by Jennifer Reed/ bookjunkiez | June 25, 2020 · 8:04 pm

Six Word Wonder Blitz

Short Stories, Literary Fiction

Date Published: June 18, 2020

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“Six words to tell a story.

Not three, or eight, or twenty.

You may ask – is six enough?

Well, trust me, six is plenty.”

A collection of over five hundred stories, each one exactly six words long.
Some stories are funny, some poetic, some vulgar, and some are a little
disturbing. Each story has been lovingly crafted to amuse and entertain you
in six words.

Doug Weller’s Six Word Wonder is a social media sensation, with over
10,000 followers on Instagram.

Now, for the first time, Doug brings his best tiny stories together in one
collection.

Unlocking the cage, she stepped out.

Cupid. Tomorrow, aim for his head.

Home alone, but toilet just flushed.

Baby loves whining. Mother loves wine.

…reader. I’m a very gifted mind…

I poured two glasses… then remembered.

Take a moment out of your hectic schedule to enjoy these Six Word
Wonders.

About the Author

Doug Weller is an emerging thriller writer and creator of the Six Word
Wonder.

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by Jennifer Reed/ bookjunkiez | · 5:00 am

I’m a Gigolo Tour

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Book one – The Aberration Series of short stories

Short Story, Crime thriller & Romantic suspense

Date Published: 1st July 2020

Publisher: Happy London Press

I am a Gigolo

He’s gorgeous, cool and slick. Small wonder those wealthy American dames are falling over themselves to taste his flirtatious skills, just where it counts. Seduction is the name of his game, and he knows how to keep

a secret. Trouble is, our Gigolo is also a mischief maker, a man with a mission – to make a killing. So he’s got a secret of his own. But, can he keep it that way?

Deliciously sensual, with a touch macabre, the opening tale, I am a gigolo contains ten startlingly original and provocative short stories, that you’ll need to be brave to read at bedtime.

EXCERPT

I am a gigolo.

I like that sound. A GEEEEEEEE GOH LO!!! That’s right. A professional man.

My face is my fortune. My cock is my compass.

I make women happy. Not all women. Certain women. Rich women. Rich widows. Rich, American widows. At least, mostly, rich American widows.

So how do I know? Easy. ‘Cos, see I’m from the old US of A. So that’s how I know.

I’ve been in the game for maybe, ten years? It all started when I found myself unemployed and starving, bumming around in Cannes. The place was festooned with beautiful people. Girls you’d die for. Blondes, brunettes, redheads: cool, elegant, sophisticated. Legs to the sky, skin like bronzed peach on honeydew melons. Men, sleek, slick, suntanned; looking like a million dollars, (probably worth a million dollars), driving around in flash, open-top American sports cars.

That’s what I wanted. But it was going to take folding stuff, long green. That’s right, money. Lots of it. But how do you make a million overnight?

“Gambling,” I said. But no. Wouldn’t work. I was dressed like a tramp. Hell, I stank like a tramp. Still, I had to have some of it. I wanted it so bad I could practically taste the want.

My folks wanted me to be a doctor, like Dad. Or an accountant like Granddad. But all I wanted was fun.

About the Author

My inspirations have come from real people, events or situations that have presented themselves. Titles like, I am a Contract Killer, I am a Gigolo, Death Zone, License to Kill, are all based on my own lifetime experiences, questions asked, incidents occurring.

Let me be reassuring, thus-far, nobody has been murdered on my watch. But the notion gave rise to the impetus to write my first murder mystery, The Lyme Regis Murders. Could I make the jump after years of writing macabre short stories to a full length drama? That familiar beating in the gut, said, ‘Yes, try it. Give it a go.’

And so to that cosy coastal town where nothing untoward ever happens. Or perhaps it does. The author seeks to shatter notions, change people’s perceptions, spoil long held views. That was my intention in entering into the world of crime thrillers. I’ve found that ‘nice’ people are not always what they seem. The helpless can be transformed into the most dangerous, the most dangerous become the most harmless. It’s all up to the writer and what they’re hoping to achieve.

For me there have been 10 children’s books, 4 books of short stories and so far, three novels, with a fourth in the mixer.

Whilst a short story might be written with a flurry of adrenalin in the space of a few hours, a book will need more than just a flash of creativity. It will need perseverance, discipline and dogged determination.

But then, isn’t that what is required of every ambition?

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Perception vs. Truth Tour

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Self-help, Spiritually, Non-fiction

Date Published: April 7, 2020

Do you want your life to change?

The good news is that it all begins right in your mind.

By opening your mind, you can change your life in 180 degrees, making the phrase “Everything is in your head” more important than ever before.

The perception of reality steers our thoughts, feelings, the choices we make and the way we live our life.

