Warriors Of Hope: Voices That Inspire — Book Launch (Live Recording)

This episode is actually recorded live from the Warriors of Hope: Voices That Inspire Book Launch Event in Phoenix, Arizona. This project was created by Janine Hernandez, founder of the Book Publishing Academy and a number-one bestselling author known for empowering survivors to share their stories on their own terms. Together, we celebrated the release of Warriors of Hope, a collaborative anthology that highlights the resilience, courage, and recovery journeys of fifteen incredible authors. 

This event wasn’t just about books—it was about healing and impact. Through our partnership with Paulina Flores and her She Thrives Foundation, proceeds from the book were donated to fund scholarships for domestic-violence survivors seeking independence, education, and stability. During the launch, I had the honor of sharing my own chapter, Rebuilding Our Dreams, Rebranding Our Lives, where I spoke about hope, faith, and rebuilding after trauma. 

You’ll also hear powerful readings from Nikole Ruiz, Vasti Amaro, Paulina Flores, Jameila Coleman, Marissa Rodriguez, Amelia Casias, Imelda Hartley, Christina Ronquillo, Shonda Clark, Grecia Ochoa, Cristina Palafox, and others who lent their voices to this mission. Every story is raw, real, and a reminder that no matter how dark life gets, healing and hope are still possible. 

Join me in celebrating these authors, this movement, and the power of storytelling to save lives. Whether you’re an aspiring writer, a survivor, or simply someone searching for strength, this episode is a testament that recovery shared aloud becomes someone else’s survival guide. 

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https://bookpublishingacademy.org/

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Transcript

 All right everyone. We're gonna get started. I want to thank all of you for coming out, and I want to start with the importance of this event. For a lot of the authors, this is their first book, but it's more than that. The saying I'd like to use is we're recovering loudly so that others don't die quietly.

So the importance is the message each. Chapters a story of hope, of overcoming trauma and getting through that, not just to share our story, but to empower others to cultivate life lessons. And so what I want you to take away from this, whether you buy a book or not, is that you listen to these stories and you take that knowledge and you pass it on to someone you know in your life or someone you meet later on.

I truly believe that you never know who you're going to bump into, and you might need to share something like this with. I think it's always important to be ready. And so without further ado, I want to introduce the woman who put this all together, Janine Hernandez. She is a number one bestselling author, the founder of the Book Publishing Academy, and she has worked so hard through her pregnancy to put this all together, flying in.

And so I just want to, everyone, if you could give her a warm welcome, please.

Hi everyone. Thank you so much for being here today. I know that it's a Saturday. You could have been anywhere else, but you're here with us, so we truly appreciate you. Um, as Mr. Whiskey said, I am the founder of the Book Publishing Academy. I'm number one bestselling author. I'm also a domestic violence survivor and, uh, advocate.

I got started with the Book Publishing Academy, honestly, because I know that there are so many people out there that have stories that they want to tell. They have been through something in their life. I feel like every single person has a story that they need to share with the world, and I'm very big on do it your own way.

Right. I don't like when we go through traditional publishing because they tell you what to do, how to do it. They control pretty much everything that you do with your book. But through my book Publishing Academy, I teach our authors that you have the creative control and the power to do whatever you'd like.

And so we are so, you know, just grateful because we have grown over the past 10 years to over 340 authors. Numerous number one bestselling authors. A lot of them have been featured on the news. It's just amazing to see what our authors have been doing. I am, like I said, I am a domestic violence survivor.

I went through a very traumatic experience and through my advocacy work, one of the things that I was very passionate about was creating a book that can highlight other survivors as well. Not just domestic violence, but it can be narcissistic abuse, workplace abuse, um, uh, spiritual verbal abuse. There's so many things that people go through and they stay silent.

So I wanted to make sure that I could highlight all of them. So today we are featuring the Warriors of Hope Voices that Inspire book, and it features 15 amazing. Authors, which I am so proud of them, they have worked over the past year so hard on their chapters and really working, navigating through a lot of different emotions that come with sharing their story and being vulnerable.

So first I wanna say thank you to all of you guys for all of your hard work, and I'm so proud of you because we just have 15 new authors today. So give them a round of applause.

So we are gonna get started. We are. I'm gonna give the mic back to Mr. Whiskey. We have a few announcements and then we will get started with some reading. Thank you guys.

Right. So like me and Ms. Hernandez said, it is about making an impact. And so in addition to the books and to spreading the message, we partnered up with the She Thrive Foundation to donate money to make an impact, to help people who are in those domestic violence situations. A lot of these relationships, the women are, even the men, are being held financially hostage is one of the number one reasons that people stay in this relationship.

And so any financial support goes a long way. Sometimes it's just a few dollars. And so here we have Paulina Flores, who is the founder of She Thrives Foundation to create an impact through the book that is more than just sharing the story, but also helping save lives. So, Ms. Flores, could you please come up here?

Sorry.

Um, thank you everybody for showing up today. Uh, this is so amazing. I am the founder of She Rise Foundation. We founded this organization two years ago. I do have some of my board members. Here. So the purpose of She Thrives Foundation is we raise funds through our events. So all of our events raise to give scholarships to domestic violence survivors to go back to school, to trade school.

