Apr 4 2014

The Sooner Spirit shines in PROUD HEART

by Dana Taylor

I interrupt this “supernal” blog to announce a new release from my “romantic” side. Yes, I have a new book out. PROUD HEART is my love letter to my years in Oklahoma. As a California girl who suddenly found herself a new bride in the Sooner State, I experienced definite culture shock. For instance, strangers who crossed my path actually looked me in the eye and smiled. Some even said, “Howdy.” (For real. “Howdy.” ) Neighbors came over to introduce themselves. Everyone went to church. Oklahomans ate black eye beans on New Years Day and grew okra in summer gardens. When we bought our first home, my neighbor, Mrs. Blakely, was a woman in her 70’s who had been a teacher in a one-room school house. Great Little House on the Prairie!

The close-knit culture harkened back to a unique historical event–the Oklahoma Land Run of 1889.

As the years passed and my children participated in Land Run Day events, I became fascinated with the idea of a state being settled in one day. A sort of Big Bang Theory toward statehood. What kind of people would leave everything they knew to line up in the wilderness and make a mad dash for free land? (160 acres to call their own if they could stick it out for five years.) They came in two varieties–the Boomers and the Sooners.

1. Boomers–they made the run legally after the shot was fired.

2. Sooners–they got to their spots “Sooner,” having sneaked into the Unassigned Territories before the sanctioned hour and staked out their claims.

PROUD HEART grew out of that fascination. Of course, a good story needs a solid cast of characters. A romance novel needs a compelling hero and heroine and enough action to keep them from HEA for about 75,000 words. Read about the inspiration for my heroine, Rosa, at my new website DanaTaylorAuthor.com in the post TIME FOR A LATINA HEROINE.

Here’s the book description:

Free land! On April 22, 1889 thousands of hearty souls gathered at the Arkansas border. They dashed into the Unassigned Lands to claim their portion of the American dream and followed their hearts to a place called Oklahoma.

Rosa—The daughter of nobility, she lost her family to violence in Mexico. Does she have the courage to make a new life in a strange country?

Steven—The charismatic leader, fighting injustice of the downtrodden. Could Oklahoma be the New Promised Land?

Ricardo—The California horseman, alone after tragedy and misfortune wiped out his hopes. Could the Land Run offer a fresh, new start?

As newcomers struggle to settle a new territory, fortunes are made, friendships are forged. Love is tested. Will Rosa yield her proud heart to find real happiness?

Amazon US Amazon UK Kobo Barnes & Noble

Paperback version available at Lulu.com

There are some nice reviews popping up on Amazon. If you’re in the mood for a story of love, friendship, and adventure, enjoy PROUD HEART. You’ll see why people love being from Oklahoma!

Apr 3 2014

A Course in Miracles: What is it?

post by Dana Taylor

The time feels right to tackle the daunting task of blogging about A COURSE IN MIRACLES. To those well-versed in ACIM, I apologize now for any clumsy moments. The next few posts will merely serve as an appetizer for the spiritually hungry. To get full, you’ll have to swallow the full meal by purchasing your own copy of ACIM and take it one bite at a time.

Here you’ll simply get an idea of what the Course is and isn’t and decide for yourself if you want to investigate it further. Okay, here goes:

What is A Course in Miracles?

Simply put, it’s a book of channeled material, written in the 1970’s. From ACIM.org:

About the Scribes

Helen Schucman, Ph.D., was a clinical and research psychologist, who held the tenured position of Associate Professor of Medical Psychology at the College of Physicians and Surgeons at the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City. A Course in Miracles was “scribed” by Dr. Schucman between 1965 and 1972 through a process of inner dictation. She experienced the process as one of a distinct and clear dictation from an inner voice, which earlier had identified itself to her as Jesus. Helen Schucman’s scribing of A Course in Miracles began with these words: “This is a course in miracles, please take notes.”

