AUTHOR

It can be difficult to find reliable information that amplifies the voices and the viewpoints of those who have direct experience dealing with diversity, equity and inclusion. In Demystifying Diversity: Embracing our Shared Humanity, Biracial journalist Daralyse Lyons has interviewed more than 100 individuals--academics, politicians, thought-leaders, advocates, activists and even an incarcerated inmate--and reveals her most important information and insights. By engaging with this text, you will find areas of human intersection and connection that challenge your biases and break down your barriers. Through empathy and understanding, we can create a more inclusive world.

Jessica needs a fix. She’s craving. As an addict who once disappeared into crack dens and bars, she now seeks solace at studio after studio, desiring a path to recovery “on the mat” and in the rooms (of AA). In Yoga Cocaine, readers trace one addict’s journey from devastating addiction to recovery.

Yet, this is not a typical book about addiction. It offers readers something different – a compelling look into yoga as a pathway out of pain.

Andrea Dixon has no idea that her life is about to change forever. The pregnant, soon-to-be mother awakes one summer morning and heads out the door for her daily run, but, before she can make it back home, she is brutally attacked. After her assault, and after losing her unborn child, Andrea and her husband, Tom, feel powerless, until Tom decides to practice vigilante justice and retaliate against the man who killed his daughter and raped his wife. 

Will Tom get away with his retribution? Will Andrea lose her husband in addition to her daughter? And, most importantly, is it possible for a parent to recover from the loss of a child? 

In Virginia’s house, a piece of pie was never just a piece of pie. It was a measure of her mother’s love—or lack thereof. As the least favorite daughter and the subject of family ridicule, Virginia found love in the arms of juvenile delinquent Thomas Callahan. And, when the police arrested her boyfriend for murdering her sister, Virginia watched out Tommy’s bedroom window as the police affixed handcuffs to her boyfriend’s thick, strong wrists—the same wrists she had watched strangle her sister—and took him away.

Laura Cutty is in love with a murderer. 

She knew when she married him that Thomas Cutty was a killer. She accepts that about him, just as he accepts everything distasteful about her – like the way she cracks her knuckles when nervous or uses the last of the toilet paper without replacing the roll.

Twelve years of marriage and two beautiful babies later, and Laura and Thomas have learned to love the life they built together – a life that depends on Laura never asking the question: Who did Thomas kill last night?

What if you found yourself climbing out of a bedroom window, naked, in the middle of the afternoon, to avoid being caught in bed with your married lover? Would you have second thoughts about dating? After Shayla Ross discovers that yet another potential “Mr. Right” is, in fact, incredibly wrong for her, she decides to go on a diet. No. She’s not going to forgo her much-loved, sinfully-delicious girl scout cookies or her (admittedly too frequent) trips to McDonalds. Shayla is going on a dating diet. An incredibly hapless and infinitely loveable heroine, elementary school teacher Shayla Ross decides to take her summer vacation from teaching as a period of self-discovery. Much to the chagrin of her meddling mother, Shayla sets out to find herself and, in the process, bumbles into a series of successive funny and heartwarming interpersonal interactions that will have readers falling in love with her.

Nothing is better than spending Sunday morning in bed with her boyfriend and, of course, two delicious Boston crème donuts. But, when Shayla Ross leaves the house and goes out into the world, misadventures start to happen. It seems as if this lovable kindergarten teacher can’t catch a break. 

Public indecency, babysitting mishaps, and eyebrow-maiming are just a few of the things that happen to Shayla. It seems as if, no matter how hard she tries, life won’t cooperate with her good intentions. Follow this lovable klutz through life’s misadventures as she learns that it’s okay not to be perfect – no matter what her boyfriend’s mother tells her. 

Shayla moves beyond the lessons she learned during her dating diet and finds herself savoring both her new boyfriend, Dunkin, and her favorite pastries. 

