Guest Post ~ Samuel Wardwell on Retribution, Prison, and Adapting to Change

Release date: January 9th 2018
Publisher: MCP Books
Purchase: Amazon

Synopsis via Goodreads:

Marc Ransom is innocent, but after a major misunderstanding he's in prison and making...questionable company. His new cellmate isn't just a cat burglar; she's a woman, and she's ready to leave.

This is America's first co-ed prison. It's a high-tech joint where thugs rule, robot guards roam, and cameras see everything. And now, two complete opposites are trapped there together.

But life in prison isn't an option. Corrupt authorities want Marc gone. Gangs have marked the burglar, Linda, for death. Seeing no other way, the unlikely cellmates become a 'brain and brawn' duo by pairing his strength with her street smarts.

In forcing themselves to cooperate, they might just find freedom, redemption, and romance in the unlikeliest of places.

~GUEST POST~

Technological advancements and societal changes throughout history have always fascinated me. It is my belief that both have a dynamic effect on each other. 

A decade ago, I found myself locked up in a Georgia prison. I started to think about how our culture might handle the imprisonment of its citizens in the future. Because our society is moving to make everything equal, our prisons could soon be co-ed.

One of the major concerns I had during this unfortunate time in my life was being assaulted. I realized that this would become worse if a prison environment was co-educational. How would the authorities keep the men and women apart? It was while thinking about this that I started to develop the idea for the Retribution series.

With advancements in battery and GPS technologies, self-locating devices have become commonplace. In the Retribution series, the use of wrist and ankle bracelets make it possible to locate an inmate. They would create a magnetic field around the prisoner. The battery pack built into the ankle bracelet would allow me to solve the issue of inmate contact. The bracelets would stop the physical assaults that have plagued prisons throughout history. They would also prevent the members of the opposite sex from co-mingling. The wrist bracelet acts as both an I.D. and location device. The larger ankle bracelet would house a taser-like technology. With this, an electrical jolt capable of increasing its voltage would be possible. The longer the two people wearing the devices are in contact, the greater the shock the two would suffer. 

I then thought about what it might be like to live in such an environment. This is when I created the primary characters in Retribution, Linda and Marc.

The character of Marc is loosely based on myself. Many of the incidents that happen to Marc during his incarceration mirror incidents that actually happened to me while I was in prison. I also weave into the story how my arrest happened and why the legal system had completely let me down.

Linda is a different story. Linda is based on a good friend of mine from the past. She was a risk taker, and ended up getting involved in a horrible situation that led to her death. In the book, I dramatized her life; however, I kept her heritage, intellect, and acrobatic abilities as part of Linda’s character. In the story, Linda chooses to use her skills to become a very successful cat-burglar early in life.

The Retribution series is about how Linda and Marc end up meeting in Georgia’s first co-ed prison. The story follows two very different people who inadvertently save the other’s life. They develop a mutual trust and cautiously become friends. They are targets for assassination and marked for death. They choose to do the only thing that can save their lives: escape from one of the most high-tech prisons ever created.

I am an architect by training. An architect's job is to create and manage the work on buildings or structures. Computer technology has grown by leaps and bounds over the years. I believe there will soon be a need for an “architect” of sorts to manage and design complicated technology systems in various companies and organizations. In the Retribution series, this person would be a computer architect. In my story, Marc holds this coveted title.

Marc’s background and Linda’s amazing physical abilities allow them to create a plan to defeat the prison's technology. They figure out a way to trick the system into not realizing that two inmates are about to escape.

My inspiration for Retribution was to take what I already knew about the world we live in and mix it with what I believe the future has planned for us all.

Our society will learn how to the adapt to the changes and inventions that are flooding us almost every day. The challenge I tackle in the series is how our future will affect us and what we will have to do to adapt.

Marc is an idealist who believes that things happen for a reason. Because of her life’s circumstances, Linda has to be a realist by necessity just to survive. These two very different people find themselves in many incredible adventures. Retribution explores how even the most difficult circumstances can be overcome with teamwork, trust, and eventual love.

