Would a Maharajah Sleep Here? by Stephen and Leanne Troy

Title: Would a Maharajah Sleep Here?
Author: Stephen and Leanne Troy
Publisher: iUniverse
Pages: 324
Genre: Memoir
Format: Paperback/Kindle

 Inspired by a movie, television show, book, or stories from friends, we may find ourselves daydreaming about trips to exotic locations with exciting adventures. For some lucky ones, these dreams become reality. Would a Maharajah Sleep Here? presents firsthand stories of luxury travel and discovery by two fun and experienced travelers. Authors and travelers Stephen and Leanne Troy provide accounts of historic exploration, luxury hotel stays, and encounters with interesting people around the world. Each trip is private and planned in great detail to make sure each and every adventure is unique and experienced in five-star luxury. Chronicling their exploits at the end of each day, the Troys describe checking into the finest hotels in the world and getting whisked away for incredible tours of some of the world’s greatest treasures. In addition to personal anecdotes, this travelogue shares information about sites, history, culture, and food in countries around the world. The Troys reveal the good, the bad, and, of course, the fun and funny events that they encountered on their trips around the globe.

Stephen Troy earned a BBA from the University of Miami in Florida. He is the founder, owner, and CEO of AeroFund Financial. He is also the author of Business Biographies: Shaken, Not Stirred … With a Twist. He and his wife, Leanne, have visited six continents and more than forty countries. They have three children, two grandchildren, and live in Carmel, California.

Four Noble Truths by J.D. Buxton

Title: Four Noble Truths
Author: J.D. Buxton
Publisher: iUniverse
Pages: 397
Genre: Action/Adventure
Format: Paperback/Kindle

 Dragon is a handsome, passionate and deeply devoted young man with a hidden, horrible past that haunts him into his present life. After suffering unimaginable abuse in a child pornography ring in Taiwan and an addiction to Heroin, Dragon’s only light on a path of darkness is his love, Raven, who more than fulfills his physical and emotional needs. United by the organization that found and ultimately saved Dragon, he and Raven happily bask in the love of an adopted family of lost souls touched by similar pasts that includes their mentor Sensei, and Wax and Sarge, Dragon’s right-hand men. As they execute their missions to explore the underbelly of the world of human trafficking and the sex trade, and serve the purpose of the organization: to right the wrongs, they have no idea the path they are on will lead them to unlock the door to their freedom. In this compelling story about redemption, love and fate, a young man, his love and his devoted team embark on a dangerous journey to execute vigilante justice for one purpose; to seek out and eliminate the perpetrators of the very crimes from which they all suffered.

 J D Buxton was born and raised in Southern Ontario. After graduating from college, she pursued a career in sales and marketing and lived in Vancouver, British Columbia and Calgary, Alberta where she raised her family. She is married with three children and currently resides in Southern Ontario where she enjoys all things equine, country and western music and home cooking.

Guest post from Ed Grizzle, author of It's Your Decision

Title: It’s Your Decision
Author: Ed Grizzle
Publisher: iUniverse
Pages: 128
Genre: Family Relationships/Parenting
Format: Ebook

Purchase at AMAZON

Children are gifts from God, but parenting those children can often be a difficult task. In It’s Your Decision, author Ed Grizzle shows how parenting can be successful when it’s carried out according to God’s plan.

Using his life’s experiences as a guide, Grizzle explores the importance of making the right decisions in life—from choosing the right lifestyle and the right mate and to raising children according to what God has planned for you. It’s Your Decision discusses

• planning for children;

• knowing what children need;

• being aware of the important years in a child’s life;

• understanding that children will test parents;

• valuing the role of grandparents;

• dealing with abused children;

• communicating openly and honestly;

• clarifying family roles.

Grizzle presents a guide to strengthening lives and making your family life more enjoyable. He shows how this is possible when you accept Jesus Christ into your life; he will show you the way in the difficult times.

