Author Genre: Spiritual and Young Adult
Website: Gale Minchew
Author's Blog: Videos
Blog: Book Facebook Page
Twitter: @galeminchew
Goodreads: Check Out Goodreads
Facebook: Check Out Facebook
Amazon Author Profile
Author Description:
Dr. Gale Minchew is a Licensed Psychologist in Texas where she maintains a clinical practice. She primarily specializes in the counseling of children and families. Over the past few years, Dr. Gale has consulted with adults and children who have experienced a broad range of paranormal phenomena, as well. In addition to her clinical practice, Dr. Gale conducts past life regression, relaxation training, guided meditation, and hypnotherapy. As a spiritual intuitive, she channels messages from the Angelic Realm and uses a variety of divination techniques which are featured in her newest release.
SPOTLIGHT Questions and Answers with the Author
Congratulations on your new release, Live, Learn, Love. What do you have on the drawing board next? Can you tell us the timeline for its release and give us a little tease?
This new release is the first in a new spiritual development series my co-author, Karen Lovero, and I are working on. We look forward to releasing book two in the series in the summer of 2016 and expect it to be a six book series. Whereas the current book helps the reader work within his or her life purpose, the next book will explore the benefits of the use of affirmations in everyday life.
You have a good following on twitter. Since you started before the social media buzz, what impact has social media relationships had on your current success? How did you build your following in your niche?
I have found that social media has its pros and cons. I tend to be a perfectionist and a bit OCD about things. This can be a difficult combination with social media because I tend to want to respond to everyone who mentions me. I was literally spending hours every day trying to keep up with Twitter. Over the past couple of years I have taken a break from Twitter for the most part. Eventually, I gravitated back to social media, but more towards Facebook. Last year I helped administer a beautiful group that grew to about 15K members. It was very successful in engaging with my niche...the spiritual community. When I began writing this book, I took a break from group interaction due to time constraints. Since the book's release, I am again engaged with different groups, as well as present on my own page, and love hearing about other's spiritual experiences and sharing insight. I look forward to carrying this forward to Twitter, as well, but with clear boundaries regarding my own time this go around.
Do you do book signing, interviews, speaking and personal appearances? If so, when and where is the next place where your readers can see you? Where can they keep up with your personal contacts online?
I love interacting with people who are interested in my writing and try to engage in all of the activities you mentioned on a regular basis. Over the past couple of months I've presented at two workshops, was interviewed on three radio shows, and attended a book signing recently. My co-author and I have so much more scheduled over the next couple of months, including several workshops and events in Florida during the month of December. The best place to learn more about events and locations would be through my website at www.galeminchew.com
or through the book's Facebook page at www.facebook.com/LiveLearnLoveBooks
You have great covers. How does your book cover creation process work? Do you hand over the basic theme or do you have more of a hands-on approach? Do you get your readers involved in its development?
I am very much a creative force within myself. Ideas just start flowing and after working with all of those words for so long during the writing process, I find that I need to express myself visually. The book cover for Live, Learn, Love: Rediscover Your Life Purpose in 10 Days came about through a dream I had. In the dream, I was outside and saw a blue butterfly flitting around. I couldn't believe how beautiful it was and took out my phone to get a photo. The butterfly flew straight in front of me and paused so I could take his photograph before he flew away. I told my co-author about the dream, and she remembered a vision she had months ago about a butterfly on our book cover. So, we searched for blue butterflies, I made a few mock ups of the cover and sent them to her, and we decided on this cover.
You have several great book trailers. (See links below.) They look very professional. Do you know how much impact they have had on your book’s success? Tell us about the process that you used to create your trailers?
Thank you. Again, after all of that writing I find the need to express myself visually. I made my first book trailer in 2011 for my very first book. Book trailers were rather new at the time and it was definitely a learning experience. So many things have changed since then, and authors have really upped the ante with the quality of book trailers out now. With this newest book, I thought it would be important for the viewer to actually see Karen and me in action. Karen had previously discussed getting readers to submit testimonials that we could use in a promotional video. The book had only been out a couple of weeks when I put the video together, but Karen and I had already received so much positive feedback. We decided to combine the two ideas and give the viewer an idea about what the book is about, who we are, and what other people are saying about the book. We have had phenomenal feedback from people who have viewed the video, and I see it as an important tool in marketing and book promotion.
Live, Learn, Love: Rediscover Your Life Purpose in 10 Days
Shadows of Destiny
What kinds of writer support groups do you belong too? Do they help with the writing, marketing and the publishing process?
I don't belong to any writer support groups, but I consider my family, my co-author, and the angels to be the best support system I could have in this project.
Between your book writing, blogging, marketing, work, family and all the other things that can get in your way, how do you manage your time? Do you have a set schedule or do your sort of play it by ear?
My husband isn't much of a planner so I've learned to play everything in life by ear. I'm a licensed psychologist so I have set days that I see clients at my office. Fortunately, my office schedule can be somewhat flexible so I make adjustments, as needed, and schedule book writing, workshops, marketing activities, and social media interactions around family time and work. I involve my family in as many book activities as possible, and often when I am at events, they are nearby, as well.
What has been your experience in giving your books away free? Have you been involved in any other type of giveaways and how did that work out? What was your main goal in doing this? Did you run into any obstacles?
This book is so new that my co-author and I haven't offered any giveaways or free books, but in the past, I have done so with my other books. Since my other books were part of a paranormal fiction series, I noticed that people who received a free book were attracted to the other books in the series, as well. So, giving away one book often prompted the purchase of the other three in the series. Free books and giveaways can be a great marketing tool, but it's important to identify the reasons for doing so, such as sharing the project with as many people as possible, increasing the odds for reader reviews, advancing the project in sales rankings, and increasing the book's reach to a broader population, for example. Once we further develop this spiritual development series, it's possible we'll utilize this tool for Live, Learn, Love: Rediscover Your Life in 10 Days, as well.
Do you maintain a reader list? What are the methods you use to find your readers and create the list and the relationship? Do you use social media, forums, newsletters and/or support groups to build your list?
I have just recently started gathering emails to include in a quarterly newsletter I would like to start that will give readers an idea of our upcoming events, news about the book and subsequent series, and something helpful they can use to improve their lives on a daily basis, such as a link to a new meditation I've recorded, affirmations, or some other insight about life purpose or spiritual development, for example. This process is still in the planning stage. Other than that, most of the relationships I've built with readers have been in person at local events or through social media. I have many strong connections with people I've met through Facebook and a few from Twitter, as well.
Do you feel that being a Psychologist gives you any insight into the Paranormal?
I don't think being a psychologist gives me any more insight into the paranormal than anyone else. What being a psychologist does offer me is the unique opportunity to hear about clients' experiences with paranormal and spiritual phenomenon and their personal beliefs in a world that shames and chastises them if they share these experiences and beliefs out in the broader society. However, I've noticed a shift in the past few years. People are craving more knowledge about the spiritual world and finally finding the courage to talk about it more openly. Believe it or not, more and more people have likely had a paranormal or spiritual encounter at some point in their life, and now so many individuals I meet are actively working to fully embrace that experience versus feeling the shame and doubt that others try to thrust upon them. As a psychologist, it is my goal to help others better understand the paranormal and spiritual phenomena they are experiencing.
Author's Book List
Live, Learn, Love
- Rediscover Your Life Purpose In 10 DaysDo you struggle with fear, regret, unforgiveness, or the feeling that you have no direction? Have you tried over & over to figure out what you are meant to do in this life and feel like you come up empty handed? Or, do you simply desire to improve your well-being through a stronger connection to self, the Divine & your life purpose? With the amazing shifts occurring throughout our world, it is time to break free from outdated patterns in your life, negative thoughts & emotions. It is time to Live your life to the fullest, Learn the lessons needed for your spiritual development & Love yourself unconditionally for the Divine being that you are. In doing so, you can rediscover your purpose in life & begin to infuse it with the peace, joy & freedom you were meant to experience. Through a unique combination of channeled messages, prayers, spiritual requests to the Angels, guided meditations, affirmations & exercises, you can begin to master your purpose & all the love & abundance meant for your life.
Book Trailer: Live, Learn, Love
Order From:
Amazon
Shadows of Deception
- Shadows of Destiny SagaNICHOLAS HAS LIVED A LIFE OF DECEPTION Like Analise Michaels, Nicholas Zahn can travel in his sleep and communicate with angels. But, he didn't have these abilities from birth...he acquired them and many other abilities when he died...and then came back to life. Shortly after his near-death experience at the age of five, Nicholas could see people around him who were on the cusp of death. He heard other people’s thoughts. His abilities brought him to the attention of the police and local media which in turn brought him to the attention of some less desirable organizations. Only a few weeks after his sixth birthday, Nicholas was abducted by a covert agency. He has spent his life in a string of educational facilities receiving training in an array of skills: remote viewing, astral travel, mind control, physical combat, weaponry, psychic development and protection …everything a young boy needs. In his memoir, Nicholas reflects on some of his experiences in the midst of the powerful reunion between Analise and her biological mother. Their reunion stirs some deep longing within him and he finally uncovers the truth that lay hidden within the shadows of deception.
Order the Book From:
Amazon
Shadows of Truth
Analise Michaels isn’t like other teenagers… She travels in her sleep. She talks to angels. Spirits are drawn to her pureness of heart. She can see and hear what others cannot, or perhaps that which they simply refuse to acknowledge. The spirit of a young woman is awakened in the dark of night as Analise travels the downtown streets of Jefferson on a carriage drawn ghost tour. She is intrigued by the tragic tale of this lonely soul for reasons she doesn’t understand. But one local tragedy isn’t enough… She struggles to understand the deaths of two women separated by more than a century… one a student at her high school and the other a young woman who died in the early 1900s. Just when she thought the tangled web of drama and hysterics at school had ended a new crisis rears its ugly head. With Nicholas gone, it’s anyone’s game now as one enemy becomes a friend and the battle among adversaries rages on. Between the spirits that haunt her, those who want her help, and the strange energy surging throughout her high school campus, Analise is in a race to release the spirits unjustly bound to this world and finally uncover the Shadows of Truth.
Order the Book From:
Amazon
Shadows of the Past
- Shadows of Destiny SagaANALISE ISN’T LIKE OTHER TEENAGERS…She travels in her sleep. She talks to angels. Spirits are drawn to her pureness of heart. She can see and hear what others cannot, or perhaps that which they simply refuse to acknowledge. Her life has never been typical...until she showed up on Rose Michael’s doorstep. But, her senior year in high school has been anything but predictable. She met an unlikely friend. She managed to tangle with some mean girls at school. And, her dreams revealed details of a startling mystery that led her into the world of a handsome stranger who helped uncover the identity of a malevolent entity that haunted her. Although she still has much to learn about her gifts, she can’t help but dwell on some haunting secrets of her own. In her memoir, Analise takes you deep inside her chaotic, and somewhat surprising, childhood as she attempts to uncover long buried gifts, triumph over the darkness that surrounds her, and finally dispel the Shadows of the Past.
Order the Book From:
Amazon
Shadows of Destiny
- Shadows of Destiny SagaOn the banks of a sleepy bayou, a lost soul is nestled in the piney woods of East Texas, waiting and watching in the darkness of the shadows. He is feverishly seeking the past but is inevitably snared in the present and will stop at nothing to find his destiny. Alarmed by this lost soul that stalks her while she sleeps, Analise Michaels struggles to find meaning within her dreams. Instead, she finds danger down the street, across the ocean, and through the realms of time without ever leaving town. Analise is not like other teenagers. She can see and hear what others refuse to acknowledge. As Analise navigates the tangled web of drama and hysterics during her senior year of high school, she finds an unlikely friend and makes several enemies along the way. Her life becomes inescapably intertwined with an enigmatic stranger she must depend upon to help her unravel the mystery behind her haunted dreams and finally release the Shadows of Destiny.
Book Trailer: Shadows of Destiny
Order the Book From:
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
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