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About Judy Byington
 Judy Byington, M.S.W., L.C.S.W., ret, has dedicated her life to humanizing and raising public awareness about the little known effects of ritual abuse and mind-control programming that tragically cause formation of multiple personalities in children.
The retired CEO, therapist, author and mental health supervisor is founder and leader of Trauma Research Center, a non-profit organization dedicated to providing information through CEU accredited seminars and lectures on Dissociation and coordinating ritual abuse survivor group, therapeutic and legal resources.
The former mental health supervisor spent twenty years in research with Jenny Hill while interviewing hundreds of ritual abuse survivors, legal entities, therapists, families of missing children and religious, media and community leaders. She works as a consultant on Occult crime with the Utah Attorney General’s office.
With a compelling drive to educate the public on the unimaginable horrors faced by children born into families practicing ritual abuse, Byington continues to pen books about survivors like Jenny Hill who suffer repressed childhood memories of forced participation in rape, torture and murder. Her upcoming book Saints, Sinners and Satan provides a first person account of her own experiences with multiple personality survivors and Occult crime.
You can find out more about the book at http://twentytwofaces.com or at the bloghttp://www.22faces.com
The Interview
What are you most proud of accomplishing so far in your life?
I raised, pretty much all by myself, five wonderful and responsible children who somehow, though I’m confused about how this happened, became accomplished adults and loving parents to my grandkids. Aside from trying to honor my God, values and a loving spouse who married me later in life, I find nothing is more important, or worthwhile, than being a good parent and grandparent.
What inspires you to write and why?
I believe inspiration comes from our Creator. He told me to write about the ritually abused, though I must confess, I often felt my voice was crying in the wilderness. I feel that Twenty-Two Faces will be successful so that, as Jenny wrote in the dedication, “(Angeletta’s) cries will at last be heard and may those screams give children of abuse, courage to break their silence.”
What genre are you most comfortable writing?
I prefer to write true life narratives so I can bring the reader into thoughts and actions of the characters. I especially enjoy uncovering the innocent brilliance of a child. It is my goal to have the public not only understand who, where, what and how things happen, but more important, why.
Have you developed a specific writing style?
I have been told that I have a very distinct writing style, though can’t give myself credit for it. If it is there it has come through humble prayer and inspiration from the Creator who made us all.
About 22 Faces
 Referring to journals written throughout childhood,Twenty-Two Faces: Inside the Extraordinary Life of Jenny Hill and Her Twenty-Two Multiple Personalitiesdocuments how as a five year-old, Jenny overcomes ongoing abuse by turning to prayer while utilizing her alter states to compartmentalize trauma at the hands of a master mind-control programmer from Nazi Germany. After suffering deaths of a high school sweetheart, plus her only girlfriend, she somehow completes Army medic training, receives a nursing degree, prepares for a church mission and becomes a mother. Simultaneously led by sex-addict Head Alter J.J., intrepid alters assume frequent control, engaging in larceny and prostitution. With her children, her lifeline, the increasingly desperate nurse escapes a drugged-out pimping husband, blacks out in a job interview, comes to nine days later as an inpatient headed for the Utah State Psychiatric Hospital and only then learns what her life has really been.
About K.R. Morrison
K R Morrison lives in the Pacific Northwest, with her husband of 25 years, a small zoo, and the occasionally visiting college-age child.
You can find out more about her and her work at http://www.benotafraidthebook.com
Why Mentors Are So Important
We arrive in this world unable to do anything on our own. Every movement, every gesture, is shown or taught us by someone else. Of course there is instinct, but one does not need intelligence for the basic tools of survival. All along the way, someone else is helping us, molding our minds, shaping our values, until the day we pass on. It may be as subtle as seeing someone help another person, or it may be as obvious as sitting with a favorite friend or relative who is giving us advice.
I like to think of myself as independent, but in truth I am not. This is true on so many planes that I would take too much space here in the telling. I think I would have to be living in a windowless box on a high hill, never seeing anyone, to start thinking I am free of influence. But even my memories and my behaviors would reflect who I was and how I was brought up.
Mentoring in the writing world is of utmost importance. I have come to realize that as I have continued to uncover what I DON’T know about writing and publishing. My supervisor at work is only too happy to advise me when it comes to social networking—pointing me in the right directions, answering my questions tirelessly, giving me tips and material to advance my knowledge.
One mentor has led me to many, as I have joined a local writers’ group, helped put together a smaller writers’ support group, and have become part of an independent author’s forum online. With so many backgrounds and approaches, it has become more and more important to me to develop these relationships. Through the internet and face-to-face, with seminars and actual meetings, we all figuratively hold each others’ hands and navigate our way through the world of publishing. Supporting and critiquing, arguing (kindly, I hope) and listening, we help each other perfect the paths that lead to our personal goals.
