Order of The Rose: Forsaken Petal Contest!!

Who wants to win an autographed paperback copy of my two books, Order of The Rose: Forsaken Petal and How To Diagnose Your Character?

A drawing will be held two weeks from today and 2 lucky winners will be the recipients of both copies.

Here's how you get an entry into the drawing (by completing each task and notifying me you will get one entry):

1. Tweet about Order of The Rose: Forsaken Petal (please include a link to Amazon).

2. Blog about Order of The Rose: Forsaken Petal (I'm more than willing to be hosted as well for either book).

3. Share Order of The Rose: Forsaken Petal on Facebook.

4. Share Order of The Rose: Forsaken Petal on Google+

5. Purchase the electronic version of Either copy.

For each day that you do this you will gain one entry.

So if you were to tweet about it every day for the next two weeks you would earn 14 entries.

Please share the contest with others.

Thanks so much for your continued support Order of The Rose: Forsaken Petal has been sitting at the 12,000 - 20,000 rank on Amazon for too long. I know with your help we can get it moved up closer to the number one spot!!

Okay so I have been gone for awhile but I have some very exciting news....Drum Role please.....

In a world where only women have been able to wield magic for centuries Tom Alerio, a young boy, soon realizes that his unique ability of wielding magic will change his life forever. Tom’s mother is forced to send him away in order to protect him from the sisterhood she belongs to. The sisterhood fear magic returning to the hands of men and seek out and kill any that do.

However, Tom learns that magic must be shared by men and women alike and in order to do this he must restore The Order of The Rose, an ancient order that controlled magic before it became corrupted. If he is unable to do this the new technologies and opposing forces will rip the world apart destroying all he has come to love and care for.

I have just published my book Order of The Rose: Forsaken Petal on Amazon you can check it out here and be the first to review it http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00I6MZ216

Check out the amazing cover completed by Ria @ Orangejar.com

Introducing Jennifer J. Chow!!!

Hi Everyone, it's good to be back!! To start off my comeback I have an amazing short vignette written by Jennifer J. Chow. Well before we get to that a little about her and her new book, The 228 Legacy.

Jennifer J. Chow, a Chinese-American, married into the Taiwanese culture. The 228 Legacy was inspired by the family stories she heard after viewing photos of a two-million-person human chain commemorating 228. She has traveled multiple times to Taiwan and visited places dedicated to the incident. Her experience with the elderly comes from a gerontology specialization at Cornell University and her geriatric social work experience. You can visit her online at jenniferjchow.com.

The 228 Legacy Book Description:

Three generations in an all-female Taiwanese family living near Los Angeles in 1980 are each guarding personal secrets.

Grandmother Silk finds out that she has breast cancer, as daughter Lisa loses her job, while pre-teen granddaughter Abbey struggles with a school bully. When Silk’s mysterious past comes out—revealing a shocking historical event that left her widowed—the truth forces the family to reconnect emotionally and battle their problems together.

A novel of cultural identity and long-standing secrets, The 228 Legacy weaves together multigenerational viewpoints, showing how heritage and history can influence individual behavior and family bonds.

Buy it here at amazon.com.

Now on to an amazing piece by Jennifer J. Chow!

Hey, Beautiful

My favorite part of the evening arrived after consuming the elaborate Chinese New Year feast.  Roast duck, shark fin soup, thousand-year-old egg.  Per tradition, every family member was handed a thin gold strip of paper and a permanent marker.   We stood around my parents’ rickety porch under the twinkling Christmas lights, reflecting on the past year and scribbling down our future hopes.  After we finished writing, we marched to the back of the yard, unbolted a door hidden by trumpet vine flowers, and snuck into the adjacent country club, heading toward the man-made lake.

My dad, the last to arrive, lugged a huge box filled with paper lanterns and a kerosene can.  We dipped our papers into the fuel.  My mother handed out the matches.  We lit the golden strips and placed them in the containers on the count of three.  The dazzling procession of sky lanterns floated upward, casting a brilliant glow on the water below. 

We didn’t tell each other our wishes or even admit them to ourselves.  My pen wrote down, “I hope to be beautiful,” and the sentence surprised me.  I hadn’t thought about my looks since the sixth grade, when I hid my flat feet beneath long flowing skirts and begged for contacts and a set of Invisalign braces.    

I watched my lantern float away on the soft breeze, my words turning into ashes. 

“Come on, beautiful,” I heard my dad whisper.  I turned towards him, smiling in the darkness at his uncanny ability to read my mind.  Then I saw him put his arm around my mother, who stood beside me, and say, “Let’s go back.”