SELLING IN TOUGH TIMES: REVIEW AND GIVEAWAY

GIVEAWAY ENDED
SELLING IN TOUGH TIMES
BY TOM HOPKINS

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Tough Times can be brought on by any number of factors: a down economy, Mother Nature, shifts in customers' needs, national tragedy--the list goes on and on. These types of changes can be extremely disruptive, even paralyzing, when we're not prepared for them. While many see no other option than to "sit tight" and "ride things out" when crisis strikes, true career professionals in selling understand that the only way to deal with adversity is to meet it head-on. That's why a positive attitude and a proactive approach to problem-solving are two of the most essential ingredients for success in selling--and why those who embrace them not only to survive but thrive, even in the most difficult of circumstances. Now, in his latest book, SELLING IN TOUGH TIMES, world-renowned selling expert Tom Hopkins puts his real-world , in-the-trenches experience to work and shares his plan to reverse the momentum of tough times--and even capitalize on them. With exercises to help you discover previously overlooked opportunities and eliminate waste, along with out-of-the-box methods for recruiting new customers and key tips on how to solidify your existing business, Hopkins gives you powerful ways to spur sales now and for years to come. Learn how to:

• Mine your client list to generate new leads
• Keep--and reward--your current customers so that they're loyal for life.
• Reduce the sales resistance that plagues tough times with tactics that overcome consumers' fears.
• Woo clients from your competition with 12 new strategies specially tailored for tough times.

Cycles will come and go, but the principles of great selling and those who live by them stand firm. Find out how you can achieve your maximum selling potential, whatever the business climate, in SELLING IN TOUGH TIMES today.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Tom Hopkins is the founder and president of the renowned sales training service Tom Hopkins International. He is a member of the National Speakers Bureau and is the author of the national bestseller How to Master the Art of Selling. Today, over 35,000 corporations and millions of professional salespeople throughout the world utilize his professional sales training materials.

REVIEW:

If ever there is a good time to read this book, SELLING IN TOUGH TIMES: Secrets of Selling When No One is Buying, it is in these tough economic times. Tom Hopkins’ book was written to help sellers of all kinds do their best and get back to the top of their game. The main idea that Hopkins puts out in this book will not be something that new, but it is THE thing that works. Hopkins writes about just plain getting back to the basic techniques of selling to be successful. The basic techniques are very simply prospecting, as in looking at what you have and what the situation is to sell it in; communicating, meaning that you publicize and get the word out about your product; and finally, closing the sale which should be self-explanatory. That is what works.

The book is written in an easy to read narrative and concentrates on practically all phases of selling, with each one being covered in its own short section. The first part of the book goes over how to emotionally and mentally deal with the down-turn in our economic situation, and why it is important to go back to those basics. The next part somewhat breaks down a sale into parts. Looking for potential buyers, making sure they are a sound prospect, and then being sure to give the customer a good product and service. That last part is what brings your customers back again. Having a positive attitude is important and is conveyed to your customers.

With Tom Hopkins reminding readers of the four important procedures to make you successful, this is a good review for even experienced sales people. The four procedures he stresses are to be good with current customers as their “word of mouth” will help your business grow: give good service and by rewarding your customers, they keep coming back; help people to decide to make an important buy even though times are tough; and use solid strategies to make people want to come to you and not the seller they usually use. Hopefully, some of you not only will get good information to help you sell in these times, but also, I found it gave me good tips on what I wanted to look for in a good seller.

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SILENT SCREAM: A REVIEW

SILENT SCREAM
BY KAREN ROSE

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Four college students believed they were making a statement. They were activists, fighting to preserve the environment by burning down a new apartment complex. But they didn't realize that someone was watching. A blackmailer hides in plain sight, using people's secrets for personal gain, and when this criminal sets his sights on the four young arsonists, he begins his most deadly game yet.