William Thetford, Ph.D., was a tenured Professor of Medical Psychology at Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons, and Director of the Psychology Department at the Presbyterian Hospital in New York City for whom Dr. Schucman worked. As her trusted friend and colleague also, Dr. Thetford assisted and supported Dr. Schucman throughout the Course’s scribing, including the events that led up to it. A vital participant, Dr. Thetford acted as transcriber throughout the entire process by typing the material from the scribed notes that Dr. Schucman had taken down and would dictate to him almost daily.

A Course in Miracles is not a new religion, although it is being incorporated into many people’s spiritual beliefs. There are many teachers, although the book itself can be studied independently. ACIM is divided into five parts: Preface, Text, Workbook for Students, Manual for Teachers, Clarification of Terms.

Think of it like a graduate course with Jesus Christ as the prof.

That’s right, the material is credited to Jesus Christ himself as the source. The terminology will feel familiar to those with Christian backgrounds. Phrases like “Holy Spirit,” “Atonement,” “Son of God,” are used liberally.

The message can be summed up in one word: Forgiveness.

Of course, your understanding of what forgiveness actually means will be challenged, expanded, and explored as you wade through the pages.

ACIM is not a quick, easy read. It’s not The Secret.

The Course is about changing how you look at the world and perceive “reality.” In fact, it totally challenges your concept of reality and might just obliterate it.

What began as a photo copied manuscript a few decades ago has now been translated into 22 languages by the The Foundation for Inner Peace. They foster study groups around the globe. Celebrating 50 years since the course was scribed, the Foundation for Inner Peace has been sharing moments with the original receivers of the information, Dr. Helen Schucman and Dr. William Thetford. Enjoy this moment when Bill shares the ACIM version of The Lord’s Prayer. CLICK HERE

ACIM is a philosophy. It can be a revelation, a game changer, a new way of living. It can be a path to the peace of God.

Next: The Voice Speaks

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EverF “A book not just to read, but experience” Tampa Bay Examiner

Ebook and paperback available at Amazon

Mar 25 2014

Where Malala Got Her Inspiration

UPDATE October 2014: MALALA is Awarded Nobel Peace Prize. As a CNN article puts it, “Malala is hope.”

post by Dana Taylor

“Education is Emancipation”

When my girl friends and I get together for lunch we often begin with a toast, “Thank God we were born Western women.” As college students we embraced the Women’s Liberation movement, reading Ms. Magazine, Fear of Flying, Betty Friedan and thinking equal-pay-for-equal-work was right around the corner. (Still waiting!) We turned up the radio for Helen Reddy, “I am woman, hear me roar…” We’ve come a long way, baby. Sort of…

Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, patriarchal mindsets were joining forces with Jihad and the Taliban to imprison women behind the veil. Millions of women were forbidden basic education and personal liberty. One young woman, Malala, has taken a stand, been shot in the head, and continues to campaign for the education of women in the Arab world.

This extraordinary girl comes from extraordinary parents. Watch this Ted Talk by Ziauddin Yousafzai, an educator and father of Malala. You’ll see where her courage and inspiration began.

I Am Malala :The Girl Who Stood Up For Education and was Shot by the Taliban is available at all book retailers.

Mar 22 2014

Write to Wellness

THAT ELUSIVE CURE is about facing up to illness, both mental and physical, of family struggle and above all, the amazing power of hope.

Part Two from Lisa Hinsley:

Chemo kills creativity, at least it did for me. Except… that’s not entirely true. I couldn’t write, but I could think. And I did, at length while I fought nausea and horrid side effects. A couple of novel ideas came to me, complete, like a little acorn gift, waiting to be planted in the soil of Microsoft Word.

I noted these down, ideas, possibilities, things that made me think. I simply had no ability to follow through. Chemo came to an end in May 2013. My brain slowly began to reconnect and the urge to write, which never left, but was simply dampened, came at me like an unfulfilled addiction. The odd thing was, I didn’t revisit any of my stored acorns. I set myself a goal of 500 words a day. In June I started, reacquainted myself with ABCtales and to begin with, those 500 word stories were few and far between. They were hard to write, I sat at the computer desperate to distract myself with Facebook or the news or Googling stupid stuff.

But each week I did a little better. It became a little easier to put the words together. Then it happened. I got that itch, that inkling of an idea, a starburst of inspiration, and I began a new novel.

