Today the United Kingdom is celebrating World Book Day. We, at Panhandling Fantasy would like to encourage others to partake in the festivities by reading a book - any kind, whether it be printed or digital.  We would also like to get the party started by offering one our author's newest books free so that you can do this celebration up right. Temperature: Bitter Cold will be free today and tomorrow (03-08-2013) to honor such a great event. The code is: PQ54Z and can be used at checkout. Adam Santo also has another title readily available and free all year long to keep the fun flowing. Ocean's Fury is only 10 pages long, but worth the read. It can be found at any online retailer.

Dear Friends and Family,
This year I am proud to play a part in the fight against Parkinson’s disease. As a Team Fox member I will be selling my books to raise money. Taking on the challenge of this fundraising endeavor is both exciting and inspiring. I am making a commitment to raise funds and awareness for Parkinson’s disease (PD) because because I want to help. I am dedicating my efforts to The Michael J. Fox Foundation because I believe that I am helping to ultimately shorten the road to a cure.

Over five million people worldwide are living with Parkinson’s disease (PD) — a chronic degenerative neurological disorder whose symptoms typically progress from mild tremors to complete physical incapacitation. In the United States, 60,000 new cases of PD will be diagnosed this year alone. While the average age of onset is 60, an estimated five to 10 percent of people with PD experience onset at age 40 or younger.

There is no known cure for Parkinson’s disease. Currently available treatments temporarily mask symptoms while the disease continues to progress. The Michael J. Fox Foundation is dedicated to finding a cure for Parkinson’s disease through an aggressively funded research agenda and to ensuring the development of improved therapies for those living with Parkinson’s today.

I’m asking for your support in our race to put an end to PD.  My personal goal is to raise $5,000.00. Please help me reach my goal by making a contribution now. Donations are tax-deductible to the full extent allowed by law and can be made online through my Team Fox fundraising page at http://www2.michaeljfox.org/goto/RisingUp . I invite you to join me in making a difference in the lives of those living with Parkinson’s disease.

Thank you in advance for your generous support as we strive together toward the finish line on the fast track to a cure.

Sincerely,

Adam Santo

It's the beginning of the year and once again Adam Santo comes by to be our guest blogger for our first post of the year. If you'd like an opportunity to be our guest please shoot us a line at webservices@panhandlingfantasy.com with "Guest Blog" on the subject line.

At the beginning of this year you might've found a little bird sitting on your shoulder and tweeting new book ideas for the coming year. As cheery and prosperous as the chipper bird's song made you feel, self manufactured doubt seeped in-between the delightful choruses regardless - it's a demon we all face at the beginning, climax, and finale of any story.
This delusional sabotage we, as writers, create is inevitable. Writing is a solitary job, done over endless hours of seclusion and sleep deprivation. Indecision plagues us from the very first words to hit the page until the final period completes it. By the end of a manuscript, hope of crafting a stupendously superb story taunts us back into the light where civilized people still dwell. That becomes short lived.

Someone has to read it now.

Fear and trepidation prevent us from handing off our newly crafted baby to an unknown critic for review. Your critic may come in the form of a family member, close friend, or one of the big review companies. Whichever course you take it still leaves behind unconscious twitches of anxiousness on your face awaiting word of what they thought. It should have accrued to you that coffee might not be a good thing to drink while someone dissects your wordsmith skills like a mortician with a dull scalpel and fogged over spectacles. What you should be doing is questioning your inner-self as to why this net of frightful mien is consuming you. It's unfounded. So far only one person has read the manuscript thoroughly: you.
Critics, reviewers, and their ilk will always draw out the worst in a author. There is a way to stop the painful anticipation of hearing that thunderous judgmental hammer strike at the end of being reviewed. Continue writing. Sounds so simple: right?
Remember, hearing any kind of feedback gives you the best chance to succeed. Why? Even bad news improves your skill. In today's time, we expect instant gratification, someone to stroke our ego and bloat our heads with false claims to keep from hurting us. As writers we need - and at times crave - to hear what went wrong. If we don't rejection letters from large publishing houses will bury us where we sit blindly typing another supposedly great piece of work.
My word of advice - listen to everything everyone says. We learn from mistakes and writing puts some of us too many chapters deep into a story where what happened in the beginning has been long forgotten. Bad reviews are not the end of the world; they begin a new understanding of storytelling.
Don't let bad or indifferent reviews drag you down. You topple your own success by burying your head in negative feedback. Take them for what they're worth and grow from it. You control what's on the next page in your story - now turn it and see what's coming up next. Believe.

It's your next novel I want to read.

What a year it has been for all of us. The world almost came to an end (again), our faith in Wall Street sits on a fiscal cliff like lemmings waiting to take that final step over the edge, an outcry over SOPA went out to the masses, and Facebook tried the stockmarket.  We had a run for our money in 2012. Now that the Mayan calendar has run out, what will 2013 bring us?
On a personal note I accomplished a few goals. Two more books went out with my name on them - Ocean's Fury (a tale from your own view of events about a cruise ship in peril) and Temperature: Bitter Cold. They are available at any online bookstore along with Temperature: Dead and Rising.
I also had a small book signing locally to kick off the release of Temperature: Bitter Cold with some of the proceeds going to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research (It's never too late to donate. Contribute directly or purchase a book to help out). I also made time to print out fanfare for the coming novel - Get quality work at VistaPrint http://vistaprint.tellapal.com/a/clk/34Bhzd .
The holidays would not be the same without family there to support you. I had a great support team this year, which allowed me to spend way too much time in my office to finish writing instead of partaking in routine events around the house. So, to make up for it I stopped blogging, making notes for the next manuscript, and killed off the majority of time I spend on social networks promoting my work to spend quality time here in my home. Time management isn't my friend and Santa forgot to gift wrap me some. I hope to fix that in the coming year by spreading my time evenly between family, a paying job, and my passion to write. To that end, I want to wish everyone Happy Holidays and good tidings for the coming year.

Our author, Adam Santo, offers this fun and festive holiday post for your enjoyment. From our family to yours - Happy Holidays!


Delicate flakes of ice trickle down from lofty white clouds on a cold November eve. Smells of forgotten memories lift on a light breeze towards your car; pumpkin pie - still warm from baking - rests in your hands for the awaiting kitchen already filled with delectable treats. Yes, Thanksgiving is upon us.

We take the time each year to reunite with friends, relatives, and reminisce about the ones we've lost. Our year is spent being busy with tedious work schedules and inner family turmoil that ends with the holidays; a needed break from the ordinary routines of life. We sometimes bring our tresses with us to joyous family gatherings where we should be happy to be with ones that love us, but forget those concerns when we are welcomed into our childhood homes with a warm embrace of a parent. To be thankful is more than a holiday: it's a celebration of life.

Live what is given to you to its fullest. Know that one bad moment cannot ruin a lifetime of love. We all have jaded hours speckling our past, but a light always shines ahead. Be thankful for the little things that remind us we are only human.

Thanksgiving bring out the good in us all for a special night. Why keep your gratitude chained to one day? I think it a misnomer to believe we actually 'thank' anything until our heads bow at the dinner table. Do you think about what your thankful for leading up to dinner? We are grateful - in a sense - for the time we spend with loved ones without expressing it fully. Our words of thanks come at the end of a Thanksgiving night when we say, "goodbye" and "I love you" to family members. Make sure it doesn't stop there.

The next day is another well celebrated day, it's "The Day After Thanksgiving Sale". Remember what yesterday meant to you and carry well-wishing on through the new year. It's a stretch, but I'm sure if we pull together it can be done. Now, hands off that half-off toaster. I saw it first...