Maggie Shayne | Get Focus and Enjoy your day!

Thanks to the wonderful people here at Fresh Fiction for having me over. Nice place you have here. I hope you'll check out my group blog, www.storybroads.com/.

Meanwhile, let's chat.

I have a lot of friends who are going through one of two problems. About a third are depressed, a third are fighting weight issues, and a third are battling with both. (There's a tiny percentage in there of people who follow the same philosophy I do, who take everything in stride and are actually doing very nicely. But it's probably less than one percent of my pals. Sadly. I'm trying to spread it around, though.)

At any rate, I thought since these two problems are two I know well, have been through, and conquered, they would be my topic today. And interestingly, the same techniques are effective at fighting both depression and weight.

Of course, the first one is exercise. You know I used to think I couldn't "run" even if I wanted to. And I never really wanted to. I was one of those, yeah; I'll run if someone's chasing me with a knife. But a friend of mine inspired me, and so I decided to try. I thought it would be impossible. Bad knees. But I walked and ran a little, and walked and ran a little, and upped the running every time. That was years ago. Now I can run five miles at a time, and I love it, and I'm going to enter some group runs this year.

It's always possible. Anything is possible, you just have to make up your mind to it and do it. But even walking is good for you. The combination of the physical exertion and the exposure to sunlight, even in cold weather, and the fresh air and just being outdoors, all work on your mood. Endorphins surge. You just feel better all around.

I started today pretty blue. But by the time I finished an hour on my Bowflex, I was bopping out to the music blasting from my Iphone and singing along and feeling great.
Exercise is number one. Just get up and move every day. As much or as little as is good for you, where you are, right now. It'll improve the fitness, and the mood.

And so will music. I'm telling you, no matter how bad things get, I've never seen a day when I didn't cheer up instantly if I just could force myself to put on some loud, rock & roll. It only takes minutes.

I could be lying comatose on the sofa, sobbing my eyes out, and if I could just get that music going, I'd be fine within a half hour.

Music. It's therapy.

My third miracle solution to depression and weight and any other problem you might encounter in life, is to understand that you get what you focus on. If you're thinking about something you don't want, even if you're thinking how much you don't want it, you'll get more of it. So try to shift your focus gently from the unpleasant stuff to the stuff that makes you happy. The stuff that fulfills you. The stuff that gives you joy. What you ignore will eventually fade away. What you pay attention to will grow bigger and bigger. When it's really bad, sometimes you can't find anything to make you feel good, so at those times, you need to reach smaller--just look for anything that gives you relief, and then build from there.

I dare you to try this for a month. Start paying attention to where your focus is, what you talk about most, what you think about most, and shift it to good stuff.

See what happens!

For more info on this stuff, visit www.abraham-hicks.com/

And be sure to pop into my site, www.maggieshayne.com/

Enjoy your day! It's the best prescription for happiness there is!

Maggie Shayne

DEMON'S KISS
On sale Now!

Patrice Michelle | Always evolving…

The great thing about being an author is that the learning curve on your job is limitless. You’re probably wondering why I think that’s a good thing. LOL! I think it’s great because in my mind, I’m always learning. When I look at the books I wrote five years ago and the books I’m writing today, I can see how much I’ve grown as a writer; how my style and my approach to writing stories has changed.

I’ve always loved a good story alongside my romance, but somewhere along the line, I wanted more. So I delved headlong into the vast paranormal genre. But even writing a straight paranormal romance wasn’t enough, and I began to add subplots, which evolved into suspenseful plot twists, which turned into more surprises in the story than even I had expected.

Layering emotional romance over complicated plotlines with mystery elements forced another transition in my writing—moving from being a pantser writer (write-by-the-seat-of-my-pants), with no planning at all, to morphing into a hybrid style author where I wrote a high-level outline as to how the story would play out to the end. Would I follow it? Not necessarily (hence the reason I’m a hybrid writer *g*), but it gave me a loose roadmap to follow.

Along the way, I began to add more action scenes to my stories: from fight scenes to chase scenes. I loved them. But the writing style for an action scene verses a love scene is very different in tone and structure, and yet another facet learned and tucked away in my writer's tool box.

