I caught on to this late, but it’s a worthy cause, and I’m not wasting the opportunity to introduce this amazing book to you.
A Community of Butterflies: Chrysalis
by Barbara Shoff
Proceeds from this book go to a shelter for survivors of Domestic Violence and Abuse, which the author is also a survivor of.
Back blurb
A Community of Butterflies: Chrysalis (Published by LilyBearHouse, LLC.)
On-again-off-again psychic Vay Armstrong has a plan to change the world. Following ten years of domestic violence and abuse, she struggles with post-traumatic stress, paranoia and an inability to trust others. Determined to escape her reclusive life, she enlists the help of other abuse survivors to create a utopian community within Jakesville, Oklahoma. Will Vay be able to overcome family opposition, a romantic entanglement and a homicidal stalker to make her vision a reality, or will her only reality be a cold hole in the ground?”
Excerpt
Her eyes flashed opened meeting darkness. She heard loud barking near her head, followed by the cracking retort of gunshots outside her window. Her desire to survive overpowered her exhaustion.
He was back.
Reaching across pillows she wrapped her two terriers in one arm. She rolled to the floor, her free hand grasping the .38 from her nightstand. Crouching, she scurried across the hall to her closet sanctuary. She shoved both pets into a single crate.
“Shhh,” she commanded. They obeyed.
Bracing herself against the wall, flipping the safety with her thumb, she waited.
Calls for help were useless. William was never there when law enforcement arrived. She’d remembered the officers’ whispers, “Paranoid. Delusional. Crazy.”
She made the decision.
Escape.
‘ … just when the caterpillar thought the world was over,
it became a butterfly … ”
About the Author
Barbara Shoff began writing before she could write. At the age of five she would make up dialogue for her friends so they could perform plays. They charged a nickle a performance to “the old people” (parents and grandparents) in the neighborhood. The stage was a front porch with a blanket curtain.
Their group was quite successful which kept them in bubble gum and popsicles most summers.
In the 1980’s Barbara had a column in a small town Missouri newspaper. It was called, “BJ’s Corner.” She wrote it for free. She became serious about writing and began penning articles for several women’s magazines.
“I sold my first article for $25. I was so excited I screamed so loud you would have thought it was for 25 million. I have written brilliant ad copy as well as very dull assembly instruction manuals.”
Severely social media challenged two years ago, Barbara became the accidental Pundit on PolicyMic.
It was when she had her non-fiction expose’ complete and was looking for a publisher when Barbara decided it was high-time the old dog started learning new tricks.
As a survivor of domestic violence and abuse she wanted to give back to her community. “Social workers educating survivors living in a shelter about domestic violence and abuse is ass backwards. These women already know better than the social workers what happened. The ‘whys’ research is still sorting out. What survivors need to learn is how protect themselves and support themselves while they heal and transform into something stronger and more beautiful than they were before. To that purpose, I wrote a stalker thriller, A Community of Butterflies: Chrysalis as the first book in a trilogy.”
Barbara has picked every brain she could find to try to figure out about the ins and outs of developing a “platform” and how social media works for writers. She took a social media for dummies class at a local technology center. “I almost learned some things about Facebook. The next day they changed it.
“I hired a fifteen year old to teach me asking, how something was done. He would shrug his shoulders and say, ‘Dunno. Let’s try this. Nope, not that, Let’s try this.’ Fifty dollars later a light went on and I decided to try stuff on my own. I watched YouTube videos until my eyes crossed, took a spiral notebook full of notes and finally built a website.
“I am still learning. Now both books are published. I am signed up on almost every freaking social media site there is and am maybe, kinda, sorta getting an idea of how they possibly work. Mostly I’m praying Oprah or Ellen will ‘discover’ me and I can concentrate on writing my books and going to shelters giving chrysalis building lessons.
“Oh, yeah. In 2013 I was honored to be a member of the inaugural cast of Oklahoma City’s production of Listen to Your Mother. You can watch me on YouTube by searching, LTYM OKC Barbara Shoff.”
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