NEW- “Putting the Pieces Together” by Author Davis Aujourd'hui Now in Kindle Format

"Putting the Pieces Together"   

Kindle Format   - Now Just .99 cents

“Putting the Pieces Together” is an anthology of a gay man's journey toward self-acceptance. It is a poignant and intimate book chronicling recovery from mental illness, sexual addiction, and alcohol.


The author's journey is a spiritual one. It begins with his challenge in accepting himself as a gay person. This challenge provided the seeds that would later result in addiction. He frankly talks about his attempt to escape his homosexuality by getting married to a woman. The marriage ultimately fails when he realizes that it's okay to be gay.


His journey is a story about moving from darkness to light. After years of experiencing devastating depressions, he became manic after putting down the drink. He comes to believe he is the reincarnation of Jesus Christ. He is finally treated for a bipolar disorder and eventually reaches a place of peace. Finally, the author tells his audience about how he developed his new career as the author of the Sister Mary Olga Fortitude Book Series.


“Putting the Pieces Together” is a story of hope and faith. It is refreshingly honest. It is sad and funny. It is a story of personal triumph. It will touch your heart."

You can purchase your copy here HERE

HEADING FOR THE HEART - - Part 3

I wrongly labeled myself as an agnostic after the time I had come out as a gay man at the age of twenty-three. I did believe in God. I just did not believe some of the teachings of man. I lost interest in the Bible because I chose to judge it based on those parts of the Bible that seemed to judge gay people without love. I began my new spiritual quest on a more personal basis. I came to believe that to be spiritual had nothing to do per se with religion.

My beliefs began to dramatically change after I had an out-of-body experience that included a very real dialog with God. It happened suddenly after what seemingly should have been a very serious, if not fatal, car accident.

I was driving about forty-five miles per hour along a curving road at a point where another road intersected at the curve. I noticed a large truck stopped at the stop sign on the intersecting road, but I paid little attention to it as I was rounding the curve. Suddenly a car pulled around the right side of the truck and into the intersection at the very time I was bearing down on it. I had no time to react.

The occupants of the other car were an elderly couple. In a split-second, I saw the female passenger raise her hands over her head and I could see her look of abject terror as I was about to crash into them head-on. Instead my car seemed to pass right through them and I was left in what I can only describe as a trance state.

For the next several hours I was actually having a conversation with God. It was all a form of telepathy, but I was aware of forming metaphysical questions from a subconscious state and I was getting very definite answers. The experience was so profound that it's difficult to put into words.

In the course of the afternoon I found myself in a variety of locations, including the church in which I had been baptized and the local Roman Catholic cathedral. Finally I found myself at the grave site of my beloved maternal grandmother whose death during my early childhood I had never gotten over. While at each of these spots, the conversation continued. I felt such a sense of peace within me. Yet I didn't really feel as if I was in my body. It was as if my spirit was accompanying my body as I traveled, but was separate from it. I also found myself in contact with the spirit of my recently deceased paternal grandmother. She gave me assurance that she was in a better place and that I should not grieve for her.

While I was at the Cathedral I saw my body walking past the stations of the cross and I felt as if I was in direct communion with Jesus, himself. The experience was awesome, but not overwhelming. It provided me with a tremendous sense of relief as well as a peace I had never known. The one new wrinkle in my spirituality was that I started believing in reincarnation immediately thereafter.

Author Davis Aujourd'hui

HEADING FOR THE HEART - - Part 2

I was told that I screamed bloody murder when the minister of the Congregational Church held me up to the congregation once I had been baptized. I would later feel like screaming when I heard the stories of Jesus' crucifixion and the deaths of the early Christian martyrs. How could humans be so cruel and heartless?

I didn't understand the passages in the Old Testament of the Bible that talked about a vengeful God. That didn't seem to be like The Father to whom Jesus referred. Yet, later in life, that was the kind of God that was portrayed by some who professed to be Christian; these same Christians who would persecute me because I was gay.

So much of what I learned through religion seemed to contradict the messages of love and forgiveness that Jesus brought to us. I felt both shame along with anger and indignation. That eventually led me to leave the church. That would not happen until I was in my early twenties.

As a child, I regularly attended church and Sunday school where I soaked up the affirmation that Jesus loved me. By the time I became a teen, I looked forward to joining my church and participating in communion. The church that I attended by then was a Presbyterian Church. As much as I found comfort in my faith, the practices and sermons I heard in that church did not stir my spirit. I had no concept that what I wanted was a more expressive as well as a more personal form of spirituality that would eventually include mysticism - a personal experience of the Holy Spirit working within me.

I became active in the Youth Fellowship where I served as president. I sang in the youth choir and I wrote prayers and sermons which I delivered on Youth Sunday and at youth retreats. Little did I realize that what came through me when I wrote was my own innate spiritual understanding. I was a tiny flower whose petals had only started to glimpse the sunlight.

It would take me many years before I realized that I was indeed blossoming. In the interim, there would be much hardship and a feeling that God had forsaken me in between those times. Yet, even as I would walk in paths of darkness that led me to utter despair, I never lost hope or I wouldn't be here today.

I can now see how everything in my life and in the totality of life happens for a reason. Although much of it makes no sense, that's just the mystery of this life which has nothing to do with the heaven which I have come to learn resides within myself. I came to believe that the only true hell is that which we create within ourselves stemming from when we judge ourselves or others in unloving ways. We are all children of God and therefore we are unconditionally loved. All is forgiven because God only wants what is best for His children; so I believe!