Throughout all these transitions, there’s one aspect I’ve had to keep in mind with my stories. Blending fast paced and complicated plotlines with main characters that are just as deep, just as complex and just as intriguing is a delicate balance, one that leaves me challenged, energized and…always evolving.

Patrice Michelle

http://www.patricemichelle.net/

Patrice's latest release Scions: Resurrection, the first book in her SCIONS trilogy is out on the shelves now!

Sheila Lowe | Between the Lines – Forensically Speaking

Are you a CSI buff? Do you watch every episode of Cold Case, Forensic Files, Law & Order and all the spinoffs? Then you are one of the people who have turned forensics into a hugely popular field. These days, DNA, fingerprints, and all that technical stuff makes fantastic (or more correctly, realistic) fodder for fiction. So what better time to introduce a new kind of forensic expert?

I’ve been in the field of handwriting analysis for forty years and occasionally, I testify in court cases as an expert witness. My practice includes working on cases of forged wills, anonymous letters, and all sorts of legal chicanery, as well as behavioral profiling. And my clients have never been as savvy or as interested in what their handwriting says about them as they are today.

At the same time, there are some who believe that in an age of Ipod, BlackBerry, and text messaging, handwriting has lost its relevance. But the truth is, your handwriting–chicken scratch though it may be–remains an important form of personal expression, and it paints a true portrait of your personality. The way you arrange your handwriting on the page, the style you use, and the rhythm as it “moves” across the paper, reveal social graces (or their lack), thinking patterns, behavior, fears and defenses, and much more. Studying this highly complex interaction between brain and hand helps the expert glean important information about what makes the writer tick.

So, after analyzing more than ten-thousand handwriting samples over my career, I was ready to kill someone. Not literally, of course. As a big fan of mystery novels since childhood, and the author of non-fiction handwriting analysis books, I’d always wanted to write a mystery. So, the Claudia Rose, forensic handwriting expert mystery series, came into being [ISBN: 978-0-451-22369-2]. Working closely with LAPD Detective Joel Jovanic to solve a series of unspeakable crimes, Claudia delves deep into the trail of ink, jeopardizing her safety to uncover the secrets of personality in some very high-profile suspects.

Although most of the cases that come across my desk are fairly prosaic, from time to time I get calls that lift the assignment well out of the ordinary–like the former FBI agent who wanted to get me involved in a Satanic cult, or the detective whose client had disappeared in the Middle East and was feared dead, or the scumbag attorney who had perpetrated a huge fraud on an unsuspecting group of investors, or the one about Elvis... (yes, really!) Those are the kinds of cases that form the basis for Claudia’s adventures, beginning with Poison Pen, which asks the question, Can handwriting be faked to make murder look like suicide? Read the first chapter at www.claudiaroseseries.com/

One thing I’ve learned over the past forty years of practice as a handwriting analyst is this: you may be able to change your looks, your tone of voice, or your body language, but regardless of what you show to the world, like DNA or fingerprints, handwriting always tells the truth.

To learn more about handwriting analysis: www.sheilalowe.com/

Kerry A. Jones | Love, Magic, Honor....

At the start of each new year, my thoughts linger on endings and beginnings. I think of memories and changes and the finite things about which I have hope. Then, there are those things that carry over from year to year, and book to book. The idea of true love conquering all. Soul mates. Love at first sight.

In 2007, Loved Enough was released – my first contemporary romance and a story of love rekindled. Later in the year I ventured from contemporary into paranormal with Cast in Stone (Book One of the Quinguard Immortals Series.)

He waited seven hundred years to find her.

For what seemed an eternity, Julen endured a nightly punishment that never should have been his. Descended from a line of ancient warriors, he vowed not to become the creature his persecutors claimed he was - the creature they did their best to make him into. Now that he has found the healer who can end his nightly torment, the stirring she creates in his Agathyrsi blood threatens to bring more danger than redemption.

She was sworn to destroy him.

