Keya - When Lighting Strikes

Meet new author Keya

Keya, originally from Dallas, Texas is the breakout author of "When Lightning Strikes." She has been writing since the tender age of ten years old. Keya is the mother of two beautiful children, Treyvion who is seven years old, and Desirae who is five years old. She has attended Stephen F. Austin State University and is currently working on completing her Bachelor’s degree in General Studies. Keya aspires to make writing her full time job and would love to venture into non-fiction and erotica as well. She is currently working on surprising her audience yet again with the page turning sequel to When Lightning Strikes. Website: http://www.keyalit.com/ Email: http://us.mc8.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=wlstrikes@yahoo.com



About When Lightning Strikes:
How can you have it all – education, personality, and beauty - yet your life is flooded with a sea of troubles?

Imminent, new author Keya answers this question and more in When Lightning Strikes, a novel about Ms. Taylor Devereaux, her three best friends, and her spiraling-out-of-control life.

Taylor is on the road to happiness and success. She is a gorgeous and classy woman with a thriving career and a wonderful fiancée. One day, Taylor’s near perfect world is turned upside down when she discovers her future husband is cheating. To make matters worse, while trying to put the pieces of her life back together, she finds out someone at her job has filed a sexual harassment complaint against her. She realizes someone is out to ruin her life. With Taylor’s personal life, profession, and overall reputation at stake, can she overcome it all? Or, will the stress of it all bring out another side of Taylor? See how Taylor reacts “When Lightning Strikes.” Read a preview by clicking here.


Interview Topics and Angles
Ten topics that relate to current affair or the world in general.
· Domestic Violence
· Corruption in the workplace
· Infidelity· Workplace politics
· Interracial Dating· Death
· Adoption
· Bipolar Disorder
· Depression
· Betrayal

FSD - Fall Season Disorder

What a weekend I have had. It has always been so hard for me to enter into the Fall Season. I become this person being swallowed up by a dark hole. I can't explain it, it just happens. Yesterday my son asked me "Are you going to sleep all weekend?" You would think that would have motivated me to wake up. I went back to sleep.




Lately I have been more than tired and more than achy. Is achy a word? My favorite spot has been under a throw blanket watching my 100th episode of Monster Jams with my younger son.



I guess as the days become shorter, and it has been so dismal and dreary, I just fall into this place. I don't mean to go there but boy do I get there. I know one day I will watch the news and someone will speak about a Fall Season Disorder and I will have an aha! moment. Until then I am going to try and fight it some more. But right now, I am on my way back to sleep!



Maybe tomorrow the sun will shine a little bit and bring me from that place.

Good Nite
Lindar

More Room In The Drawer

Whenever my mother sends me something from her house it is always nicely put into a Kroger plastic bag. Once the bag arrives at home I have the hardest time getting the knots out. I don't know why it has to be so difficult. But I will say that if anyone can organize a grocery bag it is my mother. Several months ago I was at my grandmother's home, to celebrate her birthday, and I watched my aunt put up the groceries. Now, when I put up the groceries I push all of those brown plastic bags in one bag and stuff it the bag in drawer. Though sometimes it takes some extra pushing to get the door closed.

As my aunt put up the groceries she began to fold the plastic bags. I asked her why was she doing that and her response was, "That is how Mother likes her bags folded." Fold a plastic bag!!! I have folded a paper bag, it is pretty easy with all of the creases. Never have I thought of folding a plastic bag. So I tried this activity and I felt a little weird.

Flash forward to last Sunday, I am assisting my mother in cleaning up after a church function and I have a lot to get out to her car. My grandmother walks over and tells me that I could put some of the items in a plastic bag. I disagree with her, it is too much. She begins to put some of the items in plastic bags and it almost cuts our trips to putting them in our cars in half. After seeing my grandmother bag up the remaining food from the event I see where my mother has gained this talent from. On Tuesday I went to the grocery store and as I am putting up my groceries I folded my plastic bags the way my grandmother likes them folded. To my surprise, there is more room in the drawer and I did not have to force it to close. Hmmm!!! ;)

Learning Something Each Day,

Lindar

Reflections of a Quiet Storm - Patricia A. Bridewell

As CEO and owner of a new nursing registry, Pauline Bridges is striving to reach the height of success, and then unexpectedly tragedy strikes. After a near fatal automobile accident, she climbs from the wreckage unscathed, but shortly thereafter, God begins to reveal her past. Pain, once buried deep within, rises to the surface through memories that are revived as dreams and flashbacks. Chronicled in a series of stories, her life unfolds through a long journey; a pathway that unveils many secrets that not even her children had been told.

