Mike Owen, born with two congenital heart defects, battled with cardiac issues until the age of seven, when he underwent open heart surgery that changed his life. For the following 31 years, Mike was plagued with intense and disabling heart palpitations. In 2004, the cause of the palpitations was diagnosed and, after a short cardiac procedure, for the first time in 38 years his heart was stable. Life became easier. His confidence grew. But so did his workload. After three years of work-related stress, his heart succumbed to a new type of palpitation which would blight his life for the next four years. After taking steps to reduce the frequency and intensity of his cardiac problems, Mike finally felt like he had turned a corner. However, in 2017, he was plunged back into despair following a series of dramatic events. When his Occupational Health Doctor gave him an unexpected Mental Illness diagnosis, Mike embarked on a new path. He now had to deal with psychological issues, learn mindfulness techniques and work through the trauma of his childhood and the uncertainty of having spent so many years living with his heart problems. With his faithful dog, Coco, always by his side, Mike confronted the stigma and discrimination surrounding mental illness, in his own way. He found physical, emotional, and mental stability thanks to his diagnosis, and this is his uplifting story.

Nicole Parker anxiously awaited her graduation from high school and the opportunity to escape the small logging town in which she had lived all her life. In just a few months she and her best friend, Sherry Johnson, would embark upon the next stage of their lives. But a murder in their hometown would forever change their plans, and lives. Frank Thomas, a former homicide detective in Los Angeles, was looking for a quiet place to complete his distinguished career. Molalla, Oregon looked to be the perfect place to do that. He was hired as the Chief of Police and his plan to wind down was going as scheduled until a cold, wet morning in January. The small-town murder would be as challenging to solve as anything hed experienced in Los Angelesand every bit as dangerous. Every Step You Take has twists and turns that lead to a chilling and riveting conclusion. Based on an actual murder case in which new facts have come to light, fiction may not be fiction.

Lauren Ward’s The 6-Step Plan is a must read motivational book written for teenagers, young adults, and adults who desire to be successful in life. The fact is many people do not know which direction they should go after high school, college or which career path they should take. In her inspiring debut book, Lauren shares six decisive steps that will help you answer these critical questions and show you how to access your untapped potential. You don’t have to settle for less because God has a bright future in store for you! In this easy-to-read informative book, learn the importance of having a dynamic relationship with God and the necessity of obtaining a higher education. Discover how you can land that fulfilling career job and become financially stable. Also, learn Lauren’s tips on living on your own, the responsibilities of raising children and getting married. Don’t be dissuaded by difficulties or derailed by disappointments but be uplifted spiritually, enriched mentally, matured emotionally, and prosper abundantly. “The 6-Step Plan” is not just a journey; it’s the path to your divine destiny!”

Lesbian Step Families: An Ethnography of Love explores five lesbian step families’definitions of the step parent role and how they accomplish parenting tasks, cope with homophobia, and define and interpret their experiences. An intensive feminist qualitative study, the book offers guidelines for counselors and lesbian step families for creating healthy, functioning family structures and environments. It is the first book to concentrate exclusively on lesbian step families rather than on lesbian mothering in general. In Lesbian Step Families: An Ethnography of Love, you’ll explore in detail the different kinds of step relationships that are developed and what factors may lead to the different types of step mothering in lesbian step families. The book helps you understand these relationships and parent roles through in-depth discussions of: how a step mother and legal mother who live together negotiate and organize parenting and homemaking tasks how members of lesbian step families define and create the step mother role strategies family members use to define and cope with oppression how sexism is transmitted within the family and how mothering may limit and/or contribute to female liberation the opinions and viewpoints of the children of these families The findings in Lesbian Step Families: An Ethnography of Love challenge traditional views of mothering and fathering as gender and biologically based activities; they indicate that lesbian step families model gender flexibility and that the mothers and step mothers share parenting--both traditional mothering and fathering--tasks. This allows the biological mother some freedom from motherhood as well as support in it. With insight such as this, you will be prepared to help a client, a loved one, or yourself develop and maintain healthy family relationships.

Stepping Out of It All. A Guide to Recovery From Life Concerns is a book designed to help people to get through and over the things in their lives that prevent them from attaining their personal best. It is a quasi-autobiography that highlights the challenges and successes of a woman who has found a way to recover from a number of issues, problems and life concerns that seemed insurmountable. The book is about change why and how to change. It is about the recovery process and the guidelines that make recovery from anything possible. It is a book that leads the reader to do personal introspection and reflection, and seek ways to make personal changes based on the things that they find in that search. The book is about finding a new way to live / think / be / act, about pursuing better living. Stepping Out of It All. A Guide to Recovery From Life Concerns is a womans personal journey and her ability to move out of an ordinary existence and find the extra-ordinary.

Please, Step into my Office is a book that chronicles the authors multiple unique experiences that occurred during his 16 year career as a bartender. Sigmund Freud developed the therapeutic technique known as Free Association; Free Association is where a patient reports their thoughts without reservation and makes no attempt to concentrate while doing so. Outside of a professional therapist office, in the authors opinion, the bar setting is next likeliest place where Free Association is occurs. The author has met celebrities, people who work in extraordinary professions, and amazing every day people who have shared unsolicited glimpses of the people they are, the places they have been, and the things they have seen. The book is formatted as a collection of short stories, each with their own beginning, ending, and individual plot and theme. The one common denominator that permeates throughout the entirety of the book is the acquisition of knowledge and personal growth experienced by the author due to the encounters with the protagonist of each short story. The author hopes that the reader will find the book to be an easy read that is both entertaining and informative. So, with no further ado, Please, Step into my Office.