AND a giveaway! That’s right. For the first time EVER I have been given the opportunity to host a WOW! Blog Tour with a FREE book giveaway. Woo hoo!
Author Bonnie Milani is here today to talk about Writing Your Way to Health…a topic that is near and dear to my soul. I have to tell you, what she wrote had me bouncing up and down in my chair…and looking around for my notebook.
And now, Bonnie, take it away!
Writing your way to health…seems almost counter-intuitive, doesn’t it? After all, the two most fundamental physical aspects of writing involve something modern medicine regards as critically unhealthy: hours of sitting and seeming isolation.
Now, I have no argument with the need to get out and exercise. It doesn’t take a Hemingway to know that you have to get the blood flowing if you want the brain cells to spark. But let’s face it: if you’re a writer, no matter what else you do there’s a little voice in the back of your mind grousing that you’re not writing. And unless you pay that little voice heed, the gnawing dissatisfaction it generates will make you sick.
I believe completely that the need to tell stories is God’s gift to us, just as He gifts musicians and mathematicians and great engineers their special talents. I believe storytelling is an intrinsic piece of a writer’s soul. We have the gift because we’re supposed to use it. I think we all know the feeling: stop writing, or just ignore your need to write, and your soul shrivels. You may not even know why, but the world takes on a sour tinge. Even when you know life is going well on the outside, your innermost self just cannot be happy with it. Ignore your gift for too long and the very act of ignoring your gift turns into a canker at the center of your soul – a canker sore that slowly poisons how you see and respond to your world. Gradually that kind of poison seeps out of the soul and into your bloodstream. It drips acid into your attitude, your relationships with your family, your coworkers. Worse, it’s an attitude that attracts other bitter souls, whose own disappointments serve to reflect your own. In short, you can’t ignore your gift without damaging your health.
Ah, but when you take even an hour each day and apply your gift … your soul blossoms. You find yourself doing the Cheshire cat grin at total strangers on the street. And miracle of miracles – suddenly those total strangers are grinning back at you. The world feels brighter, happier, more welcoming. The day to day hassles of life don’t change, but you find your response to them mellows out. Life just feels more satisfying. More right. Physically, we can talk about pheromones and mood enhancement, but as writers we’ve got the control drug right in our souls. We can quite literally write ourselves healthy.
Haven’t you ever felt that way? Felt the happy little pop when you jotted a story idea down? Or the intense wave of satisfaction that follows the words ‘the end’? Bet you have.
Oh yes…YES I have! Thanks, Bonnie. You are absolutely, positively right!
And now it’s time to win a FREE copy of Home World by Bonnie Milani. All you have to do for a chance to win is post a comment on this blog post. That’s right. You can type a thoughtful response to Bonnie’s lovely article. Or you could type “Hi, Bonnie.” Or you could even type “the end” just to remember/see how it feels. The contest will be open until Midnight on Sunday 12/8/2013. The winner will be announced on Monday 12/9/13.
Home World is a fast paced, well written story about the power and the price of love. This
story takes place amid the ruins of a post-apocalyptic Waikiki. Jezekiah Van Buren thinks he has found a way to restore Earth – Home World, to the other worlds of the human commonwealth. His goal is to restore his home to her lost glory.
Ingenious even by the standards of the genetically enhanced Great Family Van Buren, Jezekiah has achieved the impossible: he has arranged a treaty that will convert Earth’s ancient enemies, the Lupans, to her most powerful allies. Not only will the treaty terms make Earth rich again, it will let him escape the Ring that condemns him to be Earth’s next ruler. Best of all, the treaty leaves him free to marry Keiko Yakamoto, the Samurai-trained woman he loves. Everything’s set. All Jezekiah has to do is convince his xenophobic sister to accept the Lupan’s alpha warlord in marriage.
Before, that is, the assassin she’s put on his tail succeeds in killing him. Or the interstellar crime ring called Ho Tong succeed in raising another rebellion. Or before his ruling relatives on competing worlds manage to execute him for treason. But Jezekiah was bred for politics and trained to rule. He’s got it all under control. Until his Lupan warlord-partner reaches Earth. And suddenly these two most powerful men find themselves in love with the same woman. A woman who just may be the most deadly assassin of them all.
Paperback: 423 Pages
Publisher: Promontory Press
ISBN-10: 1927559235
ISBN-13: 978-1927559239
ASIN: B00FBK3NXU
Twitter hashtag: #HWorld
Home World is available as a print and e-book at Amazon.
Home World Website: www.homeworldthenovel.com
Author Bio:
Bonnie vividly recalls the book that helped her decide she could out-write another writer: it was a junior reader’s biography of Sir William Harvey, the 17th century English physician credited (in the West) with discovering how blood circulates. After about 30 pages of telling herself “I can write better than that!” she grabbed a crayon that just happened to be blue and started editing. She was all of seven years old at the time. Unfortunately for her juvenile bottom it was a library book. She followed the dream through college and after grad school, freelancing feature articles for newspapers along the East Coast. Milani even wrote a cover story for Science Digest! Alas life and grown up responsibilities caught up with her and by her late twenties she put writing away with so many other dreams while she followed a ‘career track’. After losing her entire family, she realized story telling just a want but a need and a gift God gave her. So here she is, a self-declared “middle-aged pudge” working on getting back into a writer’s kind of real life!
OK, action time! This is the end of the post. So right now you should be clicking on the “Leave a Reply” box to win a FREE copy of the book.
Slay the Writer 