❤Author Interview: Sue Stewart, Author of 'Yuletide Murder at Sea' #authorinterview

 

Sue A. Stewart is the author of several children’s books. These include the Otto’s Epic Adventure series, Bannie Bear Repeats a Grade: The Gift of Time, Bannie el Oso Repite un Grado: El Regalo del Tiempo,and Save the Seagull. Yuletide Murder at Sea is her debut adult mystery novel. It is the first book in the Vintage Quest Mysteries series.

Sue has a background in technical writing. She enjoys traveling and exploring unique destinations. She likes observing people and uncovering details that bring places to life. Her stories come from real experiences, family adventures, and the idea that ordinary people can face extraordinary circumstances.

When not writing, Sue enjoys walking, puzzles, traveling, and time with her family in Southport, Connecticut.

Visit www.suestewart.org to learn more about Sue and her books.

Connect with her on social media at:

╰┈➤ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/suestewartauthor/

╰┈➤ Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/sue_stewart_author/

╰┈➤ Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/22519020.Sue_A_Stewart

I am so excited about your new cozy murder mystery, Yuletide Murder at Sea. Why did you choose this particular story to write?

The first Christmas after my father passed away, my mother didn’t want to celebrate at home, so our family decided to take a Caribbean cruise. The cruise line catered primarily to older adults, and gave me plenty of opportunities to people-watch.

That’s when I began to wonder: Wouldn’t it be fun to set a murder mystery on a Christmas cruise, featuring a group of mostly widowed seniors as unlikely sleuths? That question became the seed for Yuletide Murder at Sea.

Writing the story also helped me move forward through a time of profound loss. My father was an excellent chess player and a natural problem-solver. He loved building things, figuring out how they worked, and finding ways to improve them. The mystery’s clues and puzzles are a tribute to him.

I also wanted to create characters who challenge assumptions about aging and disabilities. Older adults and people with disabilities are sometimes underestimated, and I wanted their knowledge, experience, and abilities to take center stage. I loved the idea of giving these characters a new adventure, one where their lifelong talents become the very things that help them solve a centuries-old mystery.

Can you give us a book blurb so others will know what it’s about?

Retired librarian Molly St. Clair would rather spend Christmas on the couch watching It’s a Wonderful Life with a bowl of popcorn than set sail on a holiday cruise. Her friend Martha has other plans. No one spends the holidays alone on Martha’s watch, and she won’t take no for an answer. When Molly learns the Caribbean cruise includes an author panel featuring her favorite mystery writer, the invitation becomes harder to resist.

Aboard the Emerald Star, garlands glitter, steel drums play Christmas carols, and Molly’s close-knit circle of friends settles in for sun, champagne, and a welcome escape from a New England winter. Then a maritime chart in the ship’s exhibit stops her cold. Its crest—a crowned eagle framed by laurel leaves—matches the heirloom pendant her late husband, Henry, left her.

The chart comes from the San Cristóbal, a Spanish galleon lost in 1715 near one of their ports of call. Its navigator was Sebastian St. Clair, a man whose secrets have remained buried for centuries.

Media mogul and avid collector Victor Chavez takes an unsettling interest in Molly’s pendant. His wife, Isabelle, seems to recognize it, but her own fears keep her guarded. When a fellow passenger turns up dead, Molly and her friends are drawn into an investigation involving a disguised chart, a cipher, and a promise Sebastian St. Clair made before the sea took him.

With rivals willing to kill for the treasure, the friends must rely on skills developed over a lifetime: a librarian’s eye for detail, a detective’s caution, an entrepreneur’s technical expertise, a curator’s historical knowledge, and a hostess’s talent for keeping everyone organized. Their Christmas getaway has become a dangerous adventure—and solving the mystery may be their only way to survive it.

Yuletide Murder at Sea, the first book in the Vintage Quest Mysteries series, is a character-driven cozy mystery filled with friendship, maritime history, hidden treasure, and holiday suspense.

Can you tell us a little about the main characters in your book?

At the heart of Yuletide Murder at Sea is Molly St. Clair, a retired librarian who is finding her footing after the loss of her husband, Henry. A lifetime of researching, asking questions, and making connections makes her a natural amateur sleuth. But while Molly is comfortable searching for information, she’s still learning to trust herself when the stakes become personal. What I love about her is that she isn’t fearless—she becomes braver as the story unfolds.

Molly is surrounded by friends with distinct personalities and strengths. James Bennett is kindhearted and dependable, someone she can count on when it matters most. He was inspired by my husband, Todd, a retired mail carrier. Eddie Parker brings technical knowledge, creativity, and a knack for recognizing patterns to the group. Both Eddie and Kai Zhang, a young maintenance worker they befriend aboard the ship, were inspired in part by my son, Gary. I divided some of his technical skills and problem-solving abilities between them, giving each a different personality and role in the mystery.

Evelyn Penrose, a former British museum curator, contributes historical knowledge and a bit of personal flair. Her cane was inspired by my great-aunt, whom we once bought a leopard-print cane—a detail I couldn’t resist borrowing. Luis Ramos, a retired police detective, brings investigative experience and a cautious perspective, while Martha Winslow, Molly’s outgoing best friend, is never reluctant to take charge.

There’s also plenty of humor in the group’s interactions. Some of their conversations about food, clothing, and cruise life grew out of memories of my mother and aunt, particularly their Italian family traditions. The importance of dessert—and the practicality of buffet-friendly, stretchy pants—certainly found a place in the story!

Where and when does this book take place?

Yuletide Murder at Sea takes place during the Christmas holiday season aboard the Emerald Star, a luxury cruise ship sailing through the Caribbean. The story unfolds both aboard the ship and on a fictional Caribbean island.

