Tag Archives: raymond clarke

Feature Interview with Raymond Clarke, Starring in Love Pour Over Me

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Meet Raymond Clarke:  Born in Dayton, Ohio in the 1960s, Raymond Clarke is a world class track and field athlete. His athletic exploits have landed him on the cover of magazines like Athletic Ambassador, Track Historian and Sports Hall of Famers. Although rarely discovered, Raymond’s academic achievements are on par with his sports accomplishments, earning him Class Valedictorian of his graduating class. He has overcome great odds, tremendous childhood challenges, many of which have stopped millions of other men and women. While at a famous university in Pennsylvania, he shares a myriad of ups, downs and good-good times, as well as harrowing experiences (some life threatening), with three of his best male friends. Raymond Clarke’s determination and resilience, and, more importantly, his healed heart, help him see and later accept the woman he was born to love. This fictional character’s story is told in detail in the new book, Love Pour Over Me which is available at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Ebookit.com, Google Books, iTunes, print bookstores and libraries.

love pour over me book by denise turney

Denise: How are you able to love Brenda so deeply considering the fact that your mom, the most important woman in a man’s life, left you?

Raymond: If you’ve ever known something was right deep in your gut, you’ll understand when I tell you I knew, I instinctively knew, Brenda was my woman. Despite all we went through, nothing could disturb that.

Denise: Did you ever go looking for your mother?

Raymond: (Sigh). No. I thought about her a lot, especially when I was a kid, but I never took off and starting looking for my mom. I wouldn’t even have known where to start.

Denise: Why did you choose UPemb?

Raymond: Coach Carter (he’s probably the closest thing I had to a loving father) and the school’s awesome track and field program. Track is my passion. Thank God, I’ve been very good at the sport since I was a kid. Plus, I got a scholarship to UPemb and with Coach Carter’s help I know I can earn a gold medal in the Olympics.

Denise: You hang out with a cool group of friends. What do these guys mean to you?

Raymond: Oh, man. Anthony, Patrick and Doug, these three dudes are my brothers. Sure. We’ve had our close calls, especially me and Anthony. The two of us have damn near cheated death and more than once. But we always work things out. I love those dudes. They’re like family. (shaking his head) We have some good times together! Our ladies get along pretty good with each other too, well. . . most of them.

Denise: Do you keep in touch with your friend from high school, the guy you ran with back in the day? . . . . .

Read the rest of this feature interview at:  http://www.lenasledgeblog.com/2012/09/raymond-clark-interview-by-denise.html

Get your copy of “Love Pour Over Me” Now at –

http://www.ebookit.com/books/0000001582/Love-Pour-Over-Me.html

Taping Into Your Inner Strength

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By Denise Turney

Believe it or not, you have limitless inner strength. There is a place inside you that never fails. There is a place inside of you that has the answer to every question you could ever ask. Right now . . . that place exists inside of you.

Stop Believing Lies About Yourself; Accept the Truth

The reason you may not believe this is because, as humans, we also listen to deception and lies. If we continue to listen to lies about ourselves we may start to believe the lies. The catch is that we behave or act in alignment with our beliefs. Even Superman couldn’t get around this if he tried. Our thoughts (a belief is simply a thought you think over and over) guide and shape our behavior.

Add to this the fact that we can have experiences that seem to confirm lies we’ve been told about ourselves and it’s not hard to see why we can, at times, feel lost, confused or uncertain. For example, if we believe a lie that we are ignorant and we score low on a school exam we may start to strengthen our belief in the lie that we are ignorant. Let our friends, classmates and/or parents see our low test score and start to tease us or even call us “dumb” and you can see where we could take the belief.

In time, we might stop raising our hand when asked the answer to a question in class. As adults we might shy away from volunteering to lead projects at work for fear that we will fail (all of this thought and behavior being driven by the belief that we are ignorant). We might even feel angry, perhaps absolutely outraged, when people refer to us as “dumb” – however, if the belief that we are ignorant isn’t examined and seen for the lie that it is we may continue to avoid situations that call for us to answer questions, etc.

