I (Melody) have been fighting the same custody battle since December 4th, 2004, the day my ex-husband decided to stop cooperating with me and take the children. Long story short, the end of that day left me without my children in a foreign country with death threats on my head. And, oh yeah, a court case in Canada to fight.
Since then I've been to British Columbia Provincial Court (shared custody agreement), Federal District Court (charged with violating an international treaty after HE did not come pick up the children), the Ninth Circuit (he appealed when the Fed court decided in my favor), and Arizona Superior Court (where after almost 4 years of drama and delays I receive my divorce decree). I won in every case EXCEPT the last, where I DID receive my divorce decree but the judge refused to take jurisdiction over the custody issue even though the FEDERAL DISTRICT COURT and the NINTH CIRCUIT said he could.
We've spent $150K ($25K of it outstanding at the moment) and we're still appealing the last decision.
If Chris and I do not appeal this decision, the children (who have been with us exclusively for the past 3 1/2 years) will be left in legal limbo.
Legal limbo is fine, except for the fact that if something happens to me in the next 12 years, my abusive ex-husband and his psychotic mother will have custody. Given past history, I already fear for my life.
We need to keep fighting so the kids are safe.
That's it in a nutshell.
Thank you for your help.
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We've calculated all of our costs (printing, shipping, etc.) and we've come up with some numbers.
In order to start a print run, we need 200 preorders. In order to make profit on the print run, we need to sell 500 copies. To pay off our legal bills we need to sell 1500 copies altogether, hard copy and e-book combined.
We're currently at 85 copies sold.
Tell your family and friends and keep those orders comin'.
Yes, we've finally decided to do our own cookbook.
Included in the cookbook:
At least 200 full-color pages with preparation pictures
All previously published recipes
More recipes, including:
- Death by Chocolate Cake
- Stuffed Pork Chops (better title pending)
- Mel's Infamous Cheater Chicken Soup
Pantry list and mise en place list
The usual share of wit and anecdote
We are also planning on doing a series of HD video podcasts of the recipes to follow in the near future.
The Offer:
- DRM-free e-book (PDF) - $10
- Hard copy, lay flat plastic comb bound (including media mail within U.S.) - $25
--All hard copy purchases will include the ebook
--All hard copies will be signed. - DVD with the e-book, and videos of many of the recipes being prepared, may be offered (if there is enough interest) for $15 (inc. media mail within U.S.), or for $10 with purchase of the hard copy.
We already have most of the work done for the book, and May 21st is the absolute latest we'll be releasing the e-book version.
Due to outstanding legal fees, and the economics of price breaks on number of copies printed, pre-orders are HIGHLY APPRECIATED. We can't guarantee enough books will be printed if you wait until the books get back from the press, and we can't do Print-On-Demand due to the OMG price of full color POD (seriously, it would raise the price by $10 or more).
To order either email Mel at melody.byrne AT gmail.com or use the same address at PayPal.
Thank you!