I enjoyed the contrast between the festive setting—Christmas decorations, tropical sunshine, and holiday celebrations—and the danger developing beneath the surface. What begins as a cheerful getaway becomes an adventure in which a centuries-old mystery intrudes on the present.

They say all books have at least one pivotal point where the reader just can’t put the book down. What is one of the pivotal points in Yuletide Murder at Sea?

One of the pivotal moments comes when Molly discovers a connection between the pendant her late husband, Henry, left her and a Spanish galleon lost in 1715.

What she has always treasured as a sentimental keepsake suddenly becomes a clue to something much larger. As Molly and her friends investigate, they begin to realize that someone else may be searching for the same long-lost treasure—and may be willing to kill to find it.

That’s the point when their investigation stops being an intriguing diversion. The danger becomes personal, and Molly can no longer separate her husband’s legacy from the mystery unfolding around her.

Does your book carry a message?

Absolutely. One of the central messages of Yuletide Murder at Sea is that it’s never too late to discover a new purpose, form meaningful friendships, or embark on an unexpected adventure.

Many of the characters have experienced profound loss or major life changes. Those experiences remain part of who they are, but they don’t determine everything that comes next. Through friendship and a shared challenge, the characters discover new ways to use the talents and knowledge they’ve developed over a lifetime.

That message is deeply personal to me. After losing my father, writing this book gave me a creative outlet and helped me look ahead. What began as a single story has grown into an idea for a mystery series, with characters whose lives I’m excited to keep exploring.

I hope readers come away with a sense of possibility. Grief and joy can coexist, and a new chapter doesn’t mean forgetting the chapters that came before it.

What’s your next project?

I’m planning the second book in the Vintage Quest Mysteries series, which will take Molly and her friends to Rome.

While reading her late husband’s research notes, Molly discovers that Henry may have been investigating something far more dangerous than she ever imagined. His unfinished work leaves tantalizing clues—and questions she can’t ignore.

Following that trail through Rome draws the friends into another centuries-old mystery. When the investigation takes an unexpected turn, they may need help from Kai, their young, tech-savvy friend from the cruise.

I’m looking forward to exploring how their friendships develop now that they’ve been through one adventure together. Of course, knowing this group, they’ll have no trouble finding trouble again!

Where can we pick up copies of Yuletide Murder at Sea?

You can find Yuletide Murder at Sea on Amazon:https://www.amazon.com/Yuletide-Murder-Sea-Treasure-Mystery/dp/B0HDQWQGVW

The book also has a Goodreads page:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/256717858

Is there anything you’d like to tell your readers and fans?

You don’t have to feel completely ready to try something that matters to you. Whether it’s writing a book, painting, learning a new skill, or returning to an interest you put aside years ago, you’re allowed to begin with uncertainty.

One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned through publishing is that being brave doesn’t mean you aren’t afraid. It means doing something that scares you anyway. Writing is my creative outlet, but publishing means sharing something deeply personal and accepting that not everyone will respond to it in the same way. That can be intimidating!

During the writing process, I often turned to my family for reassurance. At one point, my son said something that stayed with me: “How will you ever become a better writer if you don’t get negative feedback?”

He was right. I’m learning to welcome constructive criticism, trust my instincts, and recognize that a book doesn’t have to be perfect to be worth sharing.

To everyone who gives my debut novel a place in their reading life: thank you. I hope you enjoy spending time with Molly and her friends as much as I’ve enjoyed getting to know them.

❤Author Interview: Giselle Mascarenhas, Author of 'She Forgot She Was Free' #authorinterview

 

Giselle Mascarenhas is the founder of BECOME™, creator of the BECOME Methodology™, and author of She Forgot She Was Free. An entrepreneur, speaker, and transformational guide, she has dedicated her life’s work to helping people reconnect with who they were created to be so they can live with greater purpose, freedom, and intentionality.

After years of building businesses, leading organizations, and walking through seasons of personal growth, Giselle recognized that lasting transformation does not begin with external success, it begins with remembering one’s authentic identity. That realization became the foundation of the BECOME Method™, a proprietary methodology designed to guide individuals through a transformational process of self-awareness, healing, alignment, courageous action, and embodied growth. Unlike a framework that offers guidelines for achieving a specific outcome, The BECOME Method™ is a comprehensive method of personal advancement that can be applied across every area of life, leadership, and purpose.

Her debut book, She Forgot She Was Free, is both a deeply personal memoir and an invitation for readers to embark on their own journey of remembrance. Through honest storytelling, reflection, and faith, the book explores the universal experience of losing ourselves beneath expectations, fear, pain, and performance, and the courageous journey of rediscovering the freedom, identity, and purpose that have always existed within us. Rather than simply telling her story, Giselle invites readers to see themselves in its pages and begin writing the next chapter of their own lives.

The book became the catalyst for the broader BECOME movement, an expanding ecosystem of transformational experiences designed to help people move beyond inspiration into intentional action. Through immersive workshops, retreats, leadership development, educational programs, community experiences, publishing initiatives, and speaking engagements, Giselle equips individuals with practical tools to create meaningful and lasting transformation. Every experience is grounded in the belief that personal growth is not about becoming someone different but remembering and embodying the person God uniquely created each of us to be.

Known for her ability to blend heartfelt storytelling with practical application, Giselle creates spaces where people feel seen, challenged, and empowered to take meaningful action. Her presentations combine vulnerability, strategic thinking, and actionable guidance, allowing audiences to leave not only inspired but equipped with a clear path forward. Her work resonates with entrepreneurs, leaders, professionals, educators, faith-based communities, and individuals seeking deeper purpose and authentic fulfillment.