Last June, we awarded two scholarships in the amount of $5,000 each. Our next event is October 18th, and we're gonna award a 2,500 scholarship for emergency funds because we do have two buckets. We have the $5,000 for people going back to school. And then we have the 2,500 for the emergency fund, um, for somebody who needs it.

Now, the reason behind this is I am a domestic violence survivor, and 5,000 was what took me out of my situation. That's what I was able to save in a security deposit box at Wells Fargo, and it made me be able to leave. Mm-hmm. Now, a lot of the reason why women and men stay in these situations is because they're not financially capable to be on their own.

The abuser is the financial head, so a lot of them need to get back on their feet. They left the workforce because they were stay at home parents and they need to go back and find something to join the work. Course, whether it's medical assistance, primatology lashes, community college associates, you name it.

That is why we founded this foundation. The five year goal is to start setting up shelters for women of color to be able to attend because we feel like a lot of our shelters don't cater to our community and our culture and the background be behind a lot of this stuff. People thinking it's okay to be treated in certain situations.

So we did found this nonprofit She Thrive Foundation. All the proceeds of the book are going to the foundation for our scholarship program. If you guys want some more information on that, please follow us on um Instagram at She Thrive Foundation. We're also on LinkedIn and we're also on Facebook. And our next event is October 18th, and we have about nine speakers, nine female entrepreneurs who are gonna go over how they started their business, how they got funding, and how are they making big moves in male dominated industries and everything donated through that event.

And the ticket sales will be going for the next round of scholarships. Now I'd like to give this back to Mr. Whiskey. Thank you guys all for joining us today. Well, Ms. Flores, don't go anywhere. We actually need you to stay up here 'cause we have something for you. Ms. Hernandez is going to present you a donation.

To the She Rise Foundation.

Thank you. You're doing the community. We appreciate you.

And now we're gonna have, the authors are all going to actually read a sample of their chapter, whether it's the beginning or some part that they felt like was a great takeaway for everyone to not only get interested, but to get a sample of the insights into what these stories look like, both in terms of what they went through, as well as what her message of hope is.

And so, Ms. Hernandez is actually gonna start us off with her chapter.

Hi everyone. Okay, so I'm not gonna get into too much details about my story. You'd have to get my book. My book is called Calling Forth the Waves, but. I'll give you a little insight into what I experienced. I experienced a lot of verbal physical abuse to the point where one day he held me hostage in my home, in his home for hours and I couldn't escape.

Um, so that I want, I don't really wanna talk about that. I wanna focus on the healing. Um, so I'm gonna read about choosing sobriety, celibacy, and singleness. For a year and a half, I committed to sobriety, celibacy, and singleness. This became the foundation of my healing. Alcohol has been my crush, my escape, and I drifted further into the silence of the chaos inside of me.

But with each drink, I drifted further from myself and from clarity, choosing sobriety meant I had to feel everything that I tried to bury.

Fear, grief, anger, deep sadness, and betrayal. It meant learning to sit with my emotions without drowning in them. Celibacy taught me to honor my body, to reclaim my sacredness of intimacy, to see physical touch as something I get to choose, not something I owed or used to feel temporarily wanted. It was a season of learning to love my body as mine, as not as something to use to fill a void or seek validation.

Singleness gave me breath to heal without distraction and to learn to love my own company. I realized how much of my worth I had tied to being chosen. To having someone by my side, even if they were not good for me. Singleness showed me that I am whole, that I am worthy, and that it's not determined by another's presence or absence, and that I am capable of building a life rooted in peace and purpose.

During this season, I created really strong boundaries with myself and I did not allow myself to date to entertain any men or even text 'em. I wanted to do the work alone with God, and I did so. I committed to doing deep uncomfortable work, attending over 50 therapy sessions that forced me to peel back the layers of pain.

Each session, I felt like I was digging into wounds I didn't even realize were still bleeding. But it brought me back to my memories of my childhood, of moments when I felt unseen, unheard, and unloved, and how these experiences shaped my tolerance for chaos. I had to understand where I learned that it was okay for people to gaslight me, where I learned that abuse was okay.

And where I learned to stay and enable this behavior. That's all I'm gonna share, but if you guys would like to learn more, make sure that you guys grab the book.

Our next reader is the one and only Mr. Whiskey, our host. He is a podcaster, author, speaker. He does it all. Uh, he's the owner of a couple of nukes. Um, so Mr. Whiskey.

So my story is, is pretty long. It goes over a lot of religious weaponization and abuse when I was younger. Emotional abuse, verbal abuse in a household of domestic violence, uh, where my mother was, he was receiving any of that from my father. And a whole slew of things in the military, uh, things that were horrible to see and being treated not at all like a person.

But what I want to focus on in my chapter was the word hope and what that means regardless of your situation.

And so the chapter title I chose was Rebuilding Our Dreams, rebranding Our Lives.

The chapter title I chose is made up of the two subtitles on my podcast logo, but they're more than just branding. For marketing a show. There are two actions that we will all have to do. Life inevitably will go a different way than we planned at one point or another. As a result, we'll have to take action, whether that's starting over, recovering, pivoting to something new or just moving on, and this can leave us feeling a mixture of emotions.

Rebuilding and rebranding however that may look like for you requires a logical plan, but also requires a whole lot of heart and hope. I'm not here to debate whether hope is learned or a natural feeling or anything like that. In this chapter, I hope to merely emphasize the importance of hope when it comes to living outmost fulfilling lives.

