Thursday, September 10, 2015

FAILURE OR SUCCESS? DO THE BEST, OR DO YOUR BEST


Gail Pallotta's new book

STOPPED COLD


Things aren’t what they seem in peaceful Mistville, North Carolina. Margaret McWhorter enjoys a laid-back Freshman year in high school flirting with Jimmy Willmore, swimming and hanging out with friends—until that day. Her brother, Sean, suffers a stroke from taking a steroid. Now he’s lying unconscious in a hospital. Margaret’s angry at her dad for pushing Sean to be a great quarterback, but a fire of hatred burns inside her to make the criminals pay.
Looking for justice, she takes Jimmy and her best friend, Emily, through a twisted, drug-filled sub-culture. A clue sends them deep into the woods behind the school where they overhear drug dealers discuss Sean.
Time and time again they walk a treacherous path and come face to face with danger. Even the cop on the case can’t stop them from investigating. All the while Margaret really wants to cure Sean, heal the hate inside, and open her heart to love.
Buy Links:
Barnes and Noble - http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/stopped-cold-gail-pallotta/1117352035?ean=9780985621582


Be the Best, or Do Your Best

By Gail Pallotta

Sometimes those who believe being number one defines them fail. Then what? There’s a huge difference in doing our best and being our best. These facts led to the theme for my teen novel, Stopped Cold.  
Too many times I watched someone drop to the depths of despair over not excelling. Everything from grades, athletics, simply not looking as good as one wanted to, or not accomplishing a particular goal triggered the agony.
Each time I witnessed the pain a person experienced because he or she wasn’t number one, a lesson I heard often as a youngster in Sunday school floated around in my head. I recalled my teacher reading The Parable of the Talents in Chapter twenty-five in Matthew, and telling us God wanted us to use the gifts he’d given us.
As an adult I saw the win-at-any-cost phenomenon lead to destructive behavior. I wasn’t sure why my path had crossed that of people so desperate to be the best they were willing to hurt themselves when they weren’t. Nonetheless, it motivated me to write about it.
When I thought of competition, sports came to mind. As a young person I loved Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys, and I’m still a fan of mysteries, so I wanted to write one. I pondered how to connect a sports story and a mystery. Steroids came to mind. When I researched steroid use, I found one of the main reasons given for taking them was a desire to excel in athletics. This met the requirements for my theme, you don’t have to be number one for God to love you, and rounded out the book.

MEET GAIL PALLOTTA 

Award-winning author Gail Pallotta is a wife, Mom, swimmer and bargain shopper who loves God, beach sunsets and getting together with friends and family. She’s been a Sunday school teacher, a swim-team coordinator and an after-school literary instructor. A former regional writer of the year for American Christian Writers Association, she won Clash of the Titles in 2010. Her teen novel, Stopped Cold is a 2013 Grace Awards finalist. Gail's novella, Mountain of Love and Danger , has been a best-seller in amazon's paid kindle store. She's published two hundred articles, several poems and two short stories. Her flash fiction story, “Lifeline,” will appear in the upcoming Splickety Anthology. Some of her articles are in anthologies while two are in museums. Coming soon, Barely above Water with Prism Book Group. Visit Gail’s web site at http://www.gailpallotta.com 

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