Life is… Simple!

The last few weeks have been crazy busy! You see I thought organizing a concert would be easy… Simple… Pffft! I was of the belief it was just weddings that were crazy, but this is a whole new level! The biggest wedding I had to arrange involved 70 guests and though time consuming it became kind of fun.

This however is becoming a whole different animal! I spoke to one of my funders and we talked about venues two weeks ago and how I had the choice of three places… The Hammerstein, Below 54 club, which is just off Broadway or a yacht. I explained of how the Below 54 Club seated 150 people, of what a wonderful cozy place it is but I was cut down_ immediately with a “Good grief girl, I can fill a church with a 150 people on a Sunday!” Hmmm Okaaay…

Hammerstein Ballroom

The Hammerstein holds 1,600 and the yacht 1,200 people, simple huh? In the real world it’s like organizing a wedding with1,600-1,200 guests… See? Simple! He wants me to book the Hammerstein and so the yacht it is! On an evening in June with the full moon glinting over the East River from Near South Sea Street Port;-D

One of the decks on the yacht

Oh and then there’s the guest line up. I have worked in some Rock, a little Hip Hop, some comedy and lastly a couple of guest speakers. Of course all well known to everyone. I’m also working with a charity and I have an organization to make donations to from the ticket sales. Then we are also working on a Pay per View version of it online for $5.99 so there’s a production crew for it and of course merchandise of T-shirts with a coupon for a Kindle down load of A Broken Ring, hats, CD‘s, posters… As I was saying… Simple! Oh yes I forgot there’s the PR company for radio and newspapers… So yes as I was saying… Simple!

If you think it’s just me going a little crazy here I’m not alone! See I told Hubby he has a 3 song set too! Hahaha! You  should’ve seen his face! From playing at the local open mic night to let’s say 20-30 people to playing in front of 1,200. Guess who’s panicking now! We just have to get him into a studio to polish him up with a producer…

Oh and by the way, we have to move again. The road floods weekly, ants absolutely love sharing this place with us, it’s drafty cold, the landlord won’t replace the washer/dryer, the fuse box hasn’t been replaced since Sandy so we keep thinking the place could go “Pooft!” up in an electrical fireball and smoke any day because it’s so corroded from the salt water flooding from the tidal surge.

Our flooded road after a normal high tide

You can imagine my surprise then when on finally letting my head hit the pillow on Tuesday night at 1am to wake up at 2am from a nightmare. It included ghost like zombies, they were pretty in fact almost ethereal but nonetheless zombies and they didn’t bite you to turn you into one… No! These evil crazy things just had to touch you! I woke up at the point where one was a cat with white eyes staring at me! I woke up and freaked because my bad, black puddy cat was standing staring at me in the dark! Seriously?! I told myself to calm down think of happy things and go back to sleep. I did but I ended up back in the same bloody dream again! This happened all night, needless to say I was exhausted on Wednesday and dragged myself around all day thinking about how I had “Stuff” to do still. Today I woke up more refreshed and did no work, no writing until now with this post and a little catch up on Facebook. I think the nightmares were a way of telling me to slow down a little… Simple. Yes I do like that word a lot lately. It seems to help keep everything on track and … Well… Simple!

I sometimes tell myself I must be crazy but the support I’m getting is amazing and uplifting and at the end of the day it really is all about spreading the word about violence and abuse, assault and rape. Letting people know they are not alone, that it effects everyone, black, white, straight, gay, women, men and children. Violence doesn’t discriminate but we can heal. We can transform and  become amazing!

In fact I’ve already started creating some cool things in my CafePress shop! Please check them out and let me know what you think. Just click on the picture below. Thank you for all your support and I hope your having an amazing week!

Transformation from Abuse

Author Interview with Joanna V. Hunter of ‘But He’ll Change…”

I am so thrilled to be able to interview Joanna Hunter! I had quietly put her writing up there on a pedestal as I wrote my book, thinking if only I could be halfway as good as Joanna, I would be happy. I later found we were in the same groups on LinkedIn and and an online forum.

Her book is a must for anyone who is in an abusive relationship. It provides help and advice. She was also on The Kathleen Show.

Joanna Hunter is truly amazing and is also offering a Giveaway to one lucky commenter!

