Want to Maintain Your Writing Career? Treat It Like One. By Karina Fabian, Author of I Left My Brains in San Francisco

Zombie problem? Call Neeta Lyffe, Zombie Exterminator--but not this weekend.

On vacation at an exterminator’s convention, she's looking to relax, have fun, and enjoy a little romance. Too bad the zombies have a different idea. When they rise from their watery graves to take over the City by the Bay, it looks like it'll be a working vacation after all.

Enjoy the thrill of re-kill with Neeta Lyffe, Zombie Exterminator.

Want to Maintain Your Writing Career? 

Treat It Like One.

By Karina Fabian

Cheryl asked me to write about maintaining a writing career. I’ve been writing for over 20 years – freelance, fiction, sometimes (like now) as a regular job. However, I’m not so sure I have a career. What I seem to have is an obsessive hobby that pays occasionally. However, I do have friends who have writing careers, some of whom are very successful. I can tell you this: the key to having a writing career is to treat it like a career.

What does that mean?

First, treat it like a job. If you want to keep your job, you have to show up for it ready to work. That doesn’t have to mean a 9-5 schedule, but it does mean commitment. A thousand words a day; two hours on the weekend; write this scene before bed, even 9-5… Whatever works for you is fine, as long as you are there and willing to work.

When you have that writing time, write! Produce! How would you feel if your employees showed up just to sit around and eat out of your refrigerator? You are your employee. When it is time to work, do it. And writing can mean a lot of things – plotting, research, even daydreaming about the story. What it doesn’t mean is griping to your friends about how you’re blocked, or playing hours of Candy Crush. As my friend Michelle Buckman says, “Always write when inspired, but don’t wait to be inspired to write.”

Second, treat it like a vocation. If you want to move up in a company, you learn the job – not just yours but the next job you want. You seek opportunities, propose ideas, and keep showing yourself to be a worthwhile asset. You also seek out feedback, especially on your weaknesses.

The same goes for writing. We should keep striving to improve our writing skills, look to others who are in the position we want and learn how they got there, and seek out ways to show our skills to others.  We have to ask for and really consider constructive criticism.

Third, treat it like a business. Successful businesses have some things in common: They know their target buyers. They reach out to those buyers and draw them into the sale. They treat their money as an asset, tracking it and weighing expenses in terms of realistic ROI – return on investment.

Writers, especially fiction writers, aren’t always the best businesspeople. We want to tell our stories, but we don’t want to tell others why they are great – i.e., why they should buy them. In the past, there was a place for such writers. Now, we all have to market. We have to know who our readers are, where they hang out, and what they want to see that will inspire them to click to Amazon to buy our books. We also have to know where our money is going. We have to figure out the best investments, whether it’s in a new writing program, a trip to DragonCon, or a publicist.

I have 11 print books out, and I Left My Brains in San Francisco is my second audiobook. Even so, I cannot say I have a career. I’d like to change that in upcoming years, and am starting now to lay the groundwork for it. (My weak spot is the business/marketing side, but my current job at TopTenReviews is giving me some good training for it.)

How about you? Do you have a hobby or a career? If you want a career, where do you think you need to work? Share in the comments.

Find I Left My Brains in San Francisco at:

Damnation Books: http://www.damnationbooks.com/book.php?isbn=9781615727643

Amazon: http://amzn.to/Nzm01L (paper) http://amzn.to/OBBmkL (Kindle)

More about it at http://zombiedeathextreme.com

See the end of this post for news about the audio book.

We could tell you Karina Fabian is an award-winning author, that she writes science fiction, fantasy, horror, and devotionals (15 books and counting.) It would all be true, but makes for a boring bio. If you really want to learn about her stuff, go to http://fabianspace.com. She has book trailer videos, excerpts from her books, and pictures of her dogs and her Mazda Miata, all of which are more fun to see.

However, if you’re interested…

Karina is a native Coloradoan who lives in Utah because she and her family like it better. With 270-degree view of the mountains and the Great Salt Lake, great neighbors, lots of geeky conventions (Salt Lake City Comic Con rocks!), what’s not to love? She works full-time at Top Ten Reviews, where she is a proud member of the business team (Business Badgers, unite!). Honestly, researching mortgage companies and the like is deadly dull, but her coworkers are nerdy and funny. It’s like what she imagined high school would be in a perfect world.

She’s married to Robert Fabian, a retired Colonel, project manager for BAE systems and VP of Propulsion for Rocket Crafters, Inc. She definitely married up! Her first words to him were “Live long and prosper,” and they have been ever since. They have four great kids who love to pun, watch anime, read fantasy and play D&D. Their bedtime stories were often her rough drafts, but no one’s gone to therapy for that yet.

Everyone likes to know about pets! They currently have two dogs: Toby and Marley. Toby, the coon shepherd, is beautiful and soft, and Marley, the lab-basset, is bassadorable. Toby’s favorite pastime is pulling 2x4s from under the porch and running across the yard with them, while Marley dreams of killing chickens. Again.

Oh! And the Miata. Bright red, hardtop convertible… She will drive it in 20-degree weather with the top down. After 21 years of minivans, it was time for a fun car, and it’s the most fun she’s ever had behind the wheel.

Karina is founder and active member of the Catholic Writers’ Guild, and she teaches writing live and in monthly webinars. Check out the website above. She’s always glad to do guest appearances.

Find Karina at:

Website: http://fabianspace.com, http://zombiedeathextreme.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/karina.fabian

Twitter:  http://twitter.com/#!/KarinaFabian

Google +:  https://plus.google.com/103660024891826015212

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/10981939-karina-fabian

Becky Parker Geist is the founder and owner of Pro Audio Voices, serving clients internationally as a go-to place for exceptional voiceover for audiobooks, advertising and animation.

After receiving her M.F.A. in Acting in 1981, Becky began narrating Talking Books for the Blind through the Library of Congress, narrating over 70 titles in two years, and quickly became one of their most popular narrators. As a professional stage actress, she has toured internationally (England and U.S.) and on the east and west U.S. coasts. She performs a wide range of voiceover work, but has a particular love for creating audiobooks with sound effects – the more theatrical the better! Becky brings her broad range of theatre skills – acting, directing, producing, marketing – to bear in all her voiceover and production work.

Committed to leadership and building strong, long-term relationships, Becky serves as President of BAIPA (Bay Area Independent Publishers Association) and is a member of IBPA (Independent Book Publishers Assn), APA (Audio Publishers Assn), and TBA (Theatre Bay Area).

Becky is married to classical composer John Geist and has 3 adult daughters: Elise, Jes and Jerrilee. As of 2015, Becky can truly say she is bi-coastal, going back and forth between New York City and the San Francisco Bay Area. She has been having a blast working Off Broadway in NY for the past few years and has been a professional stage actor in the Bay Area since 1985.

Find Becky at:

Website: https://twitter.com/audiovoices

Blog:  http://proaudiovoices.com/blog/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/becky.geist

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/audiovoices

 ***Talk about frustrating! Karina Fabian’s I Left My Brains in San Francisco would be up on Audible by now, but sometimes, there’s no rushing Amazon. To make up for the wait, she’s offering the first 3 chapters free and a chance to win the audiobook of Neeta Lyffe, Zombie Exterminator, the first in the series. Go to http://karinafabian.com/freezombiefiction. Hurry! This offer goes when Audible finally posts the book!***

Guest Blogger: Karina Fabian, Author of Mind Over Psyche (Giveaway)

Can Deryl and his friend unlock the secrets of Deryl’s role on Kanaan before the Kanaan decide he is too dangerous to let live?

Deryl isn’t crazy; he’s psychic. Desperate to escape the insane asylum, Deryl teleports to Kanaan, a world of telepaths who regard him as an oracle. But freedom comes at a price. The Kanaan expect their oracle to teach them to use their powers to wage war. Meanwhile, he’s falling in love, but to be with her means to share his psyche, which could drive her insane. Most dangerous of all, he hasn’t escaped the Call of the Master, enemy of the Kanaan, whose telepathic manipulations were why Deryl was committed in the first place. Now, the Master will forge Deryl’s powers into a weapon to kill all he loves or destroy his mind trying.

Character Make-Over: Joshua Lawson

By Karina Fabian

(If you’ve not read Mind Over Mind, then caution: this post contains spoilers. Check out Mind Over Mind, the first book in the Mind Over trilogy here: http://www.amazon.com/Mind-Over-Karina-L-Fabian/dp/1897492367)

I’ve mentioned in several interviews over the years that the Mind Over trilogy started out as a novel I wrote in college. Like many first works, it was pretty pale, and after not succeeding in selling it, I had put it aside for ten years. Coming back with much living and writing experience under my belt, I realized just how two-dimensional I’d made the characters. I still loved the general idea of the story, however, so I rethought the characters and they turned the story from good to amazing.

Other blogs have covered how I altered the main character, Deryl Stephens, a psychic teenager. In a nutshell, I gave him so many problems concerning his telepathic abilities, I had to commit him for half a decade before I could start the story! Seriously, who has psychic contact with aliens and ends up well-adjusted? Today, however, I want to talk about his cohort, Joshua.