By ourselves, we can certainly tread this path alone, but we will always wonder if what we did was the right thing, or if something could have been changed to make it better. But we don’t know unless we ask. And who better than those who have paved the way before us, and can truthfully give us the answers we need?
About Be Not Afraid
 War is imminent. Evil has overtaken the world, although the world does not know it. God must intervene on the behalf of those who love Him, and a war is brewing that will decide supremacy.
God’s plan unfolds, and His subjects must retain their faith in the midst of every evil the Father of Lies can throw at them. Lydia, because of her strong faith, is particularly seized upon by Vlad, a demonic vampire. He brings her to the brink of despair, unknowingly causing her to cling even harder to her Lord and Savior. When she is miraculously saved, Vlad finds and then harasses her friends and family, unaware of the angels and saints who are on the brink of attack against him and his minions.
The faithful are tested to the ends of their abilities. Will they be able to stand fast against the power of Death, remembering that God is with them? Or will the Father of Lies rise triumphant?
ABOUT CAROLINE ALETHIA
Caroline Alethia is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in newspapers, magazines, on radio and in web outlets. Her words have reached audiences on six continents. She lived in Bolivia and was a witness to many of the events described in Plant Teacher.  You can visit her website at www.plantteacherthebook.net. Website |Twitter | Facebook | Amazon | Amazon Kindle Store |Official Tour Page
The Story Behind Plant Teacher
By Caroline Alethia
2007 to 2008 were “interesting times” in the South American country of Bolivia. Democratically elected President Evo Morales decided he wanted a firmer grasp on power. In an armed encampment, surrounded by protestors, he illegally amended the national Constitution to extend his term limit. While this assault against democracy was taking place, three protestors outside were shot and killed.
I lived in Bolivia from 2007 to 2008. I read the national newspapers and watched the television coverage of riots and protests and arrests. At night, I saw demonstrators walking through the streets with banners and torches, shouting slogans and setting off firecrackers that sounded like gunshots. During the day, I wound through encampments of hunger strikers in the main city plaza of Santa Cruz de la Sierra. These brave citizens rested in hammocks and sipped nothing but water for days while television reporters meandered through the crowds and ambulances waited on street corners.
And what did I do? Because I was neither a Bolivian citizen nor a member of the press, I slipped into my favorite café and sipped frothy fruit smoothies. I set up my laptop and read the news online, and I watched dozens of other customers enjoy pastries and teas and coffees as if nothing remarkable was going on outside.
In the evenings, I would socialize with other visitors in the sheltered patio of my guest house. Travelers from all over the country considered whether or not there would be a civil war. We drank soft drinks mixed with beer and took evening dips in the pool. We had parties. We played the guitar and sang. We barbecued. In the day, vendors sold their wares at the outdoor markets and office workers found their ways to their jobs.
Bolivia from 2007 to 2008 was a study in just how deeply the human spirit craves normalcy. Revolution and civil war may threaten, but people will still pay their bills and do their laundry and pick up their groceries in the evening. When certain possibilities are too difficult to assimilate, we human beings move ahead as if… as if life is normal.
I wrote Plant Teacher, set it in Bolivia from 2007 to 2008, and filled it with characters who were preoccupied with the daily routines and personal dramas of their lives. While a coup takes place around them, the characters in Plant Teacher fall in and out of love, read books and write poetry, sip cappuccinos and take dips in the pool. For as long as they can pretend their lives are normal, they will do so: So do the characters in Plant Teacher; so do everyday human beings. This paradox alone, I found to be a worthy setting for a novel. I hope my readers agree.
ABOUT PLANT TEACHER
Hailed by Huffington Post contributor Joel Hirst as a compelling and powerful story, Plant Teacher begins in 1972 when a hippie in Oakland, California flushes a syringe of LSD down a toilet. Thirty-five years later, the wayward drug paraphernalia has found its final resting place in Los Yungas, Bolivia, the umbilical cord between the Andes and Amazonia. Enter into this picture two young Americans, Cheryl Lewis, trying to forge her future in La Paz and Martin Banzer, trying to come to terms with his past in the same city. The two form an unlikely friendship against the backdrop of a country teetering at the brink of dictatorship and revolution. Bolivia sparks the taste for adventure in both young people and Martin finds himself experimenting with indigenous hallucinogenic plants while Cheryl flits from one personal relationship to another. Meanwhile, the syringe buried in the silt in a marsh in Los Yungas will shape their destinies more than either could anticipate or desire.Plant Teacher takes its readers on a fast-paced tour from the hippie excesses of Oakland, to the great streams of the Pacific Ocean and to the countryside, cities, natural wonders and ancient ruins of Bolivia. It reveals the mundane and the magical, and, along the way, readers glimpse the lives of everyday Bolivians struggling to establish equanimity or merely eke out a living during drastic political crisis.
