Enter to win From Pain to Love: Our Journey Outside the Rainbow
Enter to win From Pain to Love: Our Journey Outside the Rainbow. To enter the contest, fill out the form below between Friday, November 19, and Friday, December 10.
AN INSPIRING MEMOIR OF TWO WOMEN BREAKING AWAY FROM RELIGIOUS AND CULTURAL PRESSURES TO LIVE FULFILLING LIVES THAT CELEBRATE THE BEAUTY OF BEING GAY AND BLACK
FROM PAIN TO LOVE: OUR JOURNEY OUTSIDE THE RAINBOW
by Naomi W Scales and Marilyn J Jordan
After the storm comes the rainbow.
From Pain to Love: Our Journey Outside theRainbow[978-173657490-4; $19.50; April 2021] by Naomi W Scales and Marilyn J Jordan is an inspiring, powerful memoir told through both womens' perspectives as they courageously navigate the societal, religious, and familial pressures to hide who they really are.
From Pain to Love: Our Journey Outside the Rainbow shares their experiences as young Black girls in the South, meeting for the first time, feeling a spark and deep connection shared between them, lying about the nature of their relationship, and finally proudly living a happy, honest, loving, and fulfilling life together.
Both born in the 60s, a young Naomi survived childhood trauma, poverty, and insecurities, and shares how she persevered through the pain while Marilyn lived a secret life that conflicted with her desire to hold onto her faith and the expectation of who she was supposed to be.
Meeting briefly at age 13 and then again at age 20, the women continued to feel that undeniable spark between
them. This was the start of living a life of lies and confusion. Marilyn, who had married her high school sweetheart, left her marriage to be with Naomi. They fell in love in the late 1980s and tried to live a normal life in the eyes of society while surviving lies, hidden struggles, and battling their sexual identities. Both with young kids and Naomi in the military, they lived together as "sisters." In 1992, they appeared as guests on The Oprah Winfrey Show, lying about the true nature of their relationship.
After raising two girls and building a successful business together, they also saw the world around them changing. Naomi and Marilyn felt ready to live openly--they got married in 2014, just months before marriage equality was passed.
Through their intimate and vulnerable words written in From Pain to Love: Our Journey Outside the Rainbow, Naomi and Marilyn hope that sharing their story will help others who are facing similar challenges and encourage them to live authentically.
"We hid the experiences of this true love story, while hiding all the best there was about both of us," Naomi said. "We shut off the part of the world that cared, but did this to protect our children, our lives and our journey."
Marilyn adds, "As life continued to happen, we realized we dismissed those that would have enjoyed taking this ride with us. Some would have celebrated us, but also those that didn't respect our path. We knew that those people were in a special category with all the deep South Bible belt teachings, especially in our community. With everything else, things evolved and at the end of the day, we know now that we lived a 'traditional love story.' We have typical relationship conflicts, we cared for and buried our parents, built a business and reared two girls that became two awesome adults. We experienced a love that for years we could only share with each other - just the four of us."
From Pain to Love: Our Journey Outside the Rainbow is a moving reminder that love wins. Love always wins.
About the Authors
Married since 2014, Naomi W. Scales and Marilyn J. Jordan are co-authors of From Pain to Love: Our Journey Outside the Rainbow as well as co-owners of MarFran Cleaning, LLC, located in Houston, Texas. Founded in 2006, the business offers janitorial services, lawn care and general contracting, both locally and nationally. They have expanded their business to include two additional companies, MarFran -Apex and MarFran Communication. Naomi is a veteran of the armed forces and Marilyn is duly ordained through American Marriage Ministry, with an emphasis on same sex marriages. An award-winning business, MarFran was recognized as the 2017 LGBTQ Veteran-Owned company of the year by NaVOBA (National Veteran-Owned Business Association) as well as the recipient of the Greater Houston LGBT Chamber of Commerce 2021 Pride in Business LGBTQ Business of the Year award. MarFran has ranked in the top 5 of LGBTQ-owned companies by the Houston Business Journal for 3 straight years. Both women have appeared as invited guests on The Oprah Winfrey Show, where they shared their experiences and expertise with the viewers and studio audiences. Find out more at naomiwscalesandmarilynjjordan.comand on Facebookand Instagram.
About Pacific & Court
Pacific & Courtis a Brooklyn-based boutique publicity and digital marketing company specializing in promoting independent authors and book publishers. Together, the P&C team has over 30 years of experience publishing, promoting, and marketing bestselling books. Focusing on heavily tested and proven PR and marketing methods, P&C will reach the exact audience that will be receptive to your unique book. Follow P&C on social media @pacificandcourt.