About the Author

Samuel Wardwell is an American author of crime-thriller novels. His books include themes of crime, redemption, and corruption within the legal system. Wardwell lived a privileged life; he grew up in northern New Jersey, and went to college in New York City. He worked for many years as an architect and historian, but struggled with addiction. Samuel became a functioning alcoholic and made decisions he'd later come to regret. Today, he lives in Roswell, Georgia. He has been sober for over ten years.

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Spotlight & Guest Post: The Hitman's Mistake by Sally Brandle

Release date: June 27th 2018
Publisher: Soulmate Publishing
Purchase: Amazon

Synopsis via Goodreads:

After Miranda Whitley stops crooked cops from assassinating a prominent Seattle judge, she’s next on the hit list, and her survival depends on the buff FBI Agent she’s had one awkward encounter with. But can she find him in time?

The last person Grant Morley expects to discover on his annual supply run to a Montana mountain hermit is alluring Miranda Whitley, nearly dead from a bullet wound in her side. An accidental witness or the cold-blooded accomplice to would-be assassins?

Miranda must convince Grant of her innocence, evade the killers intent on preventing her testimony, and fight her unwanted attraction for the agent…an attraction which seems to be mutual. Fortunately, love thrives in Emma Springs. If you love sizzling chemistry, Montana’s mountain landscape, and fast-paced action, then you’ll love Sally Brandle’s galloping thriller, The Hitman’s Mistake.

~GUEST POST~

Ten years ago, I quit my job and took a week to pound out the story occupying my sleepless nights. One of my delightful, intelligent sons struggled in school--a ‘would he graduate’ scenario. In order to calm my brain while lying in bed, The Hitman’s Mistake emerged. My son did graduate and after implementing tools from umpteen classes, workshops, and critiques, publishing happened for me. During the long gap, I took a different job, wrote six more books, and kept rewriting HM. The title morphed from A Man, A Mule, and A Mountain of Trouble, to Inconspicuous, to The Hitman’s Mistake, but the core story and characters never changed.

I live outside Seattle in a suburban/rural area. A neighbor pastured his hunting mule and horse nearby, and he kindly facilitated horseback rides for a birthday party we hosted for a young Irish girl. Big Red stood about sixteen hands, but carefully monitored the little kids and nuzzled their hair. The novella I’m currently writing tells his backstory, as fictionally portrayed in The Hitman’s Mistake. Yes, the mule.

My editor suggested I create a giveaway short story for my newsletter readership and after brainstorming characters from HM, she suggested Big Red. “Hmm,” I pondered. “Oh, and it has to be a thriller,” came her reply. Work continues on the temporary title, Romantic Mule Thriller. I tease that I’ll be crowned the queen of mule-lit, but in reality, each story in my first series, Love Thrives in Emma Springs, contains an equine character.  Wonderful Soul Mate editor, Sharon Roe, purchased Virtue and Vengeance, the second book in the series with a mini horse, and it’s due out in October. Hopefully, we’ll team up on the remaining four, featuring my Quarter Horse, a zebra, a retired police horse, and a pony.

I’d love to hear comments about the second series I’ve begun writing. Instead of a rural Montana backdrop, this group of romantic suspense stories delivers a scientific twist. The first book, A Disturbing Departure, finds a reporter and a movie star, estranged friends and both reeling from betrayal, reuniting to foil a plot to destroy the US power grid by a solar power zealot. Too many stories, too little time. Happy reading and please know, authors love your reviews. Sally.

About the Author

Multiple award-winning author Sally Brandle writes clean, contemporary, romantic suspense stories. She left a career as an industrial baking instructor so that she could bring to life her stories of courageous women supporting one another while they discover men who deserve their love. A member of Romance Writers of America, Greater Seattle RWA, Eastside RWA, and She Writes, Sally’s current series, Love Thrives in Emma Springs, is set in rural Montana. 

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Guest Post: The Calculus of Change by Jessie Hilb

Release date: February 27th 2018
Publisher: Clarion Books
Purchase: Amazon

Synopsis via Goodreads:

A poignant and empowering teen novel of grief, unrequited love, and finding comfort in one's own skin.