Getting to the Truth

Now imagine what would happen to us if we believed 50 lies about ourselves. And here we are. It’s the reason we look out and see the world we see.

This common human struggle is one Love Pour Over Me’s main character, Raymond Clarke, faces. Like you may have, Raymond learned to believe lies about himself when he was a child. Many of the lies were passed down to him from his father (a man who also believed lies about himself) and people in his environment.

It’s not until he is grown, well into his adult years, that Raymond starts to examine the lies, turning them over, looking at their root and seeing the truth about them – that they are just that . . . lies, nothing more. Yet, he’s made a habit out of believing lies about himself (perhaps to avoid seeing that people who loved him but who didn’t know better themselves had, unknowingly, told him lies even cloaking them in words of “this is good for you” or “this is best”).

Fortunately, Raymond longs for the truth. It’s this longing that keeps him moving forward, that connects him with Brenda.

Thank you for reading my blog. To learn what happens to Raymond, Brenda and the other characters in Love Pour Over Me, hop over to Amazon.com, B&N.com, Ebookit.com and get your copy of Love Pour Over Me today. And again I say – Thank You!

Sweet Memories for College Students of Time Spent at College

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By Denise Turney

Author – Love Pour Over Me

Buy at Amazon.com

Days spent attending student club social events, athletic competitions and hanging out with friends visiting nearby eateries, parks and historic landmarks . . . it’s a winning blend creating sweet memories of time spent a college. More often than not on college campuses noise fills dorm hallways. During the mornings, college students not living in apartments on or off college campus can be heard talking as they trek from their small rooms to public bathrooms to shower and brush their teeth and prepare for coming events of the day. Soon chatter rises amongst students, building to a crescendo as students leave their dorm buildings and head across grassy college campus lawns to class.

Sweet College Memories Endure for College Graduates

Everyone seems to be in a hurry. Boredom is nowhere to be found. The future stretches out long and full of promise. It’s as if college is a time of rebirth of sorts, a time when recent high school graduates and upperclassmen are assured they are going to achieve their dreams, fulfill their most longed for wishes.

Just thinking about the excitement and social exchanges students like Love Pour Over Me’s Raymond Clarke and his friends Anthony, Patrick and Doug, experience while they’re at college makes me wonder if some high school graduates don’t attend college just so they can make and hang out with new friends, adding one sweet memory after another to their lives.

College life for Raymond and his friends takes place at a famous Pennsylvania university. Football is widely celebrated at the school, a reason that Raymond’s good friend, Anthony, is a local celebrity. Raymond’s fame comes through his track and field exploits. Yet, it’s the laughter, social and personal experiences the men share that creates sweet memories of time spent at college for them.

As with other college students, some of Raymond and his friends’ college experiences, seemingly innocent, come at a price. But, nothing – absolutely nothing – can break the bond of friendship the men share, the friendship the men formed after they first happened upon each other at college.

Thank you for reading my blog. To learn what happens to Raymond, Brenda and the other characters in Love Pour Over Me, hop over to Amazon.com, B&N.com, Ebookit.com and get your copy of Love Pour Over Me today. And again I say –
Thank You!

Books That Are Breaking Barriers

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By Denise Turney

Read Love Pour Over Me and you’ll see the impact mental barriers have on us. In fact, I was reminded of this fact today after I returned from a daily walk.

While watching CNN’s Starting Point with Soledad O’Brien earlier today I was happy to watch a story about a school that teaches the Quran to Muslim girls, allowing them to read passages in the book for themselves. Through the readings the girls came to see that they were not created to be abused and mistreated.

Talk about a brilliant and joyous sight . . . to see another barrier broken! As I watched the story I thought about the movie The Help and how African American women were afraid to speak out against abuses happening to them in the 1950s and 1960s. As one woman after another shared her story, it became easier to distinguish facts from lies, kindness from manipulation and, perhaps most of all, fear from courage. After all, the fearful attack; it’s always a sure sign of fear . . . attack.

