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The Only Way to Paradise

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“Unforgettable!”

“What is that hard to define quality that makes a book memorable? Is it complex and interesting characters? Is it a captivating plot with unexpected twists and turns? Maybe it’s the setting and the “feel” of the book. Or, perhaps, it’s the ability to connect with the story, tap into that magical “relatability” factor that lingers long after the last page has been read.

Any one of these elements is vital to a story, but rarely do we find books that have all of these qualities. However, The Only Way to Paradise is such a book.”–Michele Bell, Best-Selling Romance Author.  One of many five star reviews.  There have been nearly three thousand downloads so far!  And Paradise has gone as high as #7 on the Amazon Contemporary Fiction Bestseller List!  Help it go higher!  Tell your friends!

What causes picture-perfect suburban Oakwood residents, MacKenzie, Roxie, Sara, and Georgia to desert their therapist and fly off to Florence? Answer: A romantic Italian movie that prompts Roxie to ask: “If Italy is so healing and therapeutic what are we doing in Ohio?”

Even Sara, the most duty-bound of the group, finally joins the pact they dub “The Crazy Ladies of Oakwood,” and only a week later, they find themselves in Florence. Embraced by the entire province of Tuscany, each woman becomes entangled in experiences she could never have foretold. Not only do they find the fascinating Italian men that Georgia promised, but new sides to themselves and each other.

Against the glittering background of Florence, their dramas play out:

MacKenzie returns to her student days as an art historian, discarding her identity as the controlling Oakwood charity patron and society hostess. Renewing her acquaintance with the David, she vows to let herself be sculpted rather than trying to sculpt others. MacKenzie finds not only a new talent, but a new man who appreciates it, just as her husband decides to re-enter her life.

Roxie, who has always approached life as a circus, is drawn unwillingly into a passionate romance with a gorgeous Italian professor, Stefano. Her physical response to Stefano taps into lost memories, causing her to literally run from him. Roxie, a quirky and colorful Cubana, senses danger in visions and smells that resurface of a rotting summerhouse behind her Florida home. With his nurturing and passionate love, Stefano helps her to face the “broken piece” inside her.

Sara unveils part of her that no one but her instructors know. She is an extraordinarily talented concert violinist. Normally trapped in the demanding life of an ob-gyn (scripted for her by her Vietnamese immigrant parents), she is temporarily freed. She performs for others for the first time, and experiences unprecedented joy. However, the coping mechanism she used to handle the pressure of her job threatens to destroy her new life.

Georgia, a grieving widow, processes her life without Ben and without her violin career that ended early because of arthritis. Looking for a new passion in life, she finds that satisfaction comes to her in “giving back” to those around her the lessons and knowledge she has learned through her successes and mistakes in La Dolce Vita. Just as her perspective is changing, she reunites with her first love, Arturo, and must make a decision about the direction of her future life.

Though ages have passed since the rebirth called the Renaissance, Florence still inspires change by breathing out its creative mix of energy, beauty, and courage. Where Michelangelo “set free” the David by sculpting a block of marble, each “crazy lady” finds her exterior “Oakwood” self burnished away by new experiences, revealing a new self. This burnishing is not a gentle process, but exuberant Italians help them through it with their all-embracing agape, or unconditional love. Though they do not know it, each of them hungers for agape’s healing power. They discover in it a balm that binds them together and puts them on the road to recovery, the road that is “The Only Way to Paradise.”

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I’m sitting in our big green easy chair next to the Christmas tree as I listen to Josh Groban singing wonderful carols of Christ’s birth.  Filling me is an overwhelming love for each of my friends and all of my family.  Ornaments, made and collected over the years make our tree a tree of memories from Morgan’s birth through the birth of our grandsons, Jack and Micah.  However, I am at a complete loss to explain the enormous pink blimp-like pig with green spots!

I am grateful for each of you, especially those who write to me!  It has been a difficult year in many ways, and a glorious year in others.  I have, at least for the present, left the comfort of the Deseret Book nest in search of new readers far and wide, and published my books with our own imprint: The Orson Whitney Press.  As of this writing, all of the Alex and Briggie Genealogical Mysteries should be up on Amazon, as well as a new edition of The Last Waltz and The Arthurian Omen.  The coming year should see the re-publication of Pieces of Paris.  We are pleased to offer these books at much lower prices.  This task has absorbed almost all my time.

