auria “Hussein” cortes

I compiled a list of book giveaways. Enter and win! Good luck.

The source for the following books is OnceWritten.com, BookReporter.com, and stmartins.com.

I Shall Not Want

Julia Spencer Fleming

To receive the free ebooks, click here. From my understaning, everyone is a winner.

How the Other Half Hamptons

Jasmin Rosemberg
General Fiction

One house. Forty strangers. Add vodka and stir . . .

Every summer, scores of Manhattan twentysomethings take part in an annual ritual with a camp-like culture distinctly its own: the Hamptons sharehouse. Click here to enter.

WILFRED: The Devil’s Disciple

Edward T. Duranty
Fantasy

Wilfred is born to a prostitute in a shanty town on Lake Red, Minnesota. He is possessed with evil powers and starts using them at a very young age. Click here to enter.

Shades of Darkness, Shades of Grace

Catherine Johnson
General Fiction

Inspired by a true story, SHADES OF DARKNESS, SHADES OF GRACE is the compelling saga of the Pierson family whose wealth and prominence cannot stay the depth of evil in their midst. Click here to win.

The Dark Druids

Tim Newman
Historical Fantasy

From the author of YESTERDAY’S FALCON, comes a rich new adventure set against the backdrop of medieval Wales. When Torrance, Gawain’s ten year old is kidnapped, Gawain and his wife, Rhiannon, enlist the aid of Merlin to track down the travelling bard who took him. Click here to win.

I Can Fly, But Only at Night

Tristan Moorhen
Spiritual Fiction

I CAN FLY BUT ONLY AT NIGHT is an inspiring story about the survival of “Alex”. What makes it very different is that certain elements are left out for the reader to insert their own experiences. Click here to win.

Murder, Madness & Love

Yolanda Renee
Mystery

After a gritty Anchorage Detective, Steven Quaid, becomes involved with a beautiful widow, Sarah Phalmer, suspected of murder; slander and obsession obstruct his quest for justice. Is Sarah a victim or a very skilled manipulator? Click here to enter.

I Can Tap Dance

Sarah Ulmer
Self-Help

Have you ever been so fed up with parts of your life you wish you could take a sledgehammer and start over? Click here to win.

Timely Persuasion

Jacob LaCivita
Time Travel

A struggling music critic goes back in time on a quest to save his sister from the relationship that ended her life. But is her husband Nelson  really to blame? Click here to win.

Pitch Black

Susan Crandall
Chick-Lit/Romance

Journalist Madison Wade decides to move to Philadelphia when one of her articles on violence in the city hits too close to home. Click here to enter.

In the Bleak Midwinter and a Fountain Filled with Blood

Julia Spencer Fleming

To receive the free ebooks, click here. From my understaning, everyone is a winner.

Wordless Wednesday isn’t working out so well. Mainly because summer-like weather has arrived and I can’t be out in the sun.

Today I decided to post a picture that appeared along side a column about Puerto Ricans migrating to the States.

This is my aunt and uncle

Here’s the Part I post.

When living at home, she took no responsibility for the family or the house. She just did not care who or what got hurt. Examples: 1) Rachel insisted on dressing like a tramp when our family went to religious services. 2) She frequently disappeared for 2 days at a time without telling us where she was or when she would be home. She wanted to be grounded in order to justify her “Victim” status. 3) She would lay on the couch with high school boys hoping to provoke a response. We did not respond. 4) When entrusted with taking care of the house, she lost the keys, used the windows without their screens as a door, and left the windows open and the house vulnerable. 5) At the end of an 8-day cruise, she disappeared during the last night and did not show up until the next day after every passenger had disembarked. Even the captain was worried. 6) To obtain a second semester at the Washington, D.C. Page School despite her terrible grades during the first semester, Rachel fabricated stories and convinced her teachers of the terror awaiting her back home. By doing so, she lied to and deceived government teachers and deprived some worthy student of that unique experience in Washington. 7) Before her college entrance exams, Rachel’s dad spent every evening studying with her to make sure she passed. Three weeks before the exams, she suddenly took an evening job as a waitress and could no longer study for the exams. She wanted money to buy clothes and cosmetics. This scenario provided more ammunition for her “Victim” status. On multiple occasions, Rachel’s dad tried to teach her to drive. The ignition was first, loud music next, flooring the gas pedal next, and then shifting into reverse. Although the transmission was of concern, the number of people we might have killed was even more important (luckily none). 9) On vacation, Rachel met us at an airport in a developing country. We had not seen her in several months. Determined to create tension on the first day, she strode through the airport with her underpants hanging out of her backpack. Such insults to the citizens of the country, leave alone the danger of such behavior, was not as important to Rachel as was the need to sustain her “victim” status. 10) In her first freshman week at Smith College in Massachusetts, Rachel fell down the stairs drunk and received 30 stitches in her head. We said nothing.

Our younger daughter came and went as she pleased, and off she went to Boston with a scholarship. She was a serious student.