Author Davis Aujourd'hui

HEADING FOR THE HEART--Part 1

We are all born as innocents – pure unadulterated love and joy. What happens to us as we are exposed to life in this world only serves to start our journeys back to the heart. By this, I mean that we become products of our environment. We may grow up in dysfunctional families. We may become victimized. We may find ourselves seeking to earn love instead of simply feeling we are worthy of love. We may find that we become attached to various labels such as our sex, our family identity, our social status, our race, our religion, our careers, and so on.

By the time we reach adulthood, we may not know who or what we truly are; that would simply be spirit in human form. Such was the case in my own life. After a lifetime of trying to fill myself up with people, places, and things in order to feel better, I have realized that I am the only one who can do that for myself. I have come to see that I have been on a journey back to the place from which I started. I'm on a journey back to that place of innocence. I'm on a journey where I am headed back to the heart of true love. I am and always have been a spiritual being having a human experience.

My journey has not been an easy one. While I grew up in a family who I believe loved me the best that they could, I never really felt as if I was loved for who I was. I somehow got the idea that I needed to earn love by being a “good boy.”

Neither of my parents seemed to know how to deal with feelings appropriately while I was growing up. Consequently many of my emotional needs were neglected. I can vividly remember being told that I shouldn't feel certain ways. There were a lot of confusing messages. Consequently I learned to play games with myself in order to escape uncomfortable feelings. I didn't know how to handle them.

I knew that I couldn't live up to the standard of the perennial good boy. I played prosecutor and judge in dealing out a verdict of guilty as charged. The judgment that I placed upon myself was to become a sword that would cut deeply. I didn't recognize that I was inherently good. Instead I set myself up by thinking that I needed to be perfect when that's virtually impossible for a human to be. After all, we all make mistakes. The problem was that when I failed at something, I took on the message that I was a failure. I did that to myself.

Such was my emotional life which is mirrored in the lives of most of us to greater and lesser degrees. Yet I had a part of me that experienced freedom whenever I didn't allow myself to be consumed by negative thoughts or feelings. That part of myself was my spirit. I was in touch with that when my mother read me Psalms from the Bible and told me the stories of Jesus. I loved to look at the sunlight coming through the Gentle Shepherd window at church. He looked so real and so kind. The radiance of his soul shone through. I always had a special place for him in my heart.

As a little boy, I was in touch with my spirit when my father would take me outside where I would gaze into the night sky. There he would point out the Big Dipper and the constellations while I gazed in wonder into the vastness of space. I was in awe when I saw a beautiful sunset. I was filled with a sense of freedom when I glided down a ski slope. I felt as if I was flying. Such were the times when I forgot about my problems and was at peace within my soul.

Author Davis Aujourd'hui

THROUGH THE OPEN DOOR - PART 8

Even though I had considered myself to be out of the closet for a couple of decades, I was still locked in a closet of shame. I burst out of that closet once I rejoined SAA (Sex Addicts Anonymous). What a feeling of exhilaration I experienced when I could once again walk down the streets of my hometown with my head held up high during a Gay Pride event with my parents.


By that time I was no longer with my partner. We had spent twenty-four wonderful years together, but life tossed me some lemons and I reacted by leaving him. It had also become a case of thinking the grass would be greener on the other side of the fence.


Truth be told, there is no one person who can meet all of our needs. I have since begun to build a life with another younger man from whom I am learning new lessons about becoming more comfortable with who I am. He is someone with whom I can kiss in public and walk down the street of my conservative hometown holding hands.


I am blessed that my former partner and I have remained the best of friends. My new partner has been very accepting of the importance I place upon maintaining a relationship with my first male lover. He had also been a vitally important person with whom I walked into the light of greater self acceptance. Coming out is not a single act. It is a continuing process.


My new partner and I belong to a church which embraces the sacred truths of all religions. It is also a church in which many gay and lesbian people as well as many recovering people attend. This speaks to my latest part of my self-acceptance. I have embraced a loving God who I believe truly loves me. I have come full circle after years of feeling judged by some Christians. Instead I believe in the benevolent and loving Father that Jesus portrayed as recorded in the gospels. As long as I remember this love and practice it within my life, I am free.

Books and Kindles by Author David Aujourd hui (these two below are at a special price on Kindle for $2.99)

"The Misadventures of Sister Mary Olga Fortitude" Book 1
"Babes in Bucksnort" Book 2

"Putting the Pieces Together" Kindle Version only for .99 cents!

Putting the Pieces Together is an anthology of a gay man's journey toward self-acceptance. It is a poignant and intimate book chronicling recovery from mental illness, sexual addiction, and alcohol.

THROUGH THE OPEN DOOR - PART 7

We spent summers camping all over the northeast and we spent winters on the ski slopes. We truly enjoyed each other's company and we developed some enduring and intimate relationships that sustained us for years. It was a good life. I loved him so!

The years began to roll by as we settled further down into cozy domesticity. We bought our first home and we eventually had two cats and two dogs. Our circle of friends was tight knit and we had a larger circle of acquaintances. Life revolved around home, family, friends, and the bars. Happy hour was a regular part of our daily life.

While ten percent of the general population is alcoholic, it is estimated that more than a third of gay people are. My partner and I had little understanding that we were becoming alcoholics ourselves, but that would become another challenge within our individual and mutual life journeys. Recovery from alcoholism would come to both of us via Alcoholics Anonymous. That is part of my article entitled “Reaching for Recovery – Putting down the Drink.”

