in a sort of organic way. When we got to the final confrontation between Albert and Raka, I saw it playing out in a particular way. Grace saw it differently. What ensued was a series of emails exploring how this might be resolved, and, to my surprise, we found a solution that not only satisfied both of us but also did not require any major revising of the earlier chapters to set it up.

One thing that made our collaboration on this book particularly powerful is that our foundation of meditation and spiritual studies was highly aligned. As a result, the metaphysical/spiritual principles underpinning the story were largely real for us, and we would find ourselves naturally describing the same phenomena. This added to the substantial-ness of some of the material we covered that could have otherwise seemed merely fanciful.

I found co-writing with Grace to be smooth and easy. I think we both had the same intention of what we wanted the underlying message of the story to be and that made it easy to cooperate with each other. We also trusted each other to do our very best, so we were always supportive of each other.

I think co-writing this way was as much as an adventure as the story itself.

Click here to download the novel from Amazon

Is Ophelia Hamlet’s ‘Holy Grail’?

By: Paul Hunting, Author Shakespeare’s Revelation

The drowning of Ophelia: its mystical symbolism revealed

“Nymph, in thy orisons, be all my sins remembered.” – Hamlet

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hidden in the symbolism and word-play of Shakespeare’s plays is the most important (forbidden) truth about who we really are and why we’re here on earth. In order to marvel at this subtext story, you may need to make the fundamental paradigm shift.

The key paradigm shift is to see the characters not as people in the real, historical, or fictional external world, but as characterizations of three pairs of archetypes of our primary internal states of consciousness. Having been a spiritual psychologist, theologian, and executive coach for over 30 years, I thought I was dreaming when I first realized that Shakespeare, to drive the plots of his plays, was using the exact same model of consciousness I have found invaluable to navigate my clients through the labyrinth of the ego into a more soul aware state.

The most confusing element of the subtext – and thus most intriguing – is the plethora of different symbols that refer to what Shakespeare ultimately calls ‘The Tempest’. The Tempest shows up like Alfred Hitchcock, in some guise, in all the plays. Often it’s so subtle it’s almost invisible (as in Measure for Measure).

At the anagogical level, the symbolic story Shakespeare always tells us is ‘How Adam and Eve lost the ‘Holy Grail’ and how Jesus Christ got it back’! ‘The Tempest’ turns out to be Shakespeare’s term for what has become mythologized as none other than ‘The Holy Grail’.

Hamlet is one of the most masterful disguises-and-thus-revelations of this never-before-realized analogy. As I said, if you suspend all disbelief and open your mind you may see this for yourself as I simply point out what the symbols say to me.

As you can see from the pictures, all these biblical and Shakespearean symbols seem to represent the one same thing, for convenience let’s just call it: ‘The Holy Grail’.

 

Ophelia’s role in Hamlet seems in part to represent the journey of Hamlet’s soul – independent of Hamlet as a mortal being.  The key symbol used for Ophelia’s mystical travels is a variation of the term ‘the waters’.

The waters are first seen in Genesis 1: 2 (And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.) In multiple forms of water (seas, rivers, brooks, streams, rain, etc) the waters is a ubiquitous symbolic reference throughout the Bible and Shakespeare. (For a fuller explanation please read my book, Shakespeare’s Revelation.)

Using a ‘brook’ to represent ‘the waters’ goes back to the biblical story of David and Goliath. Symbolizing the power of ‘the Name of God’ to vanquish ‘evil’, it’s interesting that the boy-king David, holding a staff (another symbol for the name of God), took five smooth stones (again, more symbolic names of God) from a brook before defeating Goliath.

No coincidence that Ophelia appeared to drown falling from a willow growing ‘aslant a brook’. (Bear with me!)

Combining these symbols with the images conjured by the poetry is all-important here. We have the image of a wronged-innocent being borne aloft and transported by a stream of water, adorned by (in particular) ‘coronet weeds’…and ‘long purples’.  While she is ‘chanting old lauds’ (praises).

 This, to me, evokes the images of the crown of thorns and the purple robe worn by Jesus at his trial and execution. Before you call the men in white coats, if you look, you’ll see elements of this motif also evident in many of the other plays, too. (Macbeth, for example, laments that: ‘upon my head they placed a fruitless crown and a barren scepter in my gripe’.)

