Book Amplifier Tour Nancy I. Nelson Cloud Hands

 

In Cloud Hands: The Disclosure Files – Book One, a summer assignment takes an unexpected turn as hidden operations and emerging truths come to light. Nancy J. Nelson sets the stage with a diplomat entering a new routine that soon reveals fractures in long-standing structures of power.

Vicki Heywood accepts a temporary position looking after two teenagers, thinking it will offer space to regroup after loss. Instead, the environment around her begins to show signs of deeper complexities—unusual technologies, suppressed treatments, and quiet references to off-record contact with nonhuman intelligence. At the center of these discoveries is the Partnership, an influential conglomerate that operates beyond political constraints. As Vicki and the teens encounter more evidence of its influence, their situation grows more precarious. Their attempts to understand what is happening draw them into a larger movement connected to global shifts and an unfolding awakening. The story examines how unexpected alliances form during turbulent times and how individual decisions can interact with broader forces shaping the future.

Nancy J. Nelson is an author known for compelling narratives that explore mind-expanding questions about humanity’s next steps. Her most recent book, Cloud Hands: The Disclosure Files – Book One, has earned acclaim among readers drawn to thoughtful, visionary science fiction. Nelson comes into writing after 25 years as a diplomat with the U.S. Department of State and now lives in Los Angeles. Learn more through her website.

 

 Amazon: https://bit.ly/480bFbm

 

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/243373375-cloud-hands

Prologue

 

I used to think this story was about me. After all, isn’t everyone the

star of their own life? It was only later that I realized we are all just

bit players in some ever-repeating, cosmic pattern—a fractal pattern

made up of love, hardship, desperation, joy, sorrow, and hope.

Let’s never forget about hope.

—Victoria Heywood

Excerpt from address to the UN

 

There was a little cluster of forget-me-nots arranged in a vase on the table in front of Vicki. They had been Beth's favorite flowers. Small and vibrant, so cute they made you smile. Just like Beth herself.

 

The waitress put a cup of coffee and a pastry before her, and the same in front of the man seated across the table. Kurt Martinsson—she had called him Professor Martinsson when he taught her senior business seminar a decade earlier—added some sugar to his cup before he took a sip. Well-built, dark hair with a touch of gray at his temples. He had aged well. His bespoke sports jacket, manicured nails, and expensive haircut suggested he was also doing well.

 

“It was kind of you to look me up, Professor Martinsson, especially after all this time. To be honest, I haven’t been getting out much.” She hadn’t been getting out at all. What was the point? Their parents had died in a car accident several years back, and now Beth was gone too. Per her request, there had been a closed casket; the chemo had ravaged her body and taken all her hair. There was no amount of makeup, no wig good enough, that could have fixed that.

 

“I heard about your sister, Vicki; I’m so sorry. I understand you left your position at the Department of State to look after her.”

 

Beth had argued against that. “I’m young and strong; I’ll be able to beat this—there’s no reason for you to leave the job you worked so hard to get. Mom and Dad were so proud that you became a diplomat—they wouldn’t have wanted you to give that up.” She had been wrong about being able to beat the cancer, but right that their parents had been proud. They would have been just as proud to see their youngest open up her own flower shop in a prime location in downtown Los Angeles.

 

“I took a year’s leave of absence when it became clear my sister’s illness was terminal. I have another four months before I either return to work or submit my official resignation.”

 

“So, you haven’t decided what you'll do?” Professor Martinsson cocked his head to one side and looked at her. He had finished his croissant. She hadn’t even started on hers.

 

“No, I haven’t. Every time I start thinking about it...” She looked down at her coffee cup. It was too hard to think. Too hard to think about the future or anything else. She had officially shut down Beth’s flower shop the week after her sister died, although it hadn’t been in operation for a couple of months before that. At Beth’s urging, her two part-time employees had both found other jobs, and the shop sat dark and shuttered. She supposed she should do something—make arrangements to sell the building or rent it out —but she just didn’t have the bandwidth.

 

“I have an idea that might interest you. I need to do a lot of traveling over the next few months. My two children are more than old enough to stay home by themselves—Brad is sixteen and Jessica is twenty-two—especially since there’s household staff. But I’d feel better if someone was around to keep tabs on them specifically.”

 

He paused, then casually asked, “You do still have a Top-Secret Clearance, don’t you?”

 

Vicki looked up from her coffee and stared.

Maggie Blackbird Born Like This Book Tour and Giveaway

 

She went back in time to rescue him.

