This is Read an E-Book Week! To celebrate I have cancelled my KDP exclusive e-book contract on Amazon and have published my three novels on Smashwords. They are now available in all formats for any e-reader. Better yet – they are on sale! To add to my excitement, I have launched newly designed covers created for me by Biomance Entertainment. The next printing of books will have the new cover.
Click on the cover to be directed to my Smashwords Author Page. When ordering use coupon code new25. The discount is only valid during Read an E-Book Week, March 3 – 9, 2013.
Prologue from The Life of Meyer
“Tradition tells us that forty days before a male child is conceived, the name of his bride-to-be is announced from heaven.
There is a soul mate for everyone—however, not everyone finds his or her soul mate. We can spend our lives searching for our true partner. If we are one of the lucky ones, we find the match that was made in heaven just for us, the one we are meant to be with, and we will live a long, happy, and productive life together.
Finding that perfect partner goes beyond the coupling of two hearts destined for oneness, beyond two half-souls joined in completion. It is our fate, our destiny.
I’m Meyer Minkowski and this is my story of love, life, and my struggle to find my soul mate. In order to give you the whole picture, I have to start at the beginning, when I was four years old, because that is when destiny found me, although I didn’t know it then.
Now, you have to understand, no one’s life is just a single strand of thread. On the contrary, each of our lives are a tapestry, woven intricately with the lives of those with whom we cross paths and with whom we share history, destiny. In these pages you will find the strands that make up my life’s tapestry; my history; my struggle—and the path that led me home to my soul mate.”
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The “Meant to Be” series is a family saga that explores life, love, relationships and finding that one person who we are meant to spend our lives with.
Some families are born and others are born of circumstance, but the bond of family is the same either way, for it is not about blood—it is about taking care of each other. Mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, cousins, neighbors and friends—they will all have a part to play in each other’s lives and the lives of total strangers.
These incredible families endure. With faith and family values they thrive.
Through love and laughter, tragedy and tears, they band together—it’s all meant to be.
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Growing Together, the fourth book in the “Meant to Be” series will be coming out later this month. This will be followed by writing an historical trilogy set in mid-1800 — 1900s about the previous generations of the people you have grown to love in the “Meant to Be” series; their journeys to the United States and on the Oregon Trail. It has been so much fun researching the history of that time period and visiting several places along the Oregon Trail. These were amazing people who crossed the continent to start new lives. I hope you will enjoy these novels as much as I have enjoyed writing them.
I hope you will check out the many authors at Smashwords (starting with me, of course) who are participating in Read an E-Book Week by discounting their e-books. Let me know what titles or genres of books you like to read. Happy reading to all!
Meant to Be book 2, The Couples is about people who may belong together and how the world around them helps them, or sometimes defeats them in their search for a life partner. It follows the lives of couples, their friends, and their support systems, as they explore their relationships. The Couples continues to follow the lives of people we met in The Life of Meyer in addition to new friends and families, although the book may be read as a stand alone.
I hope I have whet your appetite for some heartwarming romantic stories. To enter to win copies of my novels 
Good criticism comes from someone who is knowledgeable about writing and editing. It can be about one line, one chapter or an entire book. It consists of specific suggestions that improve my writing. That means a suggestion that mentions a specific problem and a solution that would correct that problem. I’ve written what I think are some excellent chapters for my books but when someone else reads them, they realize that they don’t help move my story along. When you’re busy in your role as a wordsmith, sometimes it is hard to see the forest for the trees. Good criticism can also come from someone who enjoys your genre, and is a potential reader of your efforts. This usually isn’t as specific but may help guide your story to your intended audience.
How many times have we been told that someone has an idea for the world’s greatest piece of literature but just hasn’t gotten around to writing it? Why do these people then give us their idea of sage advice on how to improve and what we should be writing? At least half of these people have trouble speaking in complete sentences let alone communicate a coherent thought. I smile and listen patiently to these well intentioned mental litterbugs. When I was in my career as a mathematician, I didn’t run into these types of people but now that I’m writing they seem to be coming out of the woodwork.
As soon as criticism becomes personal attacks, it’s time to excuse yourself and walk away. I sent a manuscript to an editor who must have been awfully angry with the world because he attacked everything short of my manhood in describing the problems with my manuscript. And I paid big money for his insults. I don’t mind negative critiques that I can learn from; but angry rants have no value.
The best critique I have received from my readers:
