Welcome to my August Writer’s Tips collaboration where I gather posts and share what I find helpful myself, with other writers and bloggers. In this edition, Hugh Roberts shows us how we can free up blog media space, and tips for using Blog Themes, Beem Weeks on Professional Editing, Echoes in Writing by Diana Peach, Staci Troilo on Moral Copying, and Anneli Purchase on Dialogue Tags.
Beem Weeks at the Story Empire on why Professional Editing for books is so important
I came across this book, Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood, while watching CNN and they were interviewing the author, Marjane Satrapi. History has always fascinated me, especially, political history. And when I make new friends of a different cultural background, I’m always fascinated by learning about their culture and history. My review is a bit long because I wanted to touch on some issues, women in particular had to deal with, and why so many fled their homeland when the Islamic Revolution began.
Ironically, I have made some wonderful new Persian/Iranian friends at the women’s gym I belong to. One sweet girl, Asal, who is twenty years old who is so loving and always runs to greet me with hugs, has shared many a similar story with me about her young life growing up in fundamentalist Iran, and her eventual fleeing to Canada with her mother. So when I saw this author being interviewed and she was asked why she wrote this book, I immediately ordered the paperback. This book is a memoir written in graphic black and white comic strip style, twenty years ago. This book is a recounting about one little girl’s life from age six to fourteen, growing up in Tehran, Iran, whose world as she knew it was literally turned around over night in 1979 when the Shah was overthrown and the Islamic Revolution began.
I believe that an entire nation should not be judged by the wrongdoings of a few extremists. I also don’t want those Iranians who lost their lives in prisons defending freedom, who died in the war against Iraq , who suffered under various pressures of regimes, or who were forced to leave their families and flee their homeland to be forgotten. One can forgive but one should never forget. ~ Marjane Satrapi – Paris, September 2002
This book is available in Kindle, but due to the format it’s written in, I highly advise purchasing the paperback version.
BEST SELLER • A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK • Wise, funny, and heartbreaking, Persepolis is Marjane Satrapi’s acclaimed graphic memoir of growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution.
“A wholly original achievement…. Satrapi evokes herself and her schoolmates coming of age in a world of protests and disappearances…. A stark, shocking impact.” —The New York Times: “The 50 Best Memoirs of the Past 50 Years”
In powerful black-and-white comic strip images, Satrapi tells the coming-of-age story of her life in Tehran from ages six to fourteen, years that saw the overthrow of the Shah’s regime, the triumph of the Islamic Revolution, and the devastating effects of war with Iraq. The intelligent and outspoken only child of committed Marxists and the great-granddaughter of one of Iran’s last emperors, Marjane bears witness to a childhood uniquely entwined with the history of her country.
Persepolis paints an unforgettable portrait of daily life in Iran and of the bewildering contradictions between home life and public life. Marjane’s child’s-eye view of dethroned emperors, state-sanctioned whippings, and heroes of the revolution allows us to learn as she does the history of this fascinating country and of her own extraordinary family. Intensely personal, profoundly political, and wholly original, Persepolis is at once a story of growing up and a reminder of the human cost of war and political repression. It shows how we carry on, with laughter and tears, in the face of absurdity. And, finally, it introduces us to an irresistible little girl with whom we cannot help but fall in love.
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My 5 Star Review:
So many countries have had their share of war – both, internal and external war. Iran has certainly had their share of emporers, kings, and political oppression. In the introduction of this book, Satrapi gives us a brief two-page synopsis of Iran, its beginnings, its wars, and what happened in 1979 when the last Shah of Iran fled the Islamic revolution. And this is where the author begins her story.
Satrapi was six when the revolution began. Her coming of age story begins when she was aged ten. She was an intelligent child from an upper-middle class family who wanted to understand why her world as she knew it, was turned upside by revolution. Satrapi shares with us about all the changes that took place in her country during the revolution, and the year it became mandatory to ‘wear the veil’. She hated it. She could no longer go to school with a mix of boys and girls either. Her privileged and modern life as she knew it, was no longer.
