From turbulence to grace. A brave, intimate chronicle of a fiery battle for holding one’s power and standing firm when life demands submission. A moving story about refusing to be defined by one’s environment. It takes the reader on an exploration of adversity, triumph, secrets, jealousy, disempowerment, and sabotage as it subtly reveals how challenges can unfold into resilience, self-discovery, compassion, and self-love.

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Those who know Dziezak as an attorney, scientist, or technology writer see a soft-spoken, pleasant, competent professional who has it all together and courageously stands up for what’s right even when she is the only one standing. But what they don’t know is that she harbored a dark secret lifelong until the writing of this book.

In this moving narrative that is at times emotionally charged, Dziezak explores challenges to her power, first as a youth and later as a professional woman in male-dominated workplaces. With a voice resonating with compassion, she shares openly of discovering, as a youngster, that her mother was mentally ill. While grappling to understand the root of her mother’s illness, she endures its cruel weight as tumultuous abuse, secret from the outside world.

In an odd sense, these experiences imbue her with traits that prepare her for later being the only woman, if not among the first, in a man’s world. Here, power struggles are not commonplace. But when they occur, they are a doozy. Adversarial ghosts from her youth — jealousy, sabotage, and disempowerment — surface, promising an upheaval. She turns to the treasures gleaned from her early years of abuse: resilience, inner strength, self-reliance, and heightened intuition. And after encountering a stream of dilemmas, she learns the ultimate lesson, the key to moving forward into her own power.

Told with keen insight, Dziezak’s touching story evokes hope and inspiration. Steeped with hard-earned wisdom, Petals from Mars unfolds a look into the strength of the human spirit and how difficulty can blossom into resilience, inner strength, self-discovery, and self-love.

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“Petals from Mars was meant to be written. It is not the book I initially set out to write, however,” says Dziezak. “I was working on a self-help book. At twenty-four pages into my writing, I realized that if I truly want to help people, I needed to share a secret I had held lifelong. I needed to tell my story—one that many people, similarly situated, could relate to but keep under wraps out of shame from others ‘finding out’ what kind of home they come from or fear of being seen as a victim.

“By sharing insights gleaned from my struggles,” continued Dziezak, “I hope the book inspires people to embrace challenges as opportunities for growth and to reach for the stars, no matter what. If a reader relates to any situation set out in the book and that helps in their healing or learning, the book would have accomplished its purpose.”

 

Petals from Mars has been recognized with multiple awards:

• Independent Press Award in the category of Personal Growth
• National Indie Excellence Award Finalist in the category of Non-Fiction
• NYC Big Book Award as Distinguished Favorite in the category of Personal Growth
• Nonfiction Book Award from Nonfiction Authors Association, Silver Winner in the category of Personal Triumph
• Human Relations Indie Book Award, Gold Winner in the category of Personal Relationship Memoir
• Readers’ Favorite, Bronze Medal Winner in the Non-Fiction Drama genre (On their website, the book page is in the works)