Tuesday, September 14, 2021

⭐Pump Up Your Book Virtual Book Tour Kick Off⭐Little Giants: 10 Hispanic Women Who Made History by Raynelda Calderon #Hispanic #biography #juvenile #kidlit⭐

Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month by reading a short collection of biographies about Hispanic women and the impact they made in the world!


By Raynelda Calderon

LITTLE GIANTS: 10 HISPANIC WOMEN WHO MADE HISTORY, Juvenile Biography, Cavena Press, Inc., 64 pp.



Little Giants: 10 Hispanic Women Who Made History is a short collection of biographies about Hispanic women and the impact they made in the world. Some of the women featured in this book are iconic figures such as ballet dancer Alicia Alonso; others are less known heroines such as indigenous leader Dolores Cacuango, founder of the first bilingual school in Ecuador. Beautiful illustrations accompany the text to bring these women to life and inspire the young generation of readers to be leaders tomorrow.

This book is a great resource to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month by reading about the history and accomplishments of these courageous women and their contributions in Latin America.

PRAISE

“This is what every Hispanic household needs. Finally a powerful book that we can share with our next generation ( and even adults).” – Amazon reviewer






Alicia Alonso

International Ballet Legend

Can you imagine being a dancer and going almost blind all of a sudden? How would you dance if you could barely see? This is what happened to Alicia Alonso, one of the greatest ballet dancers in history.

Born in Havana, Cuba on December 21, 1922, Alicia began to dance when she was only nine years old, and she made her first presentation in the ballet Sleeping Beauty. At 16, she moved to New York, where she started to be well-known and praised

as a rising ballet star.

Just when her career was starting to take off, Alicia began having sight problems when the retinas of her eyes detached. She underwent surgery to correct the problem and was ordered to spend three months in bed. Can you imagine being in bed for three months without being able to move?

When the blindfolds were removed, Alicia was disappointed that the operation had not worked and she still could not see. Determined not to give up, she underwent a second surgery, again without success. After these two failed surgeries, the doctors gave up and told her that she would never be able to completely see again. Alicia felt very sad. How was she going to be able to dance?

Instead of accepting the medical diagnosis, Alicia went to Cuba to undergo a third surgery; this time, she was ordered to rest for an entire year! During that time, she was not supposed to move her head, laugh, cry, or eat anything hard. She had to lie completely still, like a corpse!

When at last Alicia was able to move again, she returned to New York. Although she had not yet fully recovered, she accepted the lead role in a famous production called Giselle. Her performance was a success! Although she would eventually regain her sight, she could mostly see shadow.

Alicia became one of the best dancers in history. She danced in the most famous ballets of the world and won many awards, such as the coveted Dance Magazine Award. She became a prima ballerina assoluta, a rare honor given only to the very best ballerinas. 














Raynelda Calderon grew up in the Dominican Republic, on a healthy diet of romance novels, comic strips, Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s books, and the strict watch of her mother. She has a doctorate in leadership in higher education and works as a public librarian.

As a librarian, working with children inspires her to write about the accomplishments of Hispanics in history. She hopes to inspire young readers to follow their passions.

Raynelda lives in New York with an untamed Shih Tzu, Toby, and a much attached Chihuahua, Maya. She spends her free time thinking (and drafting) about books to write, or painting, crocheting, or crying over abused dogs.

You can visit her website at rayneldacalderon.com. Connect with her on Facebook and Instagram.











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Sunday, September 12, 2021

⭐Pump Up Your Book Virtual Book Tour Kick Off⭐A History of the Goddess by Edward Dodge @goddesshistory #goddess #AHistoryoftheGoddess #Mythology #Nonfiction⭐

 

The world today is in flux and many people are rediscovering the Feminine Divine, she is an important part of our collective experience... 



By Edward Dodge

A HISTORY OF THE GODDESS: FROM THE ICE AGE TO THE BIBLE, Mythology/Nonfiction, Trine Day Books, 472 pp.



