First Word

Rating: **** The only reason I removed a star from my rating is because the third episode wasn't that exciting. Otherwise, this show continues to hit a home run. What stands out is author and screenwriter Elena Ferrante's alter ego (sometimes referred to in the show as Elena and Lenú) is like this intense, intelligent observer of life around her in the neighborhood in which she grew up and of the people and relationships. The silent way in which Elena watches everyone almost expressionless at times is intriguing. Her adoration and love of her best friend Lila reflects her deep intelligence and understanding of others. At one point when Lila is sick, Elena reflects that she feels a part of her is missing. I was deeply moved by that admission. The show (so far) breaks down the girl's friendship and how each inspires a competitive desire to be better than the other; but this competition brings out the best in them. They aren't competing for men, but for educational e...

“I am rolling out of bed now.” “Good because you have to be at the Habitat for Humanity in two hours. You also told me you wanted to pick up Charlie too.” Hearing his name, Ella grumbled, “Oh no. I drunk texted him.” “You texted me a picture with your sister saying you missed me after I had left early,” explained Nancy. “Then you asked if I could give you a raise, which I think you meant to tell me you were going to give me a raise. So spill it girlfriend before I have to rai se the troops here aka kids.” Ella filled her in. “If he didn’t think I liked him before, well…” Buy print version here: http://3lpublishing.flyingcart.com/?p=detail&pid=92&cat_id=0 Ebooks available on Amazon Kindle and Nook.

Book reviews are important, and they help attract new readers. You will want book reviews for three reasons:   No. #1 - Spread the word about your book and get your name known as an author . The most important part of getting reviewed beyond even sales is to establish your name as an author. The more recognizable your name bodes well for future sales of more books. You have to think of overall momentum. Your first book may not be a best seller, but the more people who at least read it or see your name may have an important reaction for your second book: "Hey! Don't I know this name already? Didn't she/he write..." Of course, the desired second response is  curiosity to see what the current book is about and the third result, he/she buys it. Name recognition is like star power. Just having a recognizable name on your book is more likely to provoke future sales of other books.   No. #2 - Earn credibility - this one is important, especially for inde...

This comes out of Our Daily Fred (sign up for his fantastic newsletter at fred@ourdailyfred.net): Today's thoughts are taken from The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George: Habit is a vain and treacherous goddess. She lets nothing disrupt her rule. She smothers one desire after another: the desire to travel, the desire for a better job or a new love. She stops us from living as we would like, because habit prevents us from asking ourselves whether we continue to enjoy doing what we do. On the flipside some habits are winners! My other author Lance Casazza has the answer to, "What habits are good ones?" Both books are available at: http://3lpublishing.flyingcart.com/

Rating: **** Queen's music is the music of my generation. The songs reminded me of the days of sitting in the high school gym stomping to "We will rock you" during the pep rallies. I knew vaguely about some of the band's highlights, and so when the film starts and wraps on the iconic Live Aide concert, I wasn't surprised. I took my daughter to see the movie a bit wary about home much sex she might be exposed to (she's a teenager), and I was pleased to see the movie makers treated it tastefully even though they could have been more specific. The kissing and party scenes were well done. The movie focuses on Mercury's personal life and sexual demons showing his great flamboyance and dramatic flair while depicting his vulnerabilities and pain. His tearful announcement to the "love of his life" that he's bisexual broke my heart. You could see he loved her very much and was throughout his life devoted to her, but also it was easy to underst...

Rating: ***** Ella, the sharp public relations expert, and Charles Grady, the hot, handsome, bad boy movie star, meet and the sparks instantly fly. As Ella works to repair her bad boy's public image, she finds herself falling deeply in love with the sexy Charlie. Charlie falls for the sweet, smart, loving Ella -- and soon the bad boy is tamed. Love though sometimes isn't quite that easy. On the eve of their wedding, tragedy strikes in the most unthinkable way. Ella must make a heart-breaki ng choice... Minnie and Henry, Ella's grandparents, also share a deep love during the 60's while under the shadow of the Vietnam War. Henry is sent off to war and leaves his beautiful, loyal wife Minnie behind. When he returns, things are never the same. When tragedy also strikes their marriage, the aftermath leaves Minnie's life in ruins. Yet she survives and goes on... Public Affairs is an intergenerational story of true love, family, loyalty, trage...

Q: WHAT IS PUBLIC AFFAIRS ABOUT? A: Public Affairs is an intergenerational story of true love, family, loyalty, tragedies, and overcoming the unthinkable. It's a story about the choices we make out of love and resilience. Readers will laugh and cry and not be able to put this book down. Q: WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO WRITE THIS BOOK? A: When asked the question “what is family?” I get a variety of responses. One answer that has always intrigued me is kinship care. This refers to a family member or family friend that is raising a child that is not biologically theirs. As a mother, my journey started at a young age and I relied on my parents to help me raise my eldest son. It is through this model, in which I was able to accomplish earning my degrees and following my dreams. Pulling from my own personal experience, I was able to shape and tell a story through the eyes of the characters about how important family ties can remain strong when life brings you daunti...

Let's discuss an important topic when it comes to publishing a book - building your following . Many of my authors aspire to either traditionally publish their next books or attract the attention of our foreign rights agents (we have two of them). Key to both opportunities is a strong following to justify the acquisition or overseas sale of the book. So what tips and tricks can you apply to your marketing and promotion to build aforementioned following?   The easiest way to build a following is social media . Social media has different affects: it can justify the case to the agents or traditional publishers. What if your sales aren't commensurate with your following, though? Well, if you have book fan page with thousands of fans, then you can show the potential of followers interested in what you're doing. Every little bit helps. And remember this one important factor: PUBLISHERS ARE A BUSINESS! A SURE THING IS THE ONE THING THEY WANT TO INVEST IN . Pleas...

