S.H.I.N.E. and WIN: 5 Keys to Conquer the Fear of Failure

Title: S.H.I.N.E. and WIN: 5 Keys to Conquer the Fear of Failure
Author: L.T. Lewis
Publisher: Kick Boxing Believers, L.L.C.
Pages: 18
Genre: Nonfiction Success/Self-Help

If you feel stuck in a mediocre life and you can’t seem to break free, be inspired by the guidance of L.T. Lewis in S.H.I.N.E. and WIN: 5 Keys to Conquer the Fear of Failure.  As a Spiritual Strategist, Coach and Entrepreneur, L.T. utilizes time-tested truths and spiritual secrets to help women identify the fears and beliefs that are keeping them boxed into an ordinary life.  To live the life you desire, rise above your obstacles, SHINE and WIN.

Launched at #8 on Amazon in Success Self Help.

S.H.I.N.E. and WIN: 5 Keys to Conquer the Fear of Failure is available at Amazon

Book Excerpt:

I am in the industry of spiritual empowerment and transformation.  I got started in this industry many years ago by accident, so to speak.  By all indicators, I was living a good life.  I had focused all of energies on advancing my career in order to adequately raise my children.  My children were young adults, and after they launched into their lives, I finally had an opportunity to sit and think; hey what would I like to do with myself now?  What would I like to do in the next stage of my life?

I had to overcome a lot of limiting beliefs in order to move forward after my divorce.  All the limiting beliefs that I had to address while I was moving up the career ladder and lost what I believed to be my dream job.  In particular the fear of failure was at the core.  The steps that I had to take repeatedly to eradicate the fear of failure and authentically live the out-of-the-box life I believe I was created to live.  I decided to turn this journey into a business, and that how Kick Boxing Believers, LLC, was born.  Along the way, I have mentored hundreds of women to do the same thing that I have done and live an authentic, transformed, and fearless, out-of-the-box life!

This book is primarily for women who have already achieved success in various areas of their lives, but they want more.  They want to live a more out-of-the-box life instead of a life others expect them to live.  They dream about doing more with their lives and creating opportunities.  After reading this book, I want you to take away that failure in not something to be feared or avoided.  Actually, when it’s viewed through the lens of faith, failure is simply a footstool to living an out-of-the-box life.

There a better way to look at fear: embrace it and use it to your advantage instead of your disadvantage.  For example, when I lost what I felt was my dream job, the situation looked like failure to me, and I also felt like a complete failure.  I had worked so hard to get that position.  After grieving over the loss, I turned to my faith and took another look at the failure I was experiencing.  This failure was merely a stepping stone to my next level of living the more authentic out-of-the-box life I desired.  Had I not lost that job, I wouldn’t have started my business.  So failure is just part of the course.

PUYB Virtual Book Club Chats with 'Macaroni and Cheese for Thanksgiving' Cheryl C. Malandrinos

Cheryl C. Malandrinos is a freelance writer and editor. She is the author of Little Shepherd and A Christmas Kindness. A blogger and book reviewer, she lives in Massachusetts with her husband and two daughters. She also has a son who is married.

WEBSITE | BLOG | TWITTER | FACEBOOK | GOODREADS

About the Book:

Ten-year-old Macy is waiting for her grandparents to arrive on

Thanksgiving. When the front door swings open, Grandma and Grandpa are covered with hugs and kisses. Crash! Everyone rushes in to find the dog gnawing a meaty turkey leg. Can Macy’s quick thinking save dinner?

Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Before you started writing your book, what kind of research did you do to prepare yourself?

I performed online research about the first Thanksgiving for this story.

Did you pursue publishers or did you opt to self-pub?

Guardian Angel Publishing (GAP), an independent publisher out of St. Louis, published Macaroni and Cheese for Thanksgiving.

If published by a publisher, what was your deciding factor in going with them?

They had published by first children’s picture book, Little Shepherd, in 2010. I love being part of the GAP family and firmly believe in their mission: change the world by investing in children, one child at a time.

If published by a publisher, are you happy with the price they chose?

