Author and Grow Rich Trump the Donald Challenge
Category: News and Politics

I'm going to enter this.

Here's the message from The Story Lady:

OK - we go live at 2 PM EST...so  now I can spill the beans! Yes, The Story Lady doesn't like keeping secrets. Hey, this IS a VIRAL STORYTELLING BLOG after all! Stories SHOLD be shared and spread around liberally.

Check this out.

I know you have an idea that would kick the economy into high gear.  Everyone has an opinion, right?  So why not enter a contest and get that idea of yours spread around???

Glenn Dietzel Believes YOU Have a Better Idea Than Donald Trump! He says..."Your idea is better than anything Donald Trump can come up with. Period! "

Big business and governments are not going to turn around the North American Economy. The economy will be turned around by the ideas of small business owners and hard working Americans and Canadians who are on the front lines of an economy in recession.

The Donald has grown dozens of businesses around the world. Now Glenn Dietzel, a small-town Canadian who turned his passion into profit, puts his Entrepreneurial Authoring system to the test...

This Contest Challenges Ordinary People to Create Extraordinary Solutions to the Slumping North American Economy.

Can You Trump the Donald to Author and Grow Rich?

What Is YOUR Best Idea for Waking Up the North American Economy?

Prove to yourself how easy it is to use the Author And Grow Rich authoring system to generate your ideas and fast write a chapter—even if you think you have no time.

Get details HERE!

The Story Lady and Cat

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So you want to be a novelist? Got what it takes?
Category: Writing and Poetry

This writing quiz is so fun I had to share it.

How addicted to writing are you?

I scored 190, so you'll see how nuts I am when you take the quiz.

Cat

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Dyan Garris Interviews Fantasy Author Cat Muldoon
Current mood: blessed
Category: Writing and Poetry

I had the honor and pleasure of meeting author Dyan Garrisas she took her virtual tour of the blogosphere.  Even before checking out her website and the free daily angel card reading, her depth and warmth caught my attention.  I felt an instant kinship with her.  Today you can read my answers to her deep and insightful questions.  She asked me about topics including:

My spiritual beliefs

Whether telepathy is real

My background in aromatherapy, herbology, and other healing arts

Psychic experience

and more.

This is what she wrote about me as a preview to the interview:

"Cat Muldoon Interview by Dyan Garris

"Cat Muldoon. We should all take a page out of this lady's book for more reasons than one. Cat is legally blind, yet has overcome this challenge to follow her chosen path and live her dreams in full color. In her book "Rue the Day - Undercover Heir" (epic suspense/fantasy series with a splash of romance) Cat has brought to life the fascinating world of Faerie and a rich and multi-dimensional cast of characters. This woman impresses me on many levels. Read more about her and her series in our interview!"

Read the full interview.

Dyan Garris offers numerous wonderful goodies at her website, including a Daily Channeled Message.

Watch her Trailer

Enjoy your FREE Angel Card Reading on her site.

And did you ever talk to your food?  Check out her latest book. 

You can even find out what color your brain is.  Hers is BLUE...Mind is purple.  This is really adorable.

..> ..> ..>..>

Your Brain is Purple

Of all the brain types, yours is the most idealistic. You tend to think wild, amazing thoughts. Your dreams and fantasies are intense. Your thoughts are creative, inventive, and without boundaries. You tend to spend a lot of time thinking of fictional people and places - or a very different life for yourself.

She has books, music, the gorgeous Angel Cards (her artwork by the way) and more.  I'm ordering from her store for sure.  This is someone who has at least four people's share of talent!

I am grateful for the opportunity to meet Dyan.

You can hear The Story Lady interview her Friday, January 18 at 11 AM EST LIVE or via computer anytime on InnerSpace LIVE! Author Interviews on blog talk radio.

Cat

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A Biblio Paradise interview and review of Cat Muldoon
Category: Writing and Poetry

I hope you will join me for a 2-day stop with Devon at Biblio Paradise.  He is reviewing Rue the Day December 27th and interviewing me the 28th.  Please stop by and add a comment so that you'll be eligible to win  

Devon enjoys cooking, as I do.  Check out a couple of his recent posts and you'll be drooling!  Plus he asked me some extremely insightful questions, so I'm sure you'll find the interview intriguing.