Aden isn't looking for love in her senior year. She's much more focused on things like getting a solo gig at Ike's and keeping her brother from illegal herbal recreation. But when Tate walks into Calculus class wearing a yarmulke and a grin, Aden's heart is gone in an instant.

The two are swept up in a tantalizingly warm friendship, complete with long drives with epic soundtracks and deep talks about life, love, and spirituality. With Tate, Aden feels closer to her mom and her mom's faith than she has since her mother died years ago. Everyone else even Aden's brother and her best friend can see their connection, but does Tate?

Navigating uncertain romance and the crises of those she loves, Aden must decide how she chooses to see herself and how to honor her mom's memory.

~GUEST POST~

The "love story" in THE CALCULUS OF CHANGE was inspired by a beautiful, heartbreaking relationship I had in high school and through early college. Of course, in writing, the story took on a life of its own, but I started from and wrote from the truth of my experience while giving the characters in CALC room to breathe and live on their own. It's weird, but I think I always knew I was going to write this story. Not because the story of unrequited love is anything "novel" (pun intended;) but because the themes and truths that love asks us to look at are ever-present. 

Grief and love coexist so closely to one another. Being a teenager, and coming into adulthood is such a beautiful paradox. We know everything and nothing all at once. And the thing about being human is that "coming of age" and growing never stops. We never really get it. And if we think we have gotten it, the universe is here to remind us that, nope, we don't. 

The one thing Aden has to learn throughout her journey is a deep, centered self love in the face of what life throws at her and in the face of the messaging we receive from our culture that says we will never be enough. But even self love isn't constant. Self love is a practice, not an arrival. 

The other thing Aden learns is how to live more in her heart and make decisions from that place, even when it hurts like hell. It's something I'm learning to do over and over again in my own life. Because all we really know that we have is now. This moment. The ones before and the ones after aren't here. I am. You are. So, like Aden says, "open up and be free, because as far as we know, this is it." 

Thank you so much for hosting me on this blog and for reading CALCULUS. It's such an honor.

About the Author

Jessie Hilb holds a Masters in Social Work and lives in Boulder, Colorado with her family and ever-loyal herding dog. She constantly reinvents herself. The Calculus of Change is her first novel. When she’s not writing, Jessie is CrossFitting-- it keeps her sane, grounded, and humble. And it’s fun.

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Guest Post & Giveaway: Full Circle by Regina Timothy

Release date: December 24th 2017
Purchase: Amazon

Synopsis via Goodreads:

Eight years after the 9/11 attacks, Samia-Al-Sayyid an Iraqi immigrant is living a quiet life in New York City after she fled her home to avoid imminent death.

She works hard for her cold, heartless, high-strung boss, loves her seventeen-years-old-son, and cherishes the close friendship she has formed with her best friend Susan.

Nothing can go wrong, or so she thinks – until the estranged brother she left back in Iraqi shows up on her door step. Then she finds herself in a cab, on her way to the hospital to identify her son, a terror suspect who has blown the city, and with it her boss’ husband, and her best friend’s son. With everything lost, she is forced to flee to Iraq where she confronts her past. Will she make peace with her past? Can she get forgiveness for all the damage she has caused?

Full Circle is a contemporary fiction tale of friendship, family, and hope. It explores the devastation of loss, the great capacity to forgive and the lengths our loved ones will go to protect us.

~GUEST POST~

First of all, let me say I’m greatly honored and humbled to be here – thank you so much, Shane. I welcome the opportunity to chat about my debut book Full Circle, a  contemporary fiction tale of friendship, family, and hope. 

My name is Regina and I grew up in Kenya. Growing up, I enjoyed writing assignments at school and was encouraged by a teacher to polish my skill. Instead, I ended up studying engineering and worked in the field for a while. I’ve always enjoyed writing essays and poetry but I never pursued it much until a few of years ago when I began writing Full Circle.

A great source of writing inspiration for me is what I observe around me. People, events, and sometimes things get me thinking. The War in the Middle East has been with us for almost two decades now, and there is no clear solution on the horizon. A lot has been written about the direct and indirect effect this situation has on the everyday women. I liked the idea of adding a new voice to these stories.

