memoir

A Gathering of Authors. We’d Love to Meet You!

May14 final poster

I want to let you know of a special event I’m taking part in this Saturday, May 14th, 2016 – A Gathering of (local) Authors. Hosted by independent book store Book Heads and Seranya Art Studios, both in historic downtown Plymouth, WI.

This is a first time event and I was happy to learn of the many authors right here in my county. I can’t wait to meet them!

I’ve always enjoyed hearing how other writers got their start or what inspires them to write. I hope you do too and will consider coming to check out the many different and talented writers that are taking part in this wonderful event.

There will be readings/talks and signings beginning at 10:30am and running through 3:30pm with a wide variety of genres – something for everyone!

I will be doing a brief talk and reading from my memoir Through Frankie’s Eyes at Seranya Art Studios at 11:30am and then again at 1:30pm at Book Heads Book Store.

Through Frankie's Eyes

Below is a list of the other authors and their books and when they will be doing a talk/reading. There will also be many other activities and sites to see this day during Plymouth’s Historic Downtown Open House. You can learn more by visiting this link.

Author Readings/Signings 

voices

Lisa PaulsonVoices from a Sacred Land

10:30am, Book Heads Book Store

odssey

Belden Paulson, Odyssey of a Practical Visionary (memoir)

11:00am, Book Heads Book Store

noted

Kathy JacobsonNoted, (fiction)

10:30am, Seranya Art Studios

11:30am, Book Heads Book Store

illusions

Ann Marie Graf, Love, The Illusion and Delusions(romance)

delusions

11:00am, Seranya Art Studios

Noon, Book Heads Book Store

dustoff

Allen Nohls, Dustoff & Medevac Vietnam (memoir of Vietman),

Chapter in book about Allen and sole-survivor of mid-air helicopter crash.

Noon, Book Heads Book Store

3:00pm, Seranya Art Studios

left

Beth and Rick Olsen, We Never Left You (memoir, grief)

1:00pm, Book Heads Book Store

kidnapper

Danielle Grandinetti, The Vanishing Kidnapper (fiction/jr.high,western/mystery)

Noon, Seranya Art Studios

2:00pm, Book Heads Book Store

shoe

Mary T. Wagner, When the Shoe Fits (essays on life/humor/inspiration)

12:30pm, Seranya Art Studios

2:30pm, Book Heads Book Store

overnight

Nathan Birr, Overnight Delivery (mystery/detective)

1:30pm, Seranya Art Studios

3:00pm, Book Heads Book Store

road

B.S. Levy, The Last Open Road (fiction, racing)

2:00pm, Seranya Art Studios

3:30pn, Book Heads Book Store

lake

Lisa Lehmann, Lake Michigan, the Wisconsin Shore (collection of photos from shore of Lake Michigan)

1:00pm, Seranya Art Studios

wandering

Ray Last, Wandering (memoir, 60s & 70s)
2:30pm, Serayna Art Studios

three

Joanne Kaminski & Renee Love, Three Little Sisters Learn to Get Along (children’s book)

3:30pm, Serayna Art Studios

You can follow updates on the event page and we hope to meet you this Saturday!

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Cycles of Life. A Writers Life. My Life.

Writing has so many cycles like life - I'm in the waiting game right now.
Joie and Me. Summer of 2013.

I was thinking about the cycle of life today. How things come and go. Another Mother’s Day has come and gone. Spring, for the most part, has sprung, and before we know it, we will be in the heat and humidity of summer.

The cycle of life, how at times speeds by, but then other times feels like it is crawling slowly along like a snail.

My manuscript for Wisdom Found in the Pause, my second memoir, has been with my editor almost three months now.

A book that took me over three years to get to the point of feeling comfortable and handing it over to my editor. A hurdle I wasn’t sure I’d be able to jump. But yet, I did.

Just like many things in life, there are always hoops to jump through. Some we can do without a thought, some we ponder for what seems eternity.

It felt that way, writing my second memoir, like trudging through very thick muck at times. My own fear and questioning if it was “good enough” was the mud I was trying to see through.

My vision for it not quite clear yet, as I still have some doubts. But I’m hopeful with my editor’s feedback I will find that opening of freedom all writers strive for- that moment they know without a shadow of doubt the book that won’t not let them rest, will make its way out into the world.

Writing has so many cycles like life – the idea for a book – the endless hours of writing – the courage summoned to release it to an editor – the thoughts that invade at the oddest times- the wrestling of doubt, fear, and questioning during the waiting game.

