Unmasking the Shadowy World of Grief
Category: Writing and Poetry

**FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE**
Editors, for review copies or interview requests, contact: 
H a r o b e d H o u s eTM
"Edifying the World Thru Words" TM
Post Office Box 9105
Columbus, Georgia 31908
Contact:  Marshall Pitts @ 706-329-5530
Email:  Innisfree54@yahoo.com

Unmasking the Shadowy World of Grief  
Author Shares an Intimate Account of  the Seven Stages of Grieving

COLUMBUS, GA. – There are certain universal truths that we all face in this world—rejoicing at the birth of a child, witnessing a child's baptism or even giving a daughter away in marriage.  But there are other truths that we face as well and have in common—tragedy, death, and grief. 

Tragedy, death, and grief happened to Deborah Slappey Pitts and her family when her husband, age 43, died of a rare disease known as primary amyloidosis, changing their lives forever.    In her second book, Pitts tells her intimate story of pain and sorrow in Shadow Living…Paintings of Grief, the enthralling sequel to I Feel Okay, Pitts' debut bestseller. Pitts captures the attention of grievers around the world as she describes her grief in heart-breaking detail—personalizing it as a disturbing entity that robbed their lives forever.

Filled with intense emotion and incredible remorse, Pitts takes the reader through her personal experiences of grief and sorrow by identifying and examining seven stages of the grieving process—shock, denial, anger, bargaining, fear, depression, and acknowledgement. 

Stages of the Grieving Process
Pitts describes shock as an unadulterated numbness with absolute abandonment of emotions, while living in a shadowy world of despair with endless clouds of sadness.  She describes Denial as a refusal to acknowledge the reality of a traumatic experience or death of a loved one; rather, choosing to live within the realms of a faux reality for protection and survival.  Pitts describes Anger as extreme annoyance as the griever's emotions can sometimes become fueled with anger toward their loved ones for leaving them and toward others as well.

The fourth stage is Bargaining and Pitts describes how the griever tries to bargain with God to spare their loved one; even to the extent that the griever is willing to take their place in death.  According to Pitts, Fear can be a debilitating stage and the magnitude of fear depends upon the griever, but the most common fear is the inability to function without their loved one.  Depression is the most debilitating of all the grieving stages and can leave the griever with total despair, hopelessness and powerlessness with immobilized sadness.  Finally, Acknowledgment brings the griever to accepting the reality of living in the present without their loved one, describes Pitts.  It's the new norm of one's existence.  It's acknowledging the physical death and embracing a new life without their loved one.

Shadow Living…Paintings of Grief was recently honored as the 2007 YOUnity Guild Book of the Year and a National Best Books Awards Finalist.  Pitts is the author of Booking Matters national best-seller and best autobiography, I Feel Okay—a heart-wrenching account of love, loss, and inspiration.  Pitts travels the United States as an inspirational speaker educating others about the devastating effects of the amyloidosis diseases and the physiological and psychological effects of grief. 

 Shadow Living…Paintings of Grief (ISBN:  978-0978789701), Harobed HouseTM 2007; I Feel Okay (ISBN:  978-1420806090), AuthorHOUSE, 2005.  Available at all booksellers and www.dslappeypitts.com.    

Currently reading : Shadow Living...Paintings of Grief By Deborah Slappey Pitts Release date: 01 September, 2007

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DRUM ROLL PLEASE!
Category: Writing and Poetry

DRUM ROLL PLEASE!
THE 2007 YGA NOMINEES & AWARD WINNERS ARE...

For Immediate Release: (January 5, 2008) When the clock struck 12am Midnight on the cusp of New Year's Eve December 31,2007-January 1, 2008, Disilgold Soul Literary Review Magazine Celebrated the YGA Award Winners of 2007 on the Literary Legends Ball at www.Disilgold.com with an Online Spectacular Event of the Year honoring awardees in over 250 YGA Award categories, and decided by the prestigious and honorable Disilgold Top Advisory Board. Additionally and in tradition, the TOP 5 AWARD CATEGORIES were decided by the growing community of book lovers, Disilgold Literary Network Association and YOUnity Guild of America Members of Excellence.