Visions of the past invade her days and nights as constant reminders of events from childhood through her adult life replay in her mind. Memories of her mother’s abuse at the hands of her stepfather, a rape during adolescence, her brother’s stormy lifestyle, and the agony of a marriage that was destroyed by her ex-husband, Naman’s infidelity and substance abuse, all drift through her mind. And then there is the shattering memory of the unsolved murder of her former boss, a vice president for a major recording company. All memories that Pauline had chose to forget, but now they’re back.

Pauline’s faith is challenged with not only ravaging dreams and flashbacks, but also with supporting her two adult children through their hardships. The ditch grows much deeper when she learns her friend, Vangie, is having an affair with her best friend, Bethany ’s husband, Darryl. Pauline temporarily escapes from revolving chaos by wallowing in her corporate world, with the aim of building a high caliber business, and helping friends and family get through their crises.

Her prayers are answered when Keith Maris steps into her life and opens her heart to feelings and emotions that she didn’t know still existed. As their relationship flourishes, he becomes a main support system through the turmoil, and her dreams and flashbacks begin to diminish. When her friend, Bethany, has a mental breakdown after learning of Darryl’s affair; she sets out with the intent to confront them. While brandishing a gun, it accidentally fires, striking Darryl’s shoulder. Pauline intervenes to prevent what could have become a tragedy. Bethany and Darryl stay married after he ends his relationship with Vangie, Pauline supports her son through his father’s terminal illness and subsequent death, and also finally discovers the reasons for her daughter’s turbulent past relationship with her father.

“A novel that is based on a true life story.”

www.patriciabridewell.com for more book chapter reading and order information.

TALKING POINTS OF THE BOOK

1. RELATIONSHIPS
2. INFIDELITY
3. SOCIAL ISSUES
4. EMOTIONAL PAIN AND DISTRESS
5. FAITH
6. INSIGHT INTO A HELPING PROFESSION - NURSING (MAIN CHARACTER, PAULINE, IS A NURSE.)

Author Lynne Forde

What is the price for fulfilling your dream?

Lies of Blue is the story about Lynne Forde, a young woman who tries to reach her dream by making sacrifices. Somewhere along the line, the wrong sacrifices get made. It’s Training Day meets OZ with a twist of Set It Off.

When Forde gets tired of her dead end job in the City Courts, she embarks on a career in the belly of the beast. With a degree in hand and a little bit of street sense, she decides to try her hand working in River’s Edge Jail Complex. From day one at the Academy to her last day at Prison, Forde evolves from your average “rookie” into something other than just a woman. To make matters worse, if you put a sexual being in the midst of some of the city’s most conniving men and women, you are bound to come up with something a little kinky and very destructive. The more dangerous the game became, the more erotic the encounters became.

She goes from Officer, to Hustler, to Vic, to CEO in a matter of 8 years.Lies of Blue is an expose of what goes on in the belly of the beast, through the eyes of one woman. Lies of Blue teaches you that there are so many people you may come across in life, you never know who is real and who is fake, but that the journey can become a battle of life or death. Choose wisely.

View the video trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjrNrKR_lk4

(Book info: ISBN-10: 1604023783; ISBN-13: 978-1604023787)

For more information about Author Lynne Forde

http://www.liesofblue.com/ or http://www.saffyre.us/

How I Made the Angels Cry - Meleisa Betts

"Life to me is not like a box of chocolates, life is a Pandora's Box filled with 'what if's.' It doesn't matter how rich you are or how poor you are, you going to go through hell in some form or fashion unless you are just plain lucky."-- Molly, How I Made The Angels Cry

Molly Betts claims to have done two lifetimes' worth of living in her short time on Earth, and, by all accounts, such a remark is a stark understatement. Born and raised in the one-horse town of Marionville, Alabama, she quickly gets used to enjoying a life a relative privilege; her father, the town's largest employer, provides the family with many luxuries and pleasures that others would literally kill to obtain, fostering in Molly a strong sense of pride - and near conceit - early on. Of course, the flip side of her father's success is his numerous, careless dalliances with scores of women from all over the town, often leading to dangerous repercussions for Molly, her mother, and the rest of their family.