We weathered many sobering events over the years. Friends and close family members passed away. We watched in horror as scores of men we had known died from AIDS. We dealt with each other's active addictions and subsequent recovery. We maintained a close bond and were always a huge support to one another. We thought that our relationship would last for a lifetime.

We lived in a conservative gay town where there weren't many social or other outlets for gay people. Eventually our town began to embrace gay pride and we covertly attended those events. We were fortunate that both of our families had been very supportive from the start. They soon embraced us as a couple and included us in all family events.

One of the things of which I am most proud concerning my parents is that they co-founded a local chapter of PFLAG (Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) in my hometown. It became an important support group for other parents of gays who were coming to terms on their way to accepting their gay and lesbian children. Many years later, I beamed with pride when my then elderly parents were honored with a Rainbow Award for their contribution to the gay community. They had come a long way!

"The Misadventures of Sister Mary Olga Fortitude" Book 1
"Babes in Bucksnort" Book 2

"Putting the Pieces Together" Kindle Version only for .99 cents!

Putting the "Pieces Together" is an anthology of a gay man's journey toward self-acceptance. It is a poignant and intimate book chronicling recovery from mental illness, sexual addiction, and alcohol.


Author Davis Aujourd'hui

THROUGH THE OPEN DOOR PART 6

I thought that I had burst out of the closet, but internalized homophobia is an insidious thing. It's all too easy to take on the negative judgments of others in this often bigoted society within which we live. I had come a long way, but I still felt uncomfortable letting my new coworkers know that I was gay; that is, until I got to know them much better.

The other part of my self-loathing came from my secret shame. Although I had pledged to be monogamous to my new partner, my old sneaky behaviors would soon surface. Lies and deception would only serve to sweep me under a dark current of despair. It would be the fodder for bouts of often suicidal depressions that would consume me over the next seven years until I finally put down the drink.

One of the most liberating experiences in our early relationship was attending our first Gay Pride parade in New York City. Along with half a million other gay men and lesbians, we walked down the streets of Manhattan holding hands. My spirit soared and, for that moment in time, I felt free.

My partner was a social worker and I soon joined the ranks of human services. That became one more thing we had in common. What neither of us realized was that we had been defining ourselves through exterior things such as our occupations, our sexualities, and the opinions of others. That especially translated to our opinions of each other.


I was making myself into what I thought he would want me to be. The confounding part was that I couldn't let go of my sexual addiction. What I have come to learn is that the basis for all addictions is codependency. Codependent was indeed what my partner and I were with one another. To the outside world and our ever-increasing circle of gay friends, we seemed like the ideal couple.


Life was good most of the time, but each of us was becoming increasingly dependent upon alcohol in addition to each other. We spent most of our time together. It felt nice, but it would become a set up for resentments later on. We spent our time together and with friends, but we didn't pursue individual outside interests.


Dysfunctional though we were, we seemed to be happy. It may not have been everything, but it was enough to sustain us. After all, we were on an uncharted journey toward unknown destinations. We were simply travelers on the sea of life. Thank God, we both had a willingness to explore what life was meant to be!


Books and Kindles by Author David Aujourd hui (these two below are at a special price on Kindle for $2.99)

"The Misadventures of Sister Mary Olga Fortitude" Book 1
"Babes in Bucksnort" Book 2

THROUGH THE OPEN DOOR - PART 5

I ended up meeting another man with whom I soon fell in love. Before that had come to pass, I realized that I owed it to myself and to my wife to end the marriage. It was not fair to either of us. Painful though it was, that was the best decision I'd made in a very long time.

I met my new fellow at a gay picnic, though we were both seeing other men at the time. Even so, I kept running into him at a gay bar and a gay restaurant. We'd sip on our respective Budweisers and talk about our mutual relationship woes. I thoroughly enjoyed his company and I became delighted when I kept running into him on Thursday nights, almost like clockwork.


After nearly a month of these seemingly coincidental meetings, I ran into him on the first Thursday night in July. When the DJ played Donna Summer's “Last Dance,” he suggested we go for coffee. This gay anthem had been the signal for bar closing since I had first ventured into a gay bar. Quite often, this translated into “hurry up and find someone or you'll go home alone!”

We went to Denny's and drank enough coffee to match the beers we'd been downing at the bar. We became wide-awake drunks, but we were oblivious to the late hour as we continued to enjoy conversation and each other's company. In the parking lot, he made a lovely suggestion that made my heart skip a beat.

He said, “I've really enjoyed your company and I don't want this night this night to end. Would you like to come back to my house? We can talk some more, listen to some music; and, if something else happens, that would be okay with me too.”


That was just the offer I was looking for; and, as the new day dawned, I was exploring more than his bedroom! I left his home bleary-eyed, but exhilarated.


It was an idyllic summer. We spent many of our evenings together and, on those days when I didn't see him, we would spend hours talking on the phone. We seemed to share similar life philosophies and we had much in common. It didn't take me long before I fell in love with this soulful man with beautiful blue eyes through which I would soon walk through an open door.


He too fell in love with me. This was what I had been hoping for ever since my disappointment with Rick. The wonder of our coming together was that we had not gone to bed the first time we had met. I believe this was the reason that our relationship was destined to work. By the end of summer, we were spending every night together. During the following spring, we moved in together. Life seemed good.


