Unwillable: A Journey to Reclaim My Brain by Jackie M. Stebbins (Guest post, excerpt, and GIVEAWAY)

 

 

It is my pleasure to share an inspirational guest post by author Jackie M. Stebbins, who gives a glimpse of her journey to publish this memoir.

JMS:  During my senior year in college, I specifically recall one of my final classes where another student talked about her bucket list and that she desired to someday write a book. 

I remember scoffing at her a little under my breath saying, “Puhh-leassse, that’s so cliché.” And for whatever legitimate or spiteful reason I seemed to have, I always thought people were being trite when they expressed that they, or someone they knew, should write a book. 

I believe it’s because since a very young age, I was focused on becoming a lawyer, and never really committed myself to hobbies. 

From the time I read my first John Grisham book in fifth grade, my heart was set on becoming a lawyer. Pursuing the law is time intensive academically, mentally, and emotionally. All of my waking hours and brain power seemed to go to family law, criminal defense, civil litigation, running my law office, and being the best wife and mother I could be when I was home. 

But in 2018, my life was completely upended when I was diagnosed with autoimmune encephalitis (AE), a rare brain condition wherein a person’s immune system mistakenly attacks her brain. AE sent me into cognitive failure and it nearly stole my life. 

When my brain was turned back on by intravenous steroids and I woke up, I realized that everything I knew was gone, including my beloved career. 

And suddenly, it was no longer trite or trivial to write a book. It was the only thing that kept me alive in my darkest days. 

Writing my memoir, Unwillable, quite literally helped me survive AE, recover from its devastating and traumatic onset, and rebuild my shattered life into an author, blogger, podcaster, and motivational speaker. 

I always go back to my favorite quote from John Lennon: “Life is what happens when you’re busy making plans.” Yes. Life happened to me. And it turned me into a “cliché” author. 

And I love every minute of it.

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Unwillable: 

A Journey to Reclaim My Brain

by 

Jackie M. Stebbins

 

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GENRE:   Memoir

 

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BLURB:

 

“Jackie Stebbins’ UNWILLABLE is an inspiring story of a brilliant woman’s battle with autoimmune encephalitis and the circle of support--from loving family members to dedicated physicians--who helped guide her through a hard-won recovery. Her story is as moving as it is important and is destined to help so many others facing this condition.”

Susannah Cahalan author of NYT #1 Bestseller Brain on Fire

 

Goodreads

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EXCERPT

I remember the moment it hit. It was like the physical feeling of lightning striking me and an earthquake ripping through me all at once. It had an instantaneous feeling of terror and destruction. The explosion started in my brain and reverberated through my entire body. It caught and spread like wildfire.

 

It is my memory that I sat upright in bed when it felt like the lightning bolt struck my head. My hands and arms immediately started to fly wildly and uncontrollably all over the place, as if I was trying to brace myself while the earthquake tore through me. For just a second, I wanted to scream out for help, but I couldn’t. I peed my pants. And after that, it all goes black. 

 

The memory I have is only an instant long, but I can still feel the desire to scream. I can feel my arms moving so rapidly and uncontrollably that they are almost screaming out too. It is the worst of all the nightmares, all the terrors, and all the episodes I had in that bed for those seven months, in a few split seconds. 

Buy links 

 Amazon link

Barnes & Noble

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

 

Jackie M. Stebbins was living her dream as a nationally recognized family law, criminal defense, and civil litigator. But Stebbins’s career as a lawyer abruptly ended in May, 2018, when she was diagnosed with a rare brain illness, autoimmune encephalitis. Stebbins persevered to make a remarkable recovery and turned herself into an author and motivational speaker. Stebbins is the author of the JM Stebbins blog and host of the Brain Fever podcast. Stebbins’s side hustle includes raising three lovely children with her wonderful husband, Sean, in Bismarck, North Dakota, and in her leisure time she can be found reading, trying to be funny, and aqua jogging.

 

Social Media:

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

LinkedIn

TikTok

 

Websites:

jmstebbins.com

Blog

unwillable.com

 

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GIVEAWAY

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The tour dates can be found here

The Not so True Adventures of Brandon, Josh, and Adam by Barry Fellinger (Spotlight, excerpt, review, and GIVEAWAY) GFT

 

 The Not so True Adventures of Brandon, Josh, and Adam

by 

Barry Fellinger

 

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GENRE: Children's Fiction

 

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BLURB:

 

Eleven-year-old cousins Brandon and Josh return home safely at the end of their Almost True Adventure, only to discover that their cousin Adam has been captured by the very same aliens from the Intergalactic Council on Obedience to Parents they just escaped from!