In some of the ancient spiritual mystery schools, initiates chant ‘sacred tones’ to attune them to what’s sometimes called the Sound Current, the lifestream, that, it is said, draws the soul home to the Godhead – in the same way, it is the haunting music that draws Ferdinand to Miranda in The Tempest.

 After all, in Twelfth Night (Epiphany), music is ‘the food of love’ and the principal character, Viola, is named after a musical instrument, and disguised as a boy called Cesario (King).

Before she meets her watery death Ophelia is heard raving ‘madly’ chanting:

How should I, your true love know

From another one?

By his cockle hat and staff

And his sandal shoon.

A cockle hat is worn by a pilgrim (one on the journey to God) and sandals are often associated with Jesus

 

Then up he rose, and donned his clothes,

Again, alluding to the resurrection of Jesus.

And here’s the wonder of Shakespeare’s layer upon layer of symbolism: while Ophelia is ‘drowning’ in the glassy stream Hamlet is simultaneously traveling upon the waters to England.

It is on this watery voyage that Hamlet foils the plan of Claudius (Satan archetype?) to have the two ‘Jews’, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern murder him. And what is a ‘rosen Crantz’?

A crown of roses/crown of thorns! 

And there’s yet another layer of symbolism inherent here – if you can bear it:

One of the most persistent mythological motifs in the deepest drama is ‘symbolic resurrection’.  Shakespeare uses is his through, say, Desdemona, Juliet, and Cordelia who momentarily revive (or seem to) before their final death. Banquo ‘resurrects’ as a ghost. And here it is again with Hamlet. In surviving his attempted murder, he effectively ‘resurrects’ and when we see his new, upbeat mood in the final act this is corroborated.

 

Staying with this theme, things get even more delicious. When Hamlet arrives home in Denmark, just before he gets to Elsinore, he comes upon a cemetery outside the city walls. A grave is being prepared for none other than his beloved Ophelia. She is being buried outside the city walls because it is presumed she committed suicide. Why? (Gertrude’s description of her reported death says she fell from an overhanging bough.)

 

Why indeed? Surely, this is Shakespeare’s device for introducing his clincher symbol. Ophelia has to be buried outside the city walls. What does Hamlet find in the grave being dug for her?                                                         

             

                                                                                                       A  skull

The most iconic scene in all of Shakespeare is no less than an allusion to where Jesus was crucified and buried, outside the city walls at Golgotha, ‘The Place of a Skull’!

And when they came unto a place called Golgotha, that is to say, a place of a skull…they crucified him.. Matthew 27:33

 

 

For a free eBook Contact: [email protected]

http://www.shakespearesrevelation.com

Paperback from Amazon: http://a.co/d/jgXcBWT

 

 

 

Authors Reading Book Review Einstein’s Compass

EINSTEIN’ S COMPASS by Grace Blair and Laren Bright is an exciting YA novel that weaves the life and discoveries of Albert Einstein with the eternal battle of good and evil.  Blair and Bright introduce an evil entity into their novel that is destined to become Einstein’s nemesis.  This dark power is named Raka and among his evil doings is the destruction of Atlantis.  He is very powerful and can take on the form of other beings, but his natural form is that of a fire-breathing dragon. He is replete with many powers and some ghastly antisocial behavior such as eating humans raw.  The cryptic statement “Give me what I want, and I’ll go away,” uttered by Stephen King’s evil entity Andre Linoge is equally apropos for this evil being because he wants something that Einstein has and Raka swears he isn’t going to rest until he gets it.

The novel starts with the story behind the evil force that becomes Einstein’s adversary. The source of the precious Shamir stone is revealed as an artifact created by God. When it is used by the righteous and the virtuous, its supernatural power can be harnessed for the good of mankind. The power of this stone is so potent that even Jesus, Moses and the angels are forced to have ad hoc meetings to prevent this stone from landing into the wrong hands of those who plan to wreak havoc on earth and all the other realms. Apparently, a dormant fragment of the Shamirstone was hidden in the compass device that Albert Einstein received as a child, and this fragment would only come alive if it came in contact with a being who was destined to have it and Einstein was a chosen one.

At age five the famous 20th-century scientist Albert Einstein fell ill.  Albert’s father presents his convalescing son with a compass to cheer him up. This simple device captivates the young scientist’s imagination because no matter where he went, the needle on the compass would only point in one direction. This experience apparently left a lasting impression on Einstein’s psyche and made him believe that something deeper is hidden behind the ordinary things around him. This incident from Einstein’s childhood has now become an anecdote used by teachers and parents to inspire young minds to explore the full potential of their mental faculties.