So please leave a comment to be entered into the draw!!!!

A brief synopsis of the book, But He’ll Change.

              But He’ll Change; End the Thinking That Keeps You in an Abusive Relationship is a self-help book published by Hazelden in 2010. It received a Nautilus Book Award.

In this compassionate book, Joanna V. Hunter offers women who are coping with physical or emotional abuse the information and guidance that she needed when she was in an abusive relationship. Using expert advice complemented by her story and the stories of other women who have survived and turned away from domestic violence, Hunter helps you face, head on, the messages you’ve internalized that hold you in an abusive relationship. You will learn to

• Identify the lies you’ve accepted and counter them with healthy thinking
• give yourself permission to stop taking the blame for your partner’s behavior
• identify your partner’s power and control plays so they no longer entrap you
• stick up for your own needs and plan for your (and your children’s) safety

With But He’ll Change you will learn new messages designed to help you build strength and hope. You will develop the tools to operate not as a victim, but as a survivor who understands the power you hold to change your life. “Healing means you’ve taken back your power,” writes Hunter. “My hope is that this book will help you shed labels, transcend the past and walk into a better life–the one you’ve always hoped for.”

 What is the ‘back story’ to your book cover and title?

   As a rule, the publisher picks the title. Hazelden’s editors didn’t need to include me in the decision, but they did. We spent time tweaking my working title Yes, but… Fighting the Self-talk that keeps you stuck. Titles need to express the concept of the book in a few words. The editors suggested But He’ll Change — which embodied the hope held most fiercely in the heart of every victim. I knew it would speak to those who needed my book. We clarified the subtitle to — End the Thinking That Keeps You in an Abusive Relationship. At one glance, you know exactly what this book is about.

Click here to go to Amazon for: But He’ll Change

What made you want to become a writer? What was you motivation and inspiration?

          I was always a storyteller. When my mother and I were driving somewhere, she’d say, “Tell me a story.” All my growing up years if I wasn’t drawing, I was writing. I’d pass my stories around to my friends. As an adult, marriage and children took center stage. Trying to keep peace in the home wrought with violence, zapped my creative energy. I remember feeling crushed and old when I turned 31 and was no longer eligible for the Redbook young women’s writing competition. Submitting a story to them was something I’d always yearned to do, but never had the time or energy to follow through.

Did you employ and editor for the storyline, proofreading or editing?

             Hazelden provided me with a terrific editor. She was a dream come true. I knew I could only take the book so far, then I needed new eyes to evaluate it. She was respectful of my work. One thing I really appreciated was that she asked if I wanted her to rewrite the weak sections or if I wanted her make suggestions and I do the rewrite myself. Since I felt I could learn a lot form her, I rewrote the sections with her guidance.

Are you self-published or traditional/ Why did you choose to publish this way?

             My preference was to go traditional. Though, not readily available at that time, I did consider self-publishing.

Being nonfiction, I didn’t need an agent. However, I did have to write a proposal according to the publisher’s guidelines. It took me 6 months to write and pull all this information together. At 100 pages in length, it containing information on everything from what the book is about, why I wrote it, chapter summaries to a market analysis of other books similar to But He’ll Change.

Hazelden Publishing was about the 4th publisher to whom I submitted my proposal.

Do you have any hints or tips that you have found in marketing?

            Hazelden provided me with a Publicist. She advised me to use all the electronic social media opportunities out there, while she sent out a media blast about But He’ll Change. We had a good response and I did many radio and some TV interviews all over the country.

I got busy and created pages on Facebook and Myspace. Author pages on Goodreads, Linked In and Amazon. Developed a blog. Joined Twitter.

What was your most amazing moment in writing your book?

              The way the book was given to me. This was the book I was meant to write. I was working on a novel  about the relationship between two women touched my domestic abuse. While developing the characters, all the reasons I and others (women I knew from therapy) had used to justify why we couldn’t leave our relationships came to mind. I started jotting them down. Before long, I had two pages of statements — but I love him — my children need a father — he doesn’t mean to hit me — If I leave now and he changes, I’ll lose out.