This book explores the Goddess worshipping traditions that were always a part of human spirituality but were eliminated in the Bible on the path to monotheism. There is an unexplored narrative in the Bible, the early Israelites were pagan and God had a wife, her name is Asherah and she appears many times in the Bible. The Earthly Mother and the Heavenly Father were the original gods far back in history and they got a divorce in the Old Testament so that God could rule alone. But the Earthly Mother never went away and we can follow her traditions through Christianity and into the modern world.

The religious wars of the past that eliminated these women-led Goddess religions are directly reflected in today’s culture wars where the secular left is struggling to break free of the moral dictates of religious conservatives. In the Goddess temples of antiquity, we see unbridled feminism, egalitarianism, nature worship, sexual freedom for women and gays, cannabis and sacred plants, transgendered people as high priests, even abortions. The world today is in flux and many people are rediscovering the Feminine Divine, she is an important part of our collective experience.










Edward Dodge is a clean energy developer and writer from Washington D.C. with degrees from Cornell University. He studied the history of cannabis which provided the origins of this book.

You can visit his website at www.historyofthegoddess.com and his blog at  https://edwarddodge.substack.com.

You can visit his YouTube page at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCewtIeQPSqOxs25IP0Np6g

Connect with Edward at Twitter and Facebook.











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Thursday, September 2, 2021

⭐A Bookish Conversation with 'My Feats in These Shoes' Dr. Ronda Beaman⭐ #interview


Dr. Ronda Beaman has been Chief Creative Officer for the global research and solution firm PEAK Learning, Inc., since 1990. As a national award-winning educator, Dr. Beaman is Clinical Professor of Leadership at The Orfalea School of Business, California Polytechnic University. She is Founder and Executive Director of Dream Makers SLO, a non-profit foundation granting final wishes to financially- challenged, terminally-ill adults, and serves on the Board of Directors for the National Pay It Forward Foundation. She was recently named a Stanford Fellow at the Distinguished Career Institute.

Her national award-winning book, You’re Only Young Twice, has been printed in five languages. Her memoir, Little Miss Merit Badge, was an Amazon bestseller and was featured at The Golden Globe Awards. Her children’s book, Seal With a Kiss, is designed to improve skills for beginning readers and is offered at Lindamood-Bell Learning Centers internationally. My Feats in These Shoes will be released in Spring 2021.

Dr. Beaman is an internationally recognized expert on leadership, resilience, fitness, education, and life coaching. She has conducted research in a host of areas, written many academic articles and books, and won numerous awards. She was selected by the Singapore Ministry of the Family as their honored Speaker of the Year and named the first recipient of the National Education Association’s “Excellence in the Academy: Art of Teaching” award. She has been selected as a faculty resource for the Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO) university in Argentina, Kyoto and India, where she received the highest speaker ratings among 36 elite faculty. She has been featured on major media including CBS and Fox Television, USA Today, and is a national thought leader for American Health Network.

Dr. Beaman earned her doctorate in Leadership at Arizona State University. She is also a certified executive coach and personal trainer with multiple credentials from the Aerobic Research Center. Her family was named “America’s Most Creative Family” by USA Today and she won the SCW National Fitness Idol competition.

WEBSITE & SOCIAL LINKS:

WEBSITE | INSTAGRAM

WEBSITE | TWITTER | FACEBOOK




Did you pursue publishers or did you opt to self-pub? I sent a book proposal in a shoe box to publishers, keeping my fingers and toes crossed.

If published by a publisher, what was your deciding factor in going with them? I sent the proposal to publishers I thought would be receptive to an upbeat, happy person’s memoir, and Adelaide fit the bill.

If published by a publisher, are you happy with the price they chose? I would like to be able to give it away, as I think it will help a lot of people realize they can make their lives what they choose, but for a price, I think it’s fair.

Did you purposefully choose a distinct month to release your book? No.  

How did you choose your cover? The publisher designed it, with my shoe wall at home in mind.

Did you write your book, then revise or revise as you went? I wrote it all, first draft, then went back 5 times though to revise. Writing is really re-writing.

Did you come up with special swag for your book and how are you using it to help get the word out about your book?  I have, so far. Bookmarks and shoe horns..I give them away at signings, leave them with tips at dinner, give them to people I run across in airplanes, stores, etc.

