Pump Up Your Book Chats with author Judy Byington

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About Judy Byington

Judy byington Judy Byington, M.S.W., L.C.S.W., ret, has dedicated her life to humanizing and raising public awareness about the little known effects of ritual abuse and mind-control programming that tragically cause formation of multiple personalities in children.

The retired CEO, therapist, author and mental health supervisor is founder and leader of Trauma Research Center, a non-profit organization dedicated to providing information through CEU accredited seminars and lectures on Dissociation and coordinating ritual abuse survivor group, therapeutic and legal resources.

The former mental health supervisor spent twenty years in research with Jenny Hill while interviewing hundreds of ritual abuse survivors, legal entities, therapists, families of missing children and religious, media and community leaders. She works as a consultant on Occult crime with the Utah Attorney General’s office.

With a compelling drive to educate the public on the unimaginable horrors faced by children born into families practicing ritual abuse, Byington continues to pen books about survivors like Jenny Hill who suffer repressed childhood memories of forced participation in rape, torture and murder. Her upcoming book Saints, Sinners and Satan provides a first person account of her own experiences with multiple personality survivors and Occult crime.

You can find out more about the book at http://twentytwofaces.com or at the blog http://www.22faces.com

Thank you for this interview, Judy. Do you remember writing stories as a child or did the writing bug come later? Do you remember your first published piece?

A: When I was a junior at good old Box Elder High in my small town of Brigham City, Utah my English teacher, Mr. Gourley, complimented me on my writing skills while appointing me editor of the school newspaper. This surprised me because I didn’t realize I had talent in that area. With his encouragement I went on to become an associate editor of the USU student paper and was put in a position to be editor when I decided to pursue a career in counseling. I didn’t write anything of significance until retiring twenty-five years later. I used my therapy experience to pen my first book, Twenty-Two Faces and am working on a second, Saints, Sinners and Satan.

What do you consider as the most frustrating side of becoming a published author and what has been the most rewarding?

A: It has been frustrating spending so much time locating the right literary agent and publisher. I feel blessed to hook up with Paul D. McCarthy and Tate Publishing, though it has taken away energy and time that I would rather utilize in writing.

The most rewarding was finally seeing Twenty-Two Faces in print, experiencing people’s reactions upon reading the book and most of all, seeing Jenny hug her first copy. As a young child in prayer she was told to write down her life experiences “for some day a book will be written.” She patiently waited forty-five years to finally hold her biography.

Are you married or single and how do you combine the writing life with home life? Do you have support?

A: After my divorce I raised five wonderful children practically by myself, then married the love of my life. We have a combined eight families who are raising twenty-going-on twenty-one grandchildren. Fred is totally dedicated to helping me expose ritual abuse of children and contributes to the writing.

What do you like to do for fun when you’re not writing? Where do you like to vacation? Can you tell us briefly about this?

A: In our spare time, if there is any, Fred and I produce Fine Art: copper-wire tree on semiprecious stones and dedicate the proceeds to our Trauma Research Center. We bike a lot and enjoy our children, grandchildren and the outdoors including collecting rocks in Utah’s beautiful Rocky Mountains.

If you could be anywhere in the world for one hour right now, where would that place be and why?

A: There is no place I would rather be than with my loving husband, children and grandchildren. It doesn’t matter where we are, just so we are together.

Who is your biggest fan?

A: My husband Fred.

Where’s your favorite place to write at home?

A: Sitting in a recliner with my computer.

Do you have any pets?

A: No, but I love animals.

Tell us a secret no one else knows.

A: I have followed satanic coven leaders, talked at length with their grown children who have repressed memories from childhood of rapes, tortures and viewing children murdered and connected some of the information to cold cases of missing children.

What’s on your to do list today?

A: Write. Write, contact the media about my book, then write some more.

Now I’ve got a couple of fun questions for you. If Tom Hanks, in the movie Cast Away, unearthed a copy of your book, how would that help him find a way off the island?

A: Twenty-Two Faces is about how multiple personalities form, function and integrate and presents a unique study into the workings of the mind under stress. Reading the biography may not help Tom find a way off the island, but it would give him insights on how to keep sane while he is there.

You have a chance to appear on the hit talent show for authors, American Book Idol, with judges Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson, Kara Dioguardi and the newest addition, Ellen DeGeneres, to determine whether your book will make it to Hollywood and become a big screenplay where you’d make millions of dollars. What would impress them more – your book cover, an excerpt or your author photo – and why?

A: A description of my book as below, which is self-explanatory as to why:

Saved by an angel from certain death, six year-old Jenny Hill utilizes prayer, forgiveness and her multiple personalities to triumph over a Nazi mind controller attempting to mould her into a Manchurian Candidate. Twenty-Two Faces documents how Jenny, as the only known survivor-intended-victim of a modern-day human sacrifice ceremony, overcomes multiplicity. As is the challenge for thousands of children across the globe unfortunate enough to be born into families practicing these aberrant religious rites. Using a lone resource: faith in God, Jenny tries to make sense of a life where she jumps from one day to the next. Eventually with help of a psychologist, she takes charge of her divided mind by facing alter personalities and their traumatic repressed memories, overcomes family-society rejection, confronts and forgives abusers, showing an ability of the human spirit to overcome against all odds, profound emotional shock and miraculously heal from severe childhood trauma.

You just got word that your book has received the 2010 NY Times Bestselling Book Award and you have to attend the ceremony to give an acceptance speech. Anyone who’s anyone will be there and it’s your shot for stardom. What would you say and who would you thank?

A: I would dedicate the award to abuse survivors and remind the audience of the message embedded in Twenty-Two Faces. Jenny said it best as she referred to the six year-old girl she saw murdered, “Twenty-Two Faces is dedicated to ‘Angeletta’ that her cries will at last be heard and may those screams give children of abuse, courage to break their silence.”

I understand that you are touring with Pump Up Your Book Promotion via a virtual book tour May 7 through July 27, 2012. Can you tell us all why you chose a virtual book tour to promote your book online?

A: Pump Up Your Book does just that and in a financially viable and professional manner. What a great way to get the word out.

Thank you for this interview, Judy. Good luck on your virtual book tour!

About 22 Faces

Referring to journals written throughout childhood, Twenty-Two Faces: Inside the Extraordinary Life of Jenny Hill and Her Twenty-Two Multiple Personalities documents how as a five year-old, Jenny overcomes ongoing abuse by turning to prayer while utilizing her alter states to compartmentalize trauma at the hands of a master mind-control programmer from Nazi Germany. After suffering deaths of a high school sweetheart, plus her only girlfriend, she somehow completes Army medic training, receives a nursing degree, prepares for a church mission and becomes a mother. Simultaneously led by sex-addict Head Alter J.J., intrepid alters assume frequent control, engaging in larceny and prostitution. With her children, her lifeline, the increasingly desperate nurse escapes a drugged-out pimping husband, blacks out in a job interview, comes to nine days later as an inpatient headed for the Utah State Psychiatric Hospital and only then learns what her life has really been.

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Question of the Day

How do you make sales happen for you?

A lot of hard work! I sponsor a lot of on line parties, festivals and contests. Book sales don’t magically happen, believe me. An author has to work hard to earn her readers. And then she has to work hard to keep them by giving them something they’ll enjoy reading. I try hard to make my books worth a reader’s time.

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