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Tales2Inspire ~ The Sapphire Collection: Timeless Memories Kindle Edition
- LanguageEnglish
- Publication dateJune 27, 2014
- File size48057 KB
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First 3$16.97
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First 5$26.95
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First 10$53.86
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All 18 available$99.70
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Editorial Reviews
Review
. . . a collection of insightful & inspirational stories (to) help bring about positive changes in the minds of readers. These stories will move the hearts of readers with their personal experiences . . . helping to change one's perspective. The author's idea of bringing different writers together to share their inspirational & motivational stories . . . gives varied echoes to the stories, (each with) an individual voice revolving around the human spirit & the conditions that prevail in human minds. Gives readers a sense of hope and peace. Apex Reviews
Reviewed By Monique Franklin
Official Apex Reviews Rating: *****
Fourteen different stories, an eclectic mix of authors, one unifying theme: to inspire andmotivate. That's the essence of Tales2Inspire ~ The Sapphire Collection, compiled by editor Lois W.Stern. Whether addressing the importance of overcoming grief, the need for perseverance inthe face of adversity, or the power of positive thinking, The Sapphire Collection can connectwith readers from all backgrounds and experiences. Regardless of our geographical locations,philosophical differences, or personal faith (or lack thereof), we're all familiar with theeveryday challenges that threaten to eliminate any sense of hope or peace we dare to embrace. Through The Sapphire Collection, Stern and her assembled authors help restore thehope that not all is doomed, as well as preserve the peace we each need to accompany us on our sojourns through life. A highly recommended read.
From the Author
As an author, I long for your feedback. Won't you let me know which stories in this book remain as echoes in YOUR mind.
From the Inside Flap
Mark H. Newhouse
Award winning author of The Case of the Disastrous Dragon, The Rockhound Mystery Series (Teachers Choice Award - Learning Magazine), The Midnight Diet Club, (1st prize YA, Florida Writers Association) and other award-winning books.
From the Back Cover
About the Author
Product details
- ASIN : B00MER58YA
- Publisher : Tales2Inspire® (June 27, 2014)
- Publication date : June 27, 2014
- Language : English
- File size : 48057 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Not Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Print length : 119 pages
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
When I was 4 1/2 years old, I remember being sent to my room for a nap, but instead of resting, I practiced printing alphabet letters - all over my newly papered bedroom wall. What I most recall about that day was having to stand behind the dinette door, perched right next to my mother's old Singer Sewing Machine, until I apologized for my misbehavior. I couldn't understand why I was being punished for all my hard work, so I stood there for what seemed like hours, rather than offer up an apology. Fortunately this inauspicious beginning didn't dampen my enthusiasm for writing!
And I received a lot of encouragement along the way:
I was the first prizewinner of the senior essay contest at my high school. But it wasn't so much the award that thrilled me as my English teacher's inscription written inside the front cover of the leather bound edition of Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet presented to me that day:
"You are a talented and perceptive writer. You should consider pursuing a career that utilizes your special skills."
Fast forward to college. I didn't much love Economics, a required course with assigned readings that I frequently put aside in preference to my favorites: English, French and Sociology. I would cram furiously the night before each Economic test - memorizing just enough to squeak by. I think my professor thought me somewhat of a dimwit, expecting little from me and getting little in return.
Mid way though the course, this same Economics professor assigned a term paper that intrigued me - the first time I was motivated to do any real work for this class. I dug in and did my thing. Several weeks later, before returning our papers, he announced that he had several surprises while grading these papers.
“Some students whom I expected to do well, disappointed me, while others, for whom I held low expectations, did extraordinarily well,” he explained. I received an A along with an invitation to meet him in his office after class. His words are still indelibly imprinted in my memory.
"This is your special talent. I hope you will pursue a career in writing. It would be a shame for you to waste your abilities.”
I graduated from Barnard College of Columbia University, with a major in Sociological Research and married Ken, a Columbia student, about eight days later. We set off for New Haven, where Ken began his studies as a law student. I needed to put aside my author's dreams and find a way to support my student husband and myself. The state college nearest our apartment was offering an Intensive Teacher Training (ITT) program so I enrolled, and six weeks later - Bingo -I was a teacher, with provisional certification. I signed a contract, began teaching in Cheshire Conn., and continued to take evening and summer courses throughout the next three years until I earned a Master's Degree - just in the knick of time. I went into labor while typing the bibliography for my Master's thesis, and begged Ken to let me finish before setting off for the hospital!
After raising our family, I enrolled at Hofstra University on Long Island to work on a second Master's degree - this time with a specialization in Reading and Special Education. I taught for 21 more years and loved every moment of it. (Well, almost every moment - nothing is perfect!)
Before I retired, I told Ken, "I know what I want to do with the rest of my life. I want to write." He more or less humored me, taking the attitude, "If you're happy, I'm happy." I worked as co-editor of a Long Island web-zine for the next three years, where I initiated a column I named, "Ordinary People - Extraordinary Lives." While interviewing such a fascinating array of people in order to write their special stories, I discovered my passion for investigative journalism. And then I got to work on my first full length book, Sex, Lies and Cosmetic Surgery, a work combining memoir and research, where my experiences while interviewing subjects for my Web-zine column further encouraged me to add aspects of journalism to my manuscript. Before I had completed this ambitious undertaking, I had conducted over 100 very candid interviews with men, women and professionals in the field , to deliver a work that has been described as “filled with humor and keen insight.”
It took me five years to complete Sex, Lies and Cosmetic Surgery, which landed in the number one spot on the ASPS online bookstore, receiving rave reviews from plastic surgeons and lay people alike, across the USA and beyond. Then it jumped to the top of the charts when an article appeared on the front page of the Style Section of the Sunday edition of the NY Times, which devoted several paragraphs to this book. I was on a roll, signed with a NYC agent who was sure this book would be grabbed up by one of the major publishers. But it didn't. The rejections began to come in. "The author doesn't have a strong enough author platform," they said. To be honest, at the time, I didn’t even know the meaning of those words.
I took time to dust myself off and regroup, but as the old saying, "When one door shuts, another flies open." I began to think that there must be many talented writers out there, writers who aren’t being given a chance because they haven’t yet established name recognition. This little nugget of thought urged me to give birth to Tales2Inspire®, an “Authors Helping Authors” project/contest. My goals were (and still are) to continue to help each talented, yet perhaps unknown, writer strengthen their writing skills while building their author platforms. Forever a fan of inspiring true stories, I built Tales2Inspire® around this passion. The rest, as they say, is history, with twelve Tales2Inspire® published books and counting, and have now added ghostwriting to my list of passions.
Visit https://www.tales2inspire.com to learn about current contest themes and entry procedures. Know that there are no entry fees, and winning authors receive an incredible number of platform building opportunities.
Customer reviews
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Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonCustomers say
Customers find the stories in the book heartwarming, uplifting, and joyful. They say the stories are realistic and inspiring without embellishment, with personal and heartwarming tales written by published authors and beginners. The book is described as an enjoyable read that opens doors of wisdom.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
Customers find the book uplifting and joyful. It is a celebration of life's experiences, teaching valuable lessons and opening doors to wisdom. Readers describe it as a cleansing of the heart.
"...the series stresses a different theme but all of them provide sincerely heartwarming stories...." Read more
"...Experiences that build character, form bonds, share memories and open doors of wisdom that are able to touch so many people can only be written from..." Read more
"...Many of the stories are personal and heart warming, others are uplifting, and all are engrossing...." Read more
"What I love about this book is that they are joyous without being a little too perfect happy ending like...." Read more
Customers find the stories in the book well-written and inspiring. They appreciate the realistic and heartwarming stories that teach life lessons without embellishment or loss of integrity. Some of the stories are written by published authors and others by beginners.
"...All of the stories are well worth the read and I send kudos to each author for their efforts and courage (yes, it often takes courage) yet some..." Read more
"Tales2Inspire - The Sapphire Collection comprises thirteen wonderful tales told by ordinary people from different walks of life...." Read more
"...The Tales2Inspire books are realistic and imspirational without embellishing or losing integrity." Read more
"A great collection of sort stories that teach life lessons." Read more
Customers enjoy the book.
"...I recommend this enjoyable read. Pauline Hager, author of Giorgi's Greek Tragedy Memoirs of an American Housewife in Japan..." Read more
"You’ll enjoy reading this collection...." Read more
"enjoy, and feel good..." Read more
Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on May 30, 2019Author/editor Lois W. Stern has graced her audience with a series of nine short story collections she calls Tale2Inspire – each book in the series stresses a different theme but all of them provide sincerely heartwarming stories.
THE SAPPHIRE COLLECTION opens with a note from Lois explaining the connection of the stories to the jewel – ‘The Sapphire, the symbol for communication, insight and inspiration, brings a collection of stories with timeless memories…Did you ever have an experience that kept replaying in your head? No matter what you are doing, your thoughts tended to return to one event. The Sapphire Collection of stories you are about to read are those kinds of stories. They come from ordinary people sharing indelible memories of special moments in their lives – memories they believe will resonate with their readers as well…These stories are all written by Tales2Inspire contest winners, some already accomplished authors, others about to be discovered for their special talents…’
As Lois promises, the stories are fourteen in number, each unique in subject matter, each accompanied by a photograph illustrating the theme of the story, and each supported by a photo and bio of the author. The stories are warm thoughts and meaningful moments, concepts that represent how we each should cherish such memories as they are delivered to us by living a full life.
This is the book to keep by the bedside, a certain prelude to a satisfying night’s rest. Recommended. Grady Harp, May 19
This book is free to borrow from Kindle Unlimited.
- Reviewed in the United States on August 15, 2014The Sapphire Collection of Tales2Inspire is yet again a salute to life's experiences. Experiences that build character, form bonds, share memories and open doors of wisdom that are able to touch so many people can only be written from the hearts and minds of those who lived them. Once again, as an author, editor and contributor to this series of inspiring stories, I thank Lois Stern for the opportunity and the stage she provides her fellow authors to write. For some of the contributors, these books of short stories may be the impetus which provides the beginning of a personal writing journey, fulfillment of a dream, a cleansing of the heart or simply an opportunity to share with their fellow human beings.
All of the stories are well worth the read and I send kudos to each author for their efforts and courage (yes, it often takes courage) yet some stories touch each of us in special ways and provide impact by sharing something that really hits 'home'. The Sapphire Collection had two such stories with that kind of impact for me . . . Sharon Johnson's "God Must Have Wanted Me to Smile" and Rod Digruttolo's "Pappy And The Bandleader." Suffice it to say that I will never look upon a red cardinal again without thinking of Sharon's story. Too, my heart swells for the special bond between Rod and his "Pappy" as my own grandmother provided me with the 'rock' everyone needs in their life.
Susan Haley
- Reviewed in the United States on August 10, 2014Tales2Inspire - The Sapphire Collection comprises thirteen wonderful tales told by ordinary people from different walks of life. Each one is personal, and the titles resonate in the subtitle "Echoes in the Mind, starting with "Hand of Destiny", "My Special Boy, Obi", "A Father's Day Gift", "The Heart of the Home is Hot Chocolate", "God Must Have Wanted Me to Smile", "Just a Pickles and a Chair", "All that Glitters...", "Lost Legacy", "At Least Nothing Bad Happened", "Smile Power", "Pappy and the Bandleader", "You Never Know", "What is Life?", and "Doorways". With title like these, one wonders what's in store in these tales.
Many of the stories are personal and heart warming, others are uplifting, and all are engrossing. A few of the tales are written by published authors and some by beginners. The authors are all winners of a Tales2Inspire annual writer's contest, created by Lois Stern. After reading these tales, you will want to read the other three books subtitled "The Emerald Collection", The Topaz Collection" and "The Ruby Collection". I recommend this enjoyable read.
Pauline Hager, author of
Giorgi's Greek Tragedy
Memoirs of an American Housewife in Japan
Armchair Travel Series around the Globe with Pauline...
- Reviewed in the United States on May 26, 2019What I love about this book is that they are joyous without being a little too perfect happy ending like. I sometimes get a little annoyed at the obvious formula the Chicken Soup for the Soul books follow. While they are usually sweet tories they are a little too much. The Tales2Inspire books are realistic and imspirational without embellishing or losing integrity.
- Reviewed in the United States on February 19, 2021A great collection of sort stories that teach life lessons.
- Reviewed in the United States on November 9, 2014In this latest of Lois W. Stern's "Tales 2 Inspire", we again come to know about the incredible resiliency of the human spirit, and the intricacies of the human mind. Such stories of the individuality, yet common themes of the human condition do inspire. For those of us who find ourselves questioning the conditions of the world around us, Stern's "Tales to Inspire" series gives hope. If it's time for you to find a peaceful place to nurture your own dreams, take comfort in this series. Read, enjoy, and feel good.