Author Spotlight Article on Greg Pappas

“I believe that the reality that we see is important, but so is that which is unseen.”

If something is ensconced deep in your soul, it will but naturally come out in all that you say and all that you do. This pretty much sums up the essence of Greg Pappas’ work on his book, SoulBound, which he translated from the unseen corners of his mind into the tangible pages of his self-published work.

In June of 2006, after expressing disappointment over a book his nephew suggested to him, Greg started to write out a story that he felt could be better than what he had just read, birthing what would become SoulBound in a matter of hours.

“It wasn’t a brash reply in my view, because I just knew that there was a very creative soul within me, and a story was almost bursting to come out. The plot formed rather quickly, and by the following day, I had a general concept written down,” Greg says of the creation of his book.

Although he had not initially taken his novel seriously, he did find positive response to his work from people who were close to him during the spring of 2008. These same people encouraged him to finish writing his book and by summer that year, he did.

Greg then went on the Internet and searched for online publishers. He came across many options but found Xlibris’ presentation to be the most impressive. He says his publishing experience as a first-time author was “a rather difficult process for me… but in the end, when the job was finished, the final product looked great.”

It was a long journey converting his thoughts into words and his words into the pages of his book, but Greg’s creativity and hard work paid off. The result is SoulBound, his first self-published book, which does not only look great but was also received well by its readers. “Every single person has expressed an overwhelming sense of ‘wow!’ I’ve been genuinely excited that the book has been so well received and in a fashion that has them clamoring for more,” he says of the success of his book.

Greg shares this success with his family and the people closest to him who give him inspiration. From them he has learned to receive and give unconditional love, always had a helping hand when he needed it, and found joy and happiness in his family. He expresses this heartfelt inspiration through his interactions with his loved ones.

“I am inspired by the beautiful humanity displayed by those I love, and am loved by. My mother has always been my biggest supporter, and her love for me has shown no boundaries. My father has taught me how to be a man. My daughter is the single truest joy in my life… and I am overwhelmed that she rises ever upward as a human being, and is a far better person than I. There’s something beautiful in that.”

With enough inspiration to go around, Greg now looks forward to writing the follow-up books to SoulBound, which he plans to turn into a series. He also plans to share his book of poetry entitled Whispers, Shadows & Dreams, written from the perspective of Jimmy Kassakatis, the main character of his book. On top of that, the 44-year-old author is gearing up for upcoming book signing engagements in Maryland and is considering the option of having his series translated into movies or a television series.

The accomplishments that he achieved as the author of SoulBound, which the people around him and his readers now see and enjoy, all started with an unseen concept inside his creative soul. Greg’s success is evident and it stemmed from his philosophy: “I believe that the reality that we see is important, but so is that which is unseen. I am just at the beginning of believing in a universal essence… and that ‘beyond’ is remarkably closer and more wondrous than one can imagine.”

Author Spotlight on Adilah Barnes

“I believe that all is possible with a vision, hard work, focus and a very specific plan of action and follow-through.”

If you look up the word ‘journey’ in any dictionary, you would probably get this definition: ‘the process of travelling from one place to another.’ That pretty much sums up what life is all about – making transitions from one place or circumstance to another until we reach our intended destination or, more appropriately, our destiny.

If you look into the life of Adilah Barnes, you will certainly find a similar definition of the word journey but with more depth and substance. Throughout her lifetime, she has been on a series of transitions from her humble beginnings in a small agricultural California town to becoming an award-winning actor, producer, acting and writing instructor, retreat proprietor and self-published author of the book, On My Own Terms: One Actor’s Journey.

In her self-published book, Adilah recounts her life story and the important lessons she learned. Growing up in a single-parent, seven-sibling household in Oroville, California – close to where she worked in the dusty prune fields in Marysville – presented life lessons and blessings for her. Having descended from a grandmother who was born a slave gave her inspiration and fortitude. Moreover, through the determination of her mother, she received an impartation of wisdom, tenacity and leadership – qualities that enabled Adilah to flourish in life.

In the course of her youth, Adilah was inexplicably struck with petit mal epilepsy, causing her to retreat within herself. It was not until Project Upward Bound came into her life that she transitioned from having absence seizures to moving towards leadership, having a successful college life and embarking on a journey to a future career in acting.

Completing her formal college education at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where she gained a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Theatre Arts, Adilah then began a series of transitions from acting to producing, from instructing to writing, all of which lent themselves to the development of her craft as an artist.

In the middle of 1980s while in one of her acting classes at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, Adilah received a blank notebook from her students. She was told that the gift was a reminder for when she was ready to write a book on acting where she could share everything she learned and experienced in life and as an actor.