Books and Kindles by Author David Aujourd hui (these two below are at a special price in Kindle Format for $2.99)


"The Misadventures of Sister Mary Olga Fortitude" Book 1

"Babes in Bucksnort" Book 2

THROUGH THE OPEN DOOR - Part 4

I left out an important part of my story. That part has to do with how I finally faced my fear about becoming honest with my parents concerning my sexuality. Here is how it happened:


The fall after my wife had left me, I decided it was time to come out to Mom and Dad. I had decided to come out to them while I was at home for Thanksgiving. This caused a great deal of anxiety for me, but I had spent time discussing this decision with my gay support system. I brought along some books to help educate my parents. One of them was a book written by a very devout religious mother of a gay man, titled My Son Eric. Before I took this step, I spent my Saturday night at a local gay bar I'd heard about.


While there I met a strikingly handsome man with whom I enjoyed a night of passion. I arrived home after a sleepless night to find my mother who had spent her own sleepless night worrying over my whereabouts. She was not pleased about my all-nighter! As Dad and my sister, Patty, joined us in the kitchen, I ended the charade I'd been acting out with my folks and I came out to them.


They were surprised and confused, but they let me know that they still loved me. My father naively suggested that he thought life would go easier for me if I could only get back together with my estranged wife and lead the so-called normal life. I patiently tried to tell them the truth I'd kept to myself all of those years and to start dispelling some of the myths about homosexuality.


Naturally, I conveniently kept the troubling aspects of my compulsive sexuality from them! I pretended to be the perfectly-adjusted gay man. Talk about self-deception! Nevertheless, their acceptance of me based on this new knowledge was such a relief; and, they slowly began their own journeys of overcoming homophobia, as they educated themselves about gay people.


Books and Kindles by Author David Aujourd hui (these two below are at a special price in Kindle  Format for $2.99)


"The Misadventures of Sister Mary Olga Fortitude" Book 1
"Babes in Bucksnort" Book 2

Guest Post: My Publishing Adventure by Davis Aujourd’hui

ALL THINGS JILL ELIZABETH
Jill Elizabeth posted this on September 15th, 2011

Today’s Guest Post is the second of two posts on writing and publishing, provided by Davis Aujourd’hui. Check out yesterday’s post on writing, and keep your eyes open for more from Davis in the next few weeks, including excerpts and more insights into writing. Enjoy!

I had never dreamed of writing a book, let alone writing a series of books. Consequently I had never dreamed of becoming a published writer. That all changed when I sat down at my computer and began to write a story based upon characters I’d developed in order to entertain a former colleague of mine. When I finished writing the book, I still had more ideas. One good book called out for another. By that point I had really gotten the writing bug and I began to craft a series of books based upon my hilariously wayward nun who loves her bourbon and her Marlboros – Sister Mary Olga Fortitude.


The question that remained was how I would go about becoming published. I felt like Alice in Wonderland. I had no knowledge whatsoever about the publishing industry. I was about to receive an education.

I bought a reference book called The Writer’s Market. It’s a book that’s revised every year. Within it are contained listings of agents and traditional publishers. The book is nicely organized so that its reader can determine which agents or publishers are interested in the genre of an author’s book and what an author needs to provide in order to be considered for publication. To begin with, the author needs to submit a query letter which provides basic information about his or her book. The Writer’s Market advises authors about how to compose such a letter and gives examples of good and bad query letters.

With The Writer’s Market in hand, I began to search through the listings of agents and publishers who might be interested in my first book. Many of them were able to be approached via email. That was how I began my search. I began to fire off query letters, sometimes attaching sample chapters in those instances when the listings indicated that the agent or publisher was open to receiving unsolicited material.

While I was pleased that I received some very positive feedback, no one offered me a contract. I didn’t lose heart. Having a book published via a traditional publisher is very difficult, especially in these tough economic times. I soon learned that there are over 400,000 books published every year. It’s a highly competitive business. That’s when I decided to consider other options.


The beauty is that, if one can write well, it’s possible to get published. This is due to the proliferation of publishers that will help an author self-publish a book. In most of these cases, the author retains creative control of his or her book and retains all rights to the book. Even so, there are some self-publishers who will insist on retaining publishing rights for a specified period of time. That was to become the case with the first self-publisher from whom I was offered a contract. That was also one of the reasons why I chose not to go with that publisher.

The pitfall to self-publishing is that the author usually has to pay the publisher to publish his or her book. There is also very little if any marketing assistance provided. This means that an author has to be willing to put a lot of time and effort into marketing if the author has any hopes of creating a financially successful book. That would become the task which lay before me.

First of all, I had to wade through an array of self-publishers from whom I was given offers. I ended up making my publishing decision on the basis of the recommendation of an author friend named Alan Ray Hoxie. He had already successfully published two books with Outskirts Press with whom he’d enjoyed a very positive experience. I decided to give them a try.

I was extremely pleased by the highly positive feedback I was given upon their review of my manuscript, "The Misadventures of Sister Mary Olga Fortitude". They immediately offered me a contract and I decided to accept it. That was the beginning of a new adventure. It became a heady time for me. What came next was to work with an editor who formatted my book. After that I needed to review proofs of the book and make the necessary corrections before publication. I also worked with an illustrator who created a marvelous custom cover based upon my conception of several of the book’s leading characters. It was a lot of fun!

The publishing process didn’t take as long as it does with a traditional publisher. My book hit the market about two months after I began the process. It was an exciting day when I received my first copies of the book I had written two years earlier. That was when it became time to become active in marketing my book. Fortunately my publisher provided a marketing coach who provided direction in small doses so that I would not become overwhelmed.

Over the course of the next several months, I began to solicit reviewers to review my book and I began to pitch media across the country. I emailed every independent bookstore in the country. I held book signings at the local bookstores that carried my book. The major bookstores didn’t want to have anything to do with a self-published writer. That didn’t bother me since I had become aware that most books are now sold over the internet. The challenge was for me to create a buzz about my book.