Beyond her work as an author and speaker, Giselle is passionate about developing leaders who create ripple effects within their families, businesses, organizations, and communities. She believes transformation is contagious, that when one person remembers who they are and chooses to live courageously, they give others permission to do the same. This philosophy continues to shape every initiative within the BECOME movement.

Through future books, collaborative publishing projects, leadership academies, retreats, and global speaking engagements, Giselle’s mission is to help millions of people reconnect with their God-given identity and become the fullest expression of who they were created to be. She envisions BECOME as a worldwide movement that empowers individuals to live intentionally, lead authentically, and create lasting impact for generations to come.

Giselle lives in Texas with her family and continues to write, teach, speak, and expand the global reach of the BECOME movement. Whether on stage, in the pages of a book, or through transformational experiences, her message remains the same: the person you are searching for has never been lost, you have simply forgotten who you are. Remember. Rise. BECOME.

Visit her website at www.thebecomemethod.com.

Connect with her on social media at:

╰┈➤Twitter: https://x.com/giselleempowers

╰┈➤ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/giselleempowers

╰┈➤Instagram: https://instagram.com/giselleempowers

╰┈➤Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/21957760.Giselle_Mascarenhas

Can you share a story about what brought you to this particular career path?

I don’t think I chose this career path as much as I kept following what God put in front of me.

For most of my life, I have been a builder. I see possibility in people, businesses, communities, and ideas, and I have this almost uncontrollable desire to help bring that possibility to life. But for many years, I didn’t understand that there was a common thread running through everything I was doing.

Then I started doing my own deeper work.

I began asking myself who I was underneath all the roles I had learned to play, the wife, mother, leader, entrepreneur, achiever, the woman who could always figure it out.

That’s where BECOME was born.

And then God called me to write She Forgot She Was Free.

When I walked into the discovery session with my publisher, I didn’t even know what the book was going to be about. We prayed together, and then something happened that I can only describe as God taking over. The framework of the book began pouring out onto her whiteboard.

I went home and wrote the memoir portion in three days.

That was when I understood that my whole life had been preparing me for this work.

The book, BECOME, the experiences I create for women, they are all connected by the same purpose: helping women stop believing they need to become someone else and start remembering who they have always been.

Can you share the most interesting story that occurred to you in the course of your career?

One of the most interesting things about my career is how many times I have been willing to begin again.

I have walked away from things that looked successful from the outside because I knew they were no longer mine. I have built things from nothing, watched things fall apart, changed directions, started over, and had seasons where I had absolutely no idea what was coming next.

There was a time when I might have looked at those reinventions as evidence that I couldn’t get it right.

Today, I see them completely differently.

I wasn’t starting over. I was being cultivated.

Every version of my career taught me something I needed for the next one. Business taught me how to build. Leadership taught me how to see possibility in people. Failure taught me humility. Loss taught me discernment. Starting over taught me courage. And all of it eventually gave me the language for the work I do today.

That’s one of the biggest truths in my book: sometimes the thing you thought was taking you off course was actually preparing you for where you were always meant to go.

What was the biggest challenge you faced in your journey writing your book?

Telling the truth without trying to make the truth prettier.

I’m not talking about factual truth. I’m talking about emotional truth.

When you’re writing about your own life, there is a temptation to explain yourself. To justify decisions. To make yourself look wiser in the past than you actually were. To protect people. To protect yourself.

I didn’t want to do that.

I wanted the woman reading this book to recognize herself in my humanity, and that meant I had to let her see mine.

There were memories I had to revisit differently. There were moments when I had to acknowledge where I had been performing, where I had abandoned pieces of myself, where ego had been involved, where fear had made decisions for me, and where I simply didn’t know then what I know now.

The challenge was allowing the woman I am today to love the woman I was then without rewriting her.

That became one of the most healing parts of writing the book.

What is the main empowering lesson you want your readers to take away after finishing your book?

You are WHOLE right now.

Not after you lose the weight.

Not after you make more money.

Not when the relationship is fixed.

Not when you’re more confident, more successful, more disciplined, more spiritual, or finally have everything figured out.

Right now.

So much of what women are sold is based on the idea that there is something wrong with us that needs to be fixed. I reject that.

The woman you were before the world got loud is still there. She didn’t disappear. She got buried underneath expectations, responsibilities, disappointments, survival, and all the identities you learned to perform.

You don’t need to become someone new.

You need to remember who you have always been.

That is what I hope a woman feels when she closes this book, not that she has another list of things she needs to fix, but that she has permission to come home to herself.

What is the one habit you believe contributed the most to you becoming a great writer?

Listening and studying.

I don’t know that I would even call myself a great writer. I would call myself a storyteller who finally became willing to listen.

Add that to being good at studying and recognizing patterns in people.

I study people. I listen to the words they use and the words they avoid. I began to listen and study my own life. I listen when something keeps tugging at me. And most importantly, I listen for God.

When I wrote this book, I wasn’t sitting at my computer trying to sound profound. I (honestly God) was identifying patterns to tell the truth about what I had lived and what I now understood were programming from where we base all of our decisions from.

When something came, I wrote it.

There were days when I wrote for nearly 15 hours because the story was pouring out faster than I could process it.

So if there is a habit behind my writing, it is getting quiet enough to hear what wants to be said, and then having the courage not to edit the life out of it.

You are a person of enormous influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?

I already started it.

BECOME.

But the irony of the name is that I don’t believe women need to become someone else.

