BootsnAll Travel Network
Add this blog to: MyYahoo, Google, Bloglines, RSS


Archive for March, 2010

« Home

Life Rocks…And So Do These Books!

Thursday, March 25th, 2010

A week from today, on Thursday, April 1, lots of family and friends will gather on my deck/patio for a big, happy reunion. We are praying that it will finally be predictably warm and also that the weather will not interfere with flight schedules. Some prognosticators are predicting one more blizzard to cripple things again before Mother Nature calms down for the season. My daughter and family will arrive this week and clear flying weather would definitely be a good thing. My brother-in-law, has just spent two days trying to fly between Florida  and Colorado, thanks to a howling snowstorm.

My house-redecorating has pretty much stabilized, but life is busy trying to deal with publishing matters and my new and intensive teleseminar course about book promotion and marketing. However, that is leading to some surprising new friendships. I am discovering a very large web of like-minded thinkers by doing the internet research that is necessary to my marketing plan. I’m certainly not alone in Hearing The Voice of God, or in my case, The Holy Spirit. This is the hot new topic in the book world today and it will probably swell to the same crescendo as did the subject of Near Death Experiences when the first life after death books began to hit the news.

I have now cyber-met two authors whose books have just become bestsellers in this genre and I am in a flurry of email communication with each of them. Both of their opened books (Your Soul’s Plan and When God Spoke To Me) are upon my desk, filling my few spare moments during this very busy week. But, I can’t leave either book alone and it’s actually fun to mix the reading of them, picking up whichever one is the closest at hand. Though I’m nowhere near finished reading either one, I can emphatically and heartily recommend them to you:

The first one is Robert Schwartz’s Your Soul’s Plan: Discovering the Real Meaning of the Life You Planned Before You Were Born (www.yoursoulsplan.com) which is so convincingly written that you can, for the first time, imagine that you, yourself, are actually the one who wrote the blueprint for the life you are now living. The author has selected a handful of the number of actual cases that he investigated using four very talented psychics and channelers to access the moments before birth spent actually planning: physical illnesses, deafness and blindness, drug addiction, alcoholism, death of a loved one and accidents, to happen during the course of a life on Earth. Through contacts with their spirit guides, each individual interviewed was able to recreate the pre-birth counseling session to learn of the spiritual goals, which the soul had set out to accomplish through hardships on the material plane.

I already knew quite a lot about pre-birth planning. At least, I knew that it existed and why… from my own interviews with The Holy Spirit, and that is covered in my new book, In Secret Diffusion: The Upper Realm Answers Questions About Earth (coming out later this Spring). But I found the details about how this actually plays out in real people’s lives, very fascinating and confirming. Robert Schwartz writes so well about a complex subject and he clearly has a deep understanding of the spiritual realities concerning reincarnation. I am constantly filled with admiration for the quality of focus that he brings to each individual case.

I share his curiosity and thirst for subjects along this line and I know the privilege and great luxury of being in touch with a Higher Consciousness willing to answer any question put to It. However, Schwartz curbs his own personal enthusiasm, and extensive background knowledge of the whole subject in general, and hones in with questions specific to the life of the person under discussion, who is also in on the interview. Then, between case histories, he uses his keen understanding to fill the reader in on this completely unknown facet of behind-the-scenes administration of human reincarnation. There is solid evidence that our life events are not accidental.

This book is making huge waves and has already been translated into an impressive number of languages. Your Soul’s Plan has already garnered a long list of testimonials from some very important individuals and publications. Please go to Robert Schwartz’s website or to Amazon.com and order this book. It will revolutionize your thinking.

Next post, I will fill you in on DavidPaul Doyle’s book, When God Spoke To Me. (www.thevoiceforlove.com). (Amazon.com) I have already dubbed him the Weaver of Basket-Cases, because reading the many short, beautiful stories reduced me to helpless tears and I became such a basket-case of sobbing emotion. If you like to cry, this is the book for you!

Posted in 1 | No Comments »

What Did I Finally Wind Up Saying In Revealing My Private Life?

