I started this blog with the first publication of a post on November 29, 2012. So far, there have been 466 entries, this being the 467th. Some of you traveled with me on this journey way back then, while others of you have jumped aboard relatively recently, and still others at some points along the way. My posts generate close to 2,000 views a month- some months more, some months less. Amazing when I think about that.
I use this blog to inspire, to cause people to think, to examine their lives, their heart, their head. I wrote about relationships and how our lives might affect and intertwine, sometimes to intervene with others. At the close of most posts, I write: “Something to think about …” and just after that, “Live Your Life, and Make A Difference!”
That has always been the goal of this blog: to get you … each of us to think, and for each of us to Live Your Life, and Make A Difference!
Something to think about …
I’ve always been a reflective guy. I seldom, if ever, shoot from the hip. I’m not a very spontaneous guy at all. I try to be deliberate in my words and actions, carefully considering not only what my words and actions say but also how they might affect others. That has been my goal, anyway. My writing, I think, reflects that.
Some posts are better than others. On some days, I just wasn’t feeling it, but I tried anyway. Sorry about that. Other days, I didn’t realize just how much of an impact my posts had on others. The power of the word, I guess. The power of words and each individual’s perspective and needs at that moment. Some posts you disagreed with, while others you did. Some brought laughter, some brought tears. The power of the human heart.
Live Your Life, and Make A Difference!
This comes directly from my message to everyone who was present at my son’s celebration of life in August 2014. I spoke to so many young adults that day and some older folks too, and then for days after, about the importance of living their own life- not their parents’ life; not their friends’ life, but their own. To chase a dream, capture it, and live it. That is what my son did. He made mistakes, took missteps, changed direction, but ultimately, he lived his life and was happy. It’s the way all of us should live.
And what I tried to leave everyone with- at the celebration of life, and each day with each word and with each action, is to Make A Difference! A positive difference in the lives of others. To recognize we have the power to create smiles, to create laughter, to correct, to encourage, to lift up. That is the difference I would like each of us to make: right now, today, tomorrow, and all our days.
One last thing I want to say is that each of us needs to recognize that moments are to be lived! We need to make sure those around us: spouse, our kids, our loved ones, brothers and sisters, parents- all in our lives, need to know they are loved by us, important to us. We need to make sure not a day goes by without our expression of this love, this compassion, this caring. It has to be deliberate. It has to be intentional.
I believe I’ve written many, many posts on this, and stated it in many different ways. We honestly never know how long we, you and I and others, will walk upon this earth. Here one moment, gone in the next. So please, don’t let an hour go by without reaching out to let someone you love and care about know that you love them, and know how much they mean to you. We owe them that. We owe ourselves that!
So lastly, thank you for tagging along on this journey of mine. The “Simple Thoughts From A Complicated Mind … Sort Of” journey. I hope I add something to your day, usually at the start of each week, for you to use in your daily life, in your relationships with others. For you to consider and “think about.” I am perhaps not as eloquent as some, but at the least, I try to be as genuine as I can be. Thank you! Something to think about …
Live Your Life, and Make A Difference!
To My Readers:
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Author
Website at https://www.jrlewisauthor.blog
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Amazon at: http://www.amazon.com/Joseph-Lewis/e/B01FWB9AOI /
A
Surprise For You!
My Publisher, Black Rose Writing, and
I are sponsoring a giveaway for Fan Mail beginning at
12:00 AM PT on Tuesday, April 25 and will finish at 11:59 PM
PT on Wednesday, May 24th.
We are giving away 5 copies to
Goodreads members in U.S.
When the giveaway ends, winners will
be randomly selected, and I will mail out a signed copy of Fan Mail.
Use the Giveaway
widget:
Goodreads Book
Giveaway
by Joseph Lewis
Released
March 30 2023
This giveaway begins at 12:00 AM PT on Tuesday, April 25th and ends at 11:59pm PT on Wednesday, May 24
Fan
Mail: New
Release! A Maxy Award Finalist and a Literary Titan Silver Book Award Winner!
A barrage of threatening letters, a car bomb, and a heart attack rip apart what was once a close-knit family of adopted brothers. Randy and Bobby, along with fellow band member and best friend, Danny, receive fan mail that turns menacing. They ignore it, but to their detriment. The sender turns up the heat. Violence upends their world. It rocks the relationship between the boys and ripples through their family, nearly killing their dad.
As these boys turn on each other, adopted brother Brian flashes back to that event in Arizona where he nearly lost his life saving his brothers. The scars on his face and arms healed, but not his heart.
Would he once again have to put himself in harm’s way to save them? And if faced with that choice, will he? https://amzn.to/3eNgSdS
Blaze
In, Blaze Out: Best Action Crime Thriller of 2022 by Best Thrillers!
A Literary Titan Gold Book Award Winner! A Readers’ Favorite Award Winner! A
Reader’s Ready Recommended Read! A BestThriller’s Editor’s Pick!
Eiselmann
and O’Connor thought the conviction of Dmitry Andruko, the head of a Ukrainian crime family, meant the end. It was
only the beginning. They forgot that revenge knows no boundaries,
vindictiveness knows no restraints, and ruthlessness never worries about
collateral damage. Andruko hired contract killers to go after and kill O’Connor
and Eiselmann.
The killers can be anyone and be anywhere. They can strike at any time. They care nothing of collateral damage. Andruko believes a target is a target, and in the end, the target must die. https://amzn.to/34lNllP
Betrayed: Two Top Shelf Awards: 1st Place Fiction-Mystery; and Runner-Up Fiction-Crime; A PenCraft 1st Place Winner for Thriller-Fiction! A Maxy Award Runner-Up for Mystery/Suspense! A Literary Titan Silver Book Award Winner! A Reader’s Ready Recommended Read Award Winner! A Reader’s Favorite Honorable Mention Award Winner for Fiction-Crime-Mystery!
Betrayed is Now Available in Audio Book, Kindle and Paperback! https://amzn.to/3AfUUpS
A
late-night phone call, a missing kid, a murdered family, but no one is talking.
A promise is made and kept, but it could mean the death of a fifteen-year-old
boy. Greed can be all-consuming, and seeing is not believing. No one can be
trusted, and the hunters become the hunted. https://amzn.to/2EKHudx
Spiral
Into Darkness:
Named a Recommended Read in the Author Shout Reader Awards!
He blends in. He is successful, intelligent, and methodical. So far, he has murdered eight people. There is no discernible pattern. There are no clues. There are no leads. The only thing the FBI and local police have to go on is the method of death: two bullets to the face- gruesome and meant to send a message. But it’s difficult to understand any message coming from a dark and damaged mind. Two adopted boys, struggling in their own world, do not know they are the next targets. Neither does their family. And neither does local law enforcement. https://amzn.to/2RBWvTm
Caught in a Web: A PenCraft Literary Award Winner! Named “One of the Best Thrillers of 2018!” by BestThrillers.com
Caught in a Web is also available in Audio Book, Kindle and Paperback! http://bit.ly/2WO3kka
They
found the bodies of high school and middle school kids dead from an overdose of
heroin and fentanyl. A violent gang, MS-13, controls the drug trade along the
I-94 and I-43 corridors. They send Ricardo Fuentes to find out who is cutting
in on their business, shut it down and teach them a lesson. But he has an
ulterior motive: find and kill a fifteen-year-old boy, George Tokay.
Detectives
Jamie Graff, Pat O’Connor and Paul Eiselmann race to find the source of the
drugs, shut down the ring, and find Fuentes before he kills anyone else. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07CKF7696
The Lives Trilogy Prequel, Taking Lives:
FBI
Agent Pete Kelliher and his partner search for the clues behind the bodies of
six boys left in various and remote parts of the country. Even though they live
in separate parts of the country, the lives of Kelliher, 11-year-old Brett
McGovern, and 11-year-old George Tokay are separate pieces of a puzzle. The two
boys become interwoven with the same thread Kelliher holds in his hand. The
three of them are on a collision course and when that happens, their futures
grow dark as each search for a way out. https://amzn.to/34nXBH5
Book One, Stolen Lives: Editor’s Pick by BestThrillers!
Literary Titan Gold Book Award Winner! A Crime Thriller finalist in the
2021 Best Thriller Book Awards!
Two thirteen-year-old boys are abducted off a safe suburban street. Kelliher and his team of FBI agents have 24 hours to find them or they will end up like the other kids they found- dead! They have no leads, no clues, and nothing to go on. To make the investigation that much tougher, Kelliher suspects that one of his team members might be involved. https://amzn.to/3oMo4qZ
Book Two of the Lives Trilogy, Shattered Lives:
The
boys are home, but now they have to fit back in with their families and
friends. Their parents and the FBI thought the boys were safe. They were until
people began dying. Now the hunt is on for six dangerous and desperate men who
vow revenge. With no leads and nothing to go on, the FBI can only sit back and
wait. A dangerous game that threatens not only the boys, but their
families. https://amzn.to/2RAYIk2
Book Three of the Lives Trilogy, Splintered Lives:
Three dangerous men with nothing to lose offer a handsome reward to anyone willing to kill fourteen-year-old Brett McGovern. He does not know that he, his younger brother, and a friend are targets. More than anyone, these three men vow to kill George, whom they blame for forcing them to run and hide. A fun vacation turns into a nightmare and ends where it started, back on the Navajo Nation Reservation, high on a mesa held sacred by George and his grandfather. Outnumbered and outgunned, George will make the ultimate sacrifice to protect his adoptive father and his adoptive brothers- but can he? Without knowing who these men are? Or where they are? Without knowing whom to trust? Is he prepared for betrayal that leads to his heartbreak and death? http://bit.ly/SplinteredLives
Photo
courtesy of Jon Tyson and Unsplash