Black Sheep: A Blue-Eyed Negro Speaks of Abandonment, Belonging, Racism, and Redemption (This press release may be reprinted in part or in its entirety by any print or broadcast media outlet or used by any means of social media sharing.)
With an afterword by My Haley, PhD, widow of Alex Haley, famed author of Roots and Malcom X
Ray Studevent walked hesitantly toward the door of the nursing home and prayed that his Momma, now in the throes of dementia, would recognize him. Surely, the blue eyes would give him away. The blue eyes that his Momma originally equated with hatred and brutality.
White on the outside, Black on the inside, Ray grew up on the eastern side of the Anacostia River, the Blackest part of the Blackest city in America not long after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the D.C. race riots. There were guidelines if you were Black; different rules if you were White; but only mixed messages for mixed-race children like Ray, who had to fight for acceptance and struggle to find his identity.
Black Sheep: A Blue-Eyed Negro Speaks of Abandonment, Belonging, Racism, and Redemption is the unforgettable true story of Ray’s struggles as a mixed-race boy learning to fight the ghosts of his past to find trust and love. Abandoned by his White, heroin-addicted mother and Black, violently alcoholic father, Ray found salvation at age 5 when he was adopted into a loving, stable home by his father’s uncle Calvin and his wife, Lemell. But that is just the beginning of the story.
Lemell is suddenly widowed and must raise Ray and her two daughters as a single mother in Chocolate City. Each time she looks into Ray’s blue eyes, she sees the Klansmen who tormented her family as she grew up in segregated Mississippi.
Ray and Lemell must navigate the minefields of society’s outward racial tensions while inwardly, Lemell does her best to overlook her emotional scars and suppress her justifiable resentment toward White people when she looks into Ray’s blue eyes.
Black Sheep takes readers on an emotional journey and reveals universal truths through faith and great humor. It is a search for who we are, where we fit and who we can become. Imagine a book where The Notebook meets The Help.
About the Author Ray “Ben” Studevent was a mixed-race child whose unique look led him to fight a racial identity crisis his entire life. Each time he entered a room, he had to decide whether it was better to be Black or White. His personal and career journeys ebbed and flowed, taking him to prison, fatherhood and gigs in comedy clubs, modeling and stock-market research. In all these varied experiences, he realized that race played a critical role. Visit his website at: raystudevent.com.
Black Sheep Publisher: HCI Books Release Date: May 4, 2021 ISBN-10: 0757323812 ISBN-13: 978-0757323812 Trade Paperback, 288 pages Available wherever books are sold
Trish Stevens Lindsey Mach Ascot Media Group, Inc. Post Office Box 2394 Friendswood, TX 77549 [email protected] www.ascotmedia.com 281.333.3507 Phone
Secrets Threaten to Unravel Family Ties in The Wool Over Their Eyes
(This press release may be reprinted in part or entirety by any print or broadcast media outlet or used by any means of social media sharing.)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
At 18, Natalia Foster knew seven things about the biological father she’d never met: he was tall, dark, handsome and Italian. He was also married to someone other than Natalia’s mother, had three children and, clearly, no morals. Now, at age 28, Natalia knows something new: her father is dying.
The Wool Over Their Eyes, from Dione Martin, is an authentic, heartfelt story about complex family dynamics and the emotions that must be unpacked when long-buried secrets push their way to the surface.
Illegitimate and bi-racial, Natalia is the secret that her father, Joe, planned to take to his grave. His wife and family know nothing of Natalia’s existence — or that her mother is Black — but when word spreads that Joe has only months to live, Natalia feels compelled to meet him and salvage what little time with him she has left. But at what cost to Joe’s devoted wife, Rosa, and their grown children?
In the midst of Natalia’s family drama and pain is also a love story. Natalia must choose between two loves — a long-lost one and a new one. Her ex-boyfriend, Tyler Davis, who captured her heart and connected with her soul, resurfaces. But she meets a handsome doctor, David Duplessis, who’d cared for her father. Just as the relationship begins to blossom, David commits an act that severs her trust and sends her spiraling further into her dark abyss.
The Wool Over Their Eyes is loosely based on Martin’s personal experiences. She drew upon her own memories and insights of growing up without her biological father and being betrayed in her own marriage to inform her narrative and give her characters depth and authenticity.
“I wrote The Wool Over Their Eyes for fatherless girls, for women who have been betrayed, for those who have been rejected because of their race (or otherness) and for families that have been torn apart by secrets, lies and deception,” Martin reflects. “Healing is possible – through change, through empathy, through faith and through forgiveness.”
Author Dione Martin was born and raised in New Orleans, where she spent much of her childhood and teen years reading. She earned her Bachelor’s in English from the University of Minnesota-Morris and her Master’s in Journalism from the University of Texas at Austin. She is currently a senior communications director at Brinker International. She lives in Dallas with her two daughters and enjoys running, cooking, performing arts and attempting DIY projects. The Wool Over Their Eyes is her debut novel, and she is working on her next one.
For more information about the author, please visit www.dione-martin.com or follow her on Twitter (@DioneMartin30), LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com/in/dione-martin/) or Facebook (www.facebook.com/dionehmartin).
