Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Author Interview and Book Giveaway!


A new author interview with K. Raven Rozier has been posted at The Book Whisperer.

Additionally, The Book Whisperer has graciously offered to host a book giveaway for Last Door. Enter at http://book-whisperer.blogspot.com/. Contest ends Dec. 1, 2010. Good luck!

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

The Book Whisperer


Ace new book review of "Last Door" by The Book Whisperer. Be sure to check out her awesome site: and at Goodreads.com

Last Door is a terrifying story that portrays any family’s worst nightmare. I found myself captivated by this book description, and was compelled that this was a story I just had to read. Reluctantly, I began to fear starting this novel due to my own fears of demons and possession. In an effort to overcome my fear, I dove right in. Immediately this novel had my full attention, and I was surprised to find this novel to be so much more than a story of possession. As a Christian, we are to believe "He will deliver us from evil".

Although this is a true story about what happens when evil is brought to you, this shows how the actions done by others left this family with a decision to battle evil in their own home. It is incredible that this child had undergone so much and had found a way to cope by dividing himself into over 400 separate persons. While much of this book sickened me to experience this child's abuse, through the retelling of this story, I was overcome with the urgency to press on.

Throughout all of the trials and obstacles that this family saw, I was empowered by this family and the glorious miracles they received. It is obvious that the Lord was assisting this family to heal this young boy. What an incredibly strong family this must have been to continue on untainted and faithful through such a traumatic time in their Christian lives. I see the accomplishments by this Loving family, but I am saddened that they were not able to fully recover. While life pressed on and the miracles of the Lord gave this young man a somewhat normal life, the Last Door was left closed, and this young man will never fully recover. Though as a believer I have to think that just maybe this was for the best. Only God would know if this was the better option. That maybe "The Last Door" would have been Brendan's undoing.


The Afterword was a very strong proclamation for this author; this being her attempt to show others what evil really exists in our world. It was also a stance on her own beliefs that I find to be very honorable. While I began this novel with my own fears; I concluded this novel with new feelings. Just maybe this was my own way of understanding a little better, and alleviating some of my own fears. While this is a terrible story, I praise the wonderful work of the Lord.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

20% Off At Lulu.com




Last Door and Iron Desire are now 20% off of the cover price when you purchase at Lulu.com.

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Don't Egg My House!

Here is a treat for readers, a 20% off coupon for Last Door and/or Iron Desire at Lulu.com. Use coupon code: TRICK305 at checkout. Offer expires Nov. 1, 2010.
Sweet Savings! Happy Halloween!

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Amazon Kindle Rankings

Checked in on the Amazon Kindle page for Last Door and saw that it is ranked #1 in two categories.
Thank you Kindle readers. I appreciate your support of this book.

Happy reading!

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

S-510 and Codex Alimentarius - the removal of nutrition

by A. Goodwin

S 510 includes passages that would force harmonization with Codex Alimentarius. It is a name most people do not know and one that the media has not exposed though its consequences to human health would be extreme. Codex threatens the lives of millions through limiting access to adequate supplementation.

From an open letter by Dr. Matthias Rath, a renowned cardiologist, sent to Helmut Kohl, the German chancellor and one time pharmaceutical lobbyist who introduced Codex to the world.

This "Codex" Commission is overwhelmingly composed of representatives of German and international pharmaceutical corporations, and its aim is to set world-wide guidelines for vitamins, amino acids, minerals and other dietary supplements. Spearheaded by the German pharmaceutical corporations, this Codex Commission plans to ban, on a world wide scale, any health statements in relation to vitamins, be it preventive or therapeutic. Moreover, the only vitamin formulas which would still be available would have to meet the arbitrary restrictions of the Codex Commission. The nations that do not comply with these restrictions are faced with economic sanctions.

These plans of the pharmaceutical corporations and the Codex Commission are in direct opposition to the overwhelming importance of vitamins and other essential nutrients for human health and, in particular, for preventing cardiovascular disease. ...

With this background, the attack of the Codex Commission is a desperate act by pharmaceutical companies to protect their world-wide drug market against naturally effective and much more affordable vitamins. Particularly disturbing is the spearheading role of the German pharmaceutical corporations within the Codex Commission. Once before in this century, a German pharmaceutical and chemical corporation, I.G. Farben, became responsible for the deaths of millions of people and consequently, was dismantled in 1946 by the Nuremberg Tribunal and split into Bayer, BASF and Hoechst. With the current plans of the German pharmaceutical companies, the predictable dimension of the unnecessary and premature death of millions of people is unavoidable. If the Codex Commission is allowed to obstruct the eradication of heart disease by restricting access to nutritional supplements, more than 12 million people world-wide will continue to die every year from premature heart attacks and strokes. Within the next generation alone, this would result in over 300 million premature deaths, more than in all the wars of mankind together.

Codex for the US began on December 31, 2009. There have been five bills so far this year to remove access to supplements, if one adds S 3767 introduced by Senators Leahy, Klobuchar, and Franken on September 13th.

How dangerous are supplements that they are subject to FDA armed raids?

