“I find it very intriguing that the Incas have such a feminine quality to their belief system.” ~Nicole Pouchet
Annie’s Defiance is the third book in the Elemental Myths series, the entirety of which deals with the unfolding of an Incan prophecy, and the book’s central character, Annie, is a lawyer who works to control the supernatural powers she stumbled into and gets involved with two men to boot. This series is entirely different from the other book series she writes for, the Beyond Fairytales series, in terms of mythology - Beyond Fairytales are essentially re-tellings of Grimm Brothers fairytales, while Elemental Myths is based on Incan mythology - and in terms of creative control, as the stories in Beyond Fairytales are assigned to her, while Elemental Myths springs purely from Nicole’s imagination.
Elemental Myths is a series of stories - Nicole mentions six books in the series, of which at least four will be the main novels - that are based on a fictional Incan prophecy created by Nicole, and revolves around powers given to the female protagonists by the Incan earth mother - powers based on the four elements, and how these protagonists work to control and eventually unite their powers to save the world. Nicole noted that she did “quite a bit” of research to get the mythology and the historical facts as accurate as she could. Nicole first got interested in Mesoamerican cultures in the early 2000s, with the then-popular interest was about the world supposedly ending in 2012 based on the Mayan calendar, and it was when Incan culture caught her interest. What fascinates her is the presence of female deities, goddesses, which create a balance with the male deities, as they are just as important as their male counterparts are. With regard to Incan culture and history, Nicole finds their demise to be a fascinating tale.
Nicole started her career writing memoirs, and the biggest shift for her, when she turned to writing novels, was that writing romance novels made her feel more fulfilled as a writer. She noted that, when she wrote memoirs, she had to get all the facts straight while still needing to write out a coherent story, while with novels, she had more freedom to create the story she wanted. She also notes that, when she writes the books in the Elemental Myths series, she can lose herself entirely in the stories themselves. When it comes to maintaining the consistencies in character and story, Nicole relies on outlines and an analysis of each character along with notes on what was already written about the characters. Nicole also notes that sex is a way in which the male and female lead characters bond, and the adventure revolves around the characters’ making sure that things turn out okay.
Although Nicole hasn’t yet traveled to the lands the Incas once called their own, she is planning a trip for 2016. She also plans to travel to Australia at some time in the future, as she has recently become interested in Australian aboriginal culture and their oral history and hopes to write some books on these in the future.
Nicole Pouchet’s website for her paranormal romance book, Annie’s Defiance is nicolepouchet.com.
“Weight loss happens because of the changes in the diet.” ~Dr. Sandeep Grewal
Dr. Grewal and Dr. Nwe have both been practicing internal medicine in South Carolina for nine years, and the pair focus on helping people lose weight the right way, and based on the latest scientific research, as doing so enables people to improve themselves physically (risk of cancer goes down and blood pressure improves, among others) as well as to improve their way of life. Dr. Grewal’s and Dr. Nwe’s intention for writing the book was to let the average person know that losing weight isn’t as complicated as it might have seemed and to present the latest scientific evidence for the right and wrong things to do where weight loss is concerned.
Dr. Grewal remarked that consuming beverages that are rich in sugar, such as sodas, is merely about the calories in that drink, but in reality, consuming either drinks that rich in sugar or eating foods with a mix of fat and sugar (such as cakes), based on research done on lab rats (which are used because their bodies mimic the reactions of human bodies), probably make the imbiber of such drinks eat more, to the point of displaying binge eating behavior, than they would have if they didn’t take that drink or eat that particular type of food. Although the mechanism for this trigger is still being researched, Dr. Grewal opines that this has something to do with the weight regulating centers within our brain, which is located within our hypothalamus.
Dr. Grewal also noted that artificial sweeteners - the kind found in “diet” drinks - tend to make people crave junk food, based on MRI scans done of people who regularly consumed such beverages, and he has seen, in his practice, that the patients who craved junk food reduced their craving over time as their consumption of artificial sweeteners was reduced, likewise over time. He also says that, if our brain craves for sugar, we should give it sugar so it wouldn’t switch over to craving for other foods, and also notes that people should check the sugar serving information on the foods they eat to ensure they don’t consume more than eighteen grams of sugar in a single sitting, as consuming too much sugar at one time results in a high insulin spike that causes the body to convert this sugar into fat.