The story follows the main character Samia-al-Sayyid, a 33-year-old Iraqi immigrant living in the U.S. She overcomes a lot and works so hard to make a good life for her teenage son. In the end, it seems all her all her efforts are not enough. When I began writing the book, I wanted it to be about three different women living in three different continents and influenced by different cultures and beliefs. The idea was to bring the three women together later in the book and have them discover that despite their circumstances, they face the same trials imposed by society. 

Samia was the first character I came up with. The more I wrote about her the more her story became complex and I felt she needed a lot more space than a few chapters to tell her story. So I decided to dedicate the entire book to her and follow her journey. I brought in Melisa and Susan, to help Samia tell her story and bring out the original idea of the book that despite their different circumstances, they faced the same demons. 

It was especially important to me for the story to revolve around Samia and touch on her Middle Eastern background. There have been a lot of calls for diversity in the books being published. This is because research has shown there’s been a glaring lack of diversity in writers and the books being published in mainstream fiction. #WeNeedDiverseBooks and #WeNeedDiverseWriters campaigns have been running for a few years to call attention to the lack of diversity when it comes to the book characters and the writers who tell the stories. I felt Full Circle will play a small role in bringing diversity into our reading world.

About the Author

Regina lives in a picturesque village in Kenya where she enjoys amazing landscapes, exotic wildlife, and beautiful sunsets and sunrises. She always had active imagination. By chance, she started blogging in 2010, which rekindled her love for writing and telling stories. When not writing she enjoys watching classic movies (she’s a movie buff), going to the theater and auto shows. 

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Spotlight & Giveaway: Bedtime Stories for Grown-Ups by Andrew Joyce

Release date: September 21st 2017
Publisher: W. Birch & Associates
Purchase: Amazon

Synopsis via Goodreads:
Bedtime Stories for Grown-Ups is a jumble of genres—seven hundred pages of fiction and non-fiction … some stories included against the author’s better judgment. If he had known that one day they’d be published, he might not have been as honest when describing his past. 

Here is a tome of true stories about the author’s criminal and misspent youth, historical accounts of the United States when She was young, and tales of imagination encompassing every conceivable variety—all presented as though the author is sitting next to you at a bar and you’re buying the drinks as long as he keeps coming up with captivating stories to hold your interest. 

Comprised of 218,000 words, you’ll have plenty to read for the foreseeable future. This is a book to have on your night table, to sample a story each night before extinguishing the lights and drifting off to a restful sleep.

~GUEST POST~

Hello, my name is Andrew Joyce. I have a new book out entitled Bedtime Stories for Grown-Ups. It came about because my editor hounded me for two years to put all my short stories into one collection. Actually, it was supposed to be a two-volume set because there was so much material. I fended her off for as long as possible. I didn’t want to do the work of editing all the stories. There were a lot them. But she finally wore me down. Instead of two volumes, I put all the stories into a single book because I wanted to get the whole thing over with. I had other books to write. 

Bedtime Stories is made up of fiction and nonfiction stories and some of ’em are about my criminal youth. I must tell you, I never thought any of these stories would see the light of day. I wrote them for myself and then forgot about them. By the way, there are all sort of genres within its pages, from westerns to detective stories to love stories and just about anything else that you can imagine. 

There are a whole lotta stories in the book—700 pages worth. Enough to keep you reading for the foreseeable future. 

~EXCERPT~

Granny

This tale is mostly true.

My great-grandmother crossed the Great Plains in a covered wagon … going to the promised land of California. The year was 1866. She left St. Louis, Missouri, eight months after the end of the Civil War.

Her name was Rebecca Joyce. Her husband, Michael, drove the wagon as Rebecca walked alongside. Then they would switch, and Michael would walk and Rebecca would drive the team. They could not afford the extra weight of even one person. The wagon carried all the things needed to start a new life. Rebecca walked a thousand miles of their two-thousand-mile trek.

I know this because my family still has her diary. It recounts the harrowing journey across an unexplored land.

