An Interview with Sasha Olsen: Legend's from Mom's Closet

Sasha Olsen has accomplished more in her ten years of living than most people!  She has become an activist on behalf of the world's oceans, and has published her first book!

Legend's from Mom's Closet  showcases Sasha's limitless search for knowledge, born from a Summer trapped indoors by inclement weather.  Her love for reading and research will open many doors for her during her lifetime!  Enjoy this brief interview, and come back on Friday for my review of this very unique and fascinating exploration of women who have impacted history in meaningful ways!  Welcome, Sasha!

In your book, Legends from Mom’s Closet, you share tidbits about and dress up like
legendary women you read about during a rainy summer spent indoors. A lot of kids
your age would spend a rainy summer watching TV or playing video games. What
made you decide to start reading books about famous women?

Well, I actually love to read, especially biographies. I don’t usually spend a lot of time
using any devices. I didn’t specifically start reading books about famous women, but I
started looking around for books to learn more about legendary people. I just happened
to meet these iconic women through their amazing stories and spending a day in their
shoes!

What is the biggest lesson you learned from getting to know all of these female
legends?

I learned many lessons! Most of all though, I learned that women are super strong.
Women work very hard and can get through anything that might stand in their way of

achieving their goals. Women are so inspiring!

What inspired you to use your mom’s clothes and your grandmother’s vintage pieces
to recreate all of their iconic looks?

Actually, I just went into my mom’s closet and started trying on her shoes and dresses.
This was after I read about Frida Kahlo. So, I just got the idea to try and dress up as her! I
thought my mom might be really upset with me for playing with her things, but she
loved the idea. If the legend was wearing something like I really couldn’t figure out
where to get, I would call my grandma for advice. Most of the time, she had exactly

what I needed!

How did you decide which legends to include in Legends from Mom’s Closet?

I didn’t choose them before. I just started to read about people who I didn’t know much
about yet and it ended up being all women! After, I just decided to share them in this

book.

Your other passion is the environment. Tell us what you learned about vintage fashion
versus fast fashion.

When I was started my movement Iwantmyoceanback and this project, I was doing a lot
of research during that time. I wanted to know more about what are the biggest things
that pollute our oceans and cause problems for our planet. I found out like clothing is
one of the biggest ocean pollutants and some fabrics, like polyester, have plastic in
them so it breaks down and hurts our sea animals. After finding this out, I realized that
it’s very harmful to buy fast fashion because people just buy the clothes and throw them
away soon after. It inspired me to learn more about vintage and how we can buy
secondhand instead, and just reuse clothing!

Ultimately, what do you hope your readers take away from your book?

I hope readers learn how important it is to let your creativity run wild! I want other kids
to know that we can get inspired and have fun while also learning new things and
growing our knowledge. It’s also very important that we learn more about how fast
fashion affects our oceans and that we stop it! We need to win the war against fast
fashion to help save the planet.

Purchase your copy HERE!

Legends form Mom's Closet Virtual Book Tour

Silent Shadows by Natalie Walters - REVIEWED

About the Book:
They're running from their pasts into an unknown future.
But first, they'll have to survive the present.

Nurse Pecca Gallegos moved to the tiny town of Walton, Georgia, to protect her son and escape the dangerous lifestyle that once defined her. When a series of strange circumstances evolves into threats, Pecca finds herself confiding in an unlikely ally--her stubborn patient.

Army veteran Colton Crawford is desperate to recover from the disorder that is ruining his life, and his instincts are on high alert when threats against his nurse and her son force him to take action. But Colton's involvement only ramps up the danger when he uncovers a family secret revealing that whoever is after Pecca is closer--and more deadly--than they realized.


Welcome back to Walton, Georgia, where everyone knows your name--but no one knows your secret.

About the Author:

Natalie Walters is the author of Living Lies and Deadly Deceit. A military wife of 22 years, she currently resides in Hawaii with her soldier husband and their three kids. She writes full-time and has been published in Proverbs 31 magazine and has blogged for Guideposts online. In addition to balancing life as a military spouse, mom, and writer, she loves connecting on social media, sharing her love of books, cooking, and traveling. Natalie comes from a long line of military and law enforcement veterans and is passionate about supporting them through volunteer work, races, and writing stories that affirm no one is defined by their past. Learn more at www.nataliewalterswriter.com.






My Thoughts:
Secrets are easy to keep - until they're not.  Pecca Gallegos and her son, Maceo have become an integral part of the community in Walton, Georgia.  Pecca's job as a physical therapist at the local veteran's rehab facility, Home for Heroes, provides the structure and security - and anonymity  - Pecca needs to raise her son.  When Army veteran, Colton Cawford, becomes her patient, Pecca discovers that keeping her feelings under wraps becomes an unexpected challenge as she gets to know her patient.  Her co-workers only seem to encourage the relationship as both Pecca and her son become an almost daily part of Colton's life.

Life takes a sudden u-turn when gun shots ring out of the shadows.  Those shots open the gate way to Pecca's past, and secrets come to light that ensure nothing but unknown circumstances and danger in what had become the safest place of her life.  As Pecca begins to navigate the task of both keeping her son safe and guarding her heart against growing feelings for Colton, Captain Crawford has to struggle to overcome the trauma lurking in his own past that keeps his mind and body hi-jacked by uncontrolled movement.

This story has multi-layered plot lines that will appeal to a broad range of readers.  There is romance, suspense, difficult emotions, trauma, and a multitude or surprises hidden along the way!  Truth grapples to come to the surface against a constant stream of efforts to protect people from being hurt both physically and emotionally.  The characters in this novel - even the minor characters - are believable and very likable.  I have thoroughly enjoyed my time within the pages of this novel, and am very excited to recommend it to everyone!

Three Secrets to Teaching Your Kids to Choose Confidence Over Fear - Guest Post by Ryan Maule

3 Secrets to Teaching Your Kids to Choose Confidence Over Fear

By Ryan Maule, author of the children’s book I Am Awesome!

Being a parent of a child in grade school means constantly sitting on the edge of your seat. Changes are happening all the time that affect the way your child reacts and responds to everyday life situations. This makes parenting overwhelming, feeling like you’re just sitting around waiting to come up with answers to issues you didn’t realize would come up in the first place. 

One of those changes seen regularly is a loss in self-esteem or confidence. Many parents face the dilemma of seeing confidence deplete with little to no understanding of what’s going on or how it happened. Most of the time we don’t even notice until the confidence has dropped so far that we wonder how it will ever recover!

So, what happened? If you’re like me, it’s easy to remember the moments where your child looked like they were absolutely unstoppable. I’ve seen my daughter take on roller coasters that made me nauseas, introduce herself to a group of strangers where I hoped to just blend in and get ignored, and perform, sing, and dance in front of crowds that make even the most confident of parents wonder “where did this kid come from?!” For a while it seemed like the only thing that scared her was Santa Claus.

But then, without notice or warning, she doesn’t have that confidence anymore. She doesn’t want to perform, she’s withdrawn, she doesn’t want to go on even simple child rides, or stand out at school or in small groups. 

Where did the confidence go?

The reality is that these depletions in confidence are normal and common throughout not only the growing up process, but throughout your child’s entire life. These life tests never go away. The trick is to be able to recognize and label the problem that is always getting in the way. It can be called many things and summed up into one word: fear.

Fear is the main reason your children lose some or most of their self-confidence. It can be discovering the fear of death, the fear of judgement, the fear of disapproval, the fear of disappointment, the fear of embarrassment, or even the fear of simply failing. They could even just be scared in general. Fear is always present and will never fully go away. Fear is the amplifier of all the negative outcomes in every situation that we hold in the back of our mind. 

The secret is to teach our children how to react to fear in order to maintain and build their confidence. To do this, I have three easy secrets to help your kids choose confidence over fear.

1. Teach Your Children to Recognize and Admit Their Fears

Most situations where confidence is attacked are never recognized because we allow ourselves to get away with lying to each other. Instead of properly saying “I’m afraid of” or “I’m scared to,” we allow bad excuses and “I just don’t want to’s” to be acceptable answers. Teaching your kids to identify the thoughts and feelings that are fear-related helps them to create the potential for a stronger, more confident response. 

2. Make A Rule of No Hypotheticals

This secret is one that all families should use and applies to both adults and children. Hypotheticals are imaginary negative outcomes and more commonly, fantasy worst-case scenarios. It’s so easy to think up disasters and failures and play them out like a movie in your mind. The answer is to not allow them. No hypotheticals means basing your decision on only the things that are facts and that you already know. By not allowing your worst-case scenario to impact your decision, you create opportunities where positive outcomes are truly possible.