I gave 2 prizes to people subscribed on my list.  I did do the drawing yesterday but didn't get to a computer.  Too much fun relaxing with family and friends to sit at a keyboard!  But you may recall that Will one the Celtic music CDs.  I am pleased to announce that another one of my subscribers, Sandra, has won a goal setting CD.

hard to believe my month of taking a virtual book tour with Pump Up Your Book Promotions  is almost at an end.  What fantastic contacts and friends I've made along the way!

Now the Undercover Heir has made her debut. The Undercover Heir blog will keep you up to date on what is happening next.  I'll be starting Book 2 in early 2008.

Cat

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Cat Muldoon Announces First Prize Winner & Undercover Heir Development Blog

this month I am on a virtual book tour, and it is wonderful!  My fantasy suspense novel Rue the Day: The Undercover Heir Book 1 is making tracks on the net.  Amazon is out of the book at the moment, but I have an inside scoop for you...go to my website and you can read excerpts and buy the book as well.  When you register this month to have story and book excerpts sent to your inbox once a week, you are also entered to win prizes this month.

As part of my tour, I am giving away two prizes.  The first is a set of 4 Celtic music CDs.  Rue the Day is set in Faerie, and Celtic themes are interwoven in the story.  That is why I am giving away this sort of music.

Will B of Denver, Colorado is the winner.  I'll get his gift in the mail today.  Congratulations!  This is what he said about Rue the Day:  "Your writing style is a cross between J. K. Rowling and J. R. R. Tolkein.  Your scenes are so vivid I can see what's happening as I read.  I want book 2 NOW!"

Thanks, Will!  That's not why he got the prize, though.  My cats helped me draw and he won.

I would also like to announce that I've started a blog on which I will track the development of the Undercover Heir Series.  Right now I am posting some things about Rue the Day, the first in the series, and you can follow the development of the next 2 (and more) in the series that I am writing starting in early 2008. 

In the first book (now in print), you follow Aislinn as she is kidnapped from the human world to go to a world she never knew was her birthright to meet the father she has never met, rescue the mother who abandoned her and save her homeland of Faerie before it falls into a time of evil and darkness, all in the matter of a couple of weeks.

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FREE blogging class from Mark Joyner of Simpleology
Category: Blogging

I'm evaluating a multi-media course on blogging from the folks at Simpleology. For a while, they're letting you snag it for free if you post about it on your blog.

It covers:

• The best blogging techniques.
• How to get traffic to your blog.
• How to turn your blog into money.

I'll let you know what I think once I've had a chance to check it out. Meanwhile, go grab yours while it's still free.

I'm extremely impressed with Simpleology: The Simple Science of Getting What You Want.  It's a free course that mark Joyner developed that will definitely keep you focused and on target for your SMART specific goals.   So when I was given the opportunity to field test a new blogging course, I jumped at the chance not only to try it out, but to share it with you.

So if you fit any of these categories, you NEED to be blogging,

• Author
• Entrepreneur
• Business owner
• Artist
• Musician
• Publicist
• Speaker
• Coach
• Consultant 

So  let's work through this course together!

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The Big Question: Spiritual side of writing with Jim Melvin, part 2
Category: Writing and Poetry

Let me brag on Jim Melvin for a moment:

Critical praise for The Pit

Book 1 in the Death Wizard Chronicles

Read part 1 of the interview here

Did any events from your life influence the series?

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Ah, yes. Too many to list. But it all started when I was young. I was lucky to grow up on a street on the waterfront that had about ten other boys my age, and we hung out morning, ..:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />..:NAMESPACE PREFIX = ST1 />noon and night. We played all the usual sports that young boys love: football, baseball, basketball, "kill the carrier," etc. But we also, as a group, were obsessed with playing fantastical games that contained magic, monsters, and super heroes. My love and fascination for magic and monsters stayed with me into adulthood.

Have you had an experience of dying and coming back? Or has someone you know had this experience?

From the moment we are born, we all begin to die, so I've certainly experienced the dying part. The coming back? As in a near-death experience? No. And I'm not one to believe that we're met by angels or deceased relatives that are there to guide you into the light. I believe that the energy that composes our mind/karma leaps immediately into a new body. The Buddha was once asked how this energy knows which body to go to. And he answered something along the lines of: "How does a falling leaf know where to land on the ground?"