My name is Ed and I lived a horrible childhood like many young people are living today. After meeting my wife to be, things started to change for the better. My parents didn't seem to care much about me but Mary did. That is why the book was written. I wanted to tell people who are having a difficult life that a life with Jesus Christ can and will make all the difference in the world for the way you live your life. I got involved with smoking and drinking at an early age. My dad divorced my mom when I was 13 years old and that was when I committed my first burglary. That was the beginning of my criminal career.

After meeting Mary and getting married, my life turn completely around. Mary introduced me to Jesus Christ and we were both baptized into Him and started to live for Him, not necessarily for ourselves. We raised our children and they are now raising their children the same way we raised them. Bottom line is this. If we live according to Jesus Christ's way, we can have a beautiful life. Mary and our family did. So can you. The decision is up to you.

Ed Grizzle started a ministry called It’s Your Decision that helps addicts, prostitutes, and others who face difficult circumstances. He and his late wife, Mary, raised two children. Grizzle currently lives in Illinois

Interview with Glenn Bassett, author of The Manager's Craft

Title: The Manager's Craft
Author: Glenn Bassett
Publisher: Organization Diagnostics
Pages: 216
Genre: Business
Format: Paperback/Kindle

Almost any job or profession you can think of has a set of specific requirements for knowledge and skill that must be mastered. Managing and supervising the work of others is an exception. In part that is because the job of managing requires a range of social and technical skills that can vary widely depending on business circumstance. An infinite diversity of technologies, materials, markets and work skills can figure into the mix of the manager’s job. The manager may be asked to coordinate technically skilled team players, or, alternatively, may need to discipline the application of basic skills to achievement of production goals. Materials may be common or exotic. Customers may have influence over or little concern for product quality and design. Work skills may be common or rare. Technology may be critical or peripheral.

Some central managerial skills like accounting and finance can be trained. Mostly, they are dealt with as competences that are best left to specialists. Highly technical problems that demand specific training are, in general, treated as staff support jobs. The part of the job that always stays with the manager is that of working with and through other people to achieve cost-effective productivity using formal authority, personal influence, economic incentives and an understanding of organizing processes. As skill sets, these are very difficult to define. They blend and merge to become a personal suite of action strategies that are put to use as needed. Formal education and training can provide a summary focus, but only practice and experience can make them effective working tools. Much of managing and supervising is thus learned from experience on the job. The manager’s challenge is to find a mentor who can guide him/her past the most critical traps and blunders.

Much that passes for management training is, unfortunately, superficial or just wrong. Economic incentives are clearly basic but always insufficient. Application of authority is indispensable but can backfire or fail. Motivational programs can turn out to be all PR and noise. Workers may be satisfied and unproductive. Cost control measures can gut the core of product quality. Balancing it all can be a juggling act that daunts average intellectual and social skill. Managing and supervising skills can be learned on the job if failure is tolerated. Only limited trial and error can be accepted. The best available advice and mentoring is required for survival over the long course. The chapters of this book will provide the working manager with the knowledge necessary to accelerate learning and skill mastery. When put together in a coherent, working package through experience, that mastery rises to the professional level.

The author, Dr. Glenn Bassett, applies his unusual range of practical and professional experience to defining and clarifying the requisite skill and knowledge. From his background as a working personnel executive, professor of management, GE corporate staffer, social science researcher, consultant and business school dean he critically and synergistically sorts out the realities of sound management practice. He deals with issues of authority and discipline rationally and realistically, disposing summarily of nearly all standard motivational theory. He challenges commonly offered “principles” of management showing that many are misleading or illusory. He lays out the principles of worker productivity that a manager must grasp to control cost and quality. What emerges is a description of the Manager’s Craft that summarizes the knowledge and skill required of the working manager who must exercise control in the workplace, build commitment among colleagues, and sustain high quality, cost-effective productivity. This is an intellectually rigorous analysis applied to achievement of practical managerial results. This is The Manager’s Craft.

For More Information

• The Manager's Craft is available at Amazon.

What are you most proud of accomplishing so far in your life?  I have a wonderful wife, four great kids and a beautiful home built for us by our son.  What more could anyone ask?