“At that time, I had no desire to write an acting book but by 2004, I felt it was time. I initially began with the notion of writing a linear ‘how-to’ acting book but did not feel I could say anything the masters such as Stanislavski, Uta Hagen, Lee Strasberg and Sanford Meisner had not already said,” she relates, on making another transition on her journey.

In 2008, Adilah released her book On My Own Terms: One Actor’s Journey where she shares her personal account of her life and career as an actor. The book focuses on her battles, triumphs, frustrations, and joys set against historical events such as the Civil Rights Movement, Vietnam War, Black Power Movement, assassinations of public figures, and the unrest of the 1960s. But at the heart of it all, Adilah says her book "is about an ashy-kneed country girl with big dreams who has many angels along the way who support her in making her dreams come true."

One of the angels who have helped make Adilah’s dream of telling her exceptional journey come true is Xlibris. She had heard of the self-publishing company from one of her former acting students and eventually chose to have On My Own Terms published with them. “Quite honestly, I met a number of challenges along the way. However, in the end, we turned out a well-presented book of quality. I did have a team at Xlibris who supported me along the way until my book was completed and printed,” she says of her publishing experience.

Adilah points out the importance of being purposeful, hard working and staying focused in every step of the publication process: “Make sure you are clear on what your book is about, that there is an audience and market for your work, do the research needed, have an editor and allow the time to complete the process with excellence.” And excellent it was!

After the release of On My Own Terms, Adilah reports that her book has not only been received well by the reading public, but it has also been critically acclaimed and positively reviewed. Among these accolades, her book received a third place ranking in Essence Magazine’s Bestseller list, right behind President Obama’s books, which took the first and second spots. She also received a recent nomination in the 2009 African American Literary Awards, as well as five-star reviews from many of her readers on the Amazon and Barnes & Noble online bookstores.

Adilah continues to be overwhelmed with the success of her book and the recognition it has garnered. She experienced many transitions, obstacles, and triumphs on her journey to this destination. What got her through her challenges is summed up in her philosophy: “I believe that all is possible with a vision, hard work, focus and a very specific plan of action and follow-through. I also believe strongly in a spiritual base, supportive relationships and taking care of oneself through spirituality, diet, exercise, visualization and positive thought and actions.”

All these have come full circle in the life of Adilah Barnes. From humble beginnings to noble accomplishments, she has become a living testimony that one can be victorious over seemingly insurmountable odds, while holding on to the positive attitude of gratitude. She has proven that she has journeyed thus far on faith and her own terms.

Digital Reading and the Publishing Industry

Everything that can be turned digital will be made digital. Or at least that’s what we are seeing nowadays.

Music has become digital. The advent of mp3 players has made music more accessible and more portable for music lovers. Movies have become digital. The mpeg format, among others, has made watching and collecting movies more convenient. Communication has become digital. The innovations in mobile phone technology have drastically enhanced the way people get and keep in touch with one another.

If the digital age has ushered these and other great improvements in the arena of media and telecommunication, what implications does it have for books and the publishing industry?

In the last few years, electronic books and digital reading have made radical changes in the presentation and availability of books and the way people read them. Technology has made it easy to access the latest bestsellers by downloading them from online retailers and onto a digital reading device. Digital technology has also made books more accessible, more portable, easier to collect and more convenient for people to read. However, the same technology that facilitates the circulation of e-books also raises concerns among publishers whose bread and butter is the production of actual books.

The publishing industry has relied heavily on the printing and publication of books and on the people who go to bookstores to buy them. This is how the industry has thrived for years. If more and more people preferred digital reading devices and download books instead of going to book shops to buy actual books, the publishing industry would experience a dramatic change in the way it carries on its business. Publishers will have cope with the emergence of new technologies that steer the reading public towards books in digital format. But how?

The digital age has shaken, brought change to and revolutionized many existing technologies. When cassette tapes were invented, vinyl records were rendered obsolete. When CDs came out, cassette tapes were rendered obsolete. The mp3 player is more or less doing the same thing to compact discs. And yet the music industry has managed to evolve and find ways to ride the wave of technology, one innovation at a time. The publishing industry can do the same.

Electronic books and digital reading are still relatively at their infancy stage. Their presence, however, have indicated that the rules and tools of the publishing game have changed. Publishers with good business acumen would be wise to start finding ways of getting on the digital bandwagon and begin steering their business, or parts of it anyway, toward this emerging trend. The publishing industry can innovate and reinvent itself. It has to.

Digital books may be the future of reading but it has yet to reach a certain level of popularity before it can totally take over actual books and the publishing industry, or even render them obsolete. Nevertheless, it is also never too early to start looking at the possibilities presented by modern technology and how it may change and revolutionize the publishing industry.