No matter what you've been through, where you're at, or where you're trying to be. Along those lines, I'd like to share something I discovered while living in South Carolina. You can find it on most of their license plates or any of their safety merchandise. It's the phrase Doom, Spiro Sparrow in Latin, or in simpler words, it means why breed?

I hope. Don't you love that? I know I do, because the truth is that even though it's hard to see in this tragedy that as long as we're alive, hope exists. No matter what you've been through or what you're going through currently, as long as you're alive, you have opportunities. Therefore, there is always hope.

It's that fresh book where all the pages are nice and cozy together. You know, some will try and kind of rack me by saying that sometimes life seems hopeless and that death has more hope in it than life. I understand because I've been there before. In fact, I almost feel like a hypocritical person saying that I'm a warrior folk.

At first when I was writing, I felt quite qualified because I've maintained strong levels of hope through some grim events during my life. I almost believe that I had maintained it throughout all of them, but then I flashed back to when I was gonna take my life. It's a memory that I rarely think about, but I remembered it as I started to work on this chapter.

What is suicide other than no hope left and what is no hope left other than giving up entirely on life? Obviously, I'm still here, so I must have rediscovered hope just in time, right? Unfortunately, that's not the case. I had finally reached a truly hopeless mindset. What stopped me from killing myself was divine intervention.

I was forced to live through God intimately knowing my heart, which was designed by him and wared by the world. Yet the thought occurred to me that I'm not a warrior of hope to be a shining example of someone who's always had hope. My purpose and mission is to give hope. It's not to have always had it.

Rather, it's my duty to ensure that no one else has to go through such a state of hopelessness as I did. And that if they do that, they quickly get out without the need of divine intervention. And that's all I'll be sharing there, but I talk a lot about that. Uh, you know, my life has been a series of different circumstances and even with my suicide, it was a situation where my mom laughed about it and, uh, you know, basically dared me to do it.

And so if you want to read about that and the military and the transition civilian life, uh, I'm more than happy to not only sign a copy of your book, but sit down and go into detail with y'all. But thank you.

Next up we have Nicole Ruiz. She's an author of speaker, and most importantly, she's part of Celebrate Recovery and, uh, she has been through addiction, which is a very powerful thing. I've worked in addiction recovery a lot, and so I want everyone, when you welcome her, not to only just clap for her being here, but for making through that and still being sober to this day.

It is a very difficult battle, and she's gonna tell us a little bit about it. So, Ms. Ruiz,

hello. I'm Nicole. Um, I am a single mom, domestic violence survivor. Um, yes I am, um, in to celebrate recovery. I'm making the leadership there. Um, I, as of January of this year, I have five years of sobriety. Um,

a little bit from my book. Leaving an abuser isn't easy. It's not always a simple decision, followed by prompt action. People often ask, why didn't you just leave? But there was something intangible tethering me to him. I felt responsible for him as if my worth depended on saving him. In recovery, I learned that my value comes from God, not from what I can do for others.

My renewed relationship with God, my recovery program and therapy helped me to create new neural pathways for healthy behavior. It completely changed my life for the better. For a long time, I believed survival meant silence. I thought love meant endurance. I thought motherhood required self-sacrifice at the cost of self, but healing has taught me otherwise.

Today, my daughter and I wake up in a home filled with peace. There are no screams, no threats, no blood to clean from the floor. Just morning sunlight. The sound of cartoons in the background and soft laughter echoing through the rooms. I know now that I am not the things he said I was. I'm not weak. I'm not broken.

I'm not unworthy of love. I am whole. I'm redeemed. I'm free. If you're reading this and you see yourself in these pages, please know this. Your story isn't over. Your pain doesn't define your future. You are not alone. There is help and there is healing. There is hope. You deserve a life that doesn't hurt you, deserve love that doesn't leave bruises.

And no matter what you've been through, you deserve to be free. Thank you for listening.

Next up we have Vasia Amro, a life coach, an author, a speaker, and a business consultant. Ms. Amro.

Good afternoon Gu. Thank you all for being here. Um, I'm excited to share a story of hope with you all. Um, like many of the stories you've already heard. Uh, I also almost lost my life in a very difficult relationship. I grew up in a legalistic home. Um, my father was a pastor, and so a lot of our belief systems were based on those things, and they impacted my life and how I carried myself.

But today, I want to share with you. The second half of the story that's in my chapter, which I want to give you a little insight into the life after and the purpose that we all have here on this earth. We will all have an encounter, a Damascus encounter with God that will elevate us to truly understanding our purpose and why we're here on Earth.

So I want to give you a little insight into the journey afterwards.

It was in this place of fear and despair. I cut out to God while lying in bed. I saw a bright light come from the ceiling and I felt a strong embrace lift me off the bed. The embrace, embrace seemed like a last, a lasting everlasting feeling. Then I was dropped back to bed and I opened my eyes. I don't know if, I really don't know if it was a dream or a vision, but in that moment I felt such love come over me like I've never felt before.

Shortly after that experience, I started getting clear strategies. For new beginnings, I remember that a business mentor once told me that if I was ever ready to grow in my career and willing to relocate to give 'em a call, I reached out and before I knew it, I was flying to three different states for an interview.