The Hazardous-Nutritional-Supplements -Target of FDA Police Raids:


Annual Deaths From:


FDA-Approved Drugs (1).......60,000 - 140,000

Food Contamination (2)...........9,100

Aspirin (3)..................................90

All vitamins (4). ...........................0

Uncontaminated amino acids (4)....0

Commercial herbs (4)....................0


Why is this happening? The logic is inescapable - illness is worth money and health is worth $0. The FDA would be in charge of whatever agency is set up under S 510 (and S 3767) which would destroy availability of adequate nutrition. The dark history of the FDA's work to cut off knowledge of and access to all treatments for cancer not coming from the pharmaceutical industry is extensive but mostly unknown. The current FDA, pleading it doesn't have enough power to stop food contamination, finds power when it comes to stopping gentle cancer treatments and safe treatments for pain, and loses it again when it comes to drugs causing thousands of heart attacks or deaths and is silent on common pharmaceutical industry pain medications which routinely kill.


The value of supplements is abundantly clear to the pharmaceutical industry. When they were the main support for Germany during WWII, it was "A crime punishable by death to spread information in regard to nutrition in Norway, Belgium, Holland, and all other conquered countries." - D.T. Quigley, MD, Fellow American College of Surgeons, in The National Malnutrition


Today, the FDA is involved in an on-going, unconstitutional effort to stop information about the effectiveness of supplements, especially those which offer alternatives to H1N1 vaccines. The FDA has been and is increasing its removal of freedoms around speech, and health (as relates to food and vaccines/drugs), and now, just as they hope to control vast power over food and remove supplements, has gone so far as to assert in court that there is no fundamental right to one's bodily and physical health. (Is this a necessary legal accompaniment to the devastation that Codex would cause, and to forcing people into exposure to pharmaceutical industry's vaccines which have become increasingly unsafe?)


The removal of rights is the focus of this video on Codex: "We Become Silent - The Last Days of Health Freedom" with Dame Judy Dench.

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Big Pharma Scores Big Win: Medicinal Herbs Will Disappear in EU

It's almost a done deal. We are about to see herbal preparations disappear, and the ability of herbalists to prescribe them will also be lost.

by Heidi Stevenson

12 September 2010

Big Pharma Scores Big Win: Medicinal Herbs Will Disappear in EU

Big Pharma has almost reached the finish line of its decades-long battle to wipe out all competition. As of 1 April 2011—less than eight months from now—virtually all medicinal herbs will become illegal in the European Union. The approach in the United States is a bit different, but it's having the same devastating effect. The people have become nothing more than sinks for whatever swill Big Pharma and Agribusiness choose to send our way, and we have no option but to pay whatever rates they want.

Big Pharma and Agribusiness have almost completed their march to take over every aspect of health, from the food we eat to the way we care for ourselves when we're ill. Have no doubt about it: this takeover will steal what health remains to us.

It Begins Next April Fools Day

In the nastiest April Fool's Joke of all time, the European Directive on Traditional Herbal Medicinal Products (THMPD) was enacted back on 31 March 2004.(1) It laid down rules and regulations for the use of herbal products that had previously been freely traded.

This directive requires that all herbal preparations must be put through the same kind of procedure as pharmaceuticals. It makes no difference whether a herb has been in common use for thousands of years. The costs for this are far higher than most manufacturers, other than Big Pharma, can bear, with estimates ranging from £80,000 to £120,000 per herb, and with each herb of a compound having to be treated separately.

It matters not that a herb has been used safely and effectively for thousands of years. It will be treated as if it were a drug. Of course, herbs are far from that. They're preparations made from biological sources. They aren't necessarily purified, as that can change their nature and efficacy, just as it can in food. It's a distortion of their nature and the nature of herbalism to treat them like drugs. That, of course, makes no difference in the Big Pharma-ruled edifice of the EU, which has enshrined corporatism in its constitution.

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Autumn Coupon

Lulu.com is offering a 10% coupon off of Last Door and Iron Desire.

Type in "AUTUMN" in the coupon box at checkout. Good through September 30, 2010.

Enjoy your super cool autumn!

Academic Tundra

An accurate, entertaining look at the ridiculous world of academia from Dr. Victor Davis Hanson:

"Since we seem now to be ruled during this administration by former professors, here is a rant about what I have learned of the university.

Looking back at forty years…

I have some experience in academia: I spent 3 years at UC Santa Cruz, graduating in classics, two more, graduate and undergraduate, in formal study in Athens, at the College Year in Athens and the American School of Classical Studies, four at Stanford University for a PhD in classics, and then a 21-year stint as a professor at California State University Fresno.

I farmed before, during, and after the university tenures. I can’t count my current life at the Hoover Institution or my month of teaching each year at Hillsdale College as quite the same experience. Both, after all, are aberrant academic institutions — in the sense that the faculties and mission of these institutions resemble pretty much those of America off campus. (I have never met more sane people than at both places.)

The farm and the life with it were great gifts from my ancestors. Almost every weekend as an undergraduate and graduate student, and then nightly as a classics professor, I returned to the farm. People in the environs there were not hostile to learning; they just assumed that being a professor or writer was, and should be, not any different from welding or tractor driving.