So let's talk book promotion and persistence and finding the "right" promotional channel. I recently had this discussion about best-selling books. We've had many books go No. #1 on Amazon over the years; but there is no formula for what promotional strategy works. Some publicists might say there is a cookie-cutter formula to going no. #1, and I'm here to tell you that is a load of "boo-rap" (new word for "crap" in publishing LOL). Boo-rap comes from shady publishers trying to sell inexperienced authors on high-priced publishing packages with false promises of going no. #1 based on their supposed concept. Want to hear how those publishers can make those false promises? They usually jerry rig Amazon by doing some promotion with their system by doing an in-house promotion that boosts sales just enough to make a book fly up the rankings. Is that a real best seller? Will the sales be sustainable? Because one-day rankings don't he...

Frequently Asked Questions Q: What is The World Premiere of Me About ? A : Hollywood billionaire movie producer Grayson O’Day has a plan to rid the world of poverty through the power of imagination.   He relocates his operation from Hollywood to The Hamptons, and spends a small fortune to build a prototype movie studio.   With construction complete, O’Day needs only one thing to fulfill his vision: a test subject.   The World Premiere of Me is the story of Duncan Ferris and his unlikely journey from classic underachiever to forerunner of the final age of man: The Age of Mind.   The broad theme of the story is: God has a plan to rid the world of poverty, and that plan travels through the imagination of man.   The story is told as an allegory, wherein all the main characters represent one aspect of the theme.   These include Grayson O’Day (God), protagonist Duncan Ferris (man), antagonist Fenton Hardaway (death), and Bud “The Co...

THE “AGE OF MIND” SHINES LIGHT ON THE MASSES The World Premiere of Me in the spirit of contemporary movies like The Shack takes readers on a tour de force of the power of the mind. May 1, 2018, SACRAMENTO, Calif.—School shootings, negative political news, and an overall heaviness have invaded our society. Sometimes we need to be reminded that these gray clouds hanging over our world don’t have to define our lives. That when we use the power of our minds, we can create anything our imaginations can dream. The power of the mind is limitless – and the new fiction book The World Premiere of Me by Fred Ford suggests we are at the dawn of a new age – the “Age of Mind”. This unique “self-enlightenment” tale is written as a fictional story much like recent movies The Shack or The Alchemist that are simultaneously a story and a nonfiction message that contains “soul nuggets” to inspire readers to use their minds to their fullest. Think and Grow Rich meets The Wizard of Oz...

Grains of Truth Elizabeth Ferry-Perata 3L Publishing (2017) ISBN 9780996677691 Reviewed by Carol Hoyer for Reader Views (3/18) “Grains of Truth” by Elizabeth Ferry-Perata revolves around a small town in Texas where two friends learn to deal with the reality in life that no matter what they do, it will never be good enough for some. Each friend has their own past history of dysfunctional families, relationships and learning to accept that one can’t change everything. Sarah and Zoe are best friends fighting all the odds against them, especially in the perception of their “feed store” help label. According to Otis, owner of Otis Feed Store, both his female employees are the lowest of the low, and have no right to act like they are anything else. Tom, Otis’s son, has no back bone when it comes to standing up against his father. The plan is for Tom to marry Angela, daughter of another rich businessman so both fathers’ can merge their business interests. I found the initial intent of th...

I get asked all of the time how I write my novels and my techniques. I am a unique writer in this way. I don't have a specific technique. I write straight from my imagination and allow the words to pour on the page. It's how my brain works. I can't really give "my" method an explanation. I like to think of it like a pipeline from the Universe to my brain. Maybe it's much like those math people who can look at a problem and solve it in their heads. It works in their minds. If I look at a math formula it looks Greek to me.   What I do tell writers is to develop their own process - the one that works for them. I can though provide some tips on how to develop "a" process. So, I thought I would share some ideas I've read about that other writers use.   Create a cast list and give each character a back-story and history . Describe their lives outside of the book. You don't have to use this information in the story, but it wil...

What if all of the speculation about the Great Pyramid of Giza being constructed by otherworldly beings were true. What if the Great Pyramid of Giza and the other pyramids found throughout the world all had been built by aliens as part of a world power grid? What if these aliens still lived among us, and something very sinister was going on – a conflict so big it involved other beings from other worlds. In fact, not just a conflict in this space and time, but a multidimensional war that spanned thousands of years and existed in layers between time, space, and dreams. What if WE are those aliens? In the new science fiction tale Children of the Guardians by DB Stearns, the second book in the Harmonic Wars series, the author takes readers on a fantastic adventure into a multidimensional world where a great intergalactic war is about to break out. In a story spanning different points in time, other worlds, and different dimensions, Stearns paints an incredibly de...

SAYA FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS Q: What is Stop Acting Your Age about? A : Think about it like a reality producer comes to your town to do a show on aging and casts YOU to play yourself 10 to 15 years younger than your ​birth age. The book exposes the truth about the myths and misconceptions ​of aging. Then Baby Boomers, Elders and Seniors are walked through a system to create the script they’ll use to stop being an “extra” in their play of life and instead be the star. Q: Why did you write Stop Acting Your Age ? A: ​ When​ I start​ed feeling invisible, that was when ​I realized​ I was aging. As an acting coach, I noticed the younger actors weren’t really listening to me anymore. I felt frustrated and depressed. It seemed I was becoming what many people describe as a “grumpy old fart​”. People thought I wasn’t cool anymore. I stopped getting casting calls. I wasn’t asked to the parties. The older I got the more invisible I became. People weren’t se...