We had little contact with Rachel once at college, and none with Arthur and JoAnn. Life was great. We both worked, we were content, and we were happy with our quiet existence. Our boring, contented, cow-like lives must have driven the others nuts. They were not happy campers. When JoAnn’s friend, Fran Arbetter, with Rachel’s prodding, called our younger daughter in Boston to tell her not to go home to her parents for Thanksgiving because “Your parents are crazy”, we just ignored it, and our younger daughter came home. We were fully aware that such repeated intrusions were coming from unhappy people whose own lives were void and filled with conflict.

The stories Rachel tells cannot be traced to any specific time. Rachel knew exactly what she was doing. Her Victim status, which she portrayed to her friends and relatives, did not jive with the privileged life she really led. It is easy for readers to be confused.

At the height of the terror period, Rachel wrote the following to her dad (taken from the many letters to her parents):
HAPPY FATHER’S DAY.
So what do you do when there are no kids around to bring you breakfast in bed? Hope you have a great day - Treat yourself to a veggie omelet at IHOP or something.
All is well here. I have finished my last paper and have three more finals this week. It will be nice to have a week to relax before I head home. After my exams we will have a few days to see the country together. I have been wonderfully lucky to have had time with my closest friends from home. I am looking forward to getting back and seeing you and mommy. I have lots of good photos and a few good stories. See you on the 28th.
Love Rachel

Confusing? This is only one of many letters that demonstrates the two lives and the duplicity of Rachel Sontag. Rachel’s friends might want to challenge her on these beautiful letters, written to her parents long after she was out on her own. Similar letters throughout the terror period, along with more than a dozen large photo albums that her dad made especially for her, fill an entire bookcase. Some might excuse Rachel’s memoires and chalk it up to an “out of control” imagination. This would be a mistake. Rachel knew exactly what she was doing. She did it as an adult, she did it deliberately, and she did it well. One reviewer perceptively noted that identifying dates were missing from Rachel’s descriptions of events. This is not an imagination out of control. This is deceit and fraud.

It looks as though the father is going to post a Part III. I’ll post it if he does.

Okay, so I read Rosie’s blog and the book House Rules: A Memoir was mentioned. Usually, I never pay any mind, but this time is different. The author’s, Rachel Sontag, father left his thoughts on Amazon.

Oh, my.

Let’s start with what the book is about:

Taken from Amazon: Sontag, a doctor’s daughter, grew up in a family that seemed every bit the normal, suburban ideal. She and her sister were raised to value book smarts as well as worldly experience. What those outside of the family didn’t know was that the reason Sontag was so accomplished and committed to her extracurricular activities was that she would’ve done anything to get away from her father, Stephen. By enforcing a peculiar system of rules and consequences, he micromanaged every moment of her life, tape-recording her conversations, measuring the length of her fingernails and locking all the phones in a safe when he left the house. When Sontag broke the rules, regardless of circumstance, he would verbally abuse her for hours, dictating letters of apology from her to him (I am a selfish, rotten, worthless brat, etc.). Sontag’s mother, Ellen, reneged on plans to divorce him for years, perhaps partly because Stephen prescribed her into complacency with lithium. In adulthood, Sontag found herself caught in self-defeating patterns that smacked of her father’s thrall. Struggling to break free, she even resorted to homelessness before finally severing her relationship with Stephen. Sontag’s is a brave account, not only of what it’s like to take the brunt of an abusive parent’s wrath, but of what it means to have the courage to leave.

Now, here’s what the author’s father response (in part) that he posted on Amazon.

The book title needs to be changed: “The Battle for My Mom: The Saga of a 32-Year-Old Daughter’s Hatred, Anger and Desperation at Having Lost the War to Break Up Her Parent’s Marriage and Live with Her Mother on Rush Street.”

Rachel wrote her “horrific teenage memoirs” as a 32-year-old adult. Some may feel that our response is brutal. We would have preferred otherwise. However, Rachel is no longer a child. She must be held responsible for her actions. Our response is necessary, serious and honest. Silence is not an option.

Rachel Sontag’s memoires are a sham. Most we do not even recognize. The ones we do recognize are distorted to fit Rachel’s need to achieve her obsession of “getting even”. This, unfortunately, and we deeply regret having to say it - makes Rachel Sontag a fraud. When fiction knowingly masquerades as truth, it is known as fraud.

What makes two daughters growing up in the same household, being taught the same moral values and being treated equally in every regard take such diametrically opposed directions in life: one travelling the road of honesty, hard work, honest relationships, gratefulness and loyalty to friends and family in order to become an educator of not-so-privileged children, and the other travelling the road of dishonesty, deceit, uncontrollable mood swings when challenged by friends or family, using and discarding innocent people at will, lying to get accepted to school programs, and disloyalty to friends and family?

We are justified to ask what type of an individual would spend 17 years planning a book and writing its fabricated chapters that were designed to destroy the mother that cherished and loved her so dearly?

Rachel was a disturbed child, but we tried our best to provide her a life filled with values, education and opportunities. Rachel became obsessed with something special, something she wanted, and something she was going to get come hell or high water. It was something no child should strive for and no child should attain. It is the story of Greek Mythology. With each defeat, Rachel became more desperate, trying ever progressive schemes. The scenario comprised (1) a dad whose rules and standards were the only barriers to attaining her goal, (2) a mom who was manipulated and distressed by her daughter’s repeated (and fake) threats of suicide, (3) an Aunt and Uncle, JoAnn and Arthur, who not only defended Rachel against her parents but who - because of their own unhappy relationship - even joined with Rachel to try to break up the family, (4) two cousins - Debbie and Jill - who along with Rachel enjoyed their long hours of slander, Lashon Hara, of Rachel’s parents, (5) a full-scale effort - with no restraints - to split her parents, dissolve their marriage and fulfill Rachel’s dreams of living on Rush Street in a studio with her mother, and finally (6) a devastating final defeat for Rachel when her mother made it clear that dad and mom were the parents, that Rachel was the daughter, and that her parents were inseparable.

Needless to say, Rachel’s anger, unhappiness and desperation continue to this day. Unfortunately, the same unhappiness that drove Rachel’s behavior also drove her Uncle Arthur and Aunt JoAnn to side with Rachel in her attempts to break up our family. It is inconceivable that close relatives -both social workers - could be so void of values that they would invest their energies in trying to collapse a brother’s marriage. Here are two professionals willing to violate their moral and professional callings, turning children against parents and spouse against spouse. It is unconscionable behavior.

Yes, they were almost successful, but they and Rachel failed. Rachel’s mom, nearing desperation, alone summoned the courage to make that fateful and final decision - the decision that guaranteed the marriage and secured our long happy relationship. Nevertheless, it was also the decision that brought forth venom from those who felt betrayed, not listened to, ignored, and who now would be forced to observe from the sidelines a wonderful relationship they could not destroy. Rachel would not be living on Rush Street in a studio with her divorced mom. She had lost the battles and she had lost the war.

Our standards included no gossip, no slander of others, do your chores, follow the curfew, etc. Rachel’s younger sister had no problem whatsoever. She thrived. There were few if any rules, as she was trustworthy and responsible. If she was past curfew, she would call. It was never a problem because we knew she was safe.

We expected both kids to share the house responsibilities. We knew, however, that despite her promises, Rachel would never do them. Demanding that she do her share would cause her to make promises that she had no intention to keep. It would without doubt create conflict. Not assigning responsibility was unfair to her sister and a bad message indicating that selfishness pays off. Rachel created conflict whenever she was at home, which is why life was so pleasant when she was away. One thing for sure, we both knew that when Rachel promised to do her share, she had no intention whatsoever of keeping to her word.

What Rachel Sontag does not want you to know are the many events that she refused to share. They are not pleasant, but they are critical to understanding the duplicity and deceit of an adult with a fabricated childhood.

Creating conflict, no matter who would get hurt, was Rachel’s modus operandi. She knew exactly what she needed to justify her run to her Aunt and Uncle’s house with her “Victim” complaints.

The next post will contain the next part of his rant.

This month’s blog chain is unthemed. And we all know what happens when there is no structure…the topic of sex comes up.

Colby kicked off the chain with Kmart’s line of abstinence pants. My celibate, er, ears, yeah that’s it, definately believes in sex before marriage (for those of you who emailed me asking if I’m celibate for religous reasons. Um, no. I, my dears, am a nontheist). So check out Colby’s post and join in the fun.

colbymarshall1 with Spittin’ (out words) Like a Llama
WildScribe with Polyamory
FreshHell with Life in Scribbletwon
Polenth with Polenth’s Quill
escritora with Auria Cortes
misslissy with Blog in a Suitcase
Forbidden Snowflake with Delirious
razibahmed with Asian Business
Bookdragonette with If you ask me anything I don’t know, I’m not going to answer.
mamawriter with As Yet Untitled
rosemerry with Puttin’ Words on Paper
chan with Fumbling with Fiction
soma with Rotating Bear
harry3tspy with spynotes
wordsmyth with Virtual Wordsmith

Sunday was the Puerto Rican Day Parade in New York City.

Culture, regardless of which, is special. Embrace yours. Cuz if you do, you won’t judge me when I embrace mine.

 Viva Puerto Rico!

A while ago I was listening to an author interview. The interviewer asked why he (the author) believed he is a successful writer and others didn’t make it. His response made sense to me.

He said that he isn’t smart and that worked to his benefit. When he wrote something he thought it was pretty darn good or at the very least acceptable. He had no idea his work sucked.

Smart people on the other hand know that their writing sucks. They aren’t under any delusion that they are fantastic writers. As a result, they give up easily.

Though not always true, the author was making the case that ignorance is bliss. And I have to agree with him. I read a lot of crap from aspiring novelists and they are proud of their work. That pride allows them to continue writing crappy stuff.  They are happy in shit heaven. Eventually (or should I write Hopefully), the writer hones her skill and over time her writing improves.

For one moment, I want to be one of those writers. I want to love every word I edit in Mija. But as it turns out, I’m too smart for that.