I am happy and excited to share the Big Book Release News for Award-winning author and dear friend, Diane Olsen and book 2 of her exceptional book series of Rising Wind. Book 1 is The Thunder Beings. Now, the new book 2 titled; Rising Wind: Ice and Bone are now available on Amazon online in both Ebook and Paperback formats. I can tell you it has been given a Readers Favorite 5-Star Review as well. Don’t miss this must-read book series by Diane.
*Cat*
Cat can custom build a plan for any DIY Author an amazing well-rounded marketing plan around any marketing budget. She shares everywhere you need to be set on and where and how to promote your books. I have begun working my plan and I wanted to share one the places I got an exceptional 5-star awarded book review and the free press release from Readers Favorite. So without delay, here it is!
Cat sure enjoys sharing our author friends when they receive well deserved literary accolades and what this post is all about. Big congrats to Peggy Hinaekian for just receiving a 5-Star awarded book review by Readers Favorite! They are a big literary influencer for exceptional authors, writers, and their written works.
Peggy is also an internationally known artist, so it didn’t surprise me too much that she was given 5-STARS from RF as her book titled “Collection of Short Stories and Essays “Of Humans and Animals” includes some of her art sketches within the pages of her new book. If you have not read this release yet by Peggy, I highly suggest you do.
Author’s new book receives a warm literary welcome.
Readers’ Favorite announces the review of the Fiction – Literary book “Collection of Short Stories and Essays “Of Humans and Animals”” by Peggy Hinaekian, currently available at http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1646206827.
Readers’ Favorite is one of the largest book review and award contest sites on the Internet. They have earned the respect of renowned publishers like Random House, Simon & Schuster, and Harper Collins, and have received the “Best Websites for Authors” and “Honoring Excellence” awards from the Association of Independent Authors. They are also fully accredited by the BBB (A+ rating), which is a rarity among Book Review and Book Award Contest companies.
“Reviewed By Jon Michael Miller for Readers’ Favorite“
“In the thought-provoking and enjoyably engaging Collection of Short Stories and Essays: “Of Humans and Animals” by Peggy Hinaekian, you will meet an amazing array of characters from a variety of locales and points of view. Direct, guileless, with ironic humor, Peggy Hinaekian demonstrates her virtuosity as a writer and a visual artist.
There are 29 easy-to-read and much-to-think-about stories, most preceded by enigmatic Picasso-like drawings, an ideal volume to keep by your side or on your coffee table to fill those idle spaces in your daily life. There is even a piece written by a zoo gorilla named Bella, and two poems penned by house cats. And every presentation opens an area that we often think about but seldom have the pluck to express.
A common theme is sexual unease, whether in marriage or simply the malaise of relationships turned tepid without romance and adventure, of bored partners quietly seeking replacements, of erotic unfulfillment. It might be a man thinking about picking up a woman in a coffee shop, or vice-versa.
Or a lonely traveler, or a disgruntled housewife, or an erotic dream. Nothing very graphic, but strong feelings, a woman seeking her “Rhett Butler,” or a wealthy man searching for a suitable mother for his imagined child. There are several child personae too. But every story is a challenging gem of frank insight into our tightly held but seldom spoken viewpoints.
Taken all together, we find a fine writer speaking profoundly about the loneliness and yearning of being alive. The slices of life in Collection of Short Stories and Essays: “Of Humans and Animals” by Peggy Hinaekian is like a huge bouquet of hidden truth that will amuse and sometimes sadden the reader, but always enliven one’s inner joy at exuberantly expressed reality. Every story hits its target.”
Readers’ Favorite LLC Media Relations Louisville, KY 40202
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Of Armenian origin author, Peggy Hinaekian was born and raised in Egypt. Her paternal grandfather had the largest private library in Egypt, and Peggy was introduced to books in three languages (English, French, and Armenian) at a very young age.
Peggy grew up in a very cosmopolitan environment and was an avid reader. Since the age of ten, she kept a journal and always wrote short stories, essays, and children’s picture books.
