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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."