3. Discuss Past Successes!

When you’re in the moment, it’s hard to remember past experience. Sometimes all you need is a little reminder of great moments of past confidence to inspire more instances of future confidence!

“Do you remember that time you did this same thing and it went perfectly?!”

“Mom and I were so proud of you the last time you handled a situation like this!”

“You are awesome at this!”

“This is nothing for you!”

“You could do this in your sleep!”

By drawing on past successes, your children will start to see beyond the fear and see themselves conquering the world!

RYAN MAULE is the author of the children’s book I Am Awesome! He is also a nationally recognized and highly sought-after motivational speaker, host of the popular Expect Awesome Podcast, and the president of Integrity Doctors, the world’s largest chiropractic business organization. Over the last 15 years Ryan has traveled the world spreading the message of expecting awesome and building a stronger self-image in order to gain a God-powered confidence. Ryan is happily married to his awesome wife Amber and they live in Florida with their two awesome kids, Summer Grace and Nolan Zeal.

I Am Awesome by Ryan K Maule Illustrated by L.M. Phang - REVIEWED

About the Book:
I Am Awesome!  tells the story of two robots named Grace and Zeal who live in Goodland, a land created by an Inventor where everyone and everything is Good. When Grace and Zeal meet a new invention who claims to be Awesome and not just Good they set off for the Inventor’s workshop to get some answers. There they discover the truth – that they are worth more than they ever realized.
“I want kids of all ages to live with a God-powered self-worth and confidence,” says Ryan. “I want to impact lives and inspire both kids and parents to achieve and go for more.”


“Ultimately with I Am Awesome! I want to teach children that it’s not just a good thing to have confidence, it’s what God wants!” adds Ryan. “He wants you to live an awesome life with Him by your side through it all.”

About the Author:

RYAN MAULE is a nationally recognized and highly sought-after motivational speaker, host of the popular Expect Awesome Podcast, and the president of Integrity Doctors, the world’s largest chiropractic business organization. Over the last 15 years Ryan has traveled the world spreading the message of expecting awesome and building a stronger self-image in order to gain a God-powered confidence. Ryan is happily married to his awesome wife Amber and they live in Florida with their two awesome kids, Summer Grace and Nolan Zeal. 

Learn more about Ryan and I Am Awesome! at www.ryankmaule.com and on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

I Am Awesome! is available on Amazon.

MY THOUGHTS:  After 5 decades of living and raising two children to adulthood, I can honestly say that I wish there were folks writing the words of truth and affirmation that are contained in Maule's book I Am Awesome!  He uses easy to grasp concepts to present the truth about how fearfully and wonderfully ALL of God's children are.   Only humans are created in God's image, and Jesus lived died and rose again to show us the great love our Father has for us.  

Maule doesn't go into all of that - that is what I'm learning all over again in a new way as an adult.  God's creation  - each one of us - is unique and equipped to do something to make the world a more beautiful place.  Don't settle for good. You are AWESOME!!

Thank you Ryan Maule for expressing God's love for His children in a way that children of ALL ages  can remember how awesome we are made!!

Ishmael Covenant by Terry Brennan - Reviewed and GIVE AWAY!!

About the Book:
His marriage in tatters and his career ruined by lies, Diplomatic Security Service agent Brian Mullaney is at the end of his rope. Banished to Israel as punishment by his agency, he's assigned to guard a US ambassador and an insignificant box. Little does he know that this new job will propel him straight into a crisis of global proportions.


Inside the box is a messianic prophecy about the fate of the world. And a dark enemy known as The Turk and the forces of evil at his command are determined to destroy the box, the prophecy, and the Middle East as we know it. When Ambassador Cleveland gets in the way, his life and his daughter's life are threatened--and Mullaney must act fast.

Now agents of three ancient empires have launched covert operations to secure nuclear weapons, in direct defiance of the startling peace treaty Israel and its Arab neighbors have signed. And a traitor in the US State Department is leaking critical information to a foreign power. It's up to Mullaney--still struggling with his own broken future--to protect the embassy staff, thwart the clandestine conspiracies, and unmask a traitor--before the desert is turned into a radioactive wasteland.

