Exciting News! An Exciting New Book Set To Launch…
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| J Taylor Publishing |
…Introducing the Cover Reveal for Darkest Day, Emi Gayle’s next book in The 19th Year series, set to release January 6, 2014!
A bit about the story
Mac Thorne’s time as a Changeling is coming to an end.
It may have taken eighteen years, but Mac did finally manage to do what the Council wanted: she chose a teacher and renounced the in-between.
There’s just one last step. She must say goodbye to her human. Forever.
After being challenged in every way possible, Mac leaves what she thought would be the easiest task for the last possible moment. As midnight on July fourth draws near, though, she hasn’t found a way to give up Winn Thomas.
Nor does she want to.
With time running out, Mac stands at a literal crossroads.
Choose Winn, and she’ll be stripped of the only family she’s ever known—vampires, dragons, and her favorite demon. Even her own mother. Accept her position on the Council and rule as an equal to her twelve peers, and she’ll forget Winn ever existed.
Independence and freedom have never before been so limiting.
In this final chapter of the 19th Year Trilogy, it’s time for Mac to decide.
Responsibility? Or Love?
A bit about Emi
Emi Gayle just wants to be young again. She lives vicariously through her youthful characters, while simultaneously acting as chief-Mom to her teenaged son and searching for a way to keep her two daughters from ever reaching the dreaded teen years.
…Quite an amazing lady with an amazing story to tell. Check out her blog, follow her on facebook or twitter!
Have You Chased A Sunset Lately?
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| Our Perfect Sunset |
Wednesday night, driving home from the YMCA after teaching my YoPi class, I hear my daughter’s sweet little voice pipe up, “Look mommy! The moon is beautiful!”
I glance out the window and chuckle. “It is beautiful sweetie, but that’s the sun. It’s about to go to sleep and make room for the moon.”
Then all three of us, my daughter, my son and me continue to sneak glances at the sunset and talk about the clouds building up tall, highlighted around the edges with oranges, reds, and yellows, and then I start to say, “We need to take a picture of it! But the camera is at home, we have to hurry!”
They both pipe up, “Yeah, we have to hurry!”
Finally we pull up to the driveway and the kids rushed around, my son in his summer school shirt, my daughter in her pull up and no pants or shoes because she’d had an accident at the Y and she’s trying to get her sandals on fast, “Let’s go mom! We have to take a picture!”
We grab the camera. We grab each other’s hands and run across the street to the school. My son and daughter plop down in the grass and watch the sun, not saying a word, a breathtaking moment full of wonder. Finally I feel my little girl’s arms wrap around my leg and we just stop and ponder the beauty. A perfect end to our day, because no matter what happened, the sun lit up our night and our dreams.
Digital Goodies: One More Day
“You’re never given a dream without also being given the power to make it true.”
― Richard Bach, Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah
Here they are! These are the digital goodies for One More Day, J Taylor Publishing’s book anthology set to release December 2, 2013. Help yourself by right clicking on the image of choice, selecting ‘save image as,’ and OK.
J. Taylor Publishing supplies the images for their authors and they are for personal or advertising / promotional purposes only.
DESKTOP:
COVER ART:
IPAD COVER:
BOOK MARKS:
The Purpose of Life Is … And Conversation
How could it be so simple? Basic thoughts. Basic feelings. I love it. I absolutely love this image. The hard part is actually figuring out how to let go and do these things.
This past week, I’ve been thinking a great deal about being kind and honest as we talk to others about emotional topics. Being honest is definitely the best way to go, and kindness, well, how can you go wrong when you’re speaking from the heart in a manner that touches someone else?
Emotional conversations are never easy and I have to admit, I’ve been sort of terrible with them in my past, but I’m learning, and no matter if you need to talk to a coworker, a boss, your spouse, or your kids, what you say matters. Maybe you’re introducing something heartfelt from you for a first time to someone else, and you have been holding it in for so long, it’s hard to know where to start. Or in my case, the topic is so difficult, you feel overwhelmed instantly.
1. Know what you want to say.
With my children. I read some material online first. I had to decide what I wanted to say and how others made the conversation work with their kids. I knew I wanted to be honest. I knew I needed to communicate my uncle had passed away because his body was tired. I knew I wanted my kids to know people would be sad at the funeral. Our family wouldn’t see him anymore, and it’s ok to be sad. I just didn’t know where to begin, and I definitely didn’t want my kids thinking I was sick and possibly leaving them too.
With my spouse or coworker. Same thing applies, but when you’re researching, I think it’s always best to pull from the most recent event and keep to a handful of examples. That way, you have a chance to relate back to their memory, and they won’t be so busy trying to figure out what you’re talking about, that they don’t listen to your words.
2. Delivery.
With my kids, I made sure I was completely calm. I didn’t want to talk to them when I was cooking dinner and they would be running around with their toys. I wanted to look them in the eyes. I wanted them to see my face. And the words? I thought about some simple analogies in the research I dug up: Batteries and toys. Our batteries in our toys go out and we need to replace them, and then sometimes our toys just don’t work anymore. Batteries don’t always fix them. We also talked about emotion. And when we don’t see someone we care about, how we feel sad and we want to see them. And that’s ok. It’s ok to miss someone. It’s ok to cry. And sometimes we just give hugs to make it better.
3. Time and Place to hold your discussion.
I mentioned this one above, but with my kids, we actually held three separate discussions and we built on each one, because I knew, sometimes we can become overloaded. That’s why simple is best, so we first talked about visiting Wichita. Then we talked about the reason we were visiting Wichita. The batteries. Then we talked about emotion, being sad, and the importance of hugs.
On Friday, two days before we headed out to Wichita to see my family and stay the night with my dad, my husband comes through the front door after getting home from work. My son runs down the steps to open the door for him. When my husband walks in, our son quickly says, “Daddy, Uncle Gerald passed away. His family is going to miss him and they might be sad. But it’s okay to be sad daddy.”
I couldn’t be more proud. I knew I reached him, and I knew he was ok with what had happened to Uncle Gerald. I know this topic is a bit heavy today, but life is heavy sometimes and we learn to find the positives in everything. So be kind, be thoughtful, and be helpful to others as you engage in emotional conversations. It helps others understand your world, their world, and how to bridge our world, this giant place we live.
Hugs!
Cloud Nine Girl 