Tuesday, March 16th, 2010

On February 9th, I wrote my blog about having to sit down and figure out how to introduce my new book, In Secret Diffusion: The Upper Realm Answers Questions About Earth. Since this is my first attempt to go public about the fact that I have had an ongoing conversation with an invisible Being, Whom I refer to as The Holy Spirit, I was admitting to feeling a little awkward about being candid about my private life.

I now share with you the preface that will appear in my book, for better or for worse:

I write this preface just before sending the manuscript to the publisher. These are the final moments to pull such startling material back from a brink where I, unexpectedly, now find myself. For three decades, I have been a closet clairaudient, carrying on a rich life of communication with unseen Upper dimensions, speaking to The Holy Spirit through my spiritual persona, Linda Layli, Layli Linda, with no plans at all to go public. My copious journals will remain private but the following questions and answers now seem to be timely and of interest to a general audience.

Thirty years ago, life for me was turned upside down when I began “hearing Voices.” I went through several predictable stages, including a brief hospital stay and a label of Schizophrenia. Alarmed, with children to raise, I managed to squelch the inner sound track which was interfering with my daily life. I then continued a normal routine with no counseling or medication. That held steady for fifteen years but in 1995, the lid blew off again when I realized that I could, very clearly, hear a Voice in my head. This time, I listened but didn’t tell anyone

Thus, began my double life. No confessions this time. After the initial rocky stages settled down, I learned that these are the traumatic symptoms of an inner hearing channel being opened. I was merely becoming clairaudient, not going crazy. As this book explains, there are often disturbing inner levels which newly-awakened souls must traverse, in order to escape a minefield of negative entities hovering within the planet‘s astral layer. It’s my theory that some people who are considered crazy might simply be stuck in this tricky psychic realm close to the Earth’s surface. That’s one of my reasons for sharing this material.

I owe so much to authors who have put themselves on the line bringing understanding about hidden realities: Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, On Death and Dying; Dr. Raymond A. Moody, Jr., Life After Life; and Dr. Joel L. Whitton, Life Between Life, all published groundbreaking studies of near death experiences, making it possible for so many to confess their secret afterlife moments. No, I never died. Michelle Belanger, author of Psychic Vampire Codex, took the risk of revealing her own energy-vampire reality and helped many people who have that same condition, as well as those who might have been victimized by it. No, I am not a vampire of any sort. Neale Donald Walsch, Conversations With God, made it wildly acceptable to speak directly to God. Yes, I do speak to God, Whom I address as The Great Creative Force, but mostly, I communicate directly with The Holy Spirit. Every time someone steps out of his comfort zone, and shares his delicate secrets, it helps someone else to do the same thing.

My co-author, The Holy Spirit, has been very much involved in every step of this book production, but has let me decide whether to come totally out of the closet, or to allow my spiritual name, Linda Layli, Layli Linda, to cover for me. That’s the way it has always been between us. As the living human on the planet, I’m not a puppet but must sink or swim, muddling along in my own fashion and making my own decisions. I was never instructed to deliver this information in the first place. I simply find it interesting and believe that others will too. This must be the same culminating point that each of the courageous authors listed above reached while finalizing their own manuscripts, knowing what a firestorm it might kick up. I am so very grateful that they followed their hearts and let their record stand, no matter what the consequences.

Surely, your overriding question at this moment must be: “How does she know that her Inner Voice is that of The Holy Spirit?” I simply figured it out. There was no annunciation and without clairvoyance I do not see within; but I have always been deeply in love with God. I had been talking away to Him for many decades without expecting to hear anything in reply. The dramatic opening of my hearing channels at age forty-two meant that I was suddenly open to contact by the unhappy earthly psychic level mentioned above. It’s my conclusion that humans, experiencing a sudden ability to hear within, must first deal with this confusing swamp of renegade consciousnesses. So I found myself, out of habit, holding the Hand of The Holy Spirit to help me get through the confusion. It wasn’t much different from the way that I’d been living my life all along, happily praying like a trusting child. Only now I could hear answers in reply.