The Wool Over Their Eyes Publisher: Inspire on Purpose ISBN-10: 1948903539 ISBN-13: 978-1948903530 Available from Amazon.com
Trish Stevens Chelsea Smith Ascot Media Group, Inc. Post Office Box 2394 Friendswood, TX 77549 [email protected] www.ascotmedia.com 281.333.3507 Phone
Trish Stevens Carol Walsh Ascot Media Group, Inc. Post Office Box 2394 Friendswood, TX 77549 [email protected] www.ascotmedia.com 281.333.3507 Phone
(This press release may be reprinted in part or entirety by any print or broadcast media outlet, or used by any means of social media sharing)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Expert Shares Breakthrough Secrets To Transformative Storytelling
Being a powerful storyteller can enrich both your career and personal life, and international bestselling author Linda A. Olson shares her time-tested storytelling tips in her newest release, Your Story Matters: Own Your Story and Tell it with Clarity, Confidence & Impact.
“The question isn’t whether you have a powerful story, it’s valuing the power in your story,” Olson advises.
In Your Story Matters, readers will learn the simple secrets to finding their personal story, using their story to build instant trust and credibility and embracing the greatest gift they have been given.
Olson guides readers through a step-by-step process to empower them with the five Cs — everything needed to create an impactful personal story:
• Clarity: Find your story to connect, impact and even transform lives.
• Creation: How to create your story with simplicity and ease using a simple framework.
• Confidence: Know the value of owning your story.
• Connection: Use your story as a tool to build instant trust and credibility.
• Courage: Tell your story in as little as 2 minutes to impact and transform lives.
Your Story Matters is a must-read for anyone who wants to find and harness the power in their story to help transform lives.
Also, tucked inside the book is a coupon toward Wealth through Stories LIVE, a two-day story retreat for those who are serious about experiencing the wealth in their story. One story, one transformation, impacting millions. Why not yours?
Linda Olson is the go-to story expert who helps authors, speakers and entrepreneurs impact millions with their stories. She is a TEDx speaker, multiple bestselling author and founder of Wealth Through Stories. Her mission is “To Impact a Million People a Year Through Story.” Linda and her husband, Rick, reside in sunny California. They enjoy their two married daughters and their spouses and five adorable grandchildren, who are the best part of their story.
For more information visit wealththroughstories.com.
Your Story Matters: Own Your Story and Tell it with Clarity, Confidence & Impact
Release Date: February 11, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-9819014-2-8
Available from Amazon.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (This press release may be reprinted in part or entirety)
I would like to send a complimentary copy of The Essence of Resilience: Stories of Triumph Over Trauma, in consideration of an interview or review from you.
While the effects of trauma can be devastating to a person’s life, it’s how they respond to it that becomes the game-changer. In this gripping new book, Tanya Lauer and Kathleen Parrish, authors and professional counselors with forty years combined experience, share powerful stories of trauma survivors who reclaimed their voice and their resilience. Please read the following release and let me know if I may schedule an interview with either of these experts, or provide a review copy of the book. In the event you might want to run this story, let us know and we’ll be happy to send you a jpg of the authors and book cover for your use. Thank you for your time.
Kim Weiss Director of Communications HCI Books, The Life Issues Publisher 3201 SW 15 Street Deerfield Beach, FL 33442 (800) 851-9100 ext. 212 [email protected] www.hcibooks.com/trade
The Essence of Resilience: Stories of Triumph Over Trauma By Tanya Lauer and Kathleen Parrish
Tucson, AZ – When trauma strikes in the lives of unsuspecting victims, it leaves wounds that run deep. If not properly tended to, these events can leave scars that affect the way a person relates to themselves and everything around them. “It is said that every scar tells a story,” Lauer and Parrish write in The Essence of Resilience: Stories of Triumph Over Trauma (HCI – ISBN: 9780757319419 October 2016 — $14.95), but often those stories are kept locked away in silence by the victims who are struck voiceless and alone in the dark shadow of their pasts. By keeping their stories buried within themselves, often trauma victims distort the reality of their trauma and devolve to self-blame, and very often cope with drugs, alcohol, and other unhealthy and dangerous behavior.
But everyone is capable of harnessing resilience – the part of ourselves that refuses to surrender or die. Everyone is capable of reclaiming themselves and taking control of the present by learning to cope with their pasts, and in The Essence of Resilience, fourteen trauma survivors demonstrate the miraculous healing power of storytelling to work through finding the “gift in their wound.” Stories include:
• A young girl bullied by her classmates, losing her definition of herself in their hurtful words. • An adopted daughter, searching for a sense of belonging through substance abuse. • A rape victim regaining her voice through therapy animals. • A Marine with a history of child abuse learning the power of sharing and facing his past.
Tanya Lauer and Kathleen Parrish are professional counselors who specialize in those who have suffered a traumatic experience, which they define as “any event that violates your sense of safety and wellbeing, or shatters your integrity or sense of wholeness.” With a combined 40 years of experience helping trauma survivors cope, Lauer and Parrish share their tried-and-true arsenal of tools including Relationships, Trust, Travel, Compassion, Gratitude, Animals, Nature, Humor and Spirituality that helps victims reclaim their voice in this gripping and powerful book.
Join these survivors as they face their pasts head-on, sharing their deepest and darkest moments to open themselves up to the ability to heal. These stories, while they may be painful, are also published to be motivational to those who may be suffering silently on their own. These tributes to each individual’s past reveal an inspiring look into the miracle that is human resilience, and allows us to bear witness to these brave survivors in their triumph over trauma.
About the Authors
Tanya Lauer and Kathleen Parrish are Licensed Professional Counselors with over 40 years combined experience providing counseling and trauma intervention services. They are affiliated with Cottonwood Tucson, an internationally renowned residential treatment program for co-occurring disorders in Tucson, Arizona. They are frequent presenters at professional conferences in the United States and in Europe.
Available wherever books are sold or to order directly from the publisher: www.hcibooks.com or call (800) 441-5569 ISBN: 978075319419 — $14.95 October 2016
