THE VICTIM MENTALITY DEFEATED
A book on coming of age in Odessa, Texas and beyond.
COMMENTS FROM READERS:
From Larry Bradfield, friend, rocket scientist, cowboy poet summa cum laude
The whole time I was reading your book I was thinking what a treasure that would be to a great great grandchild. Can you imagine reading the same type book from your Grandpa? I was absorbed by your book the whole way through...partly because it "feels"like home to old guys like me who grew up around you and partly because you're just a damn good story teller and writer. An immensely enjoyable book to me and I'm sure to all who have the opportunity to read it. Well done, Mike!
From Ralph (Rafe) Kennedy......his amazon review
Reviewed in the United States on May 2, 2020
This is a real book about real people, astonishingly honest and revealing. It is the story of a young man whose friends help in his struggle to overcome a dysfunctional family and an abusive father. It's the story of a determined young man who overcomes adversity and succeeds brilliantly as a husband and father of two sons. It's the story of a "flight plan" for his life, and how he chose to avoid the victim mentality.
Rafe Kennedy
From Sonya Haynie
Your book helped me think back and made me appreciate my life more and the many things I have enjoyed. thank you!
When I got the book and started it yesterday I didn't put it down till I was finished!!!
Wonderful!!!! Wonderful!!!!It was so well written and spell binding! you can be proud of yourself.
It brought back so many memories, like it was Mrs Brookins at Bonham who told me I was good at Art. and gave me courage to keep taking art every year. I tell my art ed students that as a teacher you may never know what you say to a student that can change their life. And Kathy Bunch and Windsor Drive. I live only a few blocks from Windsor Dr.
Thank you for the memories. Odessa College was one of the best times in my life.
From Nancy Leach Bayless
Mike, be proud! It is good! It will (as you hoped) be an important gift to a victim who doesn't have people to support them and needs to know the trials of others who have had similar problems. I liked best that it has an uplifting feel.
From Bill Robbins:
My wife read the first chapter and then said, " Mike sure had you figured out!"
From Ken Aune
Sure hope I get an autograph out of this! Oooops! Just got notification that the book will be back ordered. They have sold out but will be getting 500,000 more copies next week.
Richard Porter dropped this note on FaceBook.
Hi Larry (Larry Bradfield) I just finished Mike Moore's book. Amazing. I "knew" the family because they lived across the street from one of my band members. Also I knew Butch always was driving these fancy cars. I never suspected the kids had it so bad.
From: Shelton Williams, author
Mike,Really liked your stories, but I admit that some were tough to read. Congratulations.
Shelly
From Duane Moreland
Mike, I did read your book, and it brought back memories of my own from that era. Some good, some not so good. Thank God for some wonderful people in our lives. Mine was my mother.
I think you did a great job sharing the good and bad. I'm happy for your success in a life well lived.
Duane
From: Helen Joyce Wheeler Bowers
Loved the Picture! Felt honored!
Okay, I had a lot more to say about the book! Can’t believe I didn’t know you way back then because I knew everyone you knew! I also can’t believe what you went through. Guess I didn’t even realize what some people were going through. Makes me very thankful for what I had but makes me very sad to think you all as children were not in a safe place! Your book just may help some young person to see the light at the end of the tunnel! You turned out so well!
From Kathy Bunch Allen
Adversity was forced on Mike at a young age. Yet he always had the time and energy to be such a good friend to me. His telling of these challenges and how he adapted are good reading, life affirming, and if you grew up with Mike in Odessa, a walk down memory lane.
From: Bill Robbins
Finished the book. Please tell Jane I found a typo and now I deserve to be co-editor and need to share in any proceeds! I agree with you that the most amazing hero in your book was Willie Beth Ray, Cameron's mother. What a wonderful woman and mother she was! This was a fun book to read even though it had some tough scenes. Bill
From Novelist Joanne Easley
Hi Mike,
I finished your book. Well done. Here are my comments:
The Victim Mentality Defeated by Michael Lewis Moore is a deeply personal and honest assessment of how to turn one's life around despite family dysfunction and setbacks in early adulthood. Once Mr. Moore had his epiphany that he was living life as a victim, he overcame his past and created a fulfilling life with a family and a successful career. I highly recommend this inspiring story.
(Joanne based her firs novel in Odessa: SWEET JANE)
anonymous:
There are a lot of life lessons in your book. One stands out for me, because I've seen it so often in our family's life through the years. I don't know what your faith tells you, but I have no doubt that God places people and circumstances in our path to help us through the times we can't manage alone. Coincidence can't explain the times we've been "rescued" by chance encounters and people we didn't know who intervened on our behalf. I see so much of that in your story as well, and I'm grateful along with you for all those people who were there to encourage and guide you, even when they didn't realize what impact they would have.
From: Longtime best friend and the sister I chose: Sarah Ashford Smallwood Watkins
Mike, I can not tell you how much I enjoyed your book. First of all, it was such a surprise, getting it. Thank you!!! I didn't even know you were writing it! It was so good! Also I will even read it again. I am not well read,but it really held my interest. I hated to put it down. I kept asking myself if it was because I knew the characters it was about or if it was just so well written. Mike, thank you so very much. I feel very honored that you sent and signed a copy for me.. Like I said before, I can't find the words to express my gratitude. I LOVE YOU, SARAH
From: Former Austin Business partner, Mike Murphy
GOOD JOB!
From: Jency Robinson
I am so sorry to be slow about letting you know how much Jerry and I liked you very interesting well written book. We found it to be a book that we didn't want to put down until finished. Thank you for writing the book.
As you know I was at Bonham at the same time you were and my dad was a policeman during those days.
Your book brought back lots of memories. I am so sorry you were having a hard time. We had no idea.
Thank you again! I might finish mine. I started one but that is all.
