Keith Elkins’s “The Old Guy Goes.” tells the story of a college teacher from his prime at age forty to his death at eighty surrounded by loving family. With insight, he explores the later stages of life and the significant issues related to aging.
This holiday season, we continue to feature authors who have taken advantage of the 2016 Holiday Bundle and the benefits of the New York Times Holiday Edition ad. Co-op ads offer authors effective exposure through a well-known, established publication with millions of motivated book lovers!
The New York Times Holiday Edition features self-publishing author Keith Elkins.
About the Author
A Buffalo resident, Keith Elkins retired from Empire State College as a SUNY Distinguished Service Professor in 1997. He’s since been a volunteer in support of children, working adults and seniors. Currently, he’s founder/writer/performer with the Brainstormers, who dramatize and then discuss with seniors issues of concern to them.
The Old Guy Goes
On his 40th birthday, community college teacher Eldred Duker feels he’s getting older faster and faster. Childless, he and his wife Marie visit the orphanage he and his now-estranged sister Anne lived in as small children and, as Marie has long wanted to do, end up adopting six-year-old Hope. Hope is sexually assaulted at age 16. Herself molested by one of their mother’s male friends as a child, Anne comes for a visit to help. After Hope is on her own, Marie is killed in a car accident. Slowly at first, Duke starts losing his grip on reality. He seeks revenge on the man whose vehicle killed Marie, looks for relief of his pain by taking a yoga class, falls in love with the instructor Rachel, marries her, sees his daughter Hope married to Dirk and helps Rachel bury her mother. During these years, Duke’s judgment deteriorates. He causes a car accident that kills Rachel, starts drinking regularly and tracks down the man who killed Marie to forgive him and thus himself. Hope and Anne eventually realize that he is no longer capable of taking care of himself and place him a Continuing Care Retirement Community. There, when ER tests given after he breaks a leg reveal that he has a fast-acting fatal disease, they move him back to his old home. Having separated from Dirk, Hope moves in to take care of him and arranges for hospice care. Along with her now-adult children, she and Anne attend his death.
Outskirts Press was founded and grown upon the principle of helping creators realize their greatest writing ambitions.Self-publishing a book is a major undertaking, and we’re proud of the work our authors do to create amazing literature and see it through to publication. So, it’s with pride that we take a moment each week to recognize one of the many authors of whom we’re so very proud in our Self-Publishing Book Spotlight.
This week we shine our spotlight on self-published author Keith Elkins and his book, The Pony Principles: Lessons in Optimism Because of Adversity.
In The Pony Principles: Lessons in Optimism Because of Adversity, Outskirts Press author Keith Elkins takes the metaphor of the pony from the positive, childlike perspective of anticipating the gift of a pony for one’s birthday and expands that idea into four simple, innovative principles by which one can make things happen in one’s life despite the influence of negative people or negative circumstances.
No matter what is occurring around a person, author Elkins writes, there is always a path to one’s goals if one is committed and on purpose. What one focuses on, expands. His four pony principles help one achieve the focused optimism necessary to carry through to one’s goals. One has to see the pony, feed the pony, train the pony and, finally, one has to ride the pony.
“Seeing” the proverbial pony is the start of one’s journey and involves concentrating on one’s goals, clarifying one’s vision and purpose and thereby strengthening one’s belief. In this first step one must also overcome any limiting notions one might have about one’s talent or one’s potential.
Elkins’ second principle, feeding the pony, concentrates not simply on the nurturing of one’s mind, body and spirit, but on the robust nourishing of them with a new way of processing one’s life experiences through “lifetime learning” and through exposure to people, places and ideas that help a person grow.
“Training” the pony, step three, is the work, the discipline, the practice necessary to actually make a lifelong change. If one’s life is worth living, it is worth training for, the author says, and training is, simply put, work.
Finally, in step four, one “rides” the pony. One mounts the animal and gives it a little kick. Rather than merely sitting around, looking at and daydreaming about what one wants, one actually gets on the pony and follows through to one’s goals with action. One moves forward with commitment and passion.
One then succeeds.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Keith Elkins is an entrepreneur, a martial arts educator and a motivational speaker. He is the president of Keith Elkins Enterprises, Inc., a human potential consulting company that offers presentations on leadership, team building, embracing change and developing programs for at-risk youth. Keith and his family live near Washington, DC.
Outskirts Press offers high-quality, full-service self-publishing and book marketing services for writers and professionals who are seeking a cost-effective, fast, and flexible way to publish and distribute their books worldwide while retaining 100% of their rights, 100% of their profits, and 100% of the creative control.http://www.outskirtspress.com.
Are you self publishing a book and looking to receive marketing support and services like this?
Self-publishing a book is an exciting undertaking. Because we understand the dedication that is required to write a quality book, we like to feature our top authors each week so that you can get to know a little bit more about them and their book. This week, we are featuring Keith Elkins’ The Pony Principles.
In his latest book, self-publishing Outskirts Press author, Keith Elkins, takes the metaphor of the pony from the positive, childlike perspective of anticipating the gift of a pony for one’s birthday and expands that idea into four simple, innovative principles by which one can make things happen in one’s life despite the influence of negative people or negative circumstances.
No matter what is occurring around a person, author Elkins writes, there is always a path to one’s goals if one is committed and on purpose. What one focuses on, expands. His four pony principles help one achieve the focused optimism necessary to carry through to one’s goals. One has to see the pony, feed the pony, train the pony and, finally, one has to ride the pony.
“Seeing” the proverbial pony is the start of one’s journey and involves concentrating on one’s goals, clarifying one’s vision and purpose and thereby strengthening one’s belief. In this first step one must also overcome any limiting notions one might have about one’s talent or one’s potential.
Elkins’ second principle, feeding the pony, concentrates not simply on the nurturing of one’s mind, body and spirit, but on the robust nourishing of them with a new way of processing one’s life experiences through “lifetime learning” and through exposure to people, places and ideas that help a person grow.
“Training” the pony, step three, is the work, the discipline, the practice necessary to actually make a lifelong change. If one’s life is worth living, it is worth training for, the author says, and training is, simply put, work.
Finally, in step four, one “rides” the pony. One mounts the animal and gives it a little kick. Rather than merely sitting around, looking at and daydreaming about what one wants, one actually gets on the pony and follows through to one’s goals with action. One moves forward with commitment and passion.
One then succeeds.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Keith Elkins is an entrepreneur, martial arts educator, motivational speaker, and president of Keith Elkins Enterprises, Inc., a human potential consulting company. He offers presentations on leadership, team building, embracing change, and developing programs for at-risk youth. Keith and his family live near Washington, D.C.
This author purchased the Book Blast package, saving 25% on 5 powerful marketing services to blast the book into the stratosphere! The Book Blast package includes the following options: Custom Press Release, PR Publicist Campaign, Book Review Submission Service, Book Video (shown above) and Personal Marketing Assistant. Outskirts Press authors can easily and conveniently add this package at any time from the Marketing Options screen of the Publishing Center.
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The Old Guy Goes
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