Firefighter David Hunter is devastated when he's too late to save a teenage girl from a Minneapolis fire. Authorities soon discover that it was a case of arson and homicide detective Olivia Sutherland and her partner Kane are assigned to the case. David and Olivia shared a night of passion some time ago, and sparks fly when they are drawn to one another again. But just as they begin to revisit that fateful night and address the events that tore them apart, David and Olivia are forced to pursue the blackmailer, whose horrific plans threaten to destroy those closest to them.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Karen Rose is a RITA Award-winning author who fell in love with books from the moment she learned to read, with Jo from Little Women and Nancy Drew becoming close childhood friends. She started writing stories of her own when the characters started talking in her head and just wouldn't be silenced. When she's not writing stories for readers, Karen writes stories for computers—programming keeps the other side of her brain out of trouble. She lives in sunny Florida with her fantastic husband, an avid fisherman,and two wonderful daughters who also love to read—:and write! Be sure to check out her website at www.karenrosebooks.com

Can you solve the murder? Karen Rose is your host and YOU are the detective. Be the first one to correctly guess WHO KILLED model/socialite Abigail Dafonte and win the cool Grand Prize! Play the game and solve the murder at http://www.ucanmodel.com/

REVIEW:

When Olivia and Kane, her partner, are called to the scene of an arson, they discover that a young girl was found dead in the building. They need to find out if the girl was part of a group that set the fire, or was she just a victim of their actions? While working on this, however, they uncover something even more disturbing--a blackmailer who brutally stalks young people and in a blink of an eye, murders them!

This isn’t a hard enough case, but add to it one David Hunter, a hunky firefighter that Olivia just happens to know. And she knows him REALLY WELL! Olivia met David at her sister’s wedding and one thing led to another and they shared a passionate night together. It has been a while and but now in the same place, David has been hoping they might be able to meet up again so he can make some things up to Olivia that he should have handled differently. David has been seeking some peace in his own life and also deep regrets about that night.

While Olivia, and now David, try to deal with both this current mystery as well as their feelings, a demented culprit who masterminded the whole thing continues to rule over a group of young people to carry out his deadly wishes. Soon they are combing the city for a criminal mastermind who seems so close and yet they can‘t find him. Meanwhile, the killer continues to rule over the young people to do his bidding and strike again and again. The suspense of who is doing the killing and who is leading them, builds in yet another Karen Rose page-turning thriller. The killer is striking important people in the city and Olivia and David try to beat the clock to find him. When they do, readers will be shocked at what they find. Another suspenseful story filled with murder, greed, love, and making amends for the past will be yet another favorite Rose book for her many fans, myself included.

THE POWER OF THE MIDDLE GROUND: AUTHOR ARTICLE, REVIEW, & WINNER

The Power of the Middle Ground:
A Couple's Guide to Renewing Your Relationship
BY MARTY BABITS

TO READ MORE ABOUT THE BOOK AS WELL AS ANOTHER ARTICLE BY MARTY BABITS, GO TO MY ORIGINAL POST HERE!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Marty Babits, LCSW, BCD (New York, NY), author of The Power of the Middle Ground: A Couple's Guide to Renewing Your Relationship, is a psychotherapist in private practice and a member of the Executive Supervisory Committee of FACTS (the Family and Couples Treatment Service) of the Institute for Contemporary Psychotherapy.

For more information, view Marty Babits's Web site.

AUTHOR'S ARTICLE:

SEVEN GUIDELINES FOR
MIDDLE-GROUND COMMUNICATION

By Marty Babits, LCSW, BCD,

If you need help regulating and resolving conflict, these guidelines are for you. They can help you make difficult conversations productive, steer you and your partner away from destructive talk, and help you nurture an atmosphere of emotional safety. Adopting these guidelines, whenever pertinent, will safeguard the middle ground within your relationship:

1. Avoid generalizing and stereotyping. Do not generalize about your partner's moods. When you think you know how your partner feels, but don't stop to ask or listen, they'll often feel neglected and misunderstood. Rule of thumb: there is often a difference between how your partner feels and how you think they feel. Your partner's sense of emotional safety, as a result of generalizing, can become depleted.

2. Do not blurt responses. Do you identify with the following statement: "I didn't even know what I was going to say until I heard myself saying it." If so, this is an especially important guideline for you. Monitor your thoughts while speaking with your partner. There is always more than one way to say something, choose according to the effect you want your remark to have. Do not blurt the first thing that comes to mind at your partner.
   

