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Pray, Dream, Write Your New Story
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Born in Baghdad to an ancient lineage called the Chaldeans (Neo-Babylonians who still speak Aramaic), Weam Namou is the Executive Director of the Chaldean Cultural Center, which houses the first and only Chaldean Museum in the world. She's an Eric Hoffer award-winning author of 13 books, an international award-winning filmmaker, journalist, poet, and an Ambassador for the Authors Guild of America [Detroit Chapter], the nation's oldest and largest writing organization. She hosts a half-hour weekly TV show, and she's the founder of The Path of Consciousness, a spiritual and writing community, and Unique Voices in Films, a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization. You can find her on https://www.patreon.com/WeamNamou
Her book, The Great American Family: A Story of Political Disenchantment, won a 2017 Eric Hoffer Book Award and three of her memoir book series received acclaimed reviews by Publishers Weekly. Francis Coppola, the director of the Godfather Saga, and the staff of Zoetrope selected Namou's script "Pomegranate" as a 2017 quarter-finalist. Last year she completed her first feature documentary The Great American Family (winner of the IndieFest International Film Award (Women Filmmaker category). and is now focusing on her films and teaching others how to achieve their dreams through writing and the arts.
Namou received her Bachelor's Degree in Communications from Wayne State University, studied fiction and memoir through various correspondence courses, poetry in Prague and screenwriting at MPI (Motion Picture Institute of Michigan). She has given readings, lectures, and workshops at numerous cultural and educational institutions and her poetry, essays, and articles have appeared in national and international journals. In 2012, she received an Outstanding Contributions to the Arts Award from Erootha, a local arts organization.
She is an ordained minister, a certified Reiki Master, Health Facilitator, a Sikkim Guardian, and a graduate of best-selling author Lynn Andrews' 4-year course of study and training in the sacred healing art.
Authors Guild of America (Ambassador)
Detroit Working Writers (vice president)
Metro Detroit Book and Author Society (Board Member)
WISDOM )Women's Interfaith Solutions for Dialogue and Outreach in Detroit
National Association of Black Journalists (member)
Arab America (ambassador)
Pachamama Alliance (facilitator)
Mesopotamian Art Forum (member)
Born in Baghdad as a Chaldean, I come from a long lineage of Babylonian healers, wordsmiths, and book lovers. I was raised in America, I've traveled the world, wrote a dozen books, and was taught the art of living by the most amazing healers in America.
My rich Babylonian heritage which dates back thousands of years, my educational background, my teachings with spiritual masters, and my travels around the world have helped me make connections with people from different walks of life. I gained valuable knowledge and a sense of culture from each place, adopting the good and leaving the not so good as I formulated the life I desired as a wife, mother of two, an author, filmmaker, and speaker.
The most important thing that I learned is that we help write the story of our lives through our thoughts, words, and actions.
Namou's four-part memoir series about her four-year apprenticeship in Lynn V. Andrews mysticism school received acclaimed reviews by Publishers Weekly
Healing Wisdom for a Wounded World: My Life-Changing Journey Through a Shamanic School


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A REVIEWS A- Review Fantasy Romance Steampunk
Review: The Guild (Guardians of Destiny #3) by Jean Johnson
2 Comments on Review: The Guild (Guardians of Destiny #3) by Jean Johnson
Publish Date: May 6, 2014
How I got this book: eARC from the publisher via NetGalley
For centuries, the mages of Mekhana have done their best to hide themselves and their powers from the rapacious needs of their so-called Patron Deity, Mekha. Greatest of their secrets is the Vortex, a Fountain hidden in the heart of the Hydraulics Guild. But even after the dissolution of Mekha and the freeing of his people, Alonnen isn't ready to reveal his guardianship to outsiders. Particularly when the remnants of Mekha's priesthood start looking for a new monstrosity to worship.
