Blog Tour Expressions & Phraseology of Love Book

Blurb: My poetry has been an escape from the harsh reality of tragedy, loneliness, dark and scary times in my life. My thoughts, feelings and emotions that are expressed through my poems speak of who I am and where I came from being a young girl growing up in the mountains of Montana to facing death in the face for the first time when I was 10. My losses have been great, my sorrow has been huge, loneliness has been my friend and lover, but in the end I have conquered and survived. I stand tall, proud and happy today.

Excerpt:

A child’s touch

A child’s hand,

Inside of his mother’s hand,

Sweet kisses,

Upon the cheek,

God’s garden,

Full of love,

Jesus’ strength,

To save thee little one

Mother’s glory,

Her child’s smile,

To hear the laughter,

To wipe away the tears,

God’s garden,

Full of love,

Jesus’ strength,

To save thee little one

Blurb:

Live simply

                                          Dream big

                                                            Be grateful

                                          Give love

                                                            Laugh lots

Live as easy as possible,

         Less worries,

Dream and dream BIG,   

                                   Jump for the stars and never stop

Gratefulness is the gift Jesus gave us on the cross, and for us to be grateful for Him and everything we have in life….

LOVE is the mystery of the world,

                   Nobody has the correct answers

                               So stop searching for them

Excerpt:

Live, laugh, love

  Life is for you

Live it well

     Laugh with friends

Love is in your palm

Love, grasp it and never let it go

Bio:  J. Bowers was born in Whitefish, Montana in 1972. She was raised in Eureka, Montana most of her younger years. She was the youngest of four children and is the only surviving girl. J. attended Rexford Elementary School her kindergarten year and the following year she transferred to Eureka Elementary School where she graduated from the eighth grade in 1987. She attended Lincoln County High School until her junior year when she moved from Eureka to Medford, Oregon with her mother and stepfather. Her mother passed away in January 1991, and J. soon got married and started a family. She was married for 21 years and had five children. She lost a daughter to SIDS in March 1994. J. has recently become divorced and is raising her two boys with her daughter's help. J.'s youngest son suffers from Autism. J. also suffers from her own disabilities of Fibromyalgia, physical chronic pain, neuropathy, chronic depression and anxiety.

J. was a student at Capella University throughout her writing career when her health permitted her too. She made both the President's and Dean's list for outstanding academic achievements.

J. is published poetess. Her books have been in the top ten bestselling list on Amazon in the past and her current ratings stand at 4.5. She has published the following books: Expressions on Life Book One, Expressions and Letters, Phraseology and Letters, Collection of 25 Days of Christmas Poetry, Poems, Dreams & More, Poetry Is...???, Poetry: The Lighter Side of Silliness, The Sound of Nature: Collected Poems & Other Writings and soon to be released Fragments, and the re-release of Expressions, and Phraseology of Love, 25 Days of Christmas Poetry.

J. is the owner of Poetry is...which is a blogging business of her own personal poetry, teachings of poetry, journals and other writings. J. is a firm advocate for poetry publishing and writing poetry.

J.'s Contact Information:

Email Address: poetryis@hotmail.com

Poetry is... - Blogger

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https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7744766.Poet_J_Bower

Next Door To A Star Blog Tour

NEXT DOOR TO A STAR by Krysten Lindsay Hager

Genre: Young Adult

★ SYNOPSIS ★

Hadley Daniels is tired of feeling invisible.

After Hadley’s best friend moves away and she gets on the bad side of some girls at school, she goes to spend the summer with her grandparents in the Lake Michigan resort town of Grand Haven. Her next door neighbor is none other than teen TV star Simone Hendrickson, who is everything Hadley longs to be—pretty, popular, and famous—and she’s thrilled when Simone treats her like a friend.

Being popular is a lot harder than it looks.

It’s fun and flattering when Simone includes her in her circle, though Hadley is puzzled about why her new friend refuses to discuss her former Hollywood life. Caught up with Simone, Hadley finds herself ignoring her quiet, steadfast friend, Charlotte.

To make things even more complicated, along comes Nick Jenkins…

He’s sweet, good-looking, and Hadley can be herself around him without all the fake drama. However, the mean girls have other ideas and they fill Nick’s head with lies about Hadley, sending him running back to his ex-girlfriend and leaving Hadley heartbroken.

