The Evolving new face of the American Family by Dr. John Bell

The Evolving new face of the American Family by Dr. John Bell

Parents are the real secret of success to a child.   Parents must know that in order to nurture and reinforce the good attributes of a child,  parents has to educate their childen about premature sex.   This educational process has to take place  around the child as they develop a curiosity abour sexual activity.   It seems  the age to talk about sex is getting younger as well and many parents feel that televison and the silver screen productions overly bombard children with sexual activity.   It is in these outlets that a child can be their most influenced.   Furthermore, parents must realize that  by using these same outlets that they can reach their children and bring a real contrast to the sexual undertoned messages that our chidren are exposed to.   The first way parents can reach their chidren is with the use of Television by playing short 5-10 minute skits.  This will educate how a child should seek help when uncomfortable with the temptations of peer pressure and staying away from a bad situation that promote premature sex.    The next way that parents can be effective is to promote being involved with their kids in their sport events and community activities.   These essential activities go a long way toward prevention of promiscuity and lessen the likelihood of premature pregnancy and bad decision making processes often found in children with very little guidance in life. It all takes knowing yourself and what you can live with and what you can not.   It really comes down to what you love about someone that you will accept their successes as well as their failures to make life better for all.   Blended families, also have great challenges especially with the acceptance of a new father or mother in the family.  This can also be brothers and Sisters that will have some resistance joining into the blended Family.

It seems that the nuclear family of Mother and Father with two kids is deminishing every year.   In 2008 according to the US census, 2.4 million children live without a father in the home and was raised primarily by the Mother.   This may sound alarming but it is an ever growing trend in the US. 72% of African-American children are raised in single parent holds.  40% of Latino or Hispanic children are born to single parent household.   37% of all white children are raised in  single parent house hold.   Therefore, to claim that this a minority problem is not being accurate of the facts.  However, this also demonstrates the need for blended families and their contribution to our society as we try to rekindle the flame of family. Blended families are  the new family solution of America's growing demographic dismantiling of the nuclear family today.

It is imperative that society promote and respect Blended families for what they aspire humanity to reach for with the best of what family is all about.

About the Author

Author Dr. John Bell has a Masters degree in Health Services from Strayer University and currently serves as a professor at Strayer University at Shelby Oaks campus in Memphis, TN.  Dr. Bell has a Doctorate of Podiatric Medicine from Ohio College of Podiatric Medicine in Cleveland, Ohio. Dr. Bell is currently a practicing Surgical Podiatrist at 4 locations throughout the Memphis and Greater West TN community.   He is a Veteran of the Gulf War serving 10 years in the U.S. Navy. Bell is also a member of the Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity. Dr. Bell has one daughter. 

A Book’s Landscape is a Character Itself by J.P. White

Win a Print copy of "Every Boat Turns South" by J.P. White

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A Book’s Landscape is a Character Itself by J.P. White


I'm partial to stories where the landscape is a character itself. 
   
You find this quality in almost any British or Australian novelist or any "island" writer for that matter.  In my first novel Every Boat Turns South, Florida and the islands of the Bahamas and upper Caribbean assume a major character role: the stickiness, the heat, the summer rains, the tree frogs, the alligator turtles, the unrelenting monotony of moisture and rot.

Why does Florida inspire so many writers? Florida has so many loose ends, so many failed dreams, so many abandoned boats and broken people combined with an abundant alligator population, vultures galore and all seven kinds of poisonous snakes that it's a perfect setting for a novel.

Novels are built out of conflicts and journeys that people can't easily solve or finish.  How could such a sultry place as Florida not make for a good setting for a mystery/crime novel? 
   
In a place "where the weather suits your clothes" like Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, California there is always a startling contrast between emptiness and fullness, between no-place-to-go and over-development, between the swanky restaurant on the beach and the lone fisherman at the end of the rickety pier.  I've drawn to those contrasts partly because they represent, not so much the extremes in social strata, as they do the extremes within the individual psyche.  People who have everything routinely want to escape from it.  People who have nothing want just the opposite. Between those longings, there is ample room for a writer to find not just fodder for a plot, but the universal elements of drama: crime, guilt, and redemption.

