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You are here: Home / Archives for PUBLISHING PICKS

BOOK REVIEW The Slumber Party from Hell – author, Sue Ellen Allen and reviewer Patricia L. Brooks

March 20, 2012 by patricia

 

The Slumber Party from Hell, the book Sue Ellen Allen published in 2011, seems like an intimate chat with an old chum.  It’s a book that is more like an overheard
conversation.  You feel you’re intruding but you can’t stop listening.

In this well written work, The Slumber Party from Hell puts the spotlight on the Arizona prison system that is penalizing, but not rehabilitating its inmates.

Allen says it took her seven years in prison to realize the Arizona prisons are part of the problem as they focus narrowly on penalizing and punishing our prison population.  She believes her life has changed completely from this experience of dealing with breast cancer as a prisoner, as well as the unnecessary death of her friend and roommate Gina to cancer while she too was in prison.

Allen knew it was the end of the world as she had known it once she stepped in to that life and she was determined to make the best of it.

Allen puts some of her self-made power to work by being a leader and role model while behind bars by volunteering her expertise and ideas learned on the outside as a professional woman and community leader.  She helps many of the younger women who are struggling develop themselves within the confines of an unfair and unjust prison system.

She also attempts to shrink the negative impact of prison for herself and her fellow inmates by starting programs positive in nature.  This is no easy feat because most of the rules are unrealistic and frustrating at best.

Although often her writing leaves you wishing things were not as she describes them, you find joy and humor in the small things she celebrates during those seven years of incarceration.

You are able to decipher what is really going on in some of the chaos and craziness to make a little sense of the journey, but in most areas to no avail.  It is what it is and the few gems in the story are Sue Ellen herself, along with a couple of her friends – inside and out.

This is a story of a few founders of the truth in a world where innocence and beauty do not exist.  Some readers will be engaged by Allen’s fierce convictions and continuous mentions of hope and gratitude for the lessons she is learning and the person she is becoming.

Others will be turned off by the blatant honesty of life in the Arizona prison system and the horrors she witnessed.  But throughout it all, you will find humor and humanness to admire just as I did.  You will find respect for her in your own way and you will surely be grateful for your life just the way it is today.

This week she is celebrating three years since her release March 18, 2009.  She celebrated 10 years cancer free on Valentine’s Day, Feb 14, 2012.

Book Reviewer:

Patricia L. Brooks patricia@pplbrooks.com
480-250-5556

President/Founder – Scottsdale Society of Women Writers

President/Owner – Brooks Goldmann Publishing, LLC

www.blog.brooksgoldmannpublishing.com

Author – Gifts of Sisterhood www.amzn.com/B006MLA91Q

Filed Under: AZ Authors Association, Blogroll, brooks goldmann publishing, business consultation, Memoir, memoir writing workshop, Old Reviews, PUBLISHING PICKS, SCOTTSDALE SOCIETY OF WOMEN WRITERS Tagged With: Arizona Prisons, breast cancer, cancer, courage, Faith, Gina's Team, Hope, Perryville Prison, PUBLISHING PICKS, Sue Ellen Allen, The Slumber Party from Hell, women in prison, writing

PUBLISH WITH MARKETING IN MIND

March 2, 2012 by patricia

Publish with Marketing in Mind – Patricia L. Brooks, author, consultant

Brooks Goldmann Publishing, LLC  www.brooksgoldmannpublishing.com

Publishing is like Sailing!

Take the Helm – Brand

Chart your Course – Differentiation

Hoist your Best Sails – Creativity

Launch a Smooth Voyage – Diversify

Ask the Right Questions

Who are my Audiences?     What is my Purpose?

When Should I Launch?      Where will I Compete?

YES Editors/Proofreaders as Partners

Mature the Work

Cultivate a must Read

Shape it and Improve it

Position in your Genre

YES Cover Design/Title – – Hottest Sell Points

Show a Succinct Title

Dress it up – Clear and Curious

Make it Count – Get attention

Brand it – Pedigree

YES Back Cover Matters

Short Testimonials – No bragging

Photo/Message – Challenge/Invite

Pitch what you Know – Inspire

Endorsements – Benefits are Paramount

YES Interior Layout Legend is Critical to Success

Influence the Buying Decision with the following:

Show your Message

Establish Expectations

Delight the Reader

Printing Particulars

YES Compliance is Critical – get it right the first time

Research is Required – Shop ‘till you Drop

Budgeting is Best

YES Try the Traditional Route

You too will do Marketing!