Did you consider making or hiring someone to make a book trailer for your book?  If so, what’s the link? A friend did this for me: https://youtu.be/CVARnSlY1Og

What’s your opinion on giving your book away to sell other copies of your book? See answer about book price, give them away!

What are three of the most important things you believe an author should do before their book is released? Create a launch team, gift your launch team, plan a signing party with your launch team.

What are three of the most important things you believe an author should do after their book is released? Get reviews on Amazon, take copies with you wherever you go, be proud that you accomplished this!

What kind of pre-promotion did you do before the book came out?  I worked on an Instagram site.

Do you have a long term plan with your book? No, just to enjoy this current ride.

What would you like to say to your readers and fans about your book? There are no emotional bunions in My Feats in These Shoes…this book is all about  resilience, grit and the desire to make your life a page turner!

Inside the Book


Title: MY FEATS IN THESE SHOES: A SOLELY ORIGINAL MEMOIR
Author: Ronda Beaman
Publisher: Adelaide Books, NYC
Pages: 190
Genre: Memoir / Inspiration

BOOK BLURB:

If memoirs, done right, tap the right sort of personal journey to ignite fresh insight and inspiration into the human journey, then what better way to humorously and poignantly illuminate the sequential steps and stages of life than with shoes?

“My Feats in These Shoes” is an exuberantly spunky woman’s spirited and irrepressible romp—slips, missteps, leaps, scuffs, and twirls—toward becoming something bigger, something better, something more.

Far from serving up trauma porn (or emotional bunions), this memoir is an upbeat, humorous, affectionate and affecting coming of age memoir that ends each chapter with a ‘Put Yourself in My Shoes’ section for readers to consider their own strides in pursuing an out of the shoe box life.

ORDER YOUR COPY

Amazon → https://amzn.to/2UjPvgX










Wednesday, September 1, 2021

⭐Pump Up Your Book Virtual Book Tour Kick Off⭐THE WILLING by Lindsay Lees #dystopian⭐

 

Welcome to Ovoidia where every woman can be approached for immediate sex by any man…




By Lindsay Lees


Title: THE WILLING
Author: Lindsay Lees
Publisher: Independent
Pages: 299
Genre: Dystopian



In less than a year, fifteen-year-old Gypsy Capone will be considered a woman in Ovoidia, a “utopian” city-state where every woman can be approached for immediate sex by any man, where curving architecture adds weird whimsy, sporks are the only cutlery, and true intimacy between the genders is a sign of suspect subversion. After all, if a woman just plays along, she’ll also do her job and have children, with the reward of a fine home in the “Communities,” where she and the other “Mamas” live together in harmony with everything they need. Right?

The irony: Diam and Isis, the two leaders of Ovoidia, are themselves females. Fun, yes! And just below the surface, perversely sinister. They personally execute these precise sacrifices by women to establish their “happy,” absurdly totalitarian utopia, and are backed up by their chosen army of male “crusaders,” enforcing a crime-free, fully controlled society.

Men are relegated to work in the “City” where they may “enjoy”—right there on the street if they wish—any woman they want and are welcome to satisfy their sexual and emotional needs at establishments called Gaje Clubs where only the most “gifted” among women are chosen to work.

Not surprisingly, in Ovoidia women have evolved until they feel nothing of sexual pleasure. But in Gypsy’s deepest heart, she realizes her own dark secret: she is the exception. Next she discovers to her horror that her secret, if known, could result in the ultimate punishment—genital mutilation.

To save her body and even her soul, Gypsy chooses a dangerous path—to single-handedly confront this scary and absurd world. She has the support of her allegiant sister Sadie and Miles Devine, a rogue, secretly gay crusader, and also “Doctor,” a morally questionable physician to help her. But none of them fathom the levels of paradox, incongruity, and twisted evil they will soon face, and the ride becomes something even Gypsy could have never imaged.

