A Promise Kept; The Story of One Widowed Bride’s Journey through Grief
Grief: An Invisible Genre until Now
New heart-rending memoir is about how one woman survives a tragic loss
Lynnwood, WA – Those who read Anne Rule’s 1999 book and New York Times bestseller, A Rage To Kill, would know that the first chapter (A Bus To Nowhere) is about the true story of the heroic Seattle Metro Transit driver who was tragically shot and killed in the line of duty on the Aurora Bridge the day after Thanksgiving, 1998, in an unprovoked act of violence, the worse in Metro history.
But Rule’s recollection of the driver and his family was based solely on hearsay and public knowledge. Now, for the first time, Elise Crawford—the brave man’s widow—in this stirring memoir A Promise Kept courageously allows us a glimpse into how her world was shattered—and how she managed to put the pieces back together.
The life-altering paradox of that fateful day, November 27, 1998, marks the beginning for the driver’s young widow who journals her spiraling descent into hell through a complex system of paths, obstacles—including the tragic death of her mother—and betrayals through which she inevitably becomes lost, essentially missing for nearly eight years in a labyrinthine maze of grief. By no means a poster child for grief, she leans the hard way that grief cannot be outrun, that it has to be faced head on.
In A Promise Kept, she reveals her true feelings, raw emotions, and mental anguish she suffered needlessly while making her way down that road less traveled—the journey of grief. Riding every wave, letting the ebb and flow of the tide of grief flow over her, she learns valuable lessons that she never wanted to learn, about the value of life, faith, and self-discovery. Most importantly, she learns that of all the stages of grief, the most difficult of all is the stage of acceptance, the only one that will show her out of the door of the past and into the present toward healing.
Bio :
Elise Crawford was born on a cold and wet November day in the Motor City the year U. S. troops were sent to prevent the South Vietnamese government from collapsing, during election week the year the Voting Rights Act was signed into congress, the year Kellogg’s introduced Pop Tarts, and the year that the first close up photographs of Mars were taken. Elise moved with her mother and younger sister, Jenny, to Seattle in 1968.
Although not formally educated as a writer, Elise has been writing creative fiction since she was eight years old. Elise holds several Associate of Arts degrees; one in Liberal Arts, two in Social Sciences, and one Technical. Throughout her college education she maintained her membership with the Phi Theta Kappa honor society while raising her two children single-handedly and working on the college campus part-time teaching college level English to fellow ESL students.
Elise is a native of Washington; she and Roberto reside in Lynnwood, Washington, with their four cats—Sniffles, Lucky, Foxy, and Fluke. Their CEDAR-AL business continues to flourish and prosper. Elise has two grown children; a son, Dale, and a daughter, Lexi. Her son, Dale, is currently serving in the United States Navy as an aviation ordinance man. His ultimate goal is to become a Navy SEAL. He plans to make the Navy his career. Her daughter, Lexi, lives in southwest Washington, works full-time in a bank, and attends a technical college full-time. Her ultimate goal is to become an architectural engineer.
A Promise Kept is Elise’s first book; “Spiritual Intervention” was her first short story prior to the writing of this book. She is currently working on Wednesday’s Child, a prequel to A Promise Kept.
With a sequence of poignant chronological photographs, A Promise Kept not only gives readers “the rest of the story” of that tragic day, but also reaches out to other survivors of tragic loss in hopes they come away with the strength and courage needed to face, to accept, and to begin their own grief journey, regardless of the nature of their loss. If you are searching for a real-life story of love and tragic loss to relate to, and to seek hope and comfort from, then you will want to read A Promise Kept.
Links:
www.elisecrawford.com
www.apromisekept.org
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2909507.Elise_Crawford
http://www.authorsden.com/elisercrawford
http://www.more.com/4879/5964-the-impossible-dream
http://theauthorssociety.ning.com/video/a-promise-kept2
Silent Scream by Florida Author Yvonne Mason a Best Seller
Silent Scream has made the best seller list for Amazon Kindle in two catagories. Catagory number one is Georgia. It is listed at number 66. The second catagory is Mayhem and Madness. It listed at number 79 this morning and has dropped to number 80. The amazing thing is this book is listed with the likes of Dave Cullen at number one who wrote Columbine and well known true crim Author Ann Rule. Her books are listed both in from of Silent Scream and behind it.
This book is a must read as the ratings show. It is the true crime of Flordia’s first serial killer and his victims. It is the voice of these victims that are being heard in this book. It is a must read. It can be purchased on Amazon in book form and kindle as well as lulu.com and my online store at http://thebookattic.ecrater.com
Closed Eyes Who’s Killing Our Children by Jim Benish
New Book Urges Colorado Law Enforcement to Reexamine JonBenet Ramsey and Other Cold Case Files
| Author and retired detective, Jim Benish, announces the release of a new book, “Closed Eyes Who’s Killing Our Children” In the book, the author examines the murder cases of two Colorado children –and finds similarities to the JonBenet murder. |
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PRLog (Press Release) – Jul 16, 2009 – In 1993, Benish worked for the Thornton Police Department in Thornton, Colo. At this time, he reopened the Neef file; a murder that took place in 1984. After some investigation, he discovers that the initial suspect was cleared without due reason. However, Benish learns that the investigation was peppered with inexperience and error.
As the author digs deeper into files, he begins to draw connections. He learns that welding particles were on the victims’ bodies and clothing; the suspect in the Neef and Berrelez cases was a welder. Benish also discovers that the suspect had been arrested or seen in close proximity to all of the crime scenes.
“Almost one year ago, the Ramsey family was eliminated as suspects,” Benish says. “This suspect is still at large and the jurisdictions in charge need to combine their efforts to yield resolution.”