Marjane was an only child, and a deeply spiritual girl. In her very young life, she thought she wanted to grow up to be a prophet, but as her world was changing, this would no longer be possible. At a very young age, she began reading books on empires and autocratic world leaders. She wanted to understand why the demonstrations in her country were so violent, horrible crimes against humanity. Marjane repeatedly asked her parents if she could join them in the daily protests they attended on the street from morning till night, but they wouldn’t allow her to participate. She was tired of protesting alone in her own backyard. But her father told her they could get shot at a demonstration, and refused to bring her along. But Marjane believed that if a revolution was to succeed, the entire population should support it. The revolution was a fight against social classes.
Politics overwhelmed Marja. She was tired of the people in her life ‘disappearing’, and she was tired of same answers from her parents – ‘they went on a trip’. When her Uncle Anoosh reappeared after fleeing political persecution, he told Marja, “In a country where half the population is illiterate, you cannot unite the people around Marx, the only thing that can really unite them is Nationalism or a religious ethic . . . but the religious leaders didn’t know how to govern,” he called it a fake election takeover – many fled Iran while others thought it wouldn’t last. Uncle Anoosh was found and executed. And Marja became angry with God.
The bombings began and the fundamentalists took down the U.S. Embassy – no longer viable to get a visa to flee. The universities closed for two years in order to rewrite new religious curriculum. The middle and upper class feared they’d be forced to wear the veil and perhaps ‘no more cars, back to camels’. Marja found her young world crashing as she feared she wouldn’t get to go to university and become a scholar.
Marja’s parents protested daily, and her mother was threatened for refusing to wear the veil or acknowledging the new fundamentalist government – she ultimately succumbed. It was declared that ‘to protect women from all potential rapists’, they declared wearing the veil was mandatory. There became two types of women and two types of men – the fundamentalists and the modern man/woman. Apparently, the modern woman no longer had a choice but to wear the veil, but in protest, they allowed some of their hair to stick out. To distinguish the two types of men – fundamentalists didn’t shave and grew long beards, and didn’tuck their shirts in, vs. the clean shaven men (mustaches optional) who tucked in their shirts and wore neck ties – a fashion from ‘the west’, frowned upon. New Islamic religion stated that women’s hair ’emanates rays that excite men’. It sure feels to me that women had to tone down their looks so as not to excite men. So sad. It doesn’t surprise me how many Iranians fled the revolution.
Marja tells us that not just the government changed, but many of the people she knew. Marja was told by her parents that if anyone asks, she prays five times a day. Her mother was a staunch fighter for women’s rights.
One year after the protests began, Marja’s parents brought her to one, and Marja shares the violence she witnessed that one and only day she went to protest. And when they began beating women with bats because they weren’t wearing the veil, Marja and her parents scurried home.
In September 1980, Marja’s parents took her on a three-week vacation to Europe, they came back to another war, with Iraq – that was on top of the already civil war going on in Iran. When the Iraqis began dropping bombs in Tehran, Marja writes, “The Arabs never liked the Persians . . . they attacked us 1400 years ago, they forced their religion on us.” Her father concurred, but added that the real invasion had already come from their own government. Everything was changing daily as war was both internal and external in Iran. Their Iranian National Anthem was replaced by the new government’s hymn. Marja’s father had given up on listening to news in Iran that he knew was lies. He’d tune in nightly to his old radio and listen to the BBC.
Once border town oil refineries were bombed, village people fled to the main city of Tehran, food shortages began in supermarkets, and gas was limited.
Marja had to get used to new school protocols, like beating her chest to war cries on the loudspeaker, and celebrating Revolution Day. Her parents along with many others rebelled the teachers. There were strict rules about wearing the veil with NO hair showing – to that statement, and some comic relief, Marja’s dad responded to that teacher, “If hair is as stimulating as you say, then you need to shave your mustache.”
The young boys were handed out golden keys in school, and told if they went to war and died, the key would get them into heaven and they’d be offered a better life in paradise. As young as fourteen years old, they were lured to war.
Soon enough, the family had to keep dark drapes drawn, and had to bomb-proof their house. The enemy was anywhere and everywhere among their own as citizens were swayed to the fundamentalist’s side, devoted to the new regime. There were strict rules: no parties, no card games, no gambling, no alcohol, and of course, the dress code. And one never knew if their neighbor had flipped and become an extremist who would happily rat out anyone disobeying. Marja tells us about one night in particular when her family was out at a newborn baby celebration, with alcohol, and they were stopped on the way home by extremist police spot-check. They smelled the alcohol on her father’s breath and saw he wore a necktie. He was told to get back in the car and they would follow him home to search his house for alcohol, but that one time they were lucky that money still talked and Marja’s dad bought them off. The persecutions got worse in Iran as the wars progressed. Besides wearing the veil in school, no nail polish or jewelry was permitted either. But food was becoming more available from the black markets – if you had the money.