Joshua started out as Deryl’s roommate in college, a real redneck with cowboy boots and accent and a bad attitude toward his new East Coast yuppie roomie. Obviously, the revised Deryl never made it to college, so I needed a different reason for Joshua to interact with him. Psychiatric intern worked well, and kept him around the same age, plus allowed him to help Deryl as well as befriend him (much to the chagrin of Deryl’s lead psychiatrist). Joshua needed a special skill set, though; otherwise, why would his work be so much more effective than the counseling and drug therapy of five years at an expensive mental institution? Since I’d done some reading about neuro linguistic programming and think it a fascinating process, I made Joshua a natural at it, having learned it from his father growing up. However, my characters inevitably have minds of their own, so NLP was a fallback plan for Joshua, who really wants to be a singer and is only doing the summer internship to make money for college after having lost his scholarships.

In Mind Over Mind, Joshua provided pockets of normalcy and balance to Deryl’s fantastical experiences. But what happens when normal gets plopped into the fantastical?

This is what we explore in Mind Over Psyche, when Deryl teleports them to the planet Kanaan. There they encounter psychic aliens, dragons and unicorns, trees that grow to the size of school buildings, and the Miscria, who can alter the weather and the shape of the land with her mind.

What fun for a science fiction/fantasy geek like Joshua. NOT. When they first arrive, Deryl’s unconscious. Joshua can’t communicate. The unicorns look dangerous. The aliens try to kill him, and even after they “accept” him and Deryl, they don’t trust them. Joshua is umpteenth-billion miles from his family, his fiancé, his music…and before that summer, he’d never set foot out of Colorado. Worst of all, he’s not confident Deryl can get him home, ever.

All of Joshua’s self-assured manner from Mind Over Mind vanishes. His first reaction upon seeing the aliens is to throw his hands over his head and cry, “We come in peace!” He panicks, despairs, and at one point in the book has an anxiety attack. In other words, he reacts the way most people who love their life would if suddenly kidnapped from their homes.

Of course, it’s not all bad. He makes friends and becomes a favorite of the unicorns, especially after he discovers they aren’t so unlike the horses he raises at home. (He’s not a cowboy, but does have a horse and was in 4-H.) He discovers he has a healing talent, though it seems limited and only works on Kanaan. More importantly, he’ll need to use his psychiatric and musical skills to save both Deryl and the Miscria. How? Go read Mind Over Psyche and find out!

Winner of the 2010 INDIE for best Fantasy (Magic, Mensa and Mayhem), Karina Fabian has plenty of voices in her head without being psychic. Fortunately, they fuel her many stories, like the Mind Over trilogy. Mrs. Fabian teaches writing and book marketing seminars, but mostly is concerned with supporting her husband, Rob Fabian as he makes the exciting leap from military officer to civilian executive, getting her kids through high school and college, and surviving daily circuit torture…er, circuit training. Read about her adventures at http://fabianspace.com.

Find Karina at:
Website: http://fabianspace.com, http://dragoneyepi.net
Blog: http://fabianspace.blogspot.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/karina.fabian
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/KarinaFabian
Google +: https://plus.google.com/103660024891826015212


E-book Giveaway: Here’s your chance to win a free electronic copy of Mind Over Psyche. Leave a comment or question (with email address).

Guest Blogger: Karina Fabian, Author of Greater Treasures (Giveaway)

Being a private detective in the border town of the Faerie and Mundane worlds isn’t easy, even for a dragon like Vern. Still, finding the wayward brother of a teary damsel in distress shouldn’t have gotten so dangerous. When his partner, Sister Grace, gets poisoned by a dart meant for him, Vern offers to find an artifact in exchange for a cure. However, this is no ordinary trinket—with a little magic power, it could control all of mankind. Can Vern find the artifact, and will he sacrifice the fate of two worlds for the life of his best friend?

Purchase at: CreateSpace or a Kindle version from Amazon.

Pages: 130
ISBN-13: 978-1484848296
ISBN-10: 1484848292
ASIN B00CEH934G

Why I Love Writing Vern and Why You’ll Love Reading Him

By Karina Fabian

Once again, I have a DragonEye story to share. For those that don’t know, DragonEye stories involve Vern, a dragon who lives in our world and works as a detective, solving mysteries and saving the world when magic and technology become more than anyone else can handle. He’s a character I created somewhere around 2006 and who first appeared in “DragonEye, PI” in Firestorm of Dragons (http://www.amazon.com/Firestorm-Dragons-Michele-Acker/dp/1896944809) in 2008. Since then, Vern has provided me with a steady line of stories, from flash to novel size. Greater Treasures is a novella/novelette, incidentally.

