Like Rachel, stepmoms and moms can turn their cries into song by finding their voices and healing the past with spiritual tools, speaking their truth, reconnecting to nature, releasing trauma from the body, and trusting their inner voice. Rachel ends her silence and shares her truth as a survivor of domestic violence, sexual assault, and being a stepmom. I Sang Anyway is a return to nature and the discovery of self-love. This memoir is her story with spiritual advice woven throughout the text. If you are feeling lost and desperate to figure out how to cope with life because nothing else has worked, this book is for you. You will gain spiritual wisdom and ideas for how to trust yourself for what to say and do in tense family situations.

After a lifetime of failed relationships, non-binary history professor Sam Bell is committed to a new (non)romantic strategy: Thirst Only. It's the actual drinking where things get too complicated, where Sam inevitably gets hurt. Sam is good at being thirsty, though, especially when it's karaoke night at The Moonlight Cafe, otherwise known as Moonie's to its largely queer regulars. Moonie's is fun. Comfortable. Safe. Except for tonight, when one by one, all of Sam's friends abandon them. Disappointed, they prepare to leave. Until their #1 karaoke crush catches their eye... For Lily Fischer, karaoke at Moonie's is the only time she can step outside of her quiet shell. When there's a mic in her hand, she's no longer merely a receptionist harboring big dreams. At Moonie's, Lily can pretend to be someone else: someone bold, who takes what she wants. And tonight, what Lily wants is the way Sam looks at her across the room as she sings her signature opening song, like they see her exactly as she wants to be seen. Like Moonie's Lily is real. As the night progresses, both Sam's and Lily's personal boundaries are tested, and the real world outside of Moonie's looms. But maybe sometimes, the real world should be a little more like karaoke. It's not always about knowing all the right words or having the perfect voice. Maybe all Sam and Lily need is a little courage to pick up the mic, and sing anyway.

This is an adult collection of short stories that entertains with wit, shocks with frankness, and engages both intellect and emotion. Richly varied, it ranges from extended stories to intense pieces of flash fiction.

Belonging. You need to feel it in all aspects of your life, including the workplace. Many business leaders recognize this truth and embrace the significant benefits that result from workplace belonging. These benefits include increased psychological safety, trust, and innovation. Yet, most of these leaders struggle with how to build belonging at work. Some even believe the idea of belonging at work - let alone feeling it - is too elusive to achieve. In Imagine Belonging, Rhodes Perry equips inclusive leaders with a powerful framework to overcome these challenges. The book invites you to participate in this critical conversation, and motivates you to eradicate the pain of exclusion that far too many of us experience on the job. Perry draws upon his distinguished career as a nationally recognized DEI thought leader to help you understand complex issues like power, privilege, targeted universalism, and belonging at a deeper level. He offers practical cases studies, proven strategies, and rich stories empowering you to overcome the common barriers that often stymie your organization's DEI goals. His writing encourages you to positively influence your workplace culture by embracing inclusive leadership practices, cooperative team building methods, and fresh approaches on how to equitably structure your organization. Imagine Belonging helps you recognize the relative power and privilege you hold to transform yourself, your team, and your workplace. Whether your organization is just beginning its diversity, equity and inclusion journey, or is further along in the process, Imagine Belonging will inspire you to transform your vision of belonging at work into a reality....and reap the rewards that result from establishing an equitable organization.

The Avelinos is a true story about a "Small Town High Time " Musician. Avelino Avalos played the guitar and sang in different bands in Safford, Arizona for over four decades. He raised his eleven children in South Eastern Arizona. Daughters memories about her dad included him gathering his instruments together getting them ready for playing, by tuning his smoke green Anniversary Gretchen Electric Guitar. Avelino played a variety of music, Flamenco, Country, Corridos, Rancheras and Rock. His bands included "The Lucky Four" Charlie Hemphill (Bass Guitar), his brother Bill on (Lead Guitar), Brooks Nutell on (Drums). "The Lucky Four had no problems getting gigs, putting a variety of music together as an excellent form of entertainment" as told by Hemphill. "The Mixers", another band included Doughnut Delgado Jr.,Frank Shelton,Charlie Hemphill,George Reyes,and Tom Guerena. "The Mixers" traveled to Buffalo, New York to audition on "The Johnny Carson Show" in the early 1960s, reaching for a spotlight on National TV. However, that dream was short lived when one of the band members got cold feet and thus the band opted not to play for the audition. Avelino had been practicing for a funeral he was to attend,on that very night May 20, 1985 he passed away at 59. His music was silenced for the first time in our entire life. Jimmy Delgado Sr. and Bobby Merino Sr. dads best friends were in shock when their music companion suddenly died. Music was Avelino he left a legacy behind and his daughter Frances Diane has given others the opportunity to learn about the extraordinary man who never left his love of music behind. "For every photo there is a story", as told by Frances Frances Avalos. "Music was everything for dad its how he lived we could not separate that from him if mother would have tried it never would have happened it would have been unsuccessful for her, he lived with music he died that way. In behalf of our Avalos family we wish to dedicated my book "The Avelinos to him. May his love of music and his memories continue to be told. We wish to thank Dennis Landberg KJZZ Radio Station for the opportunity to air our story, and special thanks to Paul Atkinson (Producer/Reporter).