Rexei has hidden more than her powers for most of her life; she has also hidden her gender, wary of the hungers of the old priesthood. Only in the safety of the Hydraulics Guild's innermost secrets can she be herself. While the rest of her people struggle to reinvent themselves and find a deity they can trust, Rexei struggles to trust just one man, the Guardian of the Vortex. Events are moving fast, though; the priesthood is desperate for any new source of power, even a demonic one that requires certain sacrifices to access.
*Blurb taken from Goodreads*
I picked (make that grabbed) The Guild with both hands because I absolutely love Jean Johnson's work. (If you want fantasy romance, start with The Sword, if you want to try some absolutely kick-ass military science fiction, get A Soldier's Duty)
The Guild is book three of her Guardians of Destiny series, after the fun opener, The Tower (reviewed at Reading Reality) and the positively awesome second book, The Grove (reviewed here).
As much as I enjoyed The Guild (and I definitely did) there were moments when I wished I had re-read at least The Grove before I got started. It feels like the time periods between The Grove and The Guild overlapped just a bit. Certainly the political infighting at the massive Convocation that is part of The Grove is causing communication difficulties during The Guild.
One of the fascinating bits of the worldbuilding in this entire series is that this is a world where gods are real. Every country has its own god, and it is necessary for a country to have a god so that it is represented at the regular Convocation of Gods and Man.
Even more interesting, countries get the gods that they create out of their own cultural ethos. With enough belief, a god will manifest, who gets worshipped, which powers the god to do more for its chosen people.
However, there is a catch. Mostly good people get reasonably decent gods, and bad people get bad ones, who eventually die because they are not protecting their people so they lose worshippers, one way or another.
Mekha, the god of the land Mekhana, is the exception that proves several rules. He's not just bad, he's evil and downright crazy. He's so awful that the Convocation 200 years ago revoked his godhood. He should have died. Instead, he came back worse and crazier, because his priesthood kept believing, or at least believing in their privileged status, and created such a climate of fear that it's as powerful as worship.
Magic is outlawed in Mekhana. Mages are imprisoned and drained of their powers. (Also raped and enslaved). But the priesthood controls everything, and their spies are everywhere. The priests are also the only mages in the country. Everything seems to be working for them, until the new Convocation, the one going on in The Grove, defrocks Mekha again, and this time makes it stick.
All the temples and all the priests in Mekhana lose all their power at once. And everything ever built with that power starts unraveling in a hurry.
All those enslaved mages? Their slave collars stop working, and they start waking up and remembering years of torment. The priesthood starts losing its grip.
Into the power vacuum steps one young woman who has spent her life hiding her gender and her identity as a mage. Rexei knows the worst that the priesthood can dish out, because her mother was taken and drained.
But Rexei's life on the run has given her an in-depth experience of the one force that has kept Mekhana functional all these years–Rexei is not merely a member of Mekhana's guild system, but at least an apprentice, if not more, in 30 guilds. She's seen Mekhana's people at their best, and she knows what her country is capable of, if they can get the right kind of god.
Rexei has the way forward, if she's willing to finally stick her neck out and become the leader she was always meant to be.
Standing right beside her is the guild that no one in Mekhana has been willing to admit exists–the Mage Guild will not just come into the open, but the Guild Master finds her combination of innocence and leadership just what he's been looking for all his life.
There's a better future out there for all of them, as long as they stop a demon invasion first.
Rexei and Alonnen, head of the secret Mekhana Mage Guild, are fantastic as the reluctant hero and the even more reluctant heroine. They have both spent their entire lives hiding who they are and what power they have, so the bond between them starts out strong, but not romantic. Rexei doesn't recognize romance when it slaps her upside the head. Watching them overcome their equal difficulties believing they can have a relationship, side-by-side of their actual conditioning not to be seen as publicly powerful, makes for a fascinating story.