3. No name calling. If you are disgusted with something that is going on and call your mate something mean, the communication flow stops. And turning it back on becomes more and more difficult, in proportion to the amount of name-calling that goes on. When thinking before speaking, edit out the put-downs. Basic as the guidelines may seem, under stress, sticking to them is a challenge for us all.

4. Speak honestly and judiciously. The abiding ways that you feel -- positive and negative -- need to be represented in your dialogue with your partner. Keeping dominant thoughts and feelings buried will not further the relationship. But pay close attention to how you share information. Notice for signs that your partner is getting flooded. Do not keep talking if they are feeling overwhelmed! Conveying your messages with finesse and forethought will payoff big time in trust and emotional safety dividends.
   

5. Develop patience. Sustain it. Patience within a specific talk and in the pacing of your dialogue overall can make a critical difference to relationship healing. Patience and humility blended together compose emotional stamina, which is fundamental to the creation of a secure long-term love relationship. Healing your relationship without patience? It's impossible. So work on this one!
   

6. Think about what your partner says in terms of who your partner is. You need to develop a "relationship" perspective that features a good grasp of how the situation is understood by your partner as well as by yourself. Remember -- understanding how your partner feels from within his or her purview does not mean you are acknowledging that their perspective is correct. You are not surrendering your point of view. You are simply acknowledging that yours is not the only legitimate point of view.

7. Time-out signal -- have it in place; use it as needed. Using time-outs can allow you a sense of control in the pacing of your dialogue. In the case of complex and/or difficult emotional issues this can make the difference between whether you can or can't discuss an issue productively. Without a pre-arranged signal to allow a safe method for temporarily suspending the dialogue, restarting it will be more difficult. Using time-outs does not mean that difficult issues go unaddressed. It does mean that partners have to work as a team to keep the flow of conversation going -- not simply within a single talk but between talks as well. Carve a niche in your relationship that honors this dimension of awareness and sensitivity.

Can these seven guidelines help save a floundering relationship? The short answer is yes. Yes, they can. If you follow them consistently, you will see results. Putting these into practice with your partner will help you both learn to understand each other better, and come to find your middle ground.

© 2010 Marty Babits, LCSW, BCD, author of The Power of the Middle Ground: A Couple's Guide to Renewing Your Relationship

MY REVIEW:

THE POWER OF THE MIDDLE GROUND: A Couple's Guide to Renewing Your Relationship is an exceptional self-help book. Written by Marty Babits, an experienced couples therapist and educator, he explains methods for managing relationship problems. The focus is on creating a place where each partner deals with problems constructively and neither dominates. They build a relationship that brings love and compassion together as one.

In THE POWER OF THE MIDDLE GROUND, Babits includes stories of real couples moving from pain to progress as they make use of his caring and intuitive guidance. The book will help you to get to know yourself and partner better. That is easier said than done but as he shows, it is the best thing to do in order to build a strong while flexible, lasting relationship with each other.

The stories in the book are touching and Babits’ recommended exercises and his involvement will inspire readers to try it themselves. He also shows you how to get started. This is not a book only for couples who are in dire straits, but also all couples who want to work on their relationships to make them better at any point in their lives.

Babits’ method creates a way to get past anger and the way you respond in those situations. He describe his methods very clearly, and enables couples to start to listen and hear each other better and in a more productive way. The examples in the book of couples who are able to reach this “middle ground” by using Marty Babits’ program are quite interesting and inspirational. They are more respectful of each other and the way they feel and care about each other is quite impressive. If, like Marty Babits says in this article, want to “nurture an atmosphere of emotional safety”, then you need to read THE POWER OF THE MIDDLE GROUND.

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WORLD OF WARCRAFT: STORMRAGE: REVIEW AND BONUS ENTRIES

WORLD OF WARCRAFT
STORMRAGE
BY RICHARD A. KNAAK

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Richard A. Knaak is the New York Times bestselling author of some three dozen novels, including the The Sin War trilogy for Diablo and the Legend of Huma for Dragonlance. He has penned the War of the Ancients trilogy, Day of the Dragon and its upcoming followup, Night of the Dragon. His other works include his own Dragonrealm series, the Minotaur Wars for Dragonlance, the Aquilonia trilogy of the Age of Conan, and the Sunwell Trilogy -- the first Warcraft manga. In addition, his novels and short stories have been published worldwide in such diverse places as China, Iceland, the Czech Republic, and Brazil.

