Guest Blogger: Diana Raab

Today Diana Raab, author of Healing With Words: A Writer's Cancer Journey is going to share with us how keeping a journal helped her deal when she was diagnosed with cancer.



Journaling Has Saved My Life

for Stories of Inspiration on the Breast Cancer Site

by

Diana M. Raab, MFA, RN

At age forty-seven, I received a diagnosis of early breast cancer and five years later another, yet incurable form of bone marrow cancer—multiple myeloma. Instead of letting cancer become my life, I have allowed both my cancer diagnoses to rivet my life and make me appreciate the health I do have.

Earlier this year, my new self-help memoir, Healing With Words: A Writer’ s Cancer
Journey, was released where I share my story about refusing to allow cancer to conquer my spirit. I try to inspire others with a cancer diagnosis to embrace their experience by writing about it and allowing it empower them so they can forge ahead with their lives.

My lifeline during turbulent times has been journaling. I call myself a “ journaling advocate” and teacher in UCLA Extension Writers' Program and use my own journal to as a confident and a place to validate my feelings. I view the journal as a daily vitamin— in that it heals, detoxifies, and is essential for optimal heath. My book, Healing With Words is a mélange of memoir, journal entries, poetry, and writing exercises for readers to chronicle their own experiences.

What I have learned through journaling and in writing this book is :
The importance of early cancer detection
How journaling and early care helps you to take control your own health
How the process of journaling can facilitate healing
How a cancer diagnosis can renew and uniquely change a person

I am so indebted to the care I received, that I am donating author proceeds for each copy purchased will be donated to the Mayo Clinic.

For those interested in writing for healing, I offer the following tips:

Ten Tips on Writing For Healing by Diana Raab, MFA, RN
Find a quiet uninterrupted time and place to write
Choose an inspiring notebook and pen
Create a centering ritual (light a candle, meditate, play music, stretch)
Breath deeply
Put aside your inner critic
Date your entry
Begin by writing your feelings and sensations
Write nonstop for 15-20 minutes
Save what you have written
Write regularly

BIO NOTE:

Diana M. Raab, MFA, RN, has been a medical and self-help writer for the past thirty-
five years. In 2003, she earned her MFA in Writing from Spalding University. Diana
is the author of eight books, including her first memoir, “ Regina’ s Closet: Finding My Grandmother’ s Secret Journal” the recipient of the 2009 Mom’ s Choice Award for Adult Non-Fiction and the 2009 National Indie Award for Excellence in Memoir. Her poetry collection, “ Dear Anaïs: My Life in Poems For You” won the 2009 Next Generation Indie Award for Poetry. Diana teaches in the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program. She frequently moderates panels at conferences across the country, with a focus on writing for healing.

You can get more information about Diana Raab on her website or her blog.

Thank you Diana for sharing with us. I haven't used a journal in many years but it is something that I used to do on a regular basis. I know that it was a useful tool for me to work things out and helped me keep my emotions (which at times get very overwhelming) in check. I was a much more relaxed person when I was keeping a journal. I can only imagine how beneficial keeping a journal would be when dealing with the aftermath that comes with a cancer diagnosis. I haven't had the chance to read this book yet but I have perused through the copy Diana sent to me it looks to be a great tool that would help someone dealing with cancer. Again thank you for sharing your story with us. I'm sure that your advice in Healing With Words has and will help many people.

Giveaway: The Wild Series by C. Fern Cook

Thank you to Fern for doing another giveaway this week. She has also graciously offered to give another lucky reader a set of the Wild Series books!

About the Wild Series:
Wild Evolution:
"Wild Evolution" could be described as a paranormal-thriller or horror-police procedural, either category you pick would work fine.

A brief description of "Wild Evolution":
When Dan defends his livestock against a wild dog attack, he is put in a 'kill or be killed' battle. When he takes the head of a wild dog in to be tested for rabies he discovers he has the head of a human male instead of a wild dog. Now he is forced to cover up a self-defense killing because no one would believe he killed a wild dog when he has a human head.

A werewolf by contamination, Dan's life spins out of control. All his senses are heightened including his passion for the wild. His passion for the wild compels him to try to stop a new housing development that threatens the local wildlife from loss of habitat, but things don't go according to plans and now he has a second body to dispose of.

While under investigation for murder, Angela gives Dan her unflinching trust. Because of an abusive father, Dan has never been able to trust anyone, but now he has someone he wants to start a family with, someone to build a future with.

Wild Justice:
In Book II, Wild Evolution, Colorado rancher Dan Tucker’s life is turned upside-down.

After surviving a mutant canine attack, Dan discovers the animal he killed is not a wild dog, but a man. To protect himself even though it was a self-defense killing, he covers up the murder.