It is the underlying reason why our lives are the way they are.

People who never examine their point of view of the world miss the chance to significantly change their lives.

What shapes our perception is the country we live in, society, culture, religion, parents, teachers, and publications like the internet, television, movies, radio, newspapers, and literature.

Many people are misguided by their perceptions, which constantly get them into problems.

This book, Perception vs. Truth, was born as a result of that insight. As the name suggests, much of the reality we take for granted in our lives simply isn’t true. Perception vs. Truth is a wake-up call for all of us. It is a fascinating read, full of interesting insights. It is a spring to quench one’s thirst for knowledge and understanding. It can open your mind to different ways of thinking, new feelings, and novel behavior.

Perception vs. Truth is a reminder that our lives can change just by changing the way we’re perceiving it.

EXCERPT

Perception vs. Truth

Spirituality in simple words

Eyal Cohen

Preface

My Story

For as long as I can remember, I have had an indescribable desire to understand life. Throughout my life, I always felt that something was missing, but I didn’t know what it was.

In simple words, I kept asking myself, “What the hell is this life all about? What is going on? And why?”

Okay, we go through kindergarten, school, high school, and then college; some get married, have children, find a career, buy a house… But the inevitability of death was like a black cloud that forced me to wonder, “What is it all about?”

As I grew up, this desire became a sense of unease at the back of my mind, which made me feel incomplete and restless.

No one, myself included, could stop me from pondering life. I was desperately searching for the meaning of it all. Of course, at the time, I could not tell where such a search would take me or what innumerable hardships I would have to endure. Later, I learned that if I could work out what was going on with me or what was happening to me, things would be much easier. But there was no one available to help me with this, or at least I didn’t think there was.

In retrospect, this longing brought me into “spectator mode”—observation of the theater of life—a situation in which I was looking at life as a though it was a play, but one in which I was participating, meaning that I identified with the characters on stage.

At around the age of thirty, I experienced a critical and overpowering turning point. After going through a confusing period, I woke up one morning with a dreadful emptiness. It felt like a big black gaping hole had opened in my chest. The words that jump to mind when I remember this feeling are, “all dead!” I had a very acute sense of loss, as though everything I had been until that moment was now gone. All I knew and thought and felt about myself and life in general, had died that morning and I found myself living in a bubble.

There was no connection between me, and reality and life as I knew them.

The feeling could be compared to eating food without the senses of taste and smell; without these basic senses, you lose the desire to eat. And in the same way, I lost the desire to live. What followed was a total collapse of mind and body. I experienced panic attacks, and simply standing up was a struggle. What I remember most is that I knew I had to hold on despite the strong desire to completely collapse, let go, and never get up again, because I did not want to worry my family.

Not able to understand what was happening to me, I did not want to get into a situation where I had to explain myself. Deep down, I felt insulated and lonely, and all I wanted was to be left alone.

Exact words failed me, and all I could describe was a state of tremendous fear, loss of control, and restless hell, and an inability to understand any of it. And so, I lived trapped in a kind of furnace that burned me alive. I was completely detached from reality, and my sense of identity was utterly gone as though it had never even existed.

After a few months, I began to see the simple beauty in my surroundings: a blooming flower, the shining sun, or a simple good morning. I welcomed every one of those little gifts that came my way, and I began to see the simple yet wondrous beauty in everything. And so, I learned to enjoy every little thing in all its greatness.

Despite those newly found comforts, I was still troubled because my fundamental questions about the meaning of life remained unanswered; my inability to find the answers meant that true peace still eluded me.

Over the course of a period that was relatively calm, words started to visit me just as I was on the verge of sleep. I felt a compelling need to write them down, and so I did. At first, words would come only at night, but soon, they began to surprise me at any hour. I would hear a word from someone and all of a sudden, an entire scenario would unfold before me, and I would have to write it down. At that time, I went everywhere with a small notebook, ready to write whatever came to me whenever it came. The material was absorbed into me like into a dry sponge, and I finally realized the answers to my deepest questions.

I realized that the missing part I was looking for in my life was myself.

In this manner, short and concise chapters took shape. After a few months, I had enough written words that the idea of a book came to life. Some of the things that I had written took me a while to understand. It took a while for them to crystallize into a book.

The book, Perception vs. Truth, is designed to introduce you to yourself. It is designed to introduce you to a different perspective of you and the world, one that you may not be accustomed to. Furthermore, it is designed to enable you to see how you are influenced and how you can influence yourself and your surroundings.

Perception vs. Truth holds the answers to all the questions that took me on a life-changing journey. I hope that reading it will inspire you to find your own answers to life.

Eyal.