SEE MORE ABOUT STORMRAGE AND MY INTERVIEW WITH RICHARD KNAAK HERE AND MORE CHANCES TO ENTER TO WIN!

MY REVIEW:

WORLD OF WARCRAFT STORMRAGE marks the return of Malfurion to Azeroth which will lead up to World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. Knaak gets right into the main story line with very little time spent on clarification of anything that’s important to the plot. Loyal followers of this saga need no explanation which might make some people who don’t follow the series leery of reading the book. I am counted in that newbie group but found I could actually, with some help, get into the story easier than I thought at first.

The plot itself is made clear right off the bat, and that is that Marlfurion has been lost to Azeroth and can’t wake up so is trapped in the Emerald Dream. Tyande Whisperwind is warned with a vision from Elune that Malfurion's body is dying. There is, however, some time taken to introduce characters that even some World of Warcraft fans may not be familiar with. Thura, a female orc warrior, Broll Bearmantle, and Varok Saurfang are the main ones. Other less important characters from the past play minor parts in the story such as druid Naralex, Marshal Dughan, and Arch Druid Renferal. They all help to create at times an almost amusing atmosphere to break up some of the conflict, action, and drama.

The story is set at the same time as in Wrath of the Lich King. The Wrath Gate episode has already happened and so this forecasts what is coming in Cataclysm. As I understand it, some Night Elven stories are from the past and dealt with along with the main plot. Knaak seems to have a good grasp of all of places and parts of the World of Warcraft as opposed to someone like me who admittedly did have to look names up at times during my read. Broll Bearmantle and Tyrande travel toward Ashenvale's Bough Shadow with a practically hopeless objective to rescue Malfurion from the Emerald Nightmare's clutches. The Nightmare is spreading all through the Emerald Dream, while it is a mystery as to who is doing this. What happens is so unexpected when all the pieces come together, that I imagine even die-hard WoW followers will be surprised!

The story is fast-paced and fascinating. I believe this can be considered a stand-alone novel as it is the only World of Warcraft book I have read and I was able to enjoy it. I will say it is a genre I do not read at all and knew nothing about it other than it had something to do with some kind of video game. I realized upon reading the inside cover flap I might be a little bit lost and so I read up on some things about World of Warcraft and the characters in order to be able to give the book a fair review. That said, as an ‘older” reader with no background in this area, I still found the book to be surprisingly understandable and good fun. It was certainly well written so that even those of us who are not familiar with the “world” for which it is written can understand and be fascinated by the story. As for those people who love the genre and, of course, this particular series, I imagine they will be delighted with STORMRAGE and cheering.

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WHEN TURTLES FLY: AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTION, REVIEW, & GIVEAWAY

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WHEN TURTLES FLY

BY NIKKI STONE

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Did you know you have better odds at winning the lottery than an Olympic medal? To bring home one of those coveted medals -- or achieve any great personal goal in life -- you need a lot more than luck. You need a game plan.

What if you could learn the secrets of success from an Olympian? A Nobel Prize winner? A Fortune 500 CEO? Along with anecdotes from her own dramatic journey, Olympic gold medalist Nikki Stone has compiled a treasure trove of compelling stories to illustrate each step on the path to success. She's gathered humorous, heartwarming and hugely inspirational tales from some of today's most brilliant business leaders, scientists, soldiers, inventors, philanthropists, musicians, athletes and entrepreneurs . . . a host of people whose very names epitomize achievement. Winners such as:

• Designer Tommy Hilfiger
• X-Games/Olympic Champ Shaun White
• Jazz musician Branford Marsalis
• Special Olympic Chair Timothy Shriver
• NFL quarterback Steve Young
• Perfect '10' gymnast Nadia Comaneci
• Prince Albert of Monaco
• Best-selling author Stephen Covey
• Olympic skiing Star Lindsey Vonn
• Top venture capitalist Vinod Khosla
• Celebrity chef Todd English
• And many more . . .

Now an acclaimed motivational speaker and peak performance coach, author Nikki Stone helps people in all walks of life to overcome fears, failures and plateaus and realize their full potential. In this step-by-step guide to success, she and her team of high achievers share their stories about reaching for dreams . . . and grasping them. Learn their secrets, then dream big and fly . . . !