Living in rural Selma was a sort of vaccination against the academic virus of self-importance and collective timidity. One must be somewhat self-reliant when bare vines somehow in ten months must pay for diapers and formula, when so much — weather, pests, markets, neighbors, intruders — conspire to prevent that. Fairly or not, I always admired a guy who could feed his family from 60 acres of tree-fruit (I could not) — and especially a lot more than I did an English professor, at least the sort I met over the last forty years.

So what did I learn in the university? I’ll try to be a bit less specific than I was in Who Killed Homer? written over a decade ago.

Lies, lies, and more lies

First was the false knowledge — odd for an institution devoted to free inquiry. The university runs like a 13th-century church in which the heliocentric maverick is a mortal sinner. So too on campus the Rosenbergs never spied. Alger Hiss was a martyr. Mao killed only a few who needed killing (see Anita Dunn on that one).

Che was not a murderous thug, but a hair-in-the-wind carefree motorcyclist. Minorities supposedly died proportionally higher in Vietnam — as they supposedly do now in Iraq and Afghanistan. Women are underrepresented as both undergraduates and as humanities graduate students. Anyone with an accented name obviously had picked grapes or was denied voting rights. Adlai Stevenson was an American saint, even more so than George McGovern. Only the unhinged even discussed doubts about global warming. Don’t question any of the above; it was all gospel — as we see now in D.C., from Keynes to Gorism to Cordoba as the beacon of Islamic tolerance during the Inquisition. (Doubt any of that, and that laid-back elbow-patched joking prof who told the class “Call me Bill,” in a flash, Gollum like, turned into a snarling jackal, screaming, “I am Doctor Jones, with important publications on climate change and a doctorate from Berkeley! How dare you question me!”)

Wounded fawns all

Next were the mock heroics. The philosophy professor who mastered his weedeater wanted us to think he had just stormed Iwo Jima. The gadfly who in the Academic Senate pushed through a resolution on a 170-2 approval vote demanding state sanction of gay marriage thought he was Mandela fighting back the forces of Neanderthal apartheid. My colleague the French professor believed that she belonged to the United Mine Workers when she trudged off to teach an 8 AM early-bird class. We heard for two years the Homeric battle of how the sociology prof, Odysseus like (or perhaps more in the Achilles strain), once somehow jump-started his car in the parking lot. We heard a lot that everyone was “tired” and “exhausted,” as if we had been painting all day or digging trenches for an irrigation company.

The World of Arugula

So there was the cluelessness about the material world, and both a repulsion and fascination for it. I farmed “raisin plants.” And why didn’t I let one or two owls do my pest management on 100 acres rather than use the poison that was born at Auschwitz? Machines always had to work — or else. When it hit 110 and the air conditioning went out in our building, profs sighed and damned “them” who couldn’t even keep us cool. (None had been on a roof at 120 or wondered how a compressor ran at all — or how a guy could spend four hours up there in Sahara-like conditions with all sorts of sockets and wrenches before his skull melted. [Note well, the campus machines worked far better than did the idea of graduating literate BAs.]) In the world of the professor, offshore drilling rigs can be started and stopped, come and go, sort of like an evening seminar. No wonder Professor Chu announced that California agriculture would dry up and blow away (and given the present policies, he may be right).

“Them”

Looking back at it all, envy seemed the university lifeblood. Most other professionals, you see, were, in comparison to us, overpaid —especially those whom we had the misfortune of sometimes coming in contact with, or, worse, even socializing among. Go to campus and the present demonization of Vegas, Wall Street, surgeons, and insurers makes perfect sense.

Money both repelled and yet attracted academics, those strange summer moths that hated the cash bulb and yet could not resist its radiance. MDs, MBAs, JDs — all these folks had studied far less than we had! And yet, most unfairly, they now made far more money! We, of course, to paraphrase Barack Obama, out of altruism had passed on all those easy avenues of getting rich (identifying a Latin gerundive or an underappreciated 19th suffragette being far more difficult than cracking open someone’s brain or building a shopping center). (By the way, did you ever really believe Barack or Michelle that they could have waltzed over to Wall Street and struck it rich — as if such merchandising and monetizing were no more demanding than community organizing? To paraphrase Lloyd Bentsen: “I’ve known Wall Street hustlers, and you’re no Wall Street hustler, Barack”.)

Our nobility and intelligence, cheek-by-jowl, explained our genteel poverty. Crassness and a sort of sneaky cleverness — as well as greed — accounted for the rich others who had used their education not to impart knowledge, but to manipulate it. (And they did not even know how to spend all that money: we went to Marbella; they bought idiotic things like guns, snowmobiles, and video games.)

Upside-down economics

Wal-Mart greeters were better treated than part-time faculty, who made a fourth the going rate without many benefits. I remember being chewed out as a part-timer for daring to use the department Xerox machine — this from a “progressive” who was always bleating about the corporate destruction of the wild. Tuition always went up faster than inflation. There were centers for this and projects for that everywhere, mostly aimed at combating illiteracy and getting 50-something profs release time. When I joined CSU, the remediation rate was about 35%; when I left, 21 years later, over 50% of the incoming freshmen needed remedial math and English. I can only remember two tenured professors who were fired, one a child molester who was “retired,” and the other a decapitator who was imprisoned (see below). I remember in a tenure appeal, the aggrieved professor of theater arts wrote a furious (and successful) letter to our committee that began, “Witch charges about me…” Academia is the strangest mix of a Soviet nomenklatura for the tenured, and Eastern European socialism for the part-time — sort of like we see now in Washington (we are the part-timers, the new credentialed technocracy the tenured).

