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Julia Asel Thomas writes stories with vivid descriptions, authentic dialogue and revealing narration. Her debut book, Loving the Missing Link, presents the engrossing and moving story of a young, small town girl who grows up, lives and loves while trying to find a balance between despair and hope.
Like the protagonist in her debut book, Loving the Missing Link, Julia Asel Thomas knows small town life. However, Julia’s experiences were quite different than Cheryl’s. Julia is the middle child of seven children and the daughter of a church organist and a business manager. Growing up in the small town of Hamilton, Missouri, Julia’s family enjoyed a reputation as a bright and interesting family. Julia thrived on the quiet and carefree life she lived in that gentle place.
When Julia was in high school, she earned a scholarship for a trip to Cali, Colombia as a foreign exchange student. The experience, although it only lasted a few brief months, had a profound influence on the rest of her life. After her time abroad, Julia realized in a very real way that, although customs may differ from culture to culture, the substance of human emotions is constant. We all need love. We all need to feel secure. We all have happy moments and sad moments. Back from Colombia, Julia become ever more interested in capturing these human emotions through music and writing.
After high school, Julia took a break before going on to college. During this time, she married her husband, Will. Will joined the Air Force, and Julia accompanied him to bases around the country, taking college classes in each town where they resided. Their two children were born in Las Vegas, Nevada, while Will was stationed at Nellis Air Force Base. Married in 1976, Julia and Will are thrilled to celebrate each new anniversary and look forward to staying together for life.
Julia began writing fiction at the age of ten, when her 5th grade teacher gave her the assignment to write about “My Worst Day.” Julia took the opportunity to concoct every possible disaster a young child could face during the course of a normal day. The teacher loved her work and asked her to read it to the class. From then on, Julia wanted nothing more than to be a writer.
In 2007, Julia began earning her living by writing articles, press releases and website content for a number of clients. As she settled into a routine of working every day on her writing, the old urge to write fiction resurfaced. In 2012, Julia started with a story she had written in 1985 and continued it to create the story in Loving the Missing Link.
After Julia’s husband, Will retired from the Air Force, they moved back to Missouri and now live in Kansas City, Missouri. Find out more about this author by visiting her online:
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“Life Long Learning and Self-Education”
Is education an institution, run by the government, prestigious private organizations or religious groups? When I was younger, I thought so. The trouble with that attitude is that I still wanted to keep learning whether I was ensconced in one of those organizations or not. And, especially in the digital age, there is no reason learning has to end when the school doors close. Lifelong learning and self-education have become increasingly popular these days, and I couldn’t be happier about it.
I began my quest for self-education during the years I was following my husband around in his Air Force career. I did go to college off and on as I was able. But there were always in-between times when I would arrive at a college town at the wrong time to begin the semester when it started. Yet, I didn’t want to put my education on hold for those months. That is when I became involved in self-education.
Yet, even then learning outside of school was not a new concept for me. My mother read to me, and all my brothers and sisters, nearly every day of our early childhood. My father also read to me at night sometimes later on, usually out of a chapter book like Tom Sawyer. Music in our house ran the gamut from Tchaikovsky to Johnny Cash. It was an intellectually rich environment to grow up in.
As I grew older, I began to choose my own intellectual adventures. Someone would talk about a subject that I didn’t know much about, and I was off to the library to learn more. If I knew someone who was familiar with the subject, I would pester them until they told me enough about the subject to satisfy my curiosity.
I once took an English course in which we were asked to read, “Working” by Studs Terkel. The book is a series of interviews with everyday people about their jobs. I found it fascinating. After that, I always asked the people I met about their jobs. About whether they enjoyed their jobs, what their responsibilities were on the jobs, and about how they got their jobs in the first place. This is one instance where traditional education spurred me on to pursue a different kind of education outside the classroom.
Now, whenever I learn about a new subject, I get on my computer and find out what I can. The biggest challenge is sifting through all the dreck to discover reliable information. But, after doing this for years, I have learned more about how to find those sites and how to evaluate them.
I am much older now than I was when I spent those Saturdays running off to the library, but I am not too old to keep learning. I don’t think I ever will be. My father once told me, “No matter what you lose in this life, no one can ever take away your education.” I have remembered that statement through the good times and the bad. I am more committed than ever to exploring my interests and the world around me.
I think I will be like my mother as I get older. She lamented one day that she didn’t understand why she was still stuffing her head full of information, even though she believed she would never have the opportunity to use any of it. I hope I was able to reassure her and help her see that education is useful, but it is also an end unto itself. No matter how old you get or what your circumstances may be, life-long learning is a joy and a quest that is well worth the effort.
Loving the Missing Link is a fabulous tale about love, success, hope and music. During the 1970’s. Young Cheryl Simpson feels trapped in her small Missouri town. As her mother tries to help her find a way up and out, Cheryl begins to feel that it is all an impossible dream. She sees herself living a boring and dismal life for the rest of her days. Just at the moment when she is about to give up on happiness, she gets the opportunity to join her high school band. The band promises a connection with the world outside her town, but Cheryl does not see any future for herself in music. It is just a tool to get where she wants to go. However, Cheryl’s mother arranges for Cheryl to take private lessons with an accomplished musician, who helps her realize the beauty and awesome power of music.
Still, Cheryl feels that small-town inferiority and finds it too hard to believe that she could ever be anyone special out in the “real” world. On the eve of a music contest that could help her earn a music scholarship, Cheryl begins to panic. Scared and feeling alone, Cheryl runs off with her high school sweetheart and gets married, leaving the band behind.