She never counted on falling in love…

Born Like This

Maizemerized Book 2

by Maggie Blackbird

Genre: Historical Paranormal Time-Travel Romance

She went back in time to rescue him.  She never counted on falling in love…

Alma Whitecrow prefers hunting and fishing with men, not romancing them. But hearing about the roguishly handsome coureur de bois, who saved her sister from the Dakota, haunts her thoughts and dreams. Well-versed in surviving the wilds, Alma resolves to travel to the mid-eighteenth century, as her sister once did, to save the man from impending death.

Charlot Baudelaire thumbs his nose at society’s expectations, content living as a loner, trading with people he calls the Saulters. If he needs a woman for the night, there is always a willing maiden. What he doesn’t expect is a spunky and stubborn female warrior to challenge him.

Charlot is not the man Alma dreamed about, and Alma is not the kind of woman Charlot pursues. But the longer they are together, the more drawn to each other they become, until Alma faces the biggest decision of her life. Stay with a man who may never reciprocate her love, or return to her Ojibway home and bland existence.

 

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Born For This

Maizemerized Book 1

She’s always been obsessed with her ancestors, and now he’s offering her a chance to live with them... forever.

Second-year university student Edie Whitecrow gobbles up each course on Indigenous studies. If only she could experience the lives of her Anishinaabe ancestors instead of reading about them. On her way to a Halloween party decked out as a historical Ojibway maiden, she spies a corn maze in a spot known to be barren.

A scarecrow figure beckons Edie to enter with the enticing offer of making her biggest wish come true. She jumps at the chance and finds herself in the past, face to face with the man who haunts her dreams—the handsome brave Thunder Bear. He claims he’s spent twelve years waiting for Gitche Manidoo to send her to him.

Life in the eighteenth century isn’t what Edie romanticized about, though. When her conscience is tested, she must choose between the modern day or the world of her descendants—where the man she was born for resides.

 

What readers are saying:

“This novel is true to history while still spinning a lovely tale of love. I highly recommend it to anyone who loves historical and time travel romances.” –Goodreads Reviewer

“The story had me glued to the pages from start to finish. Loved and recommend this book.” –B&N Reviewer

“Based on prior reading from the author, I knew this would be a great book. I had no idea just how much I’d love it.” –BookBub Reviewer

“Once I started reading, I was not putting this book down.” –Goodreads Reviewer

 

This is one of the best romance novels I’ve ever read in my entire life. This book will pull you in full force and make you feel so many different emotions.” –Goodreads Reviewer

 

 

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Smashwords * BookStrand * Bookbub * Goodreads

An Ojibway from Northwestern Ontario, Maggie resides in the country with her husband and their fur babies, two beautiful Alaskan Malamutes.  When she’s not writing, she can be found pulling weeds in the flower beds, mowing the huge lawn, walking the Mals deep in the bush, teeing up a ball at the golf course, fishing in the boat for walleye, or sitting on the deck at her sister’s house, making more wonderful memories with the people she loves most.

 

Website * Facebook * X * Instagram * Bluesky * Bookbub * Amazon * Goodreads

 

Follow the tour HERE for special content and a $20 giveaway!

Enter the Born Like This Giveaway Here

Book Amplifier Tour Mike Bond Crude

 

As governments, corporations, and public institutions face mounting pressure around security and global stability, Crude by Mike Bond frames its story inside that same intensity. A sudden emergency warning becomes the pivot point for a crisis shaped by political friction and worldwide stakes.

The story launches with a startling emergency alert warning Americans to take shelter from a nuclear strike. As global tensions skyrocket, the U.S. moves closer to a confrontation with Russia. Ross Bullock, Rawhide Energy’s CEO, steps in with a warning he hopes will stop disaster. But instead of alerting the public, the press turns the message into a political battleground. Things escalate when a Rawhide Energy platform is blown apart in the South China Sea, killing hundreds and signaling that the threat is deeper than anyone realized. Crossing high-stakes regions and power structures, Crude explores how political aggression, financial pressure, and global intelligence collide when the world is already teetering on the edge.

Mike Bond is the author of nearly a dozen bestselling novels and an ecologist, war and human rights journalist, award-winning poet, and international energy expert. His work spans more than thirty countries across seven continents, often drawn from firsthand experiences in remote, dangerous, and war-torn regions. His novels are praised worldwide for their intricate plots, vivid settings, and explosive pacing. His reporting has covered wars, revolutions, terrorism, and major environmental crises. Learn more at his website. 