A werewolf by contamination, Dan finds his attitudes and appetites changing. His love of nature and the wild increases as he runs at night with a wolf pack in the nearby national forest. As a man, he becomes more bold and amorous, winning the heart of Angela Connor, a waitress at the local café.

Meanwhile his best friend, Grand County Sheriff’s Deputy Tony Ramirez, becomes increasingly suspicious, especially after Dan has several public run-ins with his cantankerous old neighbor, and the man later turns up missing. When the remains of two bodies are discovered some time later in a remote cave, Tony ceases to be Dan’s friend and goes to great lengths to prove him a murderer.

With his quiet life as bachelor rancher transformed into a constant battle of wits to keep his deep, dark secret safe, Dan finds himself at odds with everyone, including his girlfriend and his former best friend – and most of all, himself.

Narrowly escaping Tony’s murder investigation, Dan goes about eliminating threats to his future. Now all he wants is to pursue his dream of running a dude ranch with his soon-to-be wife, Angela. But as the wedding gets closer, he wonders how he’ll keep his nocturnal life a secret. He soon discovers that’s the least of his worries…

You can also get more information by visiting Fern's website.

Giveaway Info

The giveaway will end 10/26/10 at 11:59pm (EST)

From here on out I will only be taking form entries. Comment entries will no longer be accepted. Thank you everyone for helping make the forms a success!

Rules:
1) Only winners from the US and Canada
2) No PO boxes

To enter:
1) Fill out this form.
2) Get an extra entry for following my blog.
3) Get a third entry for mentioning this giveaway: On your blog, facebook, twitter... anywhere (Make sure to leave me a link or your SN so I can verify!)
5) "Like" Just Jennifer Reading on Facebook.

Please RT: @JustJennReading: New Giveaway: Wild Series by C. Fern Cook

Remember to use this form. Comment entries will no longer be valid entries into the giveaways.

You can see the current entries here.

The winners will be randomly drawn and notified by email.

Good Luck and thank you for reading my blog!

Guest Blogger: C. Fern Cook

I am again excited to have Fern Cook guest blogging! This time she's talking about the characters in The Wild Series. So again let's see what insight Fern will share about The Wild Series!!!



Building believable characters.

In today's book market the big money is selling books to aspiring writers. You'll find a many books or seminars like 'build a fast paced exciting plot' or 'build believable characters for your novel'. I have had a few writer friends here and there and some of them have a complete library on these how-to books. I will admit to having a few myself; 'Everyday Grammar' and 'The Writer's Guide to Copyright Laws' sit on my bookshelf.

I am not a lawyer or grammartarian that is why I choose those books but I think the best characters come from real life not fill in the blanks worksheets. Making three-
dimensional characters might come a little easier for me from all the different jobs I have had and all the states I have lived in.

As a child, we moved every couple of months to keep ahead of the bill collector; I didn't know that then but I loved going to new towns and meeting new people. It was like a brand new start every time. Then I married an army man, we were stationed all over. We even lived in Germany for three years. It really widens your prospective when you live in a different culture, I would recommend it for everyone.

With every transfer my husband got, it meant a new job for me too. I have worked in restaurants, hospital, factories, jails, and construction. Who knew that meeting all these different people from different parts of the country would come together to make me a better writer someday.

The most memorable characters from 'Wild Evolution' are the law enforcement personnel. These characters are as true to life as I can get without naming names. I am going to take the Fifth on this and not name names. I used a friend's experience with coming to terms with an abusive father in Dan's character. Angela is a tribute to all those underpaid, goodhearted women I met working in restaurants. Frank is from all those small towns we lived in and the shop owners really did know everyone in town. As for Dr. Jackson, I worked in a doctor's office that had generations of patients, from one generation to the next he delivered the babies. I am sure everyone has met someone like Jack Donaldson, a mean and nasty person that everyone loves to hate.

I'll admit that I have not known anyone that ran a canned hunting facility but I have known people who had no respect for this planet or any other living creature except themselves. This is where I drew the character in Wild Justice from; Kyle Eckhart is all that and more, he is a narcissist. Cathy is the sweet, gentle person that usually gets hooked up with these horrible people. I have always found it interesting that we always want to be someone else. That's what Cathy's character is; she admires the legends and folklore of the Native Americans; this is her escape from the life she lives with Kyle.

In Wild Legacy, the Hoegh family is little from my own past. Moving around all the time did have one drawback; we never really fit in anywhere. People never really wanted to get to know us; it was more like they wanted to know about us. The lab director and his office personal come from the most dysfunctional work place I ever had the displeasure of working at. I'm sure many people can relate to working with an abusive boss. Again, the law enforcement personnel come from my years as a street cop.

