My Books!

Thursday, September 30, 2021

His Strength In My Weakness

                     




Write Now Literary is pleased to be organizing a two-week book tour and $25 Visa Gift Card Giveaway for His Strength In My Weakness by Dr. Eurita Taylor. The book tour will run Sept 20- Oct 1, 2021. 
 
Genre: Inspirational Nonfiction, Memoir

ISBN-978-1545663172    



                                                           





 

Dr. Eurita Taylor is gifted to understand the unique struggles of single mothers. As a survivor of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse, she penetrates their pain, frees them from binding insecurities, and directs them to His glory. Accountant by day and counselor by night, Dr. Eurita uses her personal experiences, professional skills, and Ph.D. in Christian counseling to empower women struggling with low self-esteem, homelessness, and financial stewardship.

 

 


 


 

 

What happens when children can’t trust the adults who are supposed to protect them?

With childhood innocence snatched from her, Dr. Eurita Taylor questioned God. For years, she ran from Him and into the arms of abuse, hunger, and depression. With her personal prodigal son experience, she released the hurt, betrayal, and abandonment to make her way back to the lover of her soul. His Strength in My Weakness chronicles her journey from wallowing in pity, doubt, and unbelief to reconnecting with Her Father. Showered with grace, mercy, and an abundance of love, she understood that the power to overcome was always in reach.

 

In this book, you will discover:

 

• Why God wants to turn your self-hatred into self-love

• Strategies to boost your confidence and faith 

• How to shift your perspective to see failures as steps toward success

• Scriptures, prayers, and inspirations affirming that He is always with you

• Forgiveness as a tool to bless others and yourself

 

 

 

Praise for His Strength In My Weakness

 

“Dr. Taylor’s story told in her book, His Strength in My Weakness, is powerful, compelling, and at times, raw. She provides a roadmap which shows that no matter how difficult life can be, you can experience hope, breakthrough, and triumph with God.”

—Pastor Michael Kelly, Grace Fellowship Church Columbus, Ohio

 

“As I laid in the hospital bed and heard the doctor say, ‘You should have been dead,’ I thought about how reading His Strength in My Weakness comforted me. I am not a spiritual person and had limited understanding of the Bible references, but I read them over and over. Now I believe that He has a reason for keeping me alive.”

—Cheryl Kaiser, Manager at Speedway

 


 


 

Website          Facebook          Twitter

 

 


 

Amazon            Barnes & Noble

 

 


$25 Visa Gift Card


 

Answering the question below will enter the reader in a chance to win the Visa Gift Card. 


In my book, His Strength in My Weakness (http://hisstrengththebook.com), I mentioned that my ex-husband left me to birth our son alone. Was it our first, second, or third son?


I am giving away a $25 Visa card to the reader who correctly answers that question and posts it at Facebook.com/DrEuritaTaylor.


 

Tour organized by Write Now Literary Book Tours





  

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Wednesday, September 29, 2021

The Girl in the '67 Beetle


The Girl in the '67 Beetle

by Linda Lenhoff

 

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GENRE:   Contemporary Romance

 

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BLURB:

 

The art director of Kids Press, Amy Shepherd has been assigned to reinvent the story of Goldilocks, and she finds her own life reflecting a similar tale. Will she fall for a man who’s a little too old (but exciting), a man who’s a little too young (but awfully exciting looking), or a man who’s just right, at least as far as her friends are concerned? Or will she bring Goldilocks’ story—and her own—up to date with a little help from high-technology and the Goldilocks Planet theory? Amy will have to decide how her own tale will end, all the while driving her beloved powder blue convertible through the streets of Santa Monica, where she has become known as the Girl in the ’67 Beetle, the only thing in her life that, so far at least, feels just right.

 

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EXCERPT:

 

I think it’s a sign of our times that when we feel low or

confused, unsure or unloved, we look for someplace

warm and comforting, with soft colors and soothing

music, and find ourselves time and again at Pottery Barn. At

least, my pal Susan and I do.

 

“Shopping has gotten a bad name,” Susan says. Susan is

my bestie from college, though we don’t use the term bestie

because it’s a little too cute, and Susan is a serious person.

She has a serious face with a serious haircut—auburn tinted

straight hair, excellent posture, and one of those fit bodies

where everything’s proportioned right. I think it’s because

she’s tall. But she doesn’t lord it over me or anything.