"After years of friendship, something shifted. Paul and Emily found more than a marriage. They found companionship and love that transcended what came before. Read a moving account about the love and hope that struck two unique people well on in life. This book will give hope to anyone who figures they're out of the game of love." -Deirdre Sinnott, author and speakerCarrying On is a memoir of a late-life love affair between long-time friends.The book describes the five-year partnership of an affable, sunny, brilliant and charming research scientist and the author. His half-century affliction with hepatitis C was known to her. What she discovered during their life together was his severe dyslexia, simmering rage, and pervasive sense of inferiority.His dealing with these problems, and his humor, enthusiasm for all aspects of life, and his continuing fascination with his science made him eminently lovable, and smoothed the rough spots in their relationship.The final stage of his disease was both expected and accepted by both. They spent the final weeks of his life at home, living.

Her name is synonymous with the West. Her celebrity has spread to the East Coast and California, traveling down the new-laid railroads and along the telegraph wire. But breathless tales of Calamity Jane bear little resemblance to the truth. As she senses death coming closer, the legendary hellcat longs to set the record straight—to reveal her life story at last, unclouded by legend, every sin and failing laid bare. Only then can she hope to rest in peace. In a Deadwood saloon, she finds a writer willing to hear her out, and recount the truth to a public hungry for more tales of Calamity Jane… So begins Libbie Hawker’s expansive biographical novel, an intimate portrait of one of the best-known yet least-understood women of the American frontier. The international bestselling author of The Ragged Edge of Night takes the reader on a heart-rending journey through a landscape lost to time, as seen through the eyes of one outcast woman. Calamity is a haunting meditation on hardship, unrequited love, and the stark, affecting beauty of the American West. Editorial note: In pursuit of a narrative voice faithful to the central character, this text employs deliberate misuse of grammar and occasional misspellings. These are the author’s intentional stylistic choices and should not be interpreted as a lack of editing. Readers are encouraged to use the “Look Inside” feature before purchasing.

Is That A Treble Clef In Your Pocket-- Or Are You Just Glad To See Me? Maggie Gallagher spends her nights with lots of men. Of course, they're all dead composers, but why nitpick? Her love life is just like the musical compositions she researches--undiscovered. It's time for Maggie to let loose and go wild. In a dive bar on Bourbon Street, Maggie makes a real find in the house band's keyboard player. He's hot. Sexy. Flirtatious. Soulful. And she could swear he's playing an unknown piece she's been researching, which is impossible, unless he's dead. . . Centuries before he was a badass vampire with a rock-star wardrobe and Big Easy charm, Ren was Renauldo D'Antoni, a composer on the verge of great success until he was betrayed. No one could ever know that, but tonight, the shy strawberry blonde with the big eyes and obviously borrowed outfit actually seemed to recognize his long-lost composition. Now, she wants to know about the composition, and Ren wants to know her. . .intimately. But what starts as attraction--and distraction--just might lead to the biggest discovery of their lives. . .

‘Gone to the stars’ is the story of a young man who grew up in a privileged world but gave it all up to go and search for a deeper spiritual meaning to life. After being raised in the most beautiful palace on Earth, the young man goes to work for the richest chairman of the board in corporate America and gets involved in high-stakes takeovers, living the super jet-set life. One day, while on a business trip to New York City, his soul separates itself from his body and rises up into the sky along a beam of light. His soul travels to a bright star, which is the entrance to heaven. Returning to Earth, the young man has realized that he now has a soul that is eternal. So he decides to renounce his lifestyle and go look for proofs to what is eternal in man: his soul. This begins a pilgrimage throughout the great American and Mexican wilderness, looking to strip his soul down to its naked essence and travel to the star again, among a string of colorful characters whom he encounters living on the margin of society. Critics comments on ‘Gone to the stars’: “A loveable adventure story, wonderful insight, great art”; “extremely persuasive and in places highly emotive”; “deeply inspirational fiction”; “ambitious and eventful”; “very well written, eloquently and confidently, and a great spiritual adventure”; “a clever idea, with fast-paced narrative that is easy to get into and laced with satire”; “excellent, gripping, exciting, powerful, frightening, beautiful.”