About Raynetta Stocks
 Raynetta Stocks was born in Washington D.C. in August 1981. She excelled early at reading and writing, passions that endured and thrived into adulthood. She honed her skills entering literary contests and writing plays and prose for various extracurricular groups in both high school and college.
Having written since childhood, Raynetta has composed hundreds of works in a multitude of genres to include children’s books, adolescent fiction, short stories, and social essays. Her first work, Barely Breathing, a collection of prose and letters written under the pseudonym Micah Michele and comprised with fellow author J. Mahogany, was published in June 2005. While the work was a tentative first effort, Raynetta continued to persevere as a writer, strengthening her skills by working with talented and knowledgeable mentors.
Now on the brink of the release of her second published work, and first solo effort, she is optimistic and excited about the future prospects in her career. The Grim, a gritty and empowering novel about a young woman’s struggle with PTSD, is the spring board by which Raynetta continues reaching for the stars.
She now resides in Maryland with her family.
You can visit Raynetta’s website at www.raynettastocks.com
The Interview
What is your favorite quality about yourself?
I love that I am a sunny, positive person. I try to stay optimistic and am eager to learn new things.
What is your favorite quote, by whom, and why?
“If the grass is starting to look greener on the other side, water your own grass.”—Maya Angelou. I love that quote because it forces you to look at your own situation. Instead of bailing out for something that seems more profitable, find a way to correct your own problems.
What are you most proud of accomplishing so far in your life?
The Grim has been my biggest accomplishment, mostly because I promised myself I would finish my first novel by the time I was 30. I don’t turn 31 until August so I’ve met that goal!
How has your upbringing influenced your writing?
My brother and I grew up, not so much poor but relatively restricted monetarily. So we found ourselves making up a lot of stories and games. We were very inventive that way. That has translated to writing in that I come up with ideas pretty easily.
When did you first know you could be a writer?
My “short stories” in fourth and fifth grade always opened to rave reviews (haha). Granted, I was writing about chickens and pigs with farm issues, but my classmates always seemed to love them. Through middle and high school, my writing branched off into plays (as I was an avid participator in my drama clubs) and social/political satires. Again, my work always attracted so much attention, so I was pushed by several advisors to continue.
What genre are you most comfortable writing?
I don’t have a specific genre that works best for me. I like the freedom of being able to write whatever story comes to me, be it romance, psycho thriller or young adult.
What inspired you to write your first book?
Personal experiences actually. My main character, Jaycee, and I have a lot of similar traumas, and telling her story helped me to excise a lot of those demons.
What made you want to be a writer?
I’ve always had a love affair with words. I’ve been writing since I was a child. I was given my first journal at six years old and haven’t stopped since.
What do you consider the most challenging about writing a novel, or about writing in general?
The most challenging part of writing a novel is starting. It’s relatively easy for me to come up with an idea, and once I bang out three or four pages of a first chapter I can love, continuing doesn’t pose much problem. But finding a satisfying, engaging opening to a story tends to still pose a problem.
Do you intend to make writing a career?
I definitely want to make writing my full time career. It’s going to take some significant effort, but that’s the next long-term goal.
Have you developed a specific writing style?
I’m pretty character-driven. I love my characters; I embrace them and make sure I know them intimately as I write. My plots are typically dictated by my characters, and I won’t go forward with my notes if my characters don’t fit the situations.
About The Grim
 A gripping tale of both thrills and depth, The Grim follows Jaycee Baynes, single mother and convicted murderer, through her tumultuous stay at an in-patient psych ward. Unable to remember the horrendous events that incarcerated her, she is haunted daily by the presence of her bullet-riddled ex-lover, without whose help, she will undoubtedly never be freed. Having repressed all memory of what she’s done, Jaycee must find a way to manage her illness and confront her past–before it consumes her first.
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Referring to journals written throughout childhood,Twenty-Two Faces: Inside the Extraordinary Life of Jenny Hill and Her Twenty-Two Multiple Personalitiesdocuments how as a five year-old, Jenny overcomes ongoing abuse by turning to prayer while utilizing her alter states to compartmentalize trauma at the hands of a master mind-control programmer from Nazi Germany. After suffering deaths of a high school sweetheart, plus her only girlfriend, she somehow completes Army medic training, receives a nursing degree, prepares for a church mission and becomes a mother. Simultaneously led by sex-addict Head Alter J.J., intrepid alters assume frequent control, engaging in larceny and prostitution. With her children, her lifeline, the increasingly desperate nurse escapes a drugged-out pimping husband, blacks out in a job interview, comes to nine days later as an inpatient headed for the Utah State Psychiatric Hospital and only then learns what her life has really been.
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