Having sex with a woman isn’t all that different than having sex with a man—or so Rachel Havemeyer quickly discovers. Ray, a hapless alcoholic with a rare knack for attracting bad boys, simply can’t take another heartbreak. So her brilliant solution is to stop falling in love with men. There is only one problem…

Ray meets a woman who promptly falls in love with her! Will this staunch heterosexual be able to successfully navigate life as a lesbian? Or is she doomed to recreate the same patterns of heartache and hurt, only this time as the heartbreaker rather than the breakee?

As you follow Ray into a world of sexual exploration, you’ll find yourself wondering only one thing. What will this straight gay woman confess next?

After Leda Cooper is betrayed by the love of her life, she desperately tries to make sense of what happened. How could she have let herself fall in love with a straight woman? Did she really expect Ray would remain faithful to her or to the life they built together?

In Confessions of A Straight Gay Woman, you heard the story of Leda and Ray from Ray’s perspective. Now, in Lesbian Love Diaries, Leda tells her side.

Will Leda break the chains of love binding her to her straight wife, or will she remain in love with a lost cause? And what about Izzy, their daughter? What will happen to the product of their damaged love?

Bobby Caldwell is an ex-private eye and an alcoholic. He is doing his best to stay in recovery, work his new job at a bank, and raise his adopted son in a worry-free, normal, environment. Only problem? Life is boring. 

Bobby isn’t looking for love, but after being set up on a blind date, he meets Sylvia Ramsey, a young mother and former prostitute. She is everything he’s looking for in a woman, even with the mysteries surrounding her.

With a new love interest, life is looking a lot less boring. Especially when Bobby discovers that his new girlfriend leaves a trail of dead bodies everywhere she goes.

What if a self-loathing private eye were in love with a murder suspect and had to overcome his lack of self-worth to catch the real killer? Bobby Caldwell is a thirty-five-year-old alcoholic who is in and out of recovery. He is incredibly intelligent and logical—although, when his emotions are involved, logic never prevails. As a private eye, Bobby uncovers the truth for a living. But, the realities of his own life are a lot harder for him to see.

As a private-eye, Bobby uncovers the truth for a living. But the realities of his own life are a lot harder for him to deal with. Can this thirty-five-year-old alcoholic, who is struggling with recovery, overcome his demons long enough to find his brother’s killer? Can he save his nephew, who is starting to feel a lot like a son, from the dangerous adults that surround him?

WHAT IF A LAWYER WAS JUST AS MUCH A CRIMINAL AS THE CROOKS HE DEFENDING? 
What if this lawyer were so unethical, so morally bankrupt, so determined to win at any costs, that he would provide his a murderer with an alibi just to win a case? What if this same lawyer wasn't merely a defender of criminals, but a criminal himself?

Jake Livingstone, an unscrupulous thirty-eight year old attorney, has no respect for rules. He is unfaithful to his wife, unprincipled in business, and seems invested in living a hedonistic lifestyle. Quite possibly his only redeeming character attribute is that he refuses to represent pedophiles. Then, Jake receives an anonymous phone call threatening his life and, in the process of investigating the death threat against him, discovers that he wants to change his ways. He begins a remarkable transformation by attempting to right all the wrongs and hurts that he has caused. But the death threats continue. Is it too late for Jake to save himself? 

Have you been feeling stuck? Do you find yourself trapped in negative patterns of thinking and behavior? Have you tried conventional methods to break free of your self-destructive cycles with no success? The Emotional Yoga Experience technique is different than anything else you’ve tried and has the power to radically and permanently help you. Whatever your complaint, The Emotional Yoga Experience will provide you with a step-by-step approach that can help you become free of your self-limiting problems once and for all. Instead of spending more hours on a therapist’s couch trying to rewire your brain, this book will show you that, when your mind can not help you get unstuck, your body can.Your body stores negative emotions and, because these feelings are retained in your body, trying to think away your negative thoughts will not work. So many times “talking cures” are ineffective because they rely on the mind to diagnose issues that exist beyond the scope of its understanding. The mind lies. The body doesn’t. We too often trust our minds to heal us, when our bodies hold the keys to emotional freedom. So what does that mean? It means that, armed with The Emotional Yoga Experience (EYE) techniques, you can use yoga to connect with your body and find stored negative emotions, then use the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) to release them and take your first steps to leading a more joyful, balanced life.