Vern is my favorite character to write. For one, he’s a dragon, which means he considers himself a superior species. So much of my life is spent with self-doubt that it’s refreshing to immerse myself in a character who is supremely confident in himself, even when events make him feel like he’s failing. He’s also got a snarky attitude. He can say things I’ll only think, make snide remarks, and give people insulting nicknames, and it comes completely natural to him. I’m not sure what that says about me, but I do enjoy it. Of course, that is part of his charm and his humor. Even in the most serious of situations, he can find something amusing, whether a pun or an ironic twist. He does slapstick pretty well, too. I laugh when I write his stories. Finally, he’s smart—genius smart. Of course, that’s easy to write when I can Google whatever would come to his mind naturally.

Vern is different from me. If I knew him in reality, I’m not sure how close of friends we’d be. (Although in my world, he does know me, as I am his biographer.) But that is the point of writing—and reading—fiction: to escape the world and even who you are for a time, to explore someone else’s personality and problems, and hopefully, to come away refreshed and a little better than when you started the book.

I hope you feel that way after reading Greater Treasures. I know I did after writing it.

Winner of the 2010 INDIE for best Fantasy (Magic, Mensa and Mayhem), Karina Fabian has imagination that takes quirky twists that keep her--and her fans--amused. Nuns working in space, a down-and-out Faerie dragon working off a geas from St. George, zombie exterminators—there’s always a surprise in Fabian’s worlds. Mrs. Fabian teaches writing and book marketing seminars, but mostly is concerned with supporting her husband, Rob Fabian as he makes the exciting leap from military officer to civilian executive, getting her kids through high school and college, and surviving daily circuit torture…er, circuit training. Read about her adventures at http://fabianspace.com.

Find Karina at:
Website: http://fabianspace.com, http://dragoneyepi.net
Blog: http://fabianspace.blogspot.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/karina.fabian
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/KarinaFabian
Google +: https://plus.google.com/103660024891826015212

Visit the book's tour page at http://dragoneyepi.blogspot.com/2013/04/greater-treasures-book-tour.html

Giveaway Information:

E-book: Here’s your chance to win a free electronic copy of Greater Treasures. Leave a comment or question for Karina, Vern, or Sister Grace.

Grab bag: Vern gripes about the junk in his warehouse in Greater Treasures, but he and Grace have started going through boxes, and they’ve agreed to send something to one of my readers. Leave a comment or question for Karina, Vern, or Sister Grace.

Please be sure to include your email address so Karina can contact you if you win.

Guest Blogger: Karina Fabian, Author of I Left My Brains in San Francisco

Zombie problem? Call Neeta Lyffe, Zombie Exterminator--but not this weekend.

On vacation at an exterminator’s convention, she's looking to relax, have fun, and enjoy a little romance. Too bad the zombies have a different idea. When they rise from their watery graves to take over the City by the Bay, it looks like it'll be a working vacation after all.

Enjoy the thrill of re-kill with Neeta Lyffe, Zombie Exterminator.

A Day in Neeta’s Lyffe by Karina Fabian

Neeta woke up to the strains of Radioactive Sushi wailing about the glow and smacked off the alarm. Why had she set it so early?

Oh, yeah—dinner with Ted’s mom and cousins, but before that, four quarterly treatments, a new customer appraisal, and Mrs. Beechman. Doable before four, if they didn’t get a 9-1-1 zombie call, but they hadn’t had a zombie sighting in months. More likely, Mrs. Beechman would refuse to hear the doorbell again. Last time, it had taken her half an hour to get her attention. Why someone who lives alone needs to wear noise canceling headphones was beyond her.

Maybe the fates will give me a break. Neeta rose to shower.

Neeta left her house/office to find Ted already loading up her van—a squarish job with bolts and flat panels just like its Hummer predecessors but twice as badass, even painted light blue with the Lyffe-Undeath Exterminations logo splashed on the sides.

“Time’s a-wasting, boss!” he greeted her. “Mom will not accept that we’re late because we were spraying for ants, you know.” Nonetheless, he slipped his arm around her waist and kissed her cheek before they got in the van.

The quarterlies went well, but the new customer had a lot of questions and a big house. It was almost three before they got to Mrs. Beechman’s.

“You start on the outside while I try to get her to let us in,” Neeta said as they pulled up to her house.

“Uh, are you sure she’s here?”

“I double checked the schedule.” Neeta scowled as she regarded the overstuffed mailbox and the newspapers on the porch. “Tell you what: get started anyway; if she’s on vacation, we’ll call and leave a message.”

Neeta grabbed a trash bag from the back and stuffed the mail into it. She could either give it to her or hold onto it until she returned. Then, Mrs. Beechman would have to let her in.

She stuffed the newspapers into the bag, then rang the doorbell. Waited. Rang the bell. Knocked. Finally, she leaned over the porch so she could peek into the window. Yep. There she was, sitting at her desk, those annoying earphones on her head. Neeta banged the window as hard as she could without breaking it. With a daily routine of whacking dummy zombies with a chainsaw, that was plenty hard. Mrs. Beechman jerked and rose from her chair.

