A Deeper Meaning
It’s Christmas time. The three months before Christmas kind of set it up and I love it. Already in Los Angeles lights have been strung across trees and bushes, although they are silver without the usual red and green, I still love them all. Books are a reminder that we curl up and enjoy a story, replete with hot chocolate, a warm, cozy robe that is too big and covers every section of us and fuzzy slippers.
My mother was the reader in my family. She read every night before going to bed and her favorite genre: short stories in magazines. All kinds of magazines from Esquire to Cosmopolitan, it didn’t matter as long as it put her in the fictive dream and for the hour preceding sleep, she would be engrossed in a story. She had been a journalism major at UCLA and her love of reading probably stemmed from that, but also from something way back---her father was a minister and his reading had been so inclusive that he’d needed coke-bottle glasses by the time he was in his sixties in order to read.
I had dyslexia, and ADHD to boot. It was quite a combo when I was in school. I couldn’t concentrate, read, pay attention or focus. There was no medication in those days (not so far in the past), so I was forever picked on for causing a ruckus in class or asking questions. I’d read a perfectly normal sentence, such as, “Ruby did not go to the store.” But because my dyslexia made me miss words, I’d see “Ruby did go to the store.” Missing the word “not” altogether. Then a paragraph or two later, I’d realize Ruby couldn’t have gone to the store and I’d search back in my reading to see where the egregious problem lay. I learned to circle the word “not” and other words, too, in order to finally read successfully.
In my day (the 70s and 80s) television and movies quickly took the place of actually sitting down and reading a book, but the joy of the story was too great to miss. The relationship between the book and yourself is special, private, gleeful even.
Hot Shot, my comedy/mystery about gambling was born out of a real situation where my friend, an Army lieutenant, lost his entire life savings on video poker, a nasty addiction. He declared bankruptcy, and began to work as a janitor for the casino where he lost his money, but never quite made up the amount due them. He finally joined the Army to get the bonus to pay them back. He became a great advocate of anti-gambling and anti-gaming legislation and even went to Washington to try to get increases in warnings and labels when people enter casinos, in the same way they put up warnings on cigarette packages and alcohol bottles.
The comedy of the story came in the ways he tried to overcome his addiction, which may not seem funny, but people will do the strangest things to get themselves out of a pickle. His friend, a haberdasher, even got him involved in making uniforms for a garage company. Tyler’s girlfriend, Teresa, wanted him to settle down, but like many people, he couldn’t until that part of his life had been resolved.
My own addictions have been varied, but my misspent youth was mainly involved in alcohol when I felt scared or insecure. I soon learned that I did better when I didn’t drink than when I had and that all the things I thought I could do when I was drunk, I did better sober. So, hopefully you, too, will enjoy the positive aspects of overcoming---anything. Or at least finding the positive in what you do.
“A fun, crazy read. Sit back and enjoy the ride.”
~Robert Dugoni, #1 Amazon Best Selling Author of My Sister’s Grave.
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Hot Shot by S. A. Stolinsky
Suspense
Fiery Seas Publishing
November 1, 2016
Payback is a powerful thing...
Actor and bartender, Tyler West experiences a sudden streak of luck — winning poker games. Determined to change his life, he enters the World Series of Poker. His life is suddenly turned upside down when the Russian mafia fronts him 1.5 million dollars to play at the tables. And then...he loses…
Now on the ride of his life, deceit and deception are his key to uncovering the truth. He must recoup the money, but will it come at a price? Can he stay alive long enough or will his time run out?
About the Author:
Stefanie Stolinsky, Ph.D. is a licensed psychologist and forensic psychologist with a private practice in Beverly Hills, California. She specializes in trauma, adults sexually, physically and emotionally abused as children, and PTSD. She is an international speaker and has taught training seminars in overcoming the aftereffects of child abuse. She has also taught licensing examinations to candidates for both marriage, family and child counseling and for the psychology licenses.
She began her career as an actress in motion pictures, television and stage and created a unique therapy combining acting exercises with psychodynamic psychotherapy to help survivors of all kinds of trauma overcome the aftereffects of abuse. The first edition of "ACT IT OUT" was a top seller for over nine years. A second edition of the popular book was launched in April of this year and is available on Praeclarus Press, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble.
She is also the author of several award-winning short stories including her newest short story anthology, DATE NIGHT, and numerous comedy mystery. Dr. Stolinsky lives with her husband in Los Angeles.
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