I have a theory that each person who establishes an auditory connection with the Other Side is solely responsible for the personality which that Voice will eventually settle into. Whomever I had assumed the speaker to be, early on, would be the role that the Voice would take, because I had signaled the level that I was willing to accept. A friend became frightened by a Voice announcing Itself to her inner mind and would not listen until she made peace with the idea that she was only hearing her own higher self. She now happily discusses personal matters with an inner Claudia. Others might clue into a name such as Ramtha or Seth and learn profound teachings from the past. I feel sure that these personalities are all representations of the same Great Consciousness coming to us on whatever terms we will allow. So we human receivers write the ticket, and from then on, our prayers and conversations go to whatever address we put on the spiritual envelope.

Just as I was free to decide for myself the identity of my Inner Speaker, I give you the freedom to speculate about my conclusions. If you believe that these answering words are only coming from King Kong, that’s okay with me. But you’ll have to agree that He’s a plenty smart gorilla.

Please also understand that this conversation covers a twelve-year period, so it may not always flow in a logically unfolding pattern. Some background information might not be covered until the latter chapters because their subjects are too complicated to present at the beginning. Consequently, this book’s contents resemble an upended puzzle box rather than a body of knowledge that can be tied up in a neat little bow. However, a few pieces do fit together nicely. May you have good luck in finding them.  

Posted in 1 | No Comments »

Life’s Changes Happen Suddenly

Sunday, March 7th, 2010

Unexpectedly, things were changing, one after the other. It did start with my sister’s sudden death and Valentine’s Day week filled with funeral arrangements and a quickly-arranged family reunion. But, since Kippy didn’t live with me, it’s hard to see any connection to the continuing frenetic activity. Let’s see if I can figure this out myself…why I still haven’t caught my breath after almost a month of a life in rearrangement mode:

My book, IN SECRET DIFFUSION, has been at the publishers for three weeks now. The final version of the manuscript was sent out on Valentine’s Day, the same weekend that Kippy died. I wanted it to be finished by the time she visited me so that I could concentrate on our activities, though she died before we got together. The cover took a week or two longer to finalize, but that amounted to bouncing versions back and forth between me and the artist, until we got a wonderful, most beautiful, result. Now, that artwork is being married to the entire front and back cover template and any day, I will receive an electronic version to approve or tweak. But it’s in good hands and I know that I will love our final result. Also in competent professional hands is the interior of the book which is being formatted to industry standards. At some unknown date in the near future, I’ll be sent an electronic proof copy of the entire formatted book which I must then carefully read and either correct or give my final approval. When I sign off on it, my book will go to press and I will wait eagerly for my first bound copies. Once we have such a lift-off, my application will wend its way through the Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com, and many other online booksellers, as well as the vast catalogs and distributors of books to bookstores, libraries, and public outlets. This will possibly culminate around the middle of April and I will be listed for everyone to see.

Right now, most of that operation is out of my hands and requires only short bursts of attention.

But back in January, I had initiated the marketing efforts for this new book, having learned that things happen slowly, or not at all, if one does not put great effort into publicizing and marketing a book. For my first one, HEY BOOMERS, DUST OFF YOUR BACKPACKS, I did a bit of marketing but mostly took my own advice and dusted off my own backpack for a four-month exploration of South America. Even so, that little book has climbed to #100 in the Senior Travel category on Amazon.com all by itself. Where would it be if I had given it the attention it deserved?

This time for this book, which has required me to ‘fess up about a long-hidden secret of mine: the fact that I (gasp!) Hear Voices…and that (double gasp!!)… I insist that it is The Holy Spirit to Whom I speak… This time, I am stepping onto the gangplank and am willing to jump into the unknown sea of having to quantify what it is that I’m talking about; while learning how to say anything at all about it; to possibly my greatest nightmare of Doubting Thomas’s, which I will deliberately attract to myself through these very marketing efforts. It is a weird and strange, self-shooting circle of which I have already experienced the briefest glimmer of someone’s rude behavior.

