Lady Reader's Bookstuff: Never Forget Where You Come From by Jennifer Brown + Giveaway

Monday, October 15, 2012

Never Forget Where You Come From by Jennifer Brown + Giveaway

11:15 AM | Posted by lady reader |

I have invited Jennifer Brown to visit with us today and she is going to share a very powerful story with us. Jennifer has also donated a signed digital copy of her novel; IN JEN'S WORDS.

Jennifer and Justin Barnes have been raised by their older brother Jacob since they were teenagers…little did Jacob know, he was raising a third personality as well.

The Barnes have been through it all. The loss of their parents in a car crash, rape, and incarceration. But nothing could prepare them for what they are about to deal with.

When Jacob decides to run for mayor of Springwood, Ohio someone else decides to haunt him and his family, using his younger sister’s alter personality as leverage in their game.

After Jen’s mental disorder is made public, the first of many shocking revelations are made, including who her biological father really is. She is ordered into custody in the mental health wing of Springwood Memorial as a case is built against her for the murder of Davis Cauley, a former local news anchor.

Jacob gets his sister released in time for the holidays, only for another murder to occur. The body of Brenda Sowers, Davis Cauley’s sister is found in Mercy Park, the same area where her brother was found—in a storage shed, with hedge clippers in his back, and Jen across from him with no memory of what happened.

More incriminating evidence links Jen to Brenda’s murder, as Black Friday looms. The big weekend draws Jacob to the mall, where he’s in for another surprise. A photo of his brother sent to his phone reveals another huge secret, involving all of Springwood.

As the Barnes recover from what has been a very turbulent Fall, other secrets are lurking and waiting to be revealed as a family faces a trial of issues to come.

NEVER FORGET WHERE YOU COME FROM

Never forget where you came from. It’s a simple sentence with so much power behind it.

A lot of my childhood memories are hard to recollect. I had some good ones as well as some nightmarish ones. Like the time, in third grade where my reading teacher assigned us to write stories in a group, which became my first experience with writing fiction. I now look back on it fondly. There was also the time when I was at a theme park in Ohio dangling off a ski lift ride. I remember being terrified and trying to climb up the leg my mom offered me. I think at one point I believed this was just a bad dream until I heard my parents mention it later on.

I met one friend in nursery school and we remained friends as we were enrolled in elementary school. But for one reason or another as time wore on, I seemed to be one of the chosen kids to be picked on and bullied throughout grade school. Whether it was due to the glasses I was given to wear around third or fourth grade, or the fact I was diagnosed with Epilepsy around the same time, I’m not sure. Even in my own neighborhood I had other kids threatening to beat me up for no reason, other than the fact that others thought it was cool to make fun of me. After it remained evident that other kids would not accept me I was transferred to another school with my friend.

I spent one year at another grade school before moving and entering a different middle school. That was where the worst of the bullying occurred. I was humiliated by other girls in the locker room after gym class who thought it was a good idea to display my pants with a prominent sign on them, declaring what size I wore at the time. A triangle was thrown at me in Industrial Arts class that sliced my eye. I had my finger slammed in a locker. A basketball thrown in my face on a bus. Hard.

This is just a few things that stand out in my mind. But, as in grade school and kindergarten I also had a friend throughout this time. She was my only friend, and was handicapped. She also listened to me read my writing to her over the phone to get her opinion. I guess you could say, she was my first critic.

To be quite honest, I do not know where I would be today without discovering the love of writing that day back in reading class in third grade. It is definitely something that has stayed with me through the years. It was always there for me when no one else seemed to accept me. I was always accepted by my characters.

That passion has stayed with me to help me become the person I am today. I have used my writing to give back. A few years ago, after the Haiti Earthquake I got together with a few authors to create Authors for Humanity. We put out a compilation of short stories and all our royalty money went to Haiti. It felt incredible to be able to do something like that.

And now I am using it to help in a campaign that I can relate to. Every time I read a story about some girl trying to kill herself over being bullied online, or a child not much older than I was when I was first being picked on going to court for assaulting another child, it scares me. It seems like the problem is much more worse that it was twenty years ago, and I can only shake my head when I see a parent not only doing nothing to scold their child for bragging about a fight they were in, but giving them pointers on how to throw a punch next time.

When school officials were always approached about the problem I had years ago, the excuse given was ludicrous. The kids responsible for the bullying came from a broken home. So their behavior was expected. That always seemed to be the implied message. Now I look back on that and just feel infuriated. It was just an excuse. They didn’t want to deal with the problem.

Growing up sometimes, all I had was my writing to turn to, so I am honored to be a part of this campaign against bullying, and be giving away a copy of my suspense novel IN JEN'S WORDS.

I never want to forget where I came from.

--Jennifer

www.jenniferbrownauthor.weebly.com

RULES:

Open to Everybody 13+ * Winner must respond within 48 hours

*Please note, all giveaways will be shipped out at the end of the month.*

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4 comments:

Natasha said...: I think that bullying is a terrible thing. Thanks for the chance to win!; October 15, 2012 at 5:38 PM
alli (mrscaptkirk51) said...: Bullying is awful. I'm sure I'm guilty of "picking" on people too much from time to time but I can not understand how anyone thinks it's ok to hurt someone else physically or mentally/ emotionally. I really do believe bullys bully because of their own insecurities. A bully wants the negative attention on others so people don't see what's really bad about them. And so the bully hurts others before he/she gets hurt. Also, I wonder what happened to bullys than made them become that way. But then again I think some people are just naturally mean.

Bullying sucks!

~alli
mrscaptkirk51.blogspot.com; October 16, 2012 at 2:10 AM
Alba said...: Cowardice from the people that do it... ButI also try to look at some bright sides of it, such as...
You learn how to stand up for yourself... You discover just how strong you really are... And you might make the one friend that will be worth it all

Thanks for sharing your story. I love how writing was such a big part of you overcoming this.
Thx Amy <3<3; October 18, 2012 at 1:33 AM
Stina Butcher said...: I think bullying is an unfortunate reality of human life. Not to say that it can't be prevented. But there will always be someone who doesn't feel good about themselves so they put someone else down. There will always be someone who doesn't have it in them to protect themselves.
Bullying is horrible, and it's something we have to fight. We have to stand up for each other and ourselves. We have to stop what we can.; October 21, 2012 at 6:11 PM