National Association of Independent Writers & Editors
Member Benefit #6
NAIWE members are all listed in NAIWE’s free searchable database! The database can be accessed by members and non-members so instead of just hoping for traffic, you can have the confidence that anyone can easily find your NAIWE website. You’ll be able to communicate with readers and potential clients through the information on your NAIWE site.
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Author: Nancy Wright Beasley
Bravery was rare during the Holocaust in Lithuania, as many people tried to keep their head down and simply survive. However, the bravery of one small Catholic family saved thirteen Jews.
Chapter 1 opens in the year 1943 in the Kovno Ghetto with Edna Ipson, her son, and her husband escaping in the middle of the night. The tension is strong, and the details are vivid. Edna climbs up on a wagon, and once seated, she regrets how she climbed up, worried that she may have lost a button from her sweater. It is too dark to see, but she slides her hand along her sweater’s edge, counting the buttons. One . . . two . . . three . . . four . . . five. All there!
The reader is quickly captivated by this family to discover if they survive their escape. However, the next few chapters take the reader back in time, leaving the reader to continue wondering and unable to put the book down. Several chapters describe Edna’s life in Lithuania before the Nazis entered. Their simple but happy life was filled with family, friends, and love until 1941. Their life even included a baby daughter, leading the reader to wonder where this baby was during the escape from Kovno Ghetto.
Edna was given the nickname “Izzy’s Fire” when she was young and her husband’s sisters were trying to convince their mother to allow Edna and Izzy to marry. She was called “Simchah Fire,” everlasting flame or unquenchable fire. Izzy’s parents had wanted him to marry a wealthy woman so he could rise in society.
Nancy Wright Beasley is a gifted writer. She is able to keep the information accurate while entertaining the reader at the same time. Beasley brings the characters to life and helps the reader relive the events through the eyes of Edna. She showcases the tensions between family members who make different decisions and shares how families are ripped apart emotionally and physically.
As of 2015, five of the thirteen Jews that were saved were still living. Beasley interviewed survivors and read memoirs, which led her on a seven-year journey of Edna Ipson. This enlightening and empowering book was nominated for a People’s Choice Awards in 2006.
Member Benefit #5
Posts on your NAIWE blog may be promoted in The Edge: Success Strategies for People Who Work With Words, which is the NAIWE newsletter that has a subscriber list of over 8,000, as of October 2022. Both members and prospective clients subscribe to The Edge, so your blog posts promoted in the newsletter become calling cards to introduce yourself and advertise your books and services.
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Author: Christine Hassing
The physical loss of a loved one is always hard, and it takes time to accept and then process the end of a relationship and then the beginning of a life without the loved one. And even then, when loss comes again in life, feelings from a previous loss can resurface, and one is then forced to try to cope with both losses. This is what happened to the author Christine Hassing.
In To the Moon and Back to Me, Hassing writes in short journal entries as she processes the loss of her four-legged running partner Too. To the author, this partner was more than a dog; it was the member who completed their family.
“In my dream, I handed you to your daddy, our family of three, you as our baby girl, to make us better people, to make us complete. . . . The child I didn’t bring into the world in you I would find.”
When reading along, though the journal entries speak directly of images of Roo, Hassing’s first loss are hinted at in the pages.
The journal entries, which begin with dates to help the reader follow along, go back and forth from the present to memories — the present trying to cope with the current loss of Roo and the memories thinking about the encouragement Roo provided when running alongside.
Written in the first person to Roo, Hassing describes well the feelings of loss that she experiences over one year. The reader walks alongside the author as she processes her feelings, slowly comes to acceptance, and even finds a way to move on.
This book is a positive read for anyone struggling with a loss. It can help the reader process their emotions and grow, while learning to live when the circumstances have changed.