I had very limited success with the media. My hometown paper generously ran two articles on my book. I had a podcast interview that was posted on itunes. KISS-FM also aired an interview on all of their radio stations. Furthermore I was fortunate to later receive a glowing spotlight article in Instinct Magazine.

Most of my reviews were excellent. My readers loved the book and the professionals who reviewed the book also gave me resounding thumbs up reviews. The vast majority of my reviews were rated at five out of five stars. I had high hopes, but my sales had only started to recoup my initial publishing fee. I decided it was time to make an investment in myself. I decided that I needed the help of a professional. That was when I went shopping for a publicist.

I soon became aware that the most important consideration in drawing attention to me and to my book was to permeate the internet. The question was how would I go about selecting a publicist. There was a veritable sea of them out there. Some of them were extremely expensive.


As before, personal experience played a role in my decision-making process. Through some informal networking on some book-related sites I developed a few relationships with some fellow authors. One of these authors shared her very positive experience in working with a publicist called Full Circle Administrative Services. She was very enthusiastic about them. I decided to check them out.

I looked at this author’s blog which had been created by them. I was impressed. I learned about all of the things that they could do to help promote an author and my new friend shared all that they had done for her. I decided to contact Full Circle for a quote.

A very personable woman named Mindy immediately responded to my email. Not only did she address my professional concerns, but she responded to me in a such a personal way that it helped relieve my anxiety over making a big decision. It didn’t take me long to decide to give them a try.


What made it even easier for me had been the endorsement of my new author friend named Jennifer Chase. She’s an up and coming author of crime and suspense novels for which she has received rave reviews. I felt a sense of renewed hope that my book would receive the attention which it deserves.

As for my blog, I was told that it was most important to create interest in me as a person. It was a secondary priority to create interest in my book. I was told that I needed to be patient. Success doesn’t happen overnight.

In the meantime, I was once again signed by Outskirts Press to publish my first sequel to "Misadventures" It is another deliciously silly satire called "Babes in Bucksnort". It should be published sometime within the next couple of months.


For now I am excited about seeing the blog which Mindy has nearly completed for me. Within it, I will keep the readers updated about the progress of my series. I will also be writing a number of articles about my own personal and professional experience relating to subjects covered in my books. I will cover topics such as recovery from alcoholism, recovery from sexual addiction, coming to a place of acceptance of being gay, recovery from mental illness, working as a social worker with the disenfranchised members of our society among a number of other interesting topics. I look forward to my readers’ comments and I look forward to my continuing publishing adventure.

Davis Aujourd’hui is the author of the Sister Mary Olga Fortitude series of hilarious satires. The first book is entitled "The Misadventures of Sister Mary Olga Fortitude". It was followed by "Babes in Bucksnort". Davis possesses a rich life experience that has enabled him to draw from it in order to create a colorful canvas upon which to paint very human lives.

He is a retired social worker, having worked for Adult Protective Services in New York State for nearly twenty years. He developed the characters within his series of books in order to entertain a colleague by using the gift of humor. As will be the case with Sister Mary Olga in his third book, he is a recovering alcoholic. He also happens to be gay as are several of the endearing and humorous characters within his novels. He can speak from his own experience. He has possessed all of the foibles of his cast of characters who are naughty, nasty, and nice.

Davis lives in Upstate New York where he is currently sharing his life with his partner of seven years. He is socially-minded and spirituality is the most important ingredient in order for him to maintain a happy and successful life.

"The Misadventures of Sister Mary Olga Fortitude"

"Babes in Bucksnort"

Both books are available in Paperback Format ($13.95) and Kindle Formats ($3.99)

Guest Post: So you Want to Wrte a Book, By Author Davis Aujourd'hui

Jill Elizabeth posted this on September 14th, 2011



Today’s Guest Post is the first of two posts on writing and publishing, provided by Davis Aujourd’hui.  Check back tomorrow for the second of this series – and keep your eyes open for more from Davis in the next few weeks, including excerpts and more insights into writing.  Enjoy!

So, You Want to Write a Book

Each of you has a book in yourself. After all, you all have your life stories. That is a starting point; at least it was for me. I wrote my memoirs about recovery from multiple addictions and mental illness. It helped me to heal and to learn how to put my thoughts down on paper. You can do that too.

Each of you is creative energy. You may not realize it. Just let yourself sit with that thought for awhile. Then try putting a pen to paper when the inspiration comes. You will be amazed at what can come out for you. It is your creative energy expressing itself.


Maybe you will express yourself through writing a poem. Perhaps it will be an anecdote from your life. Perhaps you will find the creative impulse to write a short story. Okay, that’s a beginning. Try to keep going. You do have a book in you.

Use your imagination. Let it flow as you put your pen to paper or run your fingers over your keyboard. Believe in yourself and you will create. If it’s meant to be, it will be. Whatever you can dream, you can also realize. Don’t allow any negative thoughts or excuses stand in your way. Affirm to yourself, I am writing a book.

Practice every day or so. You don’t have to write much. Just keep at it and you will find yourself moving in a forward direction. Before you know it, you will be on your way to writing that book.

Okay, now the book is written. The question is, how can you publish it? That’s easy these days. While the traditional publishing industry is very hard to break into, there are many self-publishers. Just google that and you will come up with many. Check them out. Many of them will charge you very little to publish your book. You may not have a best-seller, but you can publish your book if you truly want to do it.

