My Life
If life experience is the best preparation for a writer, I began with some definite advantages. I’ve been everything from a professional dancer to a licensed massage therapist. I’ve worked as a community organizer, a grocery clerk, and an arts administrator. Years back, I even did some ghost-writing for my husband, when he was an in-demand freelance copywriter.
Such a crazy-quilt background would count against me in some professions. I’ve come to understand it’s the perfect preparation for a writer.
Raised in New Jersey, schooled in Ohio, I married a rock musician from the South and settled down to live happily ever after. But surprise! “Happily ever after” isn’t bestowed casually…you get it the old-fashioned way, by earning it. About the time I became a young mother, I launched my freelance writing career because we had bills to pay.
I wish I could say it was something I had always planned to do–it wasn’t. And I was scared to death. Who was I to write anything? Where should I start? How could I ever get published?
After many false starts, I began to write what I knew: parenting pieces, articles and columns about children, parenting styles, marriage. I didn’t feel confident I could succeed, but I put one foot in front of the other, and before long, I had a book, a regular newspaper column, and good magazine contacts.
I'm happy to be part of this collection of personal stories, a collaboration involving over 60 teachers of memoir from around the world. The book is published independently by the Birren Center for Autobiographical Writing, through which the authors are certified to teach.
A unique and beautiful exploration of Helen Keller's abiding friendship with prominent journalist Ed Chamberlin–and much more about Keller's struggles, passions, and values. The author is Chamberiin's great-great-granddaughter.
On August 8, 2020, in pandemic heat, I introduced Kristen Rademacher (via Zoom)at the launch party for From the Lake
House, A Mother’s Odyssey of Loss and Love, her wrenching memoir. Flyleaf Books, our hopping indie bookstore here in Chapel Hill, NC, hosted the event. A large crowd from across the country and around the world tuned in for the inspiring multi-media event.
This poignant memoir gives a boy's view of life in Nazi-held Prague and his escape to freedom in a challenging America.
An award winning collection of powerful stories about serving the many needs of elderly and indigent patients, as one of America's first gerontological nurse practitioners.
Essays by women ministers about their challenges and victories in answering the call to ministry.
A mother's 40-year struggle to raise an autistic son – and to grow up herself.
This idyllic memoir recollects the sweet and simple summer pleasures of family life in mid-century Cape Cod.
If you love your pets and make sacrifices for them, you will adore this lively book about a family's needy cats.
The history of a women's shelter in Birmingham, Alabama, as told through many voices.
William Buffett's short essays on nearly everything, arranged as an alphabet book.
Essays about one man's dimensional life including some of his favorite recipes.