 

“It’s true,” I say. “I feel guilty shopping now. Even window

shopping makes me look over my shoulder to make sure no

one’s watching. When did this happen?”

 

“It’s all those TV shows where women in too much eye

makeup are constantly shopping for shoes.

 

“I’ve never willingly gone into one of those pricey shoe stores,” I say.

 

“Boutiques,” Susan corrects me.

 

“That’s a polite word for them,” I say. “What’s wrong with

DSW? What’s wrong with grabbing your own size and putting

shoes on yourself?” I ask.

 

“You just don’t get what it means to be a modern woman,”

Susan says, raising her nose in the air. “A modern woman who

spends money on shoes that hurt.”

 

“I’d rather have a nice quilt,” I say, looking at a nice quilt. 

It’s five-hundred dollars, so I won’t be buying it, either. But

at least if I did, it wouldn’t pinch my toes.

 

 

I am scanning the aisles of Trader Joe’s, looking for

something celebratory but inexpensive for dinner. It is

my anniversary, and I realize I’m acting a little like a New

Agey Hallmark card for a thirty-four-year-old celebrating the

first anniversary of her divorce (and you just know the card

would be too pink, with a girl holding a martini glass with too

much martini in it). 

 

Trader Joe’s is the grocery store where I came as a college

student to buy very cheap wine (I still buy it) and big blocks

of cheese (I’ve cut down on the cheese—dairy, you know).

The store looks brand new, having undergone renovation this

past year. A lot like me, but more fluorescent and way more

noticeable. You can now find some form of chocolate at the

end of almost every aisle. Something that makes me think they

know I shop here, or there are a lot more women like me than

I ever thought.

 

A crowd has gathered around the low-carb section, which

thankfully isn’t too large an area. Lots of women studying the fine print.

 

An older man is watching the low-carb folks, too. He looks

at me, and we share a smile. He then accidentally turns and

knocks over an entire rack of chocolate bars (the ones with

the white wrappers and hazelnuts inside, a very good choice),

and the whole group of low carb-ettes turns to see, with looks

of longing on their determined faces. The older man looks

slightly bemused. 

 

“You’re a tempter, is that it?” I ask, helping him pick up the

bars. I put one in my basket. I don’t care if it fell on the floor.

It’s wrapped.

 

 

“Who could resist?” he says, with a mischievous smile on

his face. “Thanks for the help. I should buy you a chocolate

bar,” he says.

 

“Please, I’m over thirty,” I joke. “You should buy me two.”

 


 

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

 

Linda Lenhoff has worked in publishing as a writer and editor for several years,  having edited nearly everything from makeup techniques (apply blush up and over  the “apples” of your cheeks) at Seventeen Magazine to migraine studies (cut back  on that chocolate) at research institutes. She has earned an MFA in Creative.

Writing, and her next novel, *Your Actual Life May Vary, will be published in 2022. Linda lives in California’s Bay Area with her husband and daughter. Contact Linda at (925) 784-9393, lenhoff@informativity.com

https://lindalattelessons.wordpress.com. Author photo by Haley Nelson.


Amazon buy link: 
https://www.amazon.com/Girl-67-Beetle-novel-Lenhoff-ebook/dp/B0977M7ZNT/

 

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GIVEAWAY INFORMATION:

 

Linda Lenhoff will be awarding one printed copy book or a $25 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. 


a Rafflecopter giveaway




Tuesday, September 28, 2021

Beyond the Book: Civil War Medicine

Ten years ago I did a series of posts on my blog about the Civil War. I came across them in a folder while I was looking for something else. I decided to share them with you. This one is kind of gruesome, but I have many more that aren’t. Periodically I think I’ll share some of them with you. So, here goes.

If you think medical procedures are unpleasant today, you’d better thank your lucky stars you weren’t born in the Civil War Era.  And you’d really better be grateful that you weren’t a Civil War soldier.

During the 1860’s doctors didn’t know about germs or what caused diseases, and they had very little medical training.  Harvard Medical School didn’t even own a stethoscope or microscope until after the war.  Most Civil War surgeons had never treated a gunshot wound, and many had never performed surgery.  Still, they did the best they could with what they had to work with.  