25% of the author's net proceeds from the sale of this book will be donated to the American Cancer Society.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

At the Olympic Winter Games in Nagano, Japan, Nikki Stone, author of When Turtles Fly: Secrets of Successful People Who Know How To Stick Their Necks Out, became America's first-ever Olympic champion in the sport of aerial skiing. What made this performance so unbelievable was the fact that, less than two years earlier, a chronic spinal injury prevented her from standing, much less walking or skiing off a twelve-foot-tall snow jump that launches aerialists fifty feet into the air. She overcame the injury and went on to earn 35 World Cup medals, 11 World Cup titles, 4 national titles, 3 World Cup titles, a World Championship title, and membership in the Ski Hall of Fame.

Nikki is also a magna cum laude graduate of Union College and a summa cum laude masters graduate of the University of Utah. Her aerial retirement is less than restful as she trains Olympic athletes and business professionals in speaking/media skills, coaches personal and professional development courses, hosts group skiing adventures, sits on five different charitable committees, and writes articles and columns for many magazines, newspapers, and websites. Nikki's career focus is now on traveling around the world working as a sought-after motivational speaker, sharing her secrets to success by inspiring her business audiences to "Stick their necks out." Every spare moment is spent with husband, Michael Spencer, and daughter, Zali, in Park City, Utah. For more information, please visit www.WhenTurtlesFly.com.

MY REVIEW:

WHEN TURTLES FLY was a perfect book to read while I have been enjoying the Winter Olympics. Watching these amazing athletes and especially the stories of how they got there is quite inspiring. The book’s title comes from author Nikki Stone’s mother who compares success and turtles and calls it the “Turtle Effect”. The “Turtle Effect” is based on 3 things a person needs to have to be successful. Much like a turtle, the comparison is made of having a “hard shell”, a “soft inside”, and the willingness to “stick your neck out” to achieve your goals. Author and Olympian, Nikki Stone, has included stories in a book that inspires and offers hope for a time when many could easily not be so positive. The book is filled with forty people who are real-life examples of the “Turtle Effect”. Stone didn’t just use Olympians or just athletes, but a collection of people from all areas of life, including her own inspirational background.

These 40 people succeed with that “hard shell” of the right attitude, a “soft inside” with hearts that care for more than just themselves, and determination and hard work as they “stick their necks out” to overcome adversity and achieve their goals. Nikki’s story is the perfect example where she had to overcome adversity and pain, as well as find inner strength to push forward with her dreams.

By connecting stories from some of the world's top athletes, professionals, and leaders, Stone created a book that is a pleasure to read while it also has an important message that all of us can apply in our own lives. No matter what your objective may be, applying the “Turtle Effect" plan will help you reach your goal. Each story is well done and relevant even if some of the names may not all be familiar to you, their story will resonate. Names more common to most like Lindsey Vonn, Steve Young, Todd English, Nadia Comenaci, or even a current hit of these Olympic Games, Shaun White, will inspire as you see how their gripping stories will be very significant to most. Their motivating messages make this a feel-good book that you can learn a great deal from even if it just improves your faith in mankind somewhat.

The book is organized into nine chapters with seven of them titled and grouped into categories like commitment, confidence, teamwork, and passion to name a few. In each of those categories, there are several stories to support them. The stories, or cases, include photographs, biographies, an introduction to each written by Nikki Stone, and of course, the person’s own story of success. In the final short chapter, you will find some personal thoughts from Stone and you will understand why twenty-five percent of the proceeds of this book will go to the American Cancer Society.

This book will be a great motivational tool for you and also makes a wonderful gift to give to someone who just may need a little inspiration right now. I gave a copy to a friend who is dealing with the loss of a loved one and is reassessing their life choices. Do you have someone you think would like this book? I am sure you do!

AN EXCERPT:

Introduction

by Nikki Stone

Author of When Turtles Fly:

Secrets of Successful People Who
Know How To Stick Their Necks Out

I pushed the enormous rocking chair across the lime-green shag carpet. This would be the last piece of furniture I would need to complete my own Olympic podium. I had just watched Olympic Gymnastics Champion Nadia Comaneci stand on top of the real deal, and I wanted to see how it felt.