In Every Boat Turns South, Matt Younger, a 30-year-old boat delivery captain, returns to Amelia Island, Florida after a 13-year absence to make a confession to his dying father.  The son wants to tell the father about a failed boat delivery from West Palm Beach to St. Thomas, BVI.  The father wants to hear about Matt's role in the death of the favorite son, Hale.  Between the telling of the tale at home and the telling of an island tale, Florida inserts itself as one more difficulty that father and son must overcome or merge with, but time is running out for both of them.  Why?  The father is rapidly dying and the son has someone from his past that's on his trail.

In the last 35 years, J.P. White has published essays, articles, fiction, reviews, interviews and poetry in over a hundred publications including The Nation, The New Republic, The Los Angeles Times Magazine, The Gettysburg Review, American Poetry Review, and Poetry (Chicago).  He is a graduate of New College in Sarasota, Florida, Colorado State University and Vermont College in Fine Arts. He is the author of five books of poems and a novel, Every Boat Turns South.  You can visit his website atwww.jpwhite.net.

J.P. will be on virtual book tour May 3 – June 25. Visit his official tour page at Pump Up Your Book to find out more about his exciting new book, Every Boat Turns South.
 Amazon or Barnes & Noble are the best way to obtain your copies, although it will be available to order in most bookstores.

A BRIEF LOOK INSIDE MY CHARCTERS’ LIVES IN THE NOVEL CAPTAIN BONNY MORGAN: THE CASSANDRA PROPHESY

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A BRIEF LOOK INSIDE MY CHARCTERS’ LIVES IN THE NOVEL CAPTAIN BONNY MORGAN: THE CASSANDRA PROPHESY by Robert Gowdy

     In my novel Captain Bonny Morgan: The Cassandra Prophesy, my characters live in a futuristic (science fiction) galaxy that in many ways operates in an ancient or, for lack of a better term, past reality.  The galaxy, while high-tech, or futuristic, in that the technology exists for space travel at superluminal speeds, it nevertheless still adheres to beliefs in the sanctity of monarchies and royal lineages, aristocracy and nobility, the institution of slavery, and ancient traditions and moral codes that existed in the galaxy at a much earlier time.  Because of my interest in the Golden Age of Piracy in the Caribbean at the turn of the eighteenth century, and because I wanted to do something a little different in my novel, I created a galaxy that has operating within it, on a rather large scale, a pirate community made up of nine competing pirate factions.  These pirate factions also operate within a forcefully imposed galactic, totalitarian Empire led by the Emperor Tulla and his wife, the Empress Flaccilla Lanelle.

     One of the main characters in my novel, but not exactly the main character, is Captain Bonny Morgan, a pirate who lives and operates in The Cassandra Prophesy’s galaxy.  She is a very special woman, from a special, unknown species (she very much resembles an overgrown blonde fairy without the Victorian wings) who has taken on the persona of a galactic pirate in order to do her job.  Her job, too, is unknown, because Bonny Morgan has, in addition to her unknown origin, a secret vocation that is not revealed until the end of the novel.  But to do her job, she operates in, and among, the galaxy’s pirate communities, conducting much of her business at pirate strongholds, pirate taverns, and aboard her Intimidator-class heavy assault cruiser, the Fancy.  Bonny Morgan is, therefore, a very formidable woman, operating aboard a very formidable pirate vessel, a woman who conducts her day-to-day affairs in true pirate fashion.  To assist her, she has her fist mate, Miss Bernadette Tell, her bosun, Mr. Quist, her second mate, Miss Pearl, and her friend and fellow “countryman,” Jon Black.

