Book - "Midnight Serenade" by Alli Sinclair

I read Australian author, Alli Sinclair’s story, “Luna Tango” over the Christmas holidays, and it was an enjoyable read. Now the tango story is going international with “Midnight Serenade”. Congratulations Alli!

The Blurb…

On the sultry streets of Buenos Aires, the daughter of a world class tango diva searches for answers about the mother who abandoned her—and uncovers decades of lies and deception…

After twenty years of wondering why her mother chose tango over her, Dani McKenna finally travels to Argentina. What was it about this beautiful, mysterious land that enticed one woman away from her own child—and broke another’s heart? As a journalist, Dani may have the opportunity to find out. And an enigmatic tango dancer may hold the key to her quest—if she can break down his defensive walls.

Carlos Escudero had been Dani’s mother’s protégé. Tragedy ended his career and he refuses to be interviewed. But he will give Dani some insights, on one condition: she must agree to his tango lessons. As the two begin the intricate dance of passion, Dani’s quiet, logical world is exchanged for one of music, motion—and mystery. For the clues to a dance legend’s murder may lead Dani to the truth about the past and its impact on her family—and free her to move toward a future she can claim as her own at last…

About Alli…

Alli Sinclair is a multi, award-winning author who spent her early adult years travelling the globe, intent on becoming an Indiana Jones in heels. She scaled mountains in Nepal, Argentina, and Peru, rafted the Ganges, and rode a camel in the Sahara. Argentina and Peru became her home for a few years and when she wasn’t working as a mountain or tour guide, Alli could be found in the dance halls dancing the tango, salsa, merengue, and samba.

All of these adventures made for fun storytelling and this is when she discovered her love of writing. Alli’s stories capture the romance and thrill of exploring new destinations and cultures that also take readers on a journey of discovery.

Alli volunteers as an author role model with Books in Homes, promoting literacy and reading amongst young people.

To find out more about Alli, please visit: www.allisinclair.com 

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/AlliSinclairAuthor

Twitter: https://twitter.com/allisinclair

Instagram: alli_sinclair

Google +: Alli Sinclair

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/dashboard

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Alli-Sinclair/e/B00MSGMON0/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1456709127&sr=1-1

The last word from Alli...

Over the years I have been so very lucky to have met writers from all over the world - in person and online - and the friendships I have made are ones I will always cherish. It's been so lovely to enjoy this journey with people from so many different countries and now I'm super excited that my books are going to be available worldwide as I'll get a chance to meet readers from everywhere! Midnight Serenade, the first book to be released worldwide, only became available to readers three weeks ago and already I'm hearing from readers from countries such as Germany, USA, England, South Africa and Chile! It's so very exciting and I am very much looking forward to sharing my stories with readers from all over the world!

Buy Links for Midnight Serenade:

https://www.bookdepository.com/Midnight-Serenade-Alli-Sinclair/9781601838933

http://www.kensingtonbooks.com/book.aspx/33109

https://www.amazon.com/Midnight-Serenade-Wandering-Skies-Sinclair-ebook/dp/B016GRJ87Q

https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/midnight-serenade/id1087055141?mt=11

https://store.kobobooks.com/en-ca/ebook/midnight-serenade

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/midnight-serenade-alli-sinclair/1122857386

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Tango, like love, is complicated    (“Luna Tango” by Alli Sinclair)

Enjoy your weekend.

♥ Ashlyn

Movie - "Ghostbusters"

Last weekend, I went to see the new Ghostbusters movie at the cinema. I had my own mini-adventure at the start of the movie until reality interrupted. Here's what happened. I sat down in the red chair. It tilted back like a car seat, or so I thought. I put on my 3D glasses and I was ready to be entertained.

*Spoiler Alert*

The first ghost haunting was a phantom from the Victorian Age (I’m forever curious about history). I was mesmerized by the beautiful patterns the lady ghost’s sweeping skirts made as she moved out of her basement dungeon. The Ghostbusters thought she was a nice lady, a harmless old dear.

I was totally hooked into the story—imagining the lady’s life circumstances, and why she was stuck as a ghost and not RIP. All of a sudden the nice lady turned nasty. She spewed green slime out of her mouth at the Ghostbuster. The jet of sticky goo came out of the 3D movie screen and headed straight for me.

My hands gripped the arm rests. I titled back in the seat.

“Aaaarghhh….” I called out.

I jammed my right foot down on the brake pedal. In my state of fright, I thought I was driving a car and I had to avoid a collision with the fountain of sticky ectoplasm.

