Welcome to Issue 25 of the SUPERIOR BOOK PRODUCTIONS newsletter!

It’s common at this time of year for us to make New Year’s Resolutions, and by now, many of us have already broken them. A lot of the books I review are “self-help” books that encourage people to set goals. One book I reviewed a while back was Achieving Your Promises by Timothy Patton. I had the opportunity to meet Timothy at Patrick Snow’s Bestseller University 2008 Conference in Maui. I was struck by Timothy’s message that we should not set goals because we can give ourselves permission to break them. But we should make promises to ourselves. You wouldn’t break your promise to someone else, so you shouldn’t break a promise to yourself.

Shortly after meeting Timothy, I made a promise to myself that I would leave my day job and pursue full-time what I love to do—writing and editing and reviewing books.

Within a year—I won’t say it wasn’t hard work and I had already been working toward it for a couple of years at that point—I became self-employed. My point is that when I made that promise to myself that by the end of 2008 I would take the leap, I worked toward it so I wouldn’t go back on my promise.

What promise do you need to make to yourself? Make that promise. Read books that will encourage you to work toward making that promise—not a dream, but a promise to yourself—come true. Plenty are listed at www.SuperiorBookPromotions.com. More importantly, believe you can keep that promise to yourself.

Thank you for reading. Make 2012 your best year yet!

Tyler R. Tichelaar

New Books

In her newest novel, Laura Wharton, author of The Pirate’s Bastard, returns to the coast of her beloved North Carolina, but this time, instead of buccaneers and pirates, she brings us the simple story of a young girl about to lose her island home (oh, and it’s World War II so Wharton throws in some Nazis besides). Leaving Lukens could be called a World War II novel or a romance, and both designations would be correct, but to me what made this novel charming is its regional and small town feeling.

Wharton is excellent at describing her characters and in creating a historical atmosphere. She has clearly researched the time period, the music, the details of the Navy and other military affairs during World War II, and the history of Lukens itself—a real place off the coast of North Carolina. Far more than a story about the war, Leaving Lukens is about finding happiness, and finding that home is in the heart and not a physical place.

To read more, visit Leaving Lukens

Jennifer Foster is no stranger to success, but only because she has worked at it for years. In her first seven years of selling for Family Heritage Life Insurance, she was the top salesperson every single year. With a record like that, she is someone who definitely knows the secret to great selling. Her sales techniques are not flashy or full of gimmicks. They are down-to-earth, friendly, and consider the individual’s needs. Now in The Manual to Success: Twenty-Five Tips to Succeed in Sales and Life, Jennifer breaks down in simple, easy-to-read format, what she has learned in her sales career to benefit every reader, not just those directly in sales, but everyone—because at some point in our lives, we all must sell ourselves.

As Jennifer teaches you how to work hard, save money, create residual income, and connect with your sales prospects, you’ll find she has completely sold you on her mode of selling.

To read more, visit The Manual to Success

Jeffrey Bow has been helping people achieve their greatest levels of brilliance for many years, first in the corporate world, and since 2003 as a Certified Master Life Coach for both individuals and business executives. After three decades as a strategic change agent for organizations ranging from a magazine and book distributor to a construction material manufacturer and supplier, Jeffrey knows firsthand what kinds of change are necessary to achieve success in one’s career and personal life.

For Jeff, success means more than money or prestige; it must be balanced with happiness, creativity, and fulfillment; an effective company has a workplace atmosphere that allows for employees to feel a sense of ownership for their work and to feel they are valued. Stop Thinking, Start Believing offers Jeff’s philosophies along with practical tools to coach the reader to achieving Brilliance Through Balance in their lives.

To read more, visit Stop Thinking, Start Believing

What makes 1-800-AWESOME stand out is its author and his refreshing, tell it like it is, common sense attitude. Chris Rugh has known failure and success in his businesses. Like Donald Trump, he has been bankrupt only to come back from it and build a multi-million dollar, toll free provider business, Custom Toll Free, hence the 1-800-AWESOME title. What he learned along the way to success he shares here in a series of personal stories, practical advice, and powerful questions that motivate readers to take responsibility for their lives, stop doing what doesn’t work for them, and ultimately, to experience unprofessional but phenomenal success.

Anyone with entrepreneurial aspirations will benefit from 1-800-AWESOME. People who never considered becoming entrepreneurs will be inspired to seek the freedom that owning your own business can provide after reading Rugh’s testament to how we can improve our lives by taking control of them.

To read more, visit 1-800-AWESOME

Upcoming Events

Winter is a slow time when I don’t schedule too many events. Why? Because I use the time to write and prepare my upcoming books for publication.

In 2012, I will be releasing two new books:

Spirit of the North: a paranormal romance is my long-awaited novel that takes place in the Marquette area during the winter of 1873-1874. It reintroduces several characters from my novel Iron Pioneers, including the Whitmans, Molly Montoni, the lumberjacks Ben and Karl, and Sophia Henning—the rich woman everyone loves to hate. But the story centers around two new characters, sisters Barbara and Adele Traugott, who find themselves having to spend the winter alone in their uncle’s cabin. And finally, more about the ghost story of Annabella Stonegate is revealed.

The Gothic Wanderer: From Transgression to Redemption is my study of the Gothic Wanderer character in Gothic novels, along with commentary on why we love the Gothic and how it still relates to our lives today. Such well known classics as Dracula and Frankenstein are explored, along with several fascinating novels that explore character types like the Wandering Jew, the Rosicrucian, the Gambler, and numerous other Gothic figures. Even Tarzan, Superman, and the novels of Anne Rice and Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series are discussed. Furthermore, much of the research I put into this book will tie in with my upcoming series of novels about King Arthur, to begin release in 2013.

I encourage you to visit my newly redesigned website at www.MarquetteFiction.com. There you can view the book covers for my upcoming books, as well as a page about Annabella Stonegate, a chance to listen to me reading the story “The Ghost of Stonegate Woods” (mp3 link) that first introduced her character, as well as the new Marquette History Quiz page where you can see how much you know about Marquette History. Have fun and keep coming back for future quizzes.