     The two characters who can perhaps be characterized as the “main characters” in the novel, Princess Lysette and her slavegirl, Tink, due to circumstances beyond their control, find themselves having to leave the shelter and privilege of Emperor Tulla’s royal court and, by necessity, try to operate effectively among the pirates they meet along the way.  Additionally, because Princess Lysette needs to disguise herself once she embarks on her journey, Tink, her slavegirl, suggests that she pass herself off as a slavegirl.  Not only must the Princess now learn to live and operate among pirates, she also has to adjust her life in order to appear and act as an owned slavegirl would appear and act.  Tink, on the other hand, has no problem whatsoever adapting to any living environment she encounters along the way.  Although a slavegirl, and a royal slavegirl to boot, she is nevertheless her own woman—and, to a certain extent, rather independent, which is an interesting personality trait for an owned, and well-trained, slave.  But Tink, too, has a hidden past, bits and pieces of which are revealed along the way as Tink conducts her day-to-day affairs while assisting Princess Lysette on her journey.

     Then there’s Princess Lysette’s mother, the Empress Flaccilla Lanelle.  A formidable woman, one with eminent political, military, and spying (intelligence) skills, Flaccilla operates both covertly and overtly to bring down her second husband’s totalitarian Empire.  However, the Empress Flaccilla is thoroughly in her element while working to overthrow Tulla’s Empire, so she has no problem conducting her day-to-day life as she always has.  So, given that her comfort zone remains intact as she  implements her coup, she continues to be able to satisfy her raging sexual appetite while at the same time effectively conducting the day-to-day affairs of her coup.

     And lastly (although there are many, many other interesting characters in the novel), there’s Admiral Shi’in Kul.  Admiral Kul is the head of Emperor Tulla’s vaunted Night Watch, the Empire’s Imperial State Security Service.  As head of the Night Watch, Admiral Kul has his own personal Imperial Super Carrier, Death’s Talon, that allows him to operate rather freely within Tulla’s galactic empire.  However, Admiral Kul is also working to overthrow Emperor Tulla’s regime, albeit quite independently of the Empress Flaccilla.  And although Kul makes good on his attempt to overthrow Emperor Tulla, Kul is nevertheless a very, very flawed man.  Kul is addicted to the powerful opiate penophine, as well as a raging alcoholic.  As the day-to-day affairs of his coup attempt unfold, Kul falls further and further into clinical depression, which is compounded by his anxiety over the possible failure of his coup, or his possible death before he can see his coup come to a successful end.  Each day sees him become weaker and weaker, both in his resolve to implement the coup, and his ability to control his own addictions.  And to compound all of this, Kul is a homosexual, which, under Emperor Tulla’s regime, is a sexual preference that has been outlawed within both the Imperial government and the Imperial military, both subject to Command Order 169 that recommends summary execution to any government or military official found in violation of that order.  So, suffice it to say, Kul is a very troubled man trying to successfully function within an Empire that could kill him at any moment, not to mention the addictions that could almost certainly kill him as well.  Kul’s life in his day-to-day world is, to say the least, precarious.

     Robert “Doc” Gowdy is a graduate of the University of North Texas with a Ph.D. in Literary Criticism and Theory and an emphasis on Nineteenth-Century British literature.  His specialization in literary theory is psychoanalytic criticism and theory, particularly Lacanian psychoanalysis, with further emphases on Milton and Eighteenth-Century British literature.  Doc Gowdy is currently an adjunct assistant professor at Texas Woman’s University where he teaches various literature courses.  His interest in writing is long standing, but aside from academic writing, his first novel, Captain Bonny Morgan: The Cassandra Prophesy is his first foray into fiction.  Captain Bonny Morgan is based on archetypal themes and patterns from mythology, such as fairies, goddesses, and the Hero’s Journey, and based loosely on Doc Gowdy’s active duty service in the United States Marine Corps with special emphasis on the Golden Age of Piracy in the Caribbean at the turn of the Eighteenth-Century.

     My Facebook page is listed under Robert Gowdy.

Following in Your Character's Footsteps by Robert Boich

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Following in Your Character's Footsteps by Robert Boich

I'm currently working on my second book, a novel based on World War I and the Battle of Verdun. It is a far cry from my first work, Excuse Me, Your Life Is Waiting! which was a first person narrative based on my substance abuse struggles and early months in recovery.