Dr. Grewal didn’t know the exact cost of obesity to the health system of the United States, but he noted that two out of three people are fat and one out of three are obese in the United States, compared to Japan, where only one out of ten people are obese, which means that obesity is presently an epidemic in the United States. He also notes that fat cells secrete inflammatory chemicals which cause pain throughout the body, hence the reason why obese people feel sore all over, all the time.
Dr. Grewal and Dr. Nwe developed the SlimPlate System as an easy way for people to lose weight in a way that they wouldn’t need to learn all the nutritional science behind such. Where Dr. Grewal is concerned, the three criteria for a good weight loss system are: it should be easy to do, it should allow real food to be consumed and that it changes eating habits. The SlimPlate System consists of four steps designed to, within a period of four months, ultimately enable someone to eat healthy for the long term, rather than just consuming a diet just for the short term and then reverting back to previous dietary habits once that diet is done. Dr. Grewal remarked that the SlimPlate System has enabled people to lose anywhere from fourteen to twenty-three pounds in three months while still consuming food they were familiar with.
Dr. Grewal recommends that people not skip any meals, and, indeed, the SlimPlate System is designed around people eating three major meals and then snacking twice between meals, as eating food once every four hours boosts metabolism. Skipping breakfast, he remarks, results in the body experiencing a sixteen-hour fast that reduces the body’s metabolism by up to 50%.
Where children’s food consumption is concerned, Dr. Grewal recommends that children have breakfast before they go to school, as the brain uses glucose to function and learn, and not having breakfast would make them less capable, mentally, in addition to the aforementioned effect of slowing down their metabolism. Cafeteria food is high in carbohydrates and fat, which is not good, so Dr. Grewal recommends packing a good lunch with lots of colors included, so that these will appeal to children, as well as including snacks with eighteen grams of sugar, maximum, per serving. Dr. Grewal recommends using lean meat cuts and whole wheat bread as well as cutting sandwiches into shapes that will appeal to children, as well as cold pasta salad with nuts and raisins sprinkled on these. He also recommends taking children along when shopping for vegetables so that the children will take ownership of these and will thus be more likely to consume them. Where sugary drinks are concerned, children shouldn’t take more than once a week, and no more than eight ounces at any one time. Fruits and nuts are likewise an option, and M&Ms can also be mixed in with these to keep the food interesting to children.
“There’s just so much shame connected to women and embracing their sexuality.” ~Jenny Block
Jenny is a retired college professor who taught English for ten years in Richmond, Virginia, and it was after she moved to Dallas, Texas, that she started doing freelance writing. She wrote her first book, Open: Love, Sex and Life in an Open Marriage, which opened new horizons for her in the form of her being invited to write for various other publications, such as the Huffington Post. Although she did some travel writing, her focus in writing was on the topics of sex, positivity, women and women’s advocacy.
Jenny was drawn into womens’ sexuality from her experience with doing research for her first book, as people felt comfortable interacting with her on the topic, and also when she got invitations to write about womens’ sexuality. She decided to write this book when she realized that there were a lot of myths about female orgasm, such as there being fifteen different kinds of female orgasm, and the information presently available to the public isn’t exact. Jenny then did research on the topic, which included surveying 150 women as well as drawing from her own personal experiences, and discovered that there is only one kind of female orgasm that is based on clitoral orgasm, although this can be created in several ways on the female body.
Jenny put all the facts about female orgasm in her book, making it a repository of all that was necessary to know about female orgasms, which she defines as a nervous system reaction that is the height of sexual pleasure, and in women orgasms occur when the clitoris, which has some eight thousand nerve endings compared to virtually none in the vagina, reaches a peak of intensity which slowly decreases, but after which can be re-stimulated to intensity over and over again. Where men are concerned, Jenny recommends that they make sure their female partner feels safe and comfortable with them, take the time to stimulate their female partner properly, and that, for women, it’s all about the clitoris, with intercourse not being the main event. Jenny also advises that men make the woman come first before conducting penetration, as, for women, what is presently called “foreplay” is the main event.
Jenny wrote the book as an easy read, so that anyone can pick it up and understand it easily, and from the feedback that she got it seems that she succeeded. She admits that the hardest thing about writing this book was that, since it was written with women in mind, she would be seen as a militant, man-hating feminist, whereas her entire goal was about creating equality and connection on both sides, and she thus would prefer that husbands and boyfriends likewise read the book. She admits that the process of writing the book has made her realize just how lucky she is in her sexual experiences and how important the subject matter is to women. She also hopes that, by reading her book, people will realize the myths they operated under and understand that women are sexual creatures.
