About six months after my 19-year-old daughter Maya died, I remember walking home from the commuter train station in so much pain I was not sure I could make it. When I reached my driveway, I was choking back tears. I looked up and saw a giant Redwood tree, the furls...
For today's stop on the WOW! Women on Writing blog tour, I'm visiting Mom Loves 2 Read, to talk about grief recovery - an important skill for mortals. Sooner or later we all lose someone we love. How do we move forward after loss? It’s been 21 years since my...
When I look back on my 25 years of single parenthood, I shake my head in wonder. I pulled on my pantyhose every day (this was in the 1980s and 90s) and went to a corporate job. I made breakfasts and lunches, drove kids to school, helped with homework, scheduled and...
Most authors tour virtually now. While I miss the face to face contact with readers, a virtual tour allows me to reach many more people, and connect with some wonderful bloggers and websites. Stop number 2 on my Women on Writing (WOW) blog tour is the Books I Think...
Miracles can be small gifts – the monarch butterfly that drifts over the hollyhock in your garden then pauses for you to admire. Or they can be big, life-changing events that grab you by the shoulders. The birth of a child. Or the rebirth of a book. I’ve experienced...
“Life gets mighty precious when there’s less of it to waste.” – Bonnie Raitt There was a time in my life I thought I’d never be happy again. But I’ve learned to look at seasons of life, not just days or years. Lately, I’ve been very happy. Not euphoric, mind you, but...
When you can download a book to your e-reader in seconds that costs less than the movie playing at your local Multiplex, what is the relationship between readers and writers? Judging from the reviews of my book on the Swimming with Maya Amazon page, it has the...
Terrible tragedy inevitably raises the question: How could a just God allow bad things to happen to good people? Whether you grew up believing in God, or later opened to the possibility of a higher power, when confronted by loss you are likely to question your faith....
I’m throwing a party for the rebirth of Swimming with Maya. Thanks to the power of networking, it has a new life as a paperback and eBook. But in 2010, the future of my book did not look bright. Capital Books, the independent publisher that issued the hardback in...
Two years after my 19-year-old daughter Maya was killed in a freak accident, I met the recipient of her donated heart: a middle-aged Chilean businessman, his wife, and their two children. My book Swimming with Maya describes that initial meeting and the friendship...