I’m in the waiting game right now, which for awhile was a comfortable place to be. I was relieved to let my manuscript go to my editor when I did in February, and take a break from it. There comes a point when you just have to do this in order to make it better.

But now, I find myself in the not-being-so-patient process of wanting to know that all my devotion and hard work can actually be a book I release to my audience.

Waiting for confirmation from my editor that the manuscript, which will no doubt need lots more work, but hope I rest in the arms of that it is doable.

And the place in the cycle I am now is that I am eager to get back to work on whipping it into the shape. But I must wait.

And I envision when I can say it is complete…and I can let it go…and it moves out into the spaces and places it needs to go.

But now, in this moment, suspended in time, hanging slightly off balance, I await the fate of what it will actually be.

Not yet fully knowing, but leaning heavily into my faith that a divine plan is already in place.

And just like I had to do when things unfolded so rapidly in my dachshund, Joie’s, short-lived life with me, of which I write about in this book. How it seemed to spin way too fast, but yet stopped me dead in my tracks when I had to make a gut wrenching decision to do what I felt was best for her.

How that decision led to the next phase which was a period of transition for me – and that was a whole process of cycles too. And a cycle I had fought against the whole year before. Until I knew I had to look it straight in the face or let it continue to disrupt my inner world.

Days come and go. We create, struggle, fly high, let go, look back, look forward, and search for peace in-between…where peace is always faithful in that it resides here always beckoning us to see that this is truly the only cycle that matters.

And so it is.

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I AM a Hummingbird. Thank you Elizabeth Gilbert.

I AM a Hummingbird. Thank You Elizabeth Gilbert.
Image credit: Alexis Coram

Time stood still this morning when I listened to Robin Roberts interview author Elizabeth Gilbert who is celebrating 10 years of her book Eat, Pray, Love.

It was the moment a young woman stood up and asked Elizabeth how to follow her heart when her dreams felt scattered. She said that she came to New York wanting to pursue a media career. But now she realizes she wants to travel the country and teach Yoga, which feels off the beaten path.

Liz told her that there are people who are like jackhammers. They come here knowing what they want and they go after it and nothing gets in their way. Then there are the hummingbirds of the world who try this and try that, always searching.

She went on to say that our world rewards jackhammers. But the truth is, those of us who are hummingbirds are on a scavenger hunt. We are allowed to follow our curiosity. Her advice that just because this is who you were last year does not mean that you can’t be something different now. She said to the young gal, “just keep going. Just keep looking.”

This hit a very deep place inside me. It was exactly why I was in transition for three years which I will be sharing in my new book Wisdom Found in the Pause later this year.

I struggled with letting go of the chapter in my life I call my “Frankie Chapter,” (and I wrote about that time of my life in my memoir Through Frankie’s Eyes),wanting to move on after she passed. But not sure where I was headed, though something niggled at my heart that I wanted to explore.

Tears sprang to my eyes as Liz’s words rang through my mind and vibrated in my heart. I AM a hummingbird. I was so overcome with emotion.

And then it hit even deeper. As I wrote about in my memoir, Through Frankie’s Eyes I believe with all my heart that Frankie came to me two weeks after her death as a hummingbird.

It was late one afternoon almost four years ago when I was sitting on the deck, lost in thought about Frankie, that a hummingbird fluttered about a foot in front of my face. She flitted back and forth – back and forth. This had never happened before. I don’t know really how long this lasted, but the feelings that ran through me in those moments were hard to deny that it was her.

In my heart I believe it was Frankie sending me a message that she was okay – she was still with me – and that I would be okay. Because as I wrote about in my memoir I had tied my identity so close to Frankie and my work with her that I didn’t know how to move on without her.

As these thoughts swirled through my mind this morning I had another aha! that perhaps Frankie was letting me know that it was okay for me to be a hummingbird. She was showing me that I could go on to follow other dreams in my heart.

My heart smiles as it feels like another full circle moment. But mostly a confirmation that everything I felt those three years of transition was okay. We are allowed to pursue what we want and to take the time to figure things out.

I don’t know how Elizabeth Gilbert does it with her thoughts that resonate deeply with so many women. But I, for one, am so grateful for her. And I’m grateful for the little dachshund on wheels, Frankie, who I also believe just sent me another message to keep following my heart.

Here is the interview with Liz if you’d like to watch it yourself.

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