Step into a world where fairies, dragons, and other magical beings converge in a collection of poetry and short stories inspired by the celebration of Litha, the Summer Solstice.
Meet Drac, a dragon cursed by his own poisonous deeds, and two pixies who help an old man remember a lost love. You’ll meet a pair of fairies with a sense of humor, and a young girl who fulfills her destiny after being struck by lightning. Learn what happens when a modern witch’s spell goes terribly wrong. Meet the Sisters of the Fey, a group of Slavic Witches who sign a pact with the Rusalki Fey to preserve their magic for the good of all.
Atmospheric and haunting, the prose and poetry, will rewrite the mythologies of the past bringing them into the future.
If you’re looking to expand your network with book bloggers or even authors who blog, here’s an excellent post you can read to build a consistent and authentic network within your interest
This week, we have an interesting, passionate and honest writer as a guest for the author interview slot. I enjoyed interviewing him and I am now following him on social media. Please welcome author Gregor Reti as we are about to read more about him and his book.
Regards, Jasveena
Gregor had an explosive life. At the age of 13 he died, met God, and lost all death-related fears. Gregor describes it as “a starting point that allowed me to explore life to the fullest, leading me to meet my Soulmate, experience creative sexuality, and meet a personalized form of the Universe.”
Born from Hungarian immigrant parents, Gregor grew up in Germany where he modeled and worked in the music business that brought him to Los Angeles. The book “Sex, Ego and Love” exposes the essential nature of courage by following his radically honest journey through life, after-life, bisexuality, transgenderism, soulmateship, celibacy, all punctuated with deeply spiritual reflections. The lessons he shares reveal a wise framework for liberating oneself from the claws of fear and embracing personal growth using self-awareness, authentic living, and self-love. Inspired by his spicy erotica, Gregor uses his writing to fight for the ideal of truth while battling hypocrisy. “I wish I could prove faster how tightly courage and happiness are intertwined. We can only thrive in a radically honest environment”. His book, SEX, EGO AND LOVE, shows the devastating power of fear and how it isolates and cripples us, but also reveals a profound path to personal liberation.
How do you work through self-doubts and fear when
writing?
Ha,
exactly that’s the main subject of this book. We all have the same issues when
it comes to the power-tools of our egos. This book helps the reader to become
self-aware, to conquer doubts, hence gain more confidence and sex appeal. The
book also covers shame,
insecurity, real-life erotica, sexual fantasies, ego, and love.
What do you think makes a good story?
I believe in
radical truth, real life experiences, when shame is conquered and everything is
exposed. We are all humans and being vulnerable is not a weakness but something
darn sexy. Look at James Dean for example. He was emotionally torn and cried in
his movie roles. How sexy was he?
What’s the most memorable thing said by a
reader about your work?
This book helped a
stepmother to conquer her depression. While reading this book she realized that
it was her ego that fed her self-doubt that held her hostage for many years.
She managed to break out of this horrific cycle.
Do you have anything specific you’d like
to tell the readers?
Please share
yourself, not only with your lover, but with every friend and family member.
You are setting an example for others to follow. Let’s cut the chains of insecurity,
fear and shame or we run into isolation, sometimes even depression.
What scares you the most?
People who do not
dare to live their lives fully. That’s either because they want to remain as
victims or because they manipulate themselves to avoid any changes. All changes
are important and good, and the more changes we have the more we become aware.
This process develops courage so we can live and enjoy life fully.
What makes you happiest?
People stepping out
of their comfort zones, daring to be radically honest and different. That creates
more peaceful, happier and sexier people compared to the ones who force
themselves to conform.
Why do you write?
I would like to set
an example to show what kind of liberation is achievable if one opens up to his
vulnerabilities and sexual secrets. I also write about my death, my soulmate, reincarnation,
bisexuality, transgenderism, orgies, celibacy, threesomes… All of these are
chapters of my life and now they transformed into chapters of this book,
representing a powerful message.
Have you always enjoyed writing?
No, and I still don’t
do, even though my storytelling supposed to be fascinating. I think this
feedback is mainly based on the truth that is shared.
What motivates you to write?
I love to reach
people who do not get on Youtube and TEDtalks. I have some of my lectures on
Youtube but I haven’t managed to get on TEDtalks yet, but it will happen one
day.
What are you most proud of in your personal life?
At the age of 13 I
died. Heaven was absolutely heavenly. There I was given the free will to decide
what shall happen with me. I opted to come back based on my ambition to help
this world. This finally comes true with this book. I hold free of charge
lectures and workshops, some of them are on Youtube. I also set up a free
online forum where people can express themselves freely and learn from each
other: www.sexandego.love As humans we need honest
reference points especially when it comes to our sexuality.