I was able to publish two new books this year, Foggy with a Chance of Murder (DB) and The Only Way to Paradise (OWP).  Foggy sold very well, even though I wrote it very fast to meet an almost impossible deadline.  Paradise was a labor of love and has enjoyed many incarnations.  I am very grateful to Pam Satran (a NYT bestseller of Women’s Fiction) for her critique to bring it to “the next level.”  Those of you who bought the book when it first came out have an earlier earlier edition.  The current edition is much improved, thanks to Pam.

I was also able to visit my beloved Florence.  I am hoping for at least one more Florentine embrace, but my health, at present, will not permit it.  I am praying that it will improve in time for an October trip to celebrate David’s and my 40^th wedding anniversary.  I need to feel the love in the air of that splendid place, and to visit my dear Elisabetta, Cosimo, and Adriana, whom many of you met when reading Paradise.

Who ever heard of someone inheriting a gold mine?  Well, if you had known my colorful father, you would realize that  he was precisely the sort of character who would buy 1% of such an investment.  While the stocks he left us lost all their value in “the crash,” the gold mine “burps” every now and then (just when we need it to) and we receive a check.  This has been an inestimable blessing in our lives.

By far the greatest blessing, however, has nothing to do with my writing career or my amusing inheritance.  My oldest son (34), Morgan, has met the girl of his dreams and will be married in a few days.  I will gain a wonderful new daughter, and my daughter, Buffy, (who engineered the first date) will finally have a sister.  Best of all, I anticipate new grandchildren!

Grandchildren.  I cannot tell you what a blessing Jack and Micah are in my life.  I anticipate their arrival shortly for the wedding, along with my daughter.  Family is my very greatest blessing—from my dear husband David, who is friend, lover, publisher, and partner in shenanigans (legal, of course), my children Morgan, Buffy, and Greg, and my aforementioned grandchildren.  Holiday time is magical as we spend wonderful time together celebrating the birth of our Savior, give each other thoughtful gifts, and just “hanging out.”  Their love is what keeps me going.

Thanks to all of you for visiting the site.  Enjoy the added features—an Alex and Briggie store, and excerpts from various books, as well as the photos, my blog, bio, and questions for Book Clubs.

Have a New Year full of good health, serenity in the face of chaos, as well as the incomparable comfort of the Spirit!

GG

MERRY  ANY  DAY, GENEALOGISTS AND FRIENDS!

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Alexandra Campbell, a spunky young widow, partnered with Brighamina Poulson, an even spunkier, rifle-toting grandmother thinks that as they have begun a genealogy business (RootSearch, Inc.), it is high time she finds out her family secret. Something went wrong in her family during her adolescence, changing her mother from a Chicago North Shore matron into an alcoholic and a doting father into a workaholic. The moment she graduated from High School, she was sent to the Sorbonne in Paris with a generous bank account and instructions not to return.

It is now fifteen years since she has seen her parents, and she intends to lay the ghost that has separated her family for good. However, as usual in Alex’s unpredictable life, things do not go as planned. After an acrimonious fight with her once beloved father, she leaves with only a wallet-sized photograph of a woman she knows nothing about.

That night, Alex’s father is killed. Bewildered and grieved that her family can never be whole again, she soon finds out that she is the chief suspect in the murder. With the unflappable Briggie at her side, she uses all her new genealogical skills, and (with the help of Briggie’s deer rifle) discovers a secret so bizarre that she finally understands why her parents wanted her far away and safe.

Join Alex and Briggie in the first of their hair-raising adventures!

 

Where do You Start Looking for a Missing Ancestor

Without a Name

With Descendants With Whom You Share an Inheritance?

At their last known address—The Argonne Forest, France, 1919.

In their previous adventure, Alexandra Campbell and her business partner, Brighamina Poulson, discovered a branch of Alex’s family that was previously unknown.  Because of wicked deeds in days gone by, a soldier in World War I who should have been part of Alex’s family was lost.  In fact, he was so lost, he didn’t even know his own name!

Through a series of coincidences (and we all know there are no coincidences in genealogy!) they track their man from France to Oxford, and even give him a name.  However, upon their arrival in Oxford, before they even contact the man’s descendants, a member of the family is pushed under a bus right before their eyes!  It soon becomes evident that the death was connected to the coming legacy.  Who knew they were coming to Oxford with news of a fortune?  What role does the mysterious Frenchman Etienne play in the dastardly doings?  And what about Charles Lamb, a very eligible bachelor, also an heir to the estate?

Briggie is lost without her deer rifle and can’t keep up on the box scores of her Kansas City Royals baseball team.  She doesn’t think much of Oxford, either, and is worried about the effect of this center of secular wisdom on Alex.  She is even more worried about Charles Lamb.