Disilgold Soul Literary Review Magazine YGA Awards 2007 TOP 5 AWARD CATEGORY WINNERS were:
 
1. Deborah Slappey Pitts, voted "Disilgold Soul Literary Review Magazine YOUnity Guild of America Most Outstanding Book of the Year" for title, Shadow Living, Paintings of Grief which explores a woman's biographical memoir of her account of coping with the sudden death of her young husband which has gone on to receive numerous reviews from national top reviewers and is now a Barnes & Noble best seller receiving critical acclaim and and our pick for an author to watch.

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Shadow Living has also been distinguished with the 2007 National Best Books Awards Finalist, sponsored by USA Book News

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Shadow Living...Paintings of Grief is a TRR Favorite for RAWSISTAZ, receiving a 5-star review from the national review organization.
Shadow Living...Paintings of Grief received a 5-star review from Reader Views, another national book review organization

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Midwest Book Review, a nationally recognized reviewer wrote that Shadow Living...Paintings of Grief is listed in their online book review magazine as a "MBR Bookwatch" feature
 
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Deborah Slappey-Pitts  appeared on the ABC Radio affliate, two-hour WAOK-radio station, Power Talk radio in December to talk about grief and grieving.  It was a very emotional, inspirational event as people called into to talk about their personal grief situations.

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 Deborah Slappey-Pitts appeared on Internet Voices Radio, sponsored by Ms. Lillian Cauldwell on January 1, 2008 to talk about Shadow Living...Paintings of Grief and I Feel Okay.

Currently reading : Shadow Living...Paintings of Grief By Deborah Slappey Pitts Release date: 01 September, 2007

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Beauty: Tichaona Chinyelu
Category: Writing and Poetry

Beauty

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder
And I be holding beauty
When I glance upon them
Theoretically shaping
The future into an afro-
Concentric sharpness
That shook
The white power structure

Into confronting
A black consciousness
Organized with a mandate
And a mission

To dismiss

That old time religion
That said
Everything in its place
Especially the black race.

A new paradigm of blackness
Rooted in a community soliloquy.
Ghetto equals colony
And racism is the bastard child
Of fascist economies.
Fanon, Malcolm and James
Became antidotes
For antiquated theologies
And anti-social pathologies.

In the belly of the imperialistic beast,
In the microcosm of prisons
And the macrocosm of the streets
A new paradigm for blackness,
A paradise of struggle
Was created by young soldiers
High school students,
Whores and pimps,
Drug dealers and NASA employees,
Doctors and number runners

Heady
Ready
And willing
With

Fuck that shit.
Far too many fires lit
From Watts to the Congo

Whitey gotta go

Burn baby burn
No ashes in the urn
Time for the tide to turn
And put an end to the yearn.

Discern

Panther power was here
Turned the police into pigs
And nigs into blacks

Figuratively burning effigies
With tactics and strategies
That earned them freedom's mind.

Tichaona Chinyelu Author of

Still Living on my Feet

and

In the Whirlwind

Are You Keeping your Eyes on the Whirlwind?

Still Living on my Feet

Currently reading : Still Living on my Feet By Tichaona Chinyelu Release date: 09 May, 2007

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SHADES OF DARKNESS

SHADES OF DARKNESS
by George E. Brummell

How does a blind person write a whole book? How about a blind person with his left hand compromised by a battle injury?

I started writing "Shades of Darkness" in 1977 after being inspired by a book, "If You Could See What I Hear," by actor/musician/speaker Tom Sullivan, who had attended Harvard University as a blind student and described with humor and honesty how he overcame his limitations. The book was a success and was later made into a film.

I believed I could write a book that would also be inspiring, but from the perspective of a black man's journey from modest roots, to combat in Vietnam, sudden blindness, and beyond.

I started getting up in the early mornings, with a tape recorder, sitting at my basement bar and trying to remember as much as I could. The process of transferring from tape to paper was a huge obstacle and I dropped the project for a while, until I enrolled at the University of Akron. There I found a writer willing to assist me with class work, as well as transcribing bits of my manuscript.

I persuaded my English instructors to grade my personal writings as class projects. When I became computer literate in the mid-1980s I managed to get what I had on paper scanned into digital form. But it was a mess. When I finally got the text cleaned up, my writing project picked up speed. Nearly every night after returning home from work, I sat typing with my one hand, telling my story to the hard drive. Many nights I only got down a sentence or two, but it was progress nonetheless.

