Even if Your Heart Would Listen

2019 Philadelphia Writers' Conference, Nonfiction, 3rd place 2020 Best Book Awards Finalist in Health: Addiction and Recovery
Through her bravery and strength, Schiller strives to make a difference in our country and the way we treat addiction both within our own homes and on a national scale. Parade, From Humorous Fantasy to Heartbreaking Memoirs, These Are the 10 Most Inspiring Books by Women in 2019 A heart-rending story of a mother's anguished journey to understand her daughter's addiction. It indicts a treatment industry that often does more harm than good and a drug policy that fails to help parents save their children's lives. Maia Szalavitz, New York Times best-selling author of Unbroken Brain: A Revolutionary New Way of Understanding Addiction Courage is a parent who gets up every day and presses forward after losing a child. Bravery is a parent who fights to change the stigma of losing a child from Substance Use Disorder. In Even If Your Heart Would Listen, Elise Schiller shares the personal story of her beautiful daughter's struggles with mental illness and addiction, and her own story towards courage and bravery. A heartfelt read, and one that offers encouragement to me as a parent on my own journey towards courage and bravery. Lillian Hightower, mother of Andrew 4/19/1985 3/5/2017

Préface
Hired BookSparks/Crystal Patriarche - $15,000 + PR, Brand and Social Assets Packages (8-10months+ / for authors who have a plan to have more books, want to do multiple events and social/online promotion in addition to all the media from previous package more of a jump if this is a long term plan to become a career author) - 150 hours · Online media pitching to various media outlets from consumer media to women's media, publishing trade media and book reviews as well as essays, interviews placed · Pitching to author's select local media outlets (short lead media in local area/print, online in all local markets where the author lived) · National traditional media, including major newspapers, major magazines (print and online) as well as radio, TV, and more (All media formats, coverage includes reviews, interviews, essays placed and major media for several months) · A bigger content strategy to help place the author as an expert and get articles, excerpts and more published around themes of the book and relevant news · Strategic pitching to even broader national broadcast media (radio and TV) · Additional Marketing (eNewsletter strategy, list building) · Platform launching and building · Guidance/consult for author's social media and platform building with monthly metrics and goals (social ads/boosting is extra) · Strategic pitching to even broader national broadcast media (radio and TV) · Additional Marketing (eNewsletter strategy, list building) · Platform launching and building · Guidance/consult for author's social media and platform building with monthly metrics and goals (social ads/boosting is extra) Author website redesign (web team fees are extra but our time project managing is included) · BookSparks will organize a book tour · BookSparks will coordinate additional speaking opportunities

Auteur

Elise Schiller has been writing fiction and actively participating in writing groups since adolescence. After a thirty-year career in education and family services in Philadelphia, she retired to write full time. She is currently working on a fiction series about Philadelphia; SparkPress will be publishing the first book in the series. Schiller sits on the advisory board of the Philadelphia Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Services (DBHIDS), and she has served on the Philadelphia Mayor's Task Force on the Opioid Epidemic. When not writing, reading, or volunteering, she enjoys visiting museums and historical sites, often with one of her seven grandchildren or various nieces and nephews in tow.

Texte du rabat

In January 2014, Schiller's youngest child, 33-year-old Giana Natali, died of a heroin overdose. Now she presents this memoir about Giana's illness and death and its impact on her family as well as a close examination and critique of the treatment she received from health care practitioners while she was struggling to get well.

Résumé
In January of 2014, Elise Schiller's daughter, Giana Natali, died of a heroin overdose. Even if Your Heart Would Listen is a memoir about Giana's illness and death and its impact on her family-especially her mother-as well as a close examination and critique of the treatment she received from health care practitioners while she was struggling to get well.

Échantillon de lecture
Your First Day: January 21, 1980. Your due date was Super Bowl Sunday. I don't remember who was playing. I do remember sitting on the sofa with Dad, not very interested in the game, waiting. Waiting for you. You know, back then we didn't have ultrasound photos. We didn't have the tests that reveal abnormalities or gender. I wonder now if there was a little nugget inside you, something that would burst into heartache later. I didn't know whom I was waiting for. I can't remember what the other kids were doing, but I'm sure I was up and down from that sofa numerous times. I remember how enormous I was, and how low I was carrying you. I had gained over forty pounds and wasn't very comfortable. One of Dad's friends stopped by with some cute young girl he was dating. I just remember she was thin, and I was not happy to see her. At three in the morning, I woke with mild contractions. We timed them and called the hospital, and they said to get in there. But it was the middle of the night, and I didn't want to leave the other kids alone. Around six, we called Dad's parents, and they said they'd come by eight. Then the contractions were stronger, and we decided that we'd better go. So we woke your brother up and told him to hold down the fort until Nannie and Pop-Pop got there. I put out cereal and milk. Dad finally remembered a camera, and the first picture is of me pacing while I'm talking to your siblings on the phone. Not pacing far, because I was speak- ing from a landline. I remember absolutely nothing about the labor and delivery except that I was vomiting, as usual, and didn't feel the need for any anesthesia. Dad took pictures, which I have seen, of course, but have not looked at since you died. Can't look at them, don't know if I'll ever be able to look at them. And then by noon, there you were, completely well and beautiful, with a shock of black hair that stood up like a porcupine's quills. I think Dad was a bit surprised by another girl. I was happy and felt great. An hour or so after you were born, I was taking a shower. You were cozy in a bassinet by my bed, a real sleepyhead. I had to wake you up to nurse. I wanted to get home. I didn't want to be separated from the other kids. Maybe that was a sign, a bad sign. Maybe I should have been content to have a few days just with you. Your Last Day: January 3, 2014. It was already January 4 in Philadelphia, not that long after midnight. That Christmas, I had put a cathedral bells ringtone on my phone. It blasted me awake. As soon as I saw a Colorado number I didn't recognize, I was afraid. It was The Rose House therapist. There must have been a greeting, but I don't recall it. Giana died tonight. That was what he said. I replied, loudly I think, What are you saying? Giana died tonight, he repeated. I was not fully able to comprehend. Auntie Dina was in the next bedroom, sleeping. I rushed in and shoved the phone at her. He says Giana's dead, he says Giana's dead. I have no memory of the minutes that she spoke to him, only a vague recollection of her writing things down. I think I was standing in the middle of the bedroom, rocking from side to side. We had been warned. I knew, at least intellectually, that there was a risk. There had been endless talk and worksheets in rehab about relapse. You…