This book awakened me in the middle of the night. I knew I needed to write it. I sat down at the computer and the words flowed. Even style and layout was there. I felt like a conduit in the flow of something important. Experts I contacted for interviews were willing to talk and suggest others to contact. It was an amazing process. Humbling.

If your novel was to be made into a movie which actor would you like to play the leading role?

              This is not likely to become a movie. However, I was contacted by a young actress who had seen my book and was using it as she prepared for a role.

 Is there a sequel forthcoming or any new book in the works?

              I just finishing a final rewrite (is there really ever a final rewrite?) of a work of fiction. Regarding a sequel to this book, yes, I have something forming in my mind.

Do you have an inspirational, motivating or funny anecdote you would like to share?

             I know that there are stories surrounding us, we need only to take a hold of one and write. If we don’t someone else will. I know this through experience. Years ago, I was at my beach house with not a scrap of paper in sight. I had an idea, grabbed a grocery bag and started writing a story about a young woman married to a struggling architect. A wealthy man offers her a million dollars if she’d spend one night with him. I never finished that story. The grocery sack laid in my drawer. Indecent Proposal came out a few years later written by someone who followed through.

Write your book now!

If you would like to know about Joanna, please click on the links below:

Facebook: Facebook

Twitter: twitter.com/HunterJV

Blog:  Moving Up On The “People Who Deserve Happiness“

Goodreads: goodreads.com/author/Joanna_Hunter

Hazelden book store:  Hazelden Book Store

Amazon Author page:  www.amazon.com/author/joannavhunter

My Little Angel!

A little while ago I used to post my husband’s poetry, which he kept telling me were actually songs but isn’t it sort of the same thing just one is set to music and the other well… Not! lol

Finally he sat down and worked out how to record them. Last week he invited me into his little musical den and played a song he had recorded, telling me he had written it for me! I have to tell you I can be pretty critical but I loved it, the haunting tones. It’s just Vin completely! I secretly sent it to a friend who passed it to a producer friend and now it looks like he’s got to write songs to go with my books! When I told him he acted a little shy… but I know better!! lol

I really hope you like it too!

I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Next week I’ll be sharing another awesome Author on Wednesday

AND

I have a secret I have been working on to tell you too!!!

Happy Birthday to you and me!

It has been a year since I started this blog. To be honest I wasn’t sure what to expect. I was happy living my hermit life with my phone ringing 24/7 about finance with questions which were all the same, “Claire, I have a client with an instrument on Euroclear… Can we sell it, Can we monetize it… Can we.. Can we…? Or “Claire I have a client who is having a Private Placement Memorandum drawn… Can we take it Pre-IPO? Can we eventually IPO it?” Though I did take an hour each day between 4 and 5 to have coffee with my husband and I did get told off for texting under the table at the BBQ for Memorial Day. If I remember correctly it went something like “Claire! Are you texting someone?” I tried to squish my face into an innocent look… “No_” I waited for a minute then continued my texting to the client about how everything wasn’t going to go so fast for him that day as it was an American holiday.

“That’s it! If I have to treat you like a child then I will!” My husband was laughing as he grabbed the phone from me and hid it inside the house. I smiled, then giggled. I was now forced to be ‘nice’ to our guests that I had forgotten about. My sister-in-law laughed, “Good thing you’re not a workaholic!” “Who me? Nah!”

Alright… My life with work had gotten out of hand_ a bit_ maybe_

The following October I started to hand all of my clients over to my husband to work with. I was finished with finance, deciding to complete my book, A Broken Ring.

It was a whole new world and one very different from finance. I hadn’t placed an advertisement in years, everything and everyone I worked with was a referral.

A year ago in the middle of January I came out of my shell and said hello into a cavernous blogging world and was shocked a couple of people said hello back. Wow! I told myself, they didn’t laugh or rebuke me! I was stunned it took another 4 weeks for me to pluck up the courage to post again and my little post had wonderful a couple of Gravatars smiling back at me. I was hooked! I was reborn! Initiated into the mass world of bloggers.

I read everything I could about it, I followed people, some of who have now left their blogs to pursue the goals and dreams they wrote about. Some have become wonderful friends who I can exchange ideas with, be incredibly silly with as we talk about weirdywolves and dark places that only the brothers Grimm would venture into. I have learned new recipes, debated with people about politics. I have shared some heartbreaking stories with people about abuse and violence that they have endured in the past or are going through and just wanted a shoulder to virtually lean on, just for a little while, a little escapism with someone who understood.