She immigrated to Canada with her first husband and then went on to the United States, where she pursued a career in fashion designing in New York in fine arts. After her divorce, she left that behind and moved to Geneva, Switzerland, and continued her career as an artist.
Peggy Hinaekian is a writer and author; she is an internationally recognized, well-established artist living and working in the United States and Switzerland.
Now with three literary works to her credit, you may purchase her books from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and many fine online book stores. She is married, raised three beautiful sons, and resides with her husband part-time in Florida & California.
Meet Author Marilyn L. Davis, a tireless advocate of addiction and recovery and an extraordinary writer. Deb from Book goodies caught up with her as her new book, “Finding North: From Addict to Advocate,” has released on Amazon. So I wanted to share this fantastic interview with all my readers so you can learn more about the woman behind the book.
I just happened to finish reading and gave her a 5-stars! My review is now on Amazon. Readers Favorite thought her book was also fantastic and gave Marilyn a 5-star awarded book review too.
New in recovery, a chance encounter with Gray Hawk, a 74-year old Native American, showed her that healing would include looking within, taking Steps, and creating a house of healing for other women.
Today, Marilyn is a Certified Addiction Recovery Empowerment Specialist, recently celebrating thirty-two years of abstinence-based recovery. From 1990-2011, she opened and managed North House, an award-winning residential facility for women.
Before reaching this milestone, she was a desperate woman on drugs, managing rock bands at night, pretending to be okay, but ultimately giving up on herself, losing her husband, children, family, and friends due to her addiction.
This book is that journey.
In-Depth Author Interview With Marilyn L. Davis
Marilyn L. Davis is the author of the memoir Finding North: A Journey from Addict to Advocate. A chance encounter with a 74-year-old Native American helped her find her purpose. From 1990-2011, she opened and managed North House, an award-winning residential recovery home for women.
She is also the Editor-in-Chief at her recovery blog, From Addict 2 Advocate. She recently celebrated 32 years of abstinence-based recovery and is a Certified Addiction Recovery Empowerment Specialist.
Before her recovery, she was a desperate woman on drugs, managing rock bands at night, pretending to be okay at PTA meetings, but ultimately giving up on herself, losing her husband, children, family, and friends due to her addiction.
Marilyn is widely known for her writing in many literary communities, including her award-winning website, Two Drops of Ink, where she encourages collaborative writing and is the Editor-in-Chief. The site’s writers are poets, problem-solvers for writers and bloggers, as well as those who educate, entertain, and enchant us with the written word. The writers represent different countries, viewpoints, and opinions.
When she is not writing, Marilyn is an avid reader, enjoys gardening and cooking. She has raised two beautiful grown daughters, both in recovery, and is a Nana to four grandchildren. None of her grandchildren have ever seen their mother’s or their Nana use, so maybe the addiction cycle is broken. She resides in an Atlanta suburb with a controlling cat named Jackson.
What inspires you to write? I am inspired to write as I believe that writing helps us heal. Whether it’s a journal or a memoir that we publish, writing allows us the emotional safety to fully explore our thoughts and feelings.
Since I was a child, I’ve scribbled down words once I understood that those black squiggly lines on a page told a story. I was bullied as a child, and these passages helped me feel better about myself and my isolated world.
I don’t know that it was ‘inspiration’ that helped me create a recovery curriculum for my recovery home. It felt more like desperation. I got tired of saying the same thing, so I decided to write it out. The response to Therapeutic Integrated Educational Recovery System (TIERS) gave me the confidence to start writing at Two Drops of Ink and ultimately write my memoir.
What authors do you read when you aren’t writing? Each of the following authors helps me learn the craft of writing: Joan Didion, Vladimir Nabokov, Roshani Chokshi, Neil Gaiman, Anne Lamott, Natalie Goldberg, Annie Dillard, William Zinsser, Roy Peter Clark and others.
Tell us about your writing process. My writing process starts with an idea, topic, or subject that I want to write about, prompted by a conversation, a question from one of my recovery groups, or emails with other writers.
Taking the idea and doing some looping, brainstorming, prewriting, and then creating a first draft complete that phase.