One hundred and sixty-six men, women, and children left on that fateful journey. One hundred and fifteen lived to see California—fifty-one souls did not.

Forty-two days after leaving Missouri, Rebecca reloaded her husband’s long gun as he fought off Indians from under their wagon. Twelve people were killed in that encounter. When they crossed the Green River, six of their party drowned. On the high plains, cholera hit; thirty-three died over a two-day period.

I tell you of these things for a reason. You younger folks of today have it easy, but still you complain. Well, what do you think of this? Rebecca crossed a continent—an untamed continent—with just an iPhone 1 and only 2G service! And no video camera! Can you imagine the hardship? Can you picture what that poor woman had to go through to keep up with the goings-on of the Kardashian clan and what was trending on Twitter? The horror!

The next time your phone takes all of 0.0002 seconds to connect to Facebook and you think that’s an eternity, please remember Rebecca Doyle fighting off disease and Indians and—worse still—being in the dark on the latest news concerning Kim’s butt.

Andrew Joyce

Slightly under the influence on this Christmas Day, 2016

About the Author

Andrew Joyce left high school at seventeen to hitchhike throughout the US, Canada, and Mexico. He wouldn't return from his journey until years later when he decided to become a writer. Joyce has written five books. His first novel, Redemption: The Further Adventures of Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer, was awarded the Editors' Choice Award for Best Western of 2013. A subsequent novel, Yellow Hair, received the Book of the Year award from Just Reviews and Best Historical Fiction of 2016 from Colleen's Book Reviews.

Joyce now lives aboard a boat in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, with his dog, Danny, where he is busy working on his next book, tentatively entitled, Mahoney: An American Story.

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Guest Post: Author Cyndy Etler on 'We Can't Be Friends'

Release date: October 3rd 2017
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Purchase: Amazon | Book Depository{Affiliate Link}

Synopsis via Goodreads:

High school sucks for a lot of people. High school extra sucks when you believe, deep in your soul, that every kid in the school is out to get you. I wasn't popular before I got locked up in Straight Inc., the notorious "tough love" program for troubled teens. So it's not like I was walking around thinking everyone liked me.

But when you're psychologically beaten for sixteen months, you start to absorb the lessons. The lessons in Straight were: You are evil. Your peers are evil. Everything is evil except Straight, Inc.

Before long, you're a true believer.

And when you're finally released, sent back into the world, you crave safety. Crave being back in the warehouse. And if you can't be there, you'd rather be dead.

~GUEST POST~

Why Do I Write Provocative Memoir? Because I Have No Choice

There’s a writing maxim out there that strikes me as heavy-handed. It goes, “You know you’re a writer if you have to write, to live.” So maybe I’m not a real writer, because I can exist, you know? With just food and water. I don’t die if I’m not writing. Same way I don’t die if I don’t eat desert.

Actually, I write for the same reason I eat desert: because I really frigging love it. Because writing, like sugar, makes me feel extra-alive.

But I didn’t write my memoirs—first The Dead Inside, then We Can’t Be Friends—because I wanted to eat desert. I was compelled to write them, for the same reason you were compelled to puke up that shellfish that gave you food poisoning: I had a plague inside me, and I had to get it out.

The abuse I endured at home as a child is describable. People know what to visualize when you say the words “chased,” “hit,” and “molested.” The abuse I endured at Straight Inc.—the notorious “troubled teen” facility where I was locked up at age 14—is not so describable. Because the things they did to me in there, and the things they made me do, aren’t done.

Try this. Ready? In your mind’s eye, picture what I’m talking about when I say these words:

Motivating.

Beltlooping.

Spit Therapy.

Attack Therapy.

You know what I’m saying? Nope. You don’t. Unless you were in a Straight-related program, or you’ve read about them, you have no idea what I’m talking about.

Now, let’s try this: think of the phrase “drug rehab.”

Now we’re on the same page, right? Brown cushioned chairs, lots of talking, lots of…I don’t know, coffee and cigarette breaks and shuffling around the program’s grounds, I guess?