Anyway, I’ve joined a very competent group of authors taking a highly-intensive online training course from a proven marketing coach who teaches the ins and outs of modern internet marketing…definitely NOT spam…and my first few weeks of lessons taught me one thing that wasn’t in the course. I needed a dedicated work/study space for this, that was separate from my writing desk. There was just no room for both operations on the same desk. That realization led to a trip to my favorite thrift shop in the whole wide world on a mission to find the right furniture to get myself into business mode.

For years now, I have bemoaned the space-hogging sleep sofa that dominated my small living room and the large round dining table that fought constantly for primacy. Both had to go! The first tug on this sweater-thread came in the form of a lovely rectangular oak dining table that could also double as a desk. The second, third and fourth tug followed soon after in the form of a marble-topped corner cabinet, a rolltop desk and a smaller sleep sofa. Kaboom! Delivery was set for the first of last week. The old sofa and table would be carted away when the new ones arrived.

But I didn’t leave that sweater-unraveling alone at that. No, I had to go all the way down the pike to an injured knee and a remodeled kitchen. You see, there was this fine, double-doored freezer/fridge there for only $200, when they sell for $2000 originally. I’d long been wanting to get rid of my old refrigerator, if only to be able to clean behind it. It was wedged into a cramped place, but also its motor always seemed to be revving high and that was suspicious. The new one was an inch and a half too wide, but my dear neighbors, Walt & Dottie, came with me to inspect it and Walt declared that he could saw my cabinet and help me install the new one. Deal!

However, I got the bright idea that as long as the refrigerator was out of its spot, why didn’t I take the lifetime opportunity to re-tile the dark brown kitchen floor? I had done that years ago on another house. Self-stick tile makes it sooooo easy, as I recalled. And then, of course, once the old fridge was out it became obvious that I was going to have to paint the walls as well. My sweater-unthreading went on all last week, with kitchen stuff piled in the living room and cleaning, painting, floor preparing going on rapidly so that we’d be ready for the furniture delivery truck last Tuesday.

Working on the floor so long, albeit perched on a small stool, caused my right knee to flare up and get water on its little old brain. It does this now and then, but this time, Nurse Dottie insisted on a doctor’s visit and that led to an MRI. The doctor rarely sees me and took that opportunity to put me back in her diagnostic system, which is already starting to consume time. Meanwhile, Walt finished laying my tile. Bless him. Bless both of them – the best neighbors in the world.

By Thursday, my Business Kingdom was remarkably together. My kitchen is gorgeous; my floor is shiny celery green, and the fridge works perfectly. Thank goodness…it’s always a gamble when you buy second-hand. I sit at my new desk, aka my oak dining table, and survey a serene and happy space. I feel good about myself. I’m ready to take on my first radio interviewer: a forty-minute taped session with Rob McConnell of the Xzone Radio, in Canada, who has been interviewing the paranormal for many, many years. Surely, he won’t think I’m so strange. I had already sent material about my book and myself and a few suggestions for questions. I was psyched and looking forward to it, so glad that my heavy-duty house conversion was behind me and my knee could now be pampered. Talking on a phoned interview about my favorite subject would be a piece of cake. Right?

Wrong! I think I rattled poor Rob’s little brain. He wound up practically yelling at me when I said, quite honestly, that I couldn’t prove that I was talking to The Holy Spirit. “How are you going to sell any books if you can’t PROVE that fact?” Ummmm, I’m not going to sell any books anyway with this interview because they won’t even be available for six weeks. He rattled my little brain though because I didn’t think of the many good comebacks until after he had suspiciously-quickly terminated the interview. Now, if I can’t even talk to the liberal-minded, what a rocky ride I’m in for here. I have some homework to do to try to figure out how to handle these blind alleys.

Hey, has anybody ever been able to even prove the existence of God yet? I don’t think so. Why didn’t I say that to him? Ah well, he taught me a lot anyway.

But serendipity came to my rescue yesterday when I got into a long conversation at the beauty parlor with a lovely lady named Margarita who absolutely GOT what I was saying and can’t wait to buy the book. I never chat with the other customers while I get my hair cut! She didn’t have an appointment, but got in for a permanent anyway. Timing. Serendipity. A new InterGalactic Friend discovered.

And again, we’re off to the races.

Posted in 1 | No Comments »