I hope you enjoy the characters from the Wild series. The next book in the Wild series there will be a mix of old and new characters.

Fern, I hate when a character (specifically a main character) isn't well-developed. It seems that to really write a great character the writer needs to have had experiences with the kind of people he/she is writing about. Given the life you have led I can see where you would get the chance to meet lots of interesting people. I think knowing that these characters are at least loosely based on real people makes the even more believable to me. Thank you again for sharing with us!

You can get more information about The Wild Series and Fern Cook by visiting her website.

Review: Lost + Found by David Trotter

I won a copy of this book through Library Thing's Member Giveaway as a giveaway from the author.



About the book

After 10 years as a pastor, David was burned out and stuck in a life and marriage that lacked passion. His desire for an intimate partnership led him to leave his mistress of ‘ministry’ and run into the arms of a real-life mistress — his wife’s best friend. After moving in with one another and spending forty days together, the woman abruptly left to go back to her husband and four kids, and David’s life hit rock bottom.

This first-hand account of what led to his burnout and life implosion takes the reader on a raw and intimate journey…from illicit affair to hospitalization and ultimately to reconciliation with his wife and family. This is a powerful story of redemption that will leave the reader both challenged and inspired

Visit David Trotter's website.

Follow David Trotter on Twitter.

My Review

This was a really good book. I can only imagine the hurt that writing this book brought back to Trotter. But I have to say he did a great job.

I always find it hard to review books written about actual events and/or people. To me the people in the stories are just characters while I'm reading, even though I know that they are real people and that these things really happened to them. I want to say that these were great characters, they seemed so real, because they are real. This was so emotional, there were the highs and lows. My heart truly ached for David as he tries to put his life back together, only to have it smashed to pieces again.

The story was so emotional, I'm actually surprised I didn't cry through the entire book. David's breakdown was so raw, being able to describe what he was going through to someone who was not there is no small feat. I was able to understand what was going on in his head and how he rationalized his decisions. Having been in a similar place in my life before I guess I have a better understanding of what he was going through. Had I not been in a similar situation before would I have understood as much? I would say yes, I think you have to go into this story with an open mind. If you look at it as he had an affair and that makes him a horrible person I don't think you will enjoy this book at all.

What I really liked about it is that I didn't get the sense that he was leaving anything out. He threw everything onto the table and really explained what was going on in what had to be the darkest time of his life. I can't say that there is ever a good reason to have an affair, and I think this book really shows the dark side of affairs. Movies tend to sensationalize affairs and this is a real look at the damage that is done to all parties involved.

Lost + Found: Finding Myself by Getting Lost in an Affair

Review: Audiobook: Private by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro

Thank you to Anna at Hachette for sending me a copy for review.



About the Book

Former Marine and CIA agent Jack Morgan inherits his father's renowned security and detective business--along with a case load that tests him to the breaking point. Getting to the bottom of an NFL gambling scandal and an unsolved LAPD investigation into 18 school girl slayings would be enough. On top of all that, Morgan takes on solving the horrific murder of his best friend's wife.

As Morgan fights the urge to exact brutal revenge on that killer, he has to navigate a workplace imbroglio that could blow the roof off his elite agency. And it's an especially explosive situation . . . because the love affair is his own.

Get more information about Private by visiting Hachette Book's website.

You can also visit James Patterson's website.

My Review

The story in this one was pretty good. There were a few things going on in the story, and I felt like if they had focused more on less of the plots that this could have been so much better. Not that it was bad, it was just a little disjointed to me. Private is a P.I. firm that seems to have their hands in everything, apparently all across the globe.

I liked the characters in this one, although I didn't really connect with any of them. Jack was so confident and strong. He was the glue that seemed to hold a few different lives together. Yet he had his own "glue" so to speak. Each character had some "quirks" (for lack of a better word) that added to the team from Private's ability to solve their cases. There were so many characters, and since I was listening instead of reading, that I can't fully remember all of them. (Sadly I'm even having trouble remembering most of their names).

I liked the story, and I think that this would make a good series. I kind of get the feeling though that maybe this is going to be a series and Patterson and Paetro wanted to introduce us to many characters in setting up for later books in the series. I could be totally wrong on this, but I get the feeling that this was a set up for a series...

The narrator was pretty good also. Peter Hermann apparently has appeared in many shows that I watch (watched) but I can't place him in any of them, which helps add to the ability for me to connect to the book rather than the narrator. His voice is very good for reading, he's not monotone, but he's not "perky". He had different voices for each of the characters, and does a good job of relating the feelings of the characters through his voice.

Overall I think this was a good book, but that it could have had a few less story lines. Like I said this had the feel of the start of a series and maybe some of the story lines could have been saved for later. I liked it and at the same time I was a little disappointed in it.

Private