#SaturdaySpotlight is on Mark Wayne Allen and his new book, Introspection!

Good Morning!

It's a COLD one up here at Kincaid Lake. The park host had to turn the water off yesterday...someone backed into something...anyway, hopefully they'll have it up and running soon today. Fortunately we got here early enough to fill up the water tank, so we'll be OK until it's back on.

Anyway, today's guest, Mark Wayne Allen has shared Treasures, Thoughts and Spotlights with us before but today, he's telling us about his brand new release, Introspection!

What would life be like if anyone could be removed from history?

This is a question that Melvin Travis is forced to deal with. He hates all of humanity with good reason. He has virtually no past and he sees no hope for the future.

A rational person would wonder how an entire book could be coherently filled with a story about such a character. Well, I have to tell you, it wasn't easy. Melvin's dark outlook on life was something that I continually had to tinker with to pull him through this novel.

The background of the book is trying to stop dark forces who have hatched reverse time technology. This could revert anyone to a young child or eliminate their conception altogether with unimaginable, horrendous, results. Anguish quickly sets into Melvin as you can imagine with explosive results.

As a writer, I loved the thrill of Melvin's character. It was an amazing ride! Originally, I had a very different structure in mind, but it seemed like each time I said, "Melvin, turn left," he'd say, "No, let's go right."

The background scenes make the story. Tom, Melvin's friend that pulls him into this mess, leaves him unexpectedly but Melvin continues on. With a surprising ending that shocked even me, "Introspection" is an interesting tale about a hero with few redeeming qualities.

Mark Wayne Allen was born in Merryvillle, Louisiana where he now resides, but has lived in many states. Due to life tragedies, he is a quadriplegic.

A love of books inspired him to write down his own stories, which, over the years, has evolved to include all categories. From poetry to short stories to novels, his knowledge of the craft grew over time, and so did his love for it.

He wrote two short stories and several poems that were published in a short-lived e-zine called Dementia. In 2013, he published the science fiction book Star Siege which was written during his years at Louisiana State University. Since then, he has placed in several contests since and even had a first place poem. He writes regularly for The Voice Of Southwest Louisiana Magazine.

Having lived in the North, South, East, and West has given him the opportunity to talk with a diverse group of people as well as an appreciation for different cultures. Currently, he lives with his wife of many years, Kelley, and is an active part of the community. You can keep up with Mark through his Website,Facebook and Twitter. 

Introspection can be purchased at Amazon in Print and for Kindle.

Hope you enjoyed today's spotlight and that you'll drop by next week for Tuesday Treasures, Thursday Thoughts and another edition of Saturday Spotlight.

Until next time, good luck and God Bless.

PamT

#TuesdayTreasures Guest Post by Mark Wayne Allen

Good Morning Friends,

It is always a pleasure to bring to you a fellow Bayou Writers Group member and our guest today, Mark Wayne Allen is no stranger to our blog. He's shared treasures and thoughts with us before and we've spotlighted his book. With this in mind, I'll turn the blog over to him.

Welcome back Mark!

Life is not living

I'm an author, yes, but I've lived an unusual life.

Those that know me, well, also know what it is to live a life. You may think that is a redundant statement, but from my point of view, "live", and, "life", are not synonymous. Let's take the terms one at a time, shall we?

By the dictionary:

Life means the state or condition of anything having the capacity to grow, reproduce, functional ability, and continual change until death.

If we take this definition at face value, it seems to encompass everything an entity needs to merit cognitive existence, but now let's define the other term.

By the dictionary:

Live means to be alive.

 Now, those are congruent terms having no real substance. My friends, I've died many deaths, through heart stoppages and being what "The Experts" term as brain dead. Those experts said I would never survive even 12-hours. They've also said that if I did survive that I'd be a mental vegetable the rest of my life.

You don't realize what you have until it's ripped away. I'm telling, you I don't think it's humanly possible to fathom everything that's right about anyone's world until everything they know and think understand has been whisked away.

I was up walking and talking 4-months after my first accident. After the second, I would never walk again. I had to re-learn to breathe, eat, and drink. My definitions of "life", and "live", are drastically different from the norm. I have lived normal only in my youth, but I won't say that I've been through the worst, even with my life tragedies.