I want to create a movement of women who remember.

Women who remember that they are whole before they achieve another thing.

Women who stop shrinking themselves to make other people comfortable.

Women who choose themselves without believing that choosing themselves means they have to stop loving or serving everyone else.

Women who ask God, “Show me what is mine,” and then have the courage to move when He answers.

And women who turn around and do the same for another woman.

Because I don’t believe transformation is supposed to stop with us.

Imagine what happens when a woman remembers who she is. It changes how she mothers. How she loves. How she leads. How she builds. How she walks into a room. How she uses her voice. How she treats other women. What she teaches her daughters and granddaughters.

That’s the movement I want to spend the rest of my life building.

Not millions of women trying to become someone better.

Millions of women remembering they were already free.

 

Thursday Book Spotlight: The Life-Changing Power of One Question by Holly Hurd

 

🔥Title: The Life-Changing Power of One Question: Unlock Purpose, Direction & Connection with One Powerful Ask

🔥Author: Holly Hurd

🔥Genre: Personal Growth

🔥Sub-genre: Women’s Empowerment

🔥Language:English

🔥Pages: 236

🔥Paperback ISBN: 978-1969508141

🔥Publisher: Maison Vero

🔥Publication Date: November 25, 2025

One Powerful Question Can Change Your Life.

In this empowering guide for women, Holly Hurd explores the transformative power of asking the right question at the right moment to unlock self-worth, confidence, and clarity.

Whether you’re navigating personal crossroads or professional change, this book will guide you to the breakthrough you’ve been seeking. With stories, prompts, and real-life examples from women who have radically changed their lives, this book reveals how a single, thoughtful question—posed to yourself or others—can help you find purpose, deepen relationships, and create connection. A former hedge fund founder turned women’s empowerment advocate, Holly Hurd combines business acumen with emotional insight to offer listeners a framework for self-reflection, personal growth, and bold action.

This book isn’t just about finding the right words—it’s about discovering your voice. Through guided inquiry and inspiring anecdotes, listeners will learn how to identify the question that could open the door to healing, opportunity, or reinvention. Whether it’s a whisper of curiosity or a cry for change, asking that one question may be the first step to a more courageous, connected, and fulfilled life.

Inside, you’ll find:

• Empowering questions to ask in moments of doubt, change, or opportunity
• Real stories from women who found clarity and purpose by asking just one question
• Simple yet powerful tools for reconnecting to your intuition and taking the next step

If you liked How Successful People Think, Supercommunicators, or How to Become a People Magnet, then you’ll love The Life-Changing Power of One Question.

The Life-Changing Power of One Question is available at Amazon.

Excerpt:

PROLOGUE

What is the question that changed your life? It’s there. At first, many people struggle to pinpoint their question. But if you reflect deeply, you’ll likely uncover one—or even several—questions that have altered the course of your life in meaningful ways.

Each of us has experienced moments where a single question has led to a new path, a significant decision, or a profound shift in perspective. Maybe it was a question you asked yourself in a moment of self-doubt or clarity. Perhaps you turned to someone else for advice, and their answer illuminated a path you hadn’t considered. Or maybe you reached out to the universe, asking for a sign to guide you in an uncertain time. Whether the impact was fleeting or long-lasting, the power of that question remains undeniable.

My theory is that a question can help you take the next step. By asking thought provoking questions, we can find a way to the other side and a happier life. As women, we have spent our entire lives taking care of others, now it’s time to ask: What makes me happy? What do I want out of my life? Is there something I really want to do? How do I want to spend my life?

I’ve spent the last fifteen years interviewing women at inflection points in their lives. Maybe they were recently widowed or divorced. Maybe they were new empty nesters. Perhaps their parent has passed, or they lost a job or retired. There are so many transitions that can be difficult to walk through. These women found a way to move forward by asking a question that led to a business, venture or pursuit. You may not be looking to start a business but rather begin a different lifestyle after an inflection point.  Regardless of where you are, I believe questions can lead you to what’s next.

Why write this book? In my life recently I’ve noticed what makes me happy, what makes me smile, what gives me fulfilment, and what gives me peace. Connecting with other people is my answer.  And recent studies have shown it’s important to everyone and everyone’s health. Three recent studies and countless research articles have shown that connecting to the people in your world brings happiness. In fact, studies have shown that connecting with other people leads to a longer healthier life. Given that, connecting with others should definitely be on your health to-do list.  This book will show you how questions help you connect and find your happiness.

Let me be clear: I don’t claim to have all the answers to the questions you may ask yourself or others. I am not a therapist, psychologist, or psychiatrist. If you are facing challenges such as anxiety, depression, or other mental health concerns, I encourage you to seek the guidance of a licensed professional. This book is not intended to diagnose or treat mental health conditions. Instead, it is an exploration of how the right questions—asked with intention and clarity—can serve as powerful tools for growth, connection, and transformation.

Through extensive research and reflection, I’ve gathered insights from experts in communication, relationships, and personal development. My goal is to share their wisdom and offer a framework for uncovering the questions that can lead to greater happiness and fulfillment in your life.

I’m not a scholar or teacher but I believe happiness is the ultimate currency.  Our world just went through a period of extreme disconnectedness, and we are at a major point of dividedness in our world. How do we get back to connectiveness and ultimately, more happiness? A question can give you that connectiveness and change your life and the lives of those around you, maybe only for a moment, maybe for a little while and maybe for a lifetime.

In your daily life, people want to connect and to be seen. How easy is it to connect? Something as simple as saying “It’s busy today, right?” “Quiet in here today?” “So cold outside, right?” It can be anything that gets the person to see you and lets them know you see them. Rather than just go through the motions of checking out, picking up your order, or walking to your desk, you can turn your workday or errand into an exchange that improves your health.