What do you hope your obituary will say about you?
I honestly do not
care. I was here and will be back thousands of more times. These are too many
obituaries to keep track of.
Location and life experiences can really influence
writing, tell us where you grew up and where you live now?
I lived in Germany,
Austria, Greece, Hungary, and spent the past 30 years in Los Angeles.
Additionally, I had offices in Paris, London and New York, all of that had an
imprint on me. In my childhood I was brutally beaten hundreds of times. Today I
realize how uniquely this formed me to be who I am today. So yes, our individual
realities that we take as the absolute application for everybody, represents only
a 1/7 billionth fraction of what other realities are out there. Realities are
individual interpretations and identifications of life experiences. This concept
helped me a great deal to accept others and myself.
What is hardest – getting published, writing or
marketing?
All of the above. Maybe
the hardest thing is to get over my insecurities, which manifest in
complacency. All of us can reach most of our goals after we get over our
childhood traumas and learn to accept and believe in ourselves.
What marketing works for you?
I haven’t figured it
out yet. If you have ideas, please contact me.
What other jobs have you had in your life?
I was a record
company executive, back when music was sold on CDs and vinyls. I was also a sex
worker, a captain for sailing yachts, a telephone marketer, life insurance
sales person (the ones knocking from door to door), limousine driver, marketing
executive for multi national real estate developers, and a marketing manager
for a Korean car manufacturer. I have strong ADHD that comes with bad memory,
so I was not able to secure a steady career for myself. My dysfunction disabled
me to study even though I wanted to. But again, these factors forced me to
become the liberated and fulfilled person that I reached becoming today.
If you could study any subject at university what would
you pick?
Anthropology and
Psychology.
Tell us about your family?
I had a bad divorce
in 2005. My two sons suffered tremendously. Now they don’t speak to me. I needed
to learn to accept my and their fates. I would love to be there for them, but
they don’t allow me to.
Every writer has their own idea of what a successful
career in writing is, what does success in writing look like to you?
Eventually I will
reach 300,000 individuals readers, regardless if they pay for the book or not. I
know they will contemplate about the content and that will be my greatest
success to influence each reader at a time.
If you could have a dinner party and invite anyone dead
or alive, who would you ask?
Hunter S. Thompson,
Buddha, Mick Jagger, Dalai Lama, Christopher Walken, Osho, Jimmy Hendrix, Jesus
Christ, Tiesto, Steve Jobs, Chris Farley, Jean Paul Satre and some kick ass readers
of this book.
What do you hope people will take away from your writing?
How will your words make them feel?
Humanity’s progress was
powered by provocation and rebellion. My book is not a “cozy read.” It
provokes, yet its raw honesty and erotica will entertain the reader. It will make
them evaluate their lives and values. This book’s mission is not to make money
or to gain respect, but to bring each reader closer to their authentic self, to
make them realize that there is no need to conform, to feel oppressed and
oppress others. Look how many women are mistreated by men, men who are cowards
to liberate themselves from their social or religious angst. Look at all the
sex trafficking in this world based on societies’ sexual hypocrisy. This book
spells out the influence of the collective Ego.
Do you have links that you’d like to share for others to read?
Isabella Skye has been an avid romance reader since the age of ten. Even then, she knew she wanted to pen her own romantic stories; becoming an author soon jumped to the top of her bucket list. Her vivid imagination and voracious reading habits have led to the release of her first novel ‘Pleasing Sarah, and having her dreams coming true. As she checks “romance author” off her list, she hopes her stories bring as much enjoyment to her readers as other writers have always done for her. When she isn’t spinning erotica stories, she can be found travelling, going on nature walks and, of course, reading. Keep an eye out for more romance titles by Isabella Skye–she’s just getting started.
1. Why do you write about? I write about romance and erotica.
2. What obstacles that come in the way of writing? My obstacles that was in my way was not having faith in myself and letting my fear of failure hold me back from writing my book sooner.
3. What motivates you to write? I have so much ideas and fantasy in my mind that I had to write everything down and share it with my readers.
4.What are you most proud of in your personal life? I’m proud of my kid’s of course but I’m proud that I stop letting self-doubt and fear kept me back from achieving my dreams.
5. What books did you love growing up? I love romance of course lol.
6. What marketing works for you? I try to market my book on social media.
7. What else do you do other than write? Well, I have so much ideas in my head but right now I’m working on my author blog website so stay tuned for that in a couple of weeks.