That’s what I did. While I didn’t publish my memoirs, I have written several books about a wayward nun named Sister Mary Olga Fortitude. She loves her bourbon and her Marlboros. That always gets her into trouble with her Reverend Mother who is a reformed prostitute. The zany characters don’t stop there. I just let my imagination continue to create my zany characters and hilarious situations.

Once my first book, "The Misadventures of Sister Mary Olga Fortitude", was published, I just kept on going. My next book, "Babes in Bucksnort", was soon out. I’d never had more fun in my life and I was off on an adventure! That’s when my challenges began. After all, I was embarking on a new career and I wanted to make a success of it. Now, it was time to promote my book and I realized I needed help.


I hired a wonderful publicist by the name of Mindy Schwartz of Full Circle Administrative Services. She created a marvelous blog for me and I began to write articles such as this one. She began to post them all over the internet.


Then I began to get radio interviews. It was an exciting time to revel in my experience as I shared it with my listening audience. After all, it’s no good unless you give it away. While I wanted to make a success of my book, I also want to inspire my listeners to be all that they could be too.


If you have ever dreamed of becoming an author, I encourage you to take these simple steps. You can do it. Dream a little while. Then take some action. Dreams do come true.


***


Davis Aujourd’hui is the author of the Sister Mary Olga Fortitude series of hilarious satires. The first book is entitled "The Misadventures of Sister Mary Olga Fortitude". It was followed by "Babes in Bucksnort". Davis possesses a rich life experience that has enabled him to draw from it in order to create a colorful canvas upon which to paint very human lives.

He is a retired social worker, having worked for Adult Protective Services in New York State for nearly twenty years. He developed the characters within his series of books in order to entertain a colleague by using the gift of humor. As will be the case with Sister Mary Olga in his third book, he is a recovering alcoholic. He also happens to be gay as are several of the endearing and humorous characters within his novels. He can speak from his own experience. He has possessed all of the foibles of his cast of characters who are naughty, nasty, and nice.

Davis lives in Upstate New York where he is currently sharing his life with his partner of seven years. He is socially-minded and spirituality is the most important ingredient in order for him to maintain a happy and successful life.

Through the Open Door - Part 3

I spent the next few months living with an openly gay man who was obviously a full blown sex addict. Between the two of us, we literally had a revolving door through which multiple sexual partners came and left every week. It was an exciting time for me, but there would be decisions ahead that would need to be made. I would need to decide what to do when my leave of absence was over. I would also need to decide what to do about my marriage.

I was offered a transfer by the publishing company and I turned them down. I wanted to stay in the area. I decided to get my real estate license and embark upon a new career. I moved back in with my wife to give it another try, but I soon met another man with whom I began another love obsession. It would be the beginning of the end of my marriage.

His name was Rick and he was stationed in the Air Force. Because neither of us had a place to go where we could be intimate, we maintained an affair of the heart. We would meet at the gay bar where we would dance and kiss only to have to go back to our respective homes at the end of the evening. During the days, we would talk on the phone. We had both fallen in love.

My wife bravely endured what had become a battered marriage, but that endurance would only be able to be maintained for so long.  As the summer drew to a close, I was absolutely beside myself with my feelings for Rick and the desire to consummate our relationship. I finally proposed a tryst at our apartment while my wife was at work. Rick consented and I was delirious that I would finally be able to take our relationship to the next level after a summer of yearning for Rick.

The pitfall in my plan was that my wife didn't go into work on the day of our scheduled meeting and I couldn't reach Rick by phone to forewarn him. At that point I felt such a sense of desolation and longing. I also realized that I wanted Rick more than I wanted to remain in the marriage. I told my wife of my plans to have Rick over and then I hurriedly left our apartment.

I ran up the entry road to try to signal Rick before he drove into a situation that would cause him embarrassment. He saw me and he pulled into the adjacent Pizza Hut where I explained the awkward circumstances and I expressed my desire to somehow try to meet some other time. I felt such an awful ache when he looked at me with his sad, beautiful brown eyes and told me he couldn't go on like this. He advised me that he would rather not see me again. When I returned to the apartment, my wife had rented a U-Haul trailer and proceeded to move out.

I never did see Rick again. On the other hand, my wife and I still had some sorting out to do. We saw each other several times over the ensuing months during which we nursed the hope that we could make a go of our marriage. I realized this probably would not possible at the same time that other unmanageable events began to take place within my life. I was soon lost in another suicidal depression and had to stop work. I took the only viable option at that time. I moved back home with my parents.

Author Davis Aujourd'hui


Books and Kindles by Author David Aujourd hui (these two below are at a special price on Kindle for $2.99)

"The Misadventures of Sister Mary Olga Fortitude" Book 1
"Babes in Bucksnort" Book 2

"Putting the Pieces Together" Kindle Version only for .99 cents!

Putting the Pieces Together is an anthology of a gay man's journey toward self-acceptance. It is a poignant and intimate book chronicling recovery from mental illness, sexual addiction, and alcohol.

Through the Open Door - Part 2

We had an idyllic wedding following what I would later come to realize had been a bizarre bachelor party. That is part of my story in my article entitled “Reaching for Recovery – Putting down the Drink.” During a blackout, I came out to my sister and several members of the wedding party.

Even so, the next day, I marched down the aisle with my new bride before we departed for a fantasy wedding trip to Bermuda. The sad truth was that, once the honeymoon was over, a tragedy would begin to play out over the coming two years.