 

Amazon: https://bit.ly/4ocGtKG

 

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/214299686-crude

B L O O D  I N  T H E  WAT E R

 

The shark hit so hard he thought it was a ship keel out of the deep, its gritty hide rasping his thigh and its huge tail

ripping a dive fin off his foot. He yanked a repellant tube from his divepack, fumbled and lost it, couldn’t see it in his headlamp, faced the shark but it wasn’t there, was above him, to the left, below, grinning jaws.

He dove, grabbing for the repellant, watching the shark. It attacked, feinted and dodged, the biggest tiger shark he’d ever seen. His hand bumped the repellant, knocking it away. He grasped for it, trying to circle to face the shark, to stay upright despite the missing fin. Don’t panic.

The shark dove, then rose toward him, teeth glinting in his head‐ lamp. His wrist grazed the repellant, driving it lower. He snapped on his Orca torch, looked around frantically for Two, but the other diver wasn’t there.

Don’t panic.

He sank deeper. His face touched the tube. He grabbed and squeezed it, repellant blinding his mask. The shark circled once, slid into the depths.

The repellant faded. He coughed, realized he had spit out his mouthpiece. He shoved it in, gurgled water, coughed and spit it out. His legs and feet were still there. The shark had just nicked him, tested him. Maybe it had smelled blood from when he’d torn his knee climbing out of the sub.

Or blood from someone else?

Where was Two?

The shark darted beneath him. He wanted to shine his torch at it, but that might attract it, anger it. He pulled in his legs and yanked out a second tube. Black repellant spurted out.

Don’t panic.

One tube left. The rebreather thundered with his panting. Larger and larger, the shark nosed toward him through clouds of repellant, crunching its jaws.

He ripped off his divepack, the rebreather hissing, and smashed the shark’s snout. It dove, tail slamming him sideways, swung round and began to circle him, closer and closer.

Don’t panic.

Faster the shark circled. With only one fin he couldn’t keep up; it would get him. He fired the last repellant.

It clouded the water and he couldn’t see the shark, only felt the crush of water as it smashed past, couldn’t hear over his own frantic gasps. Choking and crying, he shoved his arms back through the divepack straps, tugged up his legs against his body.

Beyond his torch light the watery darkness expanded forever. Without Two, how could he finish? Should he return to the sub? Maybe Two was already there, had abandoned the mission because of the shark? There’d been no message from the sub.

The water grew colder, darker; he was sinking too deep. The repellant was gone. With tiger sharks, he remembered, when there’s one, there’s many.

His watch showed 38 feet. He couldn’t see the shark. Fish schooled past, fusiliers or jacks.

01:52, the watch said. One hour left. If one diver didn’t reach the platform, the other had to do it alone. He turned to 347 degrees and began to swim, slowly kicking the one fin.

Above him the black waves glinted with light. He ached to go up, but the shark would attack if he rose to the top like a dying fish. He swam toward the light till it brightened the wavetops, then surfaced quickly to check his approach.

Before him, a wide platform of brilliant lights towered ten stories into the night, a glittering city on pylons over the waves, its gas flare blazing across the black sky.

A school of barracuda shot like missiles beneath him. He checked his watch: 02:03. He sank back into the gloom and swam northeast toward a huge metal strut descending into the sea. His first position – the southeast corner pylon.

In the oily rushing darkness there was no sign of Two. For an instant, he wondered who Two was – on missions like this you never knew the others’ names, you just had numbers.

Waves roiled round the pylon, greasy and oil-turbid, slamming him against the barnacles and clams on the steel. Bounced back and forth, he tried to set his course northwest at 320 degrees and almost swam into another strut of the pylon, so big it took him half a minute to go around it.

Fish struck his face – butterflies and angels and little trash feeders drawn to his headlamp.

The platform’s light dissolved down through the oily water. 02:19. He sank below it, watching for the shark, for sea snakes and scorpion fish.

At the platform’s center, a huge cluster of four pipes descended straight down. They roared with the gas rushing up them toward the platform above.

Easy part now. He touched a pipe, then yanked back his hand. That gas comes out of the earth at boiling point. And a burn attracts sharks just like blood.

He was losing it, too worried about the shark, about Two. Don’t panic.

Above him, waves lashed the pylons, fell back on themselves and raveled on. Oil streaked the surface, distorting the light from the platform’s flare. How strange, he thought, to bore into the earth. Suck life from the past. And burn it in the sky.

