Journeys can be an amazing thing; especially, when making it through and looking back!

 

Not a Blueprint:

(Note: a portion of proceeds goes for funding against toxic relationships.)

 

2016 – Finalist Award in Self-Improvement by Bookvanna Awards

Category: Relationships

2018 – Audible Version / Narrated by Sara L. Morsey  – Crowned Heart of Excellence Award, by InD’tale Magazine

   

2019 – Audiobook Finalist RONE Awards  by InD’tale Magazine                       

Category:  General

2019 – First Place Royal Dragonfly E-Book Award Winner

Category: Biography/Autobiography/Memoir

2020 – Finalist Book Excellence Award

                         

Category: Memoir  

2020 – NABE Pinnacle Book Achievement Award (Gold)

Category: Family Relationships

2020 – Living Now Book Award / Evergreen Medal (Bronze)

Category:  Personal Growth

2021 – Author Shout Reader Ready Awards (Silver)

2021 Author Shout Reader Ready Award - Recommended Read NABP

Category:  Recommended Read

2022 – Literary Titan Book Award Gold

Category: Memoir

2022 (4th Quarter) – – FireBird Book Award

Category: Dysfunctional Families

not a blueprint

What is this book about?

Weaves lies with love, betrayal with deception, and drama with murder.

Ultimately, it teaches lessons on the meaning of relationships ─ beautifying honesty and compassion.

It’s an inspirational story with ingredients on caregiving, overcoming adversity, learning lessons, letting go of toxicity, and defining relationship roles in our lives.  Whether toxic or nontoxic, these relationships are an integral component of daily living.

Not a Blueprint is a real-life journey about one family’s experience.  The tale exposes a mother’s struggle to escape a world of toxicity, a battle entangled in the clutches of diseased relationships, and the shoe prints its experiences left on their life.  This story in its openness and raw form projects a remarkable voice to love.  Spreads its message about a heroic fight; a mother’s discovery ─ finding life after darkness; the power of courage; determination; and bravery while striking back to wipe out toxic relationships. The Insights reveal that life brings many challenges and provides lessons along the way.

Review added to the book page on Amazon by Lucy Adkins     

5.0 out of 5 stars Sharing Our Stories Matter

Full text: “In this memoir of a life of one hardship after another, Nina Norstrom shares her personal experiences of love and loss and the damage done by toxic relationships and bad choices. It’s a riveting story, one in which the reader aches badly for things to “turn out”–for the bad relationship to right itself, for health challenges to be overcome. Reading the personal stories of others helps us in our OWN lives, and this one does. Especially valuable were the insights at the end of each chapter. We all make bad choices; we all experience loss. Nina’s gentle wisdom can be a help as we navigate our own troubles, and it can be a great comfort.”

 Excerpt:  Chapter Two

 Broken Vows

 

. . . Craig had the kind of personality that ignited those fireflies a long time ago. He was always attired in black, styling and profiling from head to toe. He stepped with confidence and swag, his posture straight and tall. He was gifted with those finely tuned abs and biceps. Craig had a chilled-out body language that oozed calmness and a can-do, I’m-the-man attitude. He kept abreast of worldly issues—could hold onto any topic. His smarts were stimulated when he was tucked away behind a book, newspaper, or something of interest. He was always exercising his brain. And there was nothing like his scent, so aromatic, especially accented with a whiff of his manly-smelling cologne. . . .

Excerpt:  Chapter Four

Killer In Our Midst

. . . After he left, I went to the closet, took his clothes off the hangers, piled them in the middle of the floor, cut the lights, and struck a match to them. Then I sat in the dark and watched the bonfire.

In an instant, I had a Betty Broderick moment—just like when she set her man’s clothes on fire. Or was it the Angela Bassett scene in Waiting to Exhale? Paying back her man was definitely a moment of rage.

Then again, maybe it was a Crystal Magum moment, She’s the Durham, North Carolina, mother of three who was accused of setting her man’s clothes on fire in a bathtub. In any case, each one of their actions made a clear statement: You hurt me, I’ll hurt you back! . . .

Available in audible version

   

“Crowned Heart of Excellence Award” by InD’tale Magazine (Nov. 2018)

INSPIRATIONAL:  Through a journey of love and loss, author Nina Norstrom goes through her life lessons, showing how to deal with the challenges thrown in our path.  Everything has the potential to develop into a toxic relationship, not just our relationships with people.  They can be formed with food, emotions, substances, and diseases.  With all of her experiences, she has come to find that letting go of toxic relationships is not impossible, and doing so just might change one’s life for the better.

“Congratulations on the Crowned Heart of Excellence review your book received with InD’tale Magazine.

What a fantastic accomplishment!  It takes a lot of hard work and perseverance to write a story of such caliber and you deserve this distinction.  Enjoy it!”

Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall

Genre:  Self-Help / Self-Esteem / Mental and Emotional Healing / Wellness

 This guide is an essential bridge-building tool.  It opens the gateway to finding self-love and bringing to light the ugliness in toxic relationships.  The information and activities introduced beautify an array of materials that are insightful, educational, enlightening, fulfilling, enriching, refreshing, and rewarding.  Think of it as a detailed script created to teach readers how to redefine their SELF-DISCOVERIES.