For all of this I say, THANK YOU!

Summer <3

You have been so supportive over this year for my ideas, my strange thoughts. You were with me while I went through Hurricane Sandy, the loss of my brother-in-law, the cover designs of my book. You stood beside me while I learned of Awareness Months, of PTSD and Rape Trauma Syndrome. You were with me when we took trips to the city to celebrate the 4th July and to see the Christmas Tree. Even the hazy days of summer lounging lazily on the beaches of Long Island to the lighthouse at Montauk Point. Even giving me some wonderful Blogging Awards! ;-D

The thought has been spinning for a little… How did I give back? A giveaway! Did that to celebrate the New Year and you made that a success too! Still spinning_ Then I got it!

I have now over this last year become an author! A strike of the ‘ol bucketlist But a lot of you have also become authors, amazing wonderful authors! Then it clicked!

Author Interviews! Spreading the love. Sharing the stories! Woo-Hoo!

Here we go_ Once upon a time, in the land of Claire’s blog there was a wonderful author called…

As they say “Tune in next week..” as my very first author interview will be posted and I will be sharing my authors friends with you each Wednesday.

Each one different!

Each one truly freaking awesome!

The first one is with Susan Cooper of Finding Our Way Now blog and her new book, recently released about the meaning of dreams!

I’m thrilled she has given me an interview and I can’t wait to share it with you next Wednesday. If you know anyone who is interested in the meaning of dreams tell them to look for her here next week! Her illustrations are beautifully unique

Oh? What? You want a bonus too!? Aperlootley! (It’s my new stupid, grammatically incorrect word of the moment, which I know you intelligent sort get straight away!) Susan Cooper has very kindly offered 3 of her books in a Giveaway next week! Speechless

Thank you!

Thank you for making this an incredible year and for being with me on this wonderfully weird journey!

Cheers

 

A Broken Ring and Stalking Liberty ~ Here we go!

 Hurricane Sandy really messed it up for me last time so here I am having another ‘bash’ at Indiegogo! Even though my handheld video camera died and my webcam bites! lol I ran one before but was hit by Hurricane Sandy and it was difficult to run it with no power. So here we go! This below is my plea for help in crowdfunding

“I’m a great believer in helping people and empowering them in understanding. 1 in 3 women are either beaten or raped a year across the world. That’s 1 BILLION and that’s 1 BILLION too many! 1in 5 men are beaten and raped too!

Think about it for a minute when you see people in the stores or down your road. It’s happening near you. It could have already happened to you, a friend… a work colleague…

I wrote A Broken Ring as a healing tool which has gone on to be published late last September and by October the word about it was spreading but then we were hit hard by Hurricane Sandy which halted everything.

A little difficult to storm ahead with no power after a flood! But I’m back up and running. I need people like you to help me, to come on this journey of love and inspiration with me!

Advocacy groups who have read A Broken Ring have used the word “Inspiring” too me but my main goal is to let people know they are NOT alone. That we are there to say ‘We understand!”

 My sequel in the Ride to Liberty is also finished, Stalking Liberty. Each book ends with a wonderfully empowering message.

 A teaser… Click here for the first chapter of A Broken Ring!

Lets stand up together

Shout out

We are not alone!

We shine bright!

 What We Need & What You Get

Breaking it down:

• A Broken Ring is getting rave reviews but I need to hire a publict to spread the word which will cost me $4,000 to get started and the final draft of Stalking Liberty needs a professional editor which costs $1,000
• There are some really cool perks too!
• Signed copies of A Broken Ring.
• Skype call.
• Being listed in the Contributors page.
• A character named after you in the last installment of the trilogy… don’t worry the character will be a ‘Goodie’ not a “Baddie”!
• If the goal amount is not reached I will beg, steal and borrow until it’s reached because it’s just too important to help people!