Fear everywhere

To be blunt, there are an inordinate number of cowards in academia. Why did so many vote “present” at meetings, run out of personnel hearings to leak what you said to someone, boast about their heroics to captive student audiences in class, and in general walk about in abject terror of being thought illiberal? Are not they tenured with lifetime jobs, automatic pay raises, 20 weeks off a year? So why the cowardice?

My father, I remember, was a bad/good judgement sort of guy (and was often proven right) — “Look, the SOB is no damn good” or “You wait, you’ll see that he is nothing but a coward”; in academia on tenure boards, I heard far too often instead: “On the one hand, her career trajectory so far is problematic, and I worry at times about her ambivalence toward scholarship; but on the other, one must not overreact to her seeming difficulty making deadlines.” In extremis, there were lots of passive-aggressive beer summits after meetings to soothe ruffled feathers, lots of “outreach.”

Tasteful all

We were tasteful. We walked on oak, others on shag carpet. The good neighborhoods did not have sidewalks, “their” tract houses did. Books lined our walls; plastic spears and shields were hung as faux-heraldry in the entryways of the hoi polloi.We supported the UN, they NASCAR.

Here I confess that I got a pass, since once in a while an academic would drive down to Selma and praise my then ramshackle 120 year-old farmhouse (at the time I secretly yearned for a Clovis McMansion in which things probably worked without Saturdays under the house with a jack or up in the attic with pliers and duct tape or down in the collapsed cesspool in the yard).

We wore elbow patches, “they” leisure suits. Most of the professors’ clothes — huge treaded hiking boots, sub-arctic parkas, multi-pocketed Safari dungarees — were designed for the earth’s uninhabitable regions. You see, it was the idea of struggle (cf. Michelle’s garden) that mattered — the philosophy professor at any minute forced to wade across the Amazon on his way to the lounge, sort of like the huge Land Rovers in the faculty lot that could in theory go anywhere, and in fact went nowhere but 2 miles home. (Gas-guzzling Yukons were bad; gas-guzzling Land Cruisers weirdly OK.)

Be careful about eating or having coffee with academics. Most stiffed you for the bill or, better yet, stiffed the coffee shop by getting free refills for you. If you had a broken fingernail or a blister, it was proof to colleagues that you were “blue collar.” And that meant that naturally you could come over on Saturday to (a) prune an academic’s peach tree, (b) show him how to unclog his drain by doing it yourself, (c) lend him your pickup (warning: do not lend anything at any time to an academic), or (d) flip a circuit breaker. Division of $50 in travel money at department meetings was like throwing an old stinking bone in an arena of pit bulls. The less the value, the more the gnashing.

The following is a true example of academic parsimony. A colleague of ours proved to be a gruesome murderer — tried, convicted, imprisoned (he died in prison). He took his sabbaticals and summers down in West Hollywood where he picked up young boys, and on at least one occasion decapitated a poor fellow, then disposed of the body in Silence of the Lambs fashion (the head and torso were found 200 miles apart as I recall). How did we learn of that, or, rather, how was he caught?

He naturally turned back in the bloody rental chain saw — hair, gristle, sinews and all stuck in the chain. The rental store owner was told that our professor (of criminology, no less) had “cut apart a dog” that he hit with his car — and so in disbelief turned him in. Beheading someone is one thing; but, my god, getting charged for an overdue chain saw or losing your deposit is quite another.

(Wait reader: you ask, well, smarty-pants Mr. Hanson, how exactly did a supposedly inept professor learn how to chain saw someone’s head off? I confess, I wonder about that still.)

I could go on, but you get the picture about the strange habits that arise when you ensure someone lifelong employment, institutionalize unaccountability and groupspeak, and create artificial hierarchies of respect that are not necessarily earned by either teaching excellence, scholarship, or value to the community. After the pension meltdown, a great reckoning is coming to academia and it won’t be pretty.

The truth is that I loved teaching, and still do. And when I was penniless, the university gave me a job that I loved and did not consider work at all. Indeed, I felt ashamed that I was overpaid. I started at $22,000 as a full-time lecturer in 1985, and could not believe I got such generous compensation, whether or not it rained, hailed, or the market collapsed. I called my delighted and relieved parents that very day (being a parent to a PhD who was broke and fixing sulfur machines must have been somewhat odd): “Hey, mom, they’re going to pay me thousands of dollars for teaching Greek and Latin.” And they did.

So why again the above rant about academics?

We are presently governed by academics. In an era in which university people proliferate in this administration and seem to make things far worse for the rest of us, we need to be reminded why we should not look to the university for answers. What I hear coming out of Washington reminds me a lot of what I once heard coming out of the philosophy or English department. And that is a scary thing indeed.

You see, that tribe is more likely to embody the illness rather than the cure, and this time 300 million are paying the price."