***

Wisdom of Water

Wisdom of Water means that whatever I write, I’m not necessarily trying to say something concrete. You may say that I am painting with words. My writing is a set of different perspectives on each situation. I am not trying to make a specific point; I just wish to maintain awareness of many different and diverse points of view. Everything is valid; everything is circumstantial according to one’s own point of view.

Wisdom of Water means not getting stuck on words, definitions, etc. Like water, life seeks balance. And so do we. When we understand that there are endless ways to view each situation, and we use our ability to learn from any outcome, we become like water—we maintain our balance, and gradually, over time, we become wiser than before.

***

Spiritual Search

If you have an unexplainable yearning to know the nature of the world in which you live, then Perception vs. Truth is the book for you. To know the world is to know the “I” that you are. It is called self-knowledge, and it can only be known by one’s own wisdom.

Never be satisfied with the answers that come from others. Somehow, we learn to place more faith in the wisdom of others than we do our own. Listen to people, but use their answers as a guideline only.

Perception vs. Truth is about being aware and acknowledging yourself, and by doing so, life will become simple. Enjoy the adventure of your own self and discover the depths within, which can give you the answers you seek. Each of us is the expert of his or her life. Remember, whatever comes from deep within comes in the form of intuition, and you have to become more aware of that intuition, and learn to trust it.

Finally, Perception vs. Truth talks about the Promised Land, which we all reside in.

***

Introduction

Illusion

Some say that the vast majority of humans are sleepwalkers—people who live while sleeping. It would be truer to say that they live within an illusion—an illusion of their own individual creation.

Illusion, as one does not know what reality is facing him.

What is the source of it? And how is it created?

If we presume that life is like a dream, we could say that in order to dream, there is a need for a dreamer. There is a correlation between what one thinks and believes, and what one is actually experiencing. The term “illusion” is used because one does not fully comprehend the nature of his/her reality; therefore, we may refer to him/her as being “asleep.” One needs to be “awake” in order to understand. One has to realize that the common denominator in everything that is happening to him/her is simply oneself.

Once you are awakened to the fact that the cause of everything is within you, all your decisions you will make will be directly related to your perspective. Your own perceptions will be determined by this viewpoint. One who succeeds in having no viewpoint at all ought to have a very broad and profound perception. “Ought to” because it is impossible to adopt “no viewpoint” without actually having one. Any effort on someone’s part will constitute adopting a viewpoint; therefore, one is always condemned to remain as he/she is.

Although this paradox seems like a maze with no way out, this is where true liberation resides. True understanding leads to surrender, which in turn leads to freedom. However, when a person wears a mask (a personality, ego), that person cannot be free. Unknowingly, this person values their mask more than their freedom.

The difficulty is how to be free from the mask; free of conditioning.

When someone surrenders to the truth, they stop being dominated by their persona and their viewpoint. A person can give many reasons for liking something but the truth is, we discover what we like; we don’t choose what we like.

Who you truly are and what you love in life is not a matter of choice

About the Author

Eyal Cohen was born in 1968. At the age of thirty, after a powerful and life-changing experience, his perception of reality was transformed completely, and over the next twelve years, he immersed himself in study as he sought to understand what had happened to him. He delved into the philosophies and wisdom behind the teachings of Buddhism, Zen, Taoism, Sufism, Mystic Judaism, Mystic Christianity, and more; and he tried to understand the state of the world by researching numerous leading thinkers of past and present times, such as Noam Chomsky, Friedrich Nietzsche, Socrates, Confucius, to name but a few.

His years of research, combined with his own experiences and knowledge, gave him a unique way of looking at life and the world that we live in. It was this unique perspective that gave birth to the book Perception vs. Truth.

In his first book, Eyal talks about how transformation can be achieved by working on the mind, our thoughts, and beliefs.

Among his associates who are living a “normal life,” Eyal is considered as a “strange, calm character.” He evades frameworks, commitments, and circles of society where there is no room for the free or the different. He surrounded with friends and people who wish to know, taste, and understand the secret of his relaxed charm.

Eyal is like a haven of rest to come to talk, and spend time with. He carries within him intriguing knowledge, which he knows very well to explain. He communicate the truth that he has come to know and understand.

It takes great courage and perseverance to free ourselves from the illusory reality—this confusing world that causes so many problems and so much suffering. We need to open our minds and examine our perceptions and beliefs in depth. The feelings of peace, joy, and freedom are indicators that we on the right track. The book Perception vs. Truth is a means to examine our beliefs about reality and the stories that we tell ourselves, which create our perception of reality and hence create our experiences in life.