Marja shares another scary story with us. She tells about the day she went out wearing her new American Nike shoes and a Michael Jackson badge she wore on her jacket. These were items no longer available in Iran, but her parents had taken a short trip to Turkey and bought some items for her that Iran saw as Western apparel. There was now a new extreme women’s branch called, The Guardians of the Revolution. Marja was stopped on the street by some of those women, they told her ‘decadence is forbidden’. Marja considered that her lucky day when she was let off with a warning instead of being taken to headquarters where ‘people have been known to disappear for days’.
At fourteen years old, Marja was wise beyond her years and a self-proclaimed rebel. If she chose to wear jewelry, the teachers would take it off her, never to be returned. And one day, Marja lost her constraint – the day the principal tried to take her bracelet from her, Marja whacked her so hard, she fell. Marja was expelled. Through connections, her parents got her into another school. But that didn’t last long before Marja called out the teacher for her lies. At that point, Marja’s parents arranged to have her sent to school in Austria, where they had relatives. They were petrified that their daughter’s brevity would land her in jail or killed. Her parents told Marja they would follow in a few months. But would they?
With breaking hearts, her parents took Marja to the airport so that she could live in freedom and get the education she deserved, and to allow her to be the child she needed to be.
I shall look forward to reading the second book, Persepolis 2, where Marjane returns to Iran as a young adult after fleeing the oppression.
NOTE: Thanks to Olga for informing me below, in comments, that there was a movie version of this book that I wasn’t aware of. Here is the Youtube trailer below:
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Here’s a preview of Persepolis 2 – the return of Marja and the escalation of Nationalist Law
Welcome to my reblog of my latest edition in my Spiritual Awareness series over at Sally Cronin’s Smorgasbord Blog Magazine on the topic of Spirit Guides. We are all born with at least one. Do you know your guide(s)?
Explore the spiritual side of our natures as D.G. Kaye shares her experiences and research into this element of our lives.
SPIRIT GUIDES: Who are they? Do we all have of them?
Welcome to my Spiritual Awareness column at the Smorgasbord. In this edition I’m talking about Spirit Guides. Are you familiar with spirit guides? Are you one of some who actually know who your spirit guides are? Yes, lots of questions here, so let’s dig in.
Our spirit guides are ascended souls who have mastered life’s lessons, now living in the spirit realm, and they can very well be relatives who have passed. They are like our guardian angels in a sense (we all have both), unlike angels, who are everywhere, omni-present, unless they are specifically our very own guardian angel, both, always with us. Personal guides are our very own personal protectors and help guide us on our soul path. They have signed a Soul Contract to help us navigate our material world.
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Each human being on earth has three personal guides, and sometimes more, depending on certain times in life that may require more. Our protector Spirit Guide can often be one of our family members from down the ancestral line, right down to someone who has passed in our lifetime. Spirit guides never leave us through life, they are with us till death, although some others may join us throughout our lifetime. Our main guide helps our souls evolve, our gatekeeper guide is our protector, and our very own guardian angel always stand behind us. If we’re feeling uncomfortable Vibes, we can always call on our gatekeeper to help rid us of what isn’t serving us. We also have what are called working guides who come into our lives as we need them in various phases of our lives, to help us through specific events.
Every culture of people has spirit guides and may refer to them differently in each religion.
How do we know our guides are around?
Our guides are eternally with us, but most of us may not be aware of this. Guides don’t interfere with our lives, they are merely with us to protect and help keep us out of harm’s way, they are with us to enlighten us, and to help keep us moving in the right direction.
