Sylvia Shults's Blog, page 80
October 13, 2016
What’s That? Another Kindle Giveaway?
Why yes! 44 Years in Darkness IS available in Kindle as well as in book form. The official launch date was October 10 — also World Mental Health Day AND Rhoda Derry’s birthday! — so we’re starting things off with a bang by running a Kindle giveaway!
Here’s a chance for you to win a $200, $100, or one of four (4) $25 Amazon gift cards–that’s $400 in Amazon cash–a FREE to enter Fabulous Fall Giveaway. Just click on the link and enter at the #1 site for reader giveaways–The Kindle Book Review. It’s easy & fun. If you love reading, enter now; giveaway runs Oct. 10 – 24. https://wp.me/P2H01p-7p9
October 6, 2016
The Mental Wellness Challenge – Part 1
This is just wonderful! I’m looking forward to parts 2 and 3 of this encouraging article.
Ask anybody about what being healthy means to them and chances are you’ll hear exercise and good nutrition more often than not. We might think of these as the holy grail of looking and feeling good, so much so that the UK health and fitness industry alone is valued at over £4 billion.
But our idea of health shouldn’t start and end with our body. Given that the World Health Organisation estimates there are 450 million people affected from some form of neurological or mental disorder worldwide (and thus placing it as the leading cause of ill-health), it’s clear that our mental wellbeing is in need of some serious attention.
Worryingly though, many of us don’t give much thought to our mental health until it becomes problematic. For many of us, it’s once we experience depression, anxiety and stress that we begin to dive into the stigmatised world of mental…
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October 3, 2016
Not Welcome
He was 27, single, Iraqi, and most likely Muslim. By all accounts, he was the quintessential description of the type of refugee many Americans argue should be denied access to our country. I wonder if he knows this.
He arrived to the U.S. only 3 months ago, yet his English was efficient enough that I would have guessed it’d been a year. We were at a festival for refugees. I was there to help hand out prizes, he was there to socialize. The event started in chaos. There were games for children to play where they could earn tickets for prizes, but all their eyes beheld was an array of toys to be taken. Inept to explain the process, we quickly realized we needed someone to communicate the rules. “Kasim” immediately jumped in to help. He was only asked to translate 1-2 sentences, but he stayed at the booth for…
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October 2, 2016
Reader’s Favorite Review
5 stars!
Reviewed By Melissa Tanaka for Readers’ Favorite
Sylvia Shults’ 44 Years in Darkness: A True Story of Madness, Tragedy, and Shattered Love tells the story of Rhoda Derry, one of the greatest tragedies of mental health care in Illinois. Rhoda was the youngest of the Derry family and was courted by Charles Phenix, the son of a prosperous farming family, for about two years. While Charles is set on marrying Rhoda, his mother interferes, forcing them to break up and placing a curse on Rhoda in the process. Although the curse itself was falsified, the effects it had on Rhoda were anything but.
The novel alternates between the story of Rhoda Derry — her life, how she was driven to madness, her ensuing mistreatment, and ultimately how the people at the Peoria State Hospital were able to help her — and other relevant information about the time period, particularly in regards to how women were being affected by ideas such as spiritualism and the Industrial Revolution, as well as the crusade for mental health rights. Although these pages are dense with history of the era and the state of asylums and almshouses, Shults makes it interesting by adding an element of humanity that helps readers relate.
As a lover of history and the uncanny, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and devoured it in one sitting. I had never heard of Rhoda Derry and now I don’t think I will ever forget a story of such survival. The story of Rhoda Derry is equal parts heartbreaking and captivating, grabbing your attention from the first page and sending you hurtling through history to discover just how the life of an average woman was ultimately destroyed by a few words and history’s irresponsible ignorance of mental health.
September 30, 2016
One Evening At the Local Liquor Store…
Umm.
I don’t think I would have even drank this in college.
September 29, 2016
44 Years in Darkness Trailer
Oh you guys, guess what I did last night?
The trailer for 44 Years in Darkness is done!
I am so geeked about this, I can’t even tell you. I’m pleased with the way it turned out, especially since I did it all by myself! (Okay, yes, I’m five.) But seriously, I’m proud of it, and I’m proud of myself for inching out of my comfort zone and learning more about the movie-making program I currently use.
So hey, here it is!
September 28, 2016
Best. Billboard. Ever.