Next, I research the topic, taking into account whether the subject is saturated or is there an aspect of it that I could develop further. At this point, I decide if I’ll write from breadth or width on the topic.
Writing for two blogs, one on recovery and one on writing means there’s always a deadline, and those add incentive to get the writing done.
So the process can be most accurately be described as, “You’ve got to get a post done. Now write.”
What advice would you give other writers? Advice: 1. Don’t be afraid to write. 2. Don’t call yourself aspiring, soon-to-be-best-selling, or wanna-be. If you’re writing, then you are a writer. 3. Stay with it. 4. Read books on how to improve your writing. 5. Find a website that takes guest posts and submit a post to them. 6. Once you see your writing on a site, let that encourage you to write more, start that novel, write the definitive how-to, or finish your memoir – whatever is your big book. 7. Never throw away your darlings. Keep them in a file and review them monthly. You wrote those for a reason, even if you couldn’t use them at the time.
How did you decide how to publish your books? I’d been encouraged to publish Finding North: A Journey from Addict to Advocate by my family, friends, recovery professionals, and writers I’d shown drafts to over the past three years. Fear kept me from publishing it until this year.
However, while procrastinating on publishing my memoir, I also wrote a how-to on memoir writing called Memories into Memoir: The Mindsets and Mechanics Workbook that will be published later this spring.
What do you think about the future of book publishing? I think that traditional publishing will still factor, but with new and emerging platforms for authors, I think we’ll start seeing self-publishing increase.
I published on Amazon and found the experience straightforward. I hired a formatting specialist; my sister is an artist and designed the cover, and I followed the directions once the manuscript and cover were ready.
I also see more diversity in the books that are published. We have lacked diversity for some time. While that may read as “jumping on the bandwagon”, I know that living a counter societal lifestyle in my addiction meant that my memoir did not meet the criteria for certain publishing houses.
I think a problem with traditional publishing is that there’s not a connection to the reader. In contrast, Amazon understands what readers want and takes the time to recommend similar books. While not publishing sites, Goodreads and ThriftBooks do, also.
I also think that print-on-demand factors for the author, reader, and environment, and it would be a mistake to discount those factors when choosing which route to take as an author. Plus, it means not having 75 autographed copies of your book gathering dust in the attic.
What genres do you write?: Memoir, How to Write a Memoir, primarily non-fiction
What formats are your books in?: I publish in both eBook and Print
Finding North: A Journey from Addict to Advocate by Marilyn L. Davis Non-Fiction – Memoir 256 Pages
Reviewed on 04/10/2021 ~ Reviewed by Mamta Madhavan for Readers’ Favorite
Finding North: A Journey from Addict to Advocate by Marilyn L Davis takes readers on a journey of the author’s life. Marilyn speaks about addiction and how easy it was to experiment with her mom’s pills at a young age to escape from reality where she was unhappy because of a strained home and miserable school life. Her success story will inspire many readers who lead dangerous lifestyles because of their addictions and encourage them to emerge from addiction. She also speaks about the setbacks and struggles of addiction and the lifelong lessons they taught her. The author’s story and her vision give hope to addicts. It is a good guide for readers who are addicts to escape from their addiction and get started on their healing and recovery.
The memoir is raw and honest, and the author minces no words when it comes to sharing her story. Addicts will be able to connect with the author’s words, the commonality of their feelings, thoughts, and poor choices they made in their addiction, and finally the redemption that happens through the recovery phase. The author also shows how different yet distinctly typical an addict’s path is.
The story of how North House came into existence is also quite interesting. Her success story will make addicts come to terms with their loss and find ways to heal and get on with their lives. Finding North: A Journey from Addict to Advocate is a good page-turner and Marilyn L Davis’s story will give courage, hope, and determination to addicts to get free from their addiction and pain, and finally find their way to healing, and leading good lives.
What will you learn from this beautiful memoir? What overcoming drug addiction looks like and much more!
Exceptionally written from page one to the last, the author shares just how easy it was for her to begin experimenting with drugs at a young age as she shares her life with readers. Her writing style and layout of her memoirs are impeccable, as it made me keep reading to learn what happens next!