The Union Army had about 10,000 doctors and the Confederate army had about 4,000.  The doctors used bloody fingers as probes.  Bloody knives were used over and over without washing or sterilizing.  Doctors operated in pus stained clothes or sometimes shirtless.  Blood poisoning, sepsis or Pyemia-pus in the blood-was quite common and often deadly.  Surgical fever and gangrene were constant threats.  This is the way one witness described amputation, the most common surgery:

“Tables about breast high had been erected upon which the screaming victims were having legs and arms cut off.  The surgeons and assistants, stripped to the waist and bespattered with blood, stood around, some holding the poor fellows while others, armed with long bloody knives and saws, cut and sawed away with frightful rapidity, throwing the mangled limbs on a pile nearby as soon as removed.”

A good surgeon could remove a limb in ten minutes or less.  If it took much longer the man would probably go into shock and die.  Most of the time the doctors used chloroform as an anesthetic.  They soaked a cloth in the chloroform and held it across the man’s face until he fell unconscious.  Surprisingly enough, 75% of amputees did survive.  Have you heard the term “sawbones?”  The surgeons bone saw is where the term came from.

Why was amputation the most common surgical procedure?  Because so many people were wounded or killed!  More men were killed in the Civil War than in all previous American Wars combined! More men died at the Battle of Antietam than any other day in American History.  The casualties at Antietam were twice the casualties suffered at D-Day.  

Why were so many people wounded or killed?  It was because the armies still were using Napoleonic tactics.  They were still using frontal assaults where the men would run across open ground to engage the enemy, but during the Civil War the soldiers used guns with rifled barrels.  This meant they were more accurate at longer distances.  As men raced across the field it was easier to pick them off.  

When the wounded were brought to the field hospital a triage system sent only those wounded in the extremities to the surgeon.  A torso or head wound was considered a fatal wound, and the doctor didn’t have time to spend on men whom he couldn’t save.  He didn’t have time to try to save splintered arms and legs either-too many men to see to.  Therefore, amputation was the only real treatment.

Surprisingly, though, for every soldier who died in battle, two died of disease.  Diarrhea and dysentery alone claimed more men than battlefield wounds.  Measles, smallpox, malaria, pneumonia, or camp itch claimed many more.  You’d have thought the camps were safe, so what was the problem?  A heck of a lot!  

First, new recruits weren’t given thorough physical exams.  Men went to fight who weren’t healthy enough to do it, and of course they were more susceptible to disease than healthy men.  Second, troops from rural areas were in the same units as men from cities.  Often the rural men had never been exposed to come of the germs carried by the men from the cities, so they got sick.

Third, camp hygiene was dreadful.  One federal army inspector who visited a camp said the camps were: “littered with refuse, food, and other rubbish, sometimes in an offensive state of decomposition; slops deposited in pits within the camp limits or thrown out with heaps of manure and offal close to the camp.”

Fourth, soldiers suffered from exposure and the lack of protective clothing.  Colds often turned into pneumonia, the third leading killer disease after typhoid and dysentery.  And fifth, poor food and water often weakened a soldier and made him susceptible to disease.  

Sometimes the cures the doctors offered sound almost as bad as the disease itself.  For open bowels the patient was treated with a plug of opium.  For closed bowels the doctor prescribed a mixture of mercury and chalk.  Respiratory problems were treated with opium or sometimes quinine and muster plasters.  Bleeding was also used.  That’s when doctors nick a vein and let blood flow from the patient.

It was easier for the Union army to get medicines than it was the Confederate army.  A large percentage of the medicine used by the Confederates was captured from Union supplies.

The picture below is of an original Civil War amputation kit.   

Information for this post came from the following sources:

http://www.sonofthesouth.net/leefoundation/civil-war-medicine.htm

http://ehistory.osu.edu/uscw/features/medicine/cwsurgeon/


Claimed by the Moon

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Title: Claimed by the Moon
Series: Royal Shifters Novel
Author: L.P. Dover
Genre: Paranormal Shifter Romance
Release Date: September 28, 2021


In his 200 years of life, Zayne Lyall has made his share of enemies. The most ruthless of all being Knox Channon, who seeks vengeance for a pack war that took place over a hundred years ago.

