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...
"I’m drawn to those defiant souls who refuse to submit to tough circumstances, those who jut out their chins and stubbornly defy the odds." -- Donald Dempsey, author of Betty's Child I'm pleased to welcome fellow Dream of Things author Donald Dempsey for a guest post...
My book is up against mega-sellers like Wild, The Glass Castle, and Bossypants – and that’s just in the memoir category. Yet at this moment, Swimming with Maya has claimed the number one spot in women’s memoirs in the Kindle store. How is this David vs. Goliath story...
Are you lonely? If you’re a writer, chances are you answered yes. Writing is a solitary occupation. It demands long hours of concentrated effort. Alone time feeds the muse like nothing else. Yet even writers are social creatures who need and rely on friends. Last week...
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...
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...
I am blessed by wonderful friends. A number of them are women young enough to be my daughters. Today, I opened my mailbox to find a letter from one of them, Kelli Jones. It was a fan letter, a love letter, a blast of encouragement strong enough to make me vow to write...
Talking about the death of my daughter detonates every parent’s worst fear. “That’s the ultimate loss,” they say. “I can’t even imagine it.” Telling people you are a bereaved parent is like telling them you have cancer. In the early years of grief, I felt like a...
My publisher asked me to identify ten quotes from Swimming with Maya for promotional blurbs. OK, I thought to myself, how hard can that be? But I delayed, blaming it on the demands of the holidays. Finally, on New Year’s Day, I sat down with a hardback copy of my book...
I first met Madeline Sharples at a writing workshop at Esalen. I was immediately drawn to her calm, empathetic manner, her beauty, and her poems. We quickly learned that we shared some important life experiences - we were both grieving mothers and both of us were...