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Wednesday, March 31, 2021

Now Booking a WOW! Women on Writing Book Blog Tour for Allen Long's "Praying for Restraint"

 

Spring has sprung and the temperatures here in Wisconsin are creeping up - now, before we get busy plowing and planting fields let's take some time to delve into a fabulous new book! WOW! Women on Writing is helping promote more wonderful books and up and coming authors and we would love to include YOU in these tours! One in particular I'd like to share with you is Praying for Restraint by Allen Long!  I have the PDF version available TODAY and can provide them right away if you'd like to get reading - you won't want to wait! (Physical copies will be mailed by the author in late April after the April 27th publication date)

Please contact me today to reserve your copy  and participate in what is sure to be a fabulous tour. If you've never participated in a tour, feel free to inquire and I'll be happy to explain how it works - you don't even have to have your own blog!

Send an email today to participate - email address: crystal@wow-womenonwriting.com or crystaljotto@gmail.com

Be sure to include the following:

* The email address you'd like your ebook sent to - and/or mailing address for your physical copy. 

*The name and url for your blog, or a note letting me know you do not have a blog

*A date you would prefer as your first choice, as well as a 2nd choice - this will be the date your review will be posted to your blog/this blog and social media. (the tours run as follows: author interview on May 17th on the WOW! blog, and reviews will post the 18th through the 27th) 

Including posting to a blog, it would be fabulous if you could post your review on Amazon/Goodreads as well as your own social media. This is greatly appreciated although not mandatory to participate in a book blog tour.

As soon as all the dates have been filled for the tours, and a calendar has been put together, I'll email a media kit to everyone involved. This kit will include the author pictures and bios as well the book cover and official summary and buy links for Praying for Restraint. This email will also include the calendar for the tour and should be able to answer most (if not all) the questions you may have concerning tour participation.



Thank you in advance for your time and consideration in this and all matters.



WOW! WOMEN ON WRITING
PRESENTS:

Praying for Restraint
By, Allen Long

Tour Begins May 17th 2021



About Praying for Restraint:
Allen Long works as a CNA-certified nursing assistant-at that supposed sanctuary of caring, an inner-city general hospital. What an unforgettable parade of bizarre, needy, abusive, menacing, endearing, and poignant humanity passes through its doors. And those are just the staff and administrators! Meanwhile, the patient population spans the affluent and sophisticated to the homeless, the mentally ill, addicts, gang members, and criminals in custody. Praying for Restraint takes the reader on a journey into the absurd and surreal that is ultimately uplifting and harrowing, both funny and heartbreaking. Long's struggle to survive a relentlessly toxic work environment with body, soul, and marriage intact is as gripping as the battle against childhood abuse in his previous memoir, Less than Human. Reviewers found that book "inspiring, honest, and beautifully written, engaging, and thought-provoking." Praying for Restraint earns that praise and more.






About Allen Long:

Here’s how I became a writer. When I was a child in Arlington, Virginia, as soon as I understood what stories were, I began telling them to anyone who would listen. As a fifth-grader, I was recruited by the Storytellers, a small group of supervised fifth- and sixth-graders who told stories once a month to kids in the first, second, and third grades.

When I reached sixth grade, my teacher allowed me to skip all of my English assignments in exchange for me writing her a short story each week. In seventh grade, one of my stories placed second in an English class competition.

DNA strands
Storytelling seems to have been hardwired into my DNA.

One of my favorite memories from childhood is telling my younger brother, David, a made-up story every night during the summers we slept in twin beds in our cool basement.

I earned a BA in Communications/Journalism from Virginia Tech. While I was there, I took every creative writing class offered and wrote a story that placed second at a regional literary festival sponsored by nearby Hollins University. During my student days, I also worked half-time for two years as a reporter for The Roanoke Times.

After I graduated, I accepted a scholarship to earn an MA in English/fiction writing from Hollins University, where I wrote the first half of a novel. I then received a second scholarship and a teaching assistant position to pursue an MFA in fiction writing at the University of Arizona.

Shortly after I graduated, I published a story called “Second Honeymoon” in Concho River Review. After that, I decided to continue my writing education by working with master editor Tom Jenks. When Tom was a senior editor at Scribner’s, he completed Ernest Hemingway’s unfinished novel, The Garden of Eden, which became a bestseller.

I published two more stories, and then I decided to change gears and write a memoir called “Soul Breach” about the high level of illegal and unethical behavior I’d witnessed while working in the management consulting field. The story was published, and my good friend and editor, Kit McIlroy, told me it was the best piece I’d ever written, and he encouraged me to write more nonfiction.

I followed his advice and wrote and published magazine-length memoirs about the happiest, most intriguing, and worst moments in my life. These combined pieces became my first book, Less than Human: A Memoir (Black Rose Writing, 2016).

After that, I published memoirs on a wide variety of subjects, including two about my work as an assistant nurse in a poorly managed inner-city hospital populated by challenging patients, including violent mentally ill ones who often were not sedated or restrained.

“Keep writing about that hospital, and you’ve got your next book,” Kit said. I followed his advice, eventually producing my second book, Praying for Restraint: Frequent Flying with an Inner-City Hospital CNA (Legacy Book Press, 2021).

dolphinOne final comment—I’ve loved visiting zoos and aquariums my whole life, and I’ve raised box turtles, swum with sea turtles, and gone on multiple dolphin- and whale-watching expeditions. Therefore, you may notice that quite a bit of wildlife has crept into my writing. At last count, I spied lions, tigers, giraffes, eland, monkeys, chimps, elephants, alligators, caimans, box turtles, sea turtles, bottlenose dolphins, and humpback whales. Have I missed any?


Find out more about Allen at his great website: hhttp://allenlongauthor.com/



And now for Allen's List of Accomplishments:

Books

Memoirs

Fiction

  • Common GroundAmarillo Bay
  • The Poincare Conjecture—49opus
  • Second Honeymoon—Concho River Review

Articles

Thursday, March 18, 2021

Pre-Publication Review of Neill McKee's Latest Work: "KID ON THE GO! Memoir of my life before Borneo

 

 I had the distinct pleasure of reading Kid on The Go! before it was published. I can't wait until I can order my official copy and hold this little gem in my hands. It's a remarkable read by a truly talented author. I've also had an opportunity to read Finding Myself in Borneo as well as Guns and Gods in My Genes by this same author. The reason I mention this is because Kid on the Go! would be the prequel to Finding Myself in Borneo although each one stands just beautifully on their own. I read McKee's books in the following order: Finding Myself in Borneo, Guns and Gods in My Genes, and finally Kid on the Go! They tie in nicely together and I don't think you need to read them in any particular order - though I DO recommend reading all of them (simply because they're fabulous!)

Now - let's look at a little more about each book and then I'll get down to the nitty gritty of my 5 Star review. 

Guns and Gods in My Genes -   is a poignant, intense exploration of research into the author’s ancestry where he begins in the modern day, talking to relatives and descendants in both the US and Canada, and gradually takes the reader back through 400 years to his first ancestors who arrived on the Mayflower. 


352 pages / 116 photos & illustrations / 6.0 x 9.0 

Paperback ISBN: 978-1-7329457-3-9. $22.95

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-7329457-4-7. $10.95

Subjects: Travel Memoir / Family Genealogy / US and Canadian History / Firearms and Warfare / Religion / Social Life and Customs / Puritans and Pilgrims / Mayflower Descendants


Finding Myself in Borneochronicles, with good humor, a young man’s adventures while teaching secondary school as a Canadian CUSO volunteer in Sabah, Malaysia (North Borneo), 1968–70.


260 pages / 60 photos / 5.5 x 8.5 

Paperback ISBN: 978-1-7329457-0-8.  $19.95 

Ebook (in color) ISBN: 978-1-7329457-2-2   $9.99

Audiobook ISBN: 978-1-7329457-1-5  $9.95–$19.95

Subjects: Travel Memoir / Southeast Asia / History/ Personal Growth / Language Learning and Teaching / Environment / International Relations / Social Service Organizations





And here we are - time for that 5 Star Review of KID ON THE GO!

Kid on the Go! is an honest and sometimes humorous story to be enjoyed by readers of all ages. The story is engaging and contains just the right amount of detail. This is a thought-provoking coming of age story that drew me right in. McKee is an expert story-teller with a great sense of humor.