8. If you would live anywhere in the world where would it be? I love America too much lol but i could go back and forth for a few month’s living in England, Jamaica and Hawaii.
9.How much sleep do you need to be your best? I need at least 5 to 6 hours because sleeping is where ideas come to me.
10. What fact about yourself would really surprise people? I think a lot of people would be surprised that I read at least 30 books a day most of course is romance and the other’s is self – help book.
11. How do you work through self- doubt and fear? Good question because there are so much people who let self- doubt and fear keep them back from living their best life and i wasn’t going to let that continue in my life. I wanted to write for so long but i let my doubt and fear kept me back and after seeing that time don’t wait for anyone. I had a talk with myself and the talk was do I want to have regrets for the rest of my life about not going after what I want because I fear failure or I’m going to take a chance in life and take that big jump and I decided to jump and stop holding myself back.
12.What makes you the happiest? Well hearing my daughter saying to me “Mommy, all my life I hear you say you wanted to write a book and you finally did it” hearing that makes me so happy.
13.Why do you write? I love to write about my fantasy and things I did in my life also romance book are sometimes like movie because it will teach our readers what they need to know about pleasing their woman or man.
14. How long does it takes to write your book? I wrote two books already ” Pleasing Sarah: Sexy Adult Stories Of Oral Pleasures (Steamy Romance Novel) and The Affairs Of Eva: What would you do if your one night stand turned out to be your boss? Those two books take me 10 days each to finish and also I had to have it proofread and edit plus formatted.
The Forbidden Affairs of Eva
Pleasing Sarah
15. Is your family supportive? I told my kids and I really didn’t tell anyone else because I want to surprise them.
16. Is there anyone you would like to acknowledge and thank for their support? I like to thank all of the proofreader and editor, marketers and every person who help me. Thanks so much.
17. Every writer has their own idea of what a successful career in writing is, what does success in writing means to you? I have to say seeing my book on Amazon is success and of course having people read your book and we can’t forget trying your best to get that number 1 book.
This is a promotion from my new Streets Ahead street team, which has now moved over to MeWe as I’ve deleted my Facebook account. Authors can join using this link:
At the moment we’re promoting Robbie Cheadle’s book ‘While the Bombs Fell’.
What was it like for children growing up in rural Suffolk during World War 2?
Elsie and her family live in a small double-storey cottage in Bungay, Suffolk. Every night she lies awake listening anxiously for the sound of the German bomber planes. Often they come and the air raid siren sounds signalling that the family must leave their beds and venture out to the air raid shelter in the garden. Despite the war raging across the English channel, daily life continues with its highlights, such as Christmas and the traditional Boxing Day fox hunt, and its wary moments when Elsie learns the stories of Jack Frost…
Did the title pique your interest? That’s what titles are for, right? Are you ready for some thrilling moments? Well, my story is not that of a celebrity. I am just an ordinary person who lived an extraordinary life. I am Yasir Sulaiman….
Yasir Sulaiman
Take1:
My journey as a writer began in AbuDhabi (United Arab Emirates). Except for two years, I did my entire schooling in that city as my father worked there. In fact, I started my life in Abu Dhabi at the age of 3 months (1984) though I was born in Palakkad of Kerala (India). As a family, we have origins in both Tamil Nadu and Kerala (states of India). There was almost nothing over there at that time and yet it was home to me. The roads were super-clean and there were no power-cuts (even at that time!) I lived in an air conditioned room (we couldn’t afford bigger apartments back then) and could order anything I wanted (ANYTHING) through a telephone call. We lived in a third-class apartment of an old building. But we had a large balcony from which I could directly see the Baynunah tower (Google it!). It was (and still is) a union of three towers, structured around a cylindrical core with space for lifts and water tanks, and containing 25, 31 and 37 floors respectively. In the vicinity was the famous “Corniche” or beach-line of Abu Dhabi. Shah Rukh Khan had just debuted and I became his die-hard fan right from the age of 9. We didn’t have cable-television or internet connections (mobile phones were science-fiction) at that time. Hence, I spent most of time creating imaginary characters through rough sketches or writing innocent poetry. I also began writing poetry; mainly for birthdays and on wishes my innocent mind had at that time. That was the birth of the writer in me.
By the time I was 12, MY FATHER DECIDED that I had to continue my studies in India. A home was built in Coimbatore (Tamil Nadu) and me as well my sister (four years younger to me) were sent t here to get admission.