The last novel I wrote was Plague. I wrote it in 2011. I published in December that year. I started polishing an older novel for publication in the summer, then I got sick and nothing else happened. I stopped editing. I stopped writing. I stopped caring, and it didn’t even bother me that I’d stopped caring. Usually I’m a non-stop conveyor belt of writing. I love it. I need it like I need air. Suddenly, at the very end of June 2013 I found myself back there. And I loved it.

My initial goal of 500 words, that was so hard to begin with, became easier. The chapters started to build up, and although I knew how I was going to end the story, I didn’t know how I was going to get there. All of July I wrote. In August I took time off, it was the summer holidays and I spent my time with the kids.

Then I had SIRTs a type of internal radiotherapy. Come September, my youngest son was back at school, and despite still being in recovery from SIRTs I was writing again. The train had left the station, there was no stopping me. 500 words in a morning became 1000, then 2000. Towards the end I could do almost 5000 words in the same 1-2 hour slot I’d previously been struggling to write 500 words. Then at the end of October I was finished. The first draft of That Elusive Cure was complete.

I know my health is precarious, and this wasn’t the time to stuff the book into a drawer and let it mature for months. I hope readers will emanates the feeling of hope and peace I hope readers will come away with after reading my novel.

Less than a year after I wrote the first words, That Elusive Cure is published. I’m proud of the book, and I hope as a reader you can come away with some inspiration to live your life in the moment. Have hope, there is magic out there just waiting to be mined.

Excerpt from That Elusive Cure:

I followed Janie’s car, one of those odd-looking little Fiat 500s in lilac, through the countryside and into Birkenhead. She’d said where we were going, and I knew the place. I’d passed by the church on many occasions. I’d even daydreamed about buying it and setting it up as a flat for my daughter, keeping part of the space for me and creating a studio. That was me letting my bohemian side through. The place Cass lived in was grotty, but she refused to move back home, and my dream was to buy her a decent place to live. She had this boyfriend who seemed to be quite handy. I’d let them live there for free in exchange for his manual labor.

We pulled into the tiny car park. I still had the key in my possession, and I thumbed it nervously as Janie got out of her car and walked up to the door. We were in the town center, a stone’s throw from the council parking lot I used almost every week. To think this mystery machine had been there the entire time almost made me feel taunted by it. I searched briefly for hidden cameras, my eyes settling on Janie as she stood on the stone steps by the sad-looking church, patiently waiting for me. Taller buildings crowded in on three sides casting the building into shadow.

“You ready for this?” She took the key from me and inserted it into the lock. “You need to give it a little jiggle or the mechanism won’t turn.” She yanked on the key, her fingers white for a moment as she struggled. Then the key turned. I glanced up at the windows. They were so dirty I couldn’t tell if they were stained glass or not. Wire mesh covered each and added to the camouflage. The stone walls might once have been a warm grey, but now traffic dirt covered every surface and the building looked as if it was covered in soot.

My nerves were getting the better of me now, like a ball of static had got inside of me and needed me to jump around to get it out. I stamped my feet and tried to regain control.

“Go on.” Janie indicated that I should turn the handle.

“Okay…” We swapped positions and I pushed the door open. It was one of these heavy oak affairs, although the wood was so grimy I couldn’t actually tell what kind of wood it was. My belly ached, the tumors making themselves known, and I stepped over the threshold.

Inside was dark, the windows shedding little light. We entered the nave, our footfalls loud on the stone floor. Someone had pushed all the pews up against the walls, piled like firewood and abandoned. A pod-like machine big enough for a single person rested in the cleared space, its metallic hull gleaming like buffed silver. In the background a large cross still hung behind the altar.

“This is it.” Janie knelt beside the machine and put her hand on the surface, almost like a lover’s touch. “This is what cured me.”

Born in Portsmouth in 1971, Lisa Hinsley grew up in England, Scotland, and America. She now lives on the Wirral, in northwest England, with her husband, three children, and four cats.