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Now you may be wondering how they do this. No, you most likely won’t hear them, and will probably never see them, but they work mysteriously in our lives to direct us to our higher selves. Like messengers from nature often bring us signs from passed loved ones, our guides use same signs and symbols, and tug at our intuition to get our attention, just as some of our forewarning dreams may portend a message. Often the subtle messages we receive lead us to an idea or place we need to follow. Don’t discard your Gut Instincts when something is niggling at you. Keep track of synchronized events. An idea ‘out of the blue’ is usually a message transmitted from our protectors sending forth ideas through our subconscious. Our guides help us with our ideas, creativity, tough decisions, and dark times in life. They are always helping us find our way out of a funk and directing us to our true purpose in life, the more we are attuned, the more we can recognize the warnings. Messages are sent and felt through our mind and gut, alerting us to a bad or wrong situation. And in the same way, our guides bring us the people we need to connect with to help fulfill our lives.
Yes, we all have these heavenly beings in our corners to guide and help us through life. But don’t forget, we all have FREE will, meaning sometimes we choose to take a different path than the one we know in our gut is telling us is the right way. And often when we don’t follow the right path or our instincts, we find out the hard way that we have strayed the higher road. Also, guides, angels, and all heavenly spirits above will never interfere with our lives, they are merely here to guide and protect us. This is why we must remember to ask them for help. They are always with us working behind the scenes of our lives but will never interfere in the choices we make – merely give us warnings to help keep us thriving in the right direction.
How are some of the ways Spirit can get our attention?
If you are sensitive, you can feel their presence. Believe it or not, some lucky few can tune in and actually see or hear their guides – this has never happened to me, consciously, anyway. But how about a book suddenly falling off a bookshelf? Has that happened to you at a time . . . Please hop over to Sally’s blog to continue reading.
What would you do if you found A.I. created a book and slapped your name on it? Attention authors!
I was alerted to this post by Jane Friedman from a newsletter I follow from the Kindlepreneur. I’ve shared many of Dave Chesson’s helpful publishing tools and tips in my monthly curated Writer’s Tips. In fact, I included his Reader Scout tool, which he offers free to us, and besides all the benefits of this tool, Dave says it would also come in handy to track our books for wonky issues, such as piracy – both, the people kind, and the A.I. kind, as well as all the other data it helps keep track of for our books.
Unfortunately, Jane Friedman had the terrible experience of having her writing reworked with A.I. with her name listed as the author, and shares about her nightmare in the post below. She went through hair-raising hoops trying to deal with Amazon to take the books off her author page with her name listed as author, but they were not her books!!!
While I was surfing around on the topic, I came across this must watch video if you are an author. Dale Roberts teaches us what to look for and how to sniff out questionable things about our books for potential Amazon pirates and scammers.
Welcome to my Sunday Book Review. Today I’m reviewing The Widow, by Kaira Rouda. I previously reviewed another book with the same title. Two completely different stories. Rouda knows how to keep the suspense going in this fictional political/family based story about Jody, a woman determined not to let anyone stand in her way at whatever she needs to do to help her Congressman husband keep his seat.
Blurb:
A husband with secrets. A wife with no limits. A riveting novel of marriage, privilege, and lies by Kaira Rouda, the USA Today bestselling author of The Next Wife.
Jody Asher had a plan. Her charismatic husband, Martin, would be a political icon. She, the charming wife, would fuel his success. For fifteen congressional terms, they were the golden couple on the Hill. Life was good. Until he wasn’t.
Martin’s secret affair with a young staffer doesn’t bother Jody personally. But professionally? It’s a legacy killer. Soon a reporter gets word of this scandal in the making, and Martin’s indiscretions threaten to ruin everything Jody has accomplished.
When Martin suddenly dies, it’s a chance to change the narrative—but the reporter won’t let go of his lead. As the balance of power shifts in the Asher house and on the Hill, it’s time for Jody to take control. And there’s nothing the ruthless widow won’t do to secure the future she’s entitled to. Even if she has a secret of her own.
My 5 Star Review:
An intriguing story about the Asher family – Jody and Martin, a U.S. Democratic Congressman, the inside goings on in Washington D.C. and the power people, and their daughter Charlotte’s upcoming wedding to Jack Hobbs Jr., son of a sketchy Republican businessman.
Jack Hobbs Sr. does his best to personally groom a new candidate to run against Martin in the upcoming election, and he uses the pre-wedding festivities to promote his agenda for his candidate, to publicly minimize Martin and his family at the family wedding rehearsal dinner.
Martin has served as Democratic Congressman for thirty years without any real competition for re-elections, until his daughter’s future father-in-law intervenes and does all he can to discredit Martin in the media and humiliate him at every turn. Jody is a shrewd woman with zero empathy who knows how to handle being the spouse of a politician. All the evils of politics are brought into this story, from kickbacks, affairs and coverups, and mostly nasty characters who all seem bought off in some way or another.
