The Battle

Have you ever seen the meme that says, "Be Kind, For everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle?" Did Socrates really say that?
I don't know. Probably not that way, but maybe something like that with a lot more Greek "thees" and "thous"
Anyways.
It's true. the person that seems to have it all together. The person who is always laughing, always has a great attitude. The person with every hair in place, and the person with muscles on their eyebrows.
Everyone is fighting an emotional battle, a mental battle, that they are struggling to gain a foothold on. Nobody actually has it all together. No one.
So it's funny to me, as I watch people, because that is what I do as an introvert. Watch people all the live long day.
But as i watch people, I see that people will say just about anything, to juyst about anyone if they can get an upper hand on them. Including myself. I will throw out a nasty, shitty comment about someone and then need to reel myself in because I remember how frail I am. How susceptible I am to the comments of others.
How much words can hurt me, if weilded with the proper force, and with ill intent.

To follow on the same train off thought as my last post, we show so little care for each other.
Somehow, we have forgotten that it is easy to love people who love us.
But it is a powerful thing when you are kind to the unlovable. It is an act of love to reach out to those who wouldn't pee on you if you were on fire.It's an act of compassion to acknowledge those that the world doesn't recognize. People that the world doesn't see.I've been, and still remain, one of those people. And I think, if we are all honest, we have at least had one moment where we have felt like the lonely.
There isn't a one of us who hasn't felt orphaned by the world.
So what am I saying?
I'm reminding myself, that the pain I feel is not something alien and unique to me. We all share in it.
We all want to be loved, and to be acknowledged, and be believed in.
We all want to be honored for who we are.
Honor is a crazy thing.
Merriam Webster defines it as "respect that is given to someone who is admired."
Imagine if we could find a way to admire people...everyone.
Imagine if we could respect people because they had the bravery to stay on this shithole of a planet. Just because they didn't cut and run.
I think people deserve rewards for that.
I cut and run once. Almost done it many times since then.
We all know the bravery that it takes to keep going.

Remember that we are all people. We aren't tough. We pretend to be tough. Inside we are flesh and blood with a heart and life flowing through our veins. Our toughness is something we put on in order to keep the world from hurting us. to keep us from hurting each other.. The scars we have are there to protect us.

But we are all someone to be admired on the inside.

Be Kind. Everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle....

Be Careful With People

I'm not perfect.
*cue shocked gasps, and low whispers*
It's true. My name is Jason and I am not perfect.

For instance, it has been two plus years since I have written on this blog. It still looks bad, and is unorganized...and I'm sorry about it. If I still have an audience, which I doubt, they have since gone the way that every audience goes when they have nowhere to be...away. So I won't be hurting too many people with the shape that this blog is in.

But this isn't why I've started writing here again.

I want to talk about sensitive people and introversion. They are completely the same and different.

I am an introvert. That means, for me, that I seem like the most boring person on Earth, and by that I mean the entire planet. But it also means that though I don't always have something amusing to say, though I am not always the life of the party, and you may find me hard to talk to, I have a whole lot going on in my head. By that I mean that there is a whole world of stuff going on in my brain that I don't tell you.

It also means that if I have decided to tell you what is going on in my head, it is because I trust you to hear it. That may not be a big idea to you, but it is a huge deal to me. People who are extroverted often think that telling everyone everything that they are thinking is not a huge deal (and this is not meant as a bash to anyone) but if they think that, they have never been an introvert. If I have chosen to tell you things, I have done so because you matter. and that is no small thing. Not for me.

Unfortunately,all of this,  for me, means that people don't understand me very much, or even try, because I am sensitive and think about things and cry once in a while. Okay more than once in a while...so shoot me.

It's crazy that we don't have room in this world for people who don't shoot their mouths off every ten seconds. We don't have room for people that don't want to be the life of the party all the time. We don't have room for people who prefer deep conversation over meaningless BS. Who aren't brash and aren't pushy and don't expect that everyone and everything is going to go their way...just because they want it to.

The reason that this has all come up is that I have started to rewrite my "The List of Five " series from the beginning. For some of you, that will be a welcome thing. For some of you, it will be more like "List of what?"