Benish strongly believes that this suspect is a serial offender and is the key to solving these cold cases.
“The public has a right to know,” Benish adds. “It’s very possible that this suspect continues to prowl the neighborhoods. Since 2002, he’s been arrested and convicted of another sexual crime; he’s finally on the Colorado Sexual Offender list. To date, he has only been revealed to be a person of interest or suspect on the Neef case.”
About the Author
Jim Benish has worked as a police officer and detective; he has what he calls a “cop’s sense of criminal reality” and he believes that these murders have been committed by this suspect. Throughout his career, he has written or reviewed thousands of crime reports and is proficient at recognizing and combining the elements of a crime with witness statements that many times resulted in the arrest of the perpetrator.
To learn more, and purchase the book visit : www.CodeFore.com.
Anyone interested in purchasing movie rights:
Contact:
CodeFore Publishing- jd@codefore.com
Editorial Reviews
Review
My God, All parents with small children should read this book. It’s graphic, it gave me a picture of evil I didn’t know existed. –Lorraine Swartz
The way Jim Benish tells it, if local law enforcement agencies don’t manage to solve two and possibly three notorious, decades old child murder cases, it won’t be because they don’t have enough evidence. Benish’s book does present a revealing and depressing picture of how scattershot the investigation of even a child’s murder can be. Agencies don’t share information, don’t systematically follow up everyt lead, fall prey to what Benish terms the tunnel vision of developing one theory. –Alan Prendergast. Westword. Denver Colorado
Product Description
Closed Eyes; Who’s Killing Our Children is a story of four individual child abductions that have found no closure for the families to this day. This is a factual story with an emotional element that starts with a cold case investigation into the abduction of seven year-old little Tracey Neef from the grounds of her school in 1984. Tracey was found raped and dead a few short hours later in the cold of a Colorado winter. The author follows a trail of the bodies of children left behind by a skilled pedophilic predator and culminates with the murder and rape of JonBenet Ramsey. As each crime is researched numerous suspects surface. Circumstances, witness statements and trace evidence point to only one of these suspects. Although the author has obtained a legal opinion that the public has a right to know the identity of this suspect, his last name has been deleted from the manuscript. James Benish presents the facts of these cold case child murders in sequential order from the time of the abductions, through the years of neglected follow-ups, ignored leads, and dismissal of evidence and testimony that have left these murders in the ranks of the unsolved. This is the first time in recent history that anyone has suggested with credible logic, that there is a serial killer loose in Colorado.
About the Author
Education
® Goodrich Highschool Goodrich Michigan
®Mott Community College Flint Michigan
® University of Michigan School of Business
® US Army 1966-1968
Experience
® 1972-1974 Genesee County Sheriffs Department
® 1980-1993Thornton Police Department (Detective)
® 1993-Present. Private Sector Project Management
Please Join me for this event. I will be speaking about Silent Scream and the Victims
I will be speaking at this event on Sept 14th – I will be speaking about the victims and their families of Florida Serial killer Gerard Schaefer.
Please come and join us this day. Some of his victims have never been found. But they do have a voice it is in the Book Silent Scream
This is the voice of the victims who have been screaming silently for over thirty years. Susan Place, Georgia Jessup, Nancy Trotter, Pamela Wells, Carmen Hallock, Leigh Hainline, Debra Lowe, Collette Goodenough, Barbara Ann Wilcox, just to name a few. There are many more. Please join us this day. The missing and murdered deserve a voice as do their families.
Silent Scream Review by Author Barbara Watkins
Review ‘Silent Scream’
Radio Interview
My Interview on Radio Station 1220 WSRQ with Cliff Roles
On Friday Oct 10,2008 I had the opprotunity to be interviewed by Cliff Roles on Radio Station 1220 AM WSRQ in Sarasota. It was an hour of fun, books and much more listen.
Silent Scream the True Crime Book about Gerard Schaefer Ex Martin County Florida Deputy who became Florida’s First Serial Killer
Lulu.com is pleased to announce the release of local Florida Author Yvonne Mason’s true crime book Silent Scream. In 1972 Martin County Deputy Gerard Schaefer was arrested for the aggravated assault of two young women by the name of Nancy Trotter and Pamela Wells. They were the lucky ones. They got away.
April 1,1973 the bodies of two more young women named . Georgia Jessup and Susan Place were found on South Hutchinson Island. They had been there for several months. The police investigation which ensued led the authorities back to Gerard Schaefer who was by this time serving six months for aggravated assault on Nancy Trotter and Susan Wells.
The firestorm and the evidence uncovered in the investigation led authorities to believe that Ex-Martin County Deputy Sheriff Gerard Schaefer had killed more than just these four young women. Evidence gathered during a search at his mother’s home revealed at least nine and as many as possibly thirty four over a span of six years beginning in 1966 and continuing until 1972.
Until this crime Florida had never experienced anything like what is now known as serial killings. Gerard Schaefer was considered the first perpetrator of this type of crime.
Ms. Mason’s Silent Scream gives the victims a voice – a voice which has been silent for over 30 years. Some of the young women were never found, some cases were never closed and there were never any bodies to bury.
Gerard Schaefer took their voice away when he bound, gagged, hung , tortured, and buried their bodies in remote areas. He killed in pairs so one could watch while the other was destroyed.
This is their story, this is their voice and with this voice comes the peace they have never had.
Ms. Mason, reminds us that at any time and any place we can become a victim.
Her book Silent Scream is available at http://stores.lulu.com/theskeletoncloset,
http://thebookattic.ecrater.com and soon to be on Amazon.com and other fine bookstores.
She can be reached at ysam51@yahoo.com and her website is www.myspace.com/yvonnemason
yvonnemason
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