Grace Blair and Laren Bright, mashup tale of Einstein’s possession of the compass add intrigue, thrill, suspense, and biblical meanings to the anecdotal story.  The historical and religious references throughout the book are eye-opening and will probably send you on your own quest on Google to see what is real and what is fictional.

The authors of this book create a biblical twist behind Einstein’s genius and his landmark contributions to mankind. They also enhance his genius with the magical power of the stone which was first revealed to Einstein at age 12, when a three-dimensional number “33” floated above the compass. The number “33” is Einstein’s birth number, and the story suggests that double numeral birth numbers signify a “master path” and those with such a birth path “lift the loving energy of mankind”. Einstein mastered science and math way ahead of his peers and could envision potential scientific theories that were unthinkable to his peers. As per the book, the Shamir stone provided him with a steady guiding light and helped him reach these eureka moments.

The evil forces, Raka and his allies, however, are on a murderous path to kill the scientist and acquire the stone to attain ultimate power across all the realms. Luckily for young Einstein, the compass also serves as a warning device when certain evil is present. To this biographical narrative of Einstein’s life, the authors added an action-packed, thrilling battle of good versus evil and how a divine intervention, eventually led to Einstein understanding of “How time works.”   The ending provides a huge surprise that neatly brings to a close the plot’s twists and turns.   EINSTEIN’ S COMPASS is suspenseful, thought-provoking, and above all extremely entertaining.

https://www.authorsreading.com/book-reviews/grace-blair/einsteins-compass/
Reviewed by: sakshi

Einstein’s Compass Book Review Betty Jo Tucker Poem

EINSTEIN’S COMPASS: A YA Time Traveler Adventure by Grace Blair and Laren Bright

                                                                     Review Poem by Betty Jo Tucker

Thrilling to read this story told

with such suspense. It’s very bold.

Albert Einstein and time travel

put us under a wondrous spell.

Albert ponders light, time and space.

Was he born in another place?

A compass gift becomes the key

to unlocking this mystery.

The authors earn our cheers and praise

    for mystical themes that they raise

    and for their most exciting book.

                                                                          You really should give it a look.

                                                                           I hope it will be a movie.

                                                                                 It’s one that I would like to see.

                                                                          Great scenes jump off of every page.

                                                                        This film could be box-office rage!

                                                                 

Amazon Kindle http://a.co/d/3rsam2v
Betty Jo serves as editor/lead critic for ReelTalk Movie Reviews and writes film commentary for the Colorado Senior Beacon. She also hosts “Movie Addict Headquarters” on BlogTalkRadio, and is the award-winning author of the following books: 
CONFESSIONS OF A MOVIE ADDICT
CINEMA STANZAS: RHYMING ABOUT MOVIES
SUSAN SARANDON: A TRUE MAVERICK 
http://www.bettyjotucker.com/Bio.html

How to Purchase a Kindle Book as a Gift

You can give most Kindle books available in the Kindle Store as a gift to anyone with an email address. You can send or receive Kindle books as gifts even if you do not own an Amazon device. Recipients can read a Kindle book gift on a supported Amazon device or Kindle reading app. Before you purchase a Kindle book as a gift, make sure that the recipient’s email address is valid. Note: In order to gift a Kindle book title, you will need a valid 1-Click payment method for your account. You can set this up by going to Manage Your Content and Devices, selecting the Settings tab and then clicking Edit Payment The method below Digital Payment Settings. To purchase a Kindle book as a gift:
  1. From the Kindle Store in your desktop browser, select the book you want to purchase as a gift.
Note: Free books, books on pre-order, and subscriptions cannot be gifted at this time.
  • On the product detail page, click the Buy for others button.
  • Enter the personal email address of your gift recipient.
Tip: If you are unsure of the email address for your recipient, you can select Email the gift to yourself before placing your order. This allows you to forward the gift email or print and personally deliver it to your recipient. The gift recipient can enter the Gift Claim Code from the email, after logging in to their Amazon account.
  • Enter a delivery date and an optional gift message.
  • Click Place your order to finish your gift purchase using your Amazon 1-Click payment method.
You can redeliver a Kindle book gift you’ve purchased by going to  Your Digital Orders in Your Account. From the Order Summary page, click the Resend E-mail button. Title availability may vary by country and copyright restrictions. If this title isn’t available for your gift recipient, they can contact us and we will exchange your gift for an equivalent value Amazon.com Gift Card. For more information, see Exchange a Kindle Book Gift for an Amazon.com Gift Card.