GAP offers competitive pricing on their books. Paperback copies of Macaroni and Cheese for Thanksgiving are available for $9.95 and a PDF download is only $5.00. You can download the digital copy at http://www.guardianangelpublishing.com/mac-cheese.htm

Did you purposefully choose a distinct month to release your book?  Why?

The publisher dictates the release date, but because it is a Thanksgiving book it was released in November.

How did you choose your cover?

Talented artist Marina Movshina created the cover art based upon something that happens in the story. She has created artwork for numerous GAP books and I am honored she agreed to work on Macaroni and Cheese for Thanksgiving.

Did you write your book then revise or revise as you went?

Like most of my projects, I write out a first draft and then revise. It’s easier when you’re talking picture books, but I also find that I don’t accomplish as much on my longer projects when I try to revise as I go either.

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?
 

Not yet. Bookmarks are a neat idea I would like to explore. Depends on the budget if I expand to other things.

Did you consider making or hiring someone to make a book trailer for your book?  If so, what’s the link?

I’ll be producing the trailer. I used to work for Pump Up Your Book, so I am familiar with creating book trailers.

What’s your opinion on giving your book away to sell other copies of your book?

If the giveaway copies turn into reviews it can be successful. My own experience as a blogger has been that you receive more books than you can realistically review in a year—many unsolicited—so I would limit the number of giveaway copies.

What are three of the most important things you believe an author should do before their book is released?

1.      Create an online presence. I began blogging in 2007, three years before my first book came out. I quickly realized that in order to generate interest, I needed to help out other writers by displaying their work on my blogs. The great thing about doing that: when my first book came out in 2010, I had close to 70 blog stops on my virtual book tour. Writers reciprocate.

2.      Create a relationship with other authors in your publishing house. I’m lucky to be part of a small publishing family where most of us know each other—if not in person, then definitely online. For years before I was published, I reviewed books by other GAP authors. Not only did that allow me to get to know what GAP was looking for in books, it allowed me to build relationships with their authors. We truly are a family. That type of support is important.

3.      Reach out to bloggers who read books like yours and see if they will review your book once it arrives. Release day can be a frantic, so get everything set up ahead of time. Then you can simply mail out copies once they arrive.

What are three of the most important things you believe an author should do after their book is released?

1.      TELL PEOPLE! Announce it online using social media to promote your new release.

2.      Set up a virtual book tour or hire a company to set one up for you. Book reviews and online exposure are very important. I used to be in the business and I’ve seen the impact virtual book tours can have.

3.      Reach out to your local community. One of the things I didn’t go a good job of when Little Shepherd came out is tell my local friends and neighbors about it. I was so focused online that I forgot about the people in my own backyard. Send a press release to the local paper and see if they will do an interview. See if your library will host a book reading or if they have plans for a local authors event. Check out your public access channel or weekly paper for news of community events where you might be able to sell your book. 

What kind of pre-promotion did you do before the book came out?
 

I was much better prepared when my last two books came out—Little Shepherd (2010) and A Christmas Kindness (2012) than I was this time around. I’m a full-time real estate agent now, so that can interfere with book promotion time. Thankfully, there are sites like TweetDeck and Hootsuite to help me manage my social media accounts. I’ve also used Buffer to pre-schedule social media posts.

I’ve been talking about Macaroni and Cheese for Thanksgiving online since learning of its release and all the people at my church know. I have a home office, so there are copies hanging around when friends drop by. That helps too.

Do you have a long term plan with your book?

Like my previous books, Macaroni and Cheese for Thanksgiving is seasonal. Though they will sell anytime of the year, the big push is around that particular holiday. I usually hold a virtual book tour once a year around that holiday and look to be featured on more blogs those times of year. In addition, I bring copies of my book with me to our annual Christmas bazaar at church.

What would you like to say to your readers and fans about your book?

Thanks for all your support through the years. It’s wonderful to know readers enjoy my books. It’s a humbling experience and a true blessing.

