This is actually not a book review but more of a confession. As a professional ghostwriter, book doctor, editor and publisher, my greatest inspiration often comes from my clients.
Jeanette O’Donnal came to me eight years ago through a mutual acquaintance.
“Here!” Handing me a sheaf of papers, outlines and notes from seminars and classes she’d taught and smiling impishly: “What can you do with all of this?”
“What do you want to do with it?” I chuckled in return, already knowing her answer. Six days of the week, often working out of two and three salons, Jeanette created beautiful hairstyles for a loyal clientele. Her goal was to teach spiritual growth and self-improvement principles full-time and eventually have her own healing retreat.
Jeanette is an enlightened being; everyone who comes into her presence immediately knows it. It is often said that your beautician or barber is your therapist and they may know more about you than almost anyone else.
While she was combing, brushing, cutting curling and coloring, Jeanette's customers were pouring out all their stories of failed relationships, the cousin who got picked up for DUI, the brother who just lost his job; and "why can’t I lose weight," "why can’t I be more than JOB (Just Over Broke)," etc., etc.
She listened… and then she responded, with lots of tough love and careful instructions for closing down the pity party and opening the door to self–empowerment.
English is Jeanette’s second language; she is a Guatemalan of Mayan descent, from a long line of healers. When life became chaotic in the 1940s during the Revolution, her family moved to the U.S. where Jeanette went to college, studied cosmetology and hairstyling, married and raised seven children. She is now a grandmother of how many grandchildren I’ve lost count!
Realizing that Jeanette wanted to learn how to write this book herself, I told her I would serve as her mentor and editor. Since she did not have extra funds at that time to pay me, we did a “beauty parlor barter.”
Hairstyling visits served as mentoring sessions and in the interim I edited Jeanette’s material and suggested revisions.
When the book was finished, I published it for her through Dandelion Books and Jeanette uses it as a textbook for her spiritual retreats and seminars. Hairstyling is now only a hobby; recently she purchased a ranch in the southern part of Arizona which eventually will become a spiritual teaching and healing center.
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The Making of a Master: Tracking Your Self-Worth
by Jeanette O’Donnal
Dandelion Books
Trade Paperback
282 pages
ISBN 1-893302-36-9
$14.95
If you want to improve the quality of your life and REALLY go for your goals, this book is for you. Teacher and healer, Jeanette O’Donnal shares many ancient secrets or “keys” for opening the doors to greater happiness, self-fulfillment and personal excellence. By learning to use these keys, you will be amazed to discover how easy it is to achieve everything you truly desire.
**Is your heart heavy with worry, stress, resentment, despair, anxiety, doubt, frustration, boredom, depression, resistance, confusion, anger or hate?
**Do you want to release those emotions that weigh heavy upon your soul?
**How would the scales balance, if you were to “weigh your heart against a feather”?
**Do you want to achieve the level of personal excellence that brings peace and tranquility, a lightening of your heart?
Jeanette O’Donnal’s unique “tracking system” helps you discover how each of your experiences, “bad” or “good,” has served as a stepping stone to your dreams. You will discover how to wholly embrace these experiences and how to vividly feel your dreams… you will “become” your dreams.
AVAILABLE THROUGH
AMAZON.COM BN.COM AND OTHER FINE BOOKSTORES ONLINE
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Carol Adler, MFA’s first ghost-written book listing her name as co-editor, Why Am I Still Addicted? A Holistic Approach to Recovery, was endorsed by Deepak Chopra, M.D., and published by McGraw-Hill. Other publications include three novels, four books of poetry, and well over 200 poems in literary journals. She has ghostwritten over 40 non-fiction and fiction works for a number of professionals in the education, health care and human potential industries.
Carol is President of Dandelion Books, LLC of Tempe, Arizona; a full service publishing company. She is also President and CEO of Dandelion Enterprises, Inc., Write to Publish for Profit and President of the International Arts & Media Foundation, a non-profit subsidiary of Dandelion Enterprises, Inc.
Her business experience includes co-ownership of a Palm Beach, FL public relations company and executive management positions in two U.S. rejuvenation and mind/body wellness corporations, for which she founded publishing divisions.
Carol has served as editor of several poetry and literary magazines. Her career experience includes extensive teaching of college-level creative and business writing, and conducting of writing workshops in prisons, libraries, elementary, junior and high schools, and senior citizen centers.