The main character in the series is Richie Lyon, and deep within him lies the heart of a lion, though he doesn't know it. He is one of those sensitive kids who never quite fit in anywhere, never was quite able to make people understand him, never was able to get anyone to notice him.

Me.

Ever known anyone like that?

All I ask is that as you go through life, and you notice people that aren't like you, please be careful. Don't assume. Beneath that quiet, moody person with a perpetual frown, who is hard to talk to, beats the flesh and blood heart of a true warrior. Someone that you would love to know.

Just like Richie.

NEW RELEASE Ciara Ballintyne’s Epic Fantasy ‘In the Company of the Dead’

Only a fool crosses a god, but Ellaeva and Lyram will do anything to get what they want.

Title: In the Company of the Dead

Author: Ciara Ballintyne

Series: The Sundered Oath #1

Genre: Epic Fantasy/Fantasy Romance

Chosen as a five-year-old orphan to be the Left Hand of Death, Ellaeva has nothing to call her own—nothing except a desire to avenge her murdered parents. Her duties leave her no time to pursue the man responsible, until both her work and revenge lead to the same place—the lonely castle where Lyram Aharris is serving out his exile for striking his prince.

Lyram is third in line for the throne, and when the castle is unexpectedly besieged, he fears his prince means to remove him from contention for the crown permanently. Ellaeva’s arrival brings hope, until she reveals she has not come for the siege, but instead she hunts the castle for a hidden necromancer dedicated to the dark god of decay.
Within their stone prison, Ellaeva and Lyram must fight to save themselves from political machinations and clashing gods. But as the siege lengthens, the greatest threat comes from an unexpected quarter.

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Chapter 1

Premonition

Only a fool would split hairs with a god, least of all the goddess of death, but Ellaeva would count herself such a fool and consider it worth it—if she could get away with it.

She leaned across the knife-scarred timber of the tavern table.

“Are you sure?” she asked, her tone even and barely loud enough to be audible over the noise of the flute and the zither. Her work on behalf of the goddess Ahura, adjudicating the small war here in Dayhl, could only be abandoned in favour of a greater threat. If she was going to chase off after the man who killed her parents, she needed to be sure her arguments stacked up. The pursuit of personal justice wouldn’t be enough.

Is it justice or revenge?

No time to worry about that now. She tugged her black hood farther down over her infamous face, even though deep shadows blanketed the common room corner. She’d chosen a table far from the tallow candles mounted in their stag-horn chandeliers. There was no point taking chances; the black hair and porcelain skin of a Tembran would be remarked here among the platinum-haired Dayhlish. Besides, someone might recognise her.

“In Ahlleyn, sure as the spring comes after winter, Holiness.” The narrow-faced man across from her grinned, baring teeth more brown than yellow. The acrid smoke from the candles didn’t cover his pungent breath.

She half-stood, making an urgent, negating gesture as she glanced around, but the hubbub of chatter from the patrons and the music covered his slip. No one even glanced their way. On the far side of the room, away from the two blazing hearths, tables were pushed aside for dancing. She dropped back into her seat, her black robes fluttering around her booted feet.

Ahlleyn lay on the other side of the continent, months of travel by horse. If her informant was right and a Rahmyrrim priest had been dispatched there, he would likely be gone long before she arrived—unless she begged a favour, but she’d not do that for a lark of her own. However, if it meant catching the man who killed her parents, well then maybe she could come up with an argument that would hold water for a god. Old grief and anger, stale from a decade or more, stirred in her gut, and her fingers curled around the edge of the table.

Releasing her grip, she reached to the inner pocket in her robes where rested the smudged charcoal drawing of a man. Hard work and luck had helped her obtain that picture of the man she believed killed her parents—a man she knew to be a priest of Rahmyr. If she decided to act against her standing orders, then she needed to be sure it was the man she was after, and that he was involved in some act heinous enough to attract her goddess’s attention.

“Did you get the name of this priest? Or his description?” An unknown number of priests served Rahmyr, but she knew six by sight—six still alive anyway.

The thin man shook his head. “Nobody mentioned. I got the impression he’s already there, or on his way leastways.”