“Mum, be quiet!” my kid said.

Then I felt like a silly goose for getting caught up in the movie drama.

I enjoyed watching the diverse characters and the ‘geek girls’. I’d be warned to ‘shut it’ so I quietly laughed at Melissa McCarthy’s dialogue of science mumbo-jumbo.

Australian actor, Chris Hemsworth (we love) played the role of the Ghostbuster’s secretary/receptionist. His character, Kevin, was a gender-bender of a woman with no brains who’s hired for her good-looks (Hollywood—we’re over it). Kevin was a ripped guy, with a cheesy grin and a sparkle in his eyes. He was on a learning curve on how to operate the desk telephone. Chris played up to the role of Kevin, and made it bigger, funnier and more ridiculous.

Meet Kevin, here's some movie footage.

There was also a brief appearance of actress, Sigourney Weaver from the 1980’s “ALIENS” Sci-Fi movies. I’d love to see more Ghostbusters with Sigourney in the scenes.

Here’s the official Ghostbusters movie trailer. 

The Ghostbusters movie was a lot of fun.

Enjoy your weekend!

♥ Ashlyn  

The Earth Moved Under My Feet

These last few weeks, while I’ve been blogging about nature, another strange synchronicity also happened. On two occasions, the earth literally moved under my feet. I’m talking about small earthquakes and thankfully there was no serious damage to me or property.

The first earthquake I’ll call “shake”. It coincided with the week of my “Connecting with Nature” blog post. The shake quake came late afternoon. After work, I was standing in the kitchen, waiting for the kettle to boil so I could make a cup of tea.

Pop, pop, pop, pop!  I distinctly heard 4 small bursting sounds that came from the ground beneath the house.

BOOM!  There was a loud noise deep under the ground that sounded like an explosion.

SHAKE!  The glass rattled in the window and the walls shook. The floor started to move up and down. 

My heart beat faster. I realized I was standing in the middle of an earthquake. The awareness triggered my senses to high alert. My eyes widened, I stared down at the floor. Would it crack open? I placed my hands down on the kitchen bench, half-trying to hold on and also to steady my balance.

I didn’t move a whisker as I waited for the shock wave to pass. My ears were full of the sounds the house was making. I remained tense for several more minutes in case there was an aftershock to follow. When the silence and stillness returned to the house, I made the cup of tea, and I really appreciated drinking it.

The second earthquake I’ll call “sway”. It coincided with the week of my “Connecting Inner and Outer Nature” blog post. The sway quake came during the day. I was standing outside the side door of my house, taking advantage of a better network connection to check messages on my phone.

There was a faint rumbling noise in the background which I ignored. It could have been a truck driving around the streets with a heavy load. Then the ground beneath my feet started to sway. The movement started gently and built momentum, swaying from side to side with a small upward motion.

I suddenly became aware of the birds (crows and wattle birds) chirping in the trees nearby. As the earth moved beneath my feet, I felt a sense of powerlessness, a loss of control. I became aware there were forces greater than me in action. Very powerful forces! For a few seconds, “my fight or flight” survival instinct triggered. I wanted to get away. But I couldn’t move to stable ground, because there wasn’t any. All of the ground around me was moving. I had to ride out the fear.

I listened more closely to the bird calls. The ancient part of my brain registered that the birds were not communicating calls of distress to one another. Nor were they flying away to escape. They chirped on through the shock waves. Part of me started to calm down and I tuned into the swaying motion beneath my feet. As the vibrations traveled up through my body, I felt like I was standing on a surfboard made of paving bricks and riding a wave of earth energy. It was a more awesome feeling than my earlier fear.

The shake quake came from seismic disturbance deep within the earth while the sway quake was from a shallower depth. Twice in a fortnight, I felt the earth move beneath my feet and the shock waves traveled upward through my body.

MOVE was the earthquake’s message to me. Keeping dancing and don’t be stuck with old baggage that weighs me down. Shake, sway, move on, and move forward. The world is changing, and energy is shifting. Dare to live those dreams.

 So I followed the urge to start a new Google + page about the Sacred Earth. I don’t know where this path is leading me. I’ll write more about the G+ site another time, when I know what the heck I’m doing with it. For now, it’s a WIP.

I probably have a few more earthquake cracks in the walls of the house. (I don’t want to find them, too depressing.) All I can do is patch them up for next time. I’m certain that in the future my house will be on the move again. The same applies to the rest of the Australian continent. We are slowly traveling north-east at the same rate our fingernails grow. Beneath the cover of the oceans, the Australian land mass is fused with India, and together we are being squeezed beneath the Himalayas.