Sofia Evan, owner of Fortune's Cup coffeehouse, had been raised on family lore and responsibility passed down through generations on a rare parchment. She never believed the darkness and pain in its tales to be more than myth, never questioned the reasons for the gifts that set her apart from all the rest. Until one winter morning changes everything. Now the breathtaking man who haunts her waking hours is the very being whose curse she must put an end to - one way or another.

I’m very excited about 2008, which will see the release of Book Two in my Quinguard series. I love these characters! They’ve helped add a sense of magic, redemption and honor to the list of those things that must carry over…

Come visit me at www.myspace.com/kerrywrites, or stop by http://www.blacklyonpublishing.com/. Thanks for reading! And thanks, Fresh Fiction, for inviting me to blog here today.

Kerry A. Jones

Angela Steed | "What is a 1080 Kiss?"

I’ve been asked that quite a few times and have come up with several different answers. I came up with one in particular that I thought was pretty good, but it turns out it had too much comedy involved to get a positive response from the asker. So here’s the other answer to the enigmatic question, "What is a 1080 Kiss?"

"A 1080 Kiss is when your special someone’s lips touch your lips in a kiss, it sends your head into a weakening-of-the-knees spiral, thus doing a 1080, or two or three."

Okay, maybe not quite the perfect answer, but it’s as close as I could get to a logical one. Luckily, I recently conducted an interview with Vince and Morgan and asked them this specific question. Here’s what they had to say about it:

Vince: "It sounds like a new snowboarding stunt. I’d probably be doing it right now if I hadn’t been dragged here for this interview."

Morgan: "Ever since he brought home his gold medals from the Winter Games, he’s been like this."

Vince: "Like what?"

Morgan: "Eager to get out of your responsibilities. I know the Winter Games is still a-ways off, but you have to keep up your appearances otherwise…"

Vince: "Yes, I know, the sponsors will find someone else. You remind me all the time. You’d think after marrying her she’d let up on me, but no, she’s just as pushy and unrelenting as ever."

Morgan: "Don’t take that tone with me!"

Vince: "What are you going to do, ground me? Okay, mom!" (He rolls his eyes at her—big mistake I can see)

Morgan: "Why you arrogant…!@#$...!@#$..." The rest of this profanity was removed per request of the guest, and by me since I really don’t want to write out such language for my readers to see.

After the brief argument between the two lovebirds, order was finally restored and the interview went on. Just to shorten it and get to the point, I’ll leave you with Morgan’s final statement about what a 1080 Kiss really is. I find her answer most refreshing to say the least. It gives a sense that true love, despite the struggles and hardships that occur in the process will live on forever in our hearts and souls.

Morgan: "When I met Vince, I knew in my heart he was different then most men. He was gracious, though stubborn in a sense I wanted to strangle him at one moment, and then cradle him in my arms the next. It can be confusing when you’re not sure what the other person is feeling at the time a relationship begins. I suppose when this happens, you create circles around yourself, building walls around your heart hoping you won’t get hurt like the times before. I was rather insecure to begin with, but luckily, after some deep soul searching, I found my stability in him. He never gave up on me no matter what. And when he finally kissed me, it shot straight through to my soul, sealing my feet to solid ground. I knew then that he was the one I wanted to be with for the rest of my life. I’ll love him forever, or as long as he’ll put up with me anyway."

I’d never seen a grown man with so much stubbornness suddenly melt like butter on hot pavement. I was finally able to see the side she’d fallen in love with, and I’ve got to admit I was a bit envious. He pulled her into his arms and kissed her with such an intense, yet charming passion that even I felt the sparks suddenly ignite the room into flames. I knew then that her answer, when brought together with mine, was right on the money. And I could see plain as day by the look she gave afterward that she’d just experienced a 1080 Kiss.

If you’d like to read more of this interview, please request it at www.myspace.com/angelasteed. I’d be more than happy to post the rest on my blog.

You can also go to http://www.angelasteed.com/ and leave me a note in my Guestbook. I love getting new messages!

If you’d like to read 1080 Kiss, you can purchase it at www.blacklyonpublishing.com/ or any of the great online retailers and bookstores such as Amazon.com.

Thanks to Fresh Fiction for having me here today. I really enjoyed doing this and hope to do it again soon.

Angela