Even Climate Change Can’t Stop Love and Murder
Author: A.E.S. O’Neill
As Ginger and Alby cross the United States to relocate to their new witness protection home in Arizona, their search for love is marred by violent interludes with insurrectionists, white supremacists, and jihadists. But those are not enough antagonists for this author! The setting is an antagonist as well with the fury of climate chaos — storms beyond measure that bring about death and destruction.
Similar to the first book in this series, A.E.S. O’Neill writes an action-packed novel that takes place in a short time span, allowing a lot to happen in a single day.
Chapter 1, the hook for the novel, is written from the perspective of Ginger. The reader reads her thoughts on running away, on the Handlers managing Alby’s witness protection, and on Alby – as Ginger continues to analyze him out of the corner of her eye. This is particularly notable for a male author to successfully write from a female perspective, and to do so in the novel’s hook.
Written in the third person, this book seamlessly jumps to various characters. Jagger, the man hunting down Alby but currently too injured to complete the job, reminisces on his horrible upbringing. Ginger frequently thinks about what she is running away from, an overbearing mother who controls her acting career as well as much of her life. Alby has minimal thoughts about the present. He thinks about Ginger’s quirks and his need for a drink, but he does not think much about the past or the future – a characteristic emphasizing that Alby has been worn down by the past and doesn’t see himself as having much of a future.
Even Climate Change Can’t Stop Love and Murder, Volume 2: Paying the Price is the second novel of this romance thriller series and offers a uniquely American vision of love and murder, trauma and healing. However, this book could easily be read as a standalone novel. O’Neill provides the necessary information about the relationship between Ginger and Alby, for example, to make it so, including that Ginger is running away with a man she hardly knows who is on the run.
Traveling with Alby, Ginger shares information about her life with him, but not the dark secrets of her childhood, which explain so much of her strong, determined character. All the threads of the old life and new culminate at Tuzigoot National Monument, where Ginger and Alby once again face death.
Volume 1 opens in a high-action scene, whereas volume 2 opens with character development of Ginger and her relationship with Alby. While the high-impact scenes could have been filled with more emotion and intensity, the author clearly develops scenes and characters, and his overall story telling is outstanding. This is an excellent read, and one we greatly recommend.
Author: Claudia Riess
Amateur sleuths, Erika Shawn-Wheatley and Harrison Wheatley, are at it again! Erika, an art magazine editor, and Harrison, an art history professor, are in a Zoom meeting of individuals whose goal is to return African art looted during the colonial era. Olivia Chatham, a math instructor at London University, is speaking about a journal penned by her great-granduncle, Andrew Barrett, an active member of the Royal Army Medical Service during England’s 1897 “punitive expedition” launched against the Kingdom of Benin.
Olivia is about to disclose the task she hopes the sleuthing duo will accept when the proceedings are disrupted by unusual movement. Frozen disbelief erupts into a frenzy of calls for help as the group watches the murder of Timothy Thorpe, assistant curator of the British Museum, — witnesses to the brutal murder who can do nothing because they are on the other end of a worldwide conversation.
The opening pages are well written, with the scenes moving along vividly. The Zoom call was described with great detail, and the conversation among the guests flowed well. Then, the murder. It happened so quickly and within the same seamlessness without any buildup, leading to that paragraph needing to be read again.
While this is book fourth in the series, it is not necessary to have read the other books first. (The previous books in the series reveal how the couple grows and develops in their relationship.) Erika and Harrison are now married with an infant son. The interactions between the couple can be felt — they still act like newlyweds. The love scenes are vivid enough to show their love for one another without being too graphic. And in the scenes with their infant son, Erika’s love changes to that of motherly love. The author does an excellent job at describing both types of love.
Even as the couple begins to study the Barrett journal, the reader can feel the couple’s interest in going on another adventure. To bring some lightheartedness into the scene, Jake, Harrison and Erika’s chocolate Lab, requests a belly rub before resigning himself to the desk’s knee hole.
