A fresh start.
A new chapter of life waiting to be written.
New questions to be asked, embraced, and loved.
Answers to be discovered and then lived
in a transformative year of delight and self-discovery.
~Sarah Ban Breathnach
Recipe for a Happy New Year ~Anonymous
Take twelve fine, full-grown months; see that these are thoroughly free from old memories of bitterness, rancor and hate, cleanse them completely from every clinging spite; pick off all specks of pettiness and littleness; in short, see that these months are freed from all the past—have them fresh and clean as when they first came from the great storehouse of Time. Cut these months into thirty or thirty-one equal parts. Do not attempt to make up the whole batch at one time (so many persons spoil the entire lot this way) but prepare one day at a time.
Thanks so much, my friends, for helping to make 2014 an exceptional year at my blog. Your visits, comments, posts, your friendship and support continue to bless me. Wishing you and yours Peace, Love & God’s richest blessings in the New Year ahead! ~ Bette A. Stevens
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 6,900 times in 2014. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 6 trips to carry that many people.
“Dog Bone Soup by Bette A. Stevens is the poignant tale of a dysfunctional family struggling to survive in America in the 50s and 60s, when most others were on the crest of a wave. It will make you laugh, it will make you cry. But most of all it will make you glad you read it.” ~ Charlie Bray, founder of theIndietribe, a body dedicated to supporting self-published authors
Bette A. Stevens is a retired teacher, a wife, mother of two and grandmother of five. Stevens lives in Central Maine with her husband on their 37-acre farmstead where she enjoys writing, gardening, walking and reveling in the beauty of nature. She advocates for children and families; for childhood literacy; and for monarch butterflies, an endangered species.
Stevens’s children’s activity book, THE TANGRAM ZOO and WORD PUZZLES TOO! was first published in 1997 by Windswept House Publishing, Mt. Desert, ME; a second edition was self-published by the author in 2012. AMAZING MATILDA , Stevens’s second children’s book, self-published in 2012, won a 2013 Purple Dragonfly Book Award (Honorable Mention for Excellence in Children’s Literature – Ages 6 and older category) and placed #9 on The 2013 Gittle List TOP 10 for Self-published Children’s Picture Books. Stevens has written articles for ECHOES, The Northern Maine Journal of Rural Culture based in Caribou, Maine. In 2013, the author published her first book for the YA/Adult audience: PURE TRASH, a short story about a boy growing up in rural New England in a family whose poverty and alcoholism mark him as a target for bullying by young and old alike. This short story is a prequel to Stevens’s debut novel, DOG BONE SOUP, A Boomer’s Journey.
Donna thought there was something wrong with her. That she was suffering from a mental illness that has caused her husband to despise her, distance himself from her, and cheat on her. She blames herself for the desolate, miserable thing that is her marriage and her life. Then she comes across a book that will change everything for her, and reading it, she discovers that there’s nothing wrong with her mind at all, but that there is something very wrong with her husband instead. Marco, she realizes, is a malignant narcissist. A text-book case. He has a real and documented mental disorder, and that he’s been controlling, manipulating, and abusing her for decades. The sudden full knowledge of all that he’s purposely done to her enrages her. Not sure how to leave after thirty years of what she finally knows has been intentional mental and emotional abuse from him, and believing that she has nowhere to turn, being so physically isolated, she bides her time. Then she meets and befriends a group of unusual people who share her passion for gardening, and so begins her journey to escape. She joins her new friends in their project to assist elderly people in old age homes care for their small gardens, as well as secretly supplying those suffering from painful and terminal illnesses with medicinal herb and plant remedies, including illegal plants such as cannabis. As weeks go by, she delves into her memories, relearns what it is to be respected, liked, and loved again, and slowly she formulates a plan to safely leave her dangerous husband. But unbeknownst to Donna, Marco is in serious trouble, and has desperate plans of his own, and absolutely no regard for her safety.
** This is a work of fiction, but malignant narcissists really do exist, and it is a recognized mental illness. Unfortunately, many people never realize that they are involved with a narcissist, because their actions are so demonically bad as to be unimaginable and unbelievable, and so they spend their lives in misery, depression, fear, and isolation. If only by the accidental reading of a fictional story, I hope that this book will help even one person, unknowingly suffering , to realize that they don’t have to, and that it’s never too late to start over, be happy, be fulfilled, to love and care for yourself, and be truly loved and respected by others.
MEET THE AUTHOR: Jo Robinson very recently returned to her homeland, South Africa, after having lived in rural Zimbabwe for eighteen years. Her obsessive affection for the African continent, most humans, and all creatures feathered and furred are what inspire her writing. She is the author of African Me & Satellite TV, the science-fiction/fantasy series Shadow People, and a couple of short stories, which will be free to download from Amazon from 26 to 30 December,Fly Birdie and The Visitation.
To win eBook copies of Shadow People and African Me & Satellite TV, send Jo a message from THIS page.
Happy Holidays! Welcome to my Third on-line Christmas Day Blog Book Fair. We have a great mix of books here. All kinds, for all tastes. So please browse and choose a wonderful book to keep you entertained!