He dove down the pipes to fifty feet, where a great steel ring clamped the four pipes together. The bolts on each flange were big as his head. He unslung the divepack and took out a heavy package. It was solid, malleable, crescent-shaped, as long as his forearm. He pinned it into place under the lower flange, near one of the four hot pipes.

He placed a second charge against the upper flange. Unrolling the coil of wire that linked them to two other charges from his pack, he swam a third of the way around the pipes till the wire grew taut, and fitted the two other charges above and below the flange.

On the unrolled wire midway between the two pairs of charges was a water-sealed box like a soap dish that he tucked under the flange. He ran his finger and thumb along each wire; there were no kinks, no cuts.

02:47 – ahead of schedule, despite the shark. Even without Two. When his watch hit 02:55, he pushed a two-inch button on the right side of the water-sealed box, then swam up to twenty feet below surface and southward from the platform, rechecking his watch often for depth and direction. He craved to shine down his torch to check for the shark, but that would only attract it.

Don’t panic.

You can do this in your sleep. In seven minutes you’ll be back in the sub. Fuck Two.

Far below, a huge shape crossed the deep. No, he begged. Please no. He lit the torch. The shape undulated onward, trailing phosphores‐ cence. A giant squid.

But now he’d turned on his torch.

The Book of Four Journeys by Veronica del Valle

 

Every traveler eventually encounters a bend in the path—an unexpected turn that alters the course ahead. The Book of Four Journeys by Veronica del Valle focuses on these pivotal shifts, following four characters as their journeys extend beyond what they imagined. Each story emerges from the moment a new horizon comes into view.

The Book of Four Journeys introduces four separate tales linked by the idea that every adventure changes the one who undertakes it. The stories center on Alfalfa Spooly, Mumik and Pimnik, Neboo McCloudy, and Lincoln Jax—each encountering a path that leads into uncertainty, risk, and discovery.

Alfalfa Spooly, a dedicated postman, takes on a mission that requires him to step across the threshold into the unknown, forcing him to face challenges far beyond the routines he knows. Siblings Mumik and Pimnik begin in different places but move through unfamiliar territories as they search for one another, uncovering new dangers and surprises along the way. Neboo McCloudy, a grumpy but determined creature, confronts his greatest fears as he seeks a secret treasure connected to a world beyond what he understands. And Lincoln Jax, an orphan girl driven by longing and curiosity, travels toward a hidden kingdom that may hold the answers she has been seeking.

Across these four stories, Veronica del Valle weaves adventures that blend peculiar characters, unpredictability, and the quiet courage required to face the unknown.

Veronica del Valle is the author of The Word-Keeper and The Book of Four Journeys. She holds an MA in Creative Writing from Kingston University and has worked as an editor and writer for news organizations and magazines in both London and Argentina. She has also taught creative writing at Universidad de San Andrés. Now based in Buenos Aires, she continues to write stories shaped by her love of language, imagination, and adventure. Learn more at her website and on Instagram.

 

Amazon: https://bit.ly/47XykFd

 

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58025684-the-book-of-four-journeys

What My Daughter Taught Me About Writing

Children, I’ve learned, are the sharpest editors: curious, unsparing, and attuned to truth in ways adults often forget. One such child is my nine-year-old daughter, Tomiko. Wild-hearted and keenly observant, she’s taught me as much—perhaps more—about writing for children than any book or editor ever could.

If I had to distill the things I’ve learnt from her, it would take the shape of six essential reminders:

1. Children have an extraordinary radar for plot holes. If something doesn’t make sense, they’ll find it instantly, and let you know. They spot every inconsistency, every lazy sentence, every moment when the writer is no longer fully awake.

2. Logic matters as much as magic. If an imp appears, it must have a reason to be there. If a door opens into another world, it must do so with purpose.

3. Stories must earn attention. Adults might politely finish a chapter. Children will simply walk away.

4. Rhythm is key. Not just in language, but in the movement of the tale. A story must breathe, shift, and hold wonder.

5. Children don’t read to admire your prose; they read to believe.

6. Stories must find their way not only through the narrative, but into the reader. They must stir something real. The wilder the tale, the truer the emotion must be.

Over time, I’ve come to understand two things:

One: children don’t ask for perfection. They ask to be met with awe, coherence, and heart. And two: the best children’s stories are written for children, but they’re also written from the part of us that still remembers what it felt like to be one.

 

 

Kay Maree Greed Release Tour and Giveaway

 

Some desires can't be satisfied... only claimed.