Torn between her undying love for her mother and her subconscious emulation of her father's ways, Molly's life soon becomes a reflection of the emotional dichotomy that lingers within her. As such, she begins dating men simply for the superficial thrill of what they can do for her, all the while secretly desiring women for the very same thing – only in the sexual, not the material. At an early age, she becomes aware of her affinity toward women, and her struggles to reconcile the resulting moral conflict yield often disastrous results for her over the course of the various relationships into which she enters to scratch her ever-present sexual "itch." At their beginnings, each of her involvements seem to promise the ultimate spiritual deliverance for which she constantly prays, but they, without fail, only lead her further down the path of confusion, loneliness, and pain.







Eventually, Molly begins to realize that only by searching within – rather than without – can she finally receive the peace for which she longs day in and day out. One would think that only a few episodes of heartbreak, rejection, and brutality would hasten such an epiphany, but Molly's tortuous journey toward ultimate truth serves as proof that the sojourn on the road to enlightenment - and the scope of its learning curve – truly varies from person to person.



How I Made the Angles Cry is one of those rare, invaluable finds that must be celebrated and shared widely once discovered. In it, Meleisa Betts takes the reader on a literal emotional roller coaster of highs and lows, with all the typical jerks, false starts, and sharp curves caught in-between. At times overwhelmingly heavy and sad, her tome nonetheless offers just the right amount of insight and hope to ensure the reader that, no matter how dark or gloomy the circumstances, light truly resides at the end of the tunnel, and ultimate victory over such circumstances is assured – as long as you keep pushing through the tough times.


A stirring memoir of a life whose amazing story must be told and retold. Highly recommended.


Buy the book at: Amazon.com Barnes and Noble.com or order from your local bookstore, distributed by Ingram Book Group.



For information about author and publisher Meleisa Betts visit



http://www.blackpearlsmagazine.com/meleisabetts.htm

The Manual by Sherryle Kiser Jackson

Who said there isn't a manual for love, relationships and raising kids?With a chance to confront their past with the hindsight of adulthood, two high school sweethearts must forgive and forget to raise their teen aged son.

The Manual by Sherryle Kiser Jackson Website: http://www.sherrylejackson.com/

"Blessed are the children, for they shall inherit the earth."Need a manual on raising children and having healthy relationships? Refer to the Bible. That's what Deidre Collins' inner spirit is telling her to do now that Andre, her son's father, is back in town after deserting them eight years ago.

At fourteen years old, her son, DeAndre, is struggling with his own issues-peer pressure, problems at school, and figuring out how to navigate his first crush.

When DeAndre gets suspended from school for ten days, Andre sees it as the perfect opportunity to get to know his son-and to get closer to Deidre. Can this couple overcome the past for the sake of their son's future?

Now available on Amazon-The Manual (October 2009)ISBN-10: 1601629354; ISBN-13: 978-1601629357http://www.sherrylejackson.com/

Author Sherryle Kiser Jackson is a fresh voice in Christian fiction. Her style reflects an honest commentary on her life with Christ. Soon and Very Soon is her debut novel. She anxiously awaits the publication of her second novel, The Manual, October 2009. Experience her too real to be preachy, Biblically based, out-the-Christian-box fiction at http://www.sherrylejackson.com/

Soon and Very Soon (Urban Christian) by Sherryle Kiser Jackson - Everyone thought the ten month courtship and marriage between Willie Green, the strait-laced pastor of the traditional Harvest Baptist church, and Vanessa Morton, the dynamo preacher-pastor from the contemporary Mt. Pleasant Baptist church, was too soon. Neither pastor realized that after the nuptials, all heck would break loose as they planned to combine their respective churches.

The honeymoon abruptly comes to an end as Willie tries to maintain control of his congregation as the staunch Deacon, Charley Thompson, and a group of dissenters go to extreme lengths to keep their religious routine going at Harvest. Meanwhile, Vanessa struggles with the new balancing act of being a competent co-pastor and a nurturing first lady to her husband. The price of having too much too soon leads them both to deal in their own way with letting go of the way things used to be.

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Manual/Sherryle-Kiser-Jackson/e/9781601629357/?itm=1&usri=1

For more information about Sherryle Kiser Jackson go to

http://www.blackpearlsmagazine.com/sherrylejackson.htm

In The Land of Cotton - Martha A. Taylor

SLAVERY IS MORE THAN CHAINS AND SHACKLES
SLAVERY IS A STATE OF MIND

Immerse yourself in this highly anticipated political docu-drama set in the Deep South amidst the backdrop of the Civil Rights Movement.

Martha was a young white girl living in the Deep South, inundated with the racist sentiments of the times. But Martha's natural curiosity and generous heart led her to question this racial divide. When she discovered a primitive Negro family living deep in the woods near her house, everyone's life changed forever.

Take the journey of a lifetime alongside Martha as she forges relationships that lead to self discovery and a clearer understanding of the world around her. In the Land of Cotton provides an outstanding snapshot of life in the South during those troubled times - a snapshot everyone should take a close look at, regardless of era or color. The year was 1956.

In the Land of Cotton by Martha A. Taylor Intimate Conversation: http://edcmagazine.blogspot.com/2009/04/intimate-conversation-with-author.html

Carbon Copy by Azarel

Have you ever craved someone so bad…that you’d be willing to do anything?Meet Dominique Lewis, a foul, hard-boiled, go-getter who spends most of her days yearning to be just like her sister, and plotting on taking her man. For her, it’s all about money, sex, and power. Although she possesses the perfect physique and sexy features, her life-long dream is to become wealthy and a house-hold name. By any means necessary, she vows to get what she wants.

As Dominique’s mission unfolds, she manages to get connected to Yuri, a violent replacement for the man she really sought. After realizing she’s partnered with a beast, her world turns upside down. And soon, after the tragic murder of her sister, all hell breaks loose when Dominique’s cover is blown.

Armed with revenge on the brain, and a status goal in mind, Dominique soon appoints herself as Raphael’s woman, the most sought after millionaire in Atlanta. Raphael’s lavish status in town would put her on a new level, right where she always dreamed…the only problem …he never said he wanted her. In an effort to hold on to Raphael, and all the elaborate material possessions, Dominique sets out on a deadly mission to remove anything that stands in her way.

Website: www.lifechangingbooks.net and www.myspace.com/azareltheauthor

Release

Today I came straight to my parent’s home to watch part 2 of Oprah Winfrey’s interview with Whitney Houston. I was so moved by Whitney’s honesty to the questions that were asked to her. Of everything that was shared in this interview the one aspect that stayed with me was when Whitney talked about feeling a sense of release.

Think about that for a minute. Release! If I am holding a pencil and I release it, it falls from me. The pencil and I are no longer attached. The only way that I get the pencil back is if I pick it up. The pencil can’t come back to me unless I allow it to. Wow!

After the interview we move to the studio audience, where we are blessed with the singing of Whitney Houston. She sung a song that I hold dear to me. I am calling it the song! “I Didn’t Know My Own Strength” is for anyone who has faced adversity. This is a song that ministers to self. I cried as they spoke about the song, I cried when she sang the song, and I cried when I heard it again on the radio on the way home, while listening to CoCo Brother.

Personally, there have been days when I didn’t know where my strength was going to come from. Between meeting the needs of my sons, my home and my needs there have been many days when I thought I would crumble and fall. As I try and find balance with everything in our lives and dealing with personal pain I find myself at times slipping into the darkness and I can feel God pulling me along. Even on days when I don’t feel like being pulled along. Each day I feel God strengthening me to press on.

My mother often tells me that she doesn’t know how I made it through the past several years. A master’s degree, a teenage son, a marriage, a newborn, a new house, a demanding teaching job, and a divorce. But God…. I have stayed in prayer and I have kept my family in church. That how I have managed. Real talk!

Oprah Winfrey’s interview with Whitney has touched on something. After the show I logged onto Facebook. There were several comments from women who stated that they were in tears. Whitney’s story is identifiable and heartfelt. For her to share that with Oprah and us, I believe was a message straight from heaven.

I felt a release today. I have no regrets. I have a beautiful life and beautiful sons. If it took for me to experience what I have experienced for other women to have a voice and for my children to exist, then that was how it had to be. I firmly realize that since I have truly released it, I can’t go back to it. Even if it tries to come back to me.

Feeling like a Million Dollar Bill
Lindar

Whitney Houston - I Look To You

Here is Whitney Houston's latest video. She looks absolutely beautiful.....I Look To You

Staying in My Lane

We all have driven on the expressway and been annoyed by drivers. Either they are going too slow in the fast lane or too fast in the slow lane. I know that whenever I drive I try to stay in the lane that works for me. On the expressway it is the middle lane, except if I am traveling to Columbus then I find someone to tail in the fast lane. When I am on the regular streets I stay in the lane that is going to turn in the direction that I want to go. So even if that lane is crowded and moving slow, I know it's the lane I need to eventually get me to where I want to go.