Lisa’s novels Plague and The Ultimate Choice have featured regularly on the UK Amazon bestsellers charts and are now published in the USA by Simon & Schuster. Visit her website Lisa C. Hinsley

Lisa has been interviewed on the BBC regarding care for cancer patients. http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/health-22023820

Mar 18 2014

Near-Death Experience Changes Author’s Outlook

This article was recently featured at the Barb Silkstone’s Second Act Café. I think you’ll find it fascinating. Part One of Two:

Lisa Hinsley has cancer.

At the age of forty, with a loving husband and three children, she was diagnosed with advanced bowel cancer. Lisa is one of those beautiful people who touch many lives in the most gentle ways. For the past one and one-half years, Lisa has been fighting the beast called cancer like a tiger, and inspiring a large group with her courage and generosity.

Lisa on Lisa from her blog: Lisa Hinsley

Penny Sartori has been doing a series of articles for The Daily Mail about near death experiences or NDEs. The latest report had me thinking about my own experience. Here’s the link to Penny Sartori’s article: The Children Who have Near Death Experiences. And here is what I thought about NDEs–I was four years old when I had my near death experience. For weeks I had been suffering from a cough that became steadily worse until one day my parents lost me in the house. They found me hidden in a wardrobe rambling madly with a high fever. At that point I was rushed to the hospital.I don’t remember being delirious in the wardrobe, but I do remember being high in the sky watching my parent’s car pull into a car park. My emotions were detached, I felt nothing, no pain, no fear, no excitement, maybe a slight pull of curiosity as a man I recognized as my father jumped out of the driver’s side. He raced around to the other side of the car to take out a tiny limp body from the back seat. My mother was there too, and the two of them ran off. This is when the odd became most peculiar. I know now they were running to the hospital, but what I saw was far different. There was a crystal city. That is what I have always thought of it as: an enormous city of crystals taking up the entire horizon internally lit with this wonderful silvery-white light. There was no longer an absence of emotions in me, this vision was calm, welcoming, and so very beautiful.

Way down below, my mother and father were running towards the crystal city with my father still holding that tiny limp body. For me there was no tunnel, no being asking me to return, no relatives to greet me, and no urgency to get back to a broken body. I simply came back to myself, all of a sudden. The vision of the crystal city was replaced with a cubicle in the hospital. I was on a bed. A blue curtain was pulled across for privacy. A nurse had a tube down my throat and I coughed my way back into life. This was no dream. They fade over time. This is a memory of a happening. Just as I vividly remember the house we lived in at the time, I remember floating above my body. Just as I remember the family holiday on the island of Sky nine months later, I remember the glowing crystal city and how it seemed to be an excellent idea to go there.

I can’t say that I don’t fear death less than anyone else, I’m not in their heads and can’t judge that. My guess is I fear death as much as the next person, and for me it’s more about the method of dying that frightens me rather than the actual event. I have a strong desire to live my life and do it well, to the limits of my ability. Maybe that comes from the NDE, maybe it’s just how I am. What I do know is that I am very spiritual and the idea of a higher being seems like a no brainer. I don’t attend church but I have a very strong sense of right and wrong, and have always tried to do the best for those around me.

The recent article in The Daily Mail suggests that children who have had NDEs go on to lead a charmed life. Perhaps I have a habit of making things complicated, but this certainly hasn’t happened for me. I had a very rough relationship in my early twenties, but escaped and have been in a rock solid marriage since. I’ve never had a problem with drink or drugs. Sometimes I think of myself as a cat with nine lives, and wonder when they will run out. At the age of 40 I was diagnosed with advanced bowel cancer.

A year and a half later and I am still here, fighting. I would say this, rather than my NDE has given me the incentive to live out my dreams. Fear of a short life eggs me on, makes me accomplish things I might otherwise not have. It makes me love my family more and try harder to be a better mum. Recently I ended up in hospital for a week after a reaction to my chemo. I was in the worst pain imaginable. These things that happen to me help my state of mind, I know now that I can handle and survive excruciating pain. This is no longer a fear. But I have the NDE in my back pocket letting me know that when the time eventually comes, there is a wonderful place to go for my next stage of existence.