I pushed through that fear, they gave me an opportunity, and I landed a great job in a new state I never could have imagined. That having the courage to face my fear of leaving would propel me into living my full purpose. This was the beginning of enjoying this journey of life. This new experience elevated me to management, which included a relocation package.

Yes, the Lord not only blessed me with a promotion, but he would have my entire move paid by a company. I found a perfect place to start over. I started talking more with God in this period of solitude and freedom, and little by little he began building me and guiding my life. It felt good. People take for granted.

But it felt good to just purchase my own furniture and to design my own home and to really live the life the way I wanted it to be. I made new friends in a strange home, enjoying dining, shopping, sports arts, and dancing, something that I would've never had in the life that I had back then. There were two friends that I made, and those, those friends really walked me through my journey of life as I continued to press on.

Meanwhile, this corporation continued to treat me very well and I learned from the best and I continued to get relocated and I would move from state to state, growing in my, um, my career. I was included in leadership programs. I was flown all over the country, uh, for business. In fact, it would bring me here to Phoenix where I, um, ended up about 10 years ago, I would become the president of a nonprofit association here, women in Transportation, and even became the Commissioner of Phoenix Sister Cities.

After many decades of that, I started my own business. I met the secretary, US Secretary of Transportation, the French Ambassador. I've traveled to six continents. These experiences just really elevated me to my purpose and what I'm doing today. And that is a life coach in the wholeness ministry, teaching people the eight pillars of living as a whole human being the way we were designed to be.

And I do that through sharing my story in writing, speaking engagements, podcasts, storytelling, and bible studies. I've made great friends along the way. I've married, I've divorced, I've raised children. I've traveled all over the world. I'm a survivor. But more than that, I found my, my identity. Christ in me is who I am.

And I want to leave you with this. We can rejoice in our suffering because we know that suffering produces perseverance. Perseverance produces character, and character produces hope. And Hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. Romans five, three to five.

Thank you.

Next up, I'd like to welcome Jamia Coleman, who is a domestic violence survivor, an author and an advocate.

Hi, my name is Jamila Coleman. Um, I was born, originally born in, uh, Chicago. I'm currently in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I'm a mother of four. Um, I've been a caseworker for the last 13 years. Today I have an entrepreneur. Um, I have a app called Ring Harbor. You can check that out if you go to rent harbor app.com.

And that'll give you a little bit more information about my business. I'm a domestic violence survivor. Um, and I am going to read in the middle, in the end. Um. So, um, I knew I needed to leave my abuser in July, 2006. During my daughter's first birthday, Cedric became intoxicated and tried to start a fight with me.

My son and his cousin intervened, and Cedric ended up fighting his cousin. I used his opportunities to call the police while he was belligerent and he was arrested. The next day I got a restraining order. A few days later, a program for better women called to inform me that Cedric was being released and I was considered high risk for being killed by him.

And I could tell you when I heard that on the other end, that really shook me. A person who never met me is telling me that I am. At high risk for being killed. So that really shook me up to really want to leave. Okay. Um, and I, I was okay hearing that shook me. I thought of my kids and knew I had to leave and coworker connected me with the landlord and I moved with my kids to a new home without telling Cedric or his mother where he was.

As I distanced myself, I began regaining strength, but struggle with guilt over what my children have witnessed. I developed anxiety, constantly adjusting my emotions to avoid conflict. I began drinking to numb the pain of what I had put my children through. I reflected on how I ended up there knowing I had never seen my own mother tolerate abuse.

Um, today I harbor no anger toward my abuser. I hope he finds peace, and I recognize that everything I endured made me stronger and shape me into who I am today. I shared my story in hopes of encouraging others who have experienced abuse, letting him know that if I can overcome it, so can they. It was not an easy journey, but it was worth it.

You have to trust that you are worthy of happiness. What your abuser did to you is not your fault. You deserve healthy love, peace, and true happiness. If you are going through this, know that true happiness is waiting for you on the other side.

Next up we have Marissa Rodriguez. She is an author and she is a avid traveler. Ms. Rodriguez.

Alright, thank you everybody. Again, my name is Marissa. Um, I am an avid traveler. I also work in technology. Um, what I wanted to share today is I've been to through two, um, emotionally abusive relationships, AKA narcissistic abuse, and I wanted to start, um, with sharing how I was at rock bottom and how basically I started to pick myself back up.

So that's the part of my story that I'm gonna be sharing today.

Do I have a story to share with you? I hope it is one you have never experienced before. I'll start off by saying it took two gut wrenching breakups and a kind of numbness I wouldn't wish on anyone to finally see it. I hadn't just experienced heartbreak. It was a lesson. Life kept slamming into my face until I would stop to pay attention.

I didn't know I was being abused by my previous exes. I thought abuse was only physical at the time. Even after I educated myself about abuse, I couldn't count how many lies I had been told. One thing became crystal clear. There was someone in my life who didn't care whether I lived or died. That's how used to the mistreatment I was.

I was so numb to it that I actually thought this treatment was normal.

The truth is, if you don't heal from your trauma, you leave yourself wide open for more of it. And that's exactly what kept happening to me. After surviving two emotionally abusive relationships, I finally started to see something was majorly wrong. These weren't just isolated heartbreaks.

