READER REVIEWS

Music has always been the lifeline that pulled me through the darkness. In what may be a first for memoir writing, each chapter of "Journey From Midnight" is titled with a carefully selected hard rock song that mirrors the emotional landscape of that period in my life. 

These aren't arbitrary choices - each song represents the actual soundtrack that carried me through specific moments of trauma, survival, and transformation.

As you read this story, I encourage you to listen to each chapter's corresponding song. This creates an unprecedented reading experience where the visceral power of hard rock music amplifies the raw emotions contained within these pages. 

The driving beats, screaming guitars, and rebellious lyrics of bands like Def Leppard, Guns N' Roses, Ozzy Osbourne, and others become the pulse beneath my words, creating a multidimensional journey through sound and story.

These songs didn't just provide background music to my experiences - they were survival tools. When the world became unbearable, when systems failed and people betrayed me, when hope seemed impossible, these anthems of rebellion and resilience kept my soul breathing. 

The music understood what words couldn't express: the rage, the defiance, the refusal to surrender even when surrender seemed like the only rational choice.

Hard rock speaks the language of the broken, the abandoned, the fighting-back. It's the perfect soundtrack for a story that refuses to sanitize trauma or wrap survival in pretty packages. 

This musical framework transforms reading into an immersive experience where you don't just read about my journey - you feel the soundtrack that sustained me through it.

Turn up the volume. Let the music guide you through the darkness toward whatever light exists on the other side.

Selira V. Samanne lives just outside the beautiful mountain town of Nederland Colorado, elevation 8,228 ft., which is nestled near The Continental Divide just above the Flat Irons in the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. She mmediately paints a vivid and almost idyllic portrait of her current environment which is purposefully contrasted with the harsh realities she faced earlier in life.

Her deep connection to nature by living "in the woods" surrounded by wildlife like bears and mountain lions suggests she finds peace and solace in that environment after her struggles. Being so immersed in the outdoors is restorative.

The bonded relationship with her two Black Lab companions Pagan and Tarot, who have been by her side for 12 years through "the good, the bad and the ugly," speaks to the comfort and loyalty of having devoted animal family members during difficult times.

The notion that she has "conquered the mountain of the first half of her life" explicitly frames her journey as an uphill battle she's climbed and overcome. There's a sense of Hard-won perseverance.

5. Looking ahead with a renewed vigor and optimism "full of life," no longer weighed down, hints that sharing her story has been cathartic. The reference to meeting "like-minded people" to join her "mission" foreshadows her aspirations.

Overall, this bio poignantly encapsulates both where Selira has been and where she hopes her path leads next - from profound hardship to finding tranquility, purpose and like-minded community. Her story seems inextricably tied to the restorative natural world around her.

She lives deep in the woods where she loves being surrounded by the majesty of nature with the wild creatures of the forest like bear, moose, mountain lions and coyotes. 

Her days and moon filled, starry nights are spent with her two K9 Black Lab companions Pagan and Tarot, who have been with her through the good, the bad and the ugly for the past 12 years. 

After conquering the mountain of the first half of her life, she looks forward to not having to carry the heavy weight anymore as she sets out into the future, renewed and full of life. She looks forward to meeting like-minded people who will join her on this mission.