How has your upbringing influenced your writing?  I grew up in a very safe, supportive community with excellent schools.  Family turmoil through divorce when I was a pre-teen created in me a need to better understand why people behave as they do.  The human condition is of great interest to me.  Writing about it follows naturally.

When and why did you begin writing?  In my first semester as an undergraduate at Cal Berkeley I realized that hand written papers were hard work for me and a turn-off for professors.  With the acquisition of a portable typewriter I discovered that the words flowed from my fingers fluently, almost magically.  I found great satisfaction from expressing my insights clearly and articulately.  That satisfaction continues to the present day.

Do you recall how your interest in writing originated?  I discovered that when I typed my thoughts onto paper, people gave attention to what I was saying.  A brief professional essay about the personnel selection process written during my first personnel assignment got instant attention from the editors of a business journal.  I have continued to write for publication continually since.

When did you first know you could be a writer?  Probably when my first article was accepted for publication.  After about the third article submission, it was suggested that I try writing a book on the subject.  I accepted the challenge, wrote it and it was published.

What inspires you to write and why?  Emergence of insights into human behavior and the human condition demand to be shared.  The writing process helps clarify and refine them into a clearly articulated statement.

What genre are you most comfortable writing?  Applied Social Science is my domain.  I am at core a realist and a pragmatist.  I want to know how social processes and human relations work so that I can understand and deal with them competently.

What inspired you to write your first book?  The invitation to make the attempt and the opportunity to examine processes I was intensely involved in were quite sufficient inspiration.

Who or what influenced your writing once you began?  I discovered that writing and being published gave me a significant edge over peers and competitors.  That plus the personal satisfaction from developing and expressing my thinking articulately were powerful incentives.

What do you consider the most challenging about writing a novel, or about writing in general?  I have considered doing a novel, but can’t get into it because I overelaborate roles and excessively complicate plots.  My interest in roles and complicated relationships resides in grasping  those I encounter in the real world.  I have the patience to study and research issues of interest and go to the core of them.

Did writing this book teach you anything and what was it?  I had to delve deeply into neuropsychology, cultural anthropology, the history of philosophy and a variety of emerging new psychological constructs to set the foundation for writing this book.  It was a major voyage of discovery.

Do you intend to make writing a career?  Writing is the complement to my current career which is publishing.  It already is my career.

Have you developed a specific writing style?  I detest wordiness and excessive verbal flourishes.  I want to solidly grasp and clearly express my subject.  I strive for clarity and parsimony in my writing.  I would never be able to write the typical college text book, partly because I would offend too many of my colleagues with tough critiques of their theories, partly because of the excess wordiness most text book publishers seem to expect.

What is your greatest strength as a writer?  I have great depth of practice and experience and a willingness to sit at the keyboard as long as it takes to make the message work. 

What is your favorite quality about yourself?  I am a no-nonsense realist with little patience for vague concepts or poorly defined abstractions.

What is your least favorite quality about yourself?  I am probably confident to a fault.  I know and manage most of my weaknesses.  That can be a turnoff to  some people.

What is your favorite quote, by whom, and why?  That would be FDR’s classic statement “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”  Fearlessness can be foolish, but fear can disable one from living the best life he/she can.  In the face of one of the most disabling diseases that one can endure, FDR persisted and gave the best he had to a troubled world in need of courageous leadership.  Those of us without such impediment should surely give as much.

Dr. Glenn Bassett is Professor Emeritus of Management and former Dean of Business at the University of Bridgeport.  A graduate of Berkeley and Yale, as well as a former corporate staffer at General Electric, Dr. Bassett’s career has focused on applied Social Psychology.  WordPlay is the result of exended research into the science of psycholinguistics. He is the author of numerous articles and published books, including The Managers Craft. For More Information

• Visit Glenn Bassett’s website.

Riding the Bullet - Movie Review

From Wikipedia

Set in 1969, Alan Parker (Jonathan Jackson) is a young artist, studying at the University of Maine. He becomes obsessed with death, and believing he is losing his girlfriend, Jessica (Christensen), he tries to commit suicide on his birthday. His friends surprise him and he cuts himself sending him to the hospital. He eventually recovers and decides to go with them to a John Lennon concert.