During the next years, Cheryl and her husband make a life for themselves. Cheryl meets friends along the way who help guide her to becoming the woman she wants to be. She becomes interested in the arts again. All the while, Cheryl and husband Jerry face the challenges of homelessness, miscarriage and an extra-marital affair before an unexpected disaster brings Cheryl’s life crashing to the ground. Cheryl survives, with the help of her extraordinary friends and her life-long love for music.
BOOK DETAILS:
Publisher: CreateSpace
Publication Date: August 6, 2013
Number of Pages: 190
ISBN10: 1480106240PURCHASE LINKS:
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Russ Whitney is an entrepreneur, philanthropist, and best-selling author who is a leader in the business, real-estate investment, and financial training fields. Personally and through his companies, he has supported a wide range of charitable organizations including domestic-violence shelters, youth programs, and Salvation Army services. Whitney is the author of more than thirty books, workbooks, and home-study courses including Building Wealth, The Millionaire Real Estate Mentor, and The Millionaire Real Estate Mindset.
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The following excerpt is taken from the book Inner Voice: Unlock Your Purpose and Passion by Russ Whitney. It is published by Hay House (Available September 23, 2013) and available at all bookstores or online at: www.hayhouse.com
In my search for the meaning of life, I’ve come to understand that life is essentially a game, a game that consists of a daily search for the truth with the creator of your understanding. When you realize this, it gets easier to live in the present. If you think about professional sports, this makes sense: The players prepare for the game, play it, learn from it, and then play the next one. They don’t spend a lot of time beating themselves up over something they did that they can’t do over. They don’t spend a lot of time worrying about the next game; they understand the difference between preparation and worry. When they are playing the game, that’s all they’re focused on: playing the game right now. And that’s what you should focus on: playing the game of life right now in the here and now—that is, today!
The game of life is a lot like any game that’s played under a time clock. For example, in a basketball or football game, there are 60 minutes on the clock. The game starts, it’s played for an hour, and then it ends. It’s done. The scoreboard tells you whether you won or lost. And regardless of how you did in that game, you go on to the next one and the score starts over at zero.
In life, each “game” is one day. Today. Our season—instead of being a period of months, as in sports—is our lives. But if you ask professional sports players if they spend any time or energy while they’re on the field or the court thinking about the last game or their next game, they’ll most likely tell you no. They are focused on the now, on the game they’re playing at the moment. That’s how winning seasons are achieved and championships are won: one day at a time, one game at a time.
This isn’t to say that players don’t train; they absolutely do. They practice, they study their opponents, and they develop their skills. They have goals and strategies to reach those goals. But when they’re “in the game,” that’s the only place where they are. When they get “out of the game,” when they are distracted even for a moment, is when they make mistakes. They know it, and that’s why they exercise the discipline to stay entirely in the present, in the game, while they’re playing.
Of course, the “game of life” isn’t about making baskets or touchdowns. As I’ve said, it’s a daily search for the truth with you and the God of your understanding. A key word there is daily; the time clock is today. That doesn’t mean that we can’t have plans and goals for tomorrow, next week, and next year. We can, and we should. We just can’t live in those goals; we have to stay in today. If we don’t, we fall into anger, anxiety, frustration, fear, and doubt. We start to play the “what if” game: “What if this happens?” “What if that happens?” “What if I don’t have enough money?” “What if I get sick, have an accident, or experience some other crisis?” Play that game, and you’ll be filled with unnecessary anxiety. When you worry, you’re essentially planning for bad things to happen. The way to avoid worry is to stay in the present. Today all is well, and you know what you have to do today. Keep it there.
If God didn’t build us with enough energy to be in tomorrow, He certainly didn’t give us enough energy for yesterday. Usually when we go into yesterday, we go into guilt, shame, and resentments. Certainly we all have happy memories, and we should treasure them. But most of the time, when we go back to yesterday, we waste a lot of time beating ourselves up about things we can’t change. We focus on mistakes and regrets. That’s time off today’s clock.
If the game of life is a search for the truth and the time clock of life is today, you need a scoreboard to determine if you’re winning or losing. Your scoreboard doesn’t count points. Instead, it’s a ratio that measures how happy, joyful, and spiritually free you are against your feelings of anger, anxiety, frustration, fear, doubt, guilt, and shame.
One more critical thing to remember about living in the present is this: Where you are today isn’t where you were yesterday or where you’ll be tomorrow. You must keep seeking, keep learning, keep doing, keep taking action so that the plan for your life will continue to unveil itself.
“Inner Voice: Unlock Your Purpose and Passion” traces how one man’s struggle to find the true meaning of life evolved into a worldwide movement known as the Inner Voice way of life. Internationally recognized businessman, financial expert, and real-estate icon Russ Whitney spent five years and 20,000 hours researching and developing the program. It is built on simple yet powerful principles and strategies that guide readers through identifying their purpose; developing their passion; and living a life of peace, joy, and success that is richer and more fulfilling than they ever dreamed possible. “Inner Voice” is a dramatic departure from Whitney’s earlier best-selling books, which all focused on financial success, real estate, and wealth-building strategies. In “Inner Voice, ” Whitney explains the happiness that can be found in humility; the importance of living in the moment; the need to understand, recognize, and master the immutable law of powerlessness; and how to surrender and find solid answers and peace with what you can’t control. He teaches readers to use life-changing tools, including the Discovery Chart, two-way conscious contact, and Character Asset Checklist to achieve and maintain a connection with the Inner Voice. A step-by-step guide demonstrates exactly how to apply Inner Voice principles and strategies on a daily basis to be free of anxiety, frustration, fear, doubt, guilt, and shame so we can live the life our Creator intended for us.
BOOK DETAILS:
Publisher: Hay House
Publication Date: September 2013
Number of Pages: 204
ISBN: 978-1-4019-4345-5PURCHASE LINKS:
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