What is a Mystic?

During the 15th Century, the Spanish Inquisition punished people who had otherworldly experiences with God. Anyone who was a healer or had intuitive knowledge of God was burned at the stake. According to the church, the only way a person could hear the word of God was through a priest or minister. Today the term “mystic” is associated with the occult, magic, astrology and tarot readings. I want to educate people to know that the mystical is not dark magic nor should you be ostracized.

According to the dictionary, a mystic is a person who seeks by contemplation and self-surrender to obtain unity with or absorption into the Deity or the absolute, or who believes in the spiritual apprehension of truths that are beyond the intellect.

Being a mystic is a spiritual, religious, and transcendental experience. St. Theresa of Avila, a former Jewess was a Catholic nun and a mystic in the 16th century. The Catholic Church venerates more than 10,000 saints with many being mystics. Patron saints are often chosen today because an interest, talent, or event in their lives overlaps with the special area. For example, St. Francis of Assisi was a mystic who loved nature and so he is the patron of ecologists. St. Francis de Sales was a mystical writer and so he is the patron of journalists and writers. St. Clare of Assisi, a mystic and the patron of television because one Christmas when she was too ill to leave her bed she saw and heard Christmas Mass — even though it was taking place miles away. Angels are also named as patron saints.

I do not claim to be a saint. However, there are saints among us who do the work of loving service. In 1973, I discovered a spiritual phenomenon called the Mystical Traveler Consciousness. The Mystical Traveler is in everyone and is the living love of the spiritual heart of Jesus Christ. Imagine having an intuitive flashlight to look into the darkness of your soul. With the Light of God and the Mystical Traveler exercising the living spirit within, you can step into an awareness that will lift and assist you in your life’s lessons.

In the “AHA” book, “Do You Have a Dream?” 140 Insights into Building Confidence, Overcoming Stress & Loving Yourself”, you will have 140 of my best insights to assist you in focusing on and discovering more of the wisdom, truth, and beauty within you.

Let go of the world around you, go inside, find your dream and follow the adventure of making it come true.

In your day-to-day learning, if you find a unique way of dreaming, pass it on. We on planet earth are students of life. Maybe you can share and become a thought leader too.

Grace Allison, http://www.gracethemystic.com Modern Mystic: I am a creative, enthusiastic, visionary who enjoys making a difference through service.

GracetheMystic, Modern Mystic Media
806-790-4845 | [email protected] | www.gracethemystic.com |
4408 14 Street Lubbock, Texas 79416

Are you shouting out your #1 status?

Since Amazon changed its policy to allow third-party sellers to run rampant over author sales pages, I discovered Amazon’s Marketplace has little control over what the sellers charge. The new book price of ten dollars competed with the lower priced used copies of my non-fiction book,”Do You Have a Dream Workbook 5 Keys to Realize Your Dream”.

Who are third-party sellers on an author’s book sale page?

Third party sellers:
1. Resell your free paperback that was in a giveaway on Amazon. You will not receive a royalty.
2. Resell a paperback that someone purchased either through Amazon or directly from you or in a bookstore and now wants to sell back on Amazon. In which case you the author will not receive a royalty.
2. There are book pirates who purchase an ebook then will create a print on demand copy and sell on Amazon. There are a lot of these on Amazon. The author will not receive a royalty. The book pirates are hard to find.
3. People will purchase copies of books from Ingram. You might receive a royalty from Ingram. A very small one.
What is most important is that the “Buy” button where your book is purchased with one click is often the lowest price book which means the sale will defer to the third party seller.
You can contact the third party sellers and request them to pay you a royalty. They won’t, however, you could discourage a number of them of listing your book which could give you leverage to have first place on the “Buy” button.

I would not be paid from the third-party sellers because they had the right to resell my book without regard to copyright according to “First-Sale” doctrine.  Once a copyrighted work has been sold, the original copyright holder no longer holds control over how the purchaser transfers the item. So once someone purchased your book they are free to sell, lend or donate the book as they so choose, as long as the copy itself is not an infringing copy.