Before leaving he receives news that his mother, Jean (Hershey), is in the hospital because of a stroke and is near death. Alan decides to hitchhike to reach the hospital before his only relative dies. On his way there, he has multiple strange encounters with the living and dead. The film ends when Alan, now in his 40's, tells the audience that his mother died of a heart attack while watching television. He married his girlfriend Jessica, but it only lasted four years.

He never made it as an artist, but he does go to the theme park every summer in memory of his mother. While walking from the park, a person that looks like his friend George Staub offers him a ride, but he refuses. He tells him to "take your button and get outta here."

My Review

I don't believe that I ever read this story by Stephen King. I would like to think if I did it would be much better than whatever I just wasted the last few hours of my life on. This has to be one of the most confusing movies I have ever seen. I read the description and thought it sounded quite interesting. I can't even begin to write a logical review of this movie, because the storyline jumped around so much making it extremely hard to follow. 

I get that it was a story of a man confronting his demons, and have read some people compare it to A Christmas Carol. I guess I can somewhat see that. But it wasn't as clear cut as that and just seems jumbled to me.

Have you seen it? If so, what are your thoughts? Being a huge King fan, I was excited to see something I hadn't before. Major letdown. 

Character Interview with Llad Fleck from Wave Links by Randall Boleyn

 When those first few novels transported Randall into the intrigue of other cultures and the complexity of foreign lands, his life changed forever. He wanted to experience those kinds of adventures and ended up traveling the world doing international business while living his own bizarre experiences. Realizing he wanted to create the same kind of stories he loved to read, Randall coaxed the Muse by writing, studying and learning the craft. After years of toiling with the words, the stories suddenly just seemed to happen. It was startling! It was the same joy and surprise he had relished as a reader in guessing how a plot might unfold affecting the characters’ lives. He now writes with the eye and passion of creating that next great story like he would want to read. Randall now lives in the hills of the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia and is focused on completing the Powers Meant for Gods trilogy to publish by December 2014. Read excerpts and more at RandallBoleyn.com and sign-up for Randall’s mailing list for publishing details.  His latest book is the Young Adult Fantasy, Wave Links. For More Information

• Visit Randall Boleyn’s website.
• Connect with Randall on Facebook and Twitter.
• Visit Randall on Goodreads.
• More books by Randall Boleyn.

Thank you so much for this interview, Llad Fleck.  Now that the book Wave Links has been written, do you feel you were fairly portrayed or would you like to set anything straight with your readers?

My portrayal was okay I guess, but a lot of the events that changed my life I had nothing to do with. And it made me look kinda like I screwed up somehow. It really wasn’t like that, things just happened and I got caught in the wash. I did the best I could even though it didn’t seem like enough.

What do you believe is your strongest trait? 

Well, I never thought much about questions like that, but I guess the fact that I am all- in with everything I do is a good trait. If I can get the psychic powers that I am supposed to have inherited figured out, that would be a big deal. 

Worst trait?

Probably the same answer, that I commit everything I have into any given situation and don’t always think of clearer solutions. Hey, I’m still a young buck, I’ve never experienced any of this stuff before. But I am getting better at seeing the big picture. And probably, that I like the ladies a little too much.

Do you have a love interest in the book? 

Kinda, I guess. There’s this red headed beauty that I saw at a party and then she haunts my dreams most every night, but I don’t think she even knows I exist. I’ve ‘known’ a lot of girls, but it was just for fun. That L word was never mentioned. 

At what point of the book did you start getting nervous about the way it was going to turn out?

Almost right from the start. There were so many crazy things happening to me that I has no control over or any experience with, it all seemed a little overwhelming. 

If you could trade places with one of the other characters in the book, which character would you really not want to be and why? 