Friday, August 6, 2010

Valedictorian Exposes Education Sham - Brava!

August 5, 2010



val.jpgThe following speech was delivered by top of the class student Erica Goldson during the graduation ceremony at Coxsackie-Athens High School on June 25, 2010. (Erica is not pictured at the left.)
[Abridged by Henry Makow]

I am graduating.
I should look at this as a positive experience, especially being at the top of my class. However, in retrospect, I cannot say that I am any more intelligent than my peers. I can attest that I am only the best at doing what I am told and working the system.

Yet, here I stand, and I am supposed to be proud that I have completed this period of indoctrination. I will leave in the fall to go on to the next phase expected of me, in order to receive a paper document that certifies that I am capable of work.

But I contest that I am a human being, a thinker, an adventurer - not a worker. A worker is someone who is trapped within repetition - a slave of the system set up before him. But now, I have successfully shown that I was the best slave. I did what I was told to the extreme. While others sat in class and doodled to later become great artists, I sat in class to take notes and become a great test-taker.

While others would come to class without their homework done because they were reading about an interest of theirs, I never missed an assignment. While others were creating music and writing lyrics, I decided to do extra credit, even though I never needed it. So, I wonder, why did I even want this position? Sure, I earned it, but what will come of it? When I leave educational institutionalism, will I be successful or forever lost?

I have no clue about what I want to do with my life; I have no interests because I saw every subject of study as work, and I excelled at every subject just for the purpose of excelling, not learning. And quite frankly, now I'm scared.

John Taylor Gatto, a retired school teacher and activist critical of compulsory schooling, asserts, "We could encourage the best qualities of youthfulness - curiosity, adventure, resilience, the capacity for surprising insight simply by being more flexible about time, texts, and tests, by introducing kids into truly competent adults, and by giving each student what autonomy he or she needs in order to take a risk every now and then. But we don't do that."

Between these cinder block walls, we are all expected to be the same. We are trained to ace every standardized test, and those who deviate and see light through a different lens are worthless to the scheme of public education, and therefore viewed with contempt.

H. L. Mencken wrote in The American Mercury for April 1924 that the aim of public education is not "to fill the young of the species with knowledge and awaken their intelligence. ... Nothing could be further from the truth. The aim ... is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed and train a standardized citizenry, to put down dissent and originality. That is its aim in the United States whatever pretensions of politicians, pedagogues other such mountebanks, and that is its aim everywhere else."

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Christmas Savings in July!

Lulu.com is offering 20% off of Last Door and Iron Desire through July 31, 2010. Yipee!
Enter coupon code: SANTA305 at check out. Good for ebooks and for paperback books.

Monday, July 12, 2010

Lulu of a Summer Coupon



Lulu.com is offering 10% of Last Door and Iron Desire. Grab a book and hit the beach!

Enter coupon code "BEACHREAD" at checkout. Good through 7/31/10.

"I don’t know where to begin. This story was so well-told, I felt like I was smack dab in the middle of the demonic chaos." -- Suspense Magazine Review of Last Door

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Cool Savings on Hot Summer Reads!



For the month of July, save 50% on Last Door and/or Iron Desire when you purchase your ebooks through Smashwords.com. Happy Summer!

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Hmmmmm, Thoughts on Election Day


"We cannot expect the Americans to jump from Capitalism to Communism, but we can assist their elected leaders in giving Americans small doses of Socialism, until they suddenly awake to find they have Communism."

-- Nikita Khruschev (31/2 months before visit to U.S.) Ref.: Congressional Record 7/26/61: p. 12622

Saturday, May 22, 2010

AUTOGRAPHED BOOKS


For those who have inquired: To receive an autographed, paperback version of Last Door, send an email with the personalized name/message you want and payment method to: ravenrozier@gmail.com

For $18.99 (the cover price) you will receive an autographed paperback, a laminated bookmark, paid shipping, and no tax.

Thank you, as always, for your support of this book!

Friday, May 7, 2010

Book Auction for Nashville Flood Victims


Book lovers and philanthropists: there is an online book auction that benefits the flooding victims of Nashville. There are many autographed books and services from awesome authors.
Visit: Do the Write Thing For Nashville

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

HURRY! FREE SUSPENSE MAGAZINE!


As a special promotion, Suspense Magazine is offering their May 2010 issue online for free! There are slews of awesome articles in there.

Just click here to snatch up this gem of a deal.

And, don't forget to check for the June issue that comes out May 22 and features an author interview with me and a book review for Last Door.

Monday, May 3, 2010

Featured New Author in Suspense Magazine



Suspense Magazine has selected K. Raven Rozier as its Featured New Author for its June issue which will be available May 22, 2010. Included is an author interview and a book review of Last Door, the true, psychological thriller about a boy, raised in a satanic cult, with over 400 multiple personalities and demons.

“I don’t know where to begin. This story was so well-told, I felt like I was smack dab in the middle of the demonic chaos.” -- Suspense Magazine

Suspense Magazine is giving away a FREE copy of its first issue.
Visit them at: www.SuspenseMagazine.com.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Willow Bridge Book Signing Soon


Mark your calendar for Sat. April 24, 2010. I will be at Willow Bridge Books in Oakhurst, CA for two book signing events: 2 p.m. and 6 p.m.