Take2:
My maternal grandfather had just retired as a government servant and was looking for a place to settle down. He was from Pollachi in Tamil Nadu and my maternal grandmother from Palakkad in Kerala. By the way, my dad’s parents also were of mixed origins. They built the house together with their own money as well as some contribution from my father. At that time, there were no roads in the vicinity, frequent power cuts, no shops nearby, and we had to walk nearly 2 kilometers to catch a bus. The school I got admitted on was and is still one of the premier schools in Coimbatore. Its owner was back then one of the richest people in the city. Though illegal yet openly practiced), they charged a hefty capitation fee. Despite all this hype, the school was a mess and the restrooms….readers of my blog will vomit! This was the place I was brought to from heavenly Abu Dhabi. My only get-away from all this was the room allotted me for which my grandfather had installed a UPS (a generator of electricity) to escape the power cuts. Nevertheless, I made some good friends one of whom is still my friend until date. Ramesh is actually the only friend who stayed with me in the best and worst of my time. Also, I have to mention a fact her that most people who know me find it hard to believe. Because of my the manner I grew up until then, I was actually a shy person. I especially was shy of girls; couldn’t speak directly to them. Besides, I always had an inferiority complex. Anyway, I was beginning to get used to my new way of life when I got called home from school one evening to receive shocking news; my grandfather had passed away while taking HIS mother to a hospital. Will cut the story short after that; everyone in the family was shocked and my grandmother was devastated. My parents came from Abu Dhabi and the whole household was in a state of remorse. I couldn’t stay like that. Hence, I started venturing out myself along with my new made friends. A few months passed like this. But there was tension in the air. Violent incidents were reported in Coimbatore. Then then-home Minister L.K Advani had visited the city and extremist Muslim organizations triggered bombs in various spots. I was too young and had no idea of why was all this happening. In Abu Dhabi, Muslims like myself lived in total peace with people of different faiths and nationalities. Hey! Some of my classmates there were from Pakistan and we used to hang out together. Then why all these fights and hatred? I even asked the same questions in Coimbatore. I had a small circle of friends and the close friend named Ramesh I mentioned earlier in this blog is a Brahmin. We often ate out together, spent time in each other’s homes and were more like brothers. Ramesh, myself and others in our gang did not pay any attention to these incidents of violence. School was shut for a few days and we spent our days playing cricket in a locality that was 6 kilometers away from my home but close to that of Ramesh and the other guys. But I had no complaints; anything to get away from the wretched area in Coimbatore that I lived in. We played one such match in the attached graveyard of a mosque. This was located in an area named R.S Puram which is until now one of the trendiest spots of Coimbatore. The match was going on smoothly. I was at the batting grease. One of my friends bowled and I swung my bat hitting the ball off to a boundary. A guy who had joined us in the match went to pick up the ball. He crouched and….BOOM! A huge sound was heard and there was smoke all around. A bomb had exploded and until date I remember the sight I witnessed. The guy who went to pick up the ball lay dead…with his head dislocated! The rest of the incidents were filled with commotion. There were attacks all around. The police stormed the area and started roughing up Muslims there mistaking them for terrorists. Ramesh silently led me out of the place and I stayed at his home for a week. As my grandmother was alone, she too stayed in the house of a very close family friend who knew my mother since she was a kid; this person stands strong until today at an age of 85+. He is a Brahmin.
I am just skipping the events from here. Two months later, I turned 14. I acquired my TC from the school in Coimbatore and my father took me along with my sister back to Abu Dhabi.
Take3:
I decided to start life afresh in Abu Dhabi; wanted so much to forget the horrible tales of the past two years. My new school was a small one that featured mostly Malayalee (people from state of Kerala) students. There were others too. I didn’t take life seriously for some time. Well, I was just recovering and just wished to layback for a while. It had its cons too. The sudden change in lifestyle made me lazy. From the power-cuts, messed-up roads (if you can call them roads) and lack of other facilities in Coimbatore; I was suddenly in a City with NO POWERCUTS, perfectly clean roads and anything you wanted at unbelievably low prices!! I always had loved fast food; but had to sacrifice them in Coimbatore owing to the shockingly high prices (even back then!) and lack of any good place close to my locality. Abu Dhabi was (and is) totally different. My new home was a flat with central-air conditioning and was located in the middle of the city. Besides, there were two other things about Abu Dhabi that I adored. The city was so clean that you had practically lick the roads. There were garbage bins every 10 meters and municipality workers cleaned every part of the place (the outskirts) four times a day! Also, no loud horns or any kind of noise pollution were over there. Schools and colleges were kept distant from residential areas. After 10 pm (right now 12 pm I guess), silence was supposed to be maintained. Or else, you could be fined or even jailed.
Everything was here. I started devouring fast food such as burgers, pizzas and aerated drinks in the likes of Pepsi. Obviously I started putting on a lot of weight.