So when her parents decide to relocate to Grand Haven, Hadley hopes things will change when school starts…only to be disappointed once again.

Cliques. Back-stabbing. Love gone bad.

Is this really what it’s like to live…Next Door To A Star?

Book trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnLXsu2c43k

Excerpt from Next Door to a Star

“Hadley, did you see the new Celebrity Snooper blog today?” Aunt Faith asked. “Simone is in it with

Lauren Gere.”

“What? She didn’t say anything about that. Werethese super old pictures?”

“Here,” she said. “I’ll pull it up on my phone. It’s Simone and Lauren walking along the boardwalk with some blonde girl and a boy.”

“Does it say when that happened?” I asked. I couldn’t believe Simone wouldn’t have mentioned

Lauren had already been here.

Faith found the site on her phone and stared at it. “I’m not sure, but I guess it was pretty recent. Here,

look.”

Simone was on the phone in the picture and the blonde girl with them was Morgan. But what was worse  was that the boy was Nick and Lauren had her hand on his arm. Great, it was probably the same night I called Simone and she was too busy to talk. Maybe I was the one on the other end of the phone in the stupid picture. I had missed my chance to meet Lauren, and Simone never even told me when she was in town. I guess I wasn’t cool enough for her to admit she was friends with me to somebody like Lauren. Who was I kidding? A TV star wanting to hang out with me? We weren’t friends at all. I was somebody she ran to when she needed something. And Nick was probably humoring me until his new celebrity girlfriend called him back. I wanted to throw up all over the table.

Excerpt #2

Charlotte called later and asked if I wanted to go with her to the party tomorrow .I went to put on my fake tan and imagined myself walking into the party looking all tan and gorgeous, and everyone would be wondering who I was and why they hadn’t asked me to hang out with them before. Connor and Lucas would want my phone number, Nick would be begging me to go out with him, Simone would realize I was cool, and Morgan would want to be my friend.

Then reality set in. First, the fake tan squirted out of the bottle all gooey. I rubbed the cold cream all over my arms and legs and put a little on my face. Simone had said you had to wash your hands well or it would stain your palms. I wasn’t sure how to put the tanning stuff on the back of my hands without getting it on my palms and drying, so I decided not to put any on my hands at all. I sat on some paper towels so I wouldn’t get any brown stuff on my bed, but it seemed to dry fast.

I woke up the next morning and I was definitely darker. My face was kind of orange, but my arms and legs had streaks on them. It was like somebody had burned me with a curling iron. Plus, my hands looked like I had white gloves on compared to the rest of me. I couldn’t go to the party all streaky.

People would make fun of me. I thought about putting the tanning stuff on all the lighter places on my body, but then it might look like I had a disease.

I ended up wearing a long sleeved shirt and jeans to the party. Charlotte had on a t-shirt and shorts when she came to pick me up.

“Aren’t you hot wearing all that?” she asked.

“I want to be covered for the mosquitoes,” I said. “Malaria is nothing to mess around with.”

I wasn’t the only one wearing jeans at the party, but I felt like I was dressed for a winter carnival when I saw Morgan and Pilar. Pilar had a deep pink halter top on with tiny jean shorts, and she had put some shimmery stuff all over her arms and legs. Morgan was wearing a blue crocheted tank top, and she would have passed for at least seventeen. She had her curly blonde hair down for a change, and all the guys were sitting around her.

“She’s so fake-looking,” Charlotte said as we watched Morgan and Lucas dance.

Morgan seemed so confident as she moved her hips. I wouldn’t be able to dance so free even if I was alone in my own bedroom. I was glad I had worn jeans because I would have seemed like a skinny kid next to Morgan’s muscular legs.

Top Ten Favorite Songs:

10. I Don’t Care by Cheryl Cole: It’s the song I put on when someone or something has upset me and I have to take a moment to step back and realize I don’t care about what anyone else thinks and how they react to me or my life. It’s a very freeing and liberating song.

9. Feelin’ So Good by Jennifer Lopez: This video for this song represents a time in my life when I was in grad school and I love watching the video and reminiscing. This is probably why I’m having trouble cleaning out my closet with all the J.Lo clothes from back then in it!

