The beauty of life centered around books is it’s easy to overlook mishaps and not perceive life seriously. I released my second book House of Milk and Cheese. While it’s true I bypassed traditional publishing to bring the book straight to the readers, convincing others on the quality of a book is one thing, getting them to read is another. Do we have readers left out there in the world? Do we have people who would bury themselves in a book instead of online social media or streaming?
If you exist and are listening, rather reading this, please find House of Milk and Cheese on Bookshop, Kindle, or Nook. Read and review it. New Indie authors make it on reviews.
My travel tips continue to roll every Wednesday, the next one being on June 2 on New Orleans with Children.
On a personal note, my oldest graduated from elementary school. I remember bringing him home, him weighing at five pounds eight ounces. He had cried the entire way in car seat, letting me know that harnessing in a foreign object is not the same as a mom’s cuddle. People would see him and say, “You baby is so tiny.” And look at him now!
In case you missed the launch of my second book, I am leaving you with these milestone event videos.
If you share a photo of yours with a book or the book itself (House of Milk and Cheese) or if you leave a review on Amazon.com, share it with me. I announce e-gift card winner on JULY 22, 2O21.
Future Events
I book read every Saturday at 10:30 a.m. CST. Catch me LIVE on Facebook or Youtube.
I wish your life is an open sky of endless possibilities and dreams. You are healthy and peaceful. I have a promise to deliver to you.
You are cordially invited to the book launch for my second book.
Late last year, I had given you my word that if you subscribe here, you enter a raffle and become the first pair of eyes to read my new book, House of Milk and Cheese.
The time has come: my second book is releasing on May 22, 2021! And I want you to win. Pay attention. This notification is not spam. Please email me your name, email, and an RSVP to attend the launch at bookofdreams.us@gmail.com to officially enter the raffle. I will announce the winner during the launch.
I look forward to hearing from you. You are welcome to tell your friends and show them how they can enter this raffle, too: Subscribe here; Email me; And attend the launch. There will be more than one way to win multiple prizes.
Here are raffle rules to maximize your chances:
Please email me your name, ‘yes’ RSVP, and email address.
Refer a friend. They subscribe here and repeat step one.
When you let me know that you brought a guest along, your name goes into the raffle twice, or as many times you bring someone along.
In the coming weeks, series of live events will begin, including the Book Cover Reveal. I will be LIVE on Facebook and YouTube every Saturday in May at 10:30 a.m. CST (11:30 a.m. EST, 8:30 a.m. PST, 11:00 p.m. IST), culminating in the final launch event on May 22, 2021. And I bring surprise guests, too.
You will get to know me better. But if you engage, I may get to know you well, too. Those who love the idea of spending an afternoon lapping in the arms of a book will appreciate these events. Please spread the word.
My second promise is the delivery of a story that pulls you away and keeps you reading. House of Milk and Cheese belongs next to your coffee.
Thank you for your continued support. Here’s to dreams that beacon us and keep us working. I wish you success and more.
Siana Singh can run fast; she is just slow in discovering where she belongs, wedged between her traditional Punjabi family and her western beliefs.
Dr. Silverstone is a therapist whose primary purpose has been one of being an exemplary mother but has lost her daughter and her son is in jail. She understands loss well and is eager to help her patient Siana.
An #ownvoices narration of what it is like to be an Asian American immigrant in the US, specifically a Sikh, this story rings true to our modern world.
House of Milk and Cheese is the poignant yet heartwarming story of a young woman whose pursuit of overcoming her demons makes for a nail-biting drama as she realizes . . .
To seek redemption is to pursue the impossible dream.
Letters from the Queen – debut novel
Amnesiac. Pregnant. Abandoned.
In a women’s shelter in Hawaii, Anna is known by a different name. When she unearths a stash of letters, she wonders if she’s a native or a tourist. On one side, there’s the new life, new love sprouting in Hawaii, on the other is a hollow past indicative of heartbreak and deceit. But not pursuing the truth could cost Anna her life, let alone love.
Alone, the past seems to have abandoned her in a lonely hospital bed with the medical staff and charity workers as her only companions. That’s when she discovers that she is pregnant, too. Perhaps not that alone as she once thought. And a new worry grips her heart. Hawaii is a famous tourist destination: what if she was only visiting here, she would never discover the truth about who she used to be?
It would be easier to move on from it all with Adam, but a stash of letters surface that beckon her despite reluctance to chase deceit and uncomfortable truths. Little does she know, she has no choice and must embark on a fascinating journey, looking into her life, thirty-six-years full, through the eyes of an outsider, just like the readers.
Available on Kindle, Nook, and Smashwords and BOOKSHOP.ORG. Purchase below & support an independent bookstore.
join me every saturday at 10:30 over live events, learn more about this book, network with me, and meet other authors.
Only for my readers . . .
The third book is about a superstitious scientist, which is tricky because science and superstition don’t mix.
And now an unpublished poem…to be published. Just for you . . .
The Song of the Long-Awaited Spring
The geese glided down and up
Lemony setting sun, loudened by quacks
At our tousling hair and walnut-brown eyes
The trodden road slaked with melted ice.
