Monday, August 26, 2013

Virtual Romance: Avoiding the Date from Hell by Miss Know It All

Shattered Love © Jwissing | Dreamstime.com


Online dating is one of the many alternatives to the real world when it comes to meeting someone. However, once you encounter an individual on the Internet and start texting, chatting or emailing, some behaviors will alert you to be extra careful before setting up a true date.

You do not get to know someone by chatting, texting or e-mailing. People who come over as polite or charming online may not have good intentions and could end up being a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde or a person with deadly intentions. The last thing you want is to find yourself facing the date from hell or possibly being physically hurt.

Follow these tips while establishing an online relationship. Remember, you know nothing about this person; he or she is just a stranger behind a computer screen.

Never provide personal or financial information about you or your family.

If someone sends you sexually explicit text or emails, think twice before inviting him or her to your home on the first date.

If you plan to meet someone for the first time, never get into his or her car or meet in an isolated location.

Watch a person who goes overboard to impress you.

Because you are captivated by your date, take heed if your associates do not take to him or her on the first or second meeting. Your friends are on the outside looking in, can see more and may have a clearer head when it comes to seeing the warning signs.

Do not provide your address until you get to know the person.

If your first date is to a club or restaurant, have a friend arrive at the site so that he or she can keep an eye on you two from a distance.

Check a person’s background before establishing any type of relationship.

Avoid alcoholic beverages on your first date. You want to keep a clear head.

Always keep your cell phone with you when on a date. Do not leave it in your car. You may need to make an important call or do a fast exodus because you sense the date is not going the way you expected. You can say, “I have to check on my elderly parent. I am sorry, but I must cut this date short.”

If you can think of any other ways to protect yourself on a first date, let us know in the comment box.

Monday, August 19, 2013

Introducing Gregory Delaurentis, Author of Cover of Darkness




BLURB 

A high profile murder of a Wall Street executive in Westchester pits three people against the criminal underbelly of Manhattan nightlife. The key players are two ex-cops turned private investigators—Kevin Whitehouse, whose sharpest tool is his keen analytical mind, and David Allerton, a former Special Forces operative—and Margaret Alexander, Kevin’s lover. In their search for a killer, they are forced to travel to the edge of sanity and morality, while stumbling onto their own confusing secrets as well. The Cover of Darkness is a gritty noir saga that untangles a web of deceit in the course of tracking down a brutal murderer.


EXCERPT


The pool area was wide and reflected the sun on this hot summer day. It was edged with white marble so polished that it looked like pearl. Deck chairs lined the sides of the long pool, which was two lengths more than Olympic-sized. Outside the deck area was the carpeted lawn of the vast backyard, dappled with sun.

Hugh Osterman walked along the side of the pool wearing a heavy terry cloth robe and sandals. In his right hand, he held a martini glass. He ran his left hand through his sandy sun-streaked hair as he looked over his shoulder at the man following him.

“What’s going on? I don’t get it,” Osterman said, stopping at the end of the pool where the flotation chairs were kept.

“They said no,” the man replied. Considering the backdrop, he was incongruously dressed in a dark suit and tie.

“They said no . . . just like that?”

Osterman sat his drink down on the marble surface, and pushed a flotation chair into the deep end of the pool, sending it out and away. Then he peeled off the robe and dove smoothly into the water, emerging next to the floating chair.

“You go back and tell them that we aren’t pleased,” Osterman said sternly, pulling himself up and into the seat of the chair. “You tell them that Hugh Osterman wants to know what’s holding things up—what the problem is.”

The suit just stood at the edge of the pool, opening his jacket against the heat of the day. Osterman paddled to the side, and reached out and retrieved his martini glass. “I take it you have nothing to say about this?” he persisted, despite the other man’s silence.

The suit shook his head.

“Well, what are you waiting for?” Osterman said as he tipped the glass up to his lips. Suddenly, the bottom of the stem shattered. Osterman gurgled as he dropped the glass, blood bubbling from his mouth, an open tear in his neck. He jolted upright in the chair as the suit closed the distance between them, his Colt .38 Super still trained on its victim, its silencer smoldering.

Osterman slowly sat back as the suit pumped more rounds into Osterman’s bare, well-defined chest—the hot shells of his pistol ejecting out and striking the surface of the water, settling to the bottom. His life ended as his body tumbled from the floating chair, his blood a widening crimson slick roughly in the area where his body slipped through.

The suit popped his clip, slipped in a new one, and headed for the sprawling house.

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One randomly chosen commenter will win a $50 Amazon/BN gift card, a Rafflecopter giveaway


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AUTHOR INFORMATION 

Gregory Delaurentis spent his adult life roaming from job to job, working for Lockheed in California, various law firms in New York, and financial firms on Wall Street. Throughout this period of time, he was writing—unceasingly—finally producing a large body of work, albeit unrecognized and unpublished . . . until now. Cover of Darkness is the first in a series of upcoming books that include Edge of Darkness, Pale of Darkness and Cries of Darkness. These novels follow the lives of three individuals who do battle bringing criminals to justice, while they struggle to understand the complex relationships that exist among themselves. This intriguing trio has absorbed the attention of Mr. Delaurentis for the past year and a half, so much so he decided to self-publish their stories to bring them to a wider audience.

