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Friday 26 October 2012

Tainted Love Release Day!

Oh My God! I'm so excited to bring Tainted Love to you.

Faith's story is one of love, and courage, and strength. She is a woman with a desire to protect her family and her journey is one that spans across her entire marriage and watches her children grow, watches Faith grow.

Tainted Love is just the beginning. The Valentina Secrets series follows the McKenzie family as the truth casts ripples across the rest of their lives.

For anyone in a relationship, the words 'we need to talk' can only mean one thing. In the last twenty-two years, the McKenzies have been through it, survived it, learned by it, and grown stronger from it, because life didn't stop for breath when they needed it. Amongst the tears and the tragedies, the hopes and happiness, they've built something amazing: a happy family, a luxury lifestyle and a booming empire. Don't they deserve to have it all?

But for the perfect wife, those four sinister words mean something entirely different. They're a summons into a private world where what happens behind closed doors stays behind closed doors.

Faith has no doubt in Calvin's undying love for her. It's what kept her sane in the darkest hours. If only she could figure out what it is she does wrong... because it’s rapidly becoming apparent their tainted love is running out of time.

Tainted Love: The Faith McKenzie Story 

is available for Kindle at Amazon.com and  Amazon.co.uk 
(free kindle apps are available for mobile phones, pc, tablets)

And for all other e-Reading devices Tainted Love is available at Smashwords.com 



Erin

Posts You May Have Missed 

Sneak Peak - Tainted Love - Chapter 1 

 It's Time to End the Silence

Monday 22 October 2012

Tainted Love - Cover Reveal

Today I bring you the beautiful designed cover of Tainted Love by Stephanie Mooney at Mooneydesignes.net

Tainted Love will be available on Amazon shortly



Erin

Sneak Peek - Tainted Love - Chapter 1

Novel Excerpt - Tainted Love (unedited) 

Thursday 18 October 2012

It's Time to End the Silence


I want to introduce you to Darryl. He’s 28 years old, a trainee psychiatrist living in New York City. He grew up in The Hamptons and had all the trappings of a privileged lifestyle. He received all the emotional and physical nurturing a child could ever need. After the loss of their parents Darryl’s much older sister gave him the same loving, rewarding, disciplining, and supporting care as her own children and Darryl grew up with his eldest niece and nephew but they were more like a brother and sister to him. Faith ensured Darryl never missed out on anything but she respected their bond as siblings, she never tried to replace their parents and she never let the little 6 year old orphan inside forget his mom and dad.

Darryl hasn’t seen Faith in 7 years. They argued over the secrets she kept and the lies she told and they haven’t spoken since. But he loves his sister, her grace, her strength and her wisdom beyond her years. She’s the most amazing person he knows. She’s magic. She can walk into chaos, snap her fingers and create order. She makes the world a better place just by being Faith. She gave up her dreams to take care of him and who knows where he may have ended up if she hadn’t? So, to this day, he doesn’t understand her betrayal. They never kept secrets from each other.

8 weeks ago the police knocked on his door looking for Faith. His sister and the two youngest children left for a shopping trip. They never arrived at the mall and they never returned home either. Her husband and older children are very worried. But today, Darryl has received a letter from Faith. There are no more secrets, no more lies, only the truth. He knows EVERYTHING. Why didn’t he see what was happening? Didn’t he live with them? Why didn’t he know? Maybe he could have protected her...

Recently in the UK, couple were convicted of murdering their daughter. Their motive were claimed to be because her western lifestyle brought shame on their religion and therefore it is branded an ‘Honour Killing’. Personally, I agree with detective in charge of the case. Murder is murder pure and simple. Don’t glorify it! In this particular insistence, the girl endured years of abuse by her family for her life choices.

Domestic violence: We all know this world exists. We all hear of the horrific tragedies that hit the media. But it’s a world we don’t talk about. A world with the terms: Don’t ask, Daren’t tell.

In the US, women are attacked about six times more often by someone they've had an intimate relationship with than male violent victims, and 30% of all female homicides in the US were known to be killed by their husbands, former husbands or boyfriends. And in the UK 1 in 4 women will experience domestic violence in their life time and over two are killed each week by their current or ex partner. With similar reports across the commonwealth it’s likely YOU KNOW SOMEONE AFFECTED BY DOMESTIC VIOLENCE.

I know I do.

I thought I only knew one person with an abusive past. I didn’t realise how many people I knew until I wrote the words ‘The End’ in a manuscript that had completely sidetracked me from my current work in progress. My character, bless her, she whispered to me for a couple of weeks and I resisted. Her world was somewhere I didn’t want to go... you know it was one of those ‘Don’t ask, Daren’t tell’ kind of stories. One I didn’t want to face, or even talk about. But she fights for even the smallest of victories and one night she won. She said something and I had no choice but to pay attention. Two weeks later I was sending out the completed manuscript. The response was phenomenal.

But what is more overwhelming is the number of people who have opened their healed past to share their stories with me. And I'm not just talking readers. When I explain Faith's story to anyone, the number of people who have told me they were once in my characters shoes is... well, for the number of people I've come into contact with in my day-to-day life it]s far too many. There are many more people affected by domestic violence than you realise.

Faith is Darryl’s sister. He grew up believing in the American dream, loving families and happily ever after with no idea of the true depth of his sister’s marriage because that was what Faith wanted him to have. It’s what she wants all her children to have (although she tries harder to achieve this goal more than anything else she isn’t successful). Like many women in her situation Faith suffers alone, and in silence. She hides from the truth. She covers it up. She lies. She denies it, even to herself. For this man loves her, he will change for her.