I give The Guild by Jean Johnson an A-
Tags A Review, Fantasy Romance, Steampunk
← Review – Rising Assets by Rebecca Zanetti → Review – Unwed and Unrepentant (Armstrong Sisters #5) by Marguerite Kaye
2 replies on "Review: The Guild (Guardians of Destiny #3) by Jean Johnson"
I can't wait for my copy to arrive, I love Jean Johnson's books so much! And this one with a mix of steampunk in it, lovely.
aztecladysays:
I had several of Ms Johnson's Sons of Destiny books in my humongous TBR mountain range until very recently. I read the first and had to find and read all the others. Love her world building, and how she deals with the politics of that world, it's very down to earth.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Juror calls deliberations 'total utter hell'
Updated: 6:11 PM CDT Jun 5, 2013
Laura Terrell
New behind the scenes information into the trial of an Iowa man charged with killing his pregnant wife.
As Wapello County man gets ready to stand trial again for killing his pregnant wife, we are getting a peek inside deliberations for the first Seth Techel murder trial.The trial ended in a hung jury two months ago.In mid-March, jurors left the courthouse looking exhausted and angry after the mistrial was announced.Seth Techel was charged with first-degree murder in the death of his wife, Lisa, and their unborn child. For an entire month, Lisa Techel's family sat in the front row of the courtroom and listened to the testimony.After four days of jury deliberations, the mistrial was announced on March 15 after the jury said it couldn't reach a unanimous verdict.A two-page letter posted online by juror Micah Sheehen described the four days of deliberations "total utter hell." She said the vote was 10 guilty to 2 not guilty, and fights erupted between the two disagreeing sides inside the jury room."On first-degree murder, the jurors will take it more seriously than they probably otherwise would," said Trevor Hook, a trial attorney not associated with the Techel case.Hook said it's common for jurors to disagree, but uncommon for trials to end in a hung jury.Sheehen wrote, "I 100 percent feel that Seth is guilty of killing his wife and unborn child." But she went on to say that one juror, who she refers to as "a plant" felt otherwise and wasn't willing to work with the group from the get go.Sheehen said "voices were raised and notes were sent to the judge for jury misconduct."Techel trial Judge Dan Wilson encouraged the group to try to reach a decision."They really push in those high profile cases or high expense cases to get it done," said Hook.Techel will face a new jury in a few months when the state tries him again in the case. The new trial is scheduled to start Aug. 12 in Mount Pleasant.
DES MOINES, Iowa —
As Wapello County man gets ready to stand trial again for killing his pregnant wife, we are getting a peek inside deliberations for the first Seth Techel murder trial.
The trial ended in a hung jury two months ago.
In mid-March, jurors left the courthouse looking exhausted and angry after the mistrial was announced.
Seth Techel was charged with first-degree murder in the death of his wife, Lisa, and their unborn child. For an entire month, Lisa Techel's family sat in the front row of the courtroom and listened to the testimony.
After four days of jury deliberations, the mistrial was announced on March 15 after the jury said it couldn't reach a unanimous verdict.
A two-page letter posted online by juror Micah Sheehen described the four days of deliberations "total utter hell." She said the vote was 10 guilty to 2 not guilty, and fights erupted between the two disagreeing sides inside the jury room.
"On first-degree murder, the jurors will take it more seriously than they probably otherwise would," said Trevor Hook, a trial attorney not associated with the Techel case.
Hook said it's common for jurors to disagree, but uncommon for trials to end in a hung jury.
Sheehen wrote, "I 100 percent feel that Seth is guilty of killing his wife and unborn child." But she went on to say that one juror, who she refers to as "a plant" felt otherwise and wasn't willing to work with the group from the get go.
Sheehen said "voices were raised and notes were sent to the judge for jury misconduct."
Techel trial Judge Dan Wilson encouraged the group to try to reach a decision.
"They really push in those high profile cases or high expense cases to get it done," said Hook.
Techel will face a new jury in a few months when the state tries him again in the case. The new trial is scheduled to start Aug. 12 in Mount Pleasant.
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