The Impact

• Together we can raise awareness for both women and men who need help.
• We can help people who feel alone and isolated, knowing there are others out there who experienced similar circumstances and found freedom through healing and self renewal and empowerment.
• It is already in the libraries of Healing groups and Domestic Violence Shelters for example: Hope Healing House in Grove City, Ohio and the New York Suffolk County Coalition of Domestic Violence.
• There are whispers in the ether of a 40 city book tour on college campuses in April to raise awareness amongst the youth and a made for television movie from A Broken Ring!

Other Ways You Can Help

Some people just can’t contribute, but that doesn’t mean they can’t help:

I understand times are tight financially for some people but it would really help if you could spread the word and share it with friends and family.

Please share on Facebook, Twitter, Google+… Pigeonagram!

And that’s all there is to it. Thank you for taking this journey with me!”

A Broken Ring and Stalking Liberty’s Indiegogo Campaign

Related articles

• Wichita Women’s Shelter Sees Rise In Domestic Violence Victims (kake.com)
• Anti-stalking advocates seek tougher laws in Wyoming (billingsgazette.com)
• National Stalking Awareness Month 2013 (nichellemitchem.typepad.com)
• The Violence Against Women Act: Get It Done Congress (theobamacrat.com)

The cover for the sequel, Stalking Liberty revealed! Ta-dah!

I have been working on my sequel to A Broken Ring. It is called Stalking Liberty A Woman’s Journey to Freedom. As I did with the A Broken Ring I’ll be posting up little updates as I get closer to releasing it At least this time I’m more prepared as to what to do and will happen!

I chose this cover as it seemed to appear atmospheric, a lone figure walking in the cold evening under a moonlit night. The figure is alone in their own world… A man or a woman, coming or going…? What are your thoughts? Who is it? Friend or foe? Stalker or stalked?

Okay so here’s the synopsis for the back cover:

“Lydia Castle is thirty and living as a single parent in Yorkshire, England. Working hard, she is an independent woman. Lydia told herself she would never let herself be abused again- by anyone!

Quietly, there is a car parked two houses away from hers – every night, lying in wait, in the darkness. It is the same car that follows her two cars back everywhere she goes…

Lydia stares at the note which was delivered through her letterbox in the night. The typed written words start to blur in front of her eyes as tears well, spilling over, slowly coursing down her face… “Only death will separate us…”

Lydia has to decide to either stay, fight for her life… Or run for it!

Someone is stalking her.

Her life.

Her family.

Her freedom.

Her liberty.

Stalking liberty!”

And here is the cover! Ta-dah!

A Big Thank You to Everyone!

A big thank you to everyone who joined in with the free New Years give away for A Broken Ring on Kindle and making it the wonderful success it became!

When I started it I thought to myself that maybe just a couple of people might be interested but that it would be a perfect way to say thank you for all the support you have given me since I started this writing journey, which I have to say has become amazing. Since I began this I have met the most wonderful people who have become sincere, honest and beautiful friends who I have laughed with and shared the most darkest and brutal secrets with about life.

Over the year we have shared journeys of people becoming sick and recovering. Of those close who passed away into the light. I have felt been honored as people shared road trips, births, launched their own books. We have laughed and cried, sharing this most incredible journey we call ‘life’

Thank you for sharing with me. The Kindle giveaway was my way of “Paying it Forward’… hmm or ‘Back’ (giggles). It reached a #45 ranking on Amazon in Relationships and Families!

So hurray to you all!

Here’s a virtual glass of champagne as I toast you and wish you the very best in 2013!

Cheers!
http://www.photopin.com

 

Related articles

• My New Year gift to you! A free Kindle Edition of A Broken Ring (clairecappetta.wordpress.com)

My New Year gift to you! A free Kindle Edition of A Broken Ring

So many people have been so wonderfully supportive over 2012 and I wanted a way to give back.

To say a HUGE thank you for everything!

A free Kindle edition of A Broken Ring – A Woman’s Journey from Abuse to Empowerment to ring in the New Year!
My gift to you for 2013.

Available for 2 days only 1st-2nd January 2013

Please go to Amazon Kindle for your 2013 download (link below).
Wishing you a wonderful New Year!

www.amazon.com/ABrokenRing

Healing ghosts of Christmas past

Scrooge’s third visitor, from Charles Dickens: A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas. With Illustrations by John Leech. London: Chapman & Hall, 1843. First edition. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I decided to take some time off over Christmas, to step back from my computer.  It was starting to feel a little like ‘Not seeing the woods for the trees” Sometimes in life I can get so emerged into work and tunneled visioned that I can start to feel a little overwhelmed and wonder where my next steps should be.