This was a pattern, a broken record. I didn't know how to stop and until I chose to truly face my pain, I was going to keep attracting the same kind of broken, insecure, manipulative, unhealed predators in different forms. At this point, I had finally recognized the pattern, but I hadn't gotten through the healing process to change anything.

I was just susceptible to anyone who would wanna take advantage of me. Unfortunately, there were still multiple painful experiences after that second abusive relationship. But one situation in particular, being taken advantage of sexually while under the influence, pushed me to a darkness I hadn't experienced before.

A place solo. That death started to look like peace. I was exhausted. Emotionally, physically, spiritually. Tired of pretending, tired of fighting, tired of breathing through pain, like it was normal.

You got this girl? No.

It took that final trauma, my personal rock bottom, to finally see something had to change, not just on the surface, but deep, soul, deep. I had spent so long just trying to exist. I forgot how to survive, but somewhere in the complete darkness when I had lost all hope, a small voice whispered inside me.

Don't hold on. Don't give up. Now I know that voice was gone at the time. I didn't see him clearly. I was too angry, too hurt. Too resentful. I couldn't understand how loving God could let me go through so much. How could he tell? How could he let evil walk freely in my life? Time and a time again, I didn't trust him.

I didn't want anything to do with him, but even when I couldn't reach for him, he never left me and slowly, very slowly, he began to show up.

Ms. Rodriguez, I just want to thank you and I, I want everyone to know that while not everyone is showing visibly, uh, a question I get asked a lot working in this industry is like, does it ever get easier to tell your story or does it ever hurt less? And to a degree it does, but there's always that pain, especially when reliving, I know a lot of the authors, um, it took them a while to write this because as they were writing you, and, and Ms.

Hernandez has said this before, you remember stuff that you blocked out. You have these memories come flooding in that you just didn't remember. And so I just want everyone to recognize that all these authors coming up here talking, and I just wanna thank all of them as well, for being vulnerable and for, you know, taking on that pain to empower others.

I want everyone to know. Our next author is going to be reading in Spanish. Just so you're aware, Ms. Christina Ox, she's an author, speaker, and a domestic violence advocate.

Next up we have Amelia Amy Casillas. She is a medical assistant and patient health advocate and author, and also a domestic violence advocate. Ms. Casillas.

Hello. So I am, I go by Amy. Um, so if you see me on Facebook, that's why. Um, but I am a medical assistant. I have been for many years. I'm also a domestic violence survivor and advocate as well as patient advocate. Um, currently I am building my own patient advocacy bus business. So please keep watching for that.

Um, so part of my book gets really hard. I joined in a little bit late, so I didn't have time to process a lot, but I did get it done and I did write it. Um, so bear with me. I grabbed my son. I grabbed my sons and tried to leave, not realizing he had taken my car keys as I held my youngest, he, he and his daughter pushed us out, screaming and yelling at us, calling us name names.

My purse became lodged in the door, and when they opened it for a second, his daughter pushed us and spit at me. Police arrived and I was looking for my keys. They had received the call from his daughter and from my direct call hang up. I told the truth. I didn't hold back. But when he said he was a sheriff from another county and currently working with the prison as well, they arrested me.

I was considered the aggressor in a situation for throwing my phone first. After finding out that my kids' stuff was packed up, within hours of us going to my parents' home, my rights were relinquished overnight, and I had to figure out how I was going to make it in jail in a small room with so many other women and a concussion.

It was one of the hardest nights of my life. All the thoughts and emotions were piling on top of me. Like someone was slowly dropping an entire house on my head, concussed, bruise, broken and betrayed. The courts, did nothing to him. Jail forced me to reflect. I didn't resist. I told myself, God put you here for a reason.

Take what they offered. That's how I landed on a diversion program focused on domestic violence. Alongside community service came counseling 24 sessions that changed my life. I learned to see my comp trauma, clearly recognize the pain I'd carry for so long, and understand how it shaped my choices. So I began to heal.

I hiked, I took my kids on trips that we never had. I focused on joy, stability, and gratitude. And once I found my foundation, I rebuilt my relationships beyond just my children. Eventually, I dated again. Did I want to put man right there carefully. I didn't let anyone move in, nor did I move in with them. I fixed my credit, got a new job, a new apartment, brand new first time ever car with only 11 miles on it in my own, in my own name.

And after five years of dating, I fell in love with someone who respects me and honors my story. Loving myself isn't about hair nail or Starbucks. It's about trusting myself. And yes, I do love Starbucks almost daily, but it's knowing I deserve better.

Believing in my growth and watching for red flags becoming the person I needed when I was a child. Advocating for others when they can't, and being the voice that I wish I had as a child, as a teen, and as an adult. And do you know what? It feels amazing. So to every young girl or woman who is out there who thinks that you're stuck, if you feel unseen or unheard, please know you are not alone.

Your story matters. You matter, and the cycle can end with you. Healing is possible and you are so much stronger than you think. So please, if you wanna feel, feel free to read the rest of the story. I will be coming out with a full bio probably in the next year or so. Um, but thank you, Janine, for letting me join into this so late.

So thank you guys all for coming and listening.

Next up, we have Eel Hartley. She is an author, a speaker, a domestic violence advocate, and the owner of Happy Tamales, Ms. Hartley.