The Western Australian Government plans to make corrections to maps in 2020 to accommodate our new position on the globe, which will be about 1.8 metres away from where we are currently located.

The earth keeps spinning around the sun, and the land keeps moving across the surface of the planet. That’s life in the outback for another week. 

Take care,
♥ Ashlyn 

Connecting Inner and Outer Nature.

Last week I wrote about the benefits of connecting with nature. This week I’m blogging about the wild woman and man inside of us. I’m not referring to the savage beast with a bad reputation for wreaking havoc on the world. I’m talking about the tribal person within us, the gypsy-like traveler, adventurer, and nature lover.

Within the ancient part of our brains, we still have the instinct to navigate across land and water to find food, make shelter and clothing against the extremes of weather, woo a mate and to live within a community. Although ages of time have passed, we are still pre-occupied with meeting these same basic needs for survival and social engagement.

I think the alignment of our inner natures with the outer world of nature can tap a source of wellness, wholeness, improved health, pleasure, joy and happiness and there are so many more benefits.

source: Pinterest.com

How do we connect our inner wilderness with the outer landscape? There are many ways. One way is to take ourselves physically into nature. To the park, the beach, the mountains, the river, whatever natural place appeals to the senses.

Then we need the right state of mind. The gatekeeper is the conscious mind who’s usually busy with self-talk and chatter. The connection to outer nature is not about systems of belief or known facts that the conscious mind can process and decide upon. The connection is about the experience of uniting the inner, wild gypsy with the outer natural world. The experience is about feeling the joining together through an open heart.

Silence,

taking sustaining breaths,

listening to the sounds,

letting the senses roam,

allowing the experience to unfold.

Rejuvenation.

source: www.brainyquote.com 

Take it easy and have a good weekend. 

♥ Ashlyn 

Connecting with Nature

We live in times of great change to human society and also to the earth. Institutions of power and authority are failing. It’s the end of an Age. What comes next for humanity? Will we find a new way of living before the earth is exploited to it’s death.

I’m not a prophet of doom. I’m a dreamer, a story-teller, and a believer in the good that’s inside of people. We don’t need to destroy each other because of our different beliefs. Truth will eventually triumph over lies and deception. Love conquers fear.

Has mankind ever lived in peace and harmony with nature or with each other?

Yes, yes, YES! We did live that way more than 5,000 years ago. In old Europe there’s evidence in the archaeological record of civilization that understood life was sacred and they venerated nature as the sustainer of life. 

I’m talking about the incredible, lifetime’s work of Marija Gimbutas,  an archaeologist born in Lithuania, 1921. According to Marija’s studies, the end of Old Europe’s peaceful Age came with the arrival of Kurgan culture, around 4500 BC. They were horse-riding people who descended from the Russian steppes and migrated throughout Europe and east into India. After the arrival of the Kurgans, the archaeological record has pottery shards showing “depictions of slavery and of war and the phenomena of walled cities was common.” (source: www.sacredcircles.com)

The age of peace was so long ago in the past. You might be wondering how this old history is relevant to today’s technological world? Well, many people are searching for the wisdom of the ancients. Seeking the lost, and perhaps advanced knowledge of how they lived in harmony with themselves and nature. The ancient mythology, the understanding of ley lines—the earth’s electromagnetic energy grid, astronomy, pyramid buildings (not just Egyptians ones), the meaning of circles of stones and the list goes on.

There’s also interest in the traditional beliefs of indigenous peoples. 40,000+ years--the Australian Aboriginal people have the longest history of continuous occupation of land of any people in the world.

Fortunately, as we make the transition to the next age of living on earth, we already have some innate skills we were born with. Like the ancient part of the brain -- “Lizard Brain”. I’ve been blogging about our reptilian selves for a few weeks now. Our primeval brain already knows how to live on earth without destroying its food, vital soil, water and air.

Connecting with nature is a good way to tune in and listen to Lizard Brain. Connecting with nature is good for health--lowers blood pressure and stress hormones, improves mental health, and provides a sense of well-being. It’s simple--we need contact with nature. Our finely engineered feet have also evolved to walk over any terrain on earth. Let’s go walking!

This coming week on Google + I’ll have a few posts about connecting with nature. Wherever you live in the world, please keep safe during these turbulent times. If you can, or need to, take some time out from the rat race to unwind and chill out.

Green is a calming color.

I’m going to take a walk in the park. 

♥ Ashlyn