 

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Related to this Series Go To “Store” on the Toolbar!

 

 

 

Roxie Castro is  a character in The Only Way to Paradise

GG:  Roxie, what do the words “embracing abundance” bring to your mind?

Roxie:  Oh. . . what a beautiful word combination!  I love the idea of an embrace—embrazzo—of all the things I love in life.  Right at this very moment, I think my abundance level is overflowing!  I have so many new friends who love me just the way I am:  MacKenzie (who is not at all who everyone thinks she is), Georgia (who paid for us all to come to Florence and have this great adventure), Little Sara (who is literally fighting for her life), Jess (MacKenzie’s daughter, a brilliant poet and spunky as all-get-out), Elisabetta (our B & B hostess who loves each of us as though we were her daughters), Cosimo (her handsome son who has the authentic Italian charm), and, of course, my Stefano.

GG: So abundance means “relationships” in your world.

Roxie: Yes. Although, I have spent most of my life without any.  Perhaps that is why they are so precioso  to me now.  I have always loved fast cars, bright colors, salsa dancing, and writing.

GG: You’re a journalism professor, right?  You don’t seem like one, if you don’t mind my saying so.

Roxie: I know.  I am very good at it, but it does not make my heart sing.  I want to be a novelist, like you are.  But, you have to write “from your bones,” don’t you ?

GG. Absolutely.  You’ve got to get down to the good stuff.  The stuff that makes you human.

Roxie: Does it hurt?  I’m afraid of what I will find out down there.  They say that 88% of you r brain is your subconscious.

GG: The really good stuff does hurt.  Like writing about World War One in The Last Waltz, or about Annalisse’s loss in Piece of Paris.  But that is where you make your individual connection with the reader.

Roxie: So you’re going to make me hurt in this book?

GG: What do you think?

Roxie: You’re the author.  You make the decision, not me.

GG: You’ve already made the decision by deciding you want to find that “broken piece” inside.  The thing that’s wonderful about writing is that it is a whole experience.  You, Roxie, have an arc.  You are in the middle of your story.  I promise you that at the end you will have gained wisdom and purpose and you will know where you are going.

Roxie: Paradise?

GG: Of course.  If you choose that road.  You say it’s up to me, but I would never write anything that was counter to the character of Roxie Castro.  You are a person.  Don’t forget it.

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Since no one volunteered to do a guest blog today, I am going to post Lisa’s post on MMW:

 

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2011

Saturday Stories (and a book review), G.G, Vandagriff

Today’s guest for Saturday Stories is published author G.G. Vandagriff. G.G. is the author of TWELVE books, the latest entitled The Only Way to Paradise.

Following this super fun interview please stay tuned for more on G.G. and my review of The Only Way to Paradise.

Q—Would you please tell us a little about yourself?

My standard line is that I am one of those lucky people who can experience love, hate, misery, euphoria, passion, or elation at will. I can live anywhere at any time in history.  Even the future. I am a writer. Since this is a blog for writers, I hope you all appreciate what a gift this is. I discovered it as a youngster in a very dysfunctional home. I literally wrote myself into another existence in a happy family. I discovered the joy of “writing” before I even learned to read. My “writing” was Crayola picture stories in dime store scrapbooks.

I have lived a life with more than my share of drama, which has had its drawbacks, but is wonderful material for character building. Being bi-polar, I have experienced depths and heights that most people never know. This exaggerated type of life is what many people look for in fiction. I took refuge in writing light fiction when my mind sought escape. But as soon as I was healed (miraculously, of course), I began to express all that I had learned deep in my soul. I have written four books that I consider “real” emotionally: Deliverance From Depression: Finding Hope and Healing through the Power of the Atonement (non-fiction); The Last Waltz: A Novel of Love and War (Whitney Winner for Best Historical Fiction), Pieces of Paris, and now my new book: The Only Way to Paradise.

As far as hard facts go: I was raised in Southern California, did my undergraduate work at Stanford (where my English teacher informed me that I had “considerable talent” but that I would have to give up my religion if I wanted to succeed as a writer), worked in finance for two years in Boston, and then got my Master’s Degree at George Washington University. I got engaged right in the middle of writing my thesis, which was, of course, a giant distraction! David and I have lived in Chicago, Southern California, Southwest Missouri, Oakwood (Dayton), Ohio, and now Provo. We have three children and 2 grandchildren who are the true light of my life. I am restraining myself from including a photo. I have published 11 books with conventional publishers and am now branching out on my own. The Only Way to Paradise is my first self-published book. All my others, except the two most recent ones, are in process of being published under my husband’s and my own imprint.