Then goodbye to the winterized
The winds with whale-like whistles
The ice-bathed muddy slush
Tiptoeing around the tea-colored puddles.
Whispered the soaked-in sand
Splattered the icy water into gutters
For the love of tulips’ sways
Never look back, said the looking land.
The chill drank the wind, stiff as steel
Speeding into the drowsy dark
The sun sinking into the arms
Of the shy blushing line of land.
And the moon swarmed out of clouds
Blinking at the flirting spring squalls
So long to the pearly, ivory nothingness
We spray smiles at teasing Spring.
Important Dates – SAVE THE DATE
Saturday, May 1, 2021, 10:30 a.m. CST – Special Guest Live Conversation
Saturday, May 8, 2021, 10:30 a.m. CST – Mothers Day Weekend BOOK COVER REVEAL
Saturday, May 15, 2021, 10:30 a.m. CST – Surprise topic
Saturday, May 22, 2021, , 10:30 a.m. CST – THE BIG LAUNCH DAY.
As you can tell, I am thrilled, relieved, and psyched. Giving birth to a book that bakes for four years, borrows from multiple conferences and reviews, is like removing an organ from the body. You worry if the world will understand: Root for “her.” Love her. She is Siana Singh, the rebellious daughter who has to learn about her place in the world, her family, and her country. I was honored to give an interview at work to the PMO group in Allstate on my writing journey. I have written since ninth grade, but it wasn’t until 2016 books rose from planted seeds. Avid reader, a budding Nanowrimo writer, I complete a rough draft of a book in four weeks. I wrote three books in quick succession. Madness rained hard. Editing? Years swallowed me whole. A journey, four years in the making, is culminating, leaving me excited. Please do not forget to email me your details, so I can add you to the raffle and see you on May 22, 2021, if not before. I leave you with a teaser. Turn on the volume.
The magic of a New Year comes with a promise to start a new journey, write a different story, and change our trajectories. It’s a reset to bad habits.
I find myself pondering the secrets of life and reflecting on 2020–when our lives screeched to a halt, when we disagreed loudly and passionately.
And how did it all begin?
We spent New Years’ in Cancun with my sister’s family. I learned in 2020 that I had aged. The realization wasn’t gradual: it was abrupt. That leads me to my lesson number one.
1. Health is Wealth
I fell sick in Cancun. Again, when we traveled to Montana. Then, when we visited Pennsylvania—the typical viral infections. The awareness that I hadn’t taken one vacation where I hadn’t fallen sick perturbed me. Working from home further exacerbated my neck. So I’m popping vitamins to increase immunity. By the year-end, my local gym had adapted to COVID-19 and posted exercise videos online. We are hitting the living room floor now.
2021 resolution #1: Next vacation, I will avoid even a runny nose.
After we returned from Cancun, two birthday parties took the reins of my life: for my littlest and my oldest, who was plunging into double digits in March with an overly-planned Harry-Potter-themed family affair.
On February 29, 2020, I didn’t realize I had hosted the year’s last birthday party at my home over home-cooked food and the movie Frozen 2. It’s a fond memory in hindsight.
By March, the stores ran out of toilet papers. I called the BIG March party invitees, assuring them hand sanitizers would be abundant, etc. A few days later, I canceled the party as schools shut down, too. Mischief managed. Reality started to sink in that the pandemic was real. Our lives were to be changed by an invisible, barely alive virus. Lesson number two:
2. The Most Important Human Need is Love
A state of perpetual search gripped me two months into the lockdown, as though something critical went missing from my life, not present at home. I had to venture out for it. Same time, something else was transpiring.
We played Hangman, Pictionary and board games to kill time. For the canceled party, we put the banquet hall decorations inside our home. My son video called with classmates, friends, and family—doing everything one did when they were happy and celebrating. It’s impossible to halt life.
The first warm May weekend, we drove to the Mississippi River. We were together with those we loved the most. Nothing else mattered in life. COVID-19 was a skilled master. It revealed who we loved, who loved us, and who didn’t. Lucky were we to be together in love—the most fundamental of all human needs.
2021 resolution #2: Never take people who love me for granted. Not for one second.
Lesson Number three:
3. Life Doesn’t Stop
My heart aches for those who lost loved ones this year. Because the material items like restaurants, stores are recoverable. But life itself isn’t.
Our lives modified. Gigantic cross-country road trip became a single-destination quarantine in a rental. We carried out food.
Memories kept forming. Goals kept beaconing. And then . . .
I self-published my debut novel in May, a milestone in the life of a novice. The lockdown enabled me, not hindered.
My least favorite part of 2021 wasn’t COVID-19.
It was the vitriol, the lies, the deceit, the bullying by the most powerful “men” in America. The election is over, but not the platforms that spread conspiracies including those around the pandemic being a hoax.
How do I maintain my sanity? I focus on my favorite things: my children, ice cream, books, writing, knitting, a feel-good movie, traveling (now modified but not eliminated), a hearty conversation with my best friend, nature, sunsets. The list goes on. This attitude is grounded by the next lesson:
3. Life is Temporary
We forget we live on Earth for a limited time. Everything we accumulate—relationships, parents, children, money, homes, vehicles, knickknacks, memories (why memories, why, God??)—get washed clean. We don’t have an iota about what lies ahead, what exists outside of this dark universe, what shape God has. We know nothing. Yet, instead of humility, we display hubris.
2021 resolution #3: Never forget how temporary I am. Be humble.
I turned forty in 2020. Via virtual technology, my husband surprised me with messages from across the globe. I found myself satisfied at forty. Despite everything.
Months later, my husband attended a Zoom call with his family and school friends scattered across the globe on his birthday. Humans adapt. Adapting is the key to our survival. Without this hardship, we would have been further apart. In disguise, COVID-19 brought us closer.
Looking forward, traditional or self, my second book, Land of Dreams, is coming out. I believe in this story so much, and it’s my conviction you will love it, too. People say never compare your children. They are unique. But this book is so close to the heart to be not a favorite.
Please stay tuned here for its key dates: Book cover details, the articles, the sneak peeks, and the LAUNCH.
For 2021, I’ll wish for you what I wish for me—a healthy perspective that allows you to live your life to the maximum. Here’s to 2021 . . . to the hope of a better everything.
Today’s Words
“No matter how hard the past is, you can always begin again.”– Budha
Like cotton candy, the trees had ballooned in rainbow colors, blanketing the mountains and the valleys. I and my family were traversing the COVID-19 year, where our travel and social life had catapulted into an unrecognizable, indefinite end. And our blessings, being the five of us together, propelled us on the road. Our destination was a rural town named Somerset, Pennsylvania. Besides the Fall colors, jutted from the street sides and homes signs of political affiliations—Read More
Look out for the launch of my forthcoming book: Land of Dreams. Here’s a sneak peek.
Gentle Reminder
Every Friday I travel blog, right here on www.bookofdreams.us. Please subscribe to my blogs and newsletter to stay connected with me.
Mars D. Gill News
After publishing my debut Romance Suspense, Letters from the Queen, on May 17, 2020 on Kindle and amazon, it’s distribution has been now expanded to NOOK, Smashwords, and ImgramSparks for bulk orders (if you are a bookstore, great discounts for bulk print copies).
I turn forty tomorrow. Significance of forty? My cousin grounded me humorously about new aches and pains of the forties. Long before today, I got pulled into an anti-aging sales meetup, a reminder I was aging, only young in my heart and imagination. But perhaps wiser will be an accurate assessment of forty. One lesson I learned as late as the past weekend that I hadn’t ten years ago is the expression of love is probably as important if not more than love itself.
And my lesson at forty is: never assume people you care about know how much you love them, how you love them just because you put food on the table or married someone or have play dates together or you call them mamma or papa. Love needs to be put into words, beaded into actions, harnessed into a force for it to exert its influence. Unless you do, in dullness, love hides, overwritten by busy routines, shrouded by misunderstandings and external circumstances. More on it tomorrow. Please subscribe.
June Author Chats (FACEBOOK LIVE): June 4, 2020. 8 p.m. CST – Not-So-Late Night Binge with RUMANA HUSAIN. #ChildrensBook author and illustrater. RSVP here
June 11, 2020. 8 p.m. CST- Not-So-Late Night Binge with RACHELLE M. N. SHAW. #youngadult #paranormal #horror & #womensfiction author. RSVP here
June 20, 2020. 11 a.m CST – Morning Coffee with GLENDA THOMPSON #debutauthor #crimefiction RSVP here
Sneak Peak
Later this year, I’ll be releasing my second novel, a #WomensFiction named Land of Dreams Siana’s father always called America the Land of Dreams. Until one day he is shot in a random crime. Now Siana must discover the meaning behind those words despite all evidence of the contrary. She must do that to realize her father’s dreams.
Mars D. Gill News
This month Mars D. Gill became a person, an author. My name is Ramnik Gill, and I’m proud of it. However, my pen name is larger than me and stands for my entire family–the people who make me who I am.
On May 17, 2020 I published my first novel, a Romance Suspense, Letters from the Queen.
It’s about a woman who has lost her memory in Hawaii. Alone, the past seems to have abandoned her in a lonely hospital bed with the medical staff and charity workers as her only companions. That’s when she discovers that she is pregnant, too. Perhaps not that alone as she once thought. And a new worry grips her heart. Hawaii is a famous tourist destination: what if she was only visiting here, she would never discover the truth about who she used to be? Was she a pauper or a queen?
When she meets a new love interest in Hawaii, she thinks she is reborn and can start a life. All so, until a stash of letters surface, words filled with heartbreak and addressed to a Jason. She wants to know about her past but is reluctant to chase deceit and uncomfortable truths. Little does she know that she actually doesn’t have a choice and has to embark into a fascinating journey, looking into her life, thirty-six years to be precise, through the eyes of an outsider, just like the readers. This book will help you escape and plunge you into an entangled world of self-discovery. Hope you will join Anna and her pursuits.
Available now on amazon. Coming to other platforms in August. Stay tuned.
Today’s Words
“Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes it’s the quiet voice at the end of the day whispering, ‘I will try again tomorrow.’ ”– Mary Anne Radmacher