8. Fight Song by Rachel Platten: This song represents every moment where I had to keep pushing and keep going when other people thought I should just stay with a “safe job.” I had a lot of people who thought I was crazy to keep pursuing a writing career because it’s such a shot in the dark. I look back at old journals of mine and can see who had no faith in me. It’s sobering.

7. I Look to You by Whitney Houston: I started listening to this one a few years ago when I lost a friend and a cousin around the same time. This is also a song I would play during the time my dad was going through an illness. I actually played it for him in the hospital and it was so weird—the lyrics which had always made me think it was a narrative for me, suddenly sounded like what my dad was going through himself. It’s one of those songs where you have nothing left and you turn to God for strength.

6. Change Your Mind by Boyce Avenue: I swear this song is my soundtrack for so many of the breakup/love-gone-bad bad relationships scenes I write.

5. Healer by Kari Jobe: If I’m upset or not feeling well, I play this one on repeat and it always calms me down. My friend Melissa sent me the video for it when I was having a hard time years ago and it was the perfect song at just the right moment.

4. Mama Do by Pixie Lott: They used to play this video all the time when I lived in Portugal and I loved it then and love it now.

3. I Need You Tonight by Professor Green featuring Ed Drewett : Take the INXS song and add an English rapper to it. Magic.  

2. That’s Life by Frank Sinatra: This one felt like my theme song when I lived overseas. It’s funny because there’s a line in the song that basically says if nothing happens by July, you’re going roll up and die, and I kept saying, watch me find out something major in July. Sure enough, July  that year I found out I was moving back to the U.S.

1. Breathe (2 AM) Anna Nalick: it just sums up how you feel in those early morning hours when you’re writing in your journal uninhibited.

 Bio: Krysten Lindsay Hager is an obsessive reader and has never met a bookstore she didn’t like. She’s worked as a journalist and humor essayist, and writes for teens, tweens, and adults. She is the author of the Landry’s True Colors Series and the new Star Series and her work has been featured in USA Today and named as Amazon’s #1 Hot New Releases in Teen & Young Adult Values and Virtues Fiction and Amazon’s #1 Hot New Releases in Children’s Books on Values. Krysten writes about  friendship, self-esteem, fitting in, middle school and high school, frenemies, modeling, crushes, values, and self-image in True Colors and Best Friends…Forever? as well as in, Next Door to a Star. The sequel to Next Door to a Star (Competing with the Star: Star Series: Book 2) will be out March 22nd and the 3rd book in the Landry’s True Colors Series (Landry in Like: Book 3) will be out January 12th.

She is originally from Michigan and has lived in Portugal, South Dakota, and currently resides in southwestern Ohio where you can find her reading and writing when she’s not catching up on her favorite shows. She received her master’s degree from the University of Michigan-Flint.

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Love or Justice Blog Tour & Giveaway

“How do you hunt down a killer when he’s also hunting you?”

Laurie Shelton is the only person alive who can identify Hawaii’s most notorious mob boss…

After stumbling into a deadly kidnapping, Laurie’s life is in grave danger, and it falls to US Marshal Dante Stark to keep her safe until she testifies against Kaimi Quamboa—assuming he can be captured.

Dante knows he’ll lose his job if he becomes romantically involved with a witness…

But when he has to comfort her through constant nightmares, he finds it nearly impossible to fight his attraction to the beautiful, strong young woman he is sworn to protect. Laurie feels it too, but aware she’s in a high-stress situation and that when the danger is past she’ll never see Dante again, she tries to ignore his easygoing smile and the security he offers.

Laurie and Dante are forced to flee again…

When Kaimi’s men descend on their hideaway, they escape to a second safe house, only to be tracked down there as well. Dante now knows there’s a mole inside the US Marshal Service, and the only thing left to do is disappear.

Kaimi will never stop looking for Laurie, and if he’s caught, showing up to testify could be the last thing she ever does.

With each choice as dangerous as the next, Dante and Laurie must confront the boundaries of what they’re willing to sacrifice, and which is more important…

Love or Justice.

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Excerpt II for Love or Justice

Later that night, David’s false alarm was all Laurie wanted to talk about as they got ready for bed. Laurie sat on her bed, pulling her nightclothes out of her bag.

Dante took out his nightshirt and sweats, laying them beside his sleeping bag. He was determined to sleep in his own bed tonight, no matter what happened. He had been on dangerous ground the last couple of nights, but he mentally committed himself to stopping it tonight.