And the Best Use of Current Events in Marketing goes to …
September 27, 2016
First Reviews!
Well! I wandered over to Amazon this morning, and found two five-star reviews waiting for me! These were from people who either pre-ordered or won an advance copy of 44 Years in Darkness. Bill says: “This is a well researched, well balanced and well written book! I found it thoroughly fascinating as a good look at the state of mental health treatment and society of time. Really a very interesting read and a nice bit of history too.”
And another one of the folks who got an advance copy had this to say: “I was lucky to receive an advanced copy and I’m glad I did. All I have to say is wow! This true story has opened my eyes and I now have an even more appreciation for Sylvia’s writing! Just fantastic!! More please!!” Thank you so much, Sora — and the rest of you only have a few more days to wait. Watch this space for release info.
44 Years in Darkness by Sylvia Shults – A Review
I am about to deliver the first book review I have written since I was in school. Majorly scary!
Full disclosure; I did receive a PDF copy of this book for free, but I was trying to buy it anyway, and I am pretty sure it hasn’t affected my opinion. Below is as accurate a reflection as I can give considering I have a naturally highly critical mind.
Straight off I absolutely loved this book. I found it informative, insightful, vivid and compelling.
44 Years in Darkness by Sylvia Shults is ostensibly the story of Rhoda Derry, a mentally ill woman who was born in 1834 in Illinois and died there in 1906. But 44 Years in Darknessis about so much more; great changes were happening in America at this time, and Rhoda Derry’s plight helped cement the positive changes.
44 Years in Darkness will be of immense interest…
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September 26, 2016
Happy Anniversary, Rhoda!
T he train from Quincy is delayed the evening of September 26, 1904. There is a washout on the tracks, so the train pulls into the station at the top of the hill in Bartonville very late – around one in the morning. The sixty patients being transferred from the Adams County Poor House are huddled in a boxcar, crowded together for warmth in the chilly night air. Nurses and attendants meet the train, ready to escort the new patients up the gentle slope of the hill to the new C Row cottages.
The attendants from Adams County cast a critical eye over their charges, looking them over once more. Everyone who comes to the Illinois Hospital for the Incurable Insane knows what a stickler old Dr. Zeller is, how he hates to see any patient in chains. That was how he had amassed his collection, by confiscating any shackles that arrived on the patients. Those shackles cost money – the attendants make sure to take them off and hide them well in advance of the train chugging into the station at the top of the hill.
At one end of the boxcar stands an industrial-sized wicker laundry basket. A couple of burly attendants each grab an end of the basket and haul it out of the boxcar. They assume the basket contains the patients’ clothing, so they hump it out of the car and set it none too gently on the train station platform. The exhausted group, nurses and patients alike, head up the slope of the hill to the cottages in C Row.
“This seem a bit heavy to you?” one attendant grunts to the other as they lug it.
“Yeah, put it down for a second. I need a break.”
The basket hits the ground with a thump, and another sound – an indignant squawk – arises from the pile of clothes. A dingy white gown shifts, pushed aside by a bony hand.
“Gawdamn,” one of the attendants breathes. “Nurse! NURSE!”
That night, for the first time in forty-four years, Rhoda Derry sleeps in a bed, with clean white sheets. Strong hands bathe her in warm water, and she smells the pungently antibiotic scent of the soap that washes the filth of years from her wrinkled skin. Those same hands wrap her in a soft towel, drying her until she almost purrs with the unexpected pleasure.
Then she is lifted, then falling falling falling – until she lands in softness, like a mother’s arms. She turns her head, and her nose bumps smoothness. She sniffs – the memory is faint, but still there, buried deep in her mind. That is the scent of a clean pillowcase, taken from the line only hours before. Rhoda imagines she can still feel the sunshine that had warmed the cotton.
It has been so long since she’s cried. Her last tears had been torrents of frustration, salty acid burning the bloody ruined sockets. Now she feels hot tears once again – of relief, of grief for all the wasted years. Wetness slides across unfeeling hollows, then traces hot, wet trails down her temples. She sobs aloud until a gentle female voice starts to croon a lullaby. A soft touch wipes the tears away. “Hushabye, don’t you cry …” The voice cracks, then steadies.
Rhoda Derry sleeps.
Look for 44 Years in Darkness: A True Story of Madness, Tragedy, and Shattered Love. Coming October 10. Available on Amazon and at http://www.prairieghosts.com.