Q—Please tell us about your book The Only Way to Paradise.

Paradise started out about 3 ½ years ago to be a fun chick lit about some endearingly eccentric women who were in therapy together and decided to dump their therapist and go to Florence to find healing. However, as soon as I got to know my characters, I began a journey of rewrites that led me to a “real” book about agape (Christlike love) and its relationship to healing. The last version was completed only a month ago. It has been the book that just keeps going deeper and deeper.

Q—What inspired you to write The Only Way to Paradise?

I wanted to write about women who had experienced life on one level, but had failed to find out who they really were and what they were really capable of. Group therapy, such as theirs, was not successful in my case. I wanted to write about real (there’s that word again) healing in a way that non-members could relate to. Since all people have the Light of Christ, I knew that the people who were prepared to learn truth would learn an important piece of it from this story.

Q—Tell us about each of the four main female characters in the book.

MacKenzie: A forty-year old woman with two teenagers and a mysteriously missing husband, who left her in the middle of the night six months prior with no explanation.  He is a doctor and she has been masquerading for twenty years as a society matron in the upper class suburb of Oakwood, Ohio. In reality, she is an artist without a discovered medium, holds degrees from Stanford and Columbia in Art History, and “way back when” she taught her husband, Kurt, to surf, and he taught her to rock climb. Their marriage has become one of parallel lives. She is in therapy to discover what is wrong with her and why her husband left.

Sara: A thirty year old woman masquerading as an ob-gyn, who has a secret life as an uber-talented violinist whom no one has ever heard play, except her teachers. The daughter of self-sacrificing Vietnamese immigrants who saved all their money so she could be a doctor, she is caught in a profession that makes her constantly anxious that she might lose a mother or a baby. She has become a Xanax addict, and as the book opens, has been thrust into therapy by her peers who have given her “mandated leave.” None of her fellow “crazy ladies” know anything of this, and at first she flatly refuses to join in the trip to Florence.

Roxie: Another thirty-year old woman, a descendant of wealthy Cuban refugees, is even more beautiful than J-Lo. However, she hates her beauty and tries to disguise it by wearing sweats and a baseball cap with her pony tail hanging out the back. She has a Cubana’s passion for life, which she treats as a circus. When she gets to Florence, however, she exhibits bizaare behavior, running away from a professor as handsome as Michelangelo’s David. The other crazy ladies realize that her problems are deeper and more mysterious than their own. Roxie doesn’t even know what they are.

Georgia:  A sixty-year-old widow who has led “La Dolce Vita” all over the world as a successful concert violinist, but has lost her career due to early onset arthritis and her beloved husband due to a heart attack just three months prior. Georgia is seeking for a reason to go on living, when she suddenly is inspired to finance a revitalizing trip to Florence for all four of them. She is very wealthy, and this idea is the only thing that has lit even a small spark in her since her husband’s death.

Q—You are able to create such a rich tapestry of characters, each with their own depth, how did you do this? Where did you draw their lives from?

As I said in answer #1, I have a lot of experience with mental illness, abuse, and consequently PTSD.

However, I didn’t want to write about illness, I wanted to write about healing. The problem is, you can’t heal someone who isn’t ill. The writing, in previous incarnations of the book, shied away from delving as deeply as it needed to in order to make the healing as dramatic and real(again) as I wanted it to be. I sought paid advice from a NYT best-selling author of women’s fiction. She guessed what my problem was. There was a part of me in each of these women, but I was understandably reluctant to peel back the layers.

She taught me a wonderful technique. I have always been a “discovery” writer, not an outliner. My characters just become. I have so much “fertile soil” of experience, that I never have to look too far for interesting characters, I just dig down inside of me, finding people I have known, and milking my familiarity with quirkiness, tragedy, healing, and at the heart of it all—the Savior. Pam taught me how to harness all of this and really mine the gold that lay beneath my words. The process was this:  I bought large index cards in four colors-one for each character. With these cards, I took one character at a time and created her “arc.” This consisted of beginning with her first scene, and then developing her, scene by scene, each card describing in detail the conflict and drama in it. I was working consciously, but not predictably or facilely toward the person that character would become when her arc was complete. When I had done all four arcs, then the artistry of sorting the cards into chapters, where the arcs were all overlapping, took place. Iloved this! Never having had any formal training in plotting or characterization, this filled a big hole in my abilities. I had to go “line upon line, precept upon precept” as deeply as needed to make “truth” happen for each of these ladies, and have that truth overlap and precipitate progress of the plot and finally the resolution.