Marilyn writes in a “teachable” and “relatable” way as she shares her early years of managing rock bands and such. We all know “The Candy” was always available back in the days when she managed rock bands. Her life memoirs are about overcoming, loss, perseverance, hope, and inspiration. Then, a chance meeting with a Native American man who spiritually points out her future, she took it to heart in her early recovery.
After saving her life within her recovery’s hard work, she gives us the inside look of how generational addiction can happen, as both her daughters began addicts. Then came the real work of opening North House; she and managed North House, an award-winning residential facility for women. A women’s safe house of healing as I see it.
She began to help both her daughters become clean and drug-free. Marilyn has been on her journey and has celebrated 32-years of recovery while keeping her recovery journey moving forward. The author shows us the hard work it takes in early recovery to learn the roots and the underlying addiction issues, process them, and begin the power of healing within recovery.
I highly suggest everyone read this book if you want to be inspired by an amazing woman’s authentic memoir turned ‘Recovery Warrior’ through caring, empathy, and turned a call to action to bring solutions from addiction, even still today.
Advocate, Catherine Lyon of Lyon Media Services & Literary Consulting
The book blurb called it “a chance encounter with Gray Hawk,” yet Gray Hawk believed it was an element of his destiny.
There are twists and turns from the parents stylized by the author’s perception extending from childhood escape, into addiction, through collapse of the family and into a personal redemption through shared service to others.
There are several additional stories here. Mother. Father. Family. Community.
This book maintains focus on the author’s relationship to manipulation, addiction, self-assessment, games of delusion and sustaining the illusion, “things are ok.” Still, there are the loose ends of those lives, the question of how the author slid down this road, not another, and the question why and how Gray Hawk came to play the role he did.
The writing style is straightforward and relentless, with the simple force you see at an AA meeting: “Hi, I’m so-and-so and I’m an alcoholic.” It’s fascinating to see simultaneous incongruent thought tracks: the external reality, against the internal mental contortions to have everything seem normal. “You think you’re Machiavelli but you’re really Bozo the clown” she’s told at one point. This author does not imbue events with grandiose significance or deep meaning. Readers may wish to do that.
Each of the 105 short chapters has a point without breaking the flow – it’s autobiographical after all. Extracted into focus by time and perspective, the chapters sometimes include bittersweet zingers.
At the end of the telling, the question remains ‘Was it a chance encounter?’
Marilyn is a Certified Addiction Recovery Empowerment Specialist who opened and ran an award-winning residential facility from 1990-2011, called North House.
She recently celebrated 32 years of abstinence-based recovery.
She is the author of Therapeutic Integrated Educational Recovery System and editor-in-chief at fromaddict2advocate.com and twodropsofink.com.
In 2008, Brenau University created the Marilyn Davis Community Service Learning Award, which honors individuals working in recovery and mental health. In 2010, Marilyn received the Liberty Bell award, given to non-judges and attorneys for contributions to the criminal justice system and communities.
Before reaching these milestones, she was a desperate woman on drugs, managing rock bands at night, pretending to be okay, but ultimately giving up on herself, losing her husband, children, family, and friends due to her addiction.
A chance encounter with a 74-year old Native American named Gray Hawk showed her that healing herself would include meetings, Steps, and providing a house of healing for other women.
You can connect with the author on social media and visit both here award-winning blogs…
What an amazing post and great NEWS for my friend and fellow author, Diane Olsen! She has been hard at work the last year or so turning out the next to books of the Rising Wind series. Book one of Rising Wind: The Thunder Beings is released on Amazon and what a ride the opening of the story IS! And the e-book is only .99 cents as book two titled: Ice and Bone is almost ready to DROP…
CAT
It has been a very long while since I have posted on blog and I do apologize as I have been feverishly writing after I released RISING WIND: The Thunder Beings. It seems GOD had other plans for me to continue the story of Sercora and Gideon and now it has become a three book series!