Nothing is more irritating to me than getting in the more convenient lane, because it's moving faster, and having to go through a lot of trouble to try and get over so I can turn. Sometimes I have had to pass up the turn and go up farther and make my turn later. That only leads to me having to back track to where I was originally headed. I don't like to backtrack.

When I set out on a journey, near or far, I always have a plan as to how I will reach my destination. I have my directions, my hotel reservations, and the proper music. In several months I have a birthday coming up and I tell you turning 40 is a pivotal moment for me. All that I have learned up to this point prepares me for the years ahead. I know where I am headed and I am learning to stick to that plan and not get off that path.

While I am waiting to get there, I also want to enjoy the scenery and make sure I don't miss my turns or major exits. I am learning to embrace who I am and to be patient with who I am to become. For years I tried staying in the fast lane, rushing to get nowhere. I have been in that convenient lane only to have no one allow me access to get over when I needed to, because of that I have missed out on some opportunities and some friendships.

I now know where I want to go and after twenty plus years I know how to get there in a timely and safe manner. I am not trying to be the fastest and pass up anyone. Besides what does being in the fast lane really accomplish? Some of those people I need to meet, and I need to hear about their journeys. I also do not want others in my way, not allowing me access to where I need to turn.

I no longer what to miss out on new friendships and amazing experiences. I have learned to enjoy all who I come into contact with daily. I am on my way to some place great and I want to enjoy getting there while I stay in my lane.

I'm In Good Hands


Lindar

I GIVE YOU MY HEART - MICHAEL W. SMITH

I was listening to a live service online this evening and I heard this song. How beautiful? I enjoy his music so much.

A renewed mind is a reflection of a higher purpose in God

Mary Alessi

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12:2

Suburban and Urban Athletes - Where Are Our Children At?

Many people will come up with a response to what I am about to say about this topic. About two weeks ago I took my niece to her tennis tournament. We went to the first school and learned that we were at the wrong location. I thought to myself, there are an awful lot of children out this early in the morning. Her match began at 8:00 a.m and there were already children on the tennis courts warming up.

We head to the site of the tournament and at first I decide to go and find some coffee, cappuccino, tea or something. It takes about a second for me to realize that my parking spot is right in front of the court where she will be playing. I decided to wait for my morning refreshment and enjoy this court side spot.

Let me get straight to the point, all of the courts were being used by young women playing either singles or doubles matches. The lacrosse team was on the field practicing, a member of the volleyball team came out to deliver a message to a parent, then out of the corner of my eye I see the football team, it had to be at least 50 or more players, start jogging around the track. All of this before 9:00 in the morning. I am honestly sitting in my car like, "What in the world?" "Where they do that at?" (The last statement is courtesy of me teaching some very silly and verbal youth)

After the match my niece and I we go to get our morning beverage. We are riding home and there is a large, new high school on the way home. And...and...it's about noon or 1p.m....and...and there is not one child anywhere near the school. Not running, throwing a ball, nothing...nothing at all. I look at my niece and I ask her what is the difference between where we just left and the school that we are passing. Her response was that the school was empty.

You can argue about budget cuts, not enough dedicated students, and a whole host of other topics. The bottom line is that when you see that difference for yourself, the difference is magnified. In the suburban neighborhoods the children are being active and dedicated to team sports and then you go home and you see Brand New high schools with empty fields. It's football season! It's tennis season! It's volleyball season! Where are the children at? Now, here is where I will get it from some of you. Urban youth were more than likely at home playing video games, passing time on the computer or watching television. No, I am not stereotyping. This is real talk.

When I ask young people, that I know, what did they do over the weekend. A majority of them will respond with "Nothing", "Went to the club", or "Nothing". I am so serious. They have never said to me, I went to practice, I went running or I played in a game. Urban youth need to become more active and learn more about sportsmanship, so that as they age they can instill that into other youth. I was never active in athletics or exercise. I now pay a price for that.

My older son plays several sports. My younger son is already in tune to the fact that exercising and drinking water is important. He sees his brother being active and he has a model to follow. I want them to be healthy and active young men and when they grow up I would hope that they continue to keep sports as a part of their lifestyles.

I just wanted to share my experience with this topic. Even to this day, I can clearly see all of those students on that cloudy Saturday morning playing, practicing and working at becoming a healthier person.

Just Needed to Share
Lindar