Author Robin Marvel of Hersey, MI is that girl who has survived mental, domestic, and drug abuse; homelessness, and kidnappings throughout her childhood. Being addicted to alcohol and partying at age 15 resulted in a sexual assault, and later she became a teen mother at age 16.
Since May is mental health awareness month, Marvel opened up to talk about her story captured in her book “Healing Childhood Trauma” from a PTSD standpoint of view.
“I didn’t want to repeat the cycle, and I started working on myself,” she said. “I realized I was in control of what happened to me.”
As a motivational speaker, Marvel talks about self-respect and determination. She strives to be a role model for her five daughters. She chose to grow through the trauma she had endured as a child.
“I didn’t have any role models,” she said witnessing how her mother was abused by her father with subsequent kidnappings of her.
“It was always the same,” she said. “He took me to his mother to get supplies and we slept in a car. I grabbed my blanket.”
But facing all these hardships, Marvel found the strength to overcome being a victim of circumstance.
“It doesn’t happen at the flip of a switch,” she said. “I had to work on myself.”
Listen in for a chance to win a signed copy of Marvel’s life-changing book.
Author Robin Marvel of Hersey, MI is that girl who has survived mental, domestic, and drug abuse; homelessness, and kidnappings throughout her childhood. Being addicted to alcohol and partying at age 15 resulted in a sexual assault, and later she became a teen mother at age 16.
Since May is mental health awareness month, Marvel opened up to talk about her story captured in her book “Healing Childhood Trauma” from a PTSD standpoint of view.
“I didn’t want to repeat the cycle, and I started working on myself,” she said. “I realized I was in control of what happened to me.”
As a motivational speaker, Marvel talks about self-respect and determination. She strives to be a role model for her five daughters. She chose to grow through the trauma she had endured as a child.
“I didn’t have any role models,” she said witnessing how her mother was abused by her father with subsequent kidnappings of her.
“It was always the same,” she said. “He took me to his mother to get supplies and we slept in a car. I grabbed my blanket.”
But facing all these hardships, Marvel found the strength to overcome being a victim of circumstance.
“It doesn’t happen at the flip of a switch,” she said. “I had to work on myself.”
Listen in for a chance to win a signed copy of Marvel’s life-changing book.
We have all gotten hurt at some points in our lives. That doesn’t mean it has to last forever. Author Robin Marvel of Hersey, MI offers coping and healing tools in all her books. And it’s never to late to start. Love and forgive yourself first, and spread that love around you. Do not be a victim, but a victorious survivor. Talk about your issues, write about them.
Listen in on For the Love of Books Podcast on http://emmapalova123.podbean.com and on all major podcasting apps. The show features Indie and small press authors, and their special events.
Watch for these incredible authors and special guests: Robin Marvel, Andrew Smith, Diana Duell, Jon Stott, Summer Porter with illustrator Maggie Chambers.
Thanks to major sponsors Doc Chavent, The Lowell Ledger and Modern History Press. Become a guest and or a sponsor of For the Love of Books Podcast with host Emma Palova.
PM Emma if you would like to be a guest. Now scheduling August. Thanks to all the founding authors who have made this show a success: Diana Kathryn Wolf Plopa, Jean Davis, Ingar Rudholm and Andrew Smith, along with countless others.
Copyright (c) 2022. Emma Blogs, LLC. All rights reserved.
The Tri-River Historical Museum Network (TRHMN) will hold its premier special event “Spring into the Past 2022” this weekend on April 30th and May 1st with more than 30 museums and historical societies participating.
Stop by at the one-room schoolhouse signature museum in Fallasburg just six miles northeast of Lowell.
This year’s theme “Celebrating Women” depicts the many roles that women have played in history over the centuries as they serve their families in the home or community and fight for equality in many different ways.
Many museums are preparing special exhibits featuring women in their local communities such as Bowne Township Historical Society which is home to TRHMN.
“It has been a long couple of years and we are all excited to get back to business as usual,” said TRHMN president Sally Johnson. “We’re hoping for a great turnout.” TRHMN received the 2021 State Award for Special Programs/Events in…
Hot off the presses, the long-awaited To China with Love is out there wherever its author may be at the present moment. That too could be a mystery. Two years in the making due to sabotage efforts, the first book in the Jack Unchained series follows Jack Handler, a retired Chicago homicide detective on his covert mission.
The previous 14 books, all fiction, are divided into a series of seven books each that successfully sustain Jack as the main character, despite the reader’s evolving apprehension of Jack’s accomplishments.
“I have yet to see the nerves that I touch in this book,” Carrier said. “All chains are off. He is who he is. I am having a lot of fun with this series.”
Carrier draws inspiration from his private security contractor career for three decades.
“I write strictly fiction,” he said. “My stories are plausible based on real crime. I don’t intend to write non-fiction about crime.”
His biggest advice to other authors is not to shy away from returning to various events.
“It pays to go back and revisit venues where you didn’t do well,” he said.
Listen in for a chance to win a signed copy of Carrier’s To China with Love.
In his UP Colony, Author Phil Bellfy, P.h. D. poses the ultimate question: why has the Upper Peninsula’s vast wealth, nearly unrivaled in the whole of the United States, left the area with poverty nearly unrivaled in the whole of the United States. “Where did the $1.5 billion earned from copper mining, $1 billion from logging, and nearly $4 billion in iron ore go?”
