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An Amish Girl’s True Story of Child Abuse

amishOne freezing morning in early March I made a dash for a tiny police station in rural Minnesota. I was a frightened Amish girl with no where to go, a second grade education and no ID or social security card.

When I was six years old my family started to live and dress like the Amish. My sister and I were kept as slaves on a mountain ranch where we were subjected to almost complete isolation, sexual abuse and extreme physical violence. My step-father kept a loaded rifle by the door at all times and we were to terrified to try to escape. We knew that no rescue would ever come because only a couple of people even knew we existed and they did not know us well enough to care.

In my late teens my parents feared we would escape and took us to an Amish community where we were adopted and became baptized members. I was devastated to once again find myself in a world of fear, animal cruelty and sexual abuse. Going to the police was forbidden. A few years later I was again sexually assaulted, I knew I had to get help and one freezing morning in early March I made a dash for a tiny police station in rural Minnesota. As a result I found myself plummeted into the strange modern world with only a second grade education and no ID or social security card.

To all abuse survivors out there, Please be encouraged, the cycle of abuse can be broken. Now, ten years later I am a nursing student working towards my Masters degree and a child abuse awareness activist.

About the author, Misty Elaine Griffin

Amish story by Misty Elaine GriffinIn writing my Life’s story (Tears of the Silenced) I hope to bring awareness to child abuse. It is an epidemic in our society and is happening more often than one might think.

Based on my life’s story. I am survivor of severe child abuse, when I was six years old my parents started to follow the doctrine of the Amish. At age 22 I left the Amish church and am currently a nursing student and a child abuse awareness activist. I am also raising awareness about sexual assault among the Amish.

Excerpt from Tears of the Silenced.

I walked through the front door of the tiny police station and went over to a heavy wood counter, where a middle-aged policewoman sat at a computer. She looked up as I stood there, watching her. I saw a surprised look on her face as she stared back at me. I imagined I was very different from the people who normally walked up to her desk.

I was a young Amish woman, just a little over five feet tall, wearing an almost ankle-length, plain, teal-colored dress and apron, followed by knee-length black socks and black shoes. My coat was a homemade denim coat with a high collar and hooks and eyes going down the front. On my head was a stiff white Amish kapp that covered nearly all my reddish brown hair and was tied in a small bow under my chin.

I was shaking as I stood there, looking at the woman. I tried to get up enough courage to say something, I knew I was going to be shunned by the Amish church for what I was doing. I could not speak. The thought of being shunned was terrifying but I did not know what else to do. My whole body was trembling….

Book 1 by L. V. Lewis is free today!

Fifty Shades of Jungle Fever (The Ghetto Girl Romance Quadrilogy Book 1) by L. V. Lewis –

L. V. LewisA bi-racial–African American and Brazilian–woman with a troubled past, Keisha Beale has been so focused on her business pursuits that her love life has been non-existent. Tristan White, the devastatingly handsome CEO of White Enterprises, and one of the richest men in Chicago, has everything, but doesn’t think love is something he needs. When their worlds, sparks fly! Will their arrangement survive the emergence of the pesky emotion he’s tried to hard to avoid?

Erotic, amusing, and in places hilarious, the Ghetto Girl Romance Quadrilogy is a parody with a unique take on a Fifty Shades-type story that will take you even further into the BDSM world, and promises to make the vanilla original Fifty Shades more colorful.

About the author, L. V. Lewis:

L. V. LewisGrowing up, L.V. Lewis wanted to be an internationally known rock star, but unfortunately, lived in the wrong part of the country to pursue that career (and neither American Idol nor The Voice were available then). An early love for the written word gave her the plan B she sought. Her career as a contract manager was not creative writing by a long shot, but it didn’t require her to spend the hundreds of thousands of dollars required for a law degree. It does pay the bills while she dabbles in the publishing world as an author on the evenings and weekends.

LV lives in Florida with her husband. They are the parents of four children, three of whom don’t think they need their parents anymore, so they share their home with a sweet female German Shepherd and an alpha male Pomeranian/Chihuahua mix who thinks he rules the world.
Her love for writing is only eclipsed by her love for her family.

 

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Meredith Schorr’s Free eBook on Amazon

How Do You Know? by Meredith Schorr

Meredith SchorrLife doesn’t happen on a schedule, there are no deadlines in love, and age is just a number.

On the eve of her thirty-ninth birthday, Maggie Piper doesn’t look, act, or feel much different than she did at twenty-nine, but with her fortieth birthday speeding toward her like a freight train, she wonders if she should. The fear of a slowing metabolism, wrinkling of her skin, and the ticking of her biological clock leaves Maggie torn between a desire to settle down like most of her similarly aged peers and concern that all is not perfect in her existing relationship. When a spontaneous request for a temporary “break” from her live-in boyfriend results in a “break-up,” Maggie finds herself single once again and only twelve months from the big 4.0.

As Maggie reenters the New York City dating jungle, suitors present themselves quickly, but who is “The One?” Is he a sexy coworker, one of many bachelors at a speed-dating event, or is he the man she already set free? How do you know? Her fun-loving friends and supportive family, including meddlesome “no-filter” Aunt Helen, eagerly share their (often unsolicited) opinions, but Maggie is determined to find her own way, even if she falls on her face—repeatedly.

Meet the author, Meredith Schorr:

Meredith SchorrA born and bred New Yorker, Meredith Schorr discovered her passion for writing when she began to enjoy drafting work-related emails way more than she was probably supposed to. After trying her hand penning children’s stories and blogging her personal experiences, Meredith found her calling writing chick lit and contemporary women’s fiction. She secures much inspiration from her day job as a hard-working trademark paralegal and her still single (but looking) status. Meredith is also the co-founder of BookBuzz, a live author/reader event held annually. She is a loyal New York Yankees fan and an avid runner. How Do You Know? is her fourth novel.

To learn more, visit her at meredithschorr.com.

Tweet to her at: https://twitter.com/MeredithSchorr

Like her on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MeredithSchorrAuthor

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Detective Kendall Halsrud Series Book 1

Relative Malice by Marla Madison

Kendall Halsrud free ebookDetective Kendall Halsrud is a woman easily identified with. As the reader first meets Kendall, she’s investigating the scene of a home invasion that has left an entire family dead and a baby missing.

Kendall’s car is stuffed with all her worldly goods after being tossed out by a disgruntled roommate. She takes an apartment across the hall from a young girl with albinism who does card readings to earn extra money. Brynn, who is also a hacker, helps Kendall in her search for the missing child everyone else believes is dead.

Kendall’s desperate search to find the child derails when a man is arrested for murdering the family and claims that he killed the baby. Suspecting he had an accomplice, she isn’t convinced. Unable to give up on the baby, Kendall puts her career and her own life at risk, unearthing deadly family secrets in pursuit of the truth.

The suspense builds as Kendall tries to stop a killer before he strikes again. Get your copy of this page-turner today!

 

Meet the author of the Detective Kendall Halsrud Series, Marla Madison:

Kendall Halsrud free ebook by Marla MadisonMarla Madison is the author of two suspense series. She’s Not There is her debut suspense novel and is the first book of the TJ Peacock and Lisa Rayburn series.TRESPASS, is the second and Marla’s next novel will be the third of that series.

Relative Malice, her second book begins the Detective Kendall Halsrud series. Iced Malice, is the second book of that series.

Marla is a retired Federal Mediator who works as an Arbitrator. She lives on Prairie Lake in Northwestern Wisconsin with her significant other, Terry, a beloved shelter dog, Skygge, and Poncho, an opinionated feline from the same shelter.

Also an avid reader of suspense, some of Marla’s favorite authors are Tana French, Lisa Gardner, Jeffrey Deaver, Jonathan Kellerman, James Patterson, Tess Gerritson, and Tami Hoag.

When not reading or writing, Marla enjoys hanging out with other area authors, playing duplicate bridge, golfing, and going on long walks with her dog.

Visit her website: http://marlamadison.blogspot.com

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Orton’s Crossing in Time is $0.99 Today Only!

DL Orton“The Best Science Fiction Love Story of the Year.”
R. J. Kauffman, Panda Books Press

If someone took everything you live for, how far would you go to get it back?

“Engaging, funny, romantic, and harrowing. This promising series opener will leave readers satisfied.” Publishers Weekly Starred Review

When offered a one-way trip to the past, Isabel sacrifices everything for a chance to change the rapidly deteriorating present–and see her murdered lover one last time. When she arrives twenty years in the past, buck naked and mortally wounded, she has 24 hours to convince a stunned but enraptured nineteen-year-old to change their future. Definitely easier said than done, as success means losing him to a brainy, smart-mouthed bombshell (her younger self), and that’s a heart breaker, save the world or not.

1 of 18 books selected as “Self-Publishing Stars of 2015” by Publishers Weekly

This offbeat tale is about falling madly in love when one is too cynical for such things, letting go of pessimism when it’s the last life jacket on a sinking ship, and racing against the clock when one doesn’t have the proper footwear. It’s a coming-of-age story for old fogeys, a how-to-make-love guide for die-hard celibates, and a laugh-out-loud tragedy with a hopeful twist.

Fall into this edgy, action-packed, darkly comedic, dystopian love story, and be prepared to encounter a finicky time machine, a mysterious seashell, and a very clever dog.  Includes some sex, some swearing, some violence, but no vampires and absolutely no ditzes.

About the author of Crossing in Time, DL Orton:

D.L. OrtonD. L. ORTON lives in the foothills of Colorado where she and her husband are raising three boys, a golden retriever, two Siberian cats, and an extremely long-lived triops. Her future plans include completing the books in the BETWEEN TWO EVILS SERIES followed by an extended vacation on a remote tropical island (with a Starbucks). When she’s not writing, playing tennis, or helping with algebra, she’s building a time machine so that someone can go back and do the laundry.

Ms Orton is a graduate of Stanford University’s Writers Workshop and a past editor of “Top of the Western Staircase,” a literary publication of CU, Boulder. The author has a number of short stories published in online literary magazines, including Literotica.com, Melusine, Cosmoetica, The Ranfurly Review, and Catalyst Press. Her debut novel, CROSSING IN TIME: THE 1st DISASTER, won an award in the “2010 Novel Beginnings Contest” and will be published by Rocky Mountain Press in May 2015.

Visit D. L. Orton’s blogs: http://querysharkbait.com/the-best-hookers/

http://betweentwoevils.com/website/

Follow her on Twitter: https://twitter.com/DL_Orton

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