Hi, um, I wanna say thank you to the Lord for giving me the opportunity to be here with all of you.

Amen. And I just wanna share with you that sometimes we carry sacred spin or ski and sometimes we write to keep them hiding facts speak because speaking up, it takes courage. And today I decided to be brave and to be aware of hope so.

The title of my book is Flowers

and I want to read chapter, um, four. It says, in a body that doesn't feel like my,

so I wore my skin like it belonged to someone else. As I grew older, I began to drift farther away from my own body. It wasn't suddenly it happened in moments, in front minutes, I look in the mirror and now recognize the girl sharing back. He hit my face, my hair, my eyes. I.

But something was missing behind them. Something had disconnected to, became complicated close, never felt quite right. Sometimes I shower for hours, scrubbing my skin until it turn right, hoping to wash away the shame. I call the name. Other times I. I called him beer to look at myself at all. I avoided mirrors like they were weapons.

My body had once been mine, mine to dance. You love and grow and but after the abuse, you no longer felt like a home. I felt like a crime scene and I was both the victim and the evidence. I began to separate myself from from it. Emotionally, I walk, talk, move,

but often a distance like I was watching someone else sleep in my life. It was safer that way. If I didn't feel fully present in my body, maybe I wouldn't have to feel the pain that came with it. But that connection came at a cost. I lost my sense of self. I questioned my identity, my feminity, even my word besides still a woman, was I even human or just a shell carrying memories.

I couldn't escape. I learned to feel whole again, but I didn't know how, how to come home to a body that no longer felt like mine. Thank you.

I want to say I'm a domestic violence survivor, so I'm no longer a victim. I also was a victim of human trafficking, but the story of flowers that don't bloom is a sexual abuse. I was subject since I was 12 years old and with some of my partners, because when a woman says, no, no means no. And when you are forced, that is sexual abuse.

But sometimes it is embarrassed to share that with your friends. It's embarrassed to say that to your children. I'm a mother of 14 children, but not many know well many questions. Me thinking that I had a lot of fun watching movie that many of those children were born out of sexual abuse, yet I had the courage to give birth to them despite the sexual abuse.

Thank you. My name is

On that note, one thing I do want to say is, uh. This book in my chapter is actually the first time I ever mentioned, um, me being borderline groomed and sexually abused. A lot of men don't talk about that stuff. Uh, as you can see, I'm the only male author here, and I've worked with individuals in male sexual assault awareness and violence.

And a lot of them don't talk about it. A lot of them are embarrassed because it happened to them as a kid by a family member, or most likely with a college man. It was a coach or a mentor. And I just want to say to everyone watching the replay and everyone here live, that, uh, whether your man or a woman is so important to speak up.

And for a long time I didn't recognize. You know that I had been, uh, on the receiving end of being groomed and, and being sexually abused because all the guys around me had this mindset of, oh, I know a woman who is so much older than you and you know, you're younger. Like, they had this mindset that it was okay, even though I was uncomfortable and I want to say no, but felt like I couldn't.

And so especially to all the men listening right now, I really encourage you to speak up. I think it's so important and I really hope to see, and I'll be working with Janine on getting more male voices in these kinds of environment. I know a lot of men feel like they can't be any spaces they feel villainized like most men or the perpetrators, uh, unfortunately.

But it's important to have men here to show that not all men are bad. Not all women are bad. There are good women and men, and we need good men to step up and be a part of this, to make it a space where. Women feel safe with men and men feel comfortable sharing their stories. Um, and I don't say all this to take away from, from anyone's story, but I did just want to share that 'cause I think it's so important.

So I appreciate y'all listening to me talk about that. And I hope that if you have sons, uh, especially young boys, that you have those conversations with them and you check in on them and make sure that they're okay. 'cause a lot of times they're not gonna share. So thank you.

Next up we have. Dina Qui. She is an actress and a songwriter on top of being an author and an advocate. Ms. Qui.

Hello, I am Christina Qui. Um, I'm a domestic survivor. Um, I lost my daughter when she was seven years old in April. It has been 16 years since she passed. Um, thank you to my husband, who I've been married to for 16 years, who has gone through this journey with me. The good, the bad, the ugly, and the beautiful.

Um, I'm just gonna share part of my story.

Those years tested me in ways I never imagined. I had to fight to live, to breathe, to wake up every morning and put one foot in front of the other. The only way I made it through was by turning to God. I had to let go. I had to stop trying to control everything and truly surrender. I had to give the fight to him.

I laid it all at the cross and said, God, I can't carry this anymore. Carry it for me. I had to learn un, an unconventional kind of justice, the kind that doesn't always look like the world's version of justice, but looks like grace, killing, and peace. I had to learn to forgive in ways that felt impossible.

I had to learn to love like Jesus fully, unconditionally and without expecting anything in return. That was a hard pill to swallow. I had to face my own role in my story. I had to acknowledge how my decisions and choices have shaped the lives my children were living. I had to take responsibility for the pain they endured, not because I hurt them intentionally, but because I stayed in places I should have left.

I trusted people I should have walked away from. I had to accept the painful truth that the man who was supposed to protect me and my children did the opposite, and I had to rise up and become the protector. I had to be the voice for my children. I had to be their advocate, their defender, their safe place.

