Guest Post & Giveaway by Bryan Cohen: Come on! Get Happy. A great book and a Kindle Fire can help...lol...

Bryan Cohen

Bryan Cohen here, guest poster and author, promoting my new book The Post-College Guide to Happiness for The Happiness Blog Tour. I'm giving away free digital review copies of the book and doing a giveaway for paperback copies, audio copies and even a Kindle Fire! Read on and check out the info below the post.

"Each morning when I open my eyes I say to myself: I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. I can choose which it shall be. Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn't arrived yet. I have just one day, today, and I'm going to be happy in it."

- Groucho Marx

What is in your control and what is out of your control? I'm not talking about free will here as much as I'm talking about free emotion. Can you choose to be happy despite your circumstances? If you're Groucho Marx, the answer is yes, but what about average, everyday people who aren't successful and famous? After all, Marx probably didn't have much in the way of debt or a job he didn't like or plenty of other problems that normal people have.

In the 1940s, during the World War II, an Austrian psychologist named Viktor Frankl was taken to some of the worst concentration camps in the Holocaust. He saw his family taken away from him and people he knew and loved killed before his eyes. When he was in the midst of complete and utter suffering, he tried to figure out what it was the Nazis couldn't take away from him. He realized that the last thing he had left was his decision as to how he would react to the circumstances he was in. Some who were taken by the Nazis were completely despondent. Others were willing to tell stories and give their last pieces of bread to other prisoners who were weaker. All Frankl had left was the choice to react in an honorable and healthy way. Frankl discovered that there is a gap between stimulus (something happening to you) and response (how you react to it). There is action followed by reaction with a tiny space in between. If you can control the space you can control the reaction.

If Frankl could learn to react in the most positive way possible to being interned in an awful camp of death, I believe that anyone could learn to deal with any situation imaginable. You simply have to do what Marx suggests. Tell yourself that you will decide on whether or not you want to be happy and you will not let events that are out of your control dictate your emotions. It takes practice and it's certainly not easy to do at first, but if you start to make the conscious choice of whether or not to be happy, you will find that it becomes part of your life.

Maybe you've had a rough week or a rough couple of years. It doesn't matter. If you wake up tomorrow and tell yourself that events no longer have control over you and that you control if you're going to be happy or not, you'll start to find that life will grow better and better with age. You have the choice to be happy today and the rest of your life. Make that choice right now.



Bryan Cohen is giving away 61 paperback and audio copies of The Post-College Guide to Happiness and a Kindle Fire between now and May 7th, 2012 on The Happiness Blog Tour. All entrants receive a free digital review copy of The Post-College Guide to Happiness. Bryan hopes to give away at least 1,000 copies during the blog tour. To enter, post a comment with your e-mail address or send an e-mail to postcollegehappiness (at) gmail.com. Bryan will draw the names at the end of the tour. Entries will be counted through Sunday, May 6th.

Bryan Cohen is a writer, actor and comedian from Dresher, Pennsylvania. He graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2005 with degrees in English and Dramatic Art and a minor in Creative Writing. He has written nine books including 1,000 Creative Writing Prompts: Ideas for Blogs, Scripts, Stories and More, 500 Writing Prompts for Kids: First Grade through Fifth Grade, Writer on the Side: How to Write Your Book Around Your 9 to 5 Job and his new book, 1,000 Character Writing Prompts: Villains, Heroes and Hams for Scripts, Stories and More. His website Build Creative Writing Ideas helps over 25,000 visitors a month to push past writer's block and stay motivated.

Feel free to follow along with the tour at The Happiness Blog Tour Hub Page or on the book's Facebook Page.

Life Influences Art. Biracial Girl seeks Identity & Fulfillment: The Girl Who Fell From The Sky by New York Times Bestselling Author, Heidi Durrow. A Book Talk and Signed Giveaway

I can't remember where I first heard of The Girl Who Fell From The Sky, but I do know that the title intrigued me. A girl fell from the sky? Who? How? Was this some kind of science fiction or paranormal story? Far from it. It's based on real events and real people, the author of which is one. Let's look at a description of the story...

This debut novel tells the story of Rachel, the daughter of a Danish mother and a black G.I. who becomes the sole survivor of a family tragedy. 

With her strict African American grandmother as her new guardian, Rachel moves to a mostly black community, where her light brown skin, blue eyes, and beauty bring mixed attention her way. Growing up in the 1980s, she learns to swallow her overwhelming grief and confronts her identity as a biracial young woman in a world that wants to see her as either black or white.

In the tradition of Jamaica Kincaid's Annie John and Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye, here is a portrait of a young girl and society's ideas of race, class, and beauty. It is the winner of the Bellwether Prize for best fiction manuscript addressing issues of social justice.

I don't want to giveaway any spoilers, but there really is a girl that fell from the sky. Durrow, the author wanted to give this girl a voice, envision what her future would be. Writers are told to write what they know, so Durrow did just that: she made the girl a version of herself: mixed-raced, black and white, blue-eyed, moving from an all white environment in Denmark to a primarily black one in the United States.