The author does well introducing more about Andrew Barrett through three journal entries, and separating the entries with conversations and note-taking by Erika and Harrison. The prologue was a scene from 1897 with Andrew Barrett discovering his first Benin treasure, and the first journal entry shows him having a handful of the treasures. Claudia Riess did an excellent job of intertwining the prologue with the information in the journal entries so that the reader can get to know Andrew Barrett better, as the second journal entry shows Andrew being infatuated with the barrister’s daughter.
This book is extremely well written, with scenes being created vividly and interactions occurring effortlessly. This author is gifted in storytelling. It was difficult to put this book down.
Member Benefit #4
The Member’s Edge is a monthly newsletter for NAIWE members that equips them to take advantage of their member benefits. It features NAIWE experts and grammar articles. From the Expert is a monthly newsletter for NAIWE members that educates them on a specific Board of Expert member’s expertise.
Visit the NAIWE website to see all of the member benefits.
In the cool air of autumn, the big, small town of Albuquerque is heating up! Bodies are piling up at the zoo — both inside and outside of the lion enclosure. Murder mystery lover in her spare time, and full-time zoo veterinarian, Miranda Scott finds herself in the middle of this deepening mystery. With a mobster for a godfather, and a father who has lots of secrets and gangster friends, Miranda begins to wonder if she might be the next victim. Can the voices in her head — Agatha, Raymond, and Sherlock — the handsome detective who’s smitten by her, or her mobster uncles help her solve the mystery before the animals she loves devour her?
If you love murder mysteries and animals, you’ll be captivated by Marcia Rosen’s latest book, Murder at the Zoo. Get ready to stay up late — brew a pot of coffee or open a bottle of wine — because you won’t be able to put this one down!
Murder Mystery Lover, Animal Lover, aka the DogEaredGhostwriter!
Member Benefit #3
A feature of your NAIWE website is a blog where you can reach out to readers and potential clients with business breakthroughs, new books published, speaking engagements, articles, tips, news, resources, and more! Every time you post on your NAIWE blog, NAIWE will re-post it on its social media accounts, expanding your reach even further! You can also look at the NAIWE Member Activity Feed to see how other members are using their member blogs.
Visit the NAIWE website to see all of the member benefits.
Today’s podcast episode is a Member of the Month episode, where we get to know one of our fellow NAIWE members.
Our guest today is William Butler.
William Butler, an honor student at Syracuse University, a former successful technology executive, built two BI startups and is now an author and speaker. He wrote two nonfiction Amazon #1 bestsellers: Highway to Homelessness: Road to Recovery and Navigate the Medical Maze. He was raised in Fayetteville, New York, and now resides in Westboro, Massachusetts. William Butler is a second-degree black belt, and his son is a producer in Hollywood.
Q: Please share a little of your professional history with our readers.
My name is William Reiley Butler, I was raised in Fayetteville, New York, and graduated from Syracuse University. I have one son, Billy, who is a producer in Hollywood. I am happy to say I had a good career selling IBM computers, built up two high-tech companies, and sold business intelligence software until retired. Four years after retirement, I began to write.
Q: How and when did you make this business a reality?
In 2018, I finished my first book. The business became a reality when I published my second book (Navigate the Medical Maze), which became a #1 Amazon bestseller, so I started my company Life’s Realities LLC. At that point in 2020 and 2021, the business became reality when my 3rd book (Highway to Homelessness: Road to Recovery) became a #1 Amazon bestseller.
Q: What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned so far in your career?
Some experts say that writing about your experiences in a book is the best way to start writing nonfiction, which encouraged me to do just that. Reader feedback lets me know what people had their lives around. The last two books are about real people, events, and places. Just last week, I received an email from a man named Dave, who said that in my blog an alcoholic brain can become normal along with the body features. He stopped drinking, his normal skin color returned, and spider veins disappeared. The lesson learned is that I can help individuals by letting them know that they are not alone and with better choices can improve their lives.
Elizabeth Belasco, PhD