Tuesday, October 4, 2016

"Circle of Time" by Debra Shiveley Welch

Circle of Time by [Welch, Debra Shiveley]History buffs will get a kick out of the latest novel by best-selling and award-winning author Debra Shiveley Welch. Borne of her frustration over the inaccuracies regarding Tudor history so often written into historical accounts, Debra decided to write her own book based on her several decades of study of the period, Wrapped in an intriguing fantasy involving time-travel of a contemporary woman, fantasy or no, the historical events set forth in the book are accurate. The following is a brief description of the book:  

When 21-year-old Bridget Littleton decides to borrow her father's yacht and sail off of the tip of Florida toward Bermuda, she discovers that the legends about the Bermuda Triangle are very true.

After seeing a face in the ocean waves, her next memory is of spinning water and blackness. She awakens in the town of Bristol England in the year 1532.

Rumors of her beauty reach the court, and soon Bridget, known as Bridge, finds herself in the court of Henry VIII and Lady in Waiting to none other than Anne Boleyn.

Will she get out alive? Will she accidentally change the course of history, or is she indeed a part of the history she has studied since she was a little girl?

Monday, April 4, 2016

LIFT 4 Autism 2016: Stronger Together!

LIFT 4 Autism 2016: Stronger Together!


This yearly event is dear to my heart, as it is to so many others; and I’m honored to be a part of it. As most of you know, April is #Autism Awareness month, shining a global light on the condition an estimated three million people in the United States and seventy million people worldwide live with every single day: one in every sixty-eight American children, one in every forty-two boys.
      Alhough autism is the fastest growing developmental disability, for those on the outside looking in, it often remains a mystery. This month, we hope to shine light on the condition and spread compassion for families living with autism.
      In addition to raising awareness, we also want to take action. This is the second LIFT 4 Autism campaign, rallying the reading community around this cause. More than 200 authors and bloggers are partnering with this effort, many donating #books and other items to an #auction the last week of April. Proceeds from this auction will go directly to our charitable partner, Talk About Curing Autism (TACA), a national non-profit organization dedicated to educating, empowering, and supporting families affected by autism. Specifically, our efforts will benefit #families served through TACA’s scholarship program to offset medical and therapy costs.
     To stay abreast of LIFT news and developments this month, please join our Facebook Group.
How can you be involved???
2. Bid on the auction, and your money goes straight to TACA’s scholarship fund (you’ll be asked to register before the auction date in order to bid).
3. Purchase a LIFT 2016 T-shirt
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Make sure to enter our LIFT #Giveaway. You could win a $5 #Amazon gift card, LIFT T-shirt, and eBook from any of our LIFT authors! Click the link below to enter, and you’ll be updated on LIFT 4 Autism 2016!

Linda Lee Greene's latest book is ROOSTER TALE, available now on Amazon at http://goo.gl/vNq32g

Friday, April 1, 2016

Talk About Curing Autism

TACA Scholarships

Since 2006, TACA has provided medical scholarships to families living with autism. These scholarships help families pay for physician-prescribed services, and include stop gap medical treatments, independent assessments, and other necessary crisis funding. We continue to work hard to find scholarship opportunities that will help eligible families speed up the cycle time from the autism diagnosis to effective treatments.
TACA can only fund scholarships to eligible families living in the United States.
Before applying for a TACA scholarship, please read our “Try Before You Apply” information page.

TACA and Well Amy – GFCFSF Starter Kit Scholarship

Funding is available for a scholarship for a Well Amy GFCFSF Starter Kit for families who meet the eligibility criteria.

TACA Water Safety Scholarship

Funding is available for 10 private swimming lessons at SwimLab in Lake Forest, CA for eligible families.

Mendability Scholarship

Mendability & TACA are working to help children with autism benefit from an exciting innovative therapy.

TACA and B.I.G. Autism Foundation Family Scholarship Program (Florida)

B.I.G. Autism Foundation and TACA have joined together to create a scholarship fund for families living in Escambia, Santa Rosa, and Okaloosa counties. These scholarships, made possible through the generosity of the B.I.G. Autism Foundation, will allow families to begin much needed biomedical treatment or to continue with the prescribed treatment of a MAPS (Medical Academy of Pediatric Special Needs) doctor.

TACA Georgia Chapter – iPad Mini Scholarship

Funding is available for an iPad Mini to be used as an assistive communication device.

TACA Hawaii Chapter – MAPS Scholarship

TACA is pleased to announce that the medical scholarship fund for families living in Hawaii will be made available in 2016.

TACA Pennsylvania Chapter – MAPS Scholarship

TACA is pleased to announce that the medical scholarship fund for families living in Pennsylvania will be made available in 2016.

TACA Pennsylvania Chapter – Camp Scholarship (Philadelphia area only)

TACA is pleased to announce an opportunity for families in the Philadelphia area to apply for Summer Camp for their child with autism. Scholarship maximum $500.

TACA San Diego Chapter – MAPS Doctor Scholarship

Funding is available for a scholarship to see a MAPS doctor for TACA San Diego Chapter families who meet the eligibility criteria.

TACA North Dakota Chapter – Project Lifesaver Scholarship

Funding is available for equipment and one year of monitoring for Project Lifesaver for families in the TACA North Dakota Chapter area who meet the eligibility criteria.

Autism Community Scholarships

40 dives in a soft HBOT chamber from mHyperbarics Clinic

Evaluation and 5 sessions of one-on-one reading tutoring from SNL Learning, Inc.