Yeah, no. Not at Straight Inc. I mean, Straight called itself a drug rehab. But there was no coffee. There were no walks. And I was no drug addict. Not unless you can call a barely-teen kid who’s barely smoked weed an “addict.”

No, Straight was a—was a—was an abuse factory. A cult. A “concentration camp for throwaway teens,” according to the ACLU. Straight was a warehouse packed with broken children, a brilliant money-making scheme where parents, for a fee, could disappear the kid they didn’t want to deal with.

When I finally woke up to my memories of Straight, 15 years after the fact, I had to get them out. I had to tell people about it. I had to have it validated that, “Holy crap, you got messed up!” Like that skanky shellfish, I had to purge it from my system.

But there was no way to describe it to people. If I say to you, “I was sent to rehab, and it made me want to kill myself,” what’re you gonna think? Take your pick:

A) Oh, you were a bad kid, an addict. You deserved it.

B) Rehab? Made you want to kill yourself? What kind of baby are you?

C) Poor little priv-kid thinks “rehab” is hard times. Ha! Hahahahaha….

So I had to write my experience. I had to take you in there. I had to have you live it, this “rehab.” This psych abuse. This brainwashing, this torture. I didn’t have the words for it, but I had the emotions. The setting. The dialogue. The spit therapy.

I can’t tell you about Straight Inc, or what it was like trying to reintegrate to the world when I finally got out. But by writing a book so hot you can’t put it down, I can make you experience it.

Maybe that’s what that smug writing maxim is actually trying to say. Here, let me fix it.

“If the story inside you feels like a sickness, kid? You better write, that, book.”

Right. Much better.

About the Author

A modern-day Cinderella, Cyndy Etler was homeless at fourteen, summa cum laude at thirty. Currently a young adult author and teen life coach, Etler spent sixteen years teaching troubled teens in schools across America.

Before she was paid for teaching Etler did it for free, volunteering at public schools and facilities for runaway teens. Today she speaks at fundraisers, schools and libraries, convincing teens that books work better than drugs.

After years of hopscotching, Etler now lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, with her husband and dogs.

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Guest Post & Giveaway: Ethel Rohan on The Weight of Him

Award-winning short story writer Ethel Rohan has released her debut novel, The Weight of Him, which is described as the perfect feel-good novel to curl up with this winter. And I'm excited to have her on the blog sharing what inspired her to write this story. Check out the guest post and enter to win a copy of the book! 

Release date: February 14th 2017
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Purchase: Amazon

Synopsis via Goodreads:

In The Weight of Him Billy Brennan undergoes an unforgettable journey in a startling attempt to resurrect his family and reignite hearts, his own most of all.

At four hundred pounds, Billy can always count on food. From his earliest memories, he has loved food's colors, textures and tastes. The way flavors go off in his mouth. How food keeps his mind still and his bad feelings quiet. Food has always made everything better, until the day Billy's beloved son Michael takes his own life.

Billy determines to make a difference in Michael's memory and undertakes a public weight-loss campaign, to raise money for suicide prevention--his first step in an ambitious plan to save himself, and to save others. However, Billy's dramatic crusade appalls his family, who want to simply try to go on, quietly, privately.

Despite his crushing detractors, Billy gains welcome allies: his community-at-large; a co-worker who lost his father to suicide; a filmmaker with his own dubious agenda; and a secret, miniature kingdom that Billy populates with the sub-quality dolls and soldiers he saves from disposal at the toy factory where he works. But it is only if Billy can confront the truth of the suffering and brokenness within and around him that he and others will be able to realize the recovery they need.

Told against the picturesque yet haunting backdrop of rural, contemporary Ireland, The Weight of Him is a big-hearted novel about loss and reliance that moves from tragedy to recrimination to what can be achieved when we take the stand of our lives.

The meaning behind The Weight of Him, and why it is a "call for love"?

           While the characters and events in my first novel, The Weight of Him, are fictional, the story’s themes are rooted in reality and have deep personal meaning. For one, some of my earliest memories are around suicide.

