Saturday, July 12, 2014

Spotlight: Crooked Paths and Abandoned Borders: Story in "Real" Time (Volume 1) by author Kerry Augustyniak

Dear readers,

Today's Spotlight is on a compelling, emotionally charged, and adventurous Memoir titled Crooked Paths and Abandoned Borders: Story in "Real" Time (Volume 1 available at Amazon Stores) by the very talented and gifted author Kerry Augustyniak.


From the author's desk : This is a true story about courage, survival and a quest about purpose and belonging in life with a realization of a spiritual component within.
Author Links : Connect with author Kerry Augustyniak


Self Publishers and Publishers Advertising Club : http://www.pinterest.com/oncemulligan/must-read/

Writer explores life between stability and panic | Lifestyles | The Register-Guard | Eugene, Oregon
http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-364984823.html
____________________________________________________________________

Book Spotlight


Ebook : CROOKED PATHS AND ABANDONED BORDERS : Story in "Real" Time

Author : Kerry Augustyniak

Genre : Non Fiction, Memoirs, Self Help, True Story

Format : Paperback

Available at : Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/Crooked-Paths-Abandoned-Borders-Story/dp/1494860260 

Black Sun Books - http://www.blacksunbooks.net/

Reviews : Multiple 5 stars

Synopsis : This is a story about courage. It's a true story of one human’s struggle and one canine’s quest to find a pack where they belong. It’s about surviving as castaways, while each tries to find footing in a wilderness they were never intended to be part of. It’s for those who dance to the beat of a different drummer and what happens when they fail to integrate, a story of trespassed boundaries, disintegration, and broken hearts, in the midst of conflicting ideologies. Despite anguish, despair, and nothing but failure along their crooked paths, they are eventually lead back to where they both began. Where Love, Hope, Acceptance, and Credence can be found, right under our very own nose.

Amazon Reviews
_________________________________________________________________________

Chapter Excerpt - Crooked Paths and Abandoned Borders

I’m one of those who has known the bounds between stability and instability all of my life, dipping in and out of each realm to varying degrees. My challenges have not been obvious to others, not at first glance anyway. My wit, charm, and street smarts, though fleeting, have allowed me to skate through just enough to survive. Survive was all I could ever muster when it came to employment. I was able to disguise my inner world, long enough, to obtain way too many entry-level positions to count with just as many failed attempts to follow. I’d seen therapists on and off throughout my life without a diagnosis ever being revealed, not to me anyway. 

After they collected my money and posed as interested advocates, some better than others, they would then attempt to shoot confidence and some semblance of order into my veins. Scantly comprehended by my brain, it mostly dribbled out before it had a chance to sink in, and the little that did would wear off in a short time. Many years later, at the crossroads of life and at the threshold of “the change,” I was deteriorating quickly. It’s true that I’d had high levels of anxiety and a history of panic throughout my life. Perhaps a learning disability of sorts, brain damage, or ADD, but as long as I can remember, my mind has blasted me with negative interpretations of my world and myself, creating deep passages and well-worn grooves for my fully insulated, uninterrupted, negative thought patterns to run in, but none of which were comparable to what was taking place at this juncture in my life. 

My children flew the coop, my place of employment was trying to rid themselves of me (or so I thought), I found myself out on medical leave, my husband of 27 years moved out, and the unwavering support that I had been receiving from my doctors came to an abrupt end. My inability to cope with the recent series of inevitable milestones in my life, created intolerable doses of fear, anger, anguish, sadness and despair, during which time I managed to blow away everything and everyone that had been within close proximity to me. I took out innocent bystanders and wreaked havoc on everything that crossed my path. It had become painfully apparent that the boat load of bad habits I’d spent a good deal of my life trying to control and abstain from, had only been replaced by coping strategies fabricated on false, delusional, security systems.

I’ve written this story for several reasons; I am determined to finish something that I started, because this in and of itself is less than a common experience in my life. Not long ago I had started a story about a canine friend of mine named Copper, who broke my heart; but true to form I was derailed in the process time and time again. When shit hit the fan I decided to pick it up again and since mine and Copper’s experiences seemed so similar in theme, I wanted to try to integrate them. Like me, Copper had characteristics he was born with that made it difficult, no, impossible, for him to succeed in the situations where he was placed. 

Although these environments with their rule and limits did not allow for his attributes to be showcased, much less accepted, I knew he was not flawed. Leaving no stone unturned while running up against dead ends, failed attempts, and repeated messages that he did not measure up, he was ultimately able to find his true pack by continuing along the crooked, dimly lit and unmarked path that life has to offer. Like Copper, I had little interest in the limits of rules and did not know how to carry myself well in social situations.

In school, I missed the boat in learning most of what was taught about reading, writing and arithmetic, so I’ll warn you now that there are many hiccups in my attempt in putting this story together, but this story is for those living in the margins. It’s for the ones who have had continuous struggles and failed attempts at making a living or finding a niche for themselves in this world, whether due to mental afflictions or just simply marching to the beat of a different drummer, a beat that is not copacetic with the rhythms of the culture they find themselves in. If you know the pain of persistence in the face of fear, failures and flaws, or have worked in menial positions all of your life, leaving you wanting, if your experience in the world is one of perpetual outcast, then this book might be for you.

No comments:

Featured Post

Collage - Top picks from HALL OF FAME - treat for book lovers

A big hello to everyone ! Today Literary Flairs brings forth top book features (selected from a great bunch of books featured here) spot...