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Monday, September 15, 2014

Winter WOW! Blog Tours - NOW BOOKING BLOGGERS!!!

Grab Your Calendars!
I have three VERY exciting WOW! Women on Writing Book Blog Tours I can’t wait to start booking and I hope you’ll be part of the excitement!


Dates:   November 10th through December 10th 2014
Author:  Linda Appleman Shapiro

Title:   She's Not Herself: A psychotherapist's journey into and beyond her mother's mental illness

(Amazon Link: http://amzn.to/1wxCXOL)
Genre:  Memoir, Mental Illness
Audience: SHE'S NOT HERSELF was written to appeal to a wide range of readers from anyone who has grown up in a family fraught with the destructive power of hidden stressors -- mental or physical -- as well as students of psychology, teachers, patients, and the professional community of psychiatrists, psychologists, psychotherapists, and social workers. I believe that all readers will gain insight regarding family dysfunction, the destructive nature of secrets, and patterns of behavior that are set in motion -- as many professionals believe -- as early as in the womb. Without it being simply a first-person account of survival, the reader experiences me as I move from childhood through adolescence and into adulthood. They experience me as I try on various professional hats and ultimately train to become a psychotherapist. After years of trauma, I move beyond it and gain the ability to forgive without forgetting and do so with courage and, I hope, dignity. That is what I hope readers will be able to do for themselves, as well.

Book Description:  On the surface, her childhood seemed normal—even idyllic. Linda grew up in the iconic immigrant community of Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, with her parents and a gifted older brother. But she spent her days at home alone with a mother who suffered major bouts of depression. At such times, young Linda was told, "Your mother…she’s not herself today." Those words did little to help Linda understand what she was witnessing. Instead, she experienced the anxiety and hyper-vigilance that often take root when secrecy and shame surround a family member who is ill.

She’s Not Herself is a journey to make sense of the effects of multi-generational traumas. Shapiro is ultimately able to forgive (without forgetting) those who left her to fend for herself—and to provide readers with the wisdom of a seasoned psychotherapist who has examined human vulnerability in its many disguises and has moved through it all with dignity and hope. The result is a memoir of love, loss, loyalty, and healing.

Guest Post Topics:

Writer topics -- 
1- How to write without my psychotherapist's voice. That is, how to tell my story by showing my family in action -- creating dialogue, describing details regarding how we looked, what our neighborhood and particular house was like . . . In short, how not to analyze but how to show without telling the particulars of our family's struggles, challenges, and successes.
2- How to decide what to write about and what to omit in order to create a flow vs. an overflow of information.
3- Why opt to write a memoir rather than a book of fiction in which much of one's story can be written as fiction?
4- How to write about very sad and challenging experiences and still leave the reader feeling hopeful.

Non-writer topics:
1- With mental illness coming out of the closet and constantly being in the news these days, personalizing what it is like to live with a person suffering from a mental illness, is allowing today's readers to be much more educated and able to seek help for themselves and loved ones thatn when I weas growing up in the 40s and 50s.

2- The importance of not stereotyping anyone who suffers from mental illness.
3- How to know what behaviors to recognize as being worrisome and why wishing them away will be counter-productive. Taking action is always necessary to avoid people from falling through the crack, not receiving help and opting to commit suicide, not knowing how to help themselves get rid of their demons.  
4- Despite the fact that we still do not have enough funding for mental health, we certainly are far better off when we know where to seek help and how to advocate for oureselves or a loved one who needs professional help. 

 

Author Bio: Linda Appleman Shapiro earned a B.A. in Literature from Bennington College, a Master’s degree in Human Development/Counseling from the Bank Street College of Education, a Master Certification in Neuro-Linguistic Programming from the NY Institute for N.L.P. and further certifications in Ericksonian Hypnosis and Substance Abuse/Addictions Counseling.

Shapiro is also a contributing author in the casebook, Leaves Before The Wind: Leading Edge Applications of N.L.P.