Within a short period of time, I found the anxiety of self-doubt quickly creeping into my life. I would awake with that awful sense of dread, having to literally force myself out of bed, followed by torturing myself with thoughts that I was incompetent during my morning commute. I also found myself seeking out new places where I could temporarily act out my homecoming anxiety. I reverted to my sneaky sexual behaviors even though my wife had expressed permission for me to have sex with men. The one caveat was that I couldn't fall in love with them. This only fueled the forest fire of my sexual addiction.


Even though she'd given me that permission, I still had the sense that she hoped I wouldn't need to act upon my desires if she could be the perfect wife. I'd arrive home to find her preparing dinner after juggling her senior year classes and all of their demands. This only served to exacerbate my guilt. What I'd imagined to be an ideal situation for me was turning into a living nightmare.

Within the time span of a few short weeks, I was emotionally bottoming-out once again. My morning anxiety mounted to the point where just leaving the house became sheer torture. I would fitfully delay my exit from bed, hoping I could drift back into the oblivion of sleep, only to discover I was so late that I would have to cancel my scheduled appointments.

When I was able to be on the job I would find that to make each call was an exercise in anxious humiliation. This only served to increase my arsenal of self-abuse. I started replaying the tape in my head that I was an incompetent fraud. I would pace the apartment, thereby wasting more precious time. Sometimes I would not arrive in Boston until afternoon, trying to go through the motions of work while I found myself in a hypnotic trance, filled with self-loathing.

It was impossible to keep up any charade of normality with my wife. It was her first time witnessing these behaviors and they frightened her. Nevertheless, my twenty-one year-old bride, stood by her man, trying to find a way to get help for me. She returned to a therapist we had seen prior to our wedding for advice.

He advised her that he wasn't concerned about me; rather, he was concerned for her well-being. He gave her a therapist referral for me. Following a Thanksgiving trip to my family's home where we acted out the part of a happily married couple as best we could, I started my first true experience in psychotherapy.


I started seeing a psychologist named Barbara, who had a private practice in the attic of her Revolutionary War-era home. She really was an empathic soul. I will never forget how the two of us chain-smoked, while she gazed upon the thoroughly depressed shell of a man I had become. Her face reminded me of a sad hound dog.


After a handful of sessions with Barbara, I decided I needed to take a total timeout. I wasn't even able to fake it enough to make it into work at that point anyhow. I was granted a leave of absence by my sales manager; however, I felt ashamed and incompetent when he told me this was the first time such a leave had been requested.

My wife and I decided on a trial separation with me moving out of our marital apartment. That decision made, I felt a tremendous sense of relief. I excitedly went about searching for a temporary living situation with another gay man.

Author Davis Aujourd'hui

Books and Kindles by Author David Aujourd hui (these two below are at a special price on Kindle for $2.99)

"The Misadventures of Sister Mary Olga Fortitude" Book 1
"Babes in Bucksnort" Book 2

"Putting the Pieces Together" Kindle Version only for .99 cents!

Putting the Pieces Together is an anthology of a gay man's journey toward self-acceptance. It is a poignant and intimate book chronicling recovery from mental illness, sexual addiction, and alcohol.

THROUGH THE OPEN DOOR - Part 1

I met another fellow in that restroom with whom I formed a friendship. He was nineteen and he was openly gay, having put his own demons to rest following a suicide attempt. His name was Marc. Marc would become the friend who would help me see the light that being gay wasn't such a bad thing.

He introduced me to gay bars where I was able to meet fellows before having sex with them. It wasn't much different in a way. Although I would learn their names and have sex in a bedroom, there was usually no further contact. Such seemed to be the way in gay life in the late 1970's and early 1980's.

Life in the bars not only fueled my increasing sexual addiction. It also fueled my increasing dependence upon alcohol. I remained in complete denial about both addictions for a number of years. After all, everyone seemed to be doing it!

I continued to see the fellow with whom I'd been having an affair. Even though I wanted to make something of it, he held back. Apparently he had his own demons with which to contend. He became a love obsession for me, but I still believed in my love for my fiance.


My new career had become very successful. I became a top performer in the college textbook sales industry. Likewise, plans for the upcoming wedding were progressing according to my design. My future wife remained in the dark about my double life. That would soon change.

While she was away during the summer we were to marry, I realized that it would not be fair to her to keep her in the dark any longer. I thought she deserved a chance to call off the wedding if she couldn't accept married life with a gay man. I knew that I wouldn't be able to be faithful to her.

A month before the wedding, we were reunited. I told her that I had something to tell her. She begged me to tell her, asking me, “Are you an alcoholic?”


“Not me,” I protested. Instead I told her the only thing I knew to be true at the time. Amidst a waterfall of tears from the both of us, I told her that I was gay.


We were naïve adult children and we didn't know what to do. What we did know was that we loved one another. We decided to bravely go ahead with our wedding plans. It would begin to close one door at the same time that it opened another one through which we passed. When we would walk through that door, we would enter a world filled with pain.

Author Davis Aujourd'hui

Books and Kindles by Author David Aujourd hui (these two below are at a special price on Kindle for $2.99)

"The Misadventures of Sister Mary Olga Fortitude" Book 1
"Babes in Bucksnort" Book 2

"Putting the Pieces Together" Kindle Version only for .99 cents!

Putting the Pieces Together is an anthology of a gay man's journey toward self-acceptance. It is a poignant and intimate book chronicling recovery from mental illness, sexual addiction, and alcohol.