My current project has involved a tremendous amount of research. Following my initial visit to the city of Verdun and the surrounding battlefields, I spent several months reading everything I could lay my hands on regarding the battle. The major characters and storyline fell into place quite quickly. I was about fifty thousand words into my first draft, when I realized that something was missing. I began questioning some of the details I was weaving into the storyline. It was time for another trip to France. Although I had plenty of resource materials at my disposal, I felt compelled to follow the paths of my characters; to actually retrace their steps.

So that's what I did: both in Paris and in Verdun. In Paris, I took the same metros, and followed the exact path that my characters took in my story. For the most part, I was retracing ground covered on many of my previous visits to the city. This time the difference was that I was looking at everything through the eyes of my characters.

In Verdun, I took things a step farther. I made arrangements to meet with an historian, the same one who had shown me around the battlefield on my previous trip to northeastern France. We explored specific sections of the battlefield; places where my characters would be spending time in my story. Much of the terrain was difficult, and off the beaten path, but the experience was invaluable. It's one thing to study a position on a map -- an important ravine or a strategic hilltop -- and write a story about what happened on that specific piece of real estate. It's quite different to actually traverse the terrain that your character covers in the story; or to stand on the spot where one of your characters has been wounded or killed.

There's no doubt in my mind that my field research has not only given me a better understanding of what my characters would have had to endure; but that it has also added a tremendous amount of depth to my story. On top of this, it was exciting and it was fun. Have fun with your research. You won't find all of the answers that you are looking for in books.

Robert Boich was born in Phoenix Arizona. He earned his bachelor's degree from the University of Colorado and attended Ohio Northern University where he graduated with a law degree. The author also received his LLM in Taxation from Boston University. In his free time, Boich enjoys golfing, skiing, traveling and reading. He is married with four children and practices law in Ohio. You can find the authors first book, Excuse Me, Your Life Is Waiting! on his website at http://www.rwboich.com. His current project, based on the Battle of Verdun is still in the works.

A Look Inside Your Character’s Lives by Gary Morgenstein

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A Look Inside Your Character’s Lives by Gary Morgenstein

It’s always disconcerting to admit that you have a lot in common with a potential murderer. Most writers will say, well, I got that character from this news story or that person or this blend of personalities. But the passions and intensity of Cal Fleisher, the main character of my political baseball thriller, Take Me Out to the Ballgame, come directly from moi.

I used to be an absolutely fanatic Yankee fan. I would swear at the screen, hurl pastrami sandwiches, stomp Fritos if they lost. I’d go to sleep depressed, probably a lot more upset than some of them (they have big salaries to cushion the blow). I lived and died with the Yankees, back before the return to glory in the mid-1990s with Joe Torre & Gang made it fashionable.

In my novel, Cal, a loner clerk in a chicken warehouse in Buffalo whose life revolves around his beloved baseball team, reflects that core passion of his creator. But he goes sour. He is a failure with women. A failure at work. A social misfit. He always considered himself the number one fan of the lowly Buffalo Matadors. When the team starts its remarkable Cinderella story, Cal is suddenly surrounded by fans jumping on the bandwagon. He needs a way to prove that he truly is The Number One Fan.

Now I do a little better with women than Cal and haven’t been fired in…But it’s unsettling when you see something wonderful like love for a sport becoming twisted and perverted in a character. Especially when that originated from a similar passion within yourself. There is an object lesson here about the dark side of fandom, sports and political propaganda, greed. And perhaps writing.

Gary Morgenstein is co-host of the Purple Haze radio show, Thursdays at 9PM/ET at blogtalkradio.com/mediablvd. In addition to his dating and relationship book How to Find a Woman…Or Not, Morgenstein’s novels include Loving Rabbi Thalia Kleinman, about a divorced man who falls in love with a beautiful woman rabbi; Jesse’s Girl, a powerful story about a father’s search for his adopted teenage son, and Take Me Out to the Ballgame, a political baseball thriller, as well as the baseball Rocky The Man Who Wanted to Play Center Field for the New York Yankees. His prophetic play Ponzi Man played to sell-out crowds at the New York Fringe Festival. He lives in Brooklyn, New York, surrounded by lots of books and rock and roll CDs. He is Director, Communications, for the Syfy Channel.

Please visit him at www.gary.garymorgenstein.com.