Peeking Between the Pages

...escape into the pages of a good book

Guest Post with Richard E. Roach, Author of Scattered Leaves & Giveaway

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I’m happy to welcome Richard Roach, author of Scattered Leaves to Peeking Between the Pages today. I read and reviewed Richard’s novel yesterday for his Blog Tour with Pump Up Your Book Promotions which you can see here. Today he is here to share with us ‘Things I Have Learned’…

Lesson one A: Be upfront with your prospective clients. (In our case I guess that would be our readers.) Tell them who you are. Tell them what you want them to do. (Please! Buy my book Scattered Leaves. Amazon.com or mmpubs.com or any good book store.) And finally, tell them what you’ve told them.

Lesson two: Be polite, be nice, always obey the Scout’s Oath, go to church on Sunday, smile when you meet a stranger on the street, always be helpful, kind, and considerate, and above all, eat an apple every day. If you’ll only follow these simple rules, you’ll be healthy and happy all the days of your life and dead broke!

Lesson three: Don’t listen to me! I know little about life. All I have learned, at least 90% of it has been toward making money. Well, I lucked out and made the money but I certainly have not learned a thing about being happy. So lesson number three is: Don’t think a million in the bank is going to make you have a calm, pleasant, and soothed mind. It just don’t work that way.

Lesson four: Don’t borrow money to go into business! And, don’t listen to Merrill Lynch’s financial advisers. In fact, don’t listen to any financial adviser. If you need help with your taxes because you’ve made a lot of money, see a C. P. A. Whatever you do, don’t listen to Hollywood version of the way to run your life. Hollywood ’s lie is about the same as believing a politician when he’s trying to get your vote; it will get you no where but in the poor house.

Lesson five: If you don’t know the rule of 72, learn it. It’s simple (it’s about the only rule in making money that I know of that is simple) Take a sum of money: $100. Take the interest you will be paid: 4.0% (this is an example for you college graduates) Divide 72 by your interest (yield or what ever you want to call it). in this case (4) and you will find the answer is: 18. This means that the $100 will become $200 in 18 years. To make this magic, you must leave the money alone for 18 years.

Now, if you are lucky enough to make 10% on your money it will double in only 7.2 years. You get the point? Dive 72 by your interest and it will give you the number of years for your money to double.

Lesson five A: I need to eat lunch, so if you’d like a few additional nuggets of wisdom on how to make a million from an old man, please, send me an email. My prices are cheap as is my advice. In closing, if you’ve taken the trouble to read this, I love you. Thank you so much and have a great life.

Richard E. Roach
Rockwall Texas
3-20-09 (First day of Spring)

As a bonus: (Free! Of Course) A few lines from SCATTERED LEAVES:

I found her on the floor near my side of the bed, nude, lying in a pool of inky-black, coagulated blood. She was dead. Cold dead. A long time dead. The words seemed foreign.

She had worried about her twenty-ninth birthday, which was coming up soon; she had been concerned that being nearly thirty might be getting old. She had been fretful about too many things: not having rugs beside the bed, the poor people at church, when would the roof start leaking. All those worries had taken wing when her heart had stopped beating and her blood ceased to flow.

I could not share with her the final pain of her last moments on this earth. She would forever be twenty-eight.
The smell of death permeated the bedroom air.
__________

ABOUT THE BOOK:

When Ben McCord comes home from a business trip to find his young wife raped and murdered, he starts out on a journey of death and destruction. Clues lead him to a dark world of drugs and violence in action that spans Texas, Colorado, and the Mexican border. McCord hooks up with a beautiful doctor, who was also victimized by members of the same drug cartel, and together they track down the killers, surviving bloody confrontations, and ending with a suspenseful climax in the Big Thicket of Texas.
__________

AUTHOR BIO:

Suspense/Mystery author Richard Roach was born in 1931 in Galveston, Texas. Short stories of his have been published in Man’s Story 2, Happy 2007, Vol. 20 and Bibliophilos 2006, Vol. 42. His first novel, Scattered Leaves, hit the book stores on September 1, ’08, and his second novel, Scattered Money, will be published in 2009.You can visit his website at http://www.richarderoach.com/.
__________

GIVEAWAY DETAILS:

I have 2 copies of Scattered Leaves by Richard E. Roach to share with my readers. First copy is brand new and it will go to the first name chosen by random.org and the second is my gently read copy which will go to the second entrant chosen. Rules are…

  • For one entry leave me a comment. Leave me an email address if I’m not familiar with who you are.
  • For two entries follow my blog. If you already do, let me know, you still get the entries.
  • Blog or tweet this giveaway to spread the word for 3 entries.

This giveaway is open internationally and I will draw for the winners on Friday, May 8, 2009. Good luck everyone!