And in your personal life, whether in your relationship with others or your relationship with yourself, questions are amazing at getting you to examine where you are, where you want to go, and how you want to live your life. You will see examples of multiple stories throughout the book where questions led others to happiness You can use these questions to guide you to a clearer picture of what makes you happy and ultimately begin a journey to a happier life.

Your relationship with your boss, your employee, your partner, your mate, your parents, your friends, your child can all be improved with a single question. In this book you’ll learn what question to ask, and you’ll learn how to ask that question to work towards a better relationship with everyone you encounter and everyone you know - leading to your happiness. 

Here’s my promise to you, my reader: by the end of this book, you’ll discover the value of asking the right questions—not just of others, but of yourself. You’ll learn how to start a meaningful conversation with a question that could spark change. You’ll identify the life-changing question you need to ask yourself right now. Whether you’re seeking a new career, a deeper purpose, stronger relationships, or greater overall joy, one well-chosen question could be the key that unlocks it all.

So, let’s begin this journey together. Let’s uncover the life-changing question that’s waiting to guide you toward your next chapter.

– Excerpted from The Life-Changing Power of One Question by Holly Hurd, Maison Vero, 2025. Reprinted with permission.

About the Author:

For the last 15 years, Holly Hurd has interviewed and profiled hundreds of women entrepreneurs through her platform VentureMom.com. This gives her unique insights into how women create successful ventures from scratch. Her website serves as a source of inspiration and guidance, showcasing stories of women who turned ideas into thriving pursites and businesses.

Holly’s first book, VentureMom: From Idea to Income in Just 12 Weeks, became a bestseller, offering readers a step-by-step blueprint to start a business in a short period of time. Now, her highly anticipated new book, The Life-Changing Power of One Question, will draw on her experience with women who are at inflection points This book explores how asking the right question at the right time can transform lives. Aimed at women at pivotal moments, it serves as a powerful guide for those seeking to redefine their happiness and create a fulfilling new chapter.

Holly began her career managing her own hedge fund at just 23 years old, specializing in futures and commodities trading. This experience sharpened her strategic mindset and entrepreneurial spirit, ultimately leading her to her true mission: empowering women to lead happier, more fulfilled lives.

Visit her website at VentureMom.com.

Connect with her on social media at:

╰┈➤ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VentureMom/

╰┈➤ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/venture_mom

╰┈➤ LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/hollyhurd/

 

 

 

Wednesday Book Spotlight: She Forgot She Was Free by Giselle Mascarenhas

● Title: She Forgot She Was Free
● Author: Giselle Mascarenhas
● Genre: Self Help
● Sub-genre: Inner Child Self Help/Transformational Self Help/Motivational Self Help
● Language:English
● Pages: 132
● Paperback ISBN: ‎ 979-8234125965
● ASIN: B0H6M1PSHT
● Publisher: Mija Media House
● Publication Date: June 23, 2026
● Amazon: https://a.co/d/04aiKYWO
● Purchase Signed Copy: https://signedcopy.netlify.app/

She Forgot She Was Free is an invitation to remember the woman you were before fear, expectations, achievement, disappointment, and survival convinced you to forget.

In this deeply personal and transformational book, two-time best-selling author and founder of The BECOME Method™, Giselle Mascarenhas, shares the lessons, questions, and revelations that led her back to her truest self. Rather than offering quick fixes or another self-help checklist, she invites readers into a journey of honest reflection, identity, healing, and intentional growth. Through compelling stories and practical insights, readers are challenged to release limiting beliefs, reconnect with their authentic voice, and rediscover the freedom that has been within them all along.

Rooted in the principles of The BECOME Method™, She Forgot She Was Free equips readers with a powerful way to move beyond simply surviving and begin living with clarity, courage, and purpose. Whether you’re navigating a season of transition, rebuilding after loss, or simply sensing there is more waiting for you, this book will remind you that the life you long for doesn’t begin by becoming someone new, it begins by remembering who you have always been.

Because the person you are searching for has never been lost.

She has simply been waiting for you to remember her.

Excerpt:

“Beat It”

If you grew up in the 80s, you understand what Michael Jackson meant.

Not as a celebrity. Not as a pop star. As a feeling.

My bedroom walls were covered in him. Floor to ceiling. Every page I could tear from every magazine that had his face on it, I put it up. I would climb on my dresser drawers and stand on chairs just to reach higher, just to fit one more. My brother John knew this. And because brothers are built to find the exact thing that will undo you, ripping one of those pictures was his most effective weapon. That was the deal, unspoken but understood, touch my Michael Jackson pictures and I stop raiding your Little Debbies and cereal. We had a whole economy built around it.

But Michael Jackson wasn’t just decoration on my walls.

He was proof that you could be fully, completely, unapologetically yourself, and the whole world would not just accept it, they would lose their minds over it.

Third grade. The school talent show.

I signed up to dance to Beat It. I borrowed a dress. Black tights that were slightly too small. I was not nervous. Not even a little. I was a great dancer and I loved Michael Jackson and the combination of those two facts felt like more than enough reason to get on a stage in front of the entire school.

When the music started, I stopped thinking.

I just danced.

I hit every move. I got lost in it, the way you only get lost in something when you are doing exactly what you were made to do. No performance. No awareness of being watched. Just a little girl and the music and the complete and total freedom of a body that knew what it was doing.

When it was over, the cafeteria stood up.

The whole cafeteria.