If you ever want to see the other side, tour any major rehabilitation center. Don't stop at the rooms. There are intensive care units all over the place. Lives are changes daily due to horrible tragedies. With all due respect to the dictionary, my definitions are below:

Life is when the heart is pumping blood and there is brain activity.

Living is the state when a person shows cognition and can have some positive emotional responses from activities with others.

Simply put, I treasure living.

Wow, Mark, you sure have a way with words. Treasuring life and living is something we all need to do!

Mark Wayne Allen was born in Merryvillle, Louisiana where he now resides, but has lived in many states. Due to life tragedies, he is a quadriplegic.

A love of books inspired him to write down his own stories, which, over the years, has evolved to include all categories. From poetry to short stories to novels, his knowledge of the craft grew over time, and so did his love for it.

He wrote two short stories and several poems that were published in a short-lived e-zine called Dementia. In 2013, he published the science fiction book Star Siege which was written during his years at Louisiana State University. Since then, he has placed in several contests since and even had a first place poem. He writes regularly for The Voice Of Southwest Louisiana Magazine.

Having lived in the North, South, East, and West has given him the opportunity to talk with a diverse group of people as well as an appreciation for different cultures. Currently, he lives with his wife of many years, Kelley, and is an active part of the community. You can keep up with Mark through his Website,Facebook and Twitter.

Mark's book, 3 Lifetimes in 1 is available through Amazon in Paperback, on Kindle and now on Audible!

I hope you enjoyed today's treasure as much as I did and I hope you'll stop by each week for Tuesday Treasures, Thursday Thoughts and Saturday Spotlight.

Until next time, take care and God Bless.

PamT

#ThursdayThoughts Guest post by Mark Wayne Allen

Good Morning Friends,

Today's guest needs no introduction. Mark has been here before so we welcome him back to share some thoughts with us....

Privacy Rights

The right of anyone to their own sense of privacy over their lives has been a matter of great debate in our legal system for a long time. Wait! Don't get your hackles up yet. This is not an article about laws, but a viewpoint of privacy for everyone.

I'll give you an example. I'm a quadriplegic and have been so for nearly 35-years. When I was initially injured, my parents, whom I was living with at the time, had some critical decisions to make. A major one was how to give me a normal life and free me from my limitations as much as possible.

Something that quickly became a major issue was privacy. I had to have someone clean my entire body, dress me, get me up, feed me, and everything that constitutes living except for breathe, sometimes that too. Yeah, times were rough for me then as they are for thousands of quadriplegics worldwide.

Anyway, I think all human beings have a right to privacy. The courts have repeatedly upheld an individuals privacy rights although the U. S. Constitution does not mandate it. I think it's been deemed by the courts as a human beings innate right, except in extreme cases, such as revealing sources of information in a murder trial, etc.

How did my parents give me privacy you ask? Well, they gave me time to myself when I asked and they each took on part of my life, like a tag team in wrestling, and they held my thoughts and actions private (that they would do on my behalf).

When you see someone in a chair next time, especially a quadriplegic, think about how they maintain their privacy. What honed skills they must they possess at managing their lives...  How could you help them? Think about how much you value your own privacy. I think you'll have a new appreciation what it means to you and others.

-Mark Wayne Allen

Thanks, Mark....that's definitely something to think about!

Mark Wayne Allen was born in Merryvillle, Louisiana where he now resides, but has lived in many states. Due to life tragedies, he is a quadriplegic.

A love of books inspired him to write down his own stories, which, over the years, has evolved to include all categories. From poetry to short stories to novels, his knowledge of the craft grew over time, and so did his love for it.

He wrote two short stories and several poems that were published in a short-lived e-zine called Dementia. In 2013, he published the science fiction book Star Siege which was written during his years at Louisiana State University. Since then, he has placed in several contests since and even had a first place poem. He writes regularly for The Voice Of Southwest Louisiana Magazine.

Having lived in the North, South, East, and West has given him the opportunity to talk with a diverse group of people as well as an appreciation for different cultures. Currently, he lives with his wife of many years, Kelley, and is an active part of the community. You can keep up with Mark through his Website,Facebook and Twitter.

Mark's brand new book, 3 Lifetimes in 1 is available through Amazon in Paperback and on Kindle!

Hope you enjoyed today's thoughts. Check back each week for Tuesday Treasures, Thursday Thoughts, and Saturday Spotlight.

Until next time...take care and God Bless.

PamT

#TuesdayTreasure: Mark Wayne Allen shares treasures with us!

Good Morning!

Louisiana/TX and a few other states have received a LOT of water over the last several days. Although the rain has stopped for now, a bunch of folks are still not out of danger. If you're one of them, PLEASE heed the warnings and be safe!

Today's guest is not brand new. Mark visited with us on Saturday Spotlight in Feb and Thursday Thoughts in Jan, so without much further ado, let's see what Mark treasures....

Life is remarkable. As a science fiction fan, I am constantly reminded of Star Trek's Vulcan I.D.I.C. Infinite Diversity From Infinite Combinations is the key to many situations. 

Take, for example, the webinar that I recently attended. Most of it was a waste of time, but I did learn a few key things. Granted, it was mere minutes of learning in an ocean of ideas, but those things illustrated some key concepts that I can reap a lot of reward from.

I make it a priority to learn something new every day. I generally succeed and those tiny slices of knowledge make life easier. Take our family, for example. During the summer, we eat lots of watermelons. Well, I was watching the evening news (in the days before CNN, Fox, etc.) and there was a two-minute clip about picking watermelons. 

I'd always learned that the only way to pick ripe watermelons is the old thump test (and listening for a deep thud). Now, I'm a quadriplegic. If there's something I can do by sight, rather than by hand, I'm interested in learning. So I listened and learned that the more the green stripes on a watermelon were separated, the riper the fruit was. I tried it. Guess what? It works!

What I'm saying is that knowledge itself is something that I treasure. I love its capacity to make my life easier. I love to learn and expand my mind. Most of all, I love its diversity. I love how knowledge can be applied to so many things.

May we all treasure, and use, the things we learn.

Mark Wayne Allen was born in Merryvillle, Louisiana where he now resides, but has lived in many states. Due to life tragedies, he is a quadriplegic.

A love of books inspired him to write down his own stories, which, over the years, has evolved to include all categories. From poetry to short stories to novels, his knowledge of the craft grew over time, and so did his love for it.

He wrote two short stories and several poems that were published in a short-lived e-zine called Dementia. In 2013, he published the science fiction book Star Siege which was written during his years at Louisiana State University. Since then, he has placed in several contests since and even had a first place poem. He writes regularly for The Voice Of Southwest Louisiana Magazine.

Having lived in the North, South, East, and West has given him the opportunity to talk with a diverse group of people as well as an appreciation for different cultures. Currently, he lives with his wife of many years, Kelley, and is an active part of the community. You can keep up with Mark through his Website,Facebook and Twitter.

Mark's brand new book, 3 Lifetimes in 1 is available through Amazon in Paperback and on Kindle!

You are SO right, Mark, knowledge is powerful, valuable and certainly something to treasure.

Well friends, hope you enjoyed today's treasure. Visit weekly for Tuesday Treasures, Thursday Thoughts and Saturday Spotlights.

Until next time...take care & God Bless.

PamT

#SaturdaySpotlight is on Mark Wayne Allen!

Good Morning Friends,

I'm not much of a Winter person so you can imagine my joy at the beautiful weather we're having! Cool nights, warm, sunny days....It's more like spring here in SW Louisiana. I hope you're as blessed.

Last month you met fellow Bayou Writers Group author, Mark Wayne Allen. Well Mark is back for Saturday Spotlight today so here he is with a few words about his life and book, 3 Lifetimes in 1....

Viewing The World

Through years of considering different aspects of my life and a keen desire to write about it, I finally wrote "3 Lifetimes In 1". The  physical as well as emotional things I've experienced have been all too consuming at times, thus writing my story was eventful, to say the least.

But, although traumatic by its own standard, the book is written now and available for all to read. It starts at my childhood and goes on through the wreck that my brother and I had. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder was my life after that. It's an unusual thing that was painful to recall, but getting through it was necessary in order to understand how my life has unfolded through those years and far beyond.

Our memories make us who we are and, to that end, I suppose that the sum total of "what is me" is the active kid that I started out to be, marred by pain from horrible tragedies. Over those long years of two lives ending and having to start over again from nothing (and I guarantee that 99% of you don't realize what "nothing" really is), it's given perspective. I see a lot of beauty in the world and know that we all must adapt to change and hold on by faith, not by might.

Mark Wayne Allen was born in Merryvillle, Louisiana where he now resides, but has lived in many states. Due to life tragedies, he is a quadriplegic.

A love of books inspired him to write down his own stories, which, over the years, has evolved to include all categories. From poetry to short stories to novels, his knowledge of the craft grew over time, and so did his love for it.

He wrote two short stories and several poems that were published in a short-lived e-zine called Dementia. In 2013, he published the science fiction book Star Siege which was written during his years at Louisiana State University. Since then, he has placed in several contests since and even had a first place poem. He writes regularly for The Voice Of Southwest Louisiana Magazine.

Having lived in the North, South, East, and West has given him the opportunity to talk with a diverse group of people as well as an appreciation for different cultures. Currently, he lives with his wife of many years, Kelley, and is an active part of the community. You can keep up with Mark through his Website,Facebook and Twitter.

Mark's brand new book, 3 Lifetimes in 1 is available through Amazon in Paperback and on Kindle!

Hope you enjoyed today's spotlight. See you next week for Tuesday Treasures, Thursday Thoughts and another Saturday Spotlight.

Until then....take care and God Bless.

PamT 

#ThursdayThoughts: Guest post by Mark Wayne Allen!

Good Morning Friends!

I hope you're staying as warm as possible today. It's C-O-L-D out there this morning with a high in the 50's....bbbrrrr...too cold for my blood!

As you may know I am the Co-Founder of Bayou Writers Group in Lake Charles, Louisiana so it is always a pleasure and an honor to introduce you to one of our members, Mark Wayne Allen!

How did the sun come up this morning? I don't know. Where did the universe come from? I don't know. We seem to put great trust in the things we don't know. We might understand the science of reality, but do we really know anything about the existence of the world?

I can see some scientist holding a hand to his mouth to hide his smirking. I feel for him. He, or she, thinks everything can be calculated with a computer. Obviously they've never fell into romantic love for a person of the opposite sex.

It's that unexplainable attraction to someone that makes for much literature. From Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet to Sleepless In Seattle, history is full of stories of all types love. An entire mystic culture surrounds the subject of love. There's love of animals, idols, music, art, and millions more things, but yet some of us think that, given a slide rule and time, everything can be quantified.

I say we should embrace the things that we don't know. Love, friendship, a sunny day, and lay around with our fellow human beings, pets, etc., and look up at the stars. Appreciate what can't be explained or enumerated. Life happens and time goes by. We shouldn't let any part of any day not be appreciated, enjoyed, or fulfilled. Let's be thankful for the things we don't understand for they are where our joy comes from.

Definitely something to think about Mark! 

Mark Wayne Allen was born in Merryvillle, Louisiana where he now resides, but has lived in many states. Due to life tragedies, he is a quadriplegic.

A love of books inspired him to write down his own stories, which, over the years, has evolved to include all categories. From poetry to short stories to novels, his knowledge of the craft grew over time, and so did his love for it.

He wrote two short stories and several poems that were published in a short-lived e-zine called Dementia. In 2013, he published the science fiction book Star Siege which was written during his years at Louisiana State University. Since then, he has placed in several contests since and even had a first place poem. He writes regularly for The Voice Of Southwest Louisiana Magazine.

Having lived in the North, South, East, and West has given him the opportunity to talk with a diverse group of people as well as an appreciation for different cultures. Currently, he lives with his wife of many years, Kelley, and is an active part of the community. You can keep up with Mark through his Website, Facebook and Twitter.

Mark's brand new book, 3 Lifetimes in 1 is available through Amazon in Paperback and on Kindle!

Hope you enjoyed today's post! Stay tuned for more from Mark in the future. Meanwhile, visit weekly for Tuesday Treasures, Thursday Thoughts and Saturday Spotlights.

Until next time, take care and God Bless!
PamT