Just before Christmas I closed up my laptop and tucked it away so I couldn’t see it beckoning me, I think I can get so wrapped up in my virtual world I need to re-connect with myself again, to focus on what’s important and the message I want to get out there.

I realize the bottom line and the most important one is wanting people to know they are not alone when they are going or have been through abuse. I was told so many times that I was strange, not normal in my reactions. That I was a black sheep or better still needed to be put in a straight jacket and needed to be locked up with the key thrown away…

It still amazes me to this day how memories can be crystal clear and just flash into my mind out of the blue, ones I thought I had filed away under “Healed” only to discover I had filed them away under the wrong header and drawer of my mind.

To be really honest with you… I don’t like Christmas much. It creeps up on me every year as a dark monster… Lurking in the corners waiting to be released. The sense of dread starts at the beginning of December knowing the usual feelings of guilt and shame will wash over me like a tsunami. The memories taunt me, tower over me like a cold, scolding and unforgiving mother.

I long for January each year, to get past certain calendar dates, which once past I will be released into a newly born, fresh year filled with optimism and hope. Every year I tell myself next Christmas will be better… different.

Please don’t get me wrong! I’m not looking for “The Perfect Christmas” I don’t think anyone really has found that little animal yet, I believe those are made up of wonderful mistakes and comedies of errors to be thought back on down the road with laughter and conversations always starting with “Do you remember whens…?” Those are to be treasured. I’m talking about the life threatening, the verbal abuse that shanks like a sharpened knife in to your heart, the dread of hearing a doorbell ring and knowing you either can’t or don’t want to answer because you know what awaits behind it.

Every year people feel lost and lonely at Christmas, even those surrounded with rooms full of family and friends. Please spare a thought for those who are entering a Domestic Violence Shelter for the first time, terrified. Those who remain in violent situations, trying to smile to friends and family hoping the illusion of a perfect family won’t come crumbling down.

Just before Christmas I was offered an immense wealth of opportunities with my book for the coming year, some of which are incredibly amazing! On the call I had I was elated and excited, after it sunk in I was feeling overwhelmed. Now after taking a week off and giving myself time to digest everything I now feel in control and realize I have the power to choose and control everything that is offered my way.

My Christmas tsunami is receding back once again and I am looking forward to a

New Year earlier then usual. It is becoming a welcoming lighthouse in the distant, growing ever nearer. The beacon of light, beckoning me out of the fog.

I am working hard on the sequel to A Broken Ring. It is difficult at times reliving the past but I know once it is done I will feel a little more empowered and I might finally be able to put away my own ghosts of Christmas past!

Do you feel lonely at Christmas? Do you still have memories that haunt you each year? Do you feel you struggle through it with a fake smile?

Know you are not alone and that someone is right there with you!

If you need help please contact these organizations who are there 24/7 to help you

www.rainn.org

www.ncvc.org

www.safehorizon.org

Related articles

• Home for Christmas (carriecraig.wordpress.com)
• Jennifer Ball: I’m A Divorced Mom, And I’m Taking Christmas Back, Dammit (huffingtonpost.com)
• The Hidden Meaning of Christmas (susanpearson.me)
• So that was christmas? (keepbeingstrong.wordpress.com)

For a limited time only… A Christmas Special!!

For a limited time only… A Christmas Special!!

Buy A Broken Ring on Kindle for $2.99 for Christmas

Please feel free to share everywhere

Love n hugs ♥

www.amazon.com/abroken ring

It has been submitted into the library of Suffolk County Coalition Against Domestic Violence,

SCCADV is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing safety and support services to victims of Domestic Violence in Suffolk County, Long Island , New York.

http://www.sccadv.org

Also with Audry Hardy at Grove City Purple Purse Advocacy Gathering

http://clairecappetta.wordpress.com/2012/11/12/a-huge-thank-you-to-audry-hardy-of-grove-city-purple-purse-advocacy-gathering/