Given the circumstances, I contacted each third-party seller and asked if they sold one of my books would they pay me a royalty? I received a few boilerplate replies stating the first-sale doctrine. However, I was surprised to receive two thoughtful responses.

You have received a message from the Amazon Seller – —SuperBookDeals

Dear Ms. Grace

Thank you for the below email regarding the book ISBN: 0998830801.  We want

to apologize; it is not our intent to infringe on publisher/authors rights. We have researched this matter and, although the title was included as an inventory of a trusted and reliable supplier; we would like to reassure you

that we take such matters very seriously and would never list such items intentionally.

We have taken the following steps to correct this infringement:

  1. We have permanently removed this title from our listings and quarantined it from being re-listed.
  2. We have sequestered all copies of this title and will return to the

supplier.

  1. We have forwarded details of this matter onto our supplier so they can also take appropriate action.

If you have other listings that you would like us to remove please provide us with a complete list of ISBN’s or the prefix (1st four digits of the ISBN – identifying the publisher) and we will be happy to remove those from our listings as well.

 

For any questions about your royalties, you should reach out to your publisher.  Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions or concerns.

 

You have received a message from the Amazon Seller – Paragon OS Co

Hello,

We received a message indicating that we were listing the products of your

Brand in our inventory and we sincerely apologize for this matter. Our intention was not to infringe your rights.

We have just deleted the concerned listings from our inventory and you can

be assured that we won’t list it anymore.

In case you see reminding articles, please contact us and we will remove it immediately.

Thank you for your kind understanding and cooperation regarding this matter.

Best regards,

Paragon

Sincerely

SuperBookDealsOperations

Bobbi Harris

 

I priced my new book “Do You Have a Dream Workbook 5 Keys to Realize Your Dream” $4.73 and is now ranked #1 on Amazon’s book sales page. Today the resellers I contacted have priced my book to twelve dollars or more. I plan to increase the new book price a few dollars.

I recommend every author contact the resellers on their Amazon book sales page and take charge of your sales ranking and receive your hard earned royalty.

Instructions on how to contact the resellers:

Go to your Amazon page where your book is for sale.

my book sales page as an example https://amzn.to/2JZpvBl

You will notice in blue writing under the “Paperback.” price “8” new from $6.39

Click on the blue copy, on the next page you will find the list of resellers

Then click on each reseller link, and you will find an email address for each reseller.

Here is a copy of the e-mail that I sent to Paragon OS Co. The book sellers listed have the older book price.
————- Begin message ————-
My book is listed in your Amazon bookstore. Will you be paying me a royalty if you sell my book?

Now, if you’re having trouble finding the courage to contact the resellers, then you need to buy my Dream book to help you discover your confidence.

Grace Allison Blair, Author

4408 14 StreetLubbock, Texas 79416

806-543-3308

www.ModernMysticMedia.com

 

Born in a Treacherous Time (Man vs. Nature Book 1)

I am offering my blog to my friend Jacqui Murray to assist her in launching her latest creation, “Born in a Treacherous Time”.  Jacqui will post a question on this blog on Monday, June 11, 2018. Join in the fun by signing up for my blog.

Jacqui Murray is a prolific author an adjunct professor in tech ed, Master Teacher, webmaster for four blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice reviewer, CAEP reviewer, CSTA presentation reviewer, freelance journalist on tech ed topics, and a weekly contributor to TeachHUB. You can find her resources at Structured Learning. Read Jacqui’s tech thrillers, To Hunt a Sub and Twenty-four Days here on Amazon. Also, read her new series, Man vs. Nature, starting with Born in a Treacherous Time.

 

The book’s plot is similar in key ways to … Jean M. Auel’s The Clan of the Cave Bear–Kirkus Reviews

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07CTCR944

Synopsis
Born in the harsh world of East Africa 1.8 million years ago, where hunger, death, and predation are a normal part of daily life, Lucy and her band of early humans struggle to survive. It is a time in history when they are relentlessly annihilated by predators, nature, their own people, and the next iteration of man. To make it worse, Lucy’s band hates her. She is their leader’s new mate and they don’t understand her odd actions, don’t like her strange looks, and don’t trust her past. To survive, she cobbles together an unusual alliance with an orphaned child, a beleaguered proto-dog who’s lost his pack, and a man who was supposed to be dead.