Elementary kids on their feet, cheering, for me, for little Gi who had just danced her whole heart out in slightly-too-small tights without a single moment of self-consciousness.

I remember that feeling. I want you to feel it with me for just a second before I tell you what happened next.

That feeling, of being fully yourself, fully alive, and being met with that kind of love, that is vitality. That is exactly what this book is about. Not the applause. The aliveness that came before it.

I signed up again the following year.

I was going to dance again. At this point I was certain, certain, that I was either going to be a ballroom dancer or a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader. It was not even a question in my mind. It was just a matter of which one.

Then I got called to the principal’s office.

Mrs. Champion sat across from me and told me that before I could perform in the talent show, I would need to audition privately for her. Because last year, she said, and I still remember her tone more clearly than her words, my dance moves had been vulgar. And I would not be allowed to perform if I did anything like that again.

I was in third grade.

I did not fully understand the word she used. But I understood her face. I understood the disgust in it. The way she looked at me like my aliveness, my joy, my freedom, the very thing that had made every child in that cafeteria rise to their feet, was something to be ashamed of. Something that needed to be contained. Auditioned. Approved before it was allowed to exist.

I went back to my homeroom teacher and told her I had decided not to perform.

She asked why.

“I just don’t want to anymore,” I said.

And I sat down.

I did not have the language for what had just happened to me. I did not know that a grown woman had just looked at a little girl on fire and made her feel like her flame was a problem. I did not know that the thing I did most naturally, the thing that made people come alive, had just been handed back to me with a note that said too much.

What I knew was the feeling in my body.

The same body that had been lost in the music, free and uncalculating, was now sending a different signal.

A warning.

A familiar click.

When the light shines too bright on you, move it.

Point it somewhere else before someone decides your brightness is the problem. Before they call it vulgar. Before your heart gets shattered by someone else’s discomfort with your aliveness.

I had already learned the light switch.

Mrs. Champion just gave me the first real reason to use it.

– Excerpted from She Forgot She Was Free by Giselle Mascarenhas, Mija Media House, 2026. Reprinted with permission.

About the Author

Giselle Mascarenhas is the founder of BECOME™, creator of the BECOME Methodology™, and author of She Forgot She Was Free. An entrepreneur, speaker, and transformational guide, she has dedicated her life’s work to helping people reconnect with who they were created to be so they can live with greater purpose, freedom, and intentionality.

After years of building businesses, leading organizations, and walking through seasons of personal growth, Giselle recognized that lasting transformation does not begin with external success, it begins with remembering one’s authentic identity. That realization became the foundation of the BECOME Method™, a proprietary methodology designed to guide individuals through a transformational process of self-awareness, healing, alignment, courageous action, and embodied growth. Unlike a framework that offers guidelines for achieving a specific outcome, The BECOME Method™ is a comprehensive method of personal advancement that can be applied across every area of life, leadership, and purpose.

Her debut book, She Forgot She Was Free, is both a deeply personal memoir and an invitation for readers to embark on their own journey of remembrance. Through honest storytelling, reflection, and faith, the book explores the universal experience of losing ourselves beneath expectations, fear, pain, and performance, and the courageous journey of rediscovering the freedom, identity, and purpose that have always existed within us. Rather than simply telling her story, Giselle invites readers to see themselves in its pages and begin writing the next chapter of their own lives.

The book became the catalyst for the broader BECOME movement, an expanding ecosystem of transformational experiences designed to help people move beyond inspiration into intentional action. Through immersive workshops, retreats, leadership development, educational programs, community experiences, publishing initiatives, and speaking engagements, Giselle equips individuals with practical tools to create meaningful and lasting transformation. Every experience is grounded in the belief that personal growth is not about becoming someone different but remembering and embodying the person God uniquely created each of us to be.

Known for her ability to blend heartfelt storytelling with practical application, Giselle creates spaces where people feel seen, challenged, and empowered to take meaningful action. Her presentations combine vulnerability, strategic thinking, and actionable guidance, allowing audiences to leave not only inspired but equipped with a clear path forward. Her work resonates with entrepreneurs, leaders, professionals, educators, faith-based communities, and individuals seeking deeper purpose and authentic fulfillment.

Beyond her work as an author and speaker, Giselle is passionate about developing leaders who create ripple effects within their families, businesses, organizations, and communities. She believes transformation is contagious, that when one person remembers who they are and chooses to live courageously, they give others permission to do the same. This philosophy continues to shape every initiative within the BECOME movement.

Through future books, collaborative publishing projects, leadership academies, retreats, and global speaking engagements, Giselle’s mission is to help millions of people reconnect with their God-given identity and become the fullest expression of who they were created to be. She envisions BECOME as a worldwide movement that empowers individuals to live intentionally, lead authentically, and create lasting impact for generations to come.

Giselle lives in Texas with her family and continues to write, teach, speak, and expand the global reach of the BECOME movement. Whether on stage, in the pages of a book, or through transformational experiences, her message remains the same: the person you are searching for has never been lost, you have simply forgotten who you are. Remember. Rise. BECOME.

Visit her website at www.thebecomemethod.com.