Thanks to the technology that allows a computer to "speak" words, I could haltingly write and edit my thoughts. For a short time I had a couple of volunteers who stopped by and took dictation. The years flew by, but I kept up my routine.

I finally completed the manuscript five years ago, but it just sat on my computer, awaiting the right moment to be born. That came in the fall of 2005 when I went to the VA Blind Rehabilitation Center in New Haven, Connecticut, for computer enhancement training.

There I met a veteran of World War II, Arthur Gerold, who was learning to cope with macular degeneration. After telling him my story, he was convinced I should get it out of the computer and into the hands of someone who could help me polish it for publication.

He volunteered to carry a printed copy of the manuscript in a snow storm by train to an author friend in New York City. That started a process that ended with the publication of "Shades of Darkness." I hope you get as much pleasure and inspiration out of reading it as I did in the writing.

Contact: info@georgebrummell.com

Currently reading : Shades of Darkness By George E. Brummell Release date: 01 October, 2006

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Sankofa Literary Society Finest!
Category: Writing and Poetry

Find more photos like this on SLS Book Club Center

Currently reading : Shadow Living...Paintings of Grief By Deborah Slappey Pitts Release date: 01 September, 2007

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Being One - No One is like No Other. High School
Category: Writing and Poetry

Being One - No One is like No Other. High School- The next frontier

On Wednesday, September 4th, 1996, it is the first day of high school for Timberly, Barry, Stefania, Zaurah and Latrice in New York City. All come from various backgrounds that includes the regions of the Carribean, Italy and the North Southern region of America that would add into the melting pot of their school. Yet, who said it would be easy? Stereotypes and prejudices arise even in one's family: Zaurah as a Rastafarian can attest to this. It may not be depicted now, but this book is the beginning of a Christian series. Under God's eyes, we are all one blood.

For more information, visit www.isabisinside.com

Currently reading : Being One - No One is like No Other. High School- The next frontier. v. 1 (High School- the Next Frontier) By Isabis, Inside Release date: 01 February, 2007

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Round Trip by Shamontiel L. Vaughn
Category: Writing and Poetry

Round Trip by Shamontiel L. Vaughn

ISBN: 0615156150
Paperback


College graduation is usually the time to collect a cap and gown, pick a career, and set foot in the real world. For three graduates, their graduation days will be yet another crash course. Memo reaches out to Seleste, but his recently paroled father pulls his attention another way. Jermaine believes in no secrets in marriage, but after proposing to Cara, she may not be ready to divulge the truth, regardless of what her ex-fling Arnez decides.

The wedding is in Atlanta, the graduation is in Chicago, unfinished business is in the boroughs of New York, and news that one of the crew may have AIDS is circulating. How will they cope?

_____________________________________________________________

Shamontiel L. Vaughn is an Assistant Copyeditor at Kaplan Financial to pay the bills, an editorial freelance writer to peacefully rant about what bugs her, and a novelist to keep her sane. She has 35+ articles in various magazines, including Citizens in America, Fate, Spoken Vizions, and Underlined Magazine; newsletters; poetry books; and online editorials on www.associatedcontent.com/shamontiel. 

But with all of the word hustling, her heart has always favored fiction, and she's most interested in creating work that the Generation X and Y crew can relate to. Her first novel, Change for a Twenty, is the tale of six college students growing up on a college campus with plenty of tangles to unravel.

E-mail address: changeforatwenty@yahoo.com

Webpage address: www.lulu.com/shamontiel

or

 www.geocities.com/changeforatwenty.html

 

Currently reading : Round Trip By Shamontiel L. Vaughn Release date: 18 July, 2007

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Bestselling Author Angela R. Curtis
Category: Writing and Poetry

Interview With Interview With
Bestselling Author Angela R. Curtis

Ella Curry of the Sankofa Literary Society has interviewed Angela Curtis about her book and her thoughts on the literary scene today. Angela Curtis is the founder and president of M2M4Him Enterprises.  

She consults, speaks and trains on personal, organizational and leadership development. Angela assists individuals by using a personal strategic management system. This system consists of discovering one's gift(s), developing personal mission and vision statements, action plans and personal strategic plans.  The ultimate goal is to empower individuals by providing them with the right tools and skills to fulfill their God-given purpose.


EDC: What genre are you most comfortable writing?
ARC: The genre I am most comfortable writing is inspirational poetry.