[AUTHOR’S DISCLAIMER: These are works of fiction. Name, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.]


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Monday, August 12, 2013

Must Read Books for Your Reading Pleasure


If you are looking for great books to add to your reading repertoire, we have listed two of our favorite stories from finding love on the Internet, to murder, and forbidden love.



Next Time Lucky: How to Find Your Mr. Right by Siggy Buckley.

Cherie, a 40-something divorcĂ©e from Dublin, Ireland, is on the rebound, looking for a soul mate the second time round. Love @ first click is intoxicating but she soon learns that today's mate selection rituals have become much more complicated than kissing a few frogs. This new edition has an appendix packed with dating tips and invaluable information for online daters, based on the author’s expertise as a dating counselor and an internet-dating pioneer.

Buy Links



Backdoor Tales: Tears of the Serpent and September Love 
by SaBrowny Rae.

Explore the journey of the heart as you turn the pages of Backdoor Tales. Discover an unusual tale that links heaven and hell as Tears of the Serpent unveils the journey of a demon, reborn into human form in order to experience love…Follow through the forbidden love between a slave girl and a young man torn by jealousy, betrayal, and deception in September Love.

Buy Links

Monday, August 05, 2013

Meet Myckelle Williams, Author of Choosing the Road Less Traveled: Finding Grace on the Path to Purpose

Myckelle Williams, Author

On her Virtual Book Tour, Myckelle Williams has stopped by to give you a preview of her book: Choosing the Road Less Traveled: Finding Grace on the Path to Purpose.


About The Book


Born in an environment of drugs, sex, broken relationships, and parental neglect, 18-year-old Myckelle Williams eventually faced a major crossroads in her own life, and the prospect of becoming a statistic, as a desperate teenager unexpectedly pregnant with her second unplanned child.  Like so many young women across America, she found herself literally at a ‘fork in the road’ while travelling life’s path.  Myckelle soon discovers that each choice in life come with a heavy price to pay, and is forced to decide whether or not to end her unplanned pregnancy. You will be amazed as Myckelle tells how one uncommon act of unselfish love by total strangers helped her to discover forgiveness, break generations of dysfunction, and walk away from destructive cycles that enabled her to change her life, and family, from the inside out.

Join Myckelle on a journey of hope, healing, and finding love in unexpected places, that include powerful life lessons for the reader with each new chapter. By pulling from Robert Frost’s poem, ‘The Road Not Taken’, you will be led on a journey of self- discovery, forgiveness, and the impact of everyday choices.  Her story of faith, courage, and victory over circumstance, contains powerful illustrations for women of all ages, races, and backgrounds, which provide guidance in creating new traditions and generational patterns in your own family, as well as breaking old strongholds and family patterns that threaten to keep you and your children from the Purpose that God intended. As she struggles with often agonizing acceptance of the consequences of her own choices, you too will be inspired to reflect on your own past decisions, and through her heartache learn about the miracle of life’s true purpose...and discover the unconditional reality of God’s unfailing love.



Book Excerpt
PROLOGUE

Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. Before you were born, I set you apart for my holy purpose...I appointed you to be a prophet to the nations.
~Jeremiah 1:5

“I’d like to make an appointment...for an abortion.”

Desperation and shame filled my voice, and I hoped the lady on the other end didn’t know me or my parents.

“How many weeks are you? When was your last period?” The lady on the other end asks, seemingly not surprised, sounding more annoyed than anything else.

I gave her the dates she requested, asking “How much will that cost?”
Annoyed sigh. “You are fourteen-and-a-half weeks. Well, the process will be much longer because you are further along, but it will be $375 total.”

“Do you take Medicaid?”

“Yes.”

“When can I come in?

“Tuesday at 8 a.m.

“Do I need to bring anything?”

“Just your money, or Medicaid card, proof of pregnancy. And a ride home.”

I hung up and looked at my boyfriend. How were we going to afford that? We could barely afford to take care of our eleven month old son, the child I had had less than a year ago at age seventeen. “It’s cool.” He told me. “My sister has Medicaid. We can use her card. You just use her name and info.”


About The Author

Myckelle P Williams, co-founder of B.L.O.G. Magazine™, host of 'BLOGTalk Live!' monthly Christian radio show, and creator of the Heartwood Project™ for Women, lives in Tennessee with her husband of 20 years. She is the mother of 6 children and two grandchildren. Once a teen mother who overcame the odds, Myckelle helps empower women to overcome the traumas of their past, and mentors young women over the country. She was featured on "Joy in our Town" on TBN Network, for her development of the PURE Satisfaction™ Abstinence Program in Atlanta in 2009. She is the author of the book 'Choosing the Road Less Traveled: Finding Grace on the Path to Purpose,’ which is now available on amazon.com. For more information about her upcoming Heartwood Project™ Seminars, you can reach Myckelle at myckelle@mpowermentww.org


Connect with the Author