Author Interview of Author Davis Aujourd'hui By leah Ryman at Journey Reader

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Author Interview: Davis Aujourd'hui
By Leah Ryman at Journey Reader

Author Bio:

"Davis Aujourd'hui is the pen name of the author of the Sister Mary Olga Fortitude series. The first book, entitled “The Misadventures of Sister Mary Olga Fortitude,” was just published in October 2008 by Outskirts Press. “Babes in Bucksnort” is the first sequel, soon to be followed by “Have A Heart.”

Davis is a new author, yet he possesses a rich life experience that has enabled him to draw from it in order to create a colorful canvas upon which to paint very human lives. He is a retired social worker, having worked for Adult Protective Services in New York State for nearly twenty years. He developed the characters within his series of books in order to entertain a colleague of his using the gift of humor.

As will be the case of the title character in his third book, Davis is a recovering alcoholic. He also happens to be gay as is the case with several of the endearing and humorous characters within his novels. He can speak from his own experience. He has possessed all of the foibles of his cast of characters, including those naughty, nasty, and nice."

What inspires your stories?

Years ago, when I was a social worker, I developed my characters in order to entertain a colleague of mine. I would leave her voice mails in which I impersonated characters within scenarios that I spontaneously created. She loved it and that inspired me to develop more.

When I retired, I thought to myself that I could write a book about my chain-smoking, bourbon-swilling nun along with the cast of other zany characters. I sat down and wrote "The Misadventures of Sister Mary Olga Fortitude" in a little over a month.

Since I hadn't run out of ideas, I immediately continued by writing "Babes in Bucksnort". From there, I wrote a total of eleven books in the series. I hope to have "Have A Heart" published within a year.

What genre do you gravitate toward and why?

I write in the humor genre with a slant toward satire that contains a spiritual message. I do this because I love to make people laugh. I also want my readers to come away with inspiration and food for thought. I dedicate all of my books to adult children who deserve a chance to not take life so seriously.

What are your work habits like?

I generally write every day. I write from two to ten hours per day. I let inspiration be my guide and let it flow from there.

What do you consider your best work?

My best works are yet to come, but both Misadventures and Babes have been well-received. I have received an average of 4.5 out of 5 star reviews on Amazon.com

Do you plot out your novels in advance or do you write on the fly?

I let inspiration be my guide. I do not plot out my novels in advance, though I sometimes have certain themes and scenarios I want to develop as I continue to write. I generally allow my intuition develop the tale as I continue to go with the flow. The end results have always been very gratifying.

What experience do you want for your readers?

I want my readers to laugh out loud from beginning to end. I also want them to take a look at themselves as they relate to the characters. In so doing, my readers may discover qualities they wish to develop as they let go of those which do not serve their continued growth.

Are any of your character traits or settings based on real life?

All fiction tends to be based upon the writer's life experience. Such has been the case with me. I have incorporated qualities I have witnessed in others as I have developed my characters. What has been the most fun for me has to create nasty characters based on ornery people I have known in real life.

What are your most significant challenges when you write?

The most significant challenge has been writer's block. When I encounter that, I simply let go of all thoughts. As I do so, inspiration returns to me and I continue to go with the flow.

It is also a challenge to keep track of my many characters and to give them equal attention within my books. As they develop over time, I need to remember what has transpired in previous books. This often means that I need to return to my previous books as a touchstone for further development.

What are you currently working on?

I have just finished a reincarnational romance about a couple who travels through three lifetimes together. I am currently seeking an agent to represent the book to a traditional publisher.

Do you have any writing advice you would like to share with aspiring authors?

Keep writing and perfecting your craft. Keep the faith and never give up.



"Babes in Bucksnort" is the sequel to the highly praised "The Misadventures of Sister Mary Olga Fortitude." Once again the unconventional bourbon-swilling, chain-smoking nun will spin outrageously funny new tales about the residents of Bucksnort, Wisconsin while she tests the will of a reformed prostitute who just happens to be her Reverend Mother.

Unfortunately there is trouble brewing in the Snortlands. The nasty and notorious town busybody, Priscilla Bunhead, goes on a crusade to stamp out what she calls the gay menace. That's when she convinces her millionaire friend, Mildred Mayflower, to give away her fortune in order to bring the Reverend Billy-Bob Blunthead and his Born Again or Burn Forever Disciples for Jesus to town to do the job. It will be an uphill climb for them as the closet doors of many gay people in the Snortlands burst open.

Billy-Bob and his wife, Pinky Poo, will have another battle on their hands when Dimples Dufus, the heiress to the Mayflower fortune, arrives on the scene. They'll also have to reckon with a mysterious woman who channels an entity who challenges the hateful and hypocritical agenda of this spokesman for Jesus.

In between the laughs, Sister Mary Olga continues to dispense nuggets of spiritual wisdom during her classes in Beginner's and Advanced Holiness. Just don't take seats near the flatulent child named Fartley Dinkledorf or his lecherous one-hundred five year-old grandfather, Poopsy. The bottom line is that everyone is welcome in Sister Mary Olga's classes. Join the diverse cast of characters for a joy-ride that will tickle your funny bone until it aches.

Links to purchase books:

The Misadventures of Sister Mary Olga Fortitude -  Kindle Format for $3.99
The Misadventures of Sister Mary Olga Fortitude  - Paperback Edition for $13.95


Babes in Bucksnort - Paperback Edition for $13.95
Babes in Bucksnort - Kindle Edition for $3.99

The Misadventures of Sister Mary Olga is also available at Barnes and Noble (Paperback)
Babes in Bucknort is also available at Barnes and Noble (Paperback)


Thank you for visiting, Davis! - LR