“Faith” is also your boss’s wife. “She’s” your next door neighbour. “She’s” the goddaughter of an acquaintance you may see frequently. “She’s” the Mum of a kid who plays on the same football team as your kid. “She” plays tennis with you at the local club. “She” could be your colleague, your aunt, your cousin, your sister, your niece, your grandmother, your mom, or even your friend and she’ll never say a word.

Do Ask, let’s build the courage together ... It’s time to end the silence.

Coming October 2012 - Tainted Love: The Faith McKenzie Story



Erin

Posts You May Have Missed 

Sneak Peek - Tainted Love - Chapter 1 

A Star in Heaven   Poem by Erin Cawood

Domestic Violence Awareness Month 

Tuesday 9 October 2012

Sneak Peek! - Tainted Love - Chapter 1


I'm so excited! Release day is getting closer and closer, but there's still so much to do. You've all patiently listened to me rattle on about Tainted Love, Faith and her family for so long now that, today, I thought I'd give to a sneak peek inside...


Chapter One


7th October 1999

Dear Little Brother,

You have to promise me something...
Promise me you won't tell a soul what you are about to read? Unless something happens to me, no one needs to know.
My babies, Georgia and Caleb, only need to know what I have told them. I am unhappy. I have been unhappy for a long time. And therefore, I have gone away to heal my heart, my mind, and my spirit. They'll understand, for me their younger sisters are part of the healing process, and this is why I have taken the girls with me. I have promised to return, and I will. Somehow I'll find another way into Georgia and Caleb’s lives. But... I'll never go back.
I tell myself every day I should be thankful for what I have. Despite my sad situation I have you, my amazing younger brother. You’ve flourished into an all-state star quarterback and earned a scholarship to one of the best medical schools in the country. I have three wonderful daughters who still see fairy tales and dreams, and know how to reach for the sky. The eldest has high grades and a warm heart for children in need. She's taken herself down the path to follow Daddy into the family profession. The younger ones are a delight. Barely walking, already they have flair for drama, song, and dance. I see stars in their eyes and fame on their horizons.

Tuesday 2 October 2012

Domestic Violence Awareness Month

For me, the October spotlight has always be pink. I've always done my little bit to support the amazing work done for cancer research. And I will continue to do so. But, in the US, October is also Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

As you know, over the past ten months my romantic rose tinted world has led me into darker territories. Places where riding off into the sunset doesn't take the heroine to the promised happy ever after. A place where the knight in shining armor becomes the ogre in the princess's fairytale and I'm not talking of the Shrek kind either!

At first, it wasn't too difficult to tread through this world. To read stories about domestic abuse form character profiles. As cold and as detached as that sounds, it was research and I was exploring a world I've never been so I was being ... naive. Looking upon this as any other research project. Well, you're not supposed to let every dark shadow in fiction make you jump, aren't you?

Then a character tried talking to me. Her name is Faith. I've known what was happening to Faith for a long time, she's been a secondary character and her story has weaved through the back story in two of my novels. Put simply, when it came to Faith I couldn't put her life and marriage into words. I couldn't put myself in Faith's shoes. And as an author that's exactly what you do. You put yourself in your character's place to feel, and smell, and taste, and breathe as they do. I didn't think I could do it, nor did I think I could face the reality of her world. 

So for weeks I told myself Faith didn't have a story to tell. But I guess that was just me. Seeing only what I wanted to see. Telling myself only what I wanted to hear. Avoiding the subject of domestic abuse because its unpleasant and it doesn't fit with 'they all lived happily ever after' because there is a story. A story Faith forced me to share with you. (Seriously, She hijacked her brother's story and forced me to listen to her voice through something he remembered!) Tainted Love: The Faith McKenzie Story will be released soon.

During the first seven months I never noticed once how the survivor stories were affecting me. And then, one by one, the more stories I read and the more people I spoke with, the more real domestic abuse became. It seemed to take over my subconscious mind. I began having awfully dark dreams and nightmares. By the end of August I felt like I'd run into a brick wall of domestic abuse. I've spent most of September contemplating the dark places it has and will continue to take me. 

I voluntarily wondered into this darkness to discover an alarming number of people who have shared their story with me once they'd read Faith's story. I kid you not the statistics of 1 in 4 women is alarming realistic and it means if you know 100 women 25 of them are likely to be victims of domestic abuse (and it's 1 in 6 for men). There are thousands of survivors. People willing to speak out and share their stories. They did not go there by choice. There are also thousands more who still live in fear and silence. They do not choose to stay. 

This year, when I do my thing and think pink ... I'll be taking a few extra minutes to think PURPLE.



Erin

For more information and Domestic Abuse Charities for help and guidance. See my dedicate page

Domestic Abuse Awareness Week is 21st-25th November in the UK and 
Women's Aid international 16 days of Action runs from  November 25th - 10th December

Posts You May Have Missed 

How Do Horror Novelists Sleep at Night? 

Novel Excerpt - Tainted Love: The Faith McKenzie Story 
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The Legal Bit

All characters have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation to anyone baring the same name. They are not inspired by an individual known or unknown by the author and all incidents are pure invention.

The articles, excerpts, and other written work published under the pseudonym Erin Cawood are copyright protected by the author. Guest articles are published by arrangement and also copyright protected by the guest author.

Images of Erin Cawood are provided by Paul Miguel Photography.


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