Four-year old Annabelle Cain accidentally kills her eleven-year old sister, Emily. The girls' mother, Lilly, plagued by her own guilt and self-pity, cannot forgive Annabelle. She acts as if she has lost both daughters. As a result, Annabelle blames herself for all that has gone wrong in their lives. The thin threads of the Cain familial tapestry now begin to unravel. It is not natural for parents to outlive their children and in the instant of Emily's death, her parents' pain, physical and emotional, becomes almost overwhelming. The guilt carried by her killer is staggering. These feelings continue unabated for some time. Unable to adequately process her parents' divorce and her mother's inability to forgive her, Annabelle reaches out indiscriminately for love and experiences monumental challenges at a young age. Her tragedies multiply as she faces further and greater losses.The Lost Daughter powerfully illustrates how lives can irrevocably change in a moment. It examines a mother's pain for her lost daughter and explores the ability to heal through love. Women, steeped in the tragedy of an accidental shooting, experience emotional upheavals that lead to strength and redemption.

Alison Taylor’s life centers around her daughter. And that’s okay with her. Really. The busy single mother doesn’t have time for a social life. She’s too busy playing both mother and father to her six year old daughter, Tia.

She doesn’t have time to date.

Besides, the idea of winding up with someone like her ex-husband again keeps her from wanting to put herself back on the market. She’s happy with her busy, single, uncomplicated life. So how come everyone around her seems to think she’s missing out something?

Blood is thicker than water, or so they say. In this collection of short stories, you’ll meet a daughter whose father was shot, a niece whose aunt had leukemia, a bulimic woman who inherited her eating disorder from her mother, and a child of abuse and her secret friend. Each of hese protagonists seeks to find love and belonging in their different family systems (or outsideof them). Alternately comedic, tragic, thoughtful, and emotionally evocative, these stories explore the meaning of family.

Christmas women's fiction collection from three of your favorite authors.

Comfort and Joy - Alison Jean Ash

Star light, star bright...
Unsettled by his ex-lover’s wedding, Sid wishes on a star, for joy. Could lanky orange-haired Melody, newly divorced from a controlling husband, be the answer to his wish? Can a never-married, 40-year-old yoga teacher with a very simple lifestyle find happiness with a woman who fills her home with rescue animals and riotous color? And what exactly is causing Sid to panic?

Christmas Connections - Beth Wilson
Ellis visits her mom’s house for the Christmas holiday planning to move past the painful memories of her divorce. She finds she has a lot in common with her step-dad’s younger brother, whose wife recently left him. Ellis’s younger sister Fiona is jealous, and does her best to find ways to come between them.

Santa's Answer - Daralyse Lyons
Alison Taylor’s life centers around her daughter. And that’s okay with her. Really. The busy single mother doesn’t have time for a social life. She’s too busy playing both mother and father to her six year old daughter, Tia. She doesn’t have time to date. Besides, the idea of winding up with someone like her ex-husband again keeps her from wanting to put herself back on the market. She’s happy with her busy, single, uncomplicated life. So how come everyone around her seems to think she’s missing out something? 

When an unhappily married doctor rides his bike into a woman’s car in the middle of a rainstorm, on the day she’s thinking about ending her own life, neither one of them has any idea that they’re destined to fall in love. Charlie doesn’t want to go home, so he asks Alison to join him for a drink, and what they do next is the best mistake of their lives.

UNSENT LETTERS is a love story told through the eyes of two people whose lives are forever transformed by a chance meeting and a one-night stand that turns into something so much more meaningful. However, illicit love is not without its consequences, and life is not without its sacrifices. Will Alison and Charlie find their way back to each other?