Guest Blogger Scott Nicholson author of Disintegration!!

The Women in My Life
By Scott Nicholson
http://www.hauntedcomputer.com/

I’ve been very lucky to have wonderful, strong women in my life, ones who don’t tolerate B.S. and who lead heart-centered, emotional lives.

In honor of them, I am donating all author proceeds for October Girls this week (Oct. 25-Oct. 31) to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. I have a modest goal of $100. Of course, you are also invited to donate directly at the BRCF website.

My mother is a living example of persistence. She is not only a breast cancer survivor, she is a survivor in general. Overcoming extreme poverty as a child, she has since earned three college degrees, which isn’t that unusual except she got a couple of them after she was dead. A horrible car accident crushed her larynx, left her clinically dead for several minutes, and spawned dozens of surgeries. She has had a tracheotomy in her throat for 30 years.

Never one to sit around feeling sorry for herself, she finished her job of raising five boys, works as a physical therapist even though fibromyalgia and arthritis puts her in worse condition than many of her patients, and regularly flies around the country on church relief trips to help people whom she believes are worse off than she is. With that example, you can see why I never let a measly 800 rejection slips stop me from being a writer. I love you, Momma.

My wife Lexie is an angel. The Left-Handed Puppeteer just waltzed into my life while I was still trying on wings, coming on with such no-nonsense sincerity that I never had much opportunity to doubt the greater forces bringing us together. We fell in love on New Year’s Eve, and since then, every moment has felt like a new day, a new year, a new forever, and each kiss feels like a miracle that’s a fresh invention of God.

She’s a community artist, organizing parades and puppet shows that spread positive messages, and she’s sweet, spiritual, tireless, and loyal. She’s also intelligent and supports our desire to live outside the stream, to pursue self-reliance and sustainable living with our garden and animals, and together we generally try to bring more good than harm to the world. I love you, Lexie.

My daughter, Goldbug, is a beautiful, inspiring creature of light. She has a fierce sense of justice and is fiercely intelligent, a 99th percentile reader who always has five open books lying around. Now in the fifth grade, she is already a published writer and her photographs have been credited in the local newspaper. With her astonishing memory, she can recall almost every detail of her life and its events, but she’s also funny and playful despite all that rich experience.

I hope October Girls tells her a little bit about the world, and that life sometimes is tragic but also beautiful. I aspire to be the type of man I’d want her to seek out as she grows older, for when I’m not around. I ask God for patience, kindness, courage, generosity, and strength, so I might fulfill my joyful task of raising her and guiding her as she deserves. And I am the luckiest man on this planet. I love you, Goldbug.

To all the women of the world, all mothers and sisters and daughters, thank you.
http://www.hauntedcomputer.com/OctoberGirls1.htm
-------------
My new crime thriller Disintegration launches on Nov. 1 for 99 cents! With your help, it has a good chance to hit the Top 100 and double your chances of winning a Kindle. If you want a free advance copy and agree to review it by Nov. 1, please email me at hauntedcomputer AT yahoo.com

Scott Nicholson is author of 12 novels, including the thrillers Speed Dating with the Dead, Drummer Boy, Forever Never Ends, The Skull Ring, As I Die Lying, Burial to Follow ,and They Hunger. His revised novels for the U.K. Kindle are Creative Spirit, Troubled, and Solom. He’s also written four comic series, six screenplays, and more than 60 short stories. His story collections include Ashes, The First, Murdermouth: Zombie Bits, and Flowers.

To be eligible for the Kindle DX, simply post a comment below with contact info. Feel free to debate and discuss the topic, but you will only be entered once per blog. Visit all the blogs on the tour and increase your odds. I’m also giving away a Kindle 3 through the tour newsletter and a Pandora’s Box of free e-books to a follower of “hauntedcomputer” on Twitter. Thanks for playing. Complete details at http://www.hauntedcomputer.com/blogtour.htm