She scowled. No way to be sure then that this was the man she wanted. Begging favours of Ahura for her personal satisfaction was a risky business, especially if she neglected her duties, and perhaps it would all be for nothing.

With one hand, she flattened the map that curled on the table between them. The patrons behind them exploded with laughter at something unheard. Ignoring the noise, she stabbed her finger at an unmarked portion of the map in the foothills of the Ahlleyn mountains. If he didn’t know who, maybe he knew the what. “There, you say? What possible interest could Rahmyr have there? There’s nothing of interest at all.”

She lowered her voice even further as she uttered the name of the goddess of decay, and glanced around again. That name spoken too loudly would bring unwanted attention. But nearly all the tavern patrons were busy whirling on the impromptu dance floor or lined up to watch the dancers, their backs to her.

The nameless man leaned forward, treating her to another stomach-clenching blast of foul breath, and touched a spot perhaps half an inch away from her finger. A tiny, unlabelled picture marked something there.

“Here, Holiness.”

She squinted at the picture, letting his lapse slide. The image represented a holy place. There was an old shrine to Ahura somewhere in the Ahlleyn Borders, wasn’t there? And a castle built over it. “Caisteal Aingeal an Bhais.”

“That sounds like the name,” he agreed. “Never could get my mouth around them Ahlleyn words. Pink castle, I heard.”

She grunted. That was the one. “There’s still nothing there.”

Nothing of interest to Rahmyr anyway. The shrine wasn’t particularly important, and the castle held no political significance.

“What’s there,” the man said, “is Lyram Aharris.”

The premonition went through her like a blast of icy wind, stiffening her in her chair as the hand of the goddess brushed against her mind. A light caress, but from a giant, and so it sent her mind reeling. She clutched the table for support. Lyram Aharris’s reputation preceded him the length of the continent: eight years ago, at the age of twenty-seven, he’d brought an end to the centuries-long conflict between Ahlleyn and Velena through a series of brilliant military manoeuvres. He’d survived the Siege of Invergahr against near-impossible odds, brought the crown prince safely clear of the conflict, and fought the Velenese to a standstill using their own guerrilla warfare tactics against them. As a novice, she’d covered the tactics thoroughly as part of her studies. The man was a military genius. That he was third in line for the throne of Ahlleyn was the least there was to know about him—at least it was, until his king dismissed him from court. The rumours on everyone’s lips said he murdered his wife, even if no one could prove it.

What did Rahmyr want with him?

Ciara Ballintyne grew up on a steady diet of adult epic fantasy from the age of nine, leaving her with a rather confused outlook on life – she believes the good guys should always win, but knows they often don’t. She is an oxymoron; an idealistic cynic. She began her first attempts at the craft of writing in 1992, culminating in the publication of her debut work, Confronting the Demon, in 2013. Her first book to be published with Evolved Publishing is In the Company of the Dead. She holds degrees in law and accounting, and is a practising financial services lawyer. In her spare time, she speculates about taking over the world – how hard can it really be? If she could be anything, she’d choose a dragon, but if she is honest she shares more in common with Dr. Gregory House of House M.D. – both the good and the bad. She is a browncoat, a saltgunner, a Whedonite, a Sherlockian, a Ringer and a Whovian... OK, most major geek fandoms. Her alignment is chaotic good. She is an INTJ. Ciara lives in Sydney, Australia, with her husband, her two daughters, and a growing menagerie of animals that unfortunately includes no dragons.

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Release Day for Axiom by Rainy Kaye

Today is the release day for AXIOM by USA Today Bestselling Author, Rainy Kaye. AXIOM is a 15,000 word companion novella for readers of the SUMMONED series, following Dimitri's descent into the genie bond. In celebration, SUMMONED is also on sale for 99 cents.



Fifteen year old Dimitri's life changes when his father is murdered, causing him to inherit a family curse. Now he's left at the mercy of rules he doesn't understand and the sinister side of people he thought he knew. Forced to commit crimes that increase in severity, Dimitri struggles to find his place in a world where he doesn't exist.

Find it on Amazon.