I am intrigued with your Death Wizard.  How did the character of the Death Wizard come to you?

Ironically, I conceived the Death Wizard and his meditative ways before I knew much about meditation. Most of the names and places in my series are direct translations from Pali, a derivative of Sanskrit. But my MC's name, Torg, has been with me since the late 1970s, when I first envisioned a wizard who could meditate so deeply that his heartbeat literally would stop. Fifteen years ago, my first wife and I were divorced. My second wife is a Western-convert Buddhist, and she introduced me to meditation. Since then, everything has come together. This is my time.

Do you converse with your characters or hear/feel them talking in your mind?

When I'm in the process of writing a first draft, I tend to spend a lot of time thinking about the upcoming scene before I sit down to write it. As I'm falling asleep at night, while I'm in the shower, while I'm driving alone, I play things out over and over in my mind. Then, when I sit down to write, it usually pours out of me pretty smoothly. So in that regard I do converse with my characters. And I love them like members of my own family.

 As you began writing this series, when did you know where you were taking the characters in the last book?

I began planning this series in my mind when I was 20 years old, but I didn't begin to write it until I was in my mid-40s. During all that time, however, I never quit thinking about The Death Wizard Chronicles. So by the time I began the actually writing, I knew in great detail most of what was going to happen, including not just Book One but Book Six and all those in between. This definitely was not one of those Stephen King deals where I started out with an idea and then riffed like a lead guitarist. I knew most things in advance and in excruciating detail. But of course, there were a few surprises.

 Is there a spiritual or ethical point or principle that most readers of your book miss?

Yes. It's that though karma exists, we still are in control of our own fate. We can choose at any moment in any of our lives to do more good things than bad. And when we make that choice and stick to it, our karma eventually will catch up.

Thank you so much, Jim!

It was my pleasure!

Check out the Death Wizard Chronicles Blog

Order your copy now from

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Review: Characters Come to Life
Category: Writing and Poetry

What a pleasure it is to receive a rave review!  Snow  did me that great honor today with her review of Rue the Day.  This is the beginning of her review:

"Rue The Day" The Undercover Heir book I is the book for you!"

This amazing story will take you to a world like no other. Places you'd only dream about visiting. Love some one fiercely. The characters come to life in your hands and mind as you read through to the end.

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A Splash of Romance on My First Internet TV Appearance
Current mood: bouncy
Category: Writing and Poetry

This has been quite a month.  I'm writing short stories and submitting them like crazy.  I have five out and one more on the way.  Just finished a short called "Katrina's Scare" and am about to find it's first stop on the road to publication.  I'm still awaiting word on everything else.

David K. Ewen of Today's Author interviewed me, and you can both hear and now SEE it.  How exciting. 

The MP3 (sound) file:  Go to "Today's Author" on Blog Talk Radio.   You can  listen and download it 

I've also been on tour this month, which is quite interesting.  My stop today is at The Book Connection!   If you drop in and comment, you could win a copy of my book.  I've even posted a couple of questions to give you something specific to work from.

I'm also getting ready for two other things.  The first I will set up today - a development blog for the Undercover Heir series so that the world can follow my progress.  the other is that I'm starting a Blog Talk Radio show on which I will interview authors of mystical, magical and spiritual fiction.

You can check out the virtual book tour for all the December authors touring with Pump Up Your Book Promotions and discover some fabulous authors.

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Meditative Writing: Cat Muldoon Interviews Jim Melvin Part 1
Current mood: thoughtful
Category: Writing and Poetry

Did you ever consider the deeper meaning behind what happens in a book? Beyond the action...beyond the emotion...beyond the obvious details?

Some books are all action, but for some of us, weaving spiritual perspectives into our works is as natural as breathing. I met Jim Melvin, author of The Death Wizard Chronicles on the first day of his virtual book tour. We are both cruising the blogosphere this month, and we came to enjoy each other so much that we arranged a 2-part unscheduled side-trip. I feel so grateful to have met a new friend. That is an unexpected-benefit of touring, in my opinion. Most of us are checking out each others' stops and interacting with each other, and I have made several new friends of the touring authors and our gracious hosts.