Fans of Joel C. Rosenberg, Steven James, and Ted Dekker will relish the deadly whirlpool of international intrigue and end-times prophecy in Ishmael Covenant--and will eagerly await the rest of this new trilogy.

Read and excerpt HERE!!

About the Author:

Terry Brennan is the award-winning author of The Sacred Cipher, The Brotherhood Conspiracy, and The Aleppo Code, the three books in The Jerusalem Prophecies series. His latest release, Ishmael Covenant is the first in his new series, Empires of Armageddon.

A Pulitzer Prize is one of the many awards Brennan accumulated during his 22-year newspaper career. The Pottstown (PA) Mercury won the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing for a two-year series published while he led the team as the newspaper’s Editor.

Starting out as a sportswriter in Philadelphia, Brennan became an editor and publisher for newspapers in Pennsylvania, Illinois, and New York and later moved to the corporate staff of Ingersoll Publications (400 newspapers in the U.S., Ireland and England) as Executive Editor of all U.S. newspaper titles.

In 1996, Brennan transitioned into the nonprofit sector, spending 12 years as VP Operations for The Bowery Mission and six years as Chief Administrative Officer for Care for the Homeless,  both in New York City.

Terry and his wife, Andrea, now live in Danbury, CT.

More on Brennan can be found at www.terrybrennanauthor.com. He is also on Facebook (Terry Brennan) and Twitter (@terrbrennan1).

My Review:
There has always been a lot of mystery and speculation surrounding Jerusalem and her people - God's chosen people.  The world has looked on, and in some cases, fought and died to protect both the people and the land that history has validated as their home.  Terry Brennan's imagination and political insight, his reporter's thirst for facts and his heart God and all His people combine to create a story that will captivate and thrill anyone willing to open to the first page!

There are many characters in play, and Brennan skillfully weaves the story line back in forth between the truth and deception surrounding a prophecy that has been protected and passed down for centuries.  There are moments that will cause the reader to hold their breath in terror and anticipation of what lies just past the next turn of the page.  The pace is fast and furious, but not so fast that you miss both the political and spiritual forces in play as the fight to bring the truth to light in its perfect timing.

I'm thrilled to know that this is the first in a series, because I was left at a very harrowing precipice as I read the final pages!!  I recommend this book to anyone that hungers for a thrilling what-if exploration of all the the war fare that takes place around God's chosen people.  It's real but not real, and you will be left hungry for more! 

Enter HERE to win your chance to win a copy of your own!

Strong Brave Loved by Holly Gerth - REVIEWED

About the Book:
Bestselling author Holley Gerth feels like your best friend, your supportive sister, and your biggest cheerleader. She understands that you want to be a woman who looks life in the face and says, "You can't beat me." A woman who knows love is a risk and reaches out anyway. A woman who understands kindness takes real courage. Who doesn't fake it or try to hide her scars. Who fights to believe she is who God says she is and helps others do the same.

Strong, Brave, Loved offers 60 short devotions to empower you to be that kind of woman. It's simple, personal, and practical, with room for you to journal your own responses and reflections. With these concise and compassionate devotions, Holley leads you on a journey of discovery as you learn to live in freedom, hope, and holy courage.

My Thoughts:
Holly Gerth is the absolute best at making the reader feel as though she is sitting across the table with you and sharing a cup a coffee with a friend.  Her latest book has taken this sense of conversation to a greater level by providing space after each devotion to share your own thoughts, prayers and response to her devotional.  

Holly always builds from the firm foundation of God's Word, and very personally and gently leads the reader away from the lies of the enemy and straight toward God's truth.  I think what I enjoy most about Holly's writing is that you always feel like you are being talked to as a person of equal worth.  After reading her work for so long, I finally know that she truly wants everyone who reads her work to know that she is God's unique masterpiece.

Her books have seen me through many major life events, and given me strength to keep putting one foot in front of the other.  I HIGHLY RECOMMEND this book to everyone!   

About the Author:

Holley Gerth is a best-selling writer, licensed counselor, certified life coach and speaker. She is cofounder of (in)courage, an online destination for women, which received more than one million page views in its first six months. She also reaches out to readers through her popular blog at www.holleygerth.com and a partnership with DaySpring. Holley lives in the South with her husband, Mark.