Greed

7 Deadly Sins MC #4

by Kay Maree

Genre: Dark MC Romance

PAYTON
Greed – Defined by the dictionary as an excessive and insatiable desire for more wealth, power, or possessions than one needs.
I’m not the type of girl who wants or needs all that.
The only thing I am greedy for is my freedom.
Freedom to live.
Freedom to be free.
But...
Darkness is my burden.
It clings to me daily, trying to drag me down into its cold clutches.
I do my best to fight its pull, but sometimes surrendering to its power is more alluring than living in fear.
Pain = Love Bear or Man?
Being with another man scared me more than the darkness chasing me, but then I met him...
He knocked down all my carefully constructed walls...
He unlocked all my dark fantasies I had kept hidden for so long, and he savoured every single one, stoking the fire to a crescendo that living without him now wasn’t an option.
Jag was my Dark Broken Angel...
The man who brought me back to life.

JAG
Payton came waltzing into my life with a broken smile that drew me in.
Had me craving things I had blocked out years ago.
In her mind, Love = Pain, and I was on a mission to prove her wrong at every turn, even if that meant watching her from the shadows until she was ready for me...
Us.
One sheltered look lured me in.
One kiss brought me back to life.
All her dark fantasies she locked away, afraid to set free, were now mine.
Payton is my imperfect, perfect sin...

 

Amazon * Bookbub * Goodreads

**Don’t miss the rest of the series!**

Find them on Amazon

Kay Maree is a mother and a wife. Born and raised in Newcastle, NSW Australia.

Her passion was to show her children that you are never too old to make your dreams come true.

Which is what lead her to write and publish Angel Mine in 2017.

With support from her family and friends, Kay has managed to accomplish something she never thought she could.

And she just hopes you fall in love with her characters as much as she has.

 

Website * Facebook *Instagram * Bookbub * Amazon * Goodreads

Follow the tour HERE for special content and a $50 giveaway!

Enter the Greed Giveaway Here

The Sovereign Self Book Amplifier Tour

 

The sixties often prompt new questions about presence, emotional steadiness, and what it means to move through life with clarity. These ideas are at the heart of The Sovereign Self by Stacey Dutton.

In The Sovereign Self, Stacey Dutton examines how entering our sixties brings a shift from performing roles to inhabiting a more grounded internal truth. She reflects on emotional mastery as a daily practice of noticing, naming, and choosing, rather than reacting from habit. The book explores shifting relationships, the body’s evolving needs, the role of stillness in cultivating self-trust, and the emergence of joy as intentional rather than accidental. Dutton also considers how time, identity, boundaries, and self-definition transform during this chapter. Her reflections offer readers a pathway toward deeper awareness, alignment, and emotional sovereignty.

Stacey Dutton is an entertainment executive, creative producer, and emotional mastery advocate with more than three decades of experience across the music, television, and film industries. She was the original on-air host of TLC/Discovery’s Clean Sweep and later the casting director for the Emmy Award–winning Clean House on The Style Network. Through her developing platform, LiveSovereignSelf.com, she guides women in their third act toward clarity, boundaries, and emotional sovereignty. Stacey lives in New Preston, Connecticut, with her husband and their rescue dog. Visit Stacey at her website and on Instagram.

  

Amazon: https://amzn.to/48rD71T

 

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/243569125-the-sovereign-self

 

 The Architecture of Emotional Mastery

 

“You have power over your mind—not outside events.

Realize this, and you will find strength.”

~ MARCUS AURELIUS

    For a woman to be emotionally masterful in her sixties is not about mere resilience; it is about refinement. It is not about enduring hardship, but about engaging with life’s complexities with intention, intelligence, and grace.

EMOTIONAL MASTERY AS A DISCIPLINE

By our stage of life, we have encountered loss, reinvention, and profound shifts in identity. We have known both the exhilaration of new beginnings and the ache of things left behind. And yet, despite all we have lived through, true emotional mastery is not something we inherit simply because of experience. Rather, it is something we cultivate with discipline.

The difference between women who struggle through their later years and those who move through them with deep, unshakable presence is not related to their circumstances. It depends on their level of emotional mastery. Those who engage with their emotions deliberately, rather than being ruled by them, typically step into a state of emotional sovereignty—a place where external forces no longer dictate their internal stability.

MASTERY VS. SOVEREIGNTY

Mastery, in its truest sense, is about deep understanding more than control. To master our emotions does not mean suppressing them or forcing ourselves into an artificial state of positivity. It means learning to engage with our emotions as they arise, discerning which of them requires action and which requires release. It means standing in the midst of uncertainty, grief, or change and responding rather than reacting.