Connect with her on social media at:

╰┈➤Twitter: https://x.com/giselleempowers

╰┈➤ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/giselleempowers

╰┈➤Instagram: https://instagram.com/giselleempowers

╰┈➤Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/21957760.Giselle_Mascarenhas

 

 

 

❤Author Interview: Mary Lawlor, Author of 'Fighter Pilot's Daughter' #authorinterview

 

Mary Lawlor is author of a memoir, Fighter Pilot’s Daughter: Growing Up in the Sixties and the Cold War (Bloomsbury 2015) and two books of cultural criticism, Recalling the Wild: Naturalism and the Closing of the American West (Rutgers UP 2000) and Public Native America (Rutgers UP 2006). She studied at the American University in Paris, the University of Maryland, and New York University. She divides her time between Easton, Pennsylvania and Gaucin, Spain. Her novel, The Translators, is set in 12th century Spain and fictionalizes the experiences of Robert of Ketton, first translator of the Koran into Latin. She hopes to see it out next year. In the meantime, she has started a second novel, The Women’s Hospital, set in 18th century Spain and inspired by the life story of an Irish woman whose family moved to Cádiz, escaping English oppression in their own country.

╰┈➤ You can visit her website at https://www.marylawlor.net/.

Connect with her on social media at:

╰┈➤ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mary.lawlor.186/ 

Thank you so much for this interview, Mary. How did your family feel about having you write a book that might include them?

My parents were both gone by the time I wrote Fighter Pilot’s Daughter, and one of my older sisters had passed away. I was worried about how my other two sisters and the larger, extended family would feel about my describing intimate dynamics in the book, like my parents’ fighting or my father’s alcoholism. But my sisters and I talked about these things, and they were supportive. Before publication, I sent them both the finished manuscript — not promising to make changes but to hear their feedback and be influenced or not by it. I know one of them has read the entire book, and she was very moved. Her response has meant the world to me.

What was it like living in military quarters and never having a ‘real’ home that stayed in the same place? Do you feel it shaped who you are today?

In some ways, it wasn’t so much of an issue, since from the time we were very young, my sisters and I were moving every two years or so. It was all we knew and all we expected. The other kids on the Army posts where we were stationed had the same experience.

But a couple of things complicated that normality. Whenever they could, my parents enrolled us in Catholic schools, off post, and we would find ourselves surrounded by kids who had known each other since kindergarten. Generally, they looked at us like we were irrelevant — at least at the beginning. Eventually we’d make friends and be invited to their homes, where we’d see the continuity and stability of their lives, in contrast to our own.

And there were the visits to see our New Jersey cousins, who lived in a lovely house in a country town where they’d been all their lives. They’d gone to the same school, had the same friends, and so forth. It was an ideal domestic scene, and I loved being there. I was envious of their world but couldn’t imagine it for myself. It was too far out of reach.

When we were young, the moves were exciting. My parents would talk about the places we were going — California! Germany! — and my sisters and I would start imaging what they would be like. We’d read about and picture ourselves in the new situation. As we got older and had close friends and boyfriends, the moves were more difficult. It was sad and painful to have to leave, and we wished very much we could stay in the same place. Then, again, the new place would be exciting and different. We’d make new friends, and the cycle would continue like that.

Moving so much and not having a home has shaped me a great deal. After leaving my parents for college, I kept moving and am still am not quite rooted, although I’m married and have a nice house in Easton, Pennsylvania. But every three months my husband and I shift off to Spain, where we have a cabin in the mountains of Andalucía. I love being in Spain and would move here if I could. We have friends and more of a history here than we do in Easton. We don’t, however, have residency in Spain, so after three months, we come back to Easton. The year is divided up like this, and it feels perfectly familiar to me.

In one of your interviews you said, “Memories of my girlhood and forgotten fears of nuclear apocalypse were running through my brain day and night.” I can’t imagine the fear. Can you elaborate on this and tell us how you coped?

Living on military posts, I think we had more of a sense of the potential for nuclear war than other children in America. Because our fathers’ jobs were to get the defense apparatus ready for that eventuality, we were made constantly aware of it. Civil-defense shelters were everywhere, and we practiced the “Duck and Cover” moves at school, huddling under our desks and hoping that would do the trick! On the posts in Heidelberg and Stuttgart, Germany, there was a lot of talk about the Fulda Gap, a point on the border between West and East Germany where it was predicted the Soviet army would flood through to do battle with the Germans and the rest of Europe. These images and warnings kept the possibility of nuclear apocalypse in our minds almost all the time.

Apart from that, our parents were practicing Catholics, and the story of St. John’s Apocalypse often came up in the post chaplain’s sermons. Apocalypse offered a ready analogue to the talk of nuclear annihilation, and the chaplain would build on it, trying to imbue in us a sense of how close the end of world might be. The terrifying judgement of the living and the dead and the assignment of eternal damnation or happiness was always upon us.

These twin discourses of apocalypse were in the air, in our dreams and produced what I’d call a habit of fear, a trained response to seeing whatever troubling situation emerges as a sign of the end of days. Or the end of something. Like now, so many people my age are seeing the current political situation in the US as signs of the end of democracy and, perhaps, of America. But on a more personal level, the habit of fear has stayed with me and been a real handicap to my self-development and to my ability to genuinely live with confidence. Fortunately, it’s an obvious enough problem that I’ve known about it for a long time and have spent a lot of time (and money!) trying to come to terms with and manage it in therapeutical contexts.

Can you tell us the name of some of the places you have traveled to when your father was an aviator and which were your favorite?

We lived in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, infamous as a cancer hot-spot for people who lived there in the 50s. Then there was Fort Rucker, in Dothan Alabama, where my father taught pilots how to fly helicopters and I got to ride in a Bell helicopter once — like being up in the air inside a giant eyeball. We rented a farm way out in the country and had a horse, cows, chickens, guinea hens to look after. That was hugely fun, although rural Alabama was a very unfamiliar place and the people there weren’t easy for us — especially for my mother — to understand. I go into Franny’s way of responding to southern culture in the book, but suffice it to say here that she was quite unhappy. Later we moved to Fort Benning in Columbus, Georgia, where we lived off post in a swampy development called Forestdale. There was a creek behind the house, but you had to watch out for water moccasins. I started my writing career there with a little newspaper a friend and I created, The Forestdale Gazette, in which we reported news of the neighborhood, using carbon paper for copies.