Jency
From: Mary Denker Hilliard
I received and have read your book - very much enjoyed having the entire narrative put together - some of which I had read, but other which were new. Your insight into your circumstances is incredible. And the fact that you not only survived but thrived is a great testament to your not embracing victimhood. I appreciate that you included me in your group of readers.
From: Jackie Brown Worthy
I got the book yesterday and I read the whole thing. I can't tell you how much I enjoyed reading this book. The book was powerful, emotional, educational and very interesting reading. you are an amazing writer and I hope you will continue to keep up with this talent that you have. I have to admit I did shed a few tears while reading this book.
From Ray Hawkins:
Ordered your book --- got it Friday. Understand: I'm not a reader and can't remember the last total book I read, but this was so interesting -- and I knew the setting and most of the characters -- so I read the whole thing in a few hours. I congratulate you for taking on this project and for doing such a great job of telling the story. Everyone has to overcome challenges and learn life's lessons as they grow up, but some have a lot more hurdles than others -- and you are one of those. I expect you are like me in that you hope others will learn from what we now try to pass along to them -- life's lesson learned. You overcame a LOT to become the successful person, businessman and pilot you always wanted to be --- and I admire you for that. Thanks for sharing!!
From Linda Holloway:
Got your book and read it right away. Was like taking a trip down memory lane plus a lot of stuff that I guess I didn't realize. I think you put on a very brave face as a teenager as I would never have realized what all you endured. Was a very good read. You should have been a writer! I didn't remember what year Blackie died but do remember one time Lea and I went to see him when he lived some where around Fort Worth in a trailer if I remember right. We took him some sheets and towels and just everyday stuff that he didn't have. Had forgotten about that but remembered it when I saw that part about when he died.
From Mary Anne Bueler:
Thank you so much for telling me about your book. I just finished reading it and found it hard to put down. Mike, when you were telling about how your dad treated you, I found myself hoping it would turn out okay. Of course, you did turn out just fine, but it was difficult reading about how you were mistreated. I’m so thankful that you were able to overcome your victim mentality, and I’m so glad that I got to know both of you at Hyde Park.
From: mike wiese
(Mike Wiese is a very good writer and this email is a highly condensed version of what he actually sent. I'm Trying to keep it brief and not self-aggrandizing for me. He was very kind with his words. MLM )
Hey, Mike. I hope this finds you & yours happy & doing well.It's been several years since we last corresponded, so I thought I would drop you a line & let you know that I finished reading Defeated last night. A thoughtful and well-written book with an often brutal and naked self honesty about it all the way through it. You deserve a toast for yourself. Then offer another toast, I'm sure, to the greatest thing that ever happened to you ... a wonderful spouse & partner for 50 years in Jane. I feel she was instrumental at a very, very critical point in your life from keeping the train from going off the rails. Tell her that I give a tip of my hat to her for recognizing and seeing what was really deep down inside you . A woman's intuition always beats a man's intuition all to hell. BTW, I went by the old homestead on Windsor Ave this afternoon to see if I could feel any ghosts that might still be around after all these years. I could almost swear I felt something. Mike Wiese
POSTED ON MAY 31, 2020 IN THE ODESSA AMERICAN BY TONY VENEGAS
What started off as a collection of essays meant for friends and family has turned into a bigger purpose for Michael Lewis Moore.
That collection is now a book entitled, “The Victim Mentality Defeated” and it provides a glimpse of Moore’s life growing up in Odessa during the late 1950s and early 1960s and how he overcame his struggles of being within a dysfunctional family.
“Years ago when I put together this collection of growing up in a really crazy family, I did it for my kids so that they would know their family history,” said Moore, who now lives in San Marcos. “I wanted them to know that things can change drastically.”
While the book focuses on both the good and bad, it also offers Moore and the readers a chance to reminisce on how things were growing up in Odessa.
One of the key settings in the book and his life is the Old Tommy’s Drive In Restaurant that was located near Odessa College. Moore ended up putting his early writings on his website along with other memories of growing up around the drive-in culture at the time.
Also featured on the site and on the back cover of the book is a painting of Tommy’s Drive In.
“The website is a collection of all the good I experienced in Odessa, none of the bad,” Moore said. “It was a fun place to grow up in at the time.”
Moore added that later on that the 1973 film “American Graffiti” could have been Odessa back when he was growing up and it’s given others a chance to relive those days as well.
“It got noticed pretty fast by a whole bunch of people that I didn’t think I knew,” he said. People still tell me that they go back there to reminisce.
It was not all fun times for Moore growing up, however.
Some of the struggles that Moore had to overcome include the loss of his grandfather, his parents getting a divorce and his grandmother dying shortly after taking him and his siblings in.
Moore said it took him a long time to move past those struggles and while he did that, he said he began to realize that telling his story may be helpful to others as well.
“As I got older, I began to think it might be important to others who grow up in dysfunctional families to learn about what I did over that period of time,” Moore said.
That’s when the book started to come together around a year ago, Moore said. With the help of his wife Jane and a hired editor, Moore was able to put together the book which started at around 10 to 12,000 words to the 222-page book that was published in March and now available online.
The theme of the book revolves around overcoming that victim mentality, a cause that Moore said he became passionate about over the course of his life.
He hopes that those who read his book can learn more about his life and get others back on the right track if they feel similar to how he did growing up.
“What I hope that people get out of it is how to at least recognize if you’re playing the victim role,” he said. “If you bring it to a micro level, it puts you in a perpetual pity party. The bottom line is that was I looking for confidence and couldn’t find it until I recognized the problem.
“I just told myself, ‘To hell with this’ and just gave it a shot because I can’t afford to wait around and hope that someone comes around to help me get out of a mess. When that happened, it gave me that confidence that I was looking for.”