The book has a very literary and lyrical sensibility. The story is sad, it's tragic, it's hopeful. I loved it.

Heidi and I became friendly over Twitter. When she told me she was going to be performing a reading of her book at The New School in New York City, I had to be there. It was a real joy to listen to her read from her book. It tickled me to listen to her. She's got the black vernacular down to a science--and this from a girl who for the first twelve years of her life didn't know a black person beyond her father and whose first language is Danish. She refers to herself as an "afro-viking"...lol...

Heidi (R) and her brother listening to their father read.

It's my pleasure to give away a signed copy of Heidi's book and a bookmark. If you're interested in receiving them, please leave a comment telling me if you know anyone who's biracial and what combination of race he or she is. Don't forget to leave your email. That is all.

Heidi signing YOUR book!

Heidi Durrow speaks to the audience at The New School in NYC

Giveaway open to residents of the US and Canada only. It ends Friday, August 26, 2011.

The Girl Who Fell From The Sky released January 2010 and is a New York Times and Los Angeles Times bestseller.

Toodles!

And the Three Winners of Blogfest 2011 are...

Wow. I'm amazed at the response my little giveaway had. Thank you so much. I'm humbled that you all thought so much of the prizes and had so much enthusiasm about them. Again, thank you. Let's not wait any further than, shall we. The winners of Blogfest 2011 are...

Grand Prize winner is Evie!!!


First Prize winner is Denise Z!!!


Second Prize winner is Faith, Hope and Cherry Tea!!!

Please email me with your addresses, girls. If I don't hear from the winners in 48 hours, others will be chosen in their place.

Until the next giveaway, my friends...

Toodles!

Three Day Giveaway: Books and Bling during Blogfest 2011, July 15-17. Three Winners for this!

Welcome To Blogfest 2011!!

This is an awesome opportunity to explore lots of blogs easily. The master list of blogs is located at:  http://www.ajourneyofbooks.com. They are all GIVING AWAY A VERY SPECIAL BLOGFEST GIVEAWAY  (For Three Days Only: 7/15-7/17) .

Each blog will have a link and take you to the next five blogs you should visit. When you are finished here, please go to the links listed at the end of this post to continue your blogging treasure hunt!

If you see something that interests you on any of our participating blogs, you can bookmark that site. Later, when you have more time, you can discover all that it has to offer. 

*** There is also a massive BlogFest 2011 grand giveaway! *** 

Head on over to http://blogfest.ajourneyofbooks.com  and click on the Tracking Site link to head to our own exclusive tracking site.  Once there you can register with a valid email address (to be used solely for the purpose of contacting the winner).  This site will allow you to track your progress through BlogFest 2011!  You can log on from anywhere at any time and continue where you left off.  The best part is that every blog that you visit and mark off through this tracking site will give you one entry into the massive giveaway!  We have a great collection of books, goodies and other swag that is looking for a new home!

  

Now, here are the particulars of MY GIVEAWAY and RULES:

Grand Prize

I like to keep it simple folks. For a chance to win the Grand Prize, the First Prize and the Second Prize, leave a comment with your e-mail or some way to contact you. That's it! What could be simpler? I don't require you to become a follower, but if you think this is a place you'd like to visit in the future and keep track of the goings-on here, I'd be honored. Winners are chosen randomly, so when you enter, there is no guarantee which prize you'll win.  The giveaway is open to residents of the US and Canada only. Sorry guys, but it gets expensive. The winners will be announced July 18th. Let's go over the lovely prizes:

Grand Prize

The Grand Prize consists of a hardcover edition of the YA book, The Ivy that the publisher sent me. It's the first book of a trilogy. Book two released in March. It's about a girl entering Harvard and all the craziness she has to juggle with snotty girls, cliques and hot boys.  The authors are both Harvard graduates. Part two of the Grand Prize consists of two charm bracelets. One gold toned and the other silver toned. I love to collect antiques and they have old, vintage charms on them.            

First Prize

First Prize

The First Prize consists of the YA ARC, Vixen, the first book of a trilogy. There's a lot going on in this story! It's set in the twenties and there's a forbidden interracial relationship, illegal drinking and girls being very naughty. The sequel comes out this summer. The First Prize winner will also receive a goldtoned charm bracelet. It includes some charms made of mother-of-pearl and an enameled fish!                                                                                                   

 

The Second and final prize consists of the hardcover edition of the novel, The Secret Life of Bees. This winner gets a silvertoned charm bracelet as well!

First Prize

First Prize

All the winners will receive Beautiful Creatures/Beautiful Darkness swag.

Now, you can move on to the next five blogs listed below. Have fun and I hope you'll stop by again!

  1) Jennifer Wells, Paranormal Romance Author

  2) Must Read Faster

  3) For Those About to Read

  4) Once Upon a Twilight!

  5) Livre De Amour-Books of Love Blog

Toodles!