Struck by the contrast between two cities on different sides of the American Canadian border, Bellfy has published an update to his 1980s MA thesis, UP Colony.
It is the story of resource exploitation in Upper Michigan in one of the oldest US cities Sault Sainte Marie. The book was published on its 350th anniversary in 2018.
“Sault Michigan was clearly a city on the decline, while Sault Ontario shared none of the malaise that infected the Michigan half of these “Sister Cities,” Bellfy writes in the new introduction.
Bellfy grew up in the Detroit suburb of Livonia and moved to Sault Sainte Marie in the fall of 1970. “We were urban Indians growing up in Detroit, but Chippewa County is most native populated East of Mississippi,” he said. “I was exposed to the native community.”
“I was also struck by the raw beauty of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, and perhaps, even more struck by the raw beauty of the landscape across the St. Marys River,” he wrote.
However, just around the time of his arrival, all the major industries shut down, and Sault Michigan was little more than a “resource colony” or “Internal Colony” without any residuals left from the mining industries.
“My own personal history adds a lot to my perception of the situation up here,” Bellfy said.
Listen in for a chance to win a signed copy of UP Colony.
The Czech and Slovak Easter traditions are deeply embedded in the villages of Moravia and Slovakia, and they are not as prevalent in the big cities such as Prague or Bratislava.
Slovak goose eggsEaster egg artist Anna Krocova in VizoviceBakery by Ellen Machackova of VizoviceKlabacka or noisemakerEaster whips
Most families color eggs in dyes or onion skins for the deep brown color and polish the eggs with butter and set them on the Easter table to reward the revelers, along with a bottle of plum brandy, desserts, lamb pound cake, and open-faced sandwiches.
Easter egg artists make “kraslice,” which are decorated empty eggshells after the yolks and whites have been blown out. These pieces of delicate art painted on a fragile shell are the mainstay of Easter sold at markets and gift shops, along with hand-embroidered tablecloths and ceramics.
The prevailing tradition remains the mysterious “whipping” of the women of the household on Easter Monday known as “schmigrust.” Men and boys traditionally braid their own whips from willow branches in all sizes. These whips are called “pomlazka” or “karabac” and they can be up to two meters long braided from 24 willow rods. Some use large special wooden spoons with ribbons or branches of juniper.
“Schmigrust is my favorite part of Easter,” said Ludek Pala, a Moravian native of Stipa, now a resident of Lowell, who still practices the tradition in the USA.
The revelers get up at the crack of dawn and head out into the streets in groups of all ages. Depending on the region they also carry wooden carved noisemakers carved by local wood artists.
When the door opens, the women and girls get a gentle whipping to drive away evil spirits, according to old legends. Originating in ancient pagan fertility rites, the practice is supposed to guarantee beauty and good health for women in the coming year.
Loosely translated as: Give me a colored egg, if you don’t give me a colored one, give me at least a white one, and your hen will lay another.
The plum brandy aka slivovice reward
The plum brandy is made in the stills in Moravia and across the country. People usually bring in their own plum or pear ferment that is distilled.
We decided to bring this tradition to the USA where we live permanently. The fruit is locally sourced from Paulson’s, Hills Brothers, and Mason peaches and apples, with no additives the brandy reflects an age-old tradition of craft stilling started by our forefathers.
Copper still by Kovodel Janca from the Czech Republic.Jakub Pala, Emma Chavent and Ludek Pala.
Moravian Sons Distillery
In return for the whipping, the revelers get a ribbon tied to the whip, a colored egg, a shot of plum brandy and they help themselves to open-faced sandwiches and desserts, such as festive kolache and lamb pound cake.
“By noon you’re tired,” said Pala.
In some regions, if the group arrives after 12 p.m., they get doused with water. However, in Slovakia, the Easter custom is to douse the women and girls with water or perfume in the morning.
According to a 2019 survey, 60% of Czech households follow the tradition of spanking (or watering) someone on Easter Monday.
In the past, young boys would chase young girls in the village streets with the whips, and vintage illustrations by Josef Lada of people in traditional folk costumes show girls running or hiding as if playing tag.
Copyright (c) 2022. Emma Blogs, LLC. All rights reserved.
Looking for answers to life’s big questions like what do I want to do with my life? Based on her individual experiences, author Amanda Filkins puts her heart out in her brand new book “Be Still: God’s Grace is Bigger than Worldly Deceit.”
“I wanted to be organic and stay away from preaching,” she said. “This book is from my heart. It’s very pure. I hope a fire is lit inside of the readers’ hearts.”
The book is meant for young women under the age of 30 who may be struggling with life’s purpose. It is divided into 10 chapters with subjects such as sex, status, money, and more.
Filkins focuses heavily on body image and societal pressures.
Listen in for a chance to win a signed copy of her new book.
Sponsored by Doc Chavent, the Lowell Ledger, Modern History Press
According to the Czech calendar, today is my name day. I named our daughter Emma, and coincidentally she was born on April 8. During my podcasts, I found out that Emma is also a popular name for female protagonists.
More on name days coming soon.
Copyright (c) 2022. Emma Blogs, LLC . All rights reserved.
authoremmapalova 