But things were about to change. Incidentally, I became popular in this school as well. But I also have to mention that timings in the school were different for boys and girls. Hence we were a co-educational school but never met each other. This was the era of MSN messenger; remember those days? Somehow we received email addresses of our female counterparts in the school and started chatting with them. I soon found my first love. Let me make this clear. I had several experiences “puppy love” much earlier in life. In fact, I thought I found the girl of my dreams right at the age of 10!
As I mentioned earlier, I had (my tastes kept changing after college) been a dire-hard fan of actor Shah Rukh Khan. Hence my whole life as well as mannerisms revolved around the characters in his movies. The first puppy love I mentioned in the earlier paragraph? I actually sang “Jadoo Teri Nazar” (Your eyes are magical) from the movie “Darr” to her! ☺. Things were beginning to change. I became very good friends with a girl in my school through chatting on MSN messenger. The irony and perhaps the reason why she liked me as a friend was because we never met those days;-. I do not wish to mention her name here as things turned sour between us later in life. So let us just call her “S”.
However, I do credit her for bringing about a big transformation in life. Things were getting brighter in my life now. This girl along with several others in our school as well as a few in other schools became fans of my poetry. Can you guess who one of them was? Have you heard of billionaire Yoosuf Ali of EMKE group? His daughters studied in the same school and the elder one Shafeena Yoosuf Ali was one of the friends I made with the impact of my poetry. Some of them even wanted to meet me directly. Yet I felt uncomfortable as I indicated earlier; I was extremely shy of the opposite gender.
The first girl I spoke about then encouraged me to change myself. The first I had to do according to her was to lose weight. In her words; ‘Didn’t I want to look more like the Shah Rukh Khan I adored?’ Those words were enough to set my wings on fire. This was close to the end of public examinations for the 10th standard. By the way, I studied in a CBSE affiliated school in Abu Dhabi. Once the exams were over; I started my transformation.
Read a lot of articles on the internet and even read books on weight-loss. I discovered that white rice (a common food item for South Indians) had a lot of starch and an excessive contribution of carbohydrates in it. This was my usual lunch. I must admit I was an obsessive eater and when I used to love mutton. Biriyani (a dish cooked with rice). Hence I completely avoided rice and even cut down on my beloved fast food for a few weeks. Joined the gym; went for Karate classes; took part in several sporting activities; and went started jogging long distances. The result? I lost 25 kilos in two months (Beat that!).
I then regularly did facials and straightened my hair. Though I used to watch them earlier too, my fascination with Hollywood movies was nurtured at this age; especially the ones with action and graphics. My next choice was Hindi movies though I hardly watched any Tamil or Malayalam movie. Absent mindedly, I was shaping my personality on the character “Rahul” from the film Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (played by Shah Rukh Khan). Shah Rukh Khan was known as the King of Romance and I would naturally follow that, right? Soon, love was in the air; the first innocently true love of my life. Let us call her “R”. She was in my school and incidentally lived in the same apartment as I did. This was around the time the Tamil film Minnale (Rehna Hai Tere Dil Mein in Hindi) released.
Don’t worry; I am not taking the readers through my romantic moments in this blog. The point is I wrote my first story and this was my beginning in writing fiction (The story will be re-launched by end of 2019). She loved it and I also got many female fans! Life was changing and I was changing. I took part in dance programs and won them! I was not the “shyster” anymore. People didn’t mock my obesity and everyone wanted to be with me.
Also, I started meeting several entrepreneurs and VIP’s across Abu Dhabi. Yoosuf Ali had even assured me of a job if I continued in Abu Dhabi. To earn some pocket money, I have even worked as an intern in one of his departmental stores (a fact I hadn’t told my family then) One of the guys who studied in my school was a relation of the Royal family in Abu Dhabi. Hence I had even visited the Royal Palace in Abu Dhabi (one of the most revered places in the world) after completing my 12th board exams. Life was great, but…..my dad was going to shock me again.
Take4:
My dad told me on my birthday (just a week after my 12th standard Board Examinations); I had to go to India to continue my higher education. I begged with him but he argued that Abu Dhabi was of no use for us Indians we couldn’t gain much out of education there. Wish he could see the Abu Dhabi today. Anyway, I was once again sent off to India by force.
Intermission
{To the readers, the events I mentioned in this blog until now were only a build-up for the several challenges that waited for me in the next 17 years. Several factors contributed to me being a writer today and it is necessary to know the background behind it. Pardon me if I am elongating it much. The main portion is yet to come}
International Book Promotion 