To gain information he can use to bring Zayne down, Knox reconnects with Amelie Graye, a past love who joined the Royal pack Zayne belongs to. Unfortunately, Amelie doesn't know much about the royal arctic... despite a longing within her to be near him.

Amelie and Knox have a tumultuous past that ended after she and her family went rogue following an attack by the Sierra pack. While she has no details to offer about Zayne, Knox sniffing around her leaves his inner wolf snarling.

More than anything Zayne wants to charge in and protect the woman his heart aches for. But he has a secret... and it could cost him everything. Amelie is his fated mate. If Knox were to discover this, he would know hurting her would be the key to destroying Zayne. Torn between his desire to claim Amelie as his own and his ferocious passion to protect her, can Zayne find a way to bring down his malicious enemy? Or will an age old vendetta rob him of a blissful future with his bonded mate?



"𝐈 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐦𝐨𝐨𝐭𝐡 𝐬𝐥𝐨𝐰 𝐛𝐮𝐫𝐧, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧, 𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞. 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞’𝐬 𝐚 𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐬𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐮𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐞 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐟𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐲, 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞." ~ 𝐉𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐌 - 𝐆𝐨𝐨𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐬
"𝙄 𝙘𝙤𝙪𝙡𝙙𝙣'𝙩 𝙥𝙪𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙗𝙤𝙤𝙠 𝙙𝙤𝙬𝙣. 𝙄 𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙙 𝙞𝙩 𝙞𝙣 𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙨𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 (𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙡𝙤𝙨𝙩 𝙖 𝙡𝙤𝙩 𝙤𝙛 𝙨𝙡𝙚𝙚𝙥!). 𝙄'𝙫𝙚 𝙗𝙚𝙚𝙣 𝙬𝙖𝙞𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙕𝙖𝙮𝙣𝙚'𝙨 𝙨𝙩𝙤𝙧𝙮." ~ 𝙎𝙖𝙧𝙖𝙝 𝙋𝙤𝙪𝙡𝙩𝙤𝙣 - 𝙂𝙤𝙤𝙙𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙨

The door to the cabin opens, and Amelie steps out with her caramel-colored hair in a ponytail and dressed in a tank top and yoga pants. It’s fifteen degrees outside, but the cold doesn’t bother us. The smell of snow approaches, and I can tell it’s going to come down hard within the hour. Looking up at the sky, it’s dark, and the clouds are thick.

Amelie plugs in the Christmas lights on her porch and looks up at them when she gets into the yard. I’ve never seen someone so fascinated with the holidays. But she’d be appalled if she could see my house at Christmas time. I’ve never cared about decorating or celebrating, at least not in the last thirty years after losing Alina. Something tells me I might have to change that. If this is going to work between us, I’ll have no choice but to see things differently. The only problem is that I have no idea how to do that.

Amelie runs through the woods in human form, and I follow behind her, making sure to keep my presence hidden. I’m not ready for her to know I’m there yet. The lake is a few miles into the woods, and her movements are smooth and concise as she swerves in and out of the trees. The only other people I’ve seen move like that are my brothers. She had to have learned it from Micah. I’ve envied him for being so close to her. It’s even made me a little jealous, but I know he’s never tried anything with her. When he comes back to town, things might be a little different. I’m hoping Amelie will let me train her instead of him.

The lake comes into view, and I slow my pace. Amelie stops by the water and blows out a breath, watching the steam billow into the wind. She raises her arms in the air and stretches, exposing her bare stomach as her shirt lifts up. The need in me rises, and I close my eyes. All I can think about is taking her in my arms and making her mine.

“Fuck,” I hiss under my breath. My cock hardens at the thought of her naked and spread out beneath me. Stepping behind the tree, I lean against it to regain my composure. I’m always in control, but around Amelie, I’ve lost all sense of it. Taking a deep breath, I let it out slow until everything goes back to normal. When it does, I unleash my power so Amelie can sense me.









New York Times and USA Today bestselling author L. P. Dover is a southern belle living in North Carolina with her husband and two beautiful girls. Everything’s sweeter in the South has always been her mantra and she lives by it, whether it’s with her writing or in her everyday life. Maybe that’s why she’s seriously addicted to chocolate.

Dover has written countless novels in several different genres, including a children’s book with her daughter. Her favorite to write is romantic suspense, but she’s also found a passion in romantic comedy. She loves to make people laugh which is why you’ll never see her without a smile on her face.



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