Neeta almost fell off the porch when she saw the decaying but mobile corpse. “Ted! We’ve got a dead one!”

She spun and jumped off the steps just as Mrs. Beechman flung open the door. Her undead hand lashed out and grabbed at the swinging bag. Short and dense, she nearly jerked Neeta off her feet.

“Maaaailll!” the zombie groaned.

Neeta release the bag with a shove in her direction and ran to her van.

By the time she and Ted had returned to the porch, suited and armed with monofilament swords, the Late Mrs. Beechman had settled cross-legged on the cement, dividing the mail while grunting, “Spam. Bills. Spam.” She came across the catalog for organic farming and pressed it to her chest. “Graaaains!”

Neeta swung. The single, thin thread of a blade sliced through her neck while the electrified field surrounding it cauterized the flesh. A neat kill, overall.

That didn’t erase the fact that they’d have to clean up, go through decontamination, and fill out the paperwork with the authorities, however. Neeta sighed. “Maybe you’d better call your mom and give her our regrets.”

“Hey, don’t worry about it,” Ted said as he snaked an arm around her. “Such is a day in the life of a zombie exterminator.”

Damnation Books: http://www.damnationbooks.com/book.php?isbn=9781615727643
Amazon: Paperback  and Kindle
More about it at http://zombiedeathextreme.com

“Are You the Next Zombie Idol” singing contest?

Damnation Books and Karina are looking for someone to sing the theme song she wrote for I Left My Brains in San Francisco. Karina has the words and the tune; but they need a singer. They are offering prizes for the best singer, the most creative audition video, and are giving one in ten entries a copy of the e-book. The details are at http://fabianspace.blogspot.com/p/are-you-next-zombie-idol.html

Winner of the 2010 INDIE for best Fantasy (Magic, Mensa and Mayhem) and a Global eBook Award for Best Horror (Neeta Lyffe, Zombie Exterminator), Karina Fabian’s writing takes quirky twists that keep her--and her fans--amused. Nuns working in space, a down-and-out Faerie dragon working off a geas from St. George, zombie exterminators—there’s always a surprise in Fabian’s worlds. Mrs. Fabian teaches writing and book marketing seminars online.

Website: http://fabianspace.com, http://dragoneyepi.net, http://zombiedeathextreme.com 
Blog: http://fabianspace.blogspot.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/karina.fabian
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/KarinaFabian
Google +: https://plus.google.com/103660024891826015212
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/10981939-karina-fabian

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8-Oct			http://cookinwithmisshavana.blogspot.com/		guest post on how the story came to be & review
8-Oct			http://www.writersfunzone.com/blog/		Writer's Fun Zone  ILMBISF
8-Oct			tracysmorris.com		guest post--writing plot or finding time to write
9-Oct			http://virginiajennings.webs.com/apps/blog/		guest post--future tech
10-Oct			http://lincolncrisler.info		guest post
11-Oct			http://fabianspace.blogspot.com		guest post from george or kim
11-Oct			http://www.snoringscholar.com		Twitterview
11-Oct			http://www.freethewriterinside.com		interview
12-Oct			http://www.kees2create.com.au/the-other-side/		Interview
13-Oct			www.rebeccaminto.blogspot.com		Interview
14-Oct			http://www.garywolson.com/blog/		keeping zombies fresh
15-Oct			http://fabianspace.blogspot.com		Fun Facts About NLZE2
15-Oct				http://tmarquitz.com		Excerpt
16-Oct			http://www.snoringscholar.com		Interview
17-Oct			www.dennisauthor.com		info
18-Oct			http://www.snoringscholar.com		Guest Post--A catholic writes non-Catholic work
19-Oct			http://www.kees2create.com.au/the-other-side/		Guest Post-Writing Tips
20-Oct			http://michaelrwilsonfiction.wordpress.com/		Review
21-Oct			http://michaelrwilsonfiction.wordpress.com/		Interview
22-Oct			http://publottery.blogspot.com		interview
22-Oct			http://fabianspace.blogspot.com		Zombie Make-Up tutorial
23-Oct			http://potsnpens.blogspot.com/		recipe
24-Oct			http://roxannebland.com		guest post
25-Oct			http://www.snoringscholar.com		Review
25-Oct			http://www.freethewriterinside.com		guest post on zombies
25-Oct			http://susannedrazic.blogspot.com/		Neeta Interview
26-Oct			http://www.kees2create.com.au/the-other-side/		Gust Post-Marketing Tips
26-Oct			http://karencioffiwritingandmarketing.com		Building Neeta's World
27-Oct			http://www.provozombiechase.com/		LIVE signing in Provo
27-Oct			http://josephbspencer.com/blog		interview
28-Oct			http://www.suhalfwerk.blogspot.com/		Info,
29-Oct			http://fabianspace.blogspot.com		Shambling in a Winter Wonderland
30-Oct			http://beccabutcher.wordpress.com		interview
31-Oct			http://www.writersfunzone.com/blog/		review
1-Nov			http://fabianspace.blogspot.com/p/are-you-next-zombie-idol.html		Zombie Idol Contest Ends
2-Nov			http://www.kees2create.com.au/the-other-side/		Review & Giveaway

