Hey, there! It’s great to see you here again! It’s with great pleasure that I bring you the cover for Elpída, the third and final book in the Elpída series, coming to you from Harmony Ink Press on May 30th, 2017! It’s now available for pre-order!

As most of you know, this series is special to me and I am deeply thankful to Harmony Ink Press for publishing it. It’s an important trilogy, intended to give courage and hope to survivors of abuse. Here is the author’s note from the back of the book:

As with the first two books in this series, Ómorphi and Thárros, this novel was written to give victims of abuse hope. It wouldn’t have been possible without the support of the real life Christys and Thimis who endure and struggle every day to survive and heal. I have nothing but the utmost respect for you.

Until you have endured the violation of abuse, whether by a single act or a chronic condition of suffering, you cannot know the meaning of self-loss. It isn’t only the obliteration of all your belief systems; it is also the annihilation of your human worth and the unrecoverable larceny of your self. Painful beyond description in myriad ways, debilitating, and tragic, abuse—including bullying—leaves everlasting, invisible scars.

Abuse is not only fostered by secrecy, it depends on it. Tell someone. There is hope and there is help and, no matter what anyone tells you, it’s okay to ask for help.

For those of you finding yourselves trying to understand an abused friend or family member, please keep an open mind. Imagine how hard it is for them to reorganize and come to terms with what has happened to them. While this book and its prequels are books of fiction, the abuse and posttraumatic symptoms suffered by Christy and Thimi are based upon real events. The best thing you can do is to listen. You may be the only one in the world they can turn to.

If you are a victim of abuse, always remember that abuse does not define you. Never judge yourself by what others have done to you. One final note. A learning curve isn’t a perfect arc. You will falter, but you will succeed. Allow yourself the time needed to heal, and do it at your own pace. Above all, be gentle with yourself.

By supporting this series, and buying and reading these books, you are supporting those youth who struggle daily to learn to live again. Thank you for reading this series. Elpída is now available for pre-order at Harmony Ink Press!

See you back here next month on Monday, April 17th!

About Elpída

Michael and Christy attended prom, graduated high school, and Michael leads the USATF tryouts. With Oxford University on the horizon, his future looks bright and he believes life has returned to normal after Christy’s rescue. He couldn’t be more wrong.

Christy has been free from a life of slavery for more than a year and made remarkable progress due in no small part to the love he found with Michael. But the recent prosecution of a past abuser has shattered the life he so painstakingly built out of nothing but a mountain of horror. He now faces the daunting task of building a new life—yet again.

Twelve-year-old Thimi has been missing since Christy left Greece and, unbeknownst to everyone, has hidden out in a vacant mansion in Glyfada. Learning of Christy’s survival is the only thing that brings him out of hiding. People, open spaces, even the most common of sounds frighten him beyond reason. A mere ghost of a boy, Thimi arrives in the US with no knowledge of the outside world—the only constant in his life a purple marble.

Lost, shattered, and afraid, only hope gives them the strength and courage they need to begin anew.

Order Elpída now at Harmony Ink Press!

About Cody Kennedy

Cody is an author who lives, most of the time, on the east coast of the United States. Cody also writes adult mystery thrillers, fantasy, science fiction, and romance as Aisling Mancy.

Raised on the mean streets and back lots of Hollywood by a Yoda-look-alike grandfather, Cody doesn’t conform, doesn’t fit in, is epic awkward, and lives to perfect a deep-seated oppositional defiance disorder. In a constant state of fascination with the trivial, Cody contemplates such weighty questions as If time and space are curved, then where do all the straight people come from? When not writing, Cody can be found taming waves on western shores, pondering the nutritional value of sunsets, appreciating the much-maligned dandelion, unhooking guide ropes from stanchions, and marveling at all things ordinary.

Cody’s Facebook, Twitter @CodyKAuthor, Pinterest, Tumblr, Google+, Ello,
Goodreads, Medium, Booklikes, and read my free serial story, Fairy.

Pssst. Click on the captioned title of each book to read the first chapter!