 

Review added to the book page on Amazon by Evelyn Doyle:     

5.0 out of 5 stars Great reading and good learning experience

Full Text: “Thank you Nina Norstrom for Mirror, Mirror on the Wall… I was so inspired by its reading and uplifted by the concept of self-love, love yourself first and not feel selfish about it. We get so busy taking care of others, we don’t take the time to look at ourselves in the mirror.

Evelyn Doyle
St. Paul, MN

not a blueprint

 

April 2, 2022 – Literary Titan Silver Book Award

Category: Self-Help

2020 – Living Now Book Award / Evergreen Medal (Gold)

Category: Journal/Activity/ Coloring Book

Fall 2020 – NABE Pinnacle Book Achievement Award

Category: Self-Help

2020 – Royal Dragonfly Book Award

Category: E-Book Award in the Category of Activity Book – Adult

2021 – FireBird Book Award

Category: Adult Coloring Books

Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall

Genre:  Self-Help / Self-Esteem / Mental and Emotional Healing / Wellness

 This guide is an essential bridge-building tool.  It opens the gateway to finding self-love and bringing to light the ugliness in toxic relationships.  The information and activities introduced beautify an array of materials that are insightful, educational, enlightening, fulfilling, enriching, refreshing, and rewarding.  Think of it as a detailed script created to teach readers how to redefine their SELF-DISCOVERIES.

 

Review added to the book page on NetGalley:      

5.0 out of 5 stars

Full Text: “The formula for self-esteem equates to successes measured by failures.”  Self-love is a difficult thing to obtain by yourself.  This book is a great start to getting rid of the negatives and gaining positives about yourself.  As you read the chapters, there are spaces you can write in what self-love means to you. Once you start this book, you will be on an amazing journey to learning how to start “Living Healthy, Thinking Healthy, Being Healthy.”

#MirrorMirrorOnTheWallWhereDoesMySelfLoveFall#NetGalley

2020 – Living Now Book Award / Evergreen Medal (Gold)

Category: Journal/Activity/ Coloring Book

Fall 2020 – NABE Pinnacle Book Achievement Award

Category: Self-Help

2020 – Royal Dragonfly Book Award

Category: E-Book Award in the Category of Activity Book – Adult

2021 – Author Shout Reader Ready Awards (Silver)

2021 Author Shout Reader Ready Award - Recommended Read NABP

Category:  Recommended Read

Perpartory Section

Letting Go to Rediscover Self

Through My Own Eyes: Discovery
Take a mental step out of the box as we prepare for and embrace all forthcoming material.

Before you take the challenge to read this guide, it helps to explore your world in all its existing elements. Our physical world is our planet and all the living entities it sustains. All varieties of trees, flowers, and animals thrive in its many habitats. We can even break each aspect of our world into its component parts—elements, atoms, metals, and minerals. But your personal world goes beyond your physical surroundings of sky, moon, and ground, beyond your molecular makeup. No one can tell you how to view your world—only you have that vision. It’s your world! . . .

Excerpt: 2

Letting Go to Rediscover Self

. . . You and your partner may want to do things together as a unit, but don’t lose yourself in the process. You’ll be stumbling to find your way back. When you become a part of your partner and he/she becomes a replica of you, it won’t be easy to see a clear picture of exactly who’s who. Your thinking process vanishes and your identity disappears. Suddenly, you’ve become one and the same. You will have the same feelings and emotions, do the same things, say the same things, speak in the same manner, and act out the same way. In reality, you and your partner are different and separate people. It’s important not to compromise your own identity for someone else, not even for romantic relationships or friends. Be true to yourself, and keep the inner you intact. Taking care of
self may be a challenge, but think of it as a necessity.

“Not a Blueprint . . .” is available for group readings and book clubbers. There are plenty of questions to make for intriguing discussions.

Click on either set to download questions: Set 1 and Set 2.

VDO Book Trailer / for YouTube

Creator of VDO Books:  Crane Hanna

    • Unique platform concept
    • Words coming alive
    • Storybook scenes performed by actors and actresses
    • Main characters in trailer:
        • Nina portrayed by Alecia Craine
        • Marcus portrayed by Rodney Vincent Washington
        • Craig portrayed by Rodney Glover
        • (Among others)

What is a VDO Book?

A platform from the makeup of novels, short stories, screen, and stage plays; scenes that are interacted by live actors and actresses.  This unique concept allows viewers to see the words come to life, and gives its audience a more vivid impression of the story . . . while portraying its characters.

The storybook “Not a Blueprint” showcased as a VDO Book Trailer, in a launch.

The flyer depicts a scene or two and while watching  . . .

Realize, those scenes won’t define who I am today.  Only, that I’ve been somewhere!

flyer02
flyer01

Your online review is valuable and helps to strengthen its literary work in the future.  After reading, click on any of the above book icons and share with us your feedback.  Readers would love to hear from you!

 

A portion of the proceeds from my literary creations will go to help fund its fight against toxic relationships.