Q—It is obvious by the intricate and palpable description that you have been to Italy and seen all the amazing towns and sites you show in the book. How did your experiences in Italy define these women and their experiences there?

I know it’s probably a cliché, but it’s true that Italy is a place of miracles, particularly Florence, the seat of the Renaissance. As MacKenzie tries to tell Sara, the energy that propelled the artists and scientists out of the Dark Ages is still there! She insists, and I of course agree, that Florence is a place that makes you believe that “all your dreams can come true.” My royalties made it possible for me to take three trips there during the course of writing this book. The last time I was there almost a month. And I was alone. That’s when the Lord struck me down on the sidewalk, and agape in the form of a handsome young Italian (they’re all handsome!) picked me up carefully, walked me to the famous pastacceria (a combination of a lively cafe and bakery), ordered me a Coke, and sat and chatted with me about the miracle of the Renaissance for forty-five minutes, before surprising me with the gift of four bus tickets! Agape!! It took that experience to teach me why I loved Italy so much—the art is breathtaking, the landscape Celestial, but it is the Florentines with their overflowing love for others that is what makes is truly remarkable and healing. When I learned this, I finally had the reason I was inspired to write this book. Agape opens your heart and prepares you for healing, as you learn a different way of life and step onto “the only way to paradise.”

Q—The Only Way to Paradise is your amazing 12th book! How has your writing evolved along the way? What lessons have you learned or what advice would you like to share with all the writers out there?

Don’t be afraid of “rules.” Don’t compare yourself to others. Take the time and energy necessary to find your own voice. If you want to write anything of significance (and here I must admit that I couldn’t exist without “potato chip books” to soothe my harrowed soul) you need to have something to say, and you need to say it as only you can. How do you find this voice? There is no other way that I know of than to do writing practice. Each day, as soon as possible after arising (this is the time for the most unique thought) take a “trigger” (the first line of a novel, a poem, or even a newspaper story—the Internet has whole sites of writing triggers), set your timer for twenty minutes, and write without stoping. Do not lift your pen from the paper. Do not edit. Write whatever comes into your head.

It is ideal to have a partner to do this with, because you learn so much about your voice when you see how different it is under the same circumstances, with the same trigger, from your partner’s. If you do this, like a musician does scales, pretty soon your writing will pass beneath the superficial into terra incognita—your subconscious. The best writers “tame” their subconscious (88% of their brain) with their conscious voice less and less. I’m not saying that I’m a fan of Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying or Joyce’s Ulysses. My mind doesn’t go in those directions. Another very important thing is to read good writers. There is such a thing as osmosis in this case. Good writers are liberating.

Q—All the ladies in your story learn some hard but extremely valuable life lessons in Italy. If you can, will you share one life lesson you’ve learned that has affected the way you not only see yourself but your talents as a writer?

I’ve learned to be open to my own spirit and what it is telling me about the universe. Why did it take me 3 visits to discover why I loved Italy so much I couldn’t stay away? Because I wasn’t “listening.” There is a voice inside of all of us that knows when something is eternally true and right. If we are living the gospel, attending the temple,  being diligent in our prayers and scripture study, that voice is attuned to the infinite. You can become who you were born to become. If you “listen” to that voice its power will become greater and greater until you understand the power of what you are writing. And then . . . you start all over with another book. (This one has been so taxing, my next will be another “potato chip” book!)

Q—Of the four characters who do you see yourself in the most?

It was very surprising to me when I realized that, although there was a great bit of me in each of them, that I was most like Roxie! Since my first trip to Florence, I have become a very flashy dresser, we are both writers, and both terrified of handsome men. (I kept my eyes on David’s tie knot the first time I met him. Our courtship was largely by mail, which allowed me to fall in love with him while not having to look at him.) I am quirky and outrageous, and our traumas are similar, except that I have more of them!

Q—Of the four characters who is least like you?

Probably Georgia. Although I love her dearly as she develops, I possess no musical talent, and could not for long have tolerated the rootless, cosmopolitan, promiscuous life that she led and thinks she still longs for. Georgia thinks through most of the book that a man is the answer to every problem. At the end of the journey she takes, we are much more in accord.

Q—If you had the opportunity to have Georgia’s money and the time to take three friends with you to Italy who would they be and why?

Great question! I think time in Italy is so essential for a woman, that my only problem is narrowing it down to three. Actually, one of the people I would most want to take is a man—my 26 year old son who is very in tune with me emotionally, who is brilliant beyond my ability to comprehend, and whose gretest challenge is the perrenial gifted person’s challenge: “I can do anything passably well. But what am I passionate about? I think Italy and Tuscany for a month would help him put things in perspective. As a matter of fact, perspective was Florence’s gift to the world, and what changed art forever.