I will discuss my book, Last Door, the events that occur in it and the issues that surround it: multiple personalities, demons, cults, etc. I will also talk about the writing and publishing process of this project.

Come up to the fresh air of the mountains for book talk, refreshments and freebie goodies in the charming Willow Bridge Book Store.

The Central Valley Writers' Conference takes place this weekend in Oakhurst, as well.

40044 Hwy. 49, (Von's Center) Oakhurst, CA (559) 692-BOOK (2665)

What You’re Letting in to Your Skin


Before you even have to think about poisons in the air, water, food, et cetera, there is the issue of getting ready for your day, your morning hygienic routine. You might be surprised by the amount of toxins going on, and subsequently absorbed in, your body before you are even dressed for the day. This short amount of time can be one of the most toxic for your body and most detrimental to your health. A "U.S. News and World Report" article published in 1998 stated, "We look good, we smell good, and we have just exposed ourselves to 200 different chemicals a day, through personal care products."

Over the years, the products you put on and in your body build up poisons that aid in the destruction of your organs and overall health. Many of these toxins are in very small quantities in products, but when they are applied everyday of your life, they are building up in your body and organs. Skin is the largest organ in the human body and absorbs applications directly into the blood stream. You definitely want to eliminate them when and where you can to lower the accumulated levels in your body. There is a simple, proactive measure you can take to free yourself from the dangers of your hygiene and beauty routine.

You must become a label reader. Most products labeled as “natural, organic, herbal…” still contain harmful ingredients. Remember, manufacturers want to sell their products, and they use deceptive marketing and hot words to persuade you to purchase their toxic products. Please understand, they do not care about your health. They are solely motivated by getting you to hand out your money for their deadly merchandise which uses the cheapest products available, regardless of the damage they incur.

Likewise, consumers can not trust A.M.A. or FDA testing because both agencies receive money from chemical manufacturers. Always follow the money trail when the government and big corporations/industries are involved. Over the last 100 years, the rate of cancer in the U.S.A. has increased from 1 out of 800 to 1 out of 3! We do not have total control over all of the contaminants in our food, water, environment, etc., but we can sure try to eliminate some of them if we know what is in the products we are buying and avoid them, make better, more natural choices.

MAIN TOXINS TO LOOK FOR AND TO AVOID

It is not easy to remember all of these scientific, chemical names, so print and keep this information with you as you shop so that you may reference it to check labels for dangerous chemicals. Please note that these toxins are found in women’s, men’s and children’s products.

ALUMINUM:

Found in deodorants. When absorbed on shaved area, it is absorbed directly in to the lymphatic system which is connected to the breasts. May cause breast cancer in men and women. Also builds up in the brain and may contribute to Alzheimer’s disease.

BHT:

A Toluene substitute, used as a preservative. Found in eye liner, eye shadow, facial moisturizers, lip stick, lip gloss, sunscreen make-up. Affects the brain/nervous system, organ toxicity/damage, allergy/immune system, suspected carcinogen.

*DIOXANE:

A carcinogen. Found in a variety of cleansing products: antiperspirants/deodorants, baby bath products, body wash, bubble bath, mouthwash, toothpaste, shampoo, skin creams/moisturizers, and more.

DIOXIN:

Known carcinogen, reproductive and developmental problems, damage to the immune and hormonal systems.

FLUORIDE:

Does more harm than good. It is toxic and was once sold as a rat poison. Found in tap water, toothpaste and mouthwash. A tube of toothpaste with fluoride can kill a small child. That is why there is a poison warning on the tube. May cause bleeding gums, thyroid issues, weak joints, arthritis, allergic reaction, retardation, still birth/miscarriage, birth abnormalities, potential death (There are numerous studies reporting the serious dangers of fluoride).

*PARABENS:

Petroleum based, synthetically created chemicals that include: methylparaben, ethylparaben, propylparaben, butylparaben, and others. Parabens are found in many beauty products that are absorbed through skin and in to the body.

PHENOLCARBOLIC ACID:

Causes coma, death from respiratory problems, circulatory problems, paralysis, convulsions.

*PROPYLENE/ETHYLENE GLYCOL:

An alcohol commonly used in paint, antifreeze, brake fluid, tile grout, sealants, shoe polish, and most beauty products that are absorbed through skin and in to the body. Causes kidney and liver damage.

*SODIUM LAURYL/LAURETH SULFATE:

Used in engine degreasing and auto cleaning products, carpet cleaners, fabric glue. Rapidly absorbed in to the skin. Reacts with other chemicals (such as Dioxin) to become carcinogenic. Causes skin irritation, eye, heart, brain damage, dissolves natural/protective oils on skin. Found in many bubble bath, soaps, shampoos, moisturizers, shaving cream, toothpaste, and more.

TOLUENE:

Causes anemia, liver and kidney damage, blood and nervous systems, respiratory and skin irritation. Found in fragrances. Contains petroleum and coal tar.

*Most common, widely used.

MAIN PRODUCTS/AREAS WHERE TOXINS ARE FOUND

The most rampant harmful chemicals are highlighted and a solution or better option is offered.