I had to live for the children I still have who had seen and experienced far too much for their young hearts. I had to live for them and I had to find healing, not just for myself, but for all of us. And slowly, through faith, through surrender, through unshakable hope, healing, pain, God began to restore what was broken.

Yeah, he removed people from our lives who weren't sent by him. He brought peace where there was only once chaos. He brought comfort where there was only once grief. My daughter was only seven years old when she passed, but her spirit was unlike anything I've ever known. She was bright and spunky, full of life.

She loved everyone she knew. No strangers. She had a heart that truly loved like Jesus innocently, purely wholeheartedly. She is my inspiration. She is the reason I love so big today.

The reason I speak up and share my story, because her spirit deserves to live on. Her light deserves to shine. And if by telling my truth I can keep her memory alive and help even one person find hope in the darkness, then it's worth it. Her love show me what real love looks like, and now I love my life trying to love like she did, to live like she did, to let her beautiful character shine through my actions, my words, my purpose.

I am a survivor. I am a mother. I am a woman who was broken but not destroyed. I am still healing. I am still growing, but I am also thriving because I choose to fight. I choose the to believe that even in the deepest valley, God is still good and he is still working. To anyone reading this who feels stuck, ashamed, or broken, I want you to know that you are not alone.

You can make it out. You can find your healing, you can find peace and your story matters. Speak it, share it, and don't let your pain silence you. Thank you.

Next up we have Shonda Clark, who is a finance specialist and professional, as well as a domestic violence advocate and, uh, author.

Nice to meet you. Um, my name's Shada Clark. I'm like another finance industry professional, and, um, I'm actually more of a survivor of, um, sexual abuse and just making it through my journey and wanting to finally give a voice to those. I was able to get three or four degrees and kind of have a life outside of the mental.

Um, my book is my portion of the book. I was wanting to find something not so damn and dark, but, um, here it goes.

This was a dream that I was explaining to someone in my family member that turned out to not be a dream. This is a dream that I was telling a family member about that turned out to not be a dream as I was going through it. As I started describing the house, um, the blue and gray colors, the wired fence, she looked shocked.

Before I could even finish, she cut me off and said, yeah, a little blue house with a fence. Your school was up the street from there. That's when everything hit me. I never remembered a fence in the, a face, in the dream, just the shadow. But when she described the man, I suddenly saw him clearly in my mind, the shadow monster.

He was real. I couldn't breathe. In the drink 'cause he had one hand over my mouth and the other hand under my chin, pressing against my neck. He used his knees to pin my chest down and his legs to hold the rest of my body in place. I was a preschooler. I fought hard, but he had all the control. I remembered the horrible pressure and the sickness in my stomach.

When I realized what was what he was doing to me, three realizations instantly hit me like breaks. The dream was never a dream, it was a memory. The shadow, the shadow monster was real, and I was a preschooler. When it all happened. I was horribly abused or molested, and I wasn't even five yet. In reality, I still had no pro not processed everything that was revealed to me.

So I went home and I wrote about it. I wrote it in a front poem form about the ocean. I made the metaphor about a fish and how a fish feels like it's dying. Slowly out of water, they will slowly suffocate. No matter how much the fish slipped and moved about, it became weaker losing air. After a while, the fish starts to feel hands and fingers fighting to keep it sealed.

Of course, it's slippery. It's a slippery fish, and fish will fight to the end. But shortly after the feeling of hands grabbing and squeezing it, it felt a slice of its gut from being gutted with a knife. I represented that fish. I was choked to the point of choking on my own vomit, which feels a lot like drowning if you ask me.

So flipping about this new fighting and the hand that I felt that finally caught me and dreaded me was actually. The actual person interview second place. I was in so much pain. The poem, the poems filled out so easily, but so dark. This is the first time in years that I actually remembered the poem.

While I was writing this, after wrecking my brain for years and years to try and remember it, it instantly came to me. That is when I realized that it was God and my faith is the only thing that saved me at that point of my life. Depression had kicked in so hard. I was numb, but in deep pain at the same time.

I stuck in a sunken, stagnant relationship that was more mentally and emotionally damaging than uplifting. I had to take responsibility for allowing this to happen, knowing the abuse that I was already in.

The worst thing is, the worst thing to face is realizing that someone is playing with your mental knowing and understanding. The delicate state it is in the thick scars. Abuse leave behind takes a lifetime to heal, but in a lifetime I will heal and that's.

Next up we have Gracia ocho, a number one bestselling author, a speaker, and a domestic violence advocate. Ms. Ochoa, thank you. Um. Like you said, my name is Gracie Ochoa. I think I'm the last author. And I just wanted to point out that voices that inspire all these authors out here were truly inspirational to me, and I'm just so happy and blessed to be a part of this project with all of you truly voices that inspire.

Um, so after going after them, I'm just like, so nerd with me. Here we go. Um, so my chapter in the book is called, this is My Letter to You. So I wanted to point out that, um, God and my family or my refuge in my life, and after removing myself from that environment that I was in, um, or this person that I was with broke me down.

Uh, I had to write a letter. And I wanted to of course share, um,

a little piece of the piece of my chapter. Like I said, God has been a huge part of my life going through this healing process, also my family. So I, this little piece in my chapter I wanted to tell my daughters who are here today, my daughters, it ends with us, God, a Bible. I have Bible verses in my chapter, full disclosure and Revelations 21, 4 in the Bible says He will wipe every tear from your eyes.