Agents – Prestige – Advances – Rights

Contracts – Control issues – Timelines – Changes

YES Self-Publishing Perspective is an option

In Control – Earn more per book

Process much quicker – All Costs to You

Consultant/Book Shepherd can be the way to go

YES Marketing You and your Book! is the goal

Social Media – Network – Online – Websites – Blogs

Promotion – Bookmarks, Postcards, Posters

Media – Print/Broadcast – Publicity

YES Launch Lessons Learned are vital

30 Second Commercial

Market Locally then Globally

Distribution – Delivery

Business Plan – Marketing Plan

HERE THEY ARE Some Suggested Reading

Writing Down the Bones – Natalie Goldberg

Your Life as Story – Tristine Rainer

The Right to Write – Julia Cameron

1001 Ways to Market Your Book – John Kremer

THANK YOU FOR READING THIS AND GOOD LUCK

Patricia L. Brooks

patricia@plbrooks.com 480-250-5556

 

Filed Under: AZ Authors Association, Blogroll, brooks goldmann publishing, business consultation, marketing consultation, SCOTTSDALE SOCIETY OF WOMEN WRITERS Tagged With: authors, book launch, books, designers for books, ebooks, editors, marketing consulting, media, press, printers, promotion, proofreaders, publishing consultation, PUBLISHING PICKS, SCOTTSDALE SOCIETY OF WOMEN WRITERS, self-publishers, tradional publishers, writers, writing

Book Review – Remnants/ready for new life by our author Kiki Swanson – congrats Kiki

December 9, 2009 by patricia

 

BOOK REVIEW

 

Remnants – Ready for New Life

 

Kiki Swanson (Brooks Goldmann, $19.95)

This captivating volume will appeal to lovers of warm climates, active retirement communities, volunteerism, paying it forward and living life to the fullest in retirement.

In early 2004, Daisy Mac Duff moved into the active and well-appointed retirement community of La Ventura located in Scottsdale, AZ.  She left behind many friends over the years when she moved with her husband on many transfers, eventually moving to the desert of AZ.

Her children also live in AZ and, on occasion, keep her busy with their lives.  But Daisy needs the camaraderie of “soul” mates, friends her age who share happy memories of her past and her current pursuit of happiness.

Her grief for her husband had consumed several years of her life and now it is time to share her future with friends, new and old.  She seeks the companionship of her women friends from all parts of the country by writing and asking them to join her in Scottsdale. 

Soon a strong and steady flow of letters begin to appear in her mailbox.  Both the flamboyant red-head pianist Clarissa and the demure preacher’s wife Beth write immediately.  Others come in as quickly as you can say “out west”, such as Martha, the one seeking a new AA recovery group.

Daisy accumulates the letters, which often stretch into reminiscing of old places that bring back memories, such as with Mary Ann, Martha’s sister.  While some were meant to just read and smile or listen to what was really being said.  Beth is one of those with her quiet tone and gentle way.

From the window of Daisy’s retirement life at La Ventura you sense her yearning for the friendships she knew in the past with each of these women responding.  You will visualize Daisy with her friends enjoying their later years being productive in community while dealing with what life gives out. Practicing her mother’s philosophy, Daisy learns again how to accept life without losing her own character as some say yes and some say no to her suggestion to community life with her and the others.

You imagine the startling effects of a group of women coming together by one woman’s will to make them a family.  This joining of creative, active, senior women together in a new life with a fresh start from a divorce or widowhood, retirement alone or loneliness of any kind, gives them “wind at their backs”.  They go into the unknown of “later in life” friendships in a commune environment.  With Daisy behind them, pushing them with a force in the direction of giving back, serving God and enjoying every moment as if it were their destiny is their new life.

This is the story of a community formed and developed by a bunch of well educated, interesting, creative and productive caring women who with no real plans for their later years take a “leap of faith” and let a long time friend bring them together.  Because of this, they later will write their recipes for success, their ideas for mentoring, their last wishes, their obituaries and their insights and feelings about things they hold dear in their Tuesdays at Three writing group.

Some still have strong feelings and reservations about the success of the idea, such as the couple of men Daisy befriends early in the story.  But at the onset, the five of nine women who say yes “let’s just do it” are more than happy to reach out to others and not isolate elsewhere.  The men in turn become vital to the women’s friendships.

Here you will learn about many things, from loss and grief (incurred by all of them) to alcoholism (the elements of AA) to the medical issues too familiar to all of us.  The spring writing group for life’s philosophies gives many insights into all of them, and surely in to you too.

It is a satisfying and rewarding read and you get the feeling they are having a really wonderful time living out their lives together in a “village.” Being grateful for everyday, their mantra is to rise above the past, adjust to change and hear the music.  If humor and good taste can be a contradiction in terms, Remnants defies the idea and makes you smile as you look for the sunshine in life.

Kiki Swanson is fearless as she addresses real issues for all seniors (Baby Boomer types too) such as divorce, widowhood, alcoholism, dating, health restraints and life’s disappointments while believing resiliency is the key.  There is a lot of good old fashioned fun here that anyone considering a retirement community or living in one now can relate to on many levels.  Maybe the putting of these things in writing, including their last wishes, is more entertainment than any part of sadness and is what endears them to us.

One of my favorite parts of the story is the thread that weaves their leader Daisy and her perseverance in making things happen, sharing conversation with her dog Curly and learning late in life of her husband’s “secret life” and her son’s need for “care and understanding.” The mystery and unveiling is part of the intrigue.