IN THE SHOWER:

Water: Common chemicals found in tap water include: fluoride, chlorine, mercury, lead, PCBs, arsenic, MtBE (used as a gasoline additive), DCPA (herbicide), Perchlorate (used in rocket fuel and explosives), Dioxin, HCB (pesticide), DDT (insecticide). Chemicals from tap are easily absorbed into skin. May cause Alzheimer’s, bone cancer, brain damage, jeopardized immune system, lower IQ.

BETTER OPTION: A great investment in your health is to have a water filtration system installed for your whole house. You want the most optimal, pure water going on and in your body.

Soap/Shower gel/Bath oils: Propylene Glycol, Sodium Laurel Sulfate

BETTER OPTION: Purchase natural soaps without harmful chemicals. Many local shops and farmers’ markets have natural soaps available made by locals.

Make your own soap. There are many methods to making soap and an endless variety of oils, flowers, honey, and herbs that may be incorporated. Numerous websites are dedicated to tutorials on this process.

Shaving cream: Triethanolamine, BHA, Isopentane, Isobutane, Methyl Paraben (causes tumors), Phthalates (has neurotoxins, causes allergies), Sodium Lauryl Sulfate

BETTER OPTION: Use a variety of oils (coconut and olive oils work wonderfully), witch hazel, and a few drops of scented oil (peppermint, cinnamon, eucalyptus, tea tree …).

Shampoo/Conditioner: Benzaldehyde, Cocoamide DEA,Ethanol,Linalool, Methylene Chloride, Paraben, Propylene Glycol, Sodium Laurel Sulfate, and more. Most of these cause neurological and nerve damage and cancer.

Please note that baby shampoos contain some of the highest amounts of chemicals. Check the labels carefully.

BETTER OPTION: Make your own shampoo with a variety and combination of natural ingredients mixed with water:

Baking soda, Borax, apple cider vinegar, jojoba, tea tree oil, rosemary, sage, lavender, rose petals, marigold petals,..

Make your own conditioner with a variety and combination of natural ingredients mixed with water:

Olive, coconut or other oils. Add a scented oil for fragrance. Work through wet hair.

Deep conditioning: Use mayonnaise and olive, coconut, avocado or other oils, yogurt. Work through hair, wrap with a towel; leave on for 20 minutes, then rinse.

TOOTH PASTE: Fluoride, Propylene Glycol, Sodium Laurel Sulfate

Read label ingredients carefully. Many “natural” tooth pastes contain harmful toxins.

BETTER OPTION: Purchase toothpaste without chemical additives.

Make your own toothpaste using all or some of these ingredients:

1. Pour 1/2 cup baking soda into a mixing bowl

2. Add a dash of salt (natural mineral salt is best)

3. Add 1/4 cup of hydrogen peroxide (food grade is best, but you may use the drug store kind)

4. Add 1 drop of peppermint oil

5. Add a dash of stevia (more if you want it sweeter)

6. Mix it all up until it becomes paste like. You may have to add more hydrogen peroxide to get the right consistency.

FACE CREAMS/MOISTURIZERS: Propylene Glycol, Sodium Laurel Sulfate

BETTER OPTION: Coconut oil (unrefined), olive oil, vitamin E oil, shea or cocoa butter, other natural oils.

BODY LOTION: Propylene Glycol, Sodium Laurel Sulfate

BETTER OPTION: Coconut oil (unrefined), olive oil, vitamin E oil, shea or cocoa butter, other natural oils.

ANTIPERSPIRANT/DEODORANT: Aluminum and aluminum compounds, which have been linked to Alzheimer's disease, brain disorders, respiratory disorders, tumors, and possibly cancer.

Antiperspirants clog the pores at the sweat glands. This is extremely detrimental, as it prohibits toxins in the body from being released.

BETTER OPTION: Purchase a salt crystal without any aluminum compounds.

Make your own. A bonus is that you won’t get yellow stains on your clothes:

1/4 cup baking soda
1/4 cup arrow root powder or corn starch
5 tablespoons coconut oil (unrefined retains its microbial properties)

Combine baking soda and arrow root powder/corn starch in a bowl and mix with a fork.

Start with about 4 tablespoons/one-fourth cup of coconut oil and add the coconut oil to the baking soda mixture, working into a paste. The deodorant will have somewhat of a play-dough consistency, and will be softer or harder depending on its temperature.

Note: Once you switch to a natural deodorant, it may take a few weeks for your body to rid built-up toxins/smells. I’ve used only coconut oil on a hot day, and there was no odor.

HAIR PRODUCTS:

Color: Para-Phenylenediamine (PPD) [coal tar, petroleum based; affects the throat and lungs], other numerous chemical carcinogens that specifically may cause non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and multiple myeloma, and many chemicals found in pesticides.

Note: The darker the hair dye, the more toxic it is. FYI: Jacqueline Kennedy, a long time dark hair dye user, died of Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

BETTER OPTION: Use natural henna leaves (available at Indian grocery or Health/Natural Food stores) or organic hair dyes. Make your own hair tea at home:

Blonde: lemon juice, calendula/marigold, oat straw, and chamomile

Red: Henna leaves, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, coffee, beet and carrot juice.