 

Sovereignty is the natural result of emotional mastery. When a woman reaches a place where her emotions no longer control her—a place where she can sit with discomfort without fear or experience joy without guilt—she becomes sovereign over her inner world. She is no longer subject either to the whims of others or to old wounds and the weight of societal expectations. She does not seek permission to feel, to express, or to change. She moves through life with an authority that cannot be given or taken away.

If emotional mastery is the discipline, emotional sovereignty is the reward.

THE MIND AS AN EMOTIONAL ATHLETE

Much like physical strength, emotional mastery requires active engagement. A woman does not wake up one morning emotionally agile, just as she does not develop high muscle tone overnight. Emotional engagement is a practice, like going to Pilates class or lifting weights a few times a week. And yet, many women enter their sixties believing that emotional maturity should be automatic, a natural byproduct of their age.

This is a fallacy. A woman who neglects her emotional strength and agility will find herself bound by old wounds, reactive tendencies, and outdated narratives.

But a woman who deliberately trains her mind—who practices stillness, discernment, and inquiry—will discover a different reality. She will no longer be pulled into every emotional undercurrent. She will not be at the mercy of her past. She will move through her days with a kind of cultivated stillness, unshaken by the temporary and attuned to what truly matters.

This is the foundation of everything that follows in her life.

  

Writing Process & Creativity

 

How did you research your book?

The research for my book came straight out of self-reflection and my own lived experience—the good, the bad, and the downright ugly. Every phase of my life, from childhood to this newest chapter, has taught me something worth examining. I also read philosophy every day, especially the Stoics, which at this point is like a form of therapy for me.

 

Where do you get your ideas?

This book was literally born from the journaling I’ve been doing over the past couple of years. I jot down notes after reading passages that hit me in the gut, and I’m constantly writing little reminders to myself about the things I still need to work on (lots of material right there!). So what began as my own personal manifesto—basically a handbook for keeping myself sane—eventually had me thinking, “Why not share it?”

 

What sets your book apart from others in your genre?

My book isn’t coming from a clinician, a guru, or someone pretending to have all the answers. It comes from someone who has lived through the transitions, reinventions, losses, joys, and identity shifts that women experience in their 50s, 60s, and beyond. Most books for women in midlife lean heavily into reinvention, “you go girl” energy, or vague self-help slogans. In mine, I’m offering a more refined approach: emotional intelligence, discernment, self-reflection, boundaries, and presence, speaking to women who are smart, self-aware, and tired of superficial advice.

 

 

Your Writing Life

 

Do you write every day? What’s your schedule?

I always write at home, usually with my dog on my lap which is challenging at times because his comfort takes priority way over mine. I journal first thing in the morning and then again in the evening; I write something every day, whether it’s pages and pages or just a couple sentences.

 

 

Behind the Book

 

Why did you choose this setting/topic?

I don’t think I chose this topic as much as the topic chose me. As I worked on my own personal growth and journaled about it, I saw this book begin to take shape.

 

Which author(s) most inspired you?

I’m most inspired by The Stoics. Stoic philosophy originated in ancient Greece and Rome and teaches one essential idea: you can’t control life, but you can absolutely control your response to it. At its core, Stoicism emphasizes emotional steadiness, self-mastery, perspective, and the ability to stay grounded even when life is chaotic. It’s about separating what you can influence from what you can’t and anchoring your peace in that distinction. Most modern therapeutic frameworks, especially Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) (which is the most widely used form of therapy today) are directly built on Stoic principles.

 

 

Fun & Lighthearted Qs

 

What’s your go-to comfort food?

Junk food: I LOVE potato chips. I’m all about savory foods. I also love sushi – my absolute fave.

 

What are you binge-watching right now?

The last series I binge watched was The Righteous Gemstones. BRILLIANTLY funny!

 

If you could time-travel, where would you go?

If I could time travel, I’d go straight ahead a century. I want to know if we’re living like the Jetsons, zipping around in flying cars or if the planet is even still thriving at all??

 

What 3 books would you bring to a desert island?

The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday, The Catcher in The Rye by J.D. Salinger, and The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. Some philosophy, some laughs, and some entertaining fantasy.

 

What’s something that made you laugh this week?

About five minutes ago my 20-pound, VERY reserved and well-behaved dog let out an enormously loud fart. I had no idea dogs could fart so loudly.