The second person I would take would be Sandra. She is a year older than me and still timid about her considerable talent as a water colorist. I would love to take her to San Gimignano to paint the medieval buildings and doorways and archways to her hearts content. She paints “little gems” and I think Tuscany would work its magic on her and give her the sense of well-being and accomplishment she needs to realize her own talent.

The third person I would take would be my BFF, Alana. She is so brilliant, but has had such a hard life, that I don’t understand how she can be as resiliant as she is. She’s also an artist, a photographer, and a writer, but is almost entirely self-taught. Florence would catch my scrappy friend on fire! I want to witness that. I want to see her in the process of having all her dreams come true.

Q—Before reading this book (well, when I was just a few pages into it) I decided I had better go watch “Enchanted April” because your story begins with these ladies watching it. How did this movie inspire / influence your book?

I think it inspired the four women in Italy idea. And it certainly is full of agape. (Which I should have caught on to) However, my choice of Florence made all the difference, and turned it into a completely different book. “Enchanted April” is like an Impressionist painting. I don’t know what my book is like, but it isn’t the least blurred. It tackles much harder questions, and I hope it points people in the right direction. I would love for it to be as inspiring as Enchanted April is!

Q—You’ve got a blog tour going on right now. Could you tell us a little bit about it?

To be honest, it has been a bit of a disappointment. The quality of the blogs lead me to suspect that I am not talking to an audience that would appreciate this book. Three others are traveling with it: Cankered Roots, Arthurian Omen, and The Last Waltz: A Novel of Love and War. While the last book is an epic, and really has something for everyone and can be read on any of several levels, the first is my first mystery—entertaining and fun, and the second is a psychological suspense. So those three books have been popular. I don’t know how many readers from that segment of the population will appreciate the subtlties of Paradise, but perhaps there is enough romance and atmosphere to please them. I know that romance and atmosphere are key ingredients in the books I like to read! The most disappointing part has been that bloggers have failed to produce. They just don’t post on the days they’re supposed to. Others are very committed and have given me great interview questions, but none as good a yours. I’m afraid that I have completely worn you and everyone else out!

 

 

Seriously, G.G., you did not wear me out! This book was a breath of fresh air and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I guess that’s as good a lead as any into my review…

 

Book Review: The Only Way to Paradise

 

The Only Way to Paradise is a wonderful, character driven story. Set in the heart of Italy, G.G. Vandagriff takes four unique women, each struggling with their own set of demons, and places them in a world where they not only discover what it is eating away at their souls but leads them on the path to true self-discovery.

 

Each of the characters face difficult choices and the frightening task of learning who they really are, often times this means digging painfully into their past to discover what made them the women they are today and accepting what they need to do to change.

 

I found myself completely enchanted by this book. I could see bits and pieces of myself in each and every one of G.G.’s four main characters though I must admit to feeling the strongest kinship with MacKenzie. Through MacKenzie’s journey of self-discovery I learned a lot about myself and came to understand the importance of letting go and allowing the Lord to mold one’s life. One of my favorite quotes from the book has to do with this. It takes place when MacKenzie, freshly arrived in Italy, finds herself staring at Michelangelo’s statue of David.

 

“Be gentle with yourself,” David said to her. “You are not meant to know everything. That is what life is for. Learning day by day. I started as a block of marble. The chisel was slow and painstaking, but it ultimately did its work. Let the chisel work in your life. You will find MacKenzie again. And maybe you will find God.”

 

The book is filled with wonderful life lessons like this one that don’t make the reader feel as if they’re being preached to, rather they are on their own little journey to self-discovery along with these four women.

 

G.G. has the uncanny ability to make the reader feel like they are in Italy with these women, painting vivid pictures of the cities and villages and creating life-like Italian men and women whose dialogue is so spot-on with the trade-mark Italian charm.

 

I found myself laughing, smiling, and completely enchanted by this book and I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in a story that is more than just an enjoyable read, but a personally enlightening read as well.

 

Almost from the day of publication (self-pubbed, by the way) True Miracles With Genealogy, Volume Two has been number one in the genealogy category on Amazon.  It is the manager’s choice on Linked In for genealogy books. Volume One follows closely behind as #2.  Also, it will be in contention for a global award in the Global E-Book contest, which has just added a genealogy category.

Anyone who knows Anne, knows how mightily she deserves these kudos.  I have never seen anybody work so hard at marketing her works.  And the fact that she is her own publisher makes it necessary to market more than most.  I know.  I am trying to do the same thing, but I’m not even close to her class.