Especially after this nasty COVID and pandemic, I decided to go for it and began writing the next books. Well, the writing and work is done for the rest of this series. If you have not had a chance to dive into book one, The Thunder Beings of Rising Wind, below I am sharing some exciting NEWS…
Even though Thunder Beings is already out and released? My publicist and I submitted all three books to the series through a literary influencer, Readers Favorite to get a feel of…
Author’s new book receives a warm literary welcome.
“Readers’ Favorite announces the review of the Non-Fiction – Memoir book “The Girl from Cairo” by Peggy Hinaekian, currently available at” http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/166413381X.
Readers’ Favorite is one of the largest book review and award contest sites on the Internet. They have earned the respect of renowned publishers like Random House, Simon & Schuster, and Harper Collins, and have received the “Best Websites for Authors” and “Honoring Excellence” awards from the Association of Independent Authors. They are also fully accredited by the BBB (A+ rating), which is a rarity among Book Review and Book Award Contest companies.
“Reviewed By Grant Leishman for Readers’ Favorite“
“The Girl from Cairo: A Memoir by Peggy Hinaekian is the autobiography of an Armenian girl who grew up in exile in a suburb of Cairo known as Heliopolis. Peggy’s family were considered well off by Egyptian standards but her mother was required to jump through all sorts of hoops to keep their true economic status a secret from their friends and neighbors. Peggy’s father was a roguish, but lovable character whose one fatal flaw was his inveterate gambling. His gambling had cost the family dearly and they lived on their wits, especially Peggy’s mother’s wits to hide their true economic downfall. Attending a strict Catholic girl’s school in Heliopolis, Peggy’s lack of knowledge of sexual matters was exposed as she fell desperately in love.
Living in Cairo, through WWII, an Egyptian war for independence and war over control of the Suez Canal made for a scary route to adulthood for the young woman. All through the troubles, though, Peggy’s vision for her own future never faltered. She would, she believed, travel to America and make it into movies or as a fashion designer. As the country descended into war over the Suez Canal, it was time for Peggy to leave Egypt and seek her fame and fortune in the big, wide world.
The Girl from Cairo: A Memoir is an interesting story of a different culture and the difficulty of growing up in a country where you not only look different than the majority of the population, but your ideals, mores, and cultural beliefs are in stark contrast to the bulk of the people. Author Peggy Hinaekian did come across at times as incredibly self-absorbed and perhaps even selfish but one has to weigh that against the whole concept of being seen as a foreigner, or an interloper in the country where you were domiciled.
Doubtless, the Armenians in Egypt felt they had to look to themselves first and foremost because nobody else would. What struck me the most was the willingness Peggy showed to change direction and often location with little or no planning of how she would survive in a different situation. Her courage and belief in herself were so refreshing for a young woman of this era. I particularly enjoyed her willingness to flout established practices and norms in Egypt. She was a woman who knew her own mind and nobody was going to tell her how she should behave. This is an intriguing coming-of-age in a situation that few of us could imagine, let alone experience.”
“I did enjoy this read and can definitely recommend it.”
(You can learn more about Peggy Hinaekian and “The Girl from Cairo” at https://readersfavorite.com/book-review/the-girl-from-cairo where you can read reviews and the author’s biography, as well as connect with the author directly or through their website and social media pages.)
Readers’ Favorite LLC Media Relations Louisville, KY 40202
BIOGRAPHY
Of Armenian origin author, Peggy Hinaekian was born and raised in Egypt. Her paternal grandfather had the largest private library in Egypt, and Peggy was introduced to books in three languages (English, French, and Armenian) at a very young age.
Peggy grew up in a very cosmopolitan environment and was an avid reader. Since the age of ten, she kept a journal and always wrote short stories, essays, and children’s picture books.
She immigrated to Canada with her first husband and then went on to the United States, where she pursued a career in fashion designing in New York in fine arts. After her divorce, she left that behind and moved to Geneva, Switzerland, and continued her career as an artist.
Peggy Hinaekian is a writer and author; she is an internationally recognized, well-established artist living and working in the United States and Switzerland.
Now with three literary works to her credit, you may purchase her books from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and many fine online book stores. She is married, raised three beautiful sons, and resides with her husband part-time in Florida and California.
"CAT'S BOOK LIBRARY 4 READERS" 