When I was a girl, my mentally ill mother repeatedly threatened to kill herself. Every time she left the house I went into a panic, terrified she would end herself and never return. At night I lay awake on my bed, stiff and sweating, listening for sounds from downstairs, her bedroom, the bathroom—frantic that she might attempt to follow through on her threats.

As an adult, I’ve had my own struggles with anxiety and depression, and suicidal thoughts. I lost a dear friend to suicide, distant family members, several in my community, and many more in wider circles. Mental illness, and suicide in particular, is a disease that plagues all too many. Suicide is the number one killer of young men in Ireland, my birthplace, and is also a global epidemic. On average, in the US, there are 121 suicides every day. That’s 121 too many.

In my own journey to recovery, I found the root of my anguish lay in a lack of self-love and a sense of hopelessness—torment that’s common amongst the suicidal. It became impossible to believe that I could ever feel better about myself, and my life. My return to well-being started with gratitude. I began every day giving thanks. Even at my most wretched, with intention, I could always find something for which to be thankful—food, warmth, home, my daughters, my husband, another lifesaving breath. The more gratitude I expressed, the better I began to feel. Slowly. Surely.

My healing deepened with forgiveness—forgiving others and myself for wrongs both real and imagined. I did not find peace(ish), though, until I learned to love myself unconditionally. And getting to that point proved to be long, hard, painful work. I loved my children (and my cat and dog!) without reservation, but I had little empathy or compassion for myself. With counseling, instead of hating on myself, I started to treat myself as lovingly as I did my family and friends (and, yes, my cat and dog). I got to a once unthinkable place: I came to love myself. It’s heartbreaking how many of us cannot declare that with our whole heart: I love me.

That is my rally cry in my novel: Love yourself. Love others. It’s the only way we will survive.

About the Author
Ethel Rohan is the author of two story collections, Goodnight Nobody and Cut Through the Bone, the former longlisted for The Edge Hill Prize and the latter longlisted for The Story Prize.

Her work has appeared in The New York Times, World Literature Today, GUERNICA Magazine, Tin House Online,The Rumpus, and many more. Born and raised in Ireland, she lives in San Francisco.

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*Thanks to the publisher for contributing a copy of the book

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Guest Post~Andrew Joyce on 'Yellow Hair'

It's great having Author Andrew Joyce back on the blog. Check out his awesome guest post and do pick up his latest release, Yellow Hair.

Release date: September 22nd 2016
Self-published
Purchase: Amazon | B&N

Synopsis via Goodreads:

Yellow Hair documents the injustices done to the Sioux Nation from their first treaty with the United States in 1805 through Wounded Knee in 1890. 

Every death, murder, battle, and outrage written about actually took place. 

The historical figures that play a role in this fact-based tale of fiction were real people and the author uses their real names. 

Yellow Hair is an epic tale of adventure, family, love, and hate that spans most of the 19th century. This is American history.

My name is Andrew Joyce and I write books for a living. Shane has been kind enough to allow me a little space on her blog to talk about my latest, Yellow Hair.

The inspiration for the book came to me when I was reading a short article and it made reference to the Great Sioux Uprising of 1862. It also mentioned that the outcome involved the largest mass execution in the history of the United States. That piqued my interest.

When I started my research into the incident, one thing led to another and before I knew it, I was documenting the entire history of the Sioux, who are also known as the Dakota, vis-à-vis the relationship between them and the United States.

Because the book exists only because I read the phrase, “the largest mass execution in the history of the United States,” I’ll tell you a little about that. What follows is an extremely abbreviated version of events.

The Dakota signed their first treaty with the United States in 1805 when they sold a small portion of their land to the Americans for the purpose of building forts. It was right after the Louisiana Purchase and President Jefferson wanted a presence in the West. At the time, “the West” was anything on the western side of the Mississippi River.

In the treaty of 1805, the Dakota sold 100,000 acres to the Americans. The agreed-upon price was $2.00 per acre. But when the treaty came up before the Senate for ratification, the amount was changed to two cents per acre. That was to be a precursor for all future treaties with the Americans. There were subsequent treaties in 1815, 1825, 1832, 1837, and 1851, and basically the same thing happened with all those treaties.