Born in a Treacherous Time is prehistoric fiction written in the spirit of Jean Auel. Lucy is tenacious and inventive no matter the danger, unrelenting in her stubbornness to provide a future for her child, with a foresight you wouldn’t think existed in earliest man. You’ll close this book understanding why man not only survived our wild beginnings but thrived, ultimately to become who we are today.

This is a spin-off of To Hunt a Sub’s Lucy (the ancient female who mentored the female protagonist).

“Murray’s lean prose is steeped in the characters’ brutal worldview, which lends a delightful otherness to the narration …The book’s plot is similar in key ways to other works in the genre, particularly Jean M. Auel’s The Clan of the Cave Bear. However, Murray weaves a taut, compelling narrative, building her story on timeless human concerns of survival, acceptance, and fear of the unknown. Even if readers have a general sense of where the plot is going, they’ll still find the specific twists and revelations to be highly entertaining throughout. A well-executed tale of early man.”

–Kirkus Reviews

Americans are more anxious than before

File 20180509 34018 5fzs8z.jpg?ixlib=rb 1.1
39 percent of Americans report feeling more anxious than this time last year.
by Pathdoc/Shutterstock.com

Jacek Debiec, University of Michigan

Americans are becoming more anxious about their safety, health, finances, politics and relationships, a new online poll from the American Psychiatric Association finds. Compared to the results of a similar poll a year earlier, 39 percent of adults in the U.S. are more anxious today than they were a year ago.

As a psychiatrist and neuroscientist, I believe studies and polls like these help to identify individual and group vulnerabilities. They may provide clues for providing better clinical practice, implementing more effective public policies, and designing research projects that yield a better understanding of the causes of anxiety and better treatments.

Although anxiety is rising across all age groups and demographic categories, there are notable distinctions between certain groups.

For example, millennials are more anxious (especially about finances) than Gen-Xers or baby boomers – though boomers’ overall anxiety increased more than the other age groups. Women reported a greater increase in overall anxiety in all dimensions than men, and non-Caucasians’ overall anxiety rose faster in the preceding year than did Caucasians. Sometimes, anxiety occurs without clearly defined worries or awareness, suggesting the poll may have only captured part of a rise in adult Americans’ anxiety levels – and those adults’ anxiety may be affecting children and teenagers too.

While this poll was not designed to detect or diagnose anxiety disorders or pathological anxiety, it does indicate that people are perceiving greater potential danger to many elements of their well-being.

Anxiety is a lower-grade version of a fear response. Severe instances of fear – such as actual direct threats of pain, injury or death – can cause very real physical reactions, including a release of stress hormones into the bloodstream and changes in heart rate and blood pressure, as the body prepares to react rapidly.

Anxiety-triggered physiological responses are slower to develop, but can last longer. Rather than being caused by an immediate threat, it can happen as people adapt to changing situations, such as visiting new countries, starting a different job or experiencing major life transitions such as marriage, parenthood and aging. Often, anxiety dissipates as a person becomes more familiar with the new situation. Short-term and mild-to-moderate anxiety states are adaptive as they increase our alertness and prepare us for new challenges.

Although our genetic makeup controls much of our fear and anxiety responses, recent studies also implicate our social environment. Children are especially sensitive to their caretakers’ emotional states, which means that if more adults are more anxious, the same is true for kids.

But if it lasts, anxiety, like fear, can bring long-lasting physiological changes such as prolonged muscle tension, chronic high blood pressure and sleep disorders. Some groups may be particularly vulnerable to long-term anxiety, such as people with physical or cognitive limitations that make it hard to adapt to new situations.

For others, worrying can become so overwhelming that a person does not focus on other important areas of life issues such as work, school or relationships. An especially anxious person may become excessively sensitive to minor concerns, which may be manifested by overreacting or avoiding people or situations that are not dangerous.

The ConversationAlthough regular exercise, relaxation, healthy eating and time with friends and family are all known to reduce anxiety, these fixes may not be sufficient. To quote Martin Luther King Jr., given the social nature of anxiety, “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” This suggests that addressing actual threats and communicating carefully about perceived ones can have a beneficial impact on anxious Americans.

Jacek Debiec, Assistant Professor / Department of Psychiatry; Assistant Research Professor / Molecular & Behavioral Neuroscience Institute, University of Michigan

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.