I slowly climbed onto the wobbly rocking chair, my pigtails swooshing back and forth. Occasionally a few hairs would catch on my eyelashes and I would pull the strands away from my face so I could continue on my mission. I calculated the chair's rhythm, carefully threw my leg over the back and slowly climbed up onto the lacquered old end table. I pushed myself to my feet and threw my fists toward the ceiling in victory. A huge smile broke across my freckled face as I imagined the crowds cheering around me and the camera bulbs going off left and right. I had my answer. It felt incredible!

My mother and father came in from the family room to see what the commotion was. I beamed down at them and stated with confidence, "I'm going to win the 'lympics!"

Now, I think most parents would be a bit leery of giving their five-year-old daughter any genuine encouragement for this giant undertaking, especially seeing that, in all likelihood, she had a better chance of winning the lottery than the Olympics someday. But my parents never flinched. I never saw any reservation on their faces when I declared my goal.

My mom lifted me off the "podium," plopped me down on the plaid easy chair and said, "Well, then I guess it's time for me to teach you about the Turtle Effect."

At the time, this meant little more to me than a chance to potentially hit them up for a pet turtle at Dom's local pet store. But I realized that if I was going to turn those living room chairs and table into a real Olympic podium, I had to learn what this Turtle Effect really meant.

She explained to me that if I wanted to be successful, I needed to be soft on the inside, I had to have a hard shell, and I had to be willing to stick my neck out.

To have a soft inside, I would need a passion for my pursuits. To build a hard shell, I'd have to focus on the task at hand, completely commit to my goals, and develop the ability to overcome any adversity that was thrown my way. And in order to stick my neck out, I'd have to have confidence, take substantial risks, and be a team player in order to succeed. Those seven lessons were key in mastering the Turtle Effect.

As I grew and developed through my years in gymnastics, and eventually, aerial freestyle skiing, I found my mom's advice invaluable. But it wasn't just her words about the Turtle Effect that helped me to become an Olympic champion. It was putting them into action, and experiencing challenges and pitfalls that would eventually help me understand the true depth of their power. Later, I found that by explaining these ideas to others, though motivational speeches, I could help many individuals accomplish their goals.

Galvanized by the possibilities, I decided to create a book that would offer people many profound and amazing stories for motivation, as well as hands-on activities to help them make changes themselves. I sat down and put together a list of people whose lives I found to be truly inspiring, and who'd worked hard to reach the top of their "game". I included accomplished businessmen and women, athletes, politicians, celebrities, authors, Nobel Prize winners, musicians and philanthropists. In telling their stories, these individuals, many of whom I've come to know, all shared a part of the Turtle Effect that helped them find their own success. To continue the inspiration, I've included one more special bonus story online that you can view at www.WhenTurtlesFly.com.

Each story is followed by a daily activity that has proved successful at my coaching sessions in changing people's lives in a concrete way, exercises you can use to improve your own personal and professional life. They serve as hands-on tools to help you enhance and develop your passion, focus, commitment, ability to overcome adversity, risk taking, and team building. From my years of experience as an athlete, speaker and peak performance coach, and by studying the habits of many powerful individuals I've encountered, I've come up with highly effective steps to encourage advancement in any career. Each activity includes blank space for you to keep notes on your own transformation.

Whether I'm mentoring future Olympic medalists, motivating hotshot businesspeople, or coaching eager young professionals, I find the Turtle Effect works brilliantly to help people reach success.

It's never too late or too early to pursue your dreams, and you're never too successful to work toward new goals. So get ready for the adventure of a lifetime.

Get ready to fly!

The above is an excerpt from the book When Turtles Fly: Secrets of Successful People Who Know How To Stick Their Necks Out by Nikki Stone. The above excerpt is a digitally scanned reproduction of text from print. Although this excerpt has been proofread, occasional errors may appear due to the scanning process. Please refer to the finished book for accuracy.