In 1837, the Americans wanted an additional five million acres of Dakota land. Knowing it would be a hard sell after the way they failed to live up to the letter or spirit of the previous treaties, the government brought twenty-six Dakota chiefs to Washington to show them the might and majesty that was The United States of America.

The government proposed paying one million dollars for the acreage in installments over a twenty-year period. Part of the payment was to be in the form of farm equipment, medicine, and livestock. Intimidated, the Indians signed the treaty and went home. The United States immediately laid claim to the lands—the first payment did not arrive for a year.

The significance of the 1837 treaty lies in the fact that it was the first time “traders” were allowed to lay claim to the Indians’ payments without any proof that money was owed . . . and without consulting the Indians. Monies were subtracted from the imbursements and paid directly to the traders.

By 1851, the Americans wanted to purchase all of the Dakota’s remaining lands—twenty-five million acres. The Sioux did not want to sell, but were forced to do so with threats that the army could be sent in to take the land from them at the point of a gun if they refused the American’s offer.

“If we sell our land, where will we live?” asked the Dakota chief.

“We will set aside land for the Dakota only. It is called a reservation and it will be along both banks of the Minnesota River, twenty miles wide, ten on each side and seventy miles long. It will be yours until the grasses no longer grow,” answered the Commissioner of Indian Affairs.

The Dakota were offered six cents an acre for land that was worth at least a dollar an acre. The payment would be stretched out over a twenty year period and was to be made in the form of gold coins. One year later, in 1852, the Americans took half the reservation, the seventy miles on the north side of the river. The Dakota were now reduced from a nation of fierce, independent people to a people dependent on hand-outs from the ones who stole not only their land, but also their dignity.

The Dakota were forced to buy their food from the traders who ran trading posts at the Indian Agency the U.S. Government had set up on the reservation. All year long the Dakota would charge what they needed. When the yearly payment for their land arrived, the traders would take what they said was owed them. Subsequently, there was very little gold left for the Dakota.

By 1862, the Dakota were starving. That year’s payment was months late in arriving because of the Civil War. The traders were afraid that because of the war there would be no payment that year and cut off the Dakota’s credit. The Indian Agent had the power to force the traders to release some of the food stocks, but refused when asked to do so by the Dakota.

After they had eaten their ponies and dogs, and their babies cried out in the night from hunger, the Dakota went to war against the United States of America.

They attacked the agency first and liberated the food stock from the warehouse, killing many white people who lived there. Then bands of braves set out to loot the farms in the surrounding countryside.

Many whites were killed in the ensuing weeks. However, not all of the Dakota went to war. Many stayed on the reservation and did not pick up arms against their white neighbors. Some saved the lives of white settlers. Still, over 700 hundred whites lost their lives before the rebellion was put down.

When the dust settled, all of the Dakota—including women and children, and those people who had saved settlers’ lives—were made prisoners of war.

Three hundred and ninety-six men were singled out to stand trial before a military commission. They were each tried separately in trials that lasted only minutes. In the end, three hundred and three men were sentenced to death.

Even though he was occupied with the war, President Lincoln got involved. He reviewed all three hundred and three cases and pardoned all but thirty-eight of the prisoners.

On a gray and overcast December morning in 1862, the scaffold stood high. Thirty-eight nooses hung from its crossbeams. The mechanism for springing the thirty-eight trap doors had been tested and retested until it worked perfectly. At exactly noon, a signal was given, a lever pulled, and the largest mass execution to ever take place in the United States of America became part of our history.

About the Author

Andrew Joyce left high school at seventeen to hitchhike throughout the US, Canada, and Mexico. He wouldn’t return from his journey until decades later when he decided to become a writer. Joyce has written five books, including a two-volume collection of one hundred and fifty short stories comprised of his hitching adventures called BEDTIME STORIES FOR GROWN-UPS (as yet unpublished), and his latest novel, YELLOW HAIR. He now lives aboard a boat in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, with his dog, Danny, where he is busy working on his next book, tentatively entitled, MICK REILLY.

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