There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain. Because God is going to heal you through it all. A piece of my chapter goes a little like this, goodbye for the last time you hurt me in ways I'm still healing from You Tried to silence my voice and here I am, shattered my spirit and convinced me that I was unlovable.

But even in the darkness. God was with me when I thought I had no strength left. He gave me just enough to stand and then walk away. This is me saying goodbye. Not with bitterness, no, but with clarity, not with weakness, but in strength. Not alone because I'm not alone. I have God in my family, but hand in hand with the one who never left me.

I let you. I let go of all the pain, the fear, the shame you try to chain me to you will no longer live in my mind. My heart are my future. God has rescued me and because of him, you no longer have power over me. I give, I forgive you, not because you deserve it, but because I deserve peace. I deserve you. I deserve peace.

I realized, and not because it was okay what you did, but because I'm not staying trapped in what you did to me. I walked forward not looking back. Goodbye for real forever with God's grace. Thank you.

So we'll be calling back up Ms. Belina Flores to read her chapter. In addition to, uh, the Sheath Thrive Foundation, I just also want to share that she's a real estate expert as well, and she's gonna be sharing some of her story now.

So for me, this was a little difficult. This day has been a little difficult. It, it's a lot of PTSD because I don't talk about my story. This is the first time I actually wrote it down and talked about it. A lot of people who know me would've never imagined because it's not something that I fully publicly share.

So because of that, I'm not gonna go into the details. You guys can read the chapter. I wanna show you how somebody like me got put in a situation where she found somebody who, who she saw as a life vest. So. I'm gonna skip around a little bit in the book just so you guys get some context. My chapter is called,

and that title is because when I was little, I am a daughter of, my mom is I'm first gen. My mom used to always tell me, because she would never let me ask where we were going, what we were doing, or speak at a table of adults. So I knew that I just needed to stay quiet and so this book is called This Chapter.

I know I was born here, but I never quite fit in, not Mexican enough for some, not American enough for others. My existence felt like a balancing act between two cultures, two languages, two identities. I grew up with a deep understanding of what it meant to hold a US passport, of how lucky I was in the eyes of many.

By the time I was six, I was translating documents I couldn't fully understand. I was speaking English on behalf of my mother and a voice too small for the weight it carried. I didn't know the meaning of mortgage or liability, but I was ex, I was expected to explain it anyway. My mother, strong and resilient, did what she could to give us a better life.

She moved us into a predominantly white neighborhood, hoping that access would demand equal opportunity, but instead we were mocked. For being whitewashed accused of abandoning our culture. But as I see it now, I see the weight she carried trying to raise us in a country that didn't always want us. She cra she sacrificed her language, her dreams,

her sense of belonging. So we might one day have our own. She left behind a marriage, a home, and a version of herself. She didn't survive the border crossing a version of herself that didn't survive the border crossing. So this is when it happened. At 19, I met him. He told me he was 26, but he was actually 33.

He had a daughter almost my age. I should have known better, but I was exhausted. I was working multiple jobs, bartending at night, working at the bank during the day, and attending college full time. My mother was struggling financially, so I couldn't count on her for stability. I was barely sleepy. He told me I didn't have to work two jobs because he would take care of me.

For the first time in my life, somebody was offering me a break. He started love bombing me with lavish dinners, gifts, and spontaneous trips. It felt like a dream, but soon it became clear that the cost of that dream was isolation. He said, my friends were bad influences. They were party girls with no future.

He said, my sorority sisters would ruin me. He convinced me my family was toxic, that they used me and they didn't love me the way he did. And little by little, I stopped seeing them stop returning calls, stop being me. I disappeared. Quite literally. My sorority sisters at the time were so alarmed that they filed a missing person's report.

No one knew where I was. No one could reach me. And it was like I had fallen off the face of the earth. And in many ways, I did.

My daughters are not my reflection. They are an evolution of me. They are strong where I was silenced, brave, where I was broken. They live with the love they that I allow for and none of the fear that I carried, they are the reason I broke every generational curse. They are my redemption, and if you are reading this and wondering if you would ever escape, please believe me when I say you will.

But it won't be because somebody saves you. It will be because you finally decide to save yourself, because you'll rise with nothing but courage in your hands. And because your scars will no longer be reminders of what hurt you, but proof that you survived, because silence doesn't protect your children, it teaches them to accept less.

Thank.

Thank you guys so much. For someone to say thank you to Mr. Whiskey. You did an amazing job of hosting

and thank you so much to all of our amazing authors. I'm so proud of you guys. Thank you for being vulnerable, for sharing, for being open for being. Honest and raw. I appreciate each and every one of you. Um, if you are in the audience and you are thinking to yourself, you know, I think I have a story to share, this is your opportunity to connect with my company, where the Book Publishing Academy.

You can find us on Instagram at the Book Publishing Academy, or you can go to our website, book publishing academy.org. If you do a Google search, you'll find us. You can find me, Janine Hernandez. Um, but our mission is really to help as many people to share their stories and be vulnerable and, um, you know, help others.

So I wanna thank you all. We still have some time if you guys would like to grab some food for purchase. And, uh, thank you all for coming.