EDC: What is your book about?
ARC: From Mourning to Morning is a book of inspirational poems and devotionals that helps the reader transition from pain to praise.

EDC: Why did you write this book?
ARC: I wrote this book out of obedience to the Lord.  He wanted me to write this book so that others would know that despite any loss, God is a healer, friend and a restorer.

EDC: What is the message you want others to get?
ARC: It is my hope that readers will gain the blessed assurance that Jesus truly
comforts the brokenhearted, it is okay to grieve their loss, but  don't stay there too long, and to know that Jesus has a plan of restoration and renewal just for them. It is important to know these things so that they will not allow the enemy an open door so that he can try to shipwreck their life.

EDC: How would you best describe your writing style?
ARC: I would best describe my writing style as God-Breathed.

EDC: What is the one thing you want readers to walk away with after reading your book?
ARC: The one thing that I want readers to walk away with after reading my book is that God gives them a new beginning with each new day.  They should never give up on their dreams despite their loss or disappointments.

EDC: How did you come up with the title of the book?
ARC: I did not come up with the title; the Lord told me what to call the book.

EDC: Do you feel that people need this kind of book to succeed?  Why?
ARC: I personally do not feel that people need any kind of book to succeed except for the Bible.  My book is not to take the place of the bible, but to be a supplement that guides the reader to the understanding that Jesus loves them for who they are.

EDC: Who are you targeting with your message in this book?
ARC: I am targeting anyone who has suffered any type of loss for example, loved ones, their dreams, aspirations or goals.

EDC: Do you feel as if more African Americans are reading motivational books or street fiction?
ARC: I believe that there is a market for both in the African American community. The most important thing is that our community read.

EDC: Who are your two favorite authors and why?
ARC: Langston Hughes is one of my favorite authors because he had the heart of the African American community.  I fell in love with his poetry when I was ten years old.  I recited his poem My People for a talent contest and won.  My second favorite author is Dr. Myles Munroe.  Dr. Munroe, has such a deep, fresh insight into the word of God.

EDC: How does your family and friends feel about your book venture in general?
ARC: My family and friends are very supportive and excited about how God is
unveiling his plan for my life.

EDC: Do you see writing as a long or short term career?
ARC: I see writing as a part of my ministry which is a life time commitment.

EDC: How do you feel about self-publishing overall?
ARC: My experience with self-publishing has been incredible. The Lord has
ordered my steps and the end product was done in the spirit of excellence that He deserves.


EDC: Are you working on any more titles?
ARC: I have several books that will be written in the future. The next one will be a self-help book to provide individuals with practical tools to help them discover their gifts.

EDC: Do you wish to be carried by a major publishing house one day?
ARC: I believe that the Lord will have me to be carried by one of the major
publishing houses one day.

EDC: What is the next big venture for your company?
ARC: M2M4Him Enterprises will be a sponsor for FraserNet PowerNetworking Preview Series and the Transformation Expo hosted by a Radio-One local station.

EDC: Has this been an easy journey for you as a writer and working female?
ARC: Frederick Douglass said it best there is no progress without struggle. This journey has been one of faith and obedience.

EDC: What are the strengths and weaknesses of promotions for self-published authors?
ARC: The strengths for self-publishing are that you own your work and you have creative liberty and you keep all of the royalties.  The weaknesses for self-
publishing is that you have to do the leg work in finding the distributors, copy
editors, graphic designers, etc and you get a percentage of the sales.


EDC: What do you feel is one major benefit of being self-published?
ARC: The one major benefit of being self-published is that it is all yours.

Event Planners and Conference Organizers
To request Angela R. Curtis for future keynote addresses, discussion panels or book signings, send an email to: a.curtis @m2m4him.org  or check out M2M4Him Enterprise's website at www.M2M4Him.org.

Currently reading : From Mourning to Morning By Angela, R Curtis Release date: 14 October, 2006

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Brian E. Curtis: Wake Up Young Brother
Category: Writing and Poetry

Brian E. Curtis: Wake Up Young Brother

 Building & Becoming Better African-American Men

When I’m With You
Category: Writing and Poetry

La Connie Taylor-Jones
is embarking on an online book tour. Stop by and meet this debut author.

Website: http://www.laconnietaylorjones.com/


Check out the trailer: http://www.laconnietaylorjones.com/WIMW_trailer.php

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