Lenten Promise Leads to Award-Winning Devotional, Why God Matters

M E D I A R E L E A S E

CONTACT: Karina Fabian

E-mail: karina@fabianspace.com

For Immediate Release

Lenten Promise Leads to Award-Winning Devotional, Why God Matters

Layton, UT; Pueblo, CO— In 1996, Karina Fabian, mother of toddlers, made a Lenten vow that launched her career as a writer. Years later, it led her to share that joy of writing with her father, as they collaborated on an award-winning devotional, Why God Matters: How to Recognize Him in Daily Life. This year, she hopes to share the joy of Lent through her book and the Why God Matters website.

Deacon Steve Lumbert and his daughter Karina Fabian share their stories of how God led them from casual belief to deep devotion, and offer tips and exercises to help you see God's hand--and take it. Why God Matters: How to Recognize Him in Daily Life is published by Tribute Books and won the Christian Small Publisher Award for best book on Christian Living. It has over 40 reviews from readers of many Christian faiths who recommend it not only as a book to read, but to go through slowly, doing the exercises to strengthen their relationship with God and to be more aware of His presence in her life.

This year, Fabian and Tribute Books are opening the Why God Matters website to faith stories by others, especially Lenten faith stories. “I believe that Lent, and Lenten vows, can change lives,” Fabian said. “I’d like to share that hope with others, and the best way is through sharing our stories.”

Fabian credits her 1996 vow with giving her life its direction. She had always enjoyed writing, but it wasn’t until the Lent after leaving a career in the Air Force that she took it up professionally. “I was home with the kids, and getting a little stir crazy as Lent was approaching. I try to not only give up something for Lent, but to take up something to better serve God as well. So that year, I decided to give up reading fiction and take up writing.”

By Easter, Fabian had a job with the Wyoming diocese newspaper, and freelanced for several parenting and local magazines. She also wrote some slice-of-life stories, but seldom sent them out, and eventually moved more into writing fiction. However, in 2009, when Tribute Books was seeking someone to write a short devotional of personal stories, tips and quotes, she felt God calling.

“I was a little intimidated by the project though. I felt something of this magnitude needed someone with a theological grounding, too. Then I realized, my father is a deacon—and he is full of terrific stories.”
Deacon Steve Lumbert, who came to faith while Fabian was in college, had never written a book, but was excited to collaborate with his daughter. Working on this book brought a new level to their relationship.
“God continues to bless me through that Lenten vow,” Fabian said. “Not only will I cherish having worked with my father, but the book itself has touched so many lives. People have written to us that it’s helped them understand their faith better , brought them closer to God, or touched them when they really needed it. I hope this Lent, through the website, we can do this some more.”

Fabian is also willing to speak to book clubs and parishes through telephone or Skype.

* * *

Photos, interviews, and more information available on request or by visiting http://www.whygodmatters.com/  or http://www.fabianspace.com/.

Guest Blogger: Karina Fabian, Author of Mind Over Mind

Today's special guest is my friend, Karina Fabian, author of Mind Over Mind. I met Karina online through the first Muse Online Writers Conference. I've reviewed several of her books. It's always fun to learn when she has a new book out. Here's information about her latest:

Deryl Stephen’s uncontrollable telepathic abilities have landed him in a mental health institution, where no one believes in his powers.

But when Joshua Lawson, a student of neuro linguistic programming, takes part in a summer internship, he takes the unique step of accepting Deryl’s reality and teaches him to work with it. As Deryl learns control, he finds his next challenge is to face the aliens who have been contacting him psychically for years—aliens who would use him to further their cause in an interplanetary war.

Read an excerpt!

Ydrel threw himself into wakefulness with such force that he sat up in bed. Still, the nightmare images clung to his mind: the beat of a hundred hearts, the smell of sweat and fear. He clutched his stomach and fought the urge to scream.


A hundred bodies crowded around him, crushing him against the splintered wood of the boxcar.

No, this isn’t real!

No room to move. No air to breathe. Suffocating. Drowning.

No, this isn’t me!