Jack Hobbs is determined to sabotage Martin and his career with whatever it takes. The rehearsal dinner for the wedding turns out to be a shitshow of a political rally, courtesy of Jack Hobbs. Mimi who works in communications, and as Martin’s personal campaign advocate, and, his wife Jody’s supposed best friend, seems to know more than she’s sharing with Martin, and has us wondering if she’s now been bought over to the other side. In the meantime, Martin lives on Tums for his serious ulcer and heartburn as his world becomes aflame. Did Martin actually have an affair with his new intern Sarah? The author keeps us wondering throughout the book, as well as makes us suspicious that perhaps Jack Hobbs has planted her too. Who is Sarah?
Jody is shrewd and knows well how to weave around D.C., the media, and her husband. She sometimes overlooks Martin’s misgivings, and she is a lousy mother, but one thing is for sure, she will fight to defend Martin’s position as Congressman because she wouldn’t want to give up her cushy lifestyle.
After all the stress eventually kills Martin, Jody is left to fight for his seat for his remaining term in Congress. Jody learns all the secrets – who’s buying off who, after Martin leaves her all the dealings he had and with whom, including what country he has parked his money. There are lots of dirty dealings, and many of them have to do with Jody’s suspect friend and Martin’s campaign manager, Mimi, who has been pulling the political nightmare schemes on Martin. Jody knows she has to ‘out shrew’ Mimi and comes up with a plan.
Ultimately, Jody is an incompassionate selfish person who methodically plots her revenge on all those up the political ladder who had once been considered friends but sold themselves out for power and money. Jody is no different from them, only that she played it cooly and had lots of patience for her domino effect take down of her husband’s political enemies to take effect. She had the patience to wait for her plan of action, and in the process, her blackmailing of higher ups gave her everything she needed to know.Turns out, she loves the power and conveniently sets her sights on, and inserts herself into the life of a Senator.
This book kept me turning the pages in this clever political thriller, and despite so many nasty characters, I couldn’t stop reading!
Today I’m sharing my feature showcase at Sally Cronin’s Smorgasbord Blog Magazine, in Sally’s Book Promotions feature, Share an Excerpt. In this excerpt, I share a passage from chapter – First Broken Heart, from my latest release, Fifteen First Times.
Note: If you’re an author and your books are already in Sally’s Smorgasbord Bookstore and would like to be part of her generous offer to share an excerpt, please visit Sally’s Book Promotion page to see all the other promos she’s offering. For the ‘Share an Excerpt’ entry, please continue reading at the end of this post, continued on Sally’s blog, where you can find entry details.
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In this series you are invited to share an excerpt of 500 words from any of your published books .
This feature is for any author who has been promoted on Smorgasbord previously.
Please read full details of how to participate at the end of the post.
The aim of the series
To showcase your book and sell some more copies.
Gain more reviews for the book.
Promote a selection of your other books that are available
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Today I am featuring an excerpt from Fifteen First Things: Beginnings: A Collection of Indelible Firsts by author and long-term contributor to Smorgasbord D.G. Kaye….Debby Gies.
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About the memoir
This book is a collection of stories about some of Kaye’s first-time experiences with life’s most natural events. Told through the intimate conversational writing we’ve come to know from this author, poignant personal steppingstones to learning moments are revealed. She encompasses the heart of each matter with sincerity and sprinkled inflections of humor.
From first kiss to first car to walking in the desert with four-inch heels, Kaye’s short coming-of-age stories take us through her awakenings and important moments of growth, often without warning. Some good and some not, life lessons are learned through trial and error, winging it and navigating by the seat of her pants.
An excerpt from Fifteen First Times
These short stories are a reminiscing back to some of the firsts in my life. They are moments that left an imprint and propelled me forward through life. Nothing that happens to us is insignificant – everything that happens is for a reason or for teaching us something to take forward with us. ~ D.G. Kaye
First Broken Heart
Barry lived across the street from us when we lived in our big white house. The newly developed neighborhood had only two houses built at first—ours and Barry’s. Playing outside was a favorite pastime. Riding bikes and outdoor games kept us kids busy after school till the first streetlight shone its beams into the darkness, like a school bell alerting playtime was over and we must go inside.
