Raised in a deeply religious family, Mercy rebels against all rules during his teenage years. He stops attending church and drops out of high school. To avoid a destined path of self-destruction, Mercy enlists in the Army. After two combat tours, Mercy returns home battling PTSD. Trying to forget about the lives that he has taken and resume a "normal" life, Mercy returns to church. He enrolls in college and reconnects with a childhood crush. Mercy saved some of his men. Can he save himself? WM Bunche is a cold war veteran and Commendation Medal recipient. His military roots trace back to the Civil War. A wannabe athlete, he has completed the Marine Corps Marathon. He is a veteran advocate who helps raise awareness for PTSD in combat veterans. He is a church leader and mentor.  He lives in New York City with his family. He can be contacted at wmbunche.com, Facebook or Twitter.

Tom Nix sold his check cashing business for an enormous amount of money, and now he's sharing his "lessons learned" through speaking engagements and writing. LIFE’S KEY CONCEPTS 1. We live in a cause-and-effect world in which we have immense personal power. The degree of personal power we can exercise in our life depends on how much we know about the cause and effect relationship in a given area. Commit to learning about life and the natural laws of the universe. I like to stress how you can change your life by changing your mind through the use of affirmations, visualization, positive self talks and pictures. 2. Take total responsibility for everything that happens in your life. This includes those things you have control over and those things you do NOT have control over. You always have control over how you react! Pouting, hiding out, making excuses, rationalizing, blaming others, feeling sorry for yourself, avoiding the difficult task and procrastination are all indications that you are not taking responsibility. 3. Never play the victim role or the blame game. There is absolutely no payoff to this attitude. Never look at what you’ve lost, avoid running your misfortune over and over in your mind, stay calm and accept setbacks gracefully. Realize that problems, bad people, tough times and mistakes are your teachers. Problems are guidelines not stop signs. The question is: What do I need to do to capitalize on these events? For more, check out Tom's book, "Nixland My Wild Ride in the Inner City Check Cashing Industry" and his website: http://nixland.net/

Andy Peloquin is a storyteller and an artist--words are his palette. Fantasy is his genre of choice, and he loves to explore the darker side of human nature through the filter of fantasy heroes, villains, and everything in between. Thief of the Night Guild is the sequel to Child of the Night Guild. It showcases how the woman Ilanna has to adapt and become more ruthless and cruel to survive in a male-dominated society of thieves, assassins, and thugs.

William Michael Davidson lives in Long Beach, California, with his wife and two daughters. A believer that "good living produces good writing," Davidson writes early in the morning so he can get outside, exercise, spend time with people, and experience as much as possible. A writer of speculative fiction, he enjoys stories that deal with humanity's inherent need for redemption. If you'd like to be a guest on Back Porch Writer, visit the website for more information. I'd love to chat with you!

William Kenower is the author of Fearless Writing: How to Create Boldly and Write With Confidence, and Write Within Yourself: An Author’s Companion, the Editor-in-Chief of Author magazine, and a sought-after speaker and teacher. In addition to his books he’s been published in The New York Times and Edible Seattle, and has been a featured blogger for the Huffington Post. His video interviews with hundreds of writers from Nora Ephron, to Amy Tan, to William Gibson are widely considered the best of their kind on the Internet. He also hosts the online radio program Author2Authorwhere every week he and a different guest discuss the books we write and the lives we lead. 

J.M. Robison is a fantasy historian who chronicles the events which force heroes to reveal their  mistakes, lead rebellions to dethrone tyranny, and unearth ancient secrets to free the oppressed. She's quested over lands with the U.S. Army and now works for the king under the honorable title of Deputy Sheriff. She makes her own shampoo, lotions, laundry soap, face wash, and toothpaste. Some day she'll pack the wagon and roam the mountains in search of dragons. Check out her book, "The War Queen."   