Brunette: Black tea, coffee, black henna, raspberry leaves, sage

Gel/hairspray: There are numerous ingredients in synthetic hair sprays that can be harmful for your health including: Polyvinylpyrrolidone, Propylene glycol, Polyvinyl alcohol, Hydroflurocarbon, Denatured alcohol and Carboxylmethylcellulose. All of these ingredients are considered to be toxic or poisonous and can be harmful to your health. Some of the symptoms that are associated with hair spray toxicity or poisoning by way of hair spray include rash, stupor, low blood pressure, burns to the eyes, burning pain in your throat, difficulty with breathing, vision blurring or difficulty seeing, and even coma.

BETTER OPTION: Make your own: Hair Spray

Chop one lemon (or an orange for dry hair). Place in a pot with 2 cups water. Boil until half of the initial amount remains. Cool, strain, and place in a spray bottle. Store in the refrigerator. If it is too sticky, add more water. Add one ounce rubbing alcohol as a preservative and then the spray can be stored for up to two weeks unrefrigerated.

Hair Gel 1/2 to 1 teaspoon unflavored gelatin

1 cup warm water

Dissolve gelatin in 1 cup warm water. Keep refrigerated and use as you would a purchased gel.

MAKE-UP: Propylene Glycol, Cyclopentasiloxane, Butylene Glycol, Cetyl PEG/PPG 10/1 Dimethicone, Squalane, Triethylhexanoin, Isononyl Isononanoate, Polyglyceryl 4 Isostearate, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, PEG 32, Dimethicone/Vinyl Dimethicone Crosspolymer, Disteardimonium Hectorite, Methicone, Polymethylmethacrylate, Retinyl Palmitate, Tocopheryl Acetate, Disodium EDTA, Sodium Dehydroacetate, Phenoxyethanol, Methylparaben, Ethylparaben, Propylparaben, Butylparaben, Titanium Dioxide, and more!

Purchase natural, organic make-up, without dangerous chemicals.

BETTER OPTION: Make your own: Lip Stain/Blush

Mashed up berries or beets mixed with coconut or olive oil. Use a Q-tip to apply.

NAIL POLISH: Formaldehyde, Dibutyl Phthalate (DPB), and Toluene. These are carcinogens and may cause reproductive/fertility problems.

POLISH REMOVER: Acetone. When inhaled, this chemical enters the blood and is carried to body organs. May cause respiratory and eye irritation, headaches, light-headedness, confusion, nausea and vomiting. Long-term exposure damages the liver, kidneys and nervous system, and increases risk of birth defects.

BETTER OPTION: Purchase organic nail polish and polish remover without harmful chemicals.

PERFUME/BODY SPRAY: 95% of chemicals used in fragrances are synthetic compounds derived from petroleum. They include many known toxins capable of causing cancer, birth defects, central nervous system disorders and allergic reactions.

BETTER OPTION:

Make your own fragrance with water, flowers and herbs. Pour into a spray bottle. Use a liberally as you like. It is actually healthful for your skin.

Sample Recipe: 2 cups water

1-2 cups of your preferred herbs and/or flowers

Add water and herbs/flowers to a small sauce pan. Cover pan with a lid and bring to a boil. Once a boil is reached, turn off the heat. With the lid still on, let your mixture sit to release all of the scent essence from the plants into the water. An extra benefit to this process is your home will smell wonderful.

Once your blend has cooled, pour liquid through a strainer and in to a spray bottle (you do not want any bits of plant to clog the sprayer. Discard strainer remains in compost or around the garden.

(Earthy scents: cinnamon, cloves, lemon peel, nutmeg, orange peel, pine leaves, rosemary, sage, vanilla)

(Flowery scents: lavender, lilac, calendula/marigold petals, gardenia petals, rose petals)

Be sure to use only non-toxic plants and herbs that are pesticide free. Experiment with your favorite scents to make your own unique blended scent.

FINAL NOTES:

You may alter these recipes to suit your tastes as far as scents are concerned. You can add vanilla/other extracts, herbal/floral essential oils, etc. to your homemade products. Also, there are many online resources to draw further inspiration from.

Keep in mind that you can pay now for better, natural, organic products, or pay later with poor health, medical costs, and even your life. The fact is, if you take a little bit of time to make your own products, you will save a considerable amount of money that you would have paid for toxic products of far worse quality.

FOODS FOR HEALTHY SKIN AND HAIR:

Try to consume local, organic, heirloom, non-genetically modified, pesticide-free foods. Big, commercial farming start with genetically modified seeds that have a built-in pesticide in every cell. Eat free-range, hormone free meats and dairy. Avoid using the microwave oven, as it nukes all of the nutrients out of food. Ultimately, eating raw, uncooked fruits and vegetables are the most nutritious. Papayas are an especially nutritive food for skin health due to its particular enzymes. Nuts, seeds, fresh fruits (especially papaya and avocado) and vegetables (particularly dark, leafy greens) with living amino acids, garlic, onions, free-range, grass-fed produce (meat, eggs, milk, butter, cheese, etc.) honey…