Remnants-ready for new life acknowledges that it is not above the fray of recognizing the human frailty in all of us.  Everyone has moments of despair and sadness, coupled with anger.  Realizing in this read that it is in fact the ride of taking us “home” to our friends and faith in our “golden years” that sustains us, Kiki Swanson shows us it is possible to succeed to the end.

We have all spiraled out of the darkness of grief and divorce or alcoholism or life’s disappointments and up into something beautiful because someone listened.  We have all known love because someone cared, someone was there when we prayed about it and God answered.

Surely Remnants-ready for new life will be that kind of eye opening, heartwarming book you want with the memory of your life.  This work and these stories will help you put the past right where it belongs and your life ready for the surprises that lay ahead.

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

Patricia L. Brooks, MAOM

Publishing Consultant, Author, Speaker

BROOKS GOLDMANN PUBLISHING, LLC

 www.blog.brooksgoldmannpublishing.com

Cell 480-250-5556

 

Kikiswan@cox.net or www.kikiswansonbooks.com for more information or books

Filed Under: AZ Authors Association, AZ BOOK PUBLISHERS ASSOC, Blogroll, brooks goldmann publishing, libraries, new fiction, PUBLISHING PICKS Tagged With: alcoholism, author, book review, brooks goldmann publishing, divorce, family, fiction, friends, golden years, heartwarming book, KIKI SWANSON, later in life, new fiction, novel, obituaries, publish, PUBLISHING PICKS, publishing your vook, relationships for seniors, reminiscing, remnants-ready for new life, retirees, retirement community, retirement in Scottsdale, seret life, success in life, writer, writing, writng group

Publish Yourself as the Expert – join me July 8th

June 25, 2009 by patricia

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Web Site:        www.brooksgoldmannpublishing.com

Blog:               https://brooksgoldmannpublishing.com

 

AMERICAN BUSINESS

WOMENS ASSOCIATION

to feature Scottsdale Author and

Publishing Consultant Patricia L. Brooks, MAOM

 

SCOTTSDALE, Arizona, June, 2009 – The American Business Womens Association – Turquoise Camel Chapter will feature publishing consultant “book shepherd”, author and Scottsdale business woman, Patricia L. Brooks, MAOM www.brooksgoldmannpublishing.com on Wednesday, July 8th at their monthly dinner at Anzio’s Italian Restaurant, 12418 N. 28th Dr., Phoenix, 6:00 p.m. 

 

The American Business Womens Association continue their speaker series with Patricia’s talk Publish Yourself as the Expert.  Patricia shares her inspirational portrait of the relationship you want to develop with your writing as you take the many steps needed to produce fine work and instrument change.   Please RSVP for this dinner to Donna Tucker 602-788-3121 or abwa-phoenix@att.net priced at $21.00.  Thank you.

 

Ø  Publish Yourself as the Expert.  Patricia takes you to writing with passion because you must be an instrument for change.  The journey is fresh and uplifting as she shares with you how you too can be enthused as a writer of non-fiction while enhancing your career.  Her perspective is generous and worth noting as she helps you: (1) Understand what moves you (2) Develop a personal mission and (3) Honor for whom you need to be a voice. 

 

Ø  Develop a Winning Writing Plan.  Patricia shows wit and courage during these times of challenge by giving you suggestions for goals, objectives and strategies.  Along with insight into a philosophy of writing life worth emulating, she motivates you to launch your vision for success by being well organized and prepared in your writing.  With a timeline and emulating others you admire, she reminds you of the five W’s of reporting good information for a non-fiction publication.  She prepares you to write.

 

Ø  Practice Strict Research Rules.  Patricia asks you to do your homework, understand research, practice good interview skills, read, experiment, observe, survey and learn your topic well.  In thinking about your vision for the book, and what your philosophy is behind the book, you will understand yourself completely.  She wants you to be honest about how committed you are to do this work and how willing you are to be critical with a follow-up plan.  She expects you to ask yourself why you feel compelled to write what you want to write.

 

Patricia L. Brooks is president/founder of the Scottsdale Society of Women Writers, is a member of the AZ Authors Association, the AZ Book Publishers Association and the Phoenix Writers Club.

 

She is owner of:

P. L. Seminars, LLC (www.plbrooks.com)

Brooks Goldmann Publishing Co., LLC, (www.brooksgoldmannpublishing.com)

www.blog.brooksgoldmannpublishing.com

 

She is associate faculty at Arizona State University – teaching Marketing, She has resided in Arizona for over 30 years and has been active in the business community for all of that time. 

 

Patricia holds a Masters Degree in Organizational Management, the Advanced Toastmasters designation and has been named to “Who’s Who of America’s Teachers.

 

She can be reached at patricia@plbrooks.com or 480-250-5556.  She is the published author of Gifts of Sisterhood and currently has two manuscripts ready for publication in the self-help/non-fiction genre.

Filed Under: Blogroll, brooks goldmann publishing, business consultation, Uncategorized Tagged With: american business womens association, book shepherd, brooks goldmann publishing, get published, publish yourself as the expert, publishing consultant, PUBLISHING PICKS, research your writing, the expert, women authors, women writing groups, your expertise in business

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