Hello Everyone and Welcome to the Tenth Child, otherwise known as “From the Heart.”

I am the author of Angel Thinking, Balboa Press, Dec. 2012. I currently live in a small town in South-Western, Ontario, Canada. Fifteen years ago while teaching overseas, I married the love of my life. At that point, my husband and I set down roots in New Zealand, primarily the Auckland area. Growing up, my mother and sister and I moved all over Southern Ontario. We moved at least six times during my first ten years of life! I guess you could say that I’ve had a wanderers heart bred into me!

It was during my first year of teaching that I began to write. Having studied Religious History and Literature in four different universities, the idea of settling down and doing just one thing, and staying in just one place seemed foreign to me. Writing began as an escape from my small town life, but in the end became my saving grace.

At the age of twenty-four, trapped in an alcoholic marriage, and isolated in a small backwoods town, writing became my only source of release. Turning to C.S. Lewis and his tales of Narnia, as well as George MacDonald’s Goblin and Princess for direction, I introduced a form of spiritual fantasy into my own world of writing. Taking cues from these amazing authors, it wasn’t long until I had the makings of my own spiritual/fantasy novel, entitled The Tenth Child.

The Tenth Child, started out as a simple book about a simple fantasy, and quickly evolved into a book series based on the health issues and divine guides I encountered throughout my CHD lifetime. CHD, an acronym for Congenital Heart Defect, loosely identifies the thousand of varieties of heart disease children carry with them into this world. My CHD was called Tricuspid Atresia, which, in a nut-shell means, my heart was severely broken. For me, that was true in more ways than one.

When years later, I met and subsequently took my true soul partner as my husband, we were devastated by the lost of not one, but two babies to miscarriage. Once again, writing became my lifeline. I could not even imagine being able to move away from such heart-break without falling back on my writing, and of course my faith in God and His angels.

While the education system introduced me to C. S. Lewis and George MacDonald, all of my life, my incredible mother has introduced me to other incredibly strong and powerful writers. Thanks to her, I have read just about every book Dr. Wayne Dyer has published. You’ll See it When You Believe It and Excuses Be Gone are two of my favorites. Even today, my mother’s taste in authors influences how I think and what I read. In fact, just a few years ago, when I was literally dying from heart failure, my mother handed me a book called Shift Happens, by the amazing, Dr. Robert Holden. Since reading that book, I have written to, and consequently met Robert. He has become one of my greatest mentors and inspirations. He is truly, truly a loving, unconditioned human being.

As you have no doubt guessed, my favorite book from childhood is from the Narnia Chronicles. While I loved reading about Peter and Susan and Edmund and Lucy, it was the first book in the series, The Magician’s Nephew that became my instant favorite. Polly and Digory stole my heart. Further to the above books, I don’t think I would have been able to have made it through this past year or the daily regimen of caring for my two beautiful FAE children without a weekly, and sometimes daily read from A Course in Miracles and The Bible.

Adopted at 15 months and 6 months of age respectively, my son and daughter are two of the many reasons why I was so determined to survive the transplant I had last March. They are my joy. Their smiles, their outstretched arms when they see me walking up the road towards them, and their exclamations of, “Mommy!” bring joy to the very essence of my soul.

As children so often do, mine have woven themselves into every part of my life, including my writing. After their adoption, the names of the characters in my novel series changed dramatically. Though the story is still largely mine, ribbons of Kate and Riley’s story have managed to find their way all the way through. As well as having drugs and alcohol in their tiny bodies, my babies, now nine and ten years old, were born with a CHD.

Life is what you make it, my husband and I often tell them. You can, for instance, look at a peach and see a round squishy, furry fruit that irritates your lips, and so, you look at it no further. Or you can smell the peach, laugh at the way the peach feels when you rub it gently across your lips, and finally bite into the peach savouring all of its sweet juicy flavors all the while allowing the juices that don’t make it into your mouth to run down your chin, over your fingers, and into your bowl. Well, that’s in a perfect world, now isn’t it? My Kate usually lets the excess juice run right down her arm and onto the floor. But alas, she gets the point. Probably better than I do!

Enjoying life, and giving gratitude, whatever the circumstances we are born into and whatever the condition we are born with, is the message I intend to leave my children, and all CHD children. If in the process, a little joy rubs off, even better.

As a mother, writer, and CHD advocate, I am careful not to take myself too seriously.  What I have learned from my life-long illness, my transplant, and losing many CHD friends along the way is that life is too short to be so serious. I have learned both tolerance and how to laugh at myself. I’ve also learned to take time off and be present with my family.  I take long walks with my dog, meditate daily, if even its just for five minutes.  I’ve learned to stop and make time to appreciate animals – all animals, including my kids! I hug them a lot, and tell my husband, parents, and family every chance I get how very much I love them. They are my true assets.

Every day, in every way, I listen to the whisper of my angels and divine guides. The result of all this listening has been the recent publication of my first channeled book, Angel Thinking.

Who sounds the chimes?  Who sends warm-blanket hugs?  Where do happiness, bravery, and kindness come from? What are those tiny, colored lights that pass before your eyes?

Look around!  That perfect white feather in the grass is a sign! That gentle butterfly fluttering freely in the sun whispers, “An angel is near.”

Angels are everywhere! Taking many forms, they convey their divine love.

Written with the intention of assisting chronically ill families, children and parents to reconnect with their angels, Angel Thinking is a guide to understanding our true inner self. It came to me so quickly, so effortlessly, that I knew it must be published.

If you are a fellow writer, with a similar experience, I encourage you to listen to your heart and immediately write what it tells you. When you are open, loving, giving of your talents… and of yourself, in the world of writing, or simply living, you can never go wrong.

Thank you for visiting my blog, and taking the time to learn a little about me. Angel Thinking is for sale through this site, in Chapters/Indigo/Coles, or on-line and in e-book format through Chapters, Balboa Press, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble.  I invite you to like me on Facebook, have a read of Angel Thinking, get to know your angel guide, and discover the earth angel that is you.

Furthermore, please take the time to visit my fellow writers participating in this blog tour. Simply click on the link below, and it will carry you there.

http://vickimtaylor.blogspot.com

http://sfemespiral.com/ego/

http://candacegauger.wordpress.com/

http://traceeford.wordpress.com/

http://pacificrimpressblog.wordpress.com/

http://www.notanotherbookreview.blogspot.com/

http://ninjananny.wordpress.com/

http://www.charleneraddon.blogspot.com/

http://simplifyandsave.weebly.com/blog-save–simplify.html

http://candysmonsters.com/