PRAISE

The Willing is stunning in its brutality as well as its sensitivity! Absolute must read. We all have a piece of Gypsy in us. We must consider our potential future as women now with eyes wide open.”–Amazon Reviewer

“The Willing is an unusually deep commentary on a malignant dysfunction in our society, dressed in fishnet utopian stockings. While the premise and its sensual details push the boundaries of belief, a community that is ostensibly focused on the greater good but is governed by fear and hypocrisy fits perfectly in the dystopian genre. Gypsy’s character is flawed and immature in many ways, but her shield-like honesty is refreshing among a sea of conformists. A rather feminist piece filled with satire on the state of equality, The Willing is weighty and serious in its message, and sad in its reflection of how women are treated in our modern world. For a change from the norm, Lindsay Lees provides a gripping story that will have you thinking deeply about the importance of the relationships in your life.”–Jennifer Jackson from IndiesToday.com






In a basement meeting room of the Head Gaje’s oval-spiral Headquarters, an arched doorway slid open. Doctor Gino’s tired, wrinkled eyes also bolted open; he had only been resting them. He’d practically been dragged from his bed, after all. Ovoidia’s Chief Crusader, Rigby Katz, entered the hermetical, bleach-white room holding his round helmet, nestled under his thick, toned arm. Eyes bright and vigilant—a caffeine glow—he must have only just finished his shift, Doctor thought. He had been a Crusader for over thirty years but had the good fortune of not appearing his age. Rigby scanned the room like a robot from Robocop or Terminator, one of the Pre-Ultimate Revolution movies. After completing a thorough assessment, he surveyed the white leather office chair where Doctor sat with his liver-spotted hands folded on the round table. 

"Oh good. I'm not the first to arrive." Crusader Katz clomped in wearing heavy black boots, clean as the day they were made. "Gives me anxiety waiting around, wondering if I'm at the right place. Easy to get lost down here."

A round clock above the arched doorway swept past the seconds. It was almost three A.M. Doctor hadn’t expected the tribunal meeting to take place so late.

"Do you know why we're having the meeting now?" Doctor asked, casually.

Rigby regarded Doctor with amusement, rather like the way a mama looks at her child when she asks where babies come from. "Yes, the Head Gajes had an inauguration party to attend.”

Doctor yawned. So much for not having time to get a coffee.

Crusader Katz removed a piece of spearmint gum and his cell phone from his utility belt. He owned the newest model, a razor-thin silver flip-phone with a peek window on the front. When he flipped it open, the interior buttons reflected electric blue on his milky eyes. Doctor didn't know why cell phones required upgrades. So long as they served their primary function who cared what they looked like?

Crusader Katz snapped the phone shut and shoved it back in his belt. "No service." He sighed.

"We're too far down," Doctor said, pleased with himself.

The steady hum of an air purifier oscillated from a corner. A few stray bubbles burped in a standing water cooler. Doctor eased a ballpoint pen from his lab coat and hovered it over the table, pinching the cap to make sure it was firmly secured. He was forever spilling ink or coffee on the ubiquitous white leather.

“I forgot my notepad,” Doctor said, surprised at his error. While most communications in Ovoidia were transcribed digitally, Doctor preferred to handwrite his notes for archival purposes.

He experienced nostalgia for the tactile fluidity the pen afforded the fingers. “Do you happen to have an extra pad or a piece of paper?” he asked Crusader Katz.

Just then, the meeting room door opened to the heady scent of a dozen steamed bouquets, as though the Head Gajes had bathed in the buckets of wilting flowers being sold on the streets in the mid-day heat. Diam, the eldest of the Head Gajes strolled, chin up, into the room. Her stilettos tapped like hail on glass as she walked across the marble floor. She wore a black satin skirt flared above her knee. Her skin shone, glossy and supple. Isis, the younger Head Gaje, teetered in behind her, gripping a round red lollipop on a white stick.
















Lindsay Lees is originally from Los Angeles and holds dual citizenship in the U.S. and the United Kingdom, and while growing up and later in college, she split her time between the two countries. Lindsay earned a B.A. in 2008 from Manchester Metropolitan University, and next an M.F.A.in Creative Writing from California College of the Arts. 

The Willing is Lindsay’s debut novel. She currently lives a quiet Southern life with her husband and a houseful of pets. 

Visit her website or connect with her at FACEBOOK and GOODREADS.








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