Author Spotlight on Connie Houser

“I have deep faith and a deep and abiding confidence in myself and those around me that we will continue to create good works and share them with others. Our riches are the rewards of joy inherent in that philosophy.”


Connie Houser is no stranger to creativity. As a professional writer, an award-winning artist and an acclaimed author, she has been well acquainted with varied forms of creative expression that has not only enriched her life, but has also enhanced her experience of it.

Through her resourcefulness, she has exhibited the possibility of pursuing different artistic endeavors passionately and bringing them together successfully. It was this character of creativity that prompted her to produce ‘The Letters: Portrait of an Artist, Jim Houser’.

“I thought it was time to chronicle the events in our creative lives for others to share since we have achieved a degree of success,” Connie says of her inspiration behind her self-published book. The creative life she is talking about is the one she shares with her husband, renown painter Jim Houser.

The Letters is a testament to the lifestyle of creativity espoused by the Housers – a lifestyle that is captured beautifully through photographs of Jim’s paintings and the words of Connie’s imagined letters. The paintings included in the book are some of Jim’s best work, which have been displayed in the artist’s gallery of Who’s Who in American Art.

Connie compiled photos of Jim’s paintings to visually represent the couple’s artistic life, while her words imaginatively expresses the passion she shares with her husband for life, love, art and each other. “I decided to present our creative journey succinctly in imagined letters to each other rather than the usual dissertation on the art”.

The innovative presentation of the Housers’ creative journey in words and images is matched by the author’s idea for the design of her book. “I wanted to present a new concept in art books with the reproductions at each chapter and the size – 8 1/2 square – smaller than the usual huge coffee table book so that it can be easily read as well as displayed.”

For the publication of The Letters, Connie researched on various print-on-demand publishers and decided that POD publishing was the only avenue where she could exercise the creative freedom to finish her book the way she wanted. After ascertaining that Xlibris would provide her with what she needed for the production of her book, Connie went ahead with the publication process.

Of her experience with the Xlibris creative team, Connie says she was “lucky enough to encounter several young employees whose knowledge, help and enthusiasm got me through the early days of signing on and into production. I also wanted quality reproductions [of Jim’s paintings] and although that was harder to achieve from a distance, the company’s CEO, John Feldcamp, made it happen as well as he could. Over all, it was a very pleasant experience with several outstanding employees helping along the way."

Connie’s pleasant publishing experience complemented her passion in marrying the art of painting with the art of writing. The result is a sumptuous concoction of creativity that represents Connie’s achievements as an acclaimed writer and her husband’s accomplishments as a renown painter. The Housers’ passion for life and the arts was translated well into the pages of a book that shares their spirit and talent to enable others to experience their resultant creative work. This has made The Letters into a work of art that the reading public and lovers of art have enthusiastically received and valued.

The Letters also garnered acclaim and honorable mentions in book festivals in California and New England in the US, and in London in the UK, which has certified the quality of the book and the creativity of its author.

Aside from enjoying these recent successes, Connie keeps up with the promotion of The Letters through local sources, newspapers and contests. She still pursues her passion for writing by working on another book and she continues to paint. She continues to enrich her life and enhance her life experiences by keeping herself acquainted with creativity.

The Letters: Portrait of an Artist, Jim Houser is for sale at Amazon, Xlibris, Barnes & Noble and Borders.

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Chinese Economy Evaluated in Self Published Book

Economist Fengbo Zhang assesses the growth factors that led to the rise of the Chinese economy.


China has become the world’s third largest economy, and in the midst of a global financial crisis, that says a lot about the resilience and strength of the Chinese economy. Revised figures of the country’s gross domestic product released Wednesday show a 13 percent expansion in China’s economy.

Economists are saying that with continued growth at its current rate, China could overtake the economies of Japan (in three years) and the United States (in 18 years). Reports say that China’s economy is on track to have a positive gross domestic product in 2009.

A study on the factors that led to healthy condition of China’s economy is presented in the self-published book, Analysis of Chinese Macroeconomy. Dr. Fengbo Zhang definitively depicts the development process and the existing state of Chinese economy, and provides materials for comprehending modern China and the future for economic reform.

This Xlibris release includes an evaluation of the country’s different economic sectors, the impact of foreign trade on the national economy, and an assessment of investment and macroeconomic policies – factors that have contributed to China’s current economic condition. The analyses presented by Dr. Zhang in this book are valuable guidelines in predicting the future of Chinese economy.

Dr. Zhang has helped Chinese top leaders in policy-making and led China’s economic research since 1980s, and his self-published book is going to be a valuable guide for those who want to learn from the country’s economic fortitude.

Analysis of Chinese Macroeconomy is available on the online bookstores of Xlibris, Amazon and Barnes & Noble.