The stories in this volume about the wonderful miracles that people have experienced while doing their Family History, are just as gripping as those in her last volume.  And people keep sending her more!  I think these volumes will continue and will occupy substantial space in the Celestial Library.

Writing these books is such a labor of love.  You can feel that love by reading only one story of one miracle.  Imagine how you will feel after reading the whole book!

It will make a wonderful Christmas gift for anyone on your family tree.  If they’re not already doing their genealogy, they will probably be moved to begin because of Anne’s faithful role as a “teller of stories.”

The book is available at BYU Bookstore, both in the store and online.

Interview With Ronda Gibbs Hinrichsen 

Welcome to Embracing Abundance, Ronda!

 

1.  I understand you have a new ebook out that is quite a bit different than your suspense novels. Please tell us about it.

I’d love to! It’s a Magic Tree House meets Narnia chapter book titled “The Hidden Kingdom,” and it’s Book #1 in my Heroes of the Highest Order series. It’s for early readers, ages 6-8, and it incorporates both fantasy and back-in-time travel.  I’ve also published it under the name R.K. Hinrichsen, so I won’t confuse my suspense fans.

2. It sounds like you enjoy history?

 

I love history. It fascinates me. Whenever I travel, I always try to visit historical sites to learn more about what life was like in that place hundreds of years ago. That information usually leaks into my books.

 

3. Where do your characters travel to in “The Hidden Kingdom?”

 

My point of view characters are nine-year-old Dan and his sister, eight-year-old Page. Their mother takes them to a magical playground which whisks them to a fantasy world between time and place called the Hidden Kingdom. There they register for hero training camp and learn they must gain skills and earn powerful treasures by walking in the footsteps of real, historical heroes.  In this first book, they travel back to 1853 Utah. My second book, not yet out, takes place in Rome—and a little bit of India.

 

4. They’re training to be heroes?

 

Yes. The king of the Hidden Kingdom has a dark enemy who seeks to destroy the Hidden Kingdom and all it represents. The Heroes of the Highest  Order are a bit like the Knights of the Round Table, in that they are doing all they can to stop him and protect the kingdom.  Dan and Page’s family are part of that Order.

 

5. Please tell us about yourself. Have you always wanted to be a writer?

I’ve been a life-long reader and writer. In fact, one of my favorite lines is from the movie, Anne of Green Gables, when Anne asks Marilla, “Don’t you ever imagine things different than they are?”

“No, I do not. “

 

“Oh, Marilla, how much you miss.”

 

That’s how I feel about books and writing. Without them, there’d be a large void in my life. 

 

6.  What was the best writing advice someone gave you?

“You’re value is in your individuality.” This came from my creative writing teacher at Ricks College,  Dorla Jenkins, and it’s become an inherent theme in all my books, because I believe each person has great value and purpose in this life.

6. Where can readers find you and your books?

I have several websites and blogs (listed below), but “The Hidden Kingdom” is available as an ebook through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Smashwords. Paperback copies are available through Amazon and Createspace (https://www.createspace.com/3684103). You can also purchase autographed copies from me through rondahinrichsen.com.

Websites:  RondaHInrichsen.com, heroesofthehighestorder.com, rkhinrichsen.com

Blogs: rondagibbhinrichsen.com, thewriteblocks.blogspot.com, suspensesecrets.blogspot.com

My suspense novels, Trapped and Missing, are available online and through your local bookstore.

7. Is there anything else you’d like to tell us?

Yes! Since my Heroes of the Highest Order series encourages strong family relationships, I’m celebrating Book #1’s release during National Family Week which is also Thanksgiving week. Between Monday, November 21 & Saturday, November 26, readers can buy the ebook version of The Hidden Kingdom at the promotional price of .99 at Amazon.com, Barnesandnoble.com, and Smashwords.com.  The print version is 6.99, but if readers want to purchase an autographed copy during that week, I will provide free shipping within the United States. Just go to rondahinrichsen. com for more details..

Below are the links to my books: 

Amazon:  http://www.amazon.com/Hidden-Kingdom-Chapter-Highest-ebook/dp/B005TYXGL2/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1321081426&sr=8-3

B&N:  http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-hidden-kingdom-rk-hinrichsen/1106523783?ean=2940013261761&itm=2&usri=the%252bhidden%252bkingdom

Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/94998

 

Due to technical difficulties beyond my ken, the Alex and Briggie Christmas Store will open next week!