Barry’s family moved in halfway through the school year, so he would finish the year at his old school before joining my junior high after the summer. I was twelve, Barry was eleven. We became good friends, and our friendship quickly blossomed into romance. Barry’s kisses were not my first kisses, but Barry was my first love. We spent most of our time together after school and on weekends, going for walks, holding hands, and kissing.
Many evenings we’d sit outside together on a street curb and look at the stars, sharing dreams and aspirations, planning our future together at the ripe old ages of twelve and eleven, and talking about eloping. What the heck did we even know about eloping? . . . Please continue reading at Sally’s Smorgasbord
Some of you may remember I joined a womens gym just over a year ago. Well, I love it, and once I started making new friends there with women of all ages and races, it makes it that much more fun to look forward to going. I take 3-4 classes a week and after each class, I workout for twenty minutes on the machines, then use the treadmill for another half hour. Only after all this is done, it’s social time up at the front desk where some of my fun pals who work there are stationed. Depending on the day and anything pressing later, I usually hang out for another hour gabbing. It’s a win/win – good for the soul – and health.
Now that I’ve updated you on my gym life, I’d like to add how much faster I’m wearing out my running shoes. Hence, this story is actually about my attempt to purchase a new pair of runners I’d been eyeing, waiting to go on sale. I digress. Back to original programming . . .
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I decided to order the shoes I wanted that had a sale price the same pricing as on Softmoc website. But since I was ordering from Amazon anyway, I stuck the shoes in there. My bad, bad, I forgot to look if it was Amazon fulfilled. Well it wasn’t. I made a sacred error breaking my own rules – never order anything on Amazon that isn’t directly fulfilled by Amazon. What burns me is, I didn’t even notice the seller was Softmoc, a popular shoe store chain here in Canada.
One thing I’ll give Amazon credit for is if I buy anything fulfilled by them, and need to return, the credit back to my account comes within hours, no questions. But an email from Amazon reminded me that the shoes were coming directly from Softmoc. I was told they would come separately last Friday. Typically, when my package is shipped, the Zon sends an email informing. I had no further correspondence about the shoes. On Thursday, I was checking something else in past orders in my account when I first scrolled by my recent order, I noticed the shoes said ‘delivered’. They weren’t. Anyway, that began me chasing down the mystery. No email saying it was delivered, no notice on my door that I missed a delivery. Not a peep.
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I had read the third party seller Amazon rules, and called Amazon. It appeared to me that I would have to be dealing with the seller by sending the inquiry, although, upon calling, the Amazon agent said she would send one too. I ranted on about why I must go through this and possibly not get my money back, besides no shoes, and what kind of business is this? I ranted that Bezos the billionaire should eat his losses, not me the widowed innocent consumer. I reminded the girl this was not the first time I accidentally ordered something from a 3rd party seller who ALSO used UPS for delivery, and I also didn’t receive. Nobody buzzes up, nobody delivers to my door from there. Ever. I have found one lost package sitting on my lobby floor in the past. I don’t know if they are just lazy, or keeping packages, but third time now, I’m suspicious. I have also in past years ordered things from other places that used UPS that never made it first attempt – even though I was home. I’d call them and blast them out for their repeated shit service and make them re-deliver it, because I wasn’t driving to pick it up. The Amazon agent told me I had to wait 48 hours for a response from the seller before Amazon might do anything. Forty-eight hours had passed, then I got an email from Amazon telling me I had a message from the seller . . .
Basically, it said that ‘we are sorry’ for the inconvenience. They further stated they were going to investigate, and added that if they found the package, they’d let me know, and there will be no refund if they don’t. I replied back to them telling them they haven’t heard the last of me and I will share my shit experience on social media. And I did.
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I immediately called Amazon again and wasted another hour with the more of the same – ad nauseum, I pleaded my case again and ranted on that I wasn’t waiting until an investigation was done and maybe the shoes would show up, and maybe I lost my money. This is bullshit! I shouted. The agent told me I will hear something back in a week or so. My blood pressure was surging. I hung up and resolved myself to get it out of my head until Monday when I’d start hounding again.
Sunday morning, I awoke to three emails from Amazon. The first told me my case was being looked into. The second one informed me that Amazon would be refunding me, and the third one informed that my refund has been processed.