Tonight's show welcomes back Tony Wilkins. He's the host of the ever-popular weekly Small Business Forum Radio show right here on Blog Talk. His book-turned-workshop series, The Career Whisperer, is available to anyone who wants to step up their selling game, transition and transform their speaking business, and others. We'll also talk about building your platform. Who should? Is it really necessary? How time-consuming is it? And, if there's time, I'll recap the discussion about coaching from the previous week Connect with Tony! He rocks! [email protected]  

Norma Hollis teaches self-awareness by helping you know yourself on a deep authentic level.  She takes you on a journey inside of yourself to find, live and share your authentic voice, the essence of who you are. After studying human nature from personal, professional and spiritual perspectives for over 30 years, Norma has created a system that introduces you to the nine dimensions of authenticity and helps you uncover minor tweaks you can make to massively impact your future.  She works with individuals and organizations as a consultant, coach, trainer and speaker. Norma is the former owner of a speaker bureau and author of several books including “Ten Steps to Authenticity”, “The Process to Become a Professional Speaker” and “Authentic Healthcare Leadership: A Practical Handbook” which will be released in 2018.

Stay, Breathe with Me: The Gift of Compassionate Medicine  Not just another book about death and dying, Stay, Breathe with Me shows how to bring heart and compassion back into medicine to revive the art of care.  From a pioneer in palliative care comes the gift of wisdom that when we remove false barriers and fully embrace the human side of illness, we dispel fear and ease suffering. This thought-provoking, compassionate book views serious illness as a drama of body, mind, and soul where symptoms and suffering cannot be separated from the person who is ill.   Heartfelt, and with “little pearls of sound clinical wisdom on just about every page,” this collection of stories from patients, their families and caregivers, not only shows how medicine can ease the suffering of the ill, but also how medicine can reclaim its heart.  Irene once thrived for many years as a technical communicator, author, and teacher in France, Italy, the UK, and Canada. But today, she writes stories about healing from the heart. After a stint of living off-grid on the remote edge of nowhere (in the northern Canadian bush), Irene is happy to have returned from the wilderness to settle with her mountain-man-husband on a lovely (and mostly civilized) island without any predators!  … But that is a whole other story …           

Sandie Will is a young adult novelist who lives in Tampa Bay, Florida and works as a manager and geologist by day. She has written two novels and is currently working on her third. Her debut novel, The Caging at Deadwater Manor, is a heart-pounding young adult psychological thriller. Her second is a historical time travel that will be released in late 2017. Sandie is currently writing her third novel -- another edge-of-your-seat psychological thriller.  Inspired by true events, The Caging at Deadwater Manor will take you on a heart-wrenching journey, where a young woman is locked away in a psychiatric hospital by her father who wants nothing more than to keep her there forever. Find out first hand what it was like for her to be trapped against her will, and watch as she grows through her circumstances and choices. On a cold, January evening, fourteen-year-old Jeannie Kynde is told that her beloved mother drowned in the murky waters along Florida's Gulf Coast. Her distraught father turns on Jeannie, no longer the caring father she once knew. Four years later, Jeannie is finally old enough to escape her father's clutches, but he has different plans. He imprisons her at Deadwater Manor, a psychiatric hospital with an unscrupulous past. Between endless psychiatric treatments and a hospital staff up to no good, Jeannie faces insurmountable odds as each day ticks away. Will she be locked away forever? Or can she fight against the nightmare that has now become her world? The inspiration for the story came from Sandie's beloved father who worked in various psychiatric hospitals during short periods of his career. In the attic of one such hospital, he made a disturbing discovery that will make your skin crawl. Note: This book is intended for mature young adult, new adult, and older audiences due to profanity and mature content.

Brian Paul Bach is a writer, artist, filmmaker and photographer; he has worked across the entertainment business, in theatre, music and as an academic. He now lives in central Washington State with his wife, Sandra. His previous works include, The Grand Trunk Road From the Front Seat, Calcutta’s Edifice: The Buildings of a Great City, and Busted Boom: The Bummer of Being a Boomer.  For more information, visit https://forwardtogloryquartet.wordpress.com/. Forward to Glory I: Tempering Butterbugs is a nobody, a nothing. But that’s not why he’s compelled to drive to Hollywood and hurl himself upon the mercy of the cinematic capital. His only dream is to act. Without any plans, resources or friends, he throws caution to the wind and embarks on a journey to the City of Angels. The trials that result pose only one question: will Butterbugs remain a non-entity, or will his big dream come true? Abundant with movie lore and invention, Forward to Glory I: Tempering is an ode to the cinema and the bewitching power of entertainment.