  • Scholarship available for an evaluation and 5, 90 minute one-on-one sessions with a reading tutor for families that live in either Long Beach, Los Angeles, San Fernando Valley, South Bay or Orange County
    For more information and application click here.

One doctor’s visit and one follow up appointment with Dr. Nancy O’Hara, Wilton, CT

A one hour nutrition consultation with Vicki Kobliner – Wilton, CT

Journey Guide Scholarship – a guide can be mailed to eligible parents, while supplies last

A TACA Journey Guide will be mailed to eligible families who are unable to attend a TACA Chapter Meeting or Coffee Talk.

Scholarships Offered by Others

Autism Cares Grants

For more information and online application visit https://www.autismspeaks.org/AS-cares

Autism grants offered by other organizations

If you have questions about the currently available scholarships click here.

Tuesday, March 29, 2016

"Lee Going to School" by Linda Lee Greene

Today is the second anniversary of the passing of my father Lee Greene. It would also have been the 93rd birthday of my mother Roma Greene. Today, I want to post an excerpt from my book GUARDIANS AND OTHER ANGELS http://goo.gl/imUwKO that describes the type of individual my father was. This particular piece takes place when he was a young boy, but his strength of character presented in this little excerpt endured all the 89 years of his life.



GUARDIANS AND OTHER ANGELS
An Excerpt


Lee Going to School

The one-room, Cedar Fork schoolhouse across the holler from the little log cabin on the near side of Peach Mountain was a tolerable two-mile walk in nice weather. It was an enjoyable walk actually, if one had time to swing from a grapevine on top of a high cliff and drop into Cedar Fork Creek for a lazy dip, or stop by the Workman’s place for a quick smoke of their corn silk tobacco. But in snowdrifts as tall as thirteen-year-old Lee Greene, in threadbare clothes, thin hand-me-down coat, and barely covered feet in holey socks flopping in an old pair of secondhand shoes that were several sizes too big for him, the walk that frigid morning was worse than pure misery.
Lee’s chronically aching stomach was hollow and rumbling. His meager breakfast of cornmeal mush and sugar water was quickly wearing thin, but he had more important things than his stomach to worry about that morning. He was stewing about the paucity of milk he had drawn from their cow tethered in the yard just beyond the lean-to kitchen at the back of the tiny log cabin. The two-story structure, built by A. E., Lee, and Bill only five months before, consisted of a common, or front room on the main level, a primitive lean-to kitchen at the back, and a bedroom where Eva Love and A. E. slept, housing the only closet in the place. A rough-hewn timber ladder gained access to the upper deck, where, in an open-to-the-front loft, all of the many children slept on crude cots, or thin pads on the floor. A large ceiling-to-floor fireplace of indigenous stones in the common room on the first floor was the only source of heat in the place. Felled tree trunks supporting its roof, a porch spanned the width of the front of the log cabin.  
The soil on Cedar Fork, thin, hard, and dry, a crusty layer of sediment topping bedrock of limestone, dolomite and shale, made for poor farming and gardening, posing a formidable challenge for the growing of adequate food. Squirrels, rabbits, opossums and birds, hunted and brought in by Lee, the insufficient supply of milk from the cow, and scant eggs supplied by their paltry flock of scrawny chickens in the yard, were the only sources of protein for the family. In season, a large vegetable garden and a stand of corn were coddled into fruition in the poor soil, but only if they were favored with enough rain.    
His nose and eyes crusty from yet another head cold, gloveless hands thrust into the pockets of his thin coat, and his feet turning to blocks of ice, Lee trudged on to school, his white-blond head under his hat hunkered into his shoulders. Despite the fact that he might not make it through the perpetual hardships of his life, much less that cold, windy, and snowbound morning, his soul was full of dreams, his mind of intention, his body of vigor and endurance, and on the strength of pure power of will alone, and maybe some help from the man upstairs, Lee was determined that if he got out of his childhood alive, nothing would encumber him again.

The schoolhouse was dark and frigid, Lee, by design, having been the first to arrive. The door was unlocked as it always was, and Lee, halting for a few minutes to give his blood a chance to circulate again in his frozen limbs and digits, sat down on one of the benches. He would have wept if he had allowed himself to seriously consider his unfortunate circumstances—but not Lee! No, not Lee! He had a chance to earn fifty cents that week, and every week for weeks to come, fifty cents for building a fire in the “Warm Morning” coal-burning, heating-stove each morning before school, and that was exactly what the Sam Hill he was going to do…

Saturday, March 26, 2016

ROOSTER TALE, Author and Artist Linda Lee Greene’s New Book



ROOSTER TALE http://goo.gl/vNq32g, the latest book by #Amazon best-selling author Linda Lee Greene, weaves an enchanting tale that you don’t want to miss. It is a captivating story of an ailing young farm boy whose bond with his pet rooster seems unbreakable. But outside forces compete for the boy’s affection, forces that erupt and lead to heartbreaking circumstances for both of them. Grandmother Hen, Polly the Perfect Pullet, and Roger Horse, with the aid of their other barnyard friends, form an #alliance with the boy’s little sister to #transform a sad situation into a happy one. Based on actual events, #ROOSTER TALE is adapted from an excerpt of Greene’s earlier novel of historical fiction titled #GUARDIANS AND OTHER ANGELS. The delightful illustrations in ROOSTER TALE are by award-winning artist Edith D. Wadkins. Greene is also the co-author of the mystery novel #JESUS GANDHI OMA MAE ADAMS.