Jenny noted that shame is probably the biggest issue confronting women when it came to women having an orgasm, with its coming in several forms, such as body shame (how womens’ anatomies look) and also shame in how women sound and shame in how they ask for what they want, to the point where women are ashamed to want any pleasure at all (“nice girls don’t need to enjoy sex”), which adversely impacts the event for both male and female partners. She recommends that the focus be taken off the act of intercourse itself and that the definition of sex also include such activities that are presently thought of as foreplay. She also notes that, if all women knew how beautiful they were, free of the sense of shame that women are bombarded with all the time from the environment, the cosmetics industry and glossy magazine company would go out of business very quickly.
Jenny remarks that, for women, there are a lot of other things that come into play where sex and achieving orgasms are concerned, such as connection, intimacy and feeling safe. She also remarks that imagination plays a role in female masturbation, which is the topic of her next book, and that, even in the private thoughts of a lot of women, shame plays a role in inhibiting them sexually. Jenny also suggests committing to taking the time to having an orgasm in the same way one would commit to an exercise regime.
Jenny is interested in exploring topics which lead to connection, not only between men and women but also with each other, as well as making people realize things about themselves and their perspectives. She likes the phrase, “It’s all happening,” as, for her, it means that things are going well, while “moist” is the word that she dislikes. She also wouldn’t mind going back to teaching in college and impacting the students she would steward.
“Just straight romance, where boy meets girl, boy dumps girl or girl dumps boy and they get together - that doesn’t quite do it for me. I like to have some kind of world building or something that goes along with it.” ~Nicole Pouchet
Nicole started out as an author writing memoirs and doing non-fiction. As a child, she read poetry, Shakespeare and other literary classics and serious literature and only began reading romance novels in her early twenties after getting depressed by a book she had read. She liked these (paranormal romance) so much that she decided to write what she loved in addition to handling and owning a marketing agency, which is her day job. Trapped By a Song is actually her third published romance novel, and counts Shakespeare and poet Nikki Giovanni as her literary influences. Nicole mentions Outlander series author, Diana Gabaldon, in particular, as the latter’s work can’t just be tied down to romance but also contains such elements as time travel and history, which appeals greatly to her, as she is a confessed geek who is very interested in science fiction and the paranormal.
Nicole’s publisher, Decadent Publishing, has a book series called Beyond Fairytales, and they assign a fairy tale to an author who doesn’t necessarily know the fairy tale they’ll be given. The fairy tale given to Nicole was a somewhat obscure one by the Grimm Brothers called Jurinde and Joringel, and from this prompt she wrote Trapped By a Song. Although Nicole kept a lot of the elements of the original fairytale, but she updated it to reflect modern-day Las Vegas and turned the villain from the original, who was a shape-changing witch, to that of a succubus, a demon which assumes female form to drain men of their energy.
Nicole points out that, compared to J. K. Rowling, whom she credits as having transformed the Young Adult (YA) genre of literature, her subject matter is oriented more towards adults, and thus has sex scenes, but her work is similar in that it contains elements that are fantastic compared to real life. Where doing research into paranormal romance, Nicole went to the Internet, rather than seeking out individual paranormal researchers to get as much information as she could on the paranormal elements she writes into her book.
Where book villains are concerned, Nicole picks the kind of villains that she herself finds frightening, particularly people who can change people and turn them into something that they aren’t, against their will. With regard to giving life to her characters, Nicole thinks of people familiar to her, such as her friends, or even celebrities, and then establishes her characters’ reactions based on how she believes those people will react when confronted with the particular situations found in the book. Nicole holds a degree in drama which makes her adept at figuring out characters’ motivations.
Nicole notes that, when she writes a novel, she does so essentially with herself in mind as the book’s reader. She admits that writing sex scenes is difficult for her, as she is aware that members of her own family are likely to read what she writes, and while Nicole admits she does get graphic with such scenes, she focuses more on the feelings than on the physical act itself, as well as keeping such sex scenes integral to the ongoing story to keep these from venturing into the field of porn.
Nicole had only six months to write the book, as that was the deadline given to her by her publisher, and she admits she had more incidents of writer’s block with this book compared to the previous books she wrote, and she attributes these to the characters, as originally envisioned, not being compatible with her outline. The easiest scenes for her are when the main characters meet, since she can get into what the characters think about each other. The most difficult for her are the sex scenes, which she strives to keep relevant to the story and also emotionally engaging, rather than just physically descriptive. Nicole is presently very interested in her paranormal writing endeavors. Beyond being an author, being a participant in the field of mental health is something that she would like to explore.
“To me, if you mess up one time, in your one lifetime, and you’re in Hell forever, that’s kind of strict. We all make mistakes in life. God gives His forgiveness... even to the souls that have fallen to Hell.”~Yushi Hagimoto
Disclaimer: This interview was slightly different from other interviews conducted by AuthorStory, in that the person interviewed was not the author of the book itself, but has a good knowledge of the book and Mr. Okawa, the real author, as he is deeply involved with Mr. Okawa’s movement as a Minister. This interview also delves somewhat into philosophical and religious beliefs that readers and listeners may not necessarily agree with totally, and which may not necessarily reflect the views of AuthorStory.
Ryuho Okawa had studied international finance at Tokyo University and worked in the United States for a time. He had a spiritual revelation when, one day at his home, he felt a presence around himself and felt a need to hold a pen, and this resulted in his writing out “Good news” several times through automatic writing. He wrote the book with the idea that, if death put an end to everything, life would be meaningless, but if we could take all that we learned with us into a life after death, then one’s efforts in life would be more meaningful. In this respect, the concept of “happiness” is more along the lines of “fulfillment,” where one’s own life is concerned.
Yushi Hagimoto’s parents were already involved with Happy Science, but as a child and as a youth, he wasn’t really interested in it until he was drawn into Mr. Okawa’s view and vision at a lecture while he was a student. Once he graduated from college, Yushi then became a full-time member of Happy Science to attain the position of Minister that he presently holds.
“Happy Science” is a direct translation of the Japanese phrase 幸福の科学 (kōfuku no kogaku). In Japanese, nouns and verbs can be used in the same way, so the intention behind the phrase is actually something along the lines of “‘Sciencing’ Happiness,” in that the scientific method is used to get to happiness. The movement, according to Yushi, is based on certain principles that could be applied to achieving happiness in one’s personal journey.
According to Yushi, the book’s message is similar to other books on the afterlife that state that Heaven exists, where Heaven is happy and one can meet people who have already passed away. He notes that the established religions talk more about Heaven and Hell, while spiritualism deals with souls and spirits. Happy Science is a spiritual religious movement whose followers believe that there is both a right way and a wrong way to live, and in that respect it’s similar to the viewpoint of the established religions. The book, however, notes that there is a structure in Heaven and that scientists, professors and politicians likewise exist in Heaven, and that there are different levels to Heaven itself. According to Yushi, Mr. Okawa came upon this realization through a combined process of astral travel, where his spirit detached from his body to travel into the spiritual world, and also from what he has read.
Given that Mr. Okawa is Japanese, it’s not surprising that such Eastern concepts as boddhisvattas, “the red string of fate” and spirits in animal form are presented as examples in his book, and Yushi noted that such concepts have equivalents in other cultures, such as black magic and sorcery as it is known in the West. Yushi also said that, according to Mr. Okawa, space and time are gifts from God, and without the concept of time there would be no evolution of one’s soul.
Where the book is concerned, Yushi would remark to any who are interested in it that it’s a textbook for the afterlife, starting from the moment after death and then moving on to such topics as what happens to a person if he or she commits suicide, and could enlighten one, particularly if one has experienced death and has questions about it. Yushi believes that, if everyone reads this book, people would have a grander perspective on life, and that the world will be more peaceful, as people would have a perspective on life that isn’t limited to just one’s present lifetime. He also notes that love, in the context of the book, is essentially as the Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.” He believes that, a thousand years from now, the concepts and topics within the book will be common knowledge due to the spiritual awakening that is presently taking place.
Yushi believes that everyone should read the book, particularly in the West in order to make the conversation of reincarnation common. He also notes that Happy Science is a very innovative movement, with something new happening every year, and that Mr. Okawa is presently involved in interviewing spirits who have moved on into the afterlife, and some of these interviews can be found at spiritualinterview.com.
Yushi, who graduated as an electrical engineer, would very much like to see the technologies present in the afterlife that aren’t yet here on Earth, while he would not like to experience the deepest realms of Hell, which is where demons reside, and when he meets up with God, the Deity would meet him with the question, “Did you fulfill your mission?”