That’s a question I’ve actually been thinking about. My nut-case cousin has everything; billions of dollars, an interesting Institute of learning he created, and powers most people can’t even comprehend, but he is so fixated on me and owning what I might have inherited, he has become obsessed and spends all his time making my life miserable. 

How do you feel about the ending of the book without giving too much away? 

Well, I sure as heck didn’t see that coming. It broke my heart. But I’ll tell you this much, it’s not over yet, not by a long shot. Not until I say it’s over. 

What words of wisdom would you give your author if he decided to write another book with you in it? 

Give me a little bit of time and the proper resources to learn all my crazy talents so that I can level the playing field. It also wouldn’t hurt anything to have a few more beautiful ladies in my life, either.

Thank you for this interview.  Will we be seeing more of you in the future? Absolutely! Although we just barely survived everything that went down in Wave Links, there are too many nasty loose ends still at play that need attending. I pretty certain it will take a least two more books, maybe three to understand the depth of the threat the Mind’s Eye Institute poses to the societies of world, and then someone has to fix it. Book two, Soul Links is in the works and should be out by the end of 2014. I think if you go to RandallBoleyn.com, you can opt-in to be on a notify list to receive an email about the publishing dates.

  They feared how the truth might alter Llad Fleck. No one ever told him about his talented ancestors, their extraordinary heritage, or how they died. He never learned that a powerful research institute in England considered him a lethal threat. Other than the need to move on to the safety of a different city every few months, the only thing Llad knew for sure was that the men he played ball against said he had “mad skills not suitable for a fifteen-year-old.” When Llad meets an eccentric parapsychologist, Dr. Jemma Rask, she explains that she has waited decades just to teach him how to expand his mind and utilize the unique traits which she believes he has inherited. Even though Dr. Rask and her stories come across as way too weird for Llad, he begins studying her techniques. He quickly realizes that just because the link might be there, it doesn’t mean he actually has the talent or the patience to develop his abilities. After multiple killings shatter Llad’s life, he still doesn’t know who is behind the brutal murders or why he’s involved. But he knows now that he’s fighting for his life against a unknown enemy. He must discover more about his family tree and learn how to control his psychic gifts―if he has any. Alone with his grief, Llad searches for clues about his cryptic lineage while being haunted by reoccurring dreams of a mysterious girl trying to help him master the bizarre talents he will need to survive.

To Purchase Your Copy

•  Amazon.
•  Barnes & Noble.
• Scribd
• iTunes
• Kobo
• Inktera

Warrior of the Way by Nathan Chandler Book Feature

Title: Warrior of the Way
Author: Nathan Chandler
Publisher: iUniverse
Pages: 376
Genre: Fantasy
Format: Ebook
 Purchase at AMAZON 

Civil war is a curse that touches everyone, including King Tashdar of the Mulamar. When he is ordered by a powerful and mysterious stranger to send warriors toward Kanai and Kadisha to slaughter everyone, Tashdar has no choice but to obey. As the Hebari emperor’s palace is invaded, only one man escapes—a captain of the guard to whom the emperor has entrusted the safety of his remaining two children. Moments later, the emperor’s legacy is erased from the face of the earth. More than forty years later, Pasha Nuvahli of the Sashramans tribe, greatest of the king’s warriors, is devastated when his wife is murdered and his son is kidnapped. Overcome with despair as war and a dangerous sorcerer threaten the southern tribes, Pasha soon finds himself in a crisis of faith as he ponders why Daiyu has allowed such sorrow to befall him. But after he learns of an ancient prophecy and his hidden connection to the last emperor of the south, Pasha is sent by King Juktan to seek an alliance with the five other Hebari tribes and lead them against an ancient enemy from the north. Suddenly, his life takes on a new meaning. In this compelling story, a worried king looks to his greatest warrior to unify the south with the hope the young soldier can save his people before all is lost forever.

  

 Nathan Chandler received an associate’s degree in technical Spanish translation from Oklahoma State University–Oklahoma City and currently attends the University of Oklahoma, where he is majoring in international business with an emphasis in Chinese language. Nathan resides in Norman, Oklahoma, where he continues to write.