In private practice as a psychotherapist for more than 30 years, Shapiro served as a senior staff member for 10 years at an out-patient facility for recovering addicts and their families. As an Oral Historian, she has documented the lives of many of New York’s elderly for more than 30 years.

 

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Dates:    November 17th through December 17th 2014
Author:   David W. Berner

Title:    Any Road Will Take You There: A journey of fathers and sons

 

Genre:   Memoir,Family, Parenting
Audience:  Any Road Will Take Your There is a book for everyone, but especially  for men who are father's and, and of course, sons. Mothers who want their father's or husband's to think about the connections with their sons. But I've also had women read and love this book. I think it's about the familial connections. 
Book Description: A father sets out on a 5000-mile road trip, the one he never had the guts to take as a young man, the one he hopes will spark a new chapter in his life. But the once-delayed journey now takes on new meaning when he’s forced to confront his family’s unsettled past, and face the reality that every man, including his own two sons, will eventually compare his life with the fathers who came before him.
Chicago writer, David W. Berner, takes to the road for a journey he hopes will rekindle a level of inspiration. After re-reading Jack Kerouac’s ON THE ROAD, the iconic American road trip story and the book he cherished as a teenager, he finds himself confronting an unexpected examination of his place in the world and the most important role of his life – fatherhood.
ANY ROAD WILL TAKE YOU THERE: A Journey of Fathers and Sons is a heartwarming and heartbreaking story told with humor and grace, revealing the generational struggles and triumphs of being a dad, and the beautiful but imperfect ties that connect all of us.

Guest Post Topics:

1. The unique connection between fathers and sons
2. The allure and redemptive nature of road trips
3. Writing about your life, choosing what to write about. 
4. How to balance the story with what can be the sometimes the intrusive nature of writing about family.
5. About being the Writer-in-Residence at the Jack Kerouac House in Orlando. 
6. How to incorporate reflective moments in memoir or creative nonfiction. 
7. Writing about the living and writing about the dead. How to be true to both. 
8. How to be a disciplined writing --- writing like you workout. 

 

Author Bio:  David W. Berner-the award winning author of ACCIDENTAL LESSONS and ANY ROAD WILL TAKE
YOU THERE-was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where he began his work as a broadcast journalist and writer. He moved to Chicago to work as a radio reporter and news anchor for CBS Radio and later pursue a career as a writer and educator. His book ACCIDENTAL LESSONS is about his year teaching in one of the Chicago area's most troubled school districts. The book won the Golden Dragonfly Grand Prize for Literature and has been called a "beautiful, elegantly written book" by award-winning author Thomas E. Kennedy, and "a terrific memoir" by Rick Kogan (Chicago Tribune and WGN Radio). ANY ROAD WILL TAKE YOU THERE is the author's story of a 5000-mile road trip with his sons and the revelations of fatherhood. The memoir has been called "heartwarming and heartbreaking" and "a five-star wonderful read."

David can be found online at:

twitter ---  @davidwberner
twitter -- @anyroadbook

 

 

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Dates:      December 1st 2014 through January 1st 2015

Author:    Sandra Hurtes

Title:     The Ambivalent Memoirist: Obsessions Digressions Epiphanies

 

Genre:    Memoir
Audience:   Writers, Journalers, anyone with a story to tell or a story they aren’t sure is worth telling
Book Description:  In The Ambivalent Memoirist Sandra Hurtes asks, "Where is my place?" She's a single and childfree woman at midlife, whose parents were Holocaust survivors. Through writing, teaching, knitting, and yoga, Sandra searches for her place, one that is devoid of the trauma of her parents' past.

Guest Post Topics: Not available just yet

Author Bio:   I was born in Brooklyn in 1950 to immigrant parents who survived the Holocaust. My parents' lives--before and after the war--informs much of my writing and to a large degree my life. My first published essay, "A Daughter's Legacy," helped me to loosen my parents' expectations and begin to shed my sense of responsibility to heal them.
My essays and articles have appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, Poets & Writers, Women in Judaism and numerous other publications. My essay, "The People We Love and Create" won an American Jewish Press Award. In 2009 I compