My newest book...

Check out my newest ebook -Family Matters: How To Strengthen Your Family (Without Paying for Therapy or Changing Your Lives). For those of you who don't know me as a non-fiction writer - I'm a long time therapist and have written other self help books regarding behavior disorders. This one is for families who are not dealing with major behavioral problems but would like to strengthen their family ties and ensure their children grow up knowing the strength and power of a close family. You can download this ebook for free till the end of November at Smashwords using coupon V9R5W. The book will also be available on Kindle. Anyone interested in reviewing the book?
Have your best day possible.

Guest post by Susan Helen Gottfried

Susan's bio: the author worked in the music industry while earning two degrees in Creative Writing. She left the music industry to devote herself full time to writing. Her fascinating blog can be found at http://www.westofmars.com 

When I realized that absolutely nothing could convince Trevor Wolff to stop being the lead character in my first four books, I had to take a step back and look at this rock star who had flung himself into my imagination, fully formed and raring to go. I was shocked to discover what a complex, multi-dimensional man he is. After all, he's a bass player. The cliches for bass players are nothing like the man Trevor turned out to be.

On the surface, he's perfect for us girls who love Bad Boys. Trevor is a king of Bad Boys, flagrantly flaunting every rule he can get away with. Trevor pushes every single envelope he can find, and he gets away with it almost every time.

Yeah, I know. Part of being a really good Bad Boy is breaking the rules.

So let me be more specific: it's the WAY in which Trevor does it that sets him apart.

Trevor Wolff and the phrase Carpe Diem are pretty synonymous. Trevor's all about embracing life, milking it for all it's worth. He's one of those people who's too busy living to repeat the famous phrase about how life is meant to be used up, sliding into home plate all beaten and bloody but screaming WAHOO all the way. You know the phrase, I'm sure. Trevor embodies it.

This gets interesting when you consider where Trevor comes from. He should be nothing more than trailer trash, abused by his father to the point where escape meant more than ending the beatings -- it came down to life or death (probably not in the way you're thinking). Trevor should be bitter, angry, and caught in the cycle of abuse.

Instead, he's happy-go-lucky. Carefree, even.

This is because he's resilient, our Trevor Wolff. Good thing, too, considering what comes at him during Trevor's Song.

Without meaning to, I wound up creating a character more complex and real than some real-life people I've met. Trevor can't take the easy way out. Ever. And so instead of sinking into despair and doom and turning himself from a Bad Boy into a Dark, Brooding Hero, he becomes something else. Flip. Brutally honest. And, underneath the insecurity and attitude, sensitive and happy.

Okay, maybe that happy part is a stretch. Trevor likes to be grumpy. It's part of the Trevor Wolff persona. But underneath hides a very complex person, someone who -- I'm told, because I'm entirely too close to judge -- transcends the stereotype of a Bad Boy and becomes something entirely his own. 

Finding my darkness...

I continue to watch Breaking Bad from my writer's perspective and with increasing awe. The point I'm belaboring with myself, and with my 19 year old son, is how do the writers (and actors) manage to keep us entranced with a bunch of people who are rotten to the core? There are no truly decent people in this show - even the *good guys* have some pretty serious flaws. Generally, it's easier to be captivated by characters for whom there can be some redemption and who experience feelings that the reader, or viewer, can attach or relate to.

I don't know about you, but I sure can't find anyone I can relate to. I know I'm not perfect, and I don't pretend to know how low I could sink if I was desperate enough - but I'm not in that place so I can't relate at the moment. I also don't typically like shows about crime or drugs. I never watched the Sopranos because criminals just don't interest me - and I hate shows about drugs or addictions and high risk life styles (I'm the mom of 14 so really, is there anything riskier than that?). So, what keeps me racing to the tv for each new episode.

My son, who has spent the last 3 years just communicating with me through grunts, has recently rediscovered his verbal skills and his articulated opinion is that it's the relationships that pull us in. He finds the complex dynamics between Walter and Jesse fascinating, as well as the relationship between Walter and the man who is going to kill him. Yup, I can see that, but for me, I know I should be turned off the show by the rest of the story.

I've written in a previous blog about how impressed I am by the lack of limits in this show. The writers are fearless in where they will take the viewer, and perhaps that's what I'm getting out of this . Maybe I can learn to break past my own boundaries in writing and find some darker places within my creativity and within myself. Don't get me wrong, some of my stories go to some pretty intense and emotionally scary places,  still, it just might be that I can go further, and darker, than I have so far. Time to find the door to my own dark places.....

Have your best day possible.

http://www.amazon.com/Sanity-Foster-Adoptive-Parenting-ebook/dp/B005QNR5DQ/ref=sr_1_3?s=digita

This is the latest book by Claudia Fletcher - co-written by Matthew W. Hoffman. Claudia is an adoptive mom of 12 who also wrote these two books.    Claudia and her husband,  Bart, also have 3rd Degree Parenting which they describe as :The mission of 3rd Degree Parenting is to utilize the written and spoken word of ordinary people doing extraordinary things to encourage, educate and strengthen parents of children with special needs, professionals working with these children, and the general public.  Our hope is that our words might aid in the efforts of others like ourselves who are seeking to change the world . . .one life at a time.