That Elusive Cure

Lisa has created the most marvelous novel in her collection of both fiction and nonfiction books. This is a must-read book about a fictional character, Kathy Wyatt, who is very familiar to those who know and love Lisa.

Here’s the blurb from the book jacket:

Kathy is going to die. All that’s left to do is prepare for the end.

While waiting for her chemotherapy session, a woman called Janie approaches Kathy, offering a revolutionary treatment for cancer. Janie pitches the cure like an expert and what does Kathy have to lose? The doctors now measure her life in months, not years.

Kathy follows Janie to an abandoned church where a futuristic machine is hidden. Made of silvery metal, long, and with rounded edges, the pod is like nothing Kathy’s ever seen before. Janie encourages her to climb in telling her the process is painless and quick. A few sessions are all she’ll need to be cured. Despite serious reservations, what does she have to lose? She gets in. And the results are miraculous.

A few days later, when the wonderful sense of well-being she experienced begins to ebb, all she can think about is having another session. In spite of the apparent improvement, Kathy’s renewed energy is soured by doubt. What exactly is this machine? What if none of this is real and the next MRI shows all the tumors are still there? Time is so short…

THAT ELUSIVE CURE is about facing up to illness, both mental and physical, of family struggle and above all, the amazing power of hope.

Born in Portsmouth in 1971, Lisa Hinsley grew up in England, Scotland, and America. She now lives on the Wirral, in northwest England, with her husband, three children, and four cats.

Lisa’s novels Plague and The Ultimate Choice have featured regularly on the UK Amazon bestsellers charts and are now published in the USA by Simon & Schuster.

Lisa has been interviewed on the BBC regarding care for cancer patients. http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/health-22023820

Mar 7 2014

John Denver Messages of Wisdom and Love

Review by Dana Taylor

UPDATE: 2019–Unfortunately, these books are no longer available through Amazon.com. However, I have contacted the author, Janice Hunneybell, and she sent me PDF files of both manuscripts. If anyone would like to receive the manuscripts, free of charge, please send me a request at supernalfriends@yahoo.com.–Dana Taylor

Australian spiritual author, Janice Hunneybell, has collaborated with the spirit of singer, John Denver, on two of the best channeled books I have read. THINGS THAT I BELIEVE IN and ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE are inspirational guideposts to wise living. Sure, I can hear the skeptics scoffing–John Denver? “Rocky Mountain High.” She was high on something, alright. All I can say is, read with an open mind. The voice of the material certainly sounds like it could come from John Denver, especially THINGS THAT I BELIEVE IN. Interestingly, there seemed to be less “voice” in ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE and Jan addresses that in her ending words about the writing experience. Yet, the wisdom is all there.

The truth is, the source of the material hardly matters, because the spiritual insights are so solid. These are good principles for living. The ultimate message is one of hope and joy. I read the books slowly, to begin my days and lead into meditation and prayer time. I recommend them for anyone consciously seeking a spiritual journey.

About the author

Image of Janice Hunneybell

Janice Hunneybell is an inspirational spiritual writer. Her books, ‘Things That I Believe In’ and ‘All You Need Is Love’, are channeled spiritual communication from John, who shares his views and philosophy of life and meaning. ‘Things That I Believe In’ was first published in 2008 and is now a kindle e-book. It has been popular with people who want to understand more about life and spirituality. It is easily read but informative and has brought great comfort to people dealing with grief and loss. ‘All You Need Is Love’ was published as an e-book in January 2014. A paperback edition is planned later in 2014 along with collections of her poetry, talks, songs and essays. After a career in administration, Janice chose to follow a path of spirituality, writing, healing (Reiki Master), channeling/mediumship and teaching, giving talks and facilitating workshops on spiritual development and inspirational writing. Born in London, England, Janice now lives in the Dandenong Ranges near Melbourne, Australia with her husband Gordon and a slightly deranged but very sweet cat. An indulgent mother and grandmother to two adult children and four grandchildren, she also seems to have been adopted by a variety of local wildlife including possums, magpies and kookaburras…