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The ScreaminMamas Story

Darlene Pistocchi

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ScreaminMama

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Deanna Wolverton

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Denise Weatherby

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Corinne Ramos

with her mom & daughter wearing an authentic Screamin Mamas T-Shirt ~coming to the store soon!

Part One

Darlene Pistocchi is the founder and creator of ScreaminMamas. Back in  early 2000, Darlene became a single mother and had to leave the work force to care for her two small children. She was a copywriter and voice-over by trade, so she worked hard to assemble a small make-shift studio in her apartment to continue working as a freelance. One day while trying to work, the kids kept playing with the microphone and pulling scripts from the fax machine (remember those?). Papers everywhere and a beat up mic, Darlene was verklempt. All kinds of screaming entailed and needless to say, ScreaminMamas was born.

Now, Screamin was a homely little stick figure fashioned after founder and creator, rightfully so, until she got a make-over. This would take some time, but in the meantime, Darlene decided that she would work to provide a platform for all moms to scream and rant - whether humorous, sad, joyous, poetic, nostalgic, etc. And so she started a Blog. This drew the attention of a few other moms who joined in the fun and shortly thereafter, the stick figure was redrawn by Susan Clausen, the daughter of one of our then-bloggers, Patricia Zollmann-Kissinger, and Screamin got a make-over, lipstick and all. 

During this time, Darlene became enmeshed with her children, as all moms do, and among many other things, she became a leader for her daughter's GirlScout troup. That's when she met the fabulous Deanna Wolverton. Well, a friendship was formed, thousands of cookies were sold, a bond was created, and ScreaminMamas now had a partner in crime. This is when it was decided that a magazine would be published to feature all the wonderful short stories, poems and rants from the blog. It started off small, but no sacrifices were made when it came to quality. It was determined right then and there that the magazine would be as beautiful as all the moms in the world. 

Now came the task of mailing. This is when Darlene's sister, Denise, stepped in and the 3 D's were born (Darlene, Deanna & Denise). Denise took charge of sorting, packaging, labeling and sending herself off to the post office. After awhile, she started writing  short stories of her adventures as an Aunt to Darlene's two terrors ~ a beautiful, but ferocious, son and daughter. ScreaminMamas was now open to Mothers and Aunts and soon Daughters, Sisters and Grandmothers followed. 

This prompted us to start hosting events at the local library which brought in another key figure, Corinne Ramos. Corrine, her mom and daughter helped host numerous events ~ from moms being pampered to talent shows to guest speakers. This led to our magazines being featured on the library shelves. WooHoo! We were on the move. 

Part Two

 

Fast forward to 2017. Now that the kids were grown up, Darlene was able to re-enter the workforce,  this time as a full time teacher. Then Hurricane Irma hit (home-based in Florida) followed by COVID and Screamin went into a bit of a tailspin. Events were stopped and only a few magazines were published during this time. We are so grateful for the time we had with Corinne, her family and our guests but our presence became limited and darkness took over. That did not stop our contributors though. They kept emailing their work and/or offering encouraging words of support, inspiration and even donations. So, a HUGE THANK YOU to ALL of you who never lost faith in us!

 

Today, we have over 30 contributors ~ some steady, some helping as key-players, some as guests, some one or two time contributors, but we recognize them all and are grateful for each and every one.  While there are new writers continuously submitting and joining us, we try to list and feature as many as we can on social media and on this site, either on the home page, the contributors page, in a video or as a featured writer. Anyone who has a blog posted, should have a page if you just click their name. 

 

Part Three

This brings me back to our magazines, featuring up to 48 pages of absolutely beautiful, charming, heartwarming, and oftentimes humorous, tales of motherhood ~ whether through the eyes of a mom, sister, aunt, daughter or grandmother ~ even dads on occasion. You can find our magazines listed on Duotrope, Writers Market and the Directory of Florida Markets for Writers. 

 

While our vision has come a long way, it still has a long way to go. There are Chapters to assemble, conferences to set-up and most importantly, a payroll to establish. Oh, for the love of money. While Darlene is an expert at creating, designing and a bit of marketing and promoting, business is NOT her forte. But, she is working on it and continues to network and connect with local business women as often as she can. God is good ALWAYS. He has been, and continues to be, the driving force behind this entire mission. Every purchase and/or donation made goes right back into our vision of being able to fully support, encourage and celebrate Everyday Moms.

 

So, we welcome you to our site and we thank you for stopping by. We hope you get to know us ~ maybe even join us ~ and we are always happy to hear from you ~ whether a question, suggestion, purchase, or submission.  Enjoy!

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