Jim Melvin. and I interviewed each other. You can read part 1 of his interview of me here.

Today we are each sharing part 1 of the interview. Next weekend you will get part 2.

The Pit: The Death Wizard Chronicles: Book 1

by Jim Melvin

Only a Death-Knower can die.

And live again.

Only a Death-Knower can return

from death.

And remember.

Only a Death-Knower can tell us

what he has seen.
Not all care to listen.

Torg, the Death-Knower wizard, is imprisoned in a horrifying pit bored into the solid rock of a frozen mountain. His captor is Invictus, the evil sorcerer whose power threatens to engulf the land in eternal darkness. Torg spends twenty-two days in agony before making his dramatic escape and setting off on a series of adventures that will change the fate of the planet Triken.

First of all, Jim, I am delighted that our paths converged. Thank you for agreeing to this exchange of unusual author interviews where we are addressing some uncommon issues.

I met you on the first day of your first Virtual Book Tour with Pump Up Your Book Promotions and discovered some things about you that intrigued me. One thing I learned from you is that you are Buddhist. I understand your book is not about Buddhism, but writers often weave some of their own experiences into their books. How has Buddhism influenced your series?

All writers, especially fiction writers, are products of their world view. They are shaped by their beliefs, life experiences, and environment. Buddhism has played a major role in my world view, in terms of how I live my life and treat others. The philosophical aspects (more so than the ritualistic aspects) of Buddhism really appeal to me: the art of meditation, the concepts of karma and rebirth, etc. And all of these things are woven between the lines of The Death Wizard Chronicles. That said, I do not presume to market my series as a work of Buddhism because Buddhism is a very passive and morally based religion, while my work contains graphic violence and R-rated sex.

How do you weave spiritual or metaphysical principles into your stories?

As we all know, literary fiction is theme-based. The author chooses his or her themes up front in a highly specific manner, and then carefully weaves these themes into the narrative using a variety of literary devices. My most important theme is the "fear of death" and how this fear affects human beings, both consciously and subconsciously (or unconsciously, if you prefer). The main reason we fear death is because we don't know what it is. A large portion of Buddhism is spent looking death in the eye and examining this fear. My characters constantly face death, both in literal and figurative sense. Between the lines, they die symbolically: They can't catch their breath; they delve deep into tunnels and caves; they become trapped in claustrophobic situations. But rebirth then occurs: They rest and recuperate; they re-emerge from the tunnels and caves; they escape their claustrophobic traps. This is one way, at least, that I weave spiritual and metaphysical principles into my stories. Another is through the liberal use of allegory.

I know that you meditate. Do you meditate before or during your writing time?

I try to meditate once a day, usually before bedtime. I'm not proud to admit this, but I don't meditate nearly as much as I should or as much as I have in the past. If I were more disciplined, I would meditate before every session of writing, because the process of meditation so beautifully clears the mind. Writing itself is a form a meditation, in that you become single-minded on a particular task.

Do your beliefs about karma and the afterlife enter into The Death Wizard Chronicles?

Many people don't even believe in karma, but when you meditate mindfully, karma becomes an evident phenomenon. As for afterlife, I believe as Buddhists believe that all living beings are locked into a series of births and rebirths that extend for eons. Portions of the karma from our previous tag along with us in our present life and beyond. My main character is called a Death Wizard, or more accurately a Death-Knower, because he is able to die temporarily, feed on death energy, and then return to life. Therefore, he literally knows death. This, of course, is symbolic of birth and rebirth, while also containing allegorical elements of Christianity. In terms of karma, the Death Wizard purposely sets in motion a series of events so that karma itself might be used to defeat an evil sorcerer.

>>>>>>>>>

Thank you, Jim! I am excited to share the rest of your interview next week!

You can read part 1 of his interview of me here.

Next week he'll answer questions like:

Have you had an experience of dying and coming back? Or has someone you know had this experience?

and

Do you converse with your characters or hear/feel them talking in your mind?

All six books will be available for purchase at rainbooks.com, amazon.com, and select bookstores in the U.S. and Canada.

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