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Comments

  1. This sounds great! I’d love to be entered. I’m also a follower!

    yvone473[at]optonline[dot]net

  4. Great guest post. Please enter me in the drawing. Thanks for the opportunity! Indigo

    I’m also a follower.

    ravensquietscreams(at)gmail(dot)com

  5. Please enter me! It sounds like a great story. I am a follower and will post your giveaway info on my blog. 🙂

    k9kutter64(at)yahoo(dot)com

  6. I hadn’t heard of this one before, but the quoted lines had me hooked! Thanks for the giveaway.

    I also follow. 🙂

  7. To: Yvonne, Blodeuedd, Serena,Indigo, Missy & Melissa:

    Thank you for your kind comments; I love you all. (Women buy 80% of the books sold in America according to what I've read.)

    If you happen to miss out on the book give-a-way, email me: rer5026@yahoo.com

    To the first one that reaches me, I'll send a postpaid, free copy of Scattered Leaves.

    Good Luck to one and all!

    Richard E. Roach
    Rockwall Texas

  9. This sounds like a book that I would enjoy! Please enter me in the giveaway.

    Thanks
    kherbrand at comcast dot net

  11. Please enter me in this contest. Sounds like an exciting book.

    beachlover20855ATyahooDOTcom

  13. This was an interesting post. And I liked the excerpt, it drew me into wanting to read it.

    jaam121388 at yahoo dot com

  16. Hey Dar! This sounds pretty interesting. I wouldn’t mind scoring a copy 8)

    I’m already a follower.

    Thanks,

    mishtakes AT gmail DOT com

  19. Ha! Great nuggets of wisdom!(Oh, that sounds like a really good exclamation of surprise. Think it’ll catch on?) Hope you had a good lunch!

    Also, thanks for the free excerpt! I’ll have to keep an eye out for your book.

  20. Well, Mr. Roach, then we love you too! What a great sense of humor, this guy! He needs to charge for his advice. Definitely sign me up for this giveaway!

    rnawrot at cfl dot rr dot com

  24. This sounds absolutely devastating yet thrilling at the same time.
    Please enter me and thanks for the giveaway.
    hurdler4eva(at)gmail(dot)com

  28. “My prices are cheap as is my advice”
    Love this line 🙂

    Please enter me.

    elizascott2005 at yahoo dot co dot in

  29. What an enthralling and captivating novel. Thanks for this chance. saubleb(at)gmail(dot)com

  30. Oooooooooow, this sounds exactly what I need to read next. Please enter my name. Thank you.!

    I am a follower (sometimes a leader).

    cyeates AT nycap DOT rr DOT com

  32. Sounds like a great book. Count me in! Just became a follower!

    carianmoonlight at gmail dot com

  33. I would love to read this book – please count me in!

    Thanks,
    Cheryl
    megalon22[at]yahoo[dot]com

  34. Please enter me in your draw, it looks like a great read!
    Cheers,
    Julie
    julie.sherritt[at]gmail.com

    I’m a follower too!

  37. Love the post….it is now on my tbr list!
    Thanks for the opportunity!
    Darby
    darbyscloset at yahoo dot com

  40. Whoa … wicked! Please enter me for the giveaway! Thanks!

    I’m also a follower.

    Lesley
    lesly7ch(at)yahoo(dot)com

  41. I am a sucker for suspense. Please enter me in your giveaway, Dar. 🙂 Great guest post too!

    kalea_kane(at)yahoo(dot)com

  45. I do love suspense. This sounds like something I could really curl up with. Please enter me.

    roylsue(at)telpage(dot)net

  49. k you.This sounds very interesting. I would love to be entered. Thank you.

    ssummmer(at)gmail(dot)com

  52. I enjoyed the guest post very much and learned quite a little from it.

    The book sounds like a good mystery.

  53. I love reading books like this – sounds great – pleaes count me in

    msboatgal at aol.com

  57. Sounds like a wonderful book. I’d love to read this one. Please enter me. Thanks!

    ayancey(at)dishmail(dot)net

  59. I have never heard of you or read your books so I would like to see what you write. This books sounds interesting. Sign me up to win.
    jrs362 (at) hotmail (dot) com
    You would also get reviews on it.

  61. I loved the author’s narrative…tell him for me please, that I love him too!
    Thanks so much
    Darby
    darbyscloset at yahoo dot com

  64. I am a follower.

    Would love to read this story; sounds very dramatic.

    yourstrulee at sasktel dot net

  68. Hi there, please count me in.

    I’m a follower and I’ve blogged about this giveaway here.

    josettebooks[at]yahoo[dot]com

    Thanks!

  70. Please enter me in the giveaway

    “Canadian Contests, Freebies, Coupons, Deals, Games and Fun:
    CoolCanucks.ca”

  73. I’d love to read this one! Thanks for the chance.
    quelleheure4[at]gmail{dot}com