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by Jennifer Reed/ bookjunkiez | · 5:00 am

Speakeasy Tour

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Suspense Thriller / Historical

Date Published: 12/21/2011

Publisher: Dark Hour Press, LLC

The novella is centered on Eddie Durante, owner of a speakeasy who’s supported by his mobster uncle—the boss of the Durante family. Eddie is a young widower after his family’s rival, the Caprice family, murdered his wife over a territory dispute. After devising a plan that retaliated against four of the rivaling capos, Eddie is left with the daunting task to try and move on. That is, until he’s notified that the Caprices have put a hit man in the speakeasy—and Eddie’s name is on the list. But things take an unexpected turn when Eddie instead starts to find the dead bodies of his relatives, the ones who had helped in the retaliation.

Behind the backdrop of jazz music and glistening flappers, murder after murder begins to unravel as revenge takes center stage, and Eddie soon learns that some secrets can’t be taken to the grave.

EXCERPT

Eddie felt his gut twist when his curiosity overcame him. He poked at the body, making sure the man was dead and nothing was going to grab him. Feeling somewhat relieved and somewhat silly, Eddie used his hand to pivot the face towards him. And when he did, he jumped back and covered his mouth with his hand, trying to somehow keep his stomach from climbing up his throat.

“Who is it?” Anthony called out from the floor. Lillian remained where she was, too scared to say anything.

Eddie felt the sweat on his brow, his mouth growing dry as he slowly removed his hand. “It’s my uncle.”

When Anthony heard the words, he slowly sat up on his elbows, the pain being replaced with cold tension. “That’s not possible,” he thought out loud, but was silenced when Eddie nodded his head.

Standing up as best as he could, Anthony shuffled over to Eddie and the body. When he saw the face, the chubby fat cheeks and the lifeless gray eyes, Anthony’s own pulse started twitching. Although he couldn’t stand straight very well, it didn’t stop Anthony from locking eyes with his friend. “Now we know why the hit man’s after ya. He’s already killed everyone else.”

“A hit man’s after you?” Lillian panted, her voice quivering as she watched Eddie, who couldn’t keep from looking back at his uncle.

“Makes ya just wanna cuddle with him, don’t it?” Anthony interrupted, taking out his silver cigarette case and pulling a cigarette from it. His hands shook as he tried to proceed.

“Are you really going to light one up in here?” Eddie finally spoke, his nerves forcing him to take control of something. He was too irritated and terrified, too overwhelmed to realize what he was demanding, but he had to somehow construct order out of chaos. Besides, he had enjoyed having at least one room in the speakeasy that wasn’t clouded over in some kind of smoke.

However, Eddie wasn’t met with a full-hearted apology, or even a recoiled action. Instead, he was met with an ugly glare. Anthony, with his blue eyes bulging and his lips pressed together in a grim line, could only respond by pointing to his crotch. He had taken one for his friend, and by God he was going to have his cigarette. Eddie took a deep breath, and moved past the issue.

“What do you mean a hit man’s after you?” Lillian shouted, beyond upset and pressing into hysterical.

“It doesn’t really matter at this point,” Eddie mumbled, crossing his arms and trying to take multiple deep breaths. How were they going to keep people from knowing? Where would they hide the bodies?

After finally getting a cigarette out, Anthony held it in the corner of his mouth. While fishing for a light, he said in a muffled tone, “Easy for you to say. We don’t know who else is on this prelude list. How many appetizers are they gonna take out before they hit the main course?”

“There’s no need to start becoming hysterical,” Eddie replied, lowering his eyes at Lillian, who shot him an equally disturbed look.

After Anthony lit his cigarette, he looked at his friend in disbelief. “Oh, I’m sorry, Mr. My-uncle’s-lying-dead-ten-inches-from-my-face. Apparently, me and Lil are the only ones spooked about all this.”

“Like I’m not?” Eddie broke. “Dead bodies are popping up in my speakeasy and you think I’m not spooked? My name was supposed to be on top of the list!”

“There are more?” Lillian asked breathlessly, feeling faint while the men ignored her.

“Then why aren’t you dead!” Anthony barked, yanking the cigarette from his mouth. “They killed your uncle, Eddie. The boss! Nobody ever gets close to a boss like that. Ever!” Anthony paused just long enough to take a long drag from his cigarette. Blowing the smoke out, he continued as if he’d never stopped. “There’s more to this than we know…”

About the Author

A. M. Dunnewin grew up with a taste for mysteries and thrillers, inherited ever so lovingly from her family. An affiliate member of the Horror Writers Association, A. M.’s own stories cover a wide range of genres that tend to take a dark turn when least expected. With a B.A. in Psychology, she’s a gambler of words, obsessed with chai tea, and addicted to books – everything from classical literature to graphic novels. Other hobbies include art, history, music, equestrianism, and a good classic film. She currently dwells in Northern California.

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