Confusion and fear. Fear the trip would never end. Terror of what waited at its completion.

NO! These aren’t MY memories!!

*

Ydrel threw up shaky mental barriers. The visions faded, just slightly. He forced his eyes open, drinking in reassurance from familiar objects.

He sat in bed, an oversized twin, backed up against pillows rather than splintered wood. Pre-dawn light shone softly through the blinds. On the nightstand, Descartes regarded him with one button eye. The only thing left from before his mother died, he’d slept with that bear until an orderly commented on his “abnormal attachment.” Since then it had stood watch over him instead, braced against the lamp. Even now, without any orderlies around, Ydrel resisted the urge to clutch it close to his chest, but he reached out to touch one tattered foot.

On the shelf beside the window sat a portable boom box, a gift from his first birthday here—his thirteenth. Five years ago, today. The maintenance man had disabled the volume control after Ydrel played it too loudly. Thereafter, he’d found other ways to block out the moans and occasional screams that penetrated the closed door. Happy birthday.

The stereo held up several books. He was studying them in case it called. He both dreaded and longed for the calls. Each episode only gave them more reason to keep him here, yet there was something as familiar and comforting about it as his old bear.

He turned his gaze to the far wall and the framed pictures of a nebula and the solar system by his half-empty closet. On his sixteenth birthday, he’d been allowed to decorate his room and he’d chosen those posters and a mild blue paint to replace the still–lifes and the institutional burgundy-and-pink color scheme. While it had been a relief to his eyes, it was also a constant reminder that they never intended for him to leave.

This is my room, he thought. In the asylum. Even after five years, he’d never call it home. He’d never give Malachai the satisfaction.

*

Calmer now, his mental barriers in place, Ydrel allowed himself to examine the vision that awakened him. Hundreds of bodies packed into a train car not suited for twenty. Most had traveling clothes, but had shed them against the heat. No room to move. The air was stifling and stale. No one knew where they were going. Some suspected, but said nothing. The destination was worse than the trip.

Ydrel sighed. Isaac was on the train to Dachau again.

Ydrel threw off the covers and dressed quickly in a blue t-shirt and jeans, socks and generic sneakers. Already Isaac’s projected fear was breaking down his mental defenses; Ydrel’s fingers trembled as he fumbled with the laces.

Once out in the corridor, he hastened to the old man’s room, forcing himself to keep his pace smooth, his face composed. Someone would stop him if he hurried or looked distressed, and any delay would be unbearable. As he walked he got into character. His stride lengthened; his face hardened. He held his hands relaxed but ready by his hips. When he got to Isaac’s door, he cast a wary look down the hall, then slipped in.

The old man lay on a standard hospital bed, his wide, wild eyes staring at the ceiling but focused on his inner horrors. His hands fluttered helplessly on the thin coverlet. He labored for each ragged breath.

Ydrel sat beside him and composed his own vision.

The train stops so suddenly that people would have been thrown down if they hadn’t been so tightly packed in. The sound of gunfire and shouts in German. The boxcar door opens with a rusty screech. Someone yells in Yiddish, then German: “Out! Now! Quickly, to the woods—to the south!” Relief from the press of bodies, then a new pressure as the flow of people pushes him through the door. Someone grabs his arm—

Ydrel grabbed Isaac by the arm as he pushed the new vision into the old man’s mind.

Isaac blinked, twisted toward Ydrel, then smiled, his eyes bright with tears. “Gideon! Old friend. Thank God!”

The Inspiration Behind Mind Over Mind by Karina Fabian

Way back in 1986, when green monochrome fish screen savers were cutting edge technology, I took an honors seminar for which I had to read Frogs Into Princes. This is the seminal book about a branch of psychology/communication called neuro linguistic programming. The basic idea, psychology-wise, that Bandler and Grinder proposed is that it really didn't matter what a person's delusions were; the key was whether they can function in society or not. Communication-wise, they theorized that you could guess a person's thought processes by watching the movement of the eyes--whether they were making something up or remembering a truth, if they were seeing or hearing the thought, etc. They gave lots of examples from their own experiences treating patients.

I was fascinated by the book, but as a mathematics major, I never thought beyond what a cool idea it was. However, of all my textbooks, this one stayed with me as I graduated, went to the Air Force, then got out and had kids.

Another thing that followed me all those years was the novel I'd written about a psychic in college and his roommate accidentally teleporting to another planet. It wasn't horrid, though now I blanche to think I sent it to a publisher. That, too, got packed away through all the moves and career changes.

In 2001, I decided I wanted to rewrite the novel. I liked Tasmae and the idea of the planets at war, but the psychic was too cool, too easy. Too shallow. As many of you know, I kept torturing the poor guy with "what if?" until he ended up in an asylum. But how to get him out?