The books for the raffle for this years book fair are below. I will announce three books every hour and you will have the full hour to put in your name and email in the remarks below. I will contact you and then announce the next books. This book fair will go live 24 Dec. so you can start putting your names in then. The raffle will only be open during the open hours of the book fair, 11am to 6pm. Several authors are giving both e-books and physical copies of their work and some are giving multiple copies so there are a lot of chances. There are some really, exciting books up…
Hello, and welcome to my very own 12 DAYS OF “AUTHORS!” Today, I begin with my theme song: “On the 3rd day of authors, Ms. Nonnie gave to me, a Kathryn C. Treat from Cali!” You’ve heard of the 12 Days of Christmas, right? Well, this is my version of that, my gift to these very special people and to you! This all started on Sunday, December 14, with John “Fio” Fioravanti, as the 1st of my 12 Days of “Authors”, then Marlena Hand as my 2nd day, and it will continue until Dec. 25, Christmas Day. Each day I will profile one very special author and their written work. Because I am in awe of so many of you, (definitely more than 12), I had to come up with a process for my selection. So, I threw a bunch of names into a pot and the…
Hi, and welcome to The Religion, Rage & w(R)iting Blog Tour for Authors, Shirley-Harris Slaughter, Rhani D’Chae and Harmony Kent. (Click on each author’s name to be taken directly to their Author Page at 4WillsPublishing, where you can learn more about them).
Shirley Harris-Slaughter
Rhani D’Chae
Harmony Kent
These three authors are wonderful clients of 4WillsPublishing, a publishing House dedicated to helping authors put out the best written, and marketing products for their literary work, possible.
This tour is a surprise tour, which means the authors knew nothing about it until it started! This is our gift to them to show our appreciation of their work, their dedication to putting out the great written word, and a big THANK YOU for allowing us to showcase and promote them.
This is a 3 Author/7 Day/40 Blog Tour! Yes, for 7 days, The Religion, Rage & w(R)iting Blog Tour will sit on 40 blogs! And for 7 days, on 40 blogs, you will get a tiny tid-bit of something related to Religion, so that you never forget OUR LADY OF VICTORY, the rage of people, such as that displayed in SHADOW OF THE DRILL, and w(R)iting tips to help you POLISH YOUR PROSE! (Click on each book title to find out more about it)
This will be a fun tour, an inspirational tour, a delightful tour which has been designed to enlighten you, entertain you and help you overcome those feelings which bind us daily and keeps us from growing from point A to point B. Each day as you stop by each blog to find out what bit of inspiration is being shared, we ask that you take the time to leave a comment for the authors, visit their blogs, Follow them on Twitter and FB, and last but not least, please PICK UP A COPY OF THEIR BOOKS! They are all 5 star reads! And this tour wouldn’t be complete, if you didn’t check out The Religion, Rage & w(R)iting Book Trailer! (Please note: these bits and quotes were not taken from the author’s books).
“To be angry is easy. But to be angry with the right man at the right time and in the right manner, that is not easy.” ~ Aristotle
Thank you for joining us on this stop of our tour. We are grateful to our host for allowing us to share with this audience and we hope that we have left you wanting more! To follow this tour, please visit the 4WillsPublishing EVENTS page for the complete tour line-up and to also register to win a SURPRISE pack of books as well as a stint on WHO’S ON THE SHELF WITH NONNIE JULES! Now, on to the next stop!!!!
Author Bette A. Stevens has something for everyone on your list!
Five-day Kindle Christmas Countdown (December 7–11, 2014)—books to inspire ‘kids’ of all ages by author Bette A. Stevens!
AMAZING MATILDA(Ages 5-10)Friendship, patience and persistence are among the lessons learned in this gem of a tale featuring an amazing monarch butterfly. This award-winning picture book adventure follows the monarch’s life cycle as Matilda embarks on a quest to make her dream of flying come true. Science, art and wise lessons for children—all wrapped up in a tale the kids will want to read/hear again and again!
PURE TRASH(Ages 11-adult)In this short story adventure set in New England in the 1950s, two young boys set out on a Saturday adventure you won’t want to miss! Experience the joy of a carefree Saturday and the blistering pain of feeling not quite good enough as you hop on a bike and ride into town with two delightful young boys who find adventure at every turn. Shawn and Willie Daniels live in the woods with no indoor water or plumbing. Dad spends most of his hard-earned money on beer. Prejudice, class division, alcoholism, poverty, injustice, and bullying are cleverly woven into this 1950s adventure short. PURE TRASH is the prequel to DOG BONE SOUP, Stevens’s début novel planned for release Winter 2014.
Welcome to 4writersandreaders
I’m a writer inspired by nature and human nature. You’ll find great books, authors, writing tips and more right here. I advocate for kids & families, childhood literacy and the protection of monarch butterflies and their habitat.Happy reading & writing!~Bette A. Stevens, Maine author
Bette A. Stevens, Maine Author 
Written
on 12/11/2014