Twenty-three year old Dimitri has to do what he is told—literally. Controlled by a paranormal bond, he is forced to use his wits to fulfill unlimited deadly wishes made by multimillionaire Karl Walker. Dimitri has no idea how his family line became trapped in the genie bond. He just knows resisting has never ended well. When he meets Syd—assertive, sexy, intelligent Syd—he becomes determined to make her his own. Except Karl has ensured Dimitri can’t tell anyone about the bond, and Syd isn’t the type to tolerate secrets. Then Karl starts sending him away on back-to-back wishes. Unable to balance love and lies, Dimitri sets out to uncover Karl’s ultimate plan and put it to an end. But doing so forces him to confront the one wish he never saw coming—the wish that will destroy him. A dark twist on genie folklore, SUMMONED follows a reluctant criminal as he unravels the mystery of the paranormal bond controlling him. SUMMONED is represented by Rossano Trentin of TZLA.

Find it on Amazon.



Rainy Kaye is an aspiring overlord. In the mean time, she blogs at RainyoftheDark and writes paranormal novels from her lair somewhere in Phoenix, Arizona. She is represented by Rossano Trentin of TZLA. Someone told her she's a USA Today Bestselling author. She thought there would be cake.



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The Blood Line Blog Tour

Enjoy Happy Geek Media's Virtual Book Tour of John Davis' debut novel, Blood Line

*****

Blood Line , A Granger Spy Novel (Book 1)

by John J. Davis

Publisher: Simon & Winter, Inc.

Genres: Action, thriller

254 Pages

Release date: October 14, 2014

~~~~~

“Sharply written, with characters that readers will be happy to see again.” —Kirkus Reviews Blood Line is a high-voltage spy thriller that redefines rogue—the Granger Spy Novel series introduces a loving family with lethal issues caught in the crosshairs of global arms dealers. When a simple home invasion turns out to be not so simple, Ron Granger must put aside his quiet rural life and return to the Central Intelligence Agency. Aided by his brilliant wife, Valerie, and resourceful teen daughter, Leecy, Ron must quickly decide who to believe among the calculating opportunists, shrewd criminals, and power-hungry rival agencies racing to possess the technology that will change modern warfare forever. But when Leecy is kidnapped, Ron and Val must choose between the mission and a rescue. With time quickly running out, Ron only knows one thing: When you can’t trust anyone else, trust your family.

*****

Purchase Links for Blood Line

Amazon/Goodreads/B&N/Indie Bound/iTunes

*****

Author John J. Davis will be making personal appearances at bookstores while the virtual book tour is in progress. If you live in the areas he'll be visiting and would like to meet him, here are the locations he will be at throughout October and November:

Thu Oct 23 – Charlotte NC 7:00pm – 8:30pm Charlotte NC Park Road Books - 4139 Park Road Charlotte, NC C 28209 Wed Oct 29 – NYC 6:30pm – 8:30pm NYC Mysterious Bookshop - 58 Warren St, New York, NY 10007 Fri Nov 7 – Chicago 12:00pm – 1:00pm Chicago - Barbara's Books Willis Tower - Willis Tower Chicago - Lower Level 233 S. Wacker Drive Chicago Nov 8 – Burr Ridge, IL 1:00pm – 2:00pm Chicago - Barbara's Books Burr Ridge - 810 Village Center Dr, Illinois and Michigan Canal, Burr Ridge, IL 60527 John J. Davis is the author of the Granger Spy Novel series, including Blood Line and the soon to be published sequel, Bloody Truth, available Spring 2015. Davis grew up in the Southeastern US and after university traveled extensively in North America during his career as a regional sales rep and independent broker for leaders in the transportation, shipping and pharma industries. His years sitting in lobbies and airports honed his skill for human observation and fed his talent for writing fast-paced, character-driven stories. His inspiration for the Granger family-of-spies comes from the people he has known and his family roots in the Carolinas–the extraordinarily strong and gentle women and men, whose lives are defined by the love, trust and respect for family. Currently at work on the third Granger Spy Novel and a screenplay, Davis lives near Atlanta with his wife, daughter and two dogs.

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