Copyright © 2010 Nikki Stone, author of When Turtles Fly: Secrets of Successful People Who Know How To Stick Their Necks Out

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TRY DARKNESS: REVIEW AND GIVEAWAY

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TRY DARKNESS
BY JAMES SCOTT BELL

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Ty Buchanan is living on the peaceful grounds of St. Monica's, far away from the glamorous life he led as a rising trial lawyer for a big L.A. firm. Recovering from the death of his fiancée and a false accusation of murder, Buchanan has found his previous ambitions unrewarding. Now he prefers offering legal services to the poor and the under-represented, from his "office" at local coffee bar The Freudian Sip. A mysterious woman with a six year old daughter comes to him for help. She's being illegally evicted from a downtown transient hotel, an interest represented by his old law firm and former best friend, Al Bradshaw. Buchanan won't back down. He's going to fight for the woman's rights.

But then she ends up dead, and the case moves from the courtroom to the streets. Determined to find the killer and protect the little girl, who has no last name and no other family, Buchanan finds he must depend on skills he never needed in the employ of a civil law firm.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

James Scott Bell's fiction has been compared by Booklist and the Los Angeles Times to Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett, two of his favorite authors. A former trial lawyer, Jim was also fiction columnist for Writers Digest Magazine and adjunct professor of writing at Pepperdine University. His book on writing, Write Great Fiction: Plot & Structure, is one of the most popular writing books available today.

After graduating from Taft High School in Los Angeles, Bell went on to play basketball at the University of California, Santa Barbara where he pursued a degree in Film. But his love of writing shot to the forefront of his interests. While still in college, Bell's writing got him a spot to study with Raymond Carver, one of America's most honored writers. Bell also won an award for a screenplay he wrote in his senior year.

After graduation, Bell moved to New York to write for the theater. Almost immediately he was cast in a small role in an Off Broadway production of Othello, "and I began my actor phase." That phase included stints in several Off Broadway productions and in television commercials. "Commercials were nice," Bell remembers. "I'd hold up a tray of hamburgers for McDonald's and keep getting these residual checks. What a business."

While in New York Bell met his wife to be, an actress, and decided one thespian in the family was enough. He went to the University of Southern California Law School, graduated with honors and won the American Board of Trial Advocates' Award as the top student in Trial Practice. He was a litigator for a year with a large L.A. firm before opening up his own office.

He now writes full time. His favorite writers, in addition to Chandler and Hammett, include John D. MacDonald and Michael Connelly.

REVIEW:

In TRY DARKNESS, James Scott Bell gives readers a breathtakingly suspenseful crime novel. His writing style is clever and engaging and keeps the reader turning pages to see what will happen next. The book was really fun to read (I often like to not have to work quite so hard all the time when I read). As a fan of books with short chapters, like the kind James Patterson writes, I really enjoyed reading my first James Scott Bell book. Bell writes short chapters so you can read “just one more”, however, just so you know, he has some REALLY short chapters so be prepared for that.

Ty Buchanan is back in this latest James Scott Bell thriller, TRY DARKNESS. Ty is a rare, casual and unconventional man who we wouldn’t normally associate with being a lawyer, but indeed he is. However, after being charged for a crime he didn't commit, the big powerful law firm he worked for fired him. Of course, once he proved his innocence, the firm wanted him back but Ty made a major life change. He gave up his fancy home and moved to live in a trailer just outside a monastery. There he found an unlikely partner in Sister Mary Veritas, who also likes a good game of basketball. Through the monastery, Ty gets many of his clients as he now is working with the poor and doing mostly pro bono work.

Ty's latest case involves a young girl, Kylie, whose mother was viciously murdered right in front of her. The woman, Reatta, had previously come to Ty for help as she was going to be evicted. Ty’s powerhouse old law firm and best friend were representing the beat up old hotel that was trying to illegally kick her out. Ty and Sister Mary Veritas look into the case, and they discover a conspiracy between, you guessed it, Ty's old law firm, and a formidable business tycoon With many new, well-developed characters, Ty has to try and solve this case for little Kylie who has stolen his heart and is left with no last name, all alone in the world. In place of much courthouse action, Ty takes the case on and finds a whole different world of legal matters to deal with then ever before. His connection with Sister Mary Veritas becomes more interesting as the story concludes in a cleverly satisfying finale, and with Kylie’s help, the reader can see how many of these characters will no doubt be following Ty into Bell’s next adventure in this series.

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GIVEAWAY

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