Alex and Briggie’s Creator.  (Actually I’m up in Alaska–the salmon are running and Briggie didn’t want to miss it!)

My husband and I have been engaged in the following projects over the last two months:

1. Redesigning, reprinting and republishing eight of my books for publication by the Orson Whitney Press.

a. This means making new covers (David), having books scanned (outsourced), editing all books against originals (GG), reformatting them (David), Uploading them, (David) proofreading the proofs (GG), reintroducing them to websites, blogs, Facebook, etc.  (GG)

b. This = stress

2. David has been maintaining an extensive blog http://passivevoice.com on the technical disruption caused by technology in the publishing industry.  It has become and Uberblog, and takes tremendous amounts of time and research, but he loves it.

3. Authors reading his blog have requested his legal services in renegotiating or reviewing their contracts with publishers and agents, who don’t “get” that they don’t hold all the cards anymore, that authors have alternatives to signing away their lives.  So David has started a new law practice.  This takes time, as well.

4. GG has had to prepare for a 30 stop blog tour involving 4 of her books.

a.  Finishing and editing last minute rewrite of The Only Way to Paradise before blogger’s due dates.

b. Answering 30 sets of interviews, or requests for blog posts for tour bloggers.

c. Fixing the big mess that was made by forces unknown on the final draft of Paradise, and reassuring interviewers and reviewers that she is not a careless, untalented, sloppy author.  (That resulted in a catatonic seizure)

d. This took a tremendous amount of time.

5. During all of this GG has had to keep up with her Latter-Day Woman’s blog, her Meridian Column, her PTSD blog, as well as her interactive Embracing Abundance Blog, juggling reviews, guest blogs, and author interviews, as well as her own blog days (like today).  She hasn’t done such a great job at this, but she has done her best.

6. Marketing!!!! It never, ever ends.

JOY! i HAVE LEARNED THAT THERE ARE THINGS YOU CAN DO TO MITIGATE THIS STRESS!

• PRAY TOGETHER
• ALWAYS EXPRESS COPIOUS AMOUNTS OF GRATITUDE–DON’T FORGET PLEASE AND THANK YOU.
• ALONG WITH THIS, TAKE TIME TO SHOW EXTRAORDINARY AMOUNTS OF AFFECTION–HUGS RELEASE TENSION AND NURTURE OUR HARRIED SOULS
• BE INDEPENDENT–TAKE TIME TO FIGURE THINGS OUT FOR YOURSELF SO THAT YOU WON’T BOTHER YOUR SPOUSE.
• EVEN IF IT’S JUST GRANOLA, PUT HAVING DINNER TOGETHER AT THE TOP OF YOUR LIST, FOLLOWED BY AT LEAST AN HOUR OF SOME RELAXING ACTIVITY.
•  GET OUT OF THE HOUSE TOGETHER AT LEAST ONCE DURING THE WEEK–FOR LUNCH, A DRIVE UP THE CANYON, OR EVEN A HOT DOG AT COSTCO.
• BE FORGIVING 
• SHOW MORE THAN ORDINARY THOUGHTFULNESS: i NEVER GO TO THE STORE –WITHOUT BRINGING MY HUSBAND A SPECIAL TREAT.  FOR HIS BIRTHDAY, I WENT TO THE PARTY STORE AND BOUGHT SUPPLIES FOR A COLORFUL TUSCAN-DECORATED TABLE.
• KEEP UP YOUR APPEARANCE–IT HELPS ME TREMENDOUSLY TO FORCE MY SELF TO PUT ON ITALIAN MUSIC, SHOWER, DRESS IN SOMETHING BRIGHT AND CHEERFUL WITH LOTS OF BLING, EVEN IF I’M NOT LEAVING THE HOUSE, DO A FULL MAKEUP JOB AND DO MY HAIR.  MY HUSBAND REALLY APPRECIATES THIS.
• BE GENTLE AND THOUGHTFUL SHOULD YOU HAVE TO POINT OUT MISTAKES, AND TRY NOT TO BE OFFENDED WHEN YOUR MISTAKES ARE POINTED OUT
• THIS WILL NOT LAST FOREVER, BUT HOPEFULLY YOUR MARRIAGE WILL.

The are my thoughts as I prepare to put together my Alex and Briggie Fan On-Line Christmas Store for tomorrow’s post. When my tour ends, I’m declaring a moratorium on marketing through December and until after my son’s wedding on Jan 7.  I am going to enjoy Christmas on a budget, grandchildren, helping my son’s fiance with the wedding (her parents are mission presidents in Ghana), and long baths in lavender epsom salts, Christmas music, and Chomomile tea.