 

Now the boys must figure out how to get back into space, rescue Adam, and return home safely again!

 

It's a Not So True Adventure full of action, surprises, old friends, new enemies, frenemies, and what's that about doubles troubles?

 

A hilarious and once-in-a-while serious story of past, present, and future antics, based on some of the three cousins' escapades in real life!

 

 

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EXCERPT

Double Trouble OR WHICH COUSIN  IS WHICH?

 

 

Oh, this is making my head hurt! Brandon is up there, but it’s not me. But it’s the right Brandon who will know what to do. But Josh is up there, but it’s not the right one, and he will be lost, and why doesn’t this Josh . . .

 

Brandon #2’s thoughts jumbled together as he tried to think everything through. He was fast losing his appetite.

 

His mind wandered as he began to pick away at his food. I mean, the one who should be with me is not, cuz this Josh is down here. But the wrong Josh, though he certainly knows what’s about to happen, which means he will refuse to eat the broccoli. But if Brandon up there doesn’t realize he has the wrong Josh, that Josh will be kidnapped with him, but it won’t be the right Josh. Then I will be stuck with the Josh, who lived through this, and he will understand everything, so maybe that’s not so bad . . . By now Brandon’s head throbbed so much from trying to sort this all out in his mind that he couldn’t concentrate on food anymore and put his head in his hands. Then he looked up at Josh.

 

“Josh,” Brandon spoke very low. “I understand. You’re not the right one.”

 

“What, dear?” asked Brandon’s mom, as Brittany complained, ‘Mom, Brandon’s whispering secrets about me to Josh.”

 

“Am not,” snapped back Brandon.

 

“Um, Mom, I think Josh might be sick. I think he should go to my room and lie down.”

 

“But I’m fine.” Josh was now panicking, understanding Brandon knew, but neither of them knew if the other Brandon hiding with Josh’s double understood yet. They were waiting for this Josh to come up, after all. Brandon needed the right Josh with him soon, but because he had not been through this before, he wasn’t thinking about one super important thing.

 

“What about the tantrum?” Josh asked Brandon softly. “If I don’t act up, they won’t come and then Adam is . . .”

 

He stopped mid-sentence when he felt an unusual bump like someone was trying to push him off his chair, strong enough that he nearly fell off it and had to grab the table to keep his balance.

 

“Brandon,” Josh whispered again. “Did you feel that?”

 

“Feel wh—” Brandon started to say and then the phone rang. Josh thought the last time that happened, they had been rounding the corner to the kitchen when his Aunt Beth answered the phone, not seated at the table. That’s different, he thought to himself. Aunt Beth is sitting at the table this time, but I guess we definitely did take longer upstairs. Still, something strange is going on, though.

 

Brandon’s mom turned to speak to the three children with a concerned look on her face. “That was your Aunt Patty,” she said, catching her breath. “It’s about your cousin Adam. He got into some big argument with his parents at the dinner table, and then he stomped off to his room.”

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

 

Barry M. Fellinger resides in St. Thomas, Ontario, with his wife Beth, and currently works as a director in health care and also teaches leadership courses and seminars.

 

He loves spending time with his adult children, grandchildren, extended family, and friends.

 

He enjoys reading, writing, watching superhero television shows and movies, collecting comics, attending the occasional Comicon and, for inspiration, relaxing in Sanctuary II, his comic book/man room.

 

He has a few more books in the works which he hopes to complete before or during retirement.

 

 

Social Media

Facebook 

Instagram

 

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GIVEAWAY

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The tour dates can be found here

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My review:

4 stars

 

“The Not so True Adventures of Brandon, Josh, and Adam” by Barry M. Fellinger describes the adventures of three cousins who get caught in an unexpected side effect of Brandon and Josh’s previous experience with the Intergalactic Council on Obedience to Parents. Despite their intermittent squabbles in the past, the cousins must find a way to work together with their alien friends and allies to solve the kinks in the space-time continuum that they’ve inadvertently disrupted.