Even after twelve years, Frogs Into Princes had stuck with me, so I found the book and reread it, thinking what fun it would be to apply the principles to a young, troubled man who didn't just believe himself psychic, but truly was psychic. Oh, what fun it was! I loved the challenge of thinking of my characters in terms of how they thought--visually or verbally?--and how that affected Deryl. The case study where they worked with a catatonic patient (which reminded me of a story called, "Son, Rise" about an autistic child whose mother reached him by following his rocking rhythm) gave me a terrific idea for a very tense scene. Deryl retreats into a catatonic state to escape a truly violent man's thoughts, and Joshua has to bring him out using NLP.

Looking at Amazon, I see that Frogs into Princes was the book that started NLP and, as one review put it, "introduced the still cutting edge technology of human communication and cognition...a seminal book in the field of human communication, linguistics, perception, cognition and psychology."

I'm a writer, not a psychologist, but I'd like to thank Richard Bandler and John Grinder for sharing their ideas and experiences, and to my honors professor who assigned the book. You helped transform Mind Over Mind from bleah to yeah!

Unlike her characters, Karina Fabian lives a comfortably ordinary life. Wife to Air Force Colonel Robert Fabian and mother of four, her adventures usually involve packing and moving, attending conventions, or giving writing and marketing advice in one of her many workshops. She's always had an overactive imagination, however, and started writing in order to quell the voices in her head--characters who insisted on living lives in her mind and telling her their stories. Winner of the 2010 INDIE award, winner and finalist for the EPPIE and finalist for the Global e-book awards, she's glad people enjoy reading the tales her characters tell.



Website: http://fabianspace.com


Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/karina.fabian


Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/KarinaFabian


Google +: https://plus.google.com/103660024891826015212

Mind Over Mind Tour Schedule

1-Sep http://www.fabianspace.com/  - info

1-Sep http://susannedrazic.blogspot.com/ - info

2-Sep http://nicolezoltack.blogspot.com/  - Why I Don't Want Telepathic Powers

2-Sep http://thebookconnectionccm.blogspot.com/  - Inspiration Behind Mind Over Mind

3-Sep http://nicolezoltack.blogspot.com/ - review

5-Sep http://www.fabianspace.com/ - Deryl's Letter

5-Sep www.leebarwood.com/blog.htm  - On Uncontrolled Telepathy

5-Sep http://roseannedowellauthor.blogspot.com/ - character sketch-Joshua

6-Sep http://tracysmorris.com/ - interview

7-Sep http://lit_handyman.livejournal.com/ - First Rule of Telepathy

7-Sep http://inkspotter.com/ - interview

8-Sep http://authorguy.wordpress.com/ - The Making of Mind Over Mind

9-Sep www.leebarwood.com/blog.htm - review

9-Sep http://frederation.wordpress.com/ - interview

10-Sep http://productivityathome.com/ - Small Steps to Big Goals

10-Sep http://yougottareadreviews.blogspot.com/ - interview

11-Sep http://catholicmom.com/ - Excerpt: Joshua and his parents

12-Sep http://www.fabianspace.com/  - Joshua's e-mail

12-Sep http://boughanfire.com/ - review

12-Sep http://apiusman.blogspot.com/ - interview

12-Sep http://cce613.xanga.com/ - info

13-Sep http://apiusman.blogspot.com/ - 10 reasons to read/write sff

13-Sep http://chastitybush.blogspot.com/ - Joshua & Sachiko

14-Sep http://apiusman.blogspot.com/ - review

14-Sep http://gloriascorner.com/ - interview

14-Sep http://inkspotter.com/ - Prioritizing Tips

15-Sep http://theresacrater.com/ - The Miscria

16-Sep http://chergreen.blogspot.com/ - One Sentence a Day

16-Sep http://karencioffiwrtingandmarketing.com/ - I Like Ideas!

16-Sep http://okalrel.blogspot.com/ - character interview

17-Sep http://cce613.xanga.com/ - Marketing and the Multi-Genre Writer

17-Sep http://reviewcarnival.blogspot.com/ - What Can't Your Character Do?

18-Sep http://leemather.livejournal.com/ - interview

19-Sep http://www.fabianspace.com/ - Malachai's Message

19-Sep http://loconeal.com/category/guest-blog/ - Alien cultures

20-Sep http://tmarquitz.com/blog/ - interview

21-Sep http://inkspotter.com/ - review

26-Sep http://www.fabianspace.com/ - reviews

4-Oct http://naomi-jay.livejournal.com/ - Top Ten Reasons I Write

10-Oct http://rryalsrussell.com/blog/ - Telepathy or Insanity?

14-Oct http://www.teenwordfactory.com/ - advice to teen writers