There’s a few lessons in this:
Don’t order anything from Amazon that isn’t delivered from Amazon
Don’t use UPS
Fight for your consumer rights. When someone has wronged you because of their shit customer service, don’t give up. Be persistent and demand your consumer rights!
A little side note: I’d once heard from someone who worked at one of our biggest telecommunication companies, who said that many customer complainers, usually give up in resolve. They love those kinds of people. I am not that kind of people and I don’t think anyone should be. I always get action.
Is anyone here relentlessly, persistent when dealing with customer service issues? I hope so!
Sunday Book Review – It’s May and the Lilacs are Blooming: One Foot on Earth and One in Heaven. An autobiographical accounting of spiritual counselor and life coach, healer, Elaina Proffitt’s work with priests, nuns, doctors and homocide police, and her own Near Death Experiences bring this book alive with tales of her inherited spiritual gift to heal and help others cross over as she faced her own illness. An autobiography of a psychic.
The true story of a woman with unusual abilities who finds strength, the power of love and strong faith at a time when suddenly, the road of life takes a dark turn on a cold November night bringing her into the Valley and Shadow of Death. She soon finds herself in a new town surrounded by loving people, some who were dying and rapidly entering into the world of danger, murder, pain and prophecy. While suffering in agonizing pain soon angelic strangers appearing in many disguises; Healer, Homicide Detectives and Catholic Priest helping and quietly protecting her. Realizing she was fighting for her life standing at “Deaths door” her search for the Doctors to save her who would arrive in a most wondrous way. A Near Death Experience bringing a Journey into a beautiful light that would enhance the Spiritual gifts she was given at birth… Uplifting Autobiography True Crime, Psychic Detective Death & Dying, Near Death Experience Grief Loss, Angels, Spiritual Journey, Murder Pain and Prophecy
About the Author:
“Truth sometimes is more interesting than Fiction when you write.” Elaina, takes the reader on a journey into her life that reads like a movie and her playing many roles. Her near death experience topped the list. She shares her journey to the Other Side Into a beautiful light that would enhance the Spiritual gifts she was given at birth. “Yes there is a Heaven”
One time, while watching her Grandmother place each of those purple blooms into the vase I suddenly calmly told her, “When I die it will be in May so I can have Lilacs at my funeral.” I did not know how prophetic those words would become years down the road or the meaning of those Lilacs, which would transform me in the years to come with one of the most powerful experiences in my life!..
She is an Author, Uplifting Speaker and International and Nationally recognized Clairvoyant, Medium medical intuitive. Since 1984 she has a high profile clientele and is an Afterlife Spiritual Counselor, specializing in Grief & Violent Loss Counseling and Law Enforcement Bereavement. Post traumatic death. Consultant on high profile murder cases since 1984
Elaina Deva Proffitt, Deva Soul Therapy, Advocates Compassion Fatigue Spiritual Grief Loss, Afterlife Communicator Natural Intuitive, Visionary, Natural Healer/ Medical Intuitive, Profiler, Author, Speaker, Healer
In 2019 she would find 3 pregnant Nevada Mustangs arriving in her life that were rescued from Slaughter. Her life would change swiftly and her animal advocacy would soon focused on the fight to save more of our beautiful wild horses burros and donkeys from the horrific slaughter pipeline. Her horses have assisted her with the counseling Mothers of violent loss of their children those who have serious health issues and those who are wanting to uplift their lives.
My 5 Star Review:
This book is about the life of psychic medium and medical intuitive, and her training in 1984 to become a psychic detective. Elaina Proffitt shares her psychic experiences throughout her life, from realizing she had ‘the gift’ to her journey through her own misfortunes and her ultimately using her gift to help solve true crime. The author takes us with her on her experiences, demonstrating many experiences of the afterlife and her powerful connection to people in both worlds. Her stories are much more than just NDE (near death experiences) in crimes she helped solve, but her own journey of pain is woven in through her stories as well. As the book progresses, Elaina’s stories become more like a psycho-thriller. And she herself, finds herself in a few dangerous situations leaving her feeling as though she always has one foot on earth and one in heaven as she faces some of her own perilous situations.
If you’re fascinated by psychic work and extraordinary stories of faith, discovery and afterlife, you will enjoy this book.
DGKayewriter.com 