We Are Not Our Beliefs

In order to continue to distinguish lies from truth, we have to continue to examine our beliefs, even those practiced or passed down by our ancestors (after all, if our ancestors were as right as we might like to think they were our ancestors would have left the world in a more loving state). We also have to come to see that we are not our beliefs as we didn’t create ourselves; but we do create our beliefs. As we see we aren’t our beliefs we may come to realize that we are not harmed, weakened, etc. in any way, not the slightest or smallest way, by letting erroneous thoughts or wrong beliefs go.

Plainly stated, letting go of wrong beliefs, erroneous thoughts or illusions will not kill us. We precede our beliefs; what we truly are came first.

love pour over me book by denise turney

In Love Pour Over Me, Raymond Clarke’s erroneous thoughts start early, as they often do. Raymond’s father, a man with untreated alcoholism, tells Raymond one lie after another about himself. Evidence he uses to prove he’s right in his errorneous thinking might be something as simple as Raymond spilling a glass of milk on the floor or trekking mud in the house on the bottom of his shoe.

Seventeen years of hearing then believing lies about himself causes Raymond to start protecting himself, especially his heart. It also propels Raymond to flee home. It’s his next step that changes his life, and the lives of five people he meets at college, forever, that, over a long stretch of time, helps Raymond to start examining lies he’s been told, aiding him as he begins breaking inner barriers to love.

As I watched the CNN story, thought about the movie The Help and pondered Raymond’s fate in Love Pour Over Me, I couldn’t help but wonder if our greatest fear is real love (not the illusion of love we are so keen to celebrate and chase after). Think about it. Is real love what we’re trying to attack, trying to steer clear of?

Thank you for reading my blog. Please return often and read more blog posts. To learn what happens to Raymond, Brenda and the other characters in Love Pour Over Me, hop over to Amazon.com, B&N.com, Ebookit.com and get your copy of Love Pour Over Me today. And again I say – Thank You! 

Sources:

Love Pour Over Me – http://www.ebookit.com/books/0000001582/Love-Pour-Over-Me.html

Loving the Smooth Sounds of Jazz Music

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By Denise Turney

Jazz is a music form that stirs the soul and invigorates the mind without the need of words. Listen to one smooth jazz cut and you’ll see why jazz stays in style. The music has a language all its own.

For the Love of Traditional and Smooth Jazz

It doesn’t matter if you’re listening to Miles Davis getting low and funky on his trumpet or to Gerald Albright making a saxophone do what only he can, jazz will shake and soothe you both at the same time. Andy Snitzer ripping notes with his saxophone on “Taking Off” or add in Ella Fitzgerald dipping and riffing so effortlessly it seems as if she’s merely walking through the park signing along with birds that – it’s all glorious jazz.

No wonder Raymond Clarke, the main character in Love Pour Over Me, seeks out jazz the morning after he arrives to campus in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He’s seeking solace in the music. He also longs to feel some connection with his father back home. They both love jazz . . . Raymond and his father, Malcolm . . . one of their favorite musicians being the one and only Miles Davis.

If you’re a jazz lover like Raymond and Malcolm (or me) and you want to enjoy live jazz, check out some of the local, regional and international jazz festivals. For example, there’s the annual Monterey Jazz Festival in Monterey, California (the festival celebrated its 55th year in 2012), the Newport Jazz Festival, the Atlanta Jazz Festival, the Montreal Jazz Festival in Canada or the Saint Lucia Jazz Festival. These are just a few of the many jazz festivals that take place in the United States and around the world.

You can also enjoy live jazz at local parks, sometimes the admission is free. I’m willing to guess that if you love jazz as much as Love Pour Over Me’s Raymond Clarke does, you go out of your way to listen to jazz whenever you can. The music probably inspires and motivates you, sending good vibes all through you. Oh . . . the sweet sounds of jazz!

Thank you for reading my blog. To learn what happens to Raymond, Brenda and the other characters in Love Pour Over Me, hop over to Amazon.com, B&N.com, Ebookit.com and get your copy of Love Pour Over Me today. And again I say – Thank You!

Sources:

Love Pour Over Me – http://www.ebookit.com/books/0000001582/Love-Pour-Over-Me.html