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Jennifer Peacock-Smith was born in South Africa in the late sixties to passionate parents struggling to find their place and to make a difference in their worlds of apartheid, feminism, and strict religion. Little Jenny quickly found herself falling through the cracks in their battle to be different, better, and "cleverer" than those before them or around them, and her mother’s fight to break the moulds. Born a girl instead of a boy, bubbly instead of serious, fun and talented instead of academic, everything about her was “wrong". It took five decades, six countries, multiple diagnoses, and ultimately a physical and emotional collapse for Jennifer to successfully find her voice, to thrive, to get the medical and psychological care she needed, and to begin the journey to a place of sanity and peace. Her story is one of crushing loneliness and isolation, but more than that, it's ultimately a story of resilience, hope, and redemption in ways that she could never have imagined. A mentor, counsellor, artist, and now a successful author, Jennifer writes for various blogs, The Mighty, and other public spaces on neglect, emotional abuse, anxiety, disability and chronic illness. You can find her on most social media platforms under @JPeaSmith.

Get the special Preorder price now, only until launch! Scrawny, and straw-haired, seven-year-old Jenny wakes up frozen. Her eyes won’t open, her voice refuses to work, she can't even move her lips or her tongue. In fear, she grasps for her face, but her arms are both tied down, splayed out at either side. Why can’t she move? Where is she? And how did she get here? Her immediate assumption is that this is a punishment. But what was her crime? She searches through a mass of fear and fog, and as a blurry picture begins to form, of noise and drama, snot and tears, horror and panic …. she finds it. That must be it. She'd ignored the rules, fractured the silence, made a scene. She'd broken the cardinal rule; she'd been disobedient. Publicly. She'd broken free of “invisible” and caused all this terrible trouble. Was she finally paying the price? Neglect doesn’t always look like dirty or starved or diseased or beaten. Neglect is chronic and often invisible. In a small bubble entirely cut off from the rest of the world, scrawny little Jenny's voice, squashed by her parent’s need to find their own, is swiftly silenced, again and again. But her shine refused to die and survived within her as a spark, a fighting spirit, and a sense of hope that defies logic. In this, the first book in the Fault in the Family Memoirs, Jennifer shares her gripping story of chronic neglect and loneliness in her teeny-tiny-bubble-of-a-world, slap bang in the middle of white, privileged, apartheid South Africa in the seventies. In My Africa My Home, Jennifer sets the tone and the background for this epic journey that will transport the reader through five decades, two families, eight international moves, multiple diagnoses, and a shocking hundred-year-old legacy that underpins it all, in her search for identity, “home” and a place to belong. Her story is one of crushing loneliness and isolation, but more than that, it's ultimately a story of resilience, hope, and redemption in ways that she could never have imagined. A mentor, counsellor, artist, and now a successful author, Jennifer writes for various blogs, The Mighty, and other public spaces on neglect, emotional abuse, anxiety, disability and chronic illness. You can find her on most social media platforms under @JPeaSmith.

Kindle Price: $0.99

Category: Biographies & Memoirs

Do you, or a loved one, struggle with Anxiety? Are you tired of feeling that you are at the mercy of your body, the experts, and situations that you can't control? Do you feel that traditional advice leaves you feeling as though you are swimming against the tide? In The Lion and the Peacock, Jennifer shares candidly about her life with Anxiety, Stress, and Panic Attacks. Using very simple analogies, Jennifer weaves a tale that helps to turn the complicated processes within the body and the mind, into an inspiring and well-written story that pulls her readers into each moment. Through her vulnerability and honesty, she will take you through her experiences and learnings, leaving you feeling validated and equipped. Through her stories, unique techniques, and the workbook at the back, you will learn how to:* Unpack your own anxiety journey* Listen to your body and understand what it is doing and why* Use the tide to work for you instead of having to fight against it* Create a safe world around you to forge a way forward* Beat anxiety once and for allJennifer presents her story of trial, hope, and victory in this easy to read, eloquently written resource that will leave you feeling empowered and inspired. You can read more about Jennifer here:https://jenniferpeacocksmith. wordpress. com

Kindle Price: $2.99

Category: Biographies & Memoirs

In part two of the The Fault in The Family Memoirs, Jennifer takes us on her journey through her second decade of life, across the globe, far away from the bubbles that protected her, in an era long before the internet or mobile phones, into a new foreign land, like so many other immigrants in the seventies. Ripped from her dysfunctional odd little world, Jenny has to start again, in a foreign land, mistaken for a boy with her short, cropped hair and practical clothingWith no preparation or space to grieve or evolve, Jenny and her siblings are thrown in the deep end and quickly have to learn to sink or swim. The jury is still out on who drowned and who bobbed to the top, but, if the saying “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” is anything to go by, then they all came out the other end very tough cookies indeed. Nothing could have prepared Jenny for what was to come, either in the ways she sank and all but drowned, but also in the ways she taught herself to swim, the surprising life rafts that were thrown her way, how she rose to her challenges, swam hard against the tide, and came out the other end. As she grew through her teenage years, little Jenny blossomed, against the odds, to become a thriving and robust teenager. But hidden behind the gorgeous smile and the “bubbly personality” lay new fears on top of the old, an ocean of uncertainty, and one very lost soul. Along the way, Jenny makes three promises to herself and invites her readers to follow her battle to make them all come true. What are they? And will she succeed? Or will she find a different path? One that gives her new hope and a new world? Or will it all come crumbling down and leave her a lost, broken, and damaged twenty-year-old?

Kindle Price: $2.99

Category: Biographies & Memoirs

Not everyone is thrilled when someone tells their stories; either in a blockbuster, grand style on the public stage, or in private letters or whisperings behind closed doors. No one likes a tattle-tale. We don’t want to “get someone in trouble” (as though their actions are only worthy of trouble if we tell). No one likes a spoil-sport either, as if it was all fun and games till we ruined it. The world is full of real-life tattletales and spoilsports, killjoys and party-poopers. Those who take great joy in ruining other’s lives for the sake of it, or who bring down others to make themselves look or feel better. And no one wants to fit into that category. Telling the truth doesn’t always mean we’re vengeful or mean, or we can’t forgive. It doesn’t make us any of those aforementioned unsavoury characters. Sometimes, and in fact a lot of the time, we need to tell our stories because they are essential. For ourselves as well as for others. For those who will walk the same paths as us, maybe even far behind us. But there are many other important reasons too. Our stories will affect the way we see the world, the way we conduct ourselves, the way we thrive - or not, whether we want them to or not. So hiding them doesn’t make them invisible. They are written in our eyes, and in the way we hold ourselves. They speak through our smiles and the way we respond to people. There are two great saying around writing our stories:“If an imaginary person taps you on the shoulder as you speak or write or tell our story, whispering DON’T TELL! , - then chances are you absolutely should! ”and…“If they didn’t want you to write about them, then they should have behaved better”. Both give us a chuckle and a spoonful of courage, followed by a shiver that runs down the spine. At some level, all at once, they sound truthful and empowering yet they also sound a little frightening and vengeful. They make us want to dive in and tell, at the same time they make us want to run for the hills. The truth though, is that we all behaved badly at some point, and no doubt still do. Many of “them”; those who want us silenced, deserve a second chance and some of them may even have good reason to want to silence us. But that still doesn’t always mean we should let them. In Why We Don’t Tell … and Why We Should! Jennifer gently validates the reasons we’re too scared to speak up, and helps her readers to look closely at their own fears. In Part One, each chapter shares a different reason we don't tell, gives some helpful real-life examples from her personal experiences, and helps her audience to safely, without judgement, unpack what's holding them back. Then she breaks down the taboos of speaking out, and why, more often than not, it’s so important to tell. In Part Two of her book, Jennifer shares all the reasons why we should tell our stories, big or small, how those reasons play out, and where they’re appropriate - or not. It turns out that telling is by no means a one-size-fits-all affair.

Kindle Price: $0.99

Category: Self-Help