I am so happy to launch my good friend and great author, Margaret Norton’s, blog tour today for her book, When Ties Break. Margaret Norton is a writer, speaker, personal life coach, and It Works! distributor. She blogs about her life at http://healthy-n-fitgranny.com. Her first book, When Ties Break: A Memoir About How to Thrive After Loss, is available as an e-book for just 99 cents on Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble.com. In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with grand kids, reading, traveling, photography, and dancing.
**And even more exciting, Margaret is giving away fabulous prizes to go along with her Celebrate 60 blog tour and re-launch of her book. Here are details: **
Leave a comment on this post to enter into Margaret’s Celebrate 60 blog tour contest. Margaret is celebrating her 60th birthday by giving away three grand prizes: a 30-minute FREE life coaching session (by phone—for U.S. residents only), her memoir in paperback (for U.S. residents only), and her memoir in e-book (for anyone!) format. Each blogger participating in the tour will randomly select one winner from all the comments and enter that name into the grand prize drawing. Margaret will contact the three grand prize winners for their choice of prize the week of 2/27 and announce winners on her blog on March 2.
***For extra entries into the contest, please tweet about the contest, using the hashtag #Celebrate60 OR tweet about why you love being the age you are! (Don’t forget to use the hashtag.) Anyone who tweets with #Celebrate60 will get an extra entry into the contest for the three grand prizes. Any questions? E-mail ME, Margo, Margaret’s publicist, at margo (at) margodill.com .
Now here’s a guest post from Margaret herself!
Never Give-Up on Your Dream to be a Writer
Several years ago, at the age of 58, I published my first book. It was the first thing that I had written – except for church bulletins, family Christmas letters, and business correspondence – in 35 years. During my book tour, I did a signing in the town where I attended high school and had lunch with my best friend from the 9th and 10th grade. My contact with her had been sporadic through the years for various reasons. As we spent time together and talked about school events, memories came flooding back. She told me that in the 9th grade I had wanted to be a writer.
Wanted to be a writer? How did I forget that? What happened to that dream? How did I get so far off course? My working life included a combination of owning my own businesses, working for non-profit agencies and 17 years trying to climb the corporate ladder. There was very little writing and very little encouragement to develop my creativity. I married young, had a family, and then divorced. And repeated that several times. Life got in the way. I needed to earn enough money to raise my family and sought jobs with the highest income potential rather than following my heart. My life came to an abrupt crossroads in 2004 after the death of eight individuals connected to me.
Write to heal is what my therapist suggested. During the first few months of 2005, I poured all my thoughts onto paper. Why did bad things happen to good people? One thing led to another. I found myself going all the way back to my childhood,
photo by lhar www.flickr.com
Before I share a story from the trenches, I would like to announce the winner of last week’s book giveaway of the memoir, When Ties Break, by Margaret Norton. And the winner is. . .Sandy Young! Congratulations, Sandy. If you didn’t win this book and are interested in reading a memoir about loss, grief, recovery, strength, and stopping abuse, then please go to Tate’s website to purchase it!
The story from the trenches is one that I read yesterday in church. We have a visiting priest, Rev. Fr. Tony Fevlo, from Africa, who will speak to us next week about his work in St. Joseph SMA Parish in Plateau State, Nigeria. He is currently raising money to build a new church in his parish that will accommodate 1500 people. The existing church is too small and also has structural damage, including cracks in the walls and a leaking roof. This is a wonderful mission, of course, but this is not the actual story I want to share with you today.
He shared the turmoil that happens around him with inter-religious clashes between Muslims and Christians. Every time, I hear stories like this I think: This is happening in the 21st century????? It is. In January 2010, 33 of Father Tony’s parishioners lost their property or had their houses burned. One of his parishioners was reportedly butchered to death and asked to renounce his faith before he died. Much of Father Tony’s finances for his church are currently going to these families to help them rebuild–since they are homeless.
The trouble didn’t stop there. In March 2010, Father Tony and his parishioners woke up to the news of a massacre of over 500 children, women, and elderly people living in the village of Dogonahawa (25 km from Father Tony Fevlo’s parish). The massacre was led by the Hausa/Fulani Muslims. Father Tony said: “Since the March 7th massacre, we live under constant fear in K/Vom and can hardly have a peaceful night’s rest.”
As I sat in church yesterday reading his words and thinking about the donation they were going to collect next Sunday, I wondered how I could get my stepson involved in this. And then when we walked out of church, Father Tony had actually posted pictures of his church and parishioners, and I knew this was the way. When Logan can see something concrete, he can then think about giving some money from his piggy bank to this cause. This also got me thinking that there has to be books out there that help us, as parents and teachers, teach children about giving and having sympathy for others–especially those less fortunate.
I found these two books that could be of some help. I am so thankful that there are people in the world like Father Tony Fevlo and that he shares his story with us. It makes me strive to be more giving, less materialistic–although I struggle–and I hope it will also help me to influence my children to be the same way.
Today, I’m so excited to tell you about this book When Ties Break: A Memoir About How To Thrive After Loss by Margaret Norton. I’m so excited because this is a book that I helped Margaret edit from its first manuscript stages, and now it’s a reality. It’s official release date is August 3 from Tate Publishing, although you can already order it here from their website. (Once you are on Tate’s website, click search our store in the left-hand side bar, and then type in When Ties Break.
But there are even cooler things about this book besides the fact I saw it in its early stages! When I decided that not only would I talk about children’s and YA books and education issues on this blog, but also I wanted to share ways to help women and children around the world, I knew Margaret’s book would be a great addition to that goal. You can read Margaret’s book When Ties Break and really use it (the purpose of this blog, of course!). You can learn from her life story. You can see how someone actually took terrible situations and turned them into positives. You can see how someone made it through those tough life transitions, and you can do all this by reading her book! That is what is REALLY so cool about Margaret’s book.
*****What’s even better is that she has agreed to give away one PDF copy of her book to a lucky winner. To enter the contest, all you have to do is leave a comment or question for Margaret below. One person will be randomly chosen from these comments. Contest ends Friday, July 9 at noon CST.
So, what will you learn about in Margaret’s memoir? Well, here are just some of the issues that Margaret has faced and learned from in her life: sibling abuse, family estrangement, spousal abuse, abortion, divorce, death of loved ones, drug recovery, financial duress, illness, sexual exploration, and career change. If you are experiencing or struggling with any of these issues or know someone who is, Margaret’s memoir can serve as a guide through these difficult times. And she made it through with her faith. When Ties Break is a memoir that explores the universal themes of loss and recovery, and answers the question: “Why do bad things happen to good people?”
In the foreward, Janet Grace Riehl, author of The Sightlines collection, states: “Margaret turned the lessons gained during a tumultuous life into a source of wisdom for women struggling with past pain and future directions.” So, if you have a question for Margaret about any of the issues she faced, writing a memoir, or even about her life coaching business (Life Transitions), leave it in the comments, and you might just win a free copy of the book. We’ll also just take comments or even “PICK ME!”
(By the way, did you know you can read PDF copies on a Kindle? Just found that out–so maybe I’m behind the times!)
I am so happy to launch my good friend and great author, Margaret Norton’s, blog tour today for her book, When Ties Break. Margaret Norton is a writer, speaker, personal life coach, and It Works! distributor. She blogs about her life at http://healthy-n-fitgranny.com. Her first book, When Ties Break: A Memoir About How to Thrive After Loss, is available as an e-book for just 99 cents on Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble.com. In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with grand kids, reading, traveling, photography, and dancing.
Never Give-Up on Your Dream to be a Writer