 

This fantastical children’s story was a little confusing at first, given the duplication of a couple of the main characters and the references to previous occurrences which took place in another book. It’s no surprise that the alien Derks discover there is an issue with having used time travel on Josh and Brandon that causes a disruption of the timestream. The adventures in which broccoli, of all things, figures prominently is a wacky and imaginative tale that manages to touch on the complicated-yet-simple relationship that a trio of eleven-year-old boys can have.

 

I love that the Derks are both fearsome and unthreatening, and that this all starts because of defiant behavior that is being punished. There are various lessons included in the story that are artfully blended with unexpected twists and turns and unusual characters, and even the science lessons are conveyed in an understandable manner. This is both a fun read and a cautionary tale to remind one of the importance of…eating one’s broccoli (and respecting one’s parents)!

 

 

A copy of this title was provided for review

My Dead True Love by Kim Pierce (Spotlight, excerpt, review, and GIVEAWAY) GFT

 

My Dead True Love

by 

Kim Pierce

 

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GENRE:   Metaphysical & Visionary; Women's Friendships

 

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BLURB:

 

When a newspaper reporter’s fiancé dies abruptly, she questions how he could just cease to be.

Dogged by unbidden thoughts, odd coincidences and unexplained phenomena, Ann Stewart becomes obsessed with finding out what really happens after we die and whether her beloved Gregory is still out there. She finds her answer, which takes her and a close-knit coterie of women to the edge of the cosmos—and the core of their own hearts.

Based on a true story.

 

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EXCERPT

We stood a moment without speaking—sizing each other up, I suppose—before I invited her to have a seat on the couch. I sat down next to her. 

“Look, I know this situation is awkward,” I began. “Me the fiancée, you the ex-wife…”

“Yeah, I can only imagine what he’s said about me. Medusa unbound.”

“Oh no, that’s not what I meant.…”

I tripped over my words.

“But it’s very likely what he meant.” She let out a belly laugh.

Bunching up her considerable green velvet skirt, she stretched out her legs, revealing black cowboy boots.

“Ours was not a friendly parting.”

“I gathered,” I said. “I also know you were married for, like, ten years—double the time I knew him. And I know I ought to feel jealous…”

Elizabeth stared at me, waiting.

“But I don’t.”

“No?”

“No. You were close to him. He was close to you.” I paused. It was difficult, even counterintuitive, what I was trying to say. “I could hear this in the intimate way you talked about him at the service.”

I clasped my hands as my words spilled out haltingly.

“I don’t even know how to say this,” I continued, “but I understood. It’s not like you’re a rival. You’re more like a sister. Or something like that. Someone I have a common bond with. He’s gone, and the hurt of that…”

I looked away. Tears were percolating up, boiling over again. Would this fountain of grief never cease?

I rushed to add, “The hurt of that doesn’t leave room for trivial bullshit like jealousy.” There, I’d said it. My heart was pounding.

“We… shared… him. Like no one else can understand.”

Someone understands.

 Buy links:

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Apple Books

Kobo

Scribd

Thalia

Angus & Robertson AU

Vivlio

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

 

Kim Pierce is a former Dallas Morning News writer and editor who completed the Writer’s Path fiction program at Southern Methodist University. This is her first novel, inspired by events surrounding the death of her fiancé in 1998. She lives in Dallas, Texas, with her partner and three cats.

 

Website

Facebook

Instagram

 

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 GIVEAWAY

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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My review:

4 stars

 

“My Dead True Love” by Kim Pierce follows Ann, a woman who has to come to grips with the sudden death of her fiance. Her journey of discovery about the beloved man who was both secretive and extremely loving leads her to examine the relationships she still has even as she tries to comes to terms with her loss. Her unconventional choices about how to deal with her grief result in significant changes in her life and unexpected personal growth.

 

This mystical story is even more thought-provoking and eerie when one discovers that it is based on true events. The author deftly conveys the bewilderment and searching for answers that accompany the grief at the loss of a loved one. Although the pacing is a little uneven for me, and there are forays down odd paths with some of the secondary characters, I was drawn into the main character’s quest for closure and and impressed by her honesty and compassion in her interactions with her daughter as well as the ex-wife of her fiance. This book celebrates women and how they can help each other heal and find acceptance even as it explores the concept of existence beyond death and inspires one to be true to oneself. I will be thinking about the premises explored for some time to come.

 

A copy of this title was provided for review