Q&A: Greg Messel, author of 'Fog City Strangler'

Greg Messel grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and now lives in Edmonds, Washington on the Puget Sound with his wife, Carol.  Fog City Strangler is his seventh novel and is the fourth in a new series of Sam Slater mystery novels. Greg has lived in Oregon, Washington, California, Wyoming and Utah and has always loved writing, including stints as a reporter, columnist and news editor for a daily newspaper.

Follow news about Messel’s writings and books at www.gregmessel.com.

Thanks for coming to the book club today, Greg!  Before we begin the interview, I have to ask.  Who made that beautiful cover?

Greg:I'm very proud of the covers of my books and "Fog City Strangler" is one of the best. My publisher has a team of designers and I am always excited to see what they will come up with. I'm never disappointed. I've been in book stores, book fairs and book signings from Costco to the Los Angeles Festival of Books. I believe the cover is the first reason someone picks up your book. You have just seconds to get someone's attention and a good cover really does it.

How did you get into the mystery/romance genre and what is it you like about it the most?

Greg: It's the genre I most like to read. I always wanted to write a mystery but was not sure I could do it.  I also wanted to write a series. Thankfully, one day when I was walking around San Francisco, Sam Slater and Amelia Ryan were born in my imagination. I also love the 1950s. Very interesting time and it's a different planet than where we now live. I have some memories of San Francisco in the 1950s and I have built on those. I love San Francisco in all decades but I think it's a wonderful canvas for my stories.

A mystery evolves as you write it. "Fog City Strangler" definitely changed as I wrote it. I'm very happy with the story and plot but it's very different from what I first imagined.  That's the fun of writing a mystery. You have to create a mystery and solve it yourself before you start writing. Then you slowly reveal it in an interesting and hopefully suspenseful way to the reader. 

Who is your main character and would you like to tell us more about him/her?

Greg: I really like Sam Slater. I've been asked in interviews how much of Sam is really me. Sam is tall, handsome, athletic, irresistible to women, brave, tough--it's practically autobiographical!  Just kidding. I wish. Sam is a really good person who tries to help people but is very capable of handling himself when the bad guys threaten him and especially when the love of his life--Amelia--is in peril. And that's fairly often. Sam is a good guy to go have a beer with or accompany to a football game. He does both things in "Fog City Strangler."

What about secondary characters?  Would you like to introduce them?

Greg: Amelia Ryan, who in the third book became Amelia Slater, is hardly a secondary character. In many ways she's the main character in "Fog City Strangler." Amelia is feisty, very curious and funny. There are two parts to Amelia. She's the beautiful TWA stewardess who lives an exciting life. Airline stewardesses were very glamorous figures in the 1950s. They were also the victims of discrimination and harassment as objects of desire for the affluent mostly male passengers on airliners. Amelia lives in this world but when she is on the ground in San Francisco, she morphs into a hard nosed private eye herself, who will stop at nothing to get at the truth. Amelia is very brave and gets herself in some real jams in "Fog City Strangler."

Every book of fiction has a pivotal point for the reader that they can’t forget.  What do you think is one of the pivotal points in your book?

Greg: Amelia Ryan becomes part of a nationwide advertising campaign for TWA and her face is suddenly on billboards all over San Francisco. The timing is bad considering that the Fog City Strangler is stalking young blonde women. At the end of Chapter 9, Sam Slater begins to realize that the billboards may cause a problem. Here is that excerpt: 

Sam stared off into space contemplating the meaning of the tumultuous day when Amelia became a public figure. 

Things would never really be the same after today. Amelia and Sam had crossed the Rubicon. Her face was all over the city and even on Times Square in New York. 

Now everyone would know Amelia. She was out there for public consumption like Prell Shampoo or Pepsi-Cola. Tonight all over San Francisco, men were gazing up at billboards looking at Amelia's smiling face. 

One of those men was undoubtedly the Fog City Strangler. 

Is there anything else you’d like to tell your readers?

Greg: Even though "Fog City Strangler" is part of a series, it is a stand alone novel. I hope readers will give the whole series a try. Keep up on the latest news about my books at www.gregmessel.com