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
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?
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:
supplier.
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.
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
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
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.
Although 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.
Take two minutes and bring yourself into feeling greater peace and love.
The biggest misconception about being a successful published author is that when you finish your precious manuscript an agent will magically appear, sign you to a large publishing house and the money will roll in. All you have to do is write something.
The truth is writing is hard work. I spent more than forty years in various business industries in marketing and business development creating public images. I won the Dallas Business Journal Award in 2000 Retail for a shopping center in Dallas, Texas The Centre at Preston Ridge.
Writing a book can’t be that hard or so I thought.
I began my author journey after 9/11. I had just won the Dallas Business Journal Award when I was laid off. It took me two years to write eighty-eight pages, “A Dream is a Wish the Heart Makes”. I wrote and tore up many times before I felt ready to publish.
Excited with my new baby no agent came forward, no big publishing house came knocking on my door. I was told you have to have an established audience of thousands before an agent or publishing house will even talk to you.
Instead, I self-published. In 2004, the concept of being an indie author was unthinkable. When an agent heard you were an indie author they said you were a heretic and should be banned from the publishing world. Self-publishing was a new concept on Amazon. The self-publishing company I spent my hard earned dollars with did not follow through on their promises. Over the time of my contract, I lost a great deal of money and would years later assist a list of indie authors like me to sue them. Under several different publishing names, the company still exists making promises they cannot deliver.
The writing was still calling me to express myself. I wrote a series of self-help books that are based on forty years of my life where I explained how to use spiritual practices to change a life from fear to fun. In 2014, I rewrote my Dream book now called, “Do You Have a Dream 5 Keys to Realize Your Dream” which is available as an audiobook in my voice, an eBook and a workbook all available in bookstores and online. I won the 2016 bronze Spiritual and Inspirational Global Ebook Award, 2017 Texas Non-Fiction in Spiritual and Inspirational Award, 2017 Best Books Finalist Award. Still, no publishing house or agent has come calling.
While writing my non-fiction books I began the journey of writing fiction. If I thought writing a self-help book was hard, making up stories to entertain was three times as hard. Storytelling has a lot of rules that I am continually learning.
In 2014 after a trip to Jerusalem, Israel I chose to write an alternate history of Albert Einstein, “Einstein’s Compass a YA Time Traveler Novel”. Again, using my many years of exploring mystical teachings I wondered what if Einstein met spiritual beings who assisted him with his miracle theory? After four years of research and empty white pages on my computer, my novel has a completed first draft. God willing the book will be out by the end of 2018.
Now that my novel is in the hands of an editor, I spend my days on social media marketing my books. It is a full-time job. I spend as much time on my books as I would have to work for a company. Now the company is me, Modern Mystic Media.
There are millions of books on Amazon. Finding the right audience in the sea of good books and famous authors so people will find me and my baby is a hard work. Yet I am determined to have my work read. I love writing and connecting people with ideas that entertain, that make them think and maybe learn something.
When I write a press release of my new books or awards and send it to local and national media, most ignore me because I am self-published. You have to be with a well-known publisher for newspapers and media to pay attention.
The hallowed halls into a publishing contract are so slim there are many so-called experts that want to sell you software, textbooks, THE shortcut to publishing success. I have taken many seminars over the years in writing and publishing to where I think I can spot a scheme. Still, I have to monitor the impulse to buy that one thing that promises to sell more books.
In the future, you will see a lot of me everywhere. And, no agent or publishing company is helping with a big check or has opened doors. I show up every day and do what it takes to make my work visible.
Check out my books go to www.ModernMysticMedia.com. And, you can find me on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo in bookstores and online.
Sign-up to read a pre-launch copy of “Einstein’s Compass a YA Time Traveler Novel”, go to www.GraceBlairAuthor.com if you signup and read it, please review the book. The only way indie authors like me sell books is if readers will write reviews then Amazon and its algorithms will push my ratings to rise to the top of the charts. Finding one reader and one fan at a time may someday accumulate into thousands.
If you want to write books do it because you love it. However, you may spend more money than you make. Know its hard work and no one is going to chase you down to make you famous. You will be alone in your journey. You have to put the seat of the pants and the seat of the chair, staring at a blank page and find the story inside your creativity that will make the reader turn the page to find out what happens next. Then be responsible for publishing and marketing.
“The #writer must let his fingers run out the story of his #characters, who, being only human and full of strange dreams and obsessions, are only too glad to run.”
Ray Bradbury, The Zen of #Writing
Grace Allison’s “Do You Have a Dream Workbook 5 Keys to Realize Your Dream”, is a Best Book Awards Finalist in the category of Spirituality/Inspirational.Lubbock, Texas November 9, 2017—Allison’s book, which has been enjoying success since its publication in 2017 has been recognized for excellence. It presents a fresh approach to personal empowerment and energizing both inner and outer resources for achieving the things you want in your life and even exceeding your dreams. The Amazon Best Seller can be found in an E-Book, Audio Book in Grace’s voice and Workbook.
Allison says, “Our world is in the process of change, and change is one key element to most peoples’ discomfort and distraction from their happiness. Change does not have to be difficult.” Her book lays out in practical and doable steps how to align and strengthen the inner spirit with your outer life. It shows how to shift your inner experience from feeling out of control to expressing inner freedom, inner strength, peace, confidence, and love.
Author Grace Allison is a modern Christian Mystic and an award-winning self-help and motivational author who has assisted thousands to find their spiritual wisdom to solve everyday challenges.
Grace Allison describes herself as “a prime example of someone who pulled herself up by her bootstraps and took notes along the way.” When she turned to writing, she chose subjects that she was intimately familiar with—and their scope is surprising. She lives in Lubbock, Texas, where she leads workshops and maintains a private health and success coaching practice.
LOS ANGELES – American Book Fest has announced the winners and finalists of The 2017 Best Book Awards on November 9, 2017. Over 400 winners and finalists were announced in over 90 categories. Awards were presented for titles published in 2015-2017.
Jeffrey Keen, President, and CEO of American Book Fest said this year’s contest yielded over 2,000 entries from mainstream and independent publishers, which were then narrowed down to over 400 winners and finalists.
Keen says of the awards, now in their fifteenth year, “The 2017 results represent a phenomenal mix of books from a wide array of publishers throughout the United States. With a full publicity and marketing campaign promoting the results of the Best Book Awards, this year’s winners and finalists will gain additional media coverage for the upcoming holiday retail season.”
Winners and finalists traversed the publishing landscape: Wiley, McGraw-Hill, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, St. Martin’s Press, Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group, Rowman & Littlefield, New American Library, Forge/Tor Books, John Hopkins University Press, MIT Press and hundreds of independent houses contributed to this year’s outstanding competition!
Keen adds, “Our success begins with the enthusiastic participation of authors and publishers and continues with our distinguished panel of industry judges who bring to the table their extensive editorial, PR, marketing, and design expertise.”
American Book Fest is an online publication providing coverage for books from mainstream and independent publishers to the world online community.
American Book Fest has an active social media presence with over 96,000 current Facebook fans.
A complete list of the winners and finalists of the 2017 Best Book Awards are available online at American Book Fest.
http://americanbookfest.com/2017bbapressrelease.html
###
For more information or to arrange media appearances, contact:
Grace Allison, Author
806-543-
AU
STIN, TX – Texas Authors have once again allowed their creative minds to open up and expand the Universe in which they live with short stories that capture one’s emotions through the everlasting aspect of storytelling.
In this, the third volume of award-winning short stories, the reader is taken on a personal ride of growth and understanding, then through history both factual and fictional as they explore each side of wars. Then fear grabs hold of you and shakes you with terror before unleashing giggles and out-right laughs. Those are just a few of the emotions one will experience as they read these 23 short stories from all parts of Texas.
Texas Authors, Inc., a nonprofit organization that supports and markets Texas Authors teamed up with Texas number one eBook store EBG247.com to help promote the contest which had thousands of dollars in prizes up for grabs.
The winner of this year’s contest winners are:
Fiction/African American
1st Place – Renne Siewers – Swish, Swish – The Mistake
Fiction/Biography
1st Place – Ernie Lee – Heart Over Mind
2nd Place – Darlene Prescott – Early Wanderings and Unholy Revelations
Fiction/Contemporary
1st Place – Dale Wender – Concho Diary
Fiction/Fantasy
1st Place – Grace Allison – Neville’s Pond
Fiction/Historical
1st Place – Dick Elam – “Who’s Truman?”
2nd Place – George Ramphrey – Texas Two Step
3rd Place – Joseph Willis – The Lesson
Fiction/Horror
1st Place – Larry Morris – Nightmare
Fiction/Humor
1st Place – Aaron Ward – Supererogate Park
2nd Place – Curt Locklear – Bee in the Car
Fiction/Inspirational
(Tie) 1st Mark Allen – Plain Brown Wrapper
(Tie) 1st Julie Cosgrove – The Highway Chair
3rd Place – Ken Ingle – Never on Friday
Fiction/Paranormal
Sandra Fox Murphy – Passage
Fiction/Romance
1st Place – Jan Sikes – Broken Promises
Fiction/Suspense
1st Place – Joe Kilgore – Twenty-Ten
2nd Place – Robert DeLuca – Faithful Forever
Fiction/Science
1st Place – Aaron Ward – Panner’s Final Problem
(Tie) 2nd Place – Larry Morris – All in Good Time
(Tie) 2nd Place – Jan Sikes – The Forgotten
Fiction/Techno Thriller
1st Place – Charles Breakfield & Rox Burkey – The Enigma Chronicles – Remember the Future
Non-Fiction/Essay
1st Place – B Alan Bourgeois – Authors Revolution
This wonderful collection of short stories can be purchased for $14.95 at one of the sponsor’s websites. $2.00 from the sale of each book is donated to the DEAR Texas literacy programs, which helps get books into the schools, libraries, and readers who may not otherwise afford them. The book is available in paperback, eBook and soon as an audiobook. You may also purchase last year’s book at http://Vol3.TxShorts.com
To learn more about DEAR Texas and it’s Book Festival Network, or its Literacy programs, please visit their website athttp://DearTexas.info
Sponsor/Member Organizations: