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Marlan Warren is a journalist, novelist, editor, playwright, screenwriter, blogger, website designer, and publicist. She is the author of the fictionalized memoir, Roadmaps for the Sexually Challenged: All’s Not Fair in Love or War and the AIDS memoir, Rowing on a Corner. She reviews for Midwest Book Review. Marlan is also a filmmaker.

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WHAT'S THIS ABOUT?

My life, your life, our lives inside and outside of Los Angeles and its angels.

Wednesday, July 28, 2021

RECOVERY SLAM POETRY LIVESTREAM EVENT: Luke Benoit and Friends Celebrate ALL STORMS PASS 2 BOOK LAUNCH with Healing Poetry Readings


 

This Sunday, Aug. 1 at 11 a.m. PDT, poets will come together for a “Recovery Slam” online to celebrate the launch of Life Coach Luke Benoit’s second book in his All Storms Pass [The Anti-Meditations] series: Rain and Fire. The live streaming event will feature Benoit reading selected recovery self-help poems from Rain and Fire, along with guest poets who will read their favorite self-healing poems.

In his recent L.A. Now & Then interview, Benoit—a certified Life Coach and professional hypnotist—stated that his anti-meditations are “very purposely written in hypnotic and NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) language … self-hypnosis has the power to unlock one’s potential.”

Midwest Book reviewers praised both books, calling the first “an excellent pick for anyone looking for a way to fire their way through life,” and the second “a two-fisted, take-no-prisoners approach to coping with challenges.”

The Recovery Slam poets include Thomas Allbaugh, PhD; Artemis Craig, and Marlan Warren.

Dr. Thomas Allbaugh’s short stories, poems, and essays have appeared in literary journals, including Writing on the Edge; In Touch Magazine; Relief, and Broken Skyline Anthology. He is the author of the chapbook, The View from January and the novel, Apocalypse TV. Dr. Allbaugh is an associate professor of English at Azusa Pacific University.

Artemis Craig is the author of Inspirational Verse for Those Who Hunger and Thirst: A Book of Poems to Feed the Soul. She has her B.F.A. in Screenwriting from USC, resides in Birmingham, Alabama, and is currently finishing her second poetry book, Southern Fried Comfort Food: Recipes to Encourage the Soul.

Los Angeles writer Marlan Warren’s poetry appeared in the anthology, We Accept Donations. She is the author of the novel Roadmaps for the Sexually Challenged: All’s Not Fair in Love or War, as well as a playwright, screenwriter, and documentary filmmaker. An excerpt from her upcoming memoir “Tales of Sushi” was published in The Artifactuals Arts and Culture Journal.

Recovery Slam is the brainchild of Warren who is partnering with Nicolas Nelson of Wordsmith Writing Coaches to produce this event via Yardstream.

“We hope to produce more Recovery Slams in the future,” said Warren. “They really fit the themes of Luke’s books, which focus on the power to heal oneself through contemplative verse.”

 

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More Info:

ALL STORMS PASS BOOKS ARE AVAILABLE ON AMAZON.

Click one of these links to watch:

YouTube: Luke Benoit Channel (lukethecoach) https://www.youtube.com/user/lukethecoach

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/luke.benoitlifecoach

Twitter: @marlanwarren   https://twitter.com/marlanwarren?lang=en

The event will be accessible online permanently after the livestreaming.


To Read L.A. Now & Then Interview with Luke Benoit, click this link: 

http://losangelesnowthen.blogspot.com

Thursday, July 22, 2021

New Book Launch Interview: Life Coach Author Luke Benoit re ALL STORMS PASS - ANTI-MEDITATIONS 2: RAIN AND FIRE

What:  Luke Benoit Discusses His New Book In “All Storms Pass” Series on Daniel G. Garza’s "Put It Together Conversations" Show (7/27 at 5pm)

When: Tues., July 27 at 5 p.m.
Where: LiveStreaming Podcast via Daniel G. Garza's YouTube Channel and Facebook, Twitter, Linked In Sites.


We caught up with Luke Benoit, the Life Coach Author whose newest book -- RAIN AND FIRE -- follows up the first book in his ALL STORMS PASS: THE ANTI-MEDITATIONS series.

We're passing along the promo one-sheet provided by Luke Benoit along with our Q & A Interview. 
These books are definitely worth checking out!

Title: ALL STORMS PASS: THE ANTI-MEDITATIONS 2 – RAIN AND FIRE
Author: Luke Benoit
Publication Date: May 27, 2021
Paperback: 346 pages      $17.95
ISBN-13: 978-0692222119
Available on Amazon
Author Website: Luke Benoit Life Coach
Facebook: Luke Benoit @lukebenoit.coach
Facebook: All Storms Pass Recovery Books

Contact: lukebenoit@lukebenoit.com

Author/Life Coach Luke Benoit presents ALL STORMS PASS: THE ANTI-MEDITATIONS 2 - RAIN AND FIRE as a very different kind of Recovery book. Sometimes dark, sometimes hopeful, his thought-provoking meditations confront and explore universal themes of Healing, Addiction, Self-Help, and Spirituality.

This book follows his acclaimed ALL STORMS PASS: THE ANTI-MEDITATIONS.

“Benoit does not attempt to offer readers magical solutions, but supplies aid as a fellow traveler who has come many times to a crossroads that asks him to choose between Light and Darkness, and he continues to choose Light. A 2-fisted, take-no-prisoners approach to coping with challenges.”
—Midwest Book Review (Book 2)

PRAISE FOR ALL STORMS PASS: THE ANTI-MEDITATIONS (Book 1)
“The power to change one's life lies in one's own hands. ALL STORMS PASS is thoughtful and powerful reading that will resonate clearly and fully on many levels ... an excellent pick for anyone looking for a way to fire their way through life.”—Midwest Book Review

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Luke Benoit is the author of the ALL STORMS PASS [The Anti-Meditations] series. He is married and lives in Orange County, California as a Certified Life Coach and a Professional Hypnotherapist. Luke has worked in the areas of Recovery, Personal Wholeness and Mental Health for 15 years, and touched countless lives as he helped people achieve sobriety, overcome addictions, depression and raise their self-esteem. He has his B.F.A. in Film from USC and his M.S. in Education from CSU Long Beach.

Luke Benoit Reading ALL STORMS PASS: THE ANTI-MEDITATIONS (Book 1)
Mystic Journey Bookstore, Venice, CA

INTERVIEW WITH LUKE BENOIT BY MARLAN WARREN 
FOR L.A. NOW & THEN

Q – How were the anti-meditations born?

A - I started writing these meditations as teaching tools and springboards for discussion in some groups that I was running. Initially, they were short and more like 12-Step slogans. They eventually took on a life of their own, and expanded until they assembled themselves into ALL STORMS PASS: THE ANTI-MEDITATIONS, the first book in the series.

Q - How would you classify the Anti-Meditations books?

A - They are about recovery from trauma with many 12-Step and Codependency references. Truthfully, they are intended for anyone they might help. They are their own animal in that way and hard to classify. But there is probably something in them for almost anyone.

Q - What was the best experience you had launching the first book? 

A – Hearing people from all walks of life say how much the book has impacted them. That has always been amazing and incredibly gratifying. Just last week someone thanked me profusely for the book—saying how much it’s helping and that it moved her to tears. That has always been the most powerful part of the experience to me. It’s very humbling, yet it also makes me very proud to be the channel.

Q - All the anti-meditations seem very personal and also "Universal.”
Is this by design?

A - I can’t really say that the meditations are by design. They gestate very organically, forming themselves, and in that process I really become some kind of channel and they move through me. It’s not like I know what they are going to be or say. In some way, they remind me of haikus with beginnings, middles and resolutions that have a certain rhythm to them.

Q - How would you suggest a reader in need of recovery approach these books?

A - I would say have no expectations. “The Statement of High Self-Esteem” that opens the book is extremely powerful and resonates throughout. With the other entries, I think it’s a sort of “take what you like and leave the rest” kind of experience. Let what hits you hit you. What moves you move you. Not everything is going to be right for everybody. But more than one should create significant, maybe even profound, awarenesses that could be life changing.

Q – All your books have humor. What is your relationship to humor as both Life Coach and for you personally?

A - The idea that sometimes you have to laugh to keep from crying is a very powerful concept. I come from very sarcastic people and the energy of that definitely informs me as a person, a writer, and even a coach. There is something always very appealing to me about a Gestalt-ish confrontation that involves humor. It can be really eye-opening for us all.

Q - How close to the bone are these anti-meditations for you?

A – Each anti-meditation comes from my own life experience and what’s up for me at the moment that they are written. I have to get very present when I am writing these—thinking about what I am going through right now and entering into the flow that moves through me. Each one is about what is happening right now in the time that I am writing them.

Q – You are both a professional life coach and hypnotist. Does the latter influence your writing?

A - These anti-meditations are very purposely written in hypnotic and NLP language. Writing for me is always a trance process. I need to be ready and drop into it to be able to generate the work. Self-hypnosis (which we engage in all the time, often unknowingly) is incredibly powerful and can do so much to unlock our potentials.

Q - Which is your favorite anti-meditation in RAIN AND FIRE?

A - The one that I always think of first and really stands out for me is the one about the trapeze. I am proud of it because I think that somehow it’s really insightful about relationships and at the same time I think it’s a really well-crafted poem. I even like the way it lays itself out on the page.

TRAPEZE FLYING [Excerpt]:

so he asked her:

 

SO WHAT WOULD MAKE

YOU THINK THAT THIS

TIME WOULD BE DIFFERENT?

 

and she said:

 

"I just always

get distracted

by the

 

DARING YOUNG MAN

TRAPEZE FLYING

 

when all I wanted

was something to

grab onto

so I could

 

LET GO

 

and someone to

catch me

 

BEFORE I FALL."

 

and he said:

 

“THEN WHY DIDN'T YOU

GRAB MY HANDS?”

 

Q - How did you come up with the second book’s subtitle RAIN AND FIRE?

A - Turbulence. The years during the writing of RAIN AND FIRE were rough for me and full of all kinds of storms. Storms may come in many forms but surviving them all is the trick or key.






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