“I don’t think I could do it. Be away from my husband when I’m about to give birth.” Laurie ran a brush through her hair.

“Lots of people have to, military wives, police wives when their husbands are on long assignments, Marshals Service. It’s just something that happens. Love the man; you have to love the job too.”

“Yeah, I guess, but God that must be hard.”

“It is hard. I’ve seen a lot of men do it. It makes them crazy. David’s doing well with it though. He’s going to be a great Witsec Inspector.”

“Well, he should be doing great with it. Apparently he has the best teacher.” Laurie winked at him.

Dante laughed.

“Don’t pay any attention to Rick.” Dante shook his head. “He trained me, so if that tells you—”

“Intruder!” Max yelled from downstairs. The sound of several gun shots followed, then return gunfire.

Laurie sucked in a breath, and stared at Dante in shock.

Dante grabbed her, dragging her into the hall. He unlatched the safe room with a swift motion. Without a word, he thrust her in, slamming the door.

As soon as Dante closed the safe room door, David burst through his bedroom door.

“Laurie?” was all David said. Dante pointed to the safe room.

“This way.” Dante got out his gun and moved down the hall.

Dante never expected a gun battle here. He led David to the mouth of the hallway where they crouched down low to the floor. Dante could hear shots and return fire. Max and Cheyn were both still fighting. Dante intended to give them cover.

He gestured to David to cover the left. He crouched close to the right side of the hallway and inched his way forward until he could see out over the living room. Then he ducked back behind the wall. He was just above Max, who was hiding behind a protrusion in the stonewall that housed the fireplace.

Max shot across the room at a man behind the couch.

Dante aimed. When the man popped up again, Dante let off a round. The man flew backward, and lay on the floor. Dante crouched back down again.

He could still hear gunshots coming from the living room below him. He maneuvered himself to see where else Max was aiming. There was another man hiding just outside the door to the patio. The man’s gunfire hit the stone wall with a sharp rapping and the tinkling of broken stone. Dante took aim, but the assailant saw him. Dante ducked behind the wall.

Two more shots came. One to him, the other to Max. The former missed, the second didn’t.

Dante turned back to the scene just in time to see Max crumple to the floor. He took aim at the assailant and fired. The man crumpled to the ground as well.

Dante heard continued gunfire on the left side of the house. He crawled over to David, who shot and then ducked for cover. There was an armed man crouched on the other side of the counter toward the open front door. He used both as an effective shield from the gunfire. Dante took aim, but had to duck as a bullet flew at them, narrowly missing his head.

David returned fire. It caught the man in the neck.

He fell to the floor. All was silent.

“Where’s Cheyn?” Dante glanced down into the kitchen.

“Kitchen floor. He’s bleeding, but I don’t know where he got shot.”

“Any more of them?”

“I don’t think so, I only saw one.”

Dante grabbed his cell phone. He punched the radio button.

“The Hilo safe house has been assaulted. Two officers down. Three assailants dead. Requesting immediate back-up and medical assistance!”

“Copy that, safe house. Back-up and medical assistance is on the way,” responded the voice on the other side of the phone. Dante stuck the phone back in his pocket.

“David, we have to secure the house. I’m going to crawl out to the end of the landing. I need you to cover me.”

“Yes, sir.”

When Dante was halfway down the landing, a shot rang out from a part of the kitchen below where David was crouched.

A scream came from the hallway behind Dante. Oh God. Laurie was out of the safe room.

Author Rachel Mannino

Rachel Mannino is a passionate writer who creates characters and settings that allow readers to explore power dynamics in relationships, the empowerment of women, and the ethical and moral dilemmas love can create in our lives. Rachel also uses her writing skills to raise thousands of dollars for entities that enrich our lives and create community change around the world. She has worked for the Peace Corps; the Humanities Council of Washington, DC; Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company; and the Mayor’s Office of Arts, Tourism and Special Events in Boston, MA. Her first novel, Love or Justice, will be published by Limitless Press in 2016. Her second novel, Fractal, will be published by eTreasures publishing in the spring of 2016. Rachel has a BA in theatre studies and writing, literature, and publishing from Emerson College, and she has used it every day since graduation. She lives with her husband, author Christopher Mannino (http://www.christophermannino.com/), and their adorable dog and cat in College Park, Maryland.

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