Later we moved to Fort Ord, in Monterey, California. This was really my favorite and my sisters’ too. We lived on post, but our parents enrolled us in the beautiful Carmel Mission School in Carmel, situated in an old monastery and arranged like a cloister walk around a gorgeous garden. We made friends there and loved the school, although some of the nuns were stricter than others. We stayed at Fort Ord long enough for my older sisters and me to start high school in Monterey. Then my father had orders to go to Stuttgart, so we had to say goodbye to people who had become important to us.

We crossed the Atlantic on the SS United States, an adventure in itself, which I also recount in the book. Germany opened up a whole new world. The enormous differences of language, styles of dress and manners, of what kids were allowed to do that they weren’t in the US and vice-versa, not to speak of the economic differences between them and us in those days — all these surprises were overwhelming. But it was fascinating. I scrambled to learn the German language and understand the few German friends I made. For the first couple of years we were in Stuttgart, a beautiful industrial city, and then we moved to Heidelberg, a handsome and historic university town. In both places we lived in the very closed environment of the post and didn’t get to know German people or their language or society very well. Among the military kids, my sisters and I came of age and got a taste of American teenage life that we’d never had in the States — drinking parties in the local Gasthauses that had no drinking age, and moonlit adventures in old Nazi sites. It was a strange and exotic experience which made me into a very different person than I’d been before.

Having lived through the Cold War, you know the fear of Russians invading or setting off a nuclear weapon was very real. Can you help us feel what that was like?

We were shown films in school with images of an enormous blast, followed by empty streets with trash blowing in the nuclear wind. The announcer would insist again and again that if we heard the atomic warning siren, we were to “duck and cover,” wherever we were. And we were told there might be no warning, that a blast as bright as the sun would suddenly happen, anywhere, anytime. Duck and cover movies warnings were played in schools and in the base movie theaters. Readiness warnings were issued at sports events and even in church. Repeatedly, we were told to be always alert for the warnings or the sun-bright blast itself. The message was meant to live in our psyches and be part of our thinking, our identity. We were people under threat. Nuclear holocaust was in my dreams and fueled a steady sense of fear and trepidation. From one moment to the next, you had to be ready for the world to fall apart under your feet. It was a tremendously unsettling discourse and kept all of us, I think, on edge and fearful.

I see this now in hindsight as a terrible experience for a child. Whatever the actual threat level at any given moment, ducking and covering probably wouldn’t have helped much. It only left us with a habit of fear. It probably made some of us more philosophical or religiously-minded than we might otherwise have been, given the end-of-the-world scenario we lived with all the time; but I think the more general effect was a fear, bordering on neurosis, of what could happen from one moment to the next. No wonder the late counter-culture that followed saw such an explosion of liberation and care-lessness, to counteract the intense, imposed caution of our childhood years.

In an earlier interview, you said you just wanted your mother and father to be remembered. Can you tell us what you would like people to know about them?

I think Jack and Franny were in some ways typical of their generation. Born in the 20s, they lived through the depression and came of age in the second World War. They weren’t subtle but saw things in black and white terms; and were very clear with their comments about everything from politics to homemaking. In many ways, I think they thought of themselves as opposite to the communists who they considered the enemy: communists were subtle, cagey, didn’t put their cards on the table. You couldn’t trust people like that, since what you saw wasn’t necessarily what you got.

Jack and Franny were both larger than life for me, but others outside the family responded to them as if they too saw them as striking characters. They were outspoken and definitive in their opinions. They were both loud and ready for an argument. I never heard them identify themselves as such, but they were politically independent and would size up the candidates carefully, then decide which was the better man (it was always, of course, a man). And once decided, that was it. There was little room for dialogic discussion of things, much less changing their minds.

As parents, they could be very difficult. They were strict, demanding, and kept a close eye on my sisters and I. They weren’t alone: child-rearing was like that in those days. Kids got spanked, and nobody thought it was wrong. My parents set the rules and the tone for our household, and we followed. There was no consulting us as to what we thought or hoped for or worried about.

But they were affectionate, and we knew they loved us. They hugged us a lot and always made a big deal of our birthdays. Christmas was a huge celebration with lots of good presents. And Jack and Franny were fun. Our moves across the country were always treated like adventures. The hotels, the pancake breakfasts at roadside restaurants, the sites along the routes of America — Carlsbad Caverns, Route 66, the Rocky Mountains — were part of a great expedition we were making. They inspired us with their excitement.

At a certain level, I suppose it’s simple vanity: I want them to be remembered because they meant so much to me. But they both contributed something to the world they came of age in, and they were characters of that time. I think that’s worth remembering.

What would you like future readers of your book to know?

I’d like future readers to know what life was like in the middle-to-late years of the twentieth century, particularly for the children of military families, a generally little understood component of American society. The focus of attention to US forces fighting overseas and preparing for war at home is usually on the service members themselves — all their adventures and sacrifices. I’d like readers to know more about the people who came along with them, followed in their wake — the spouses and children of the warriors. They may well not share the warrior’s priorities or even their ideology, but the children in particular are called on to be part of the picture anyway, like camp followers of all ages everywhere. I’d like people to know more about what life was like for us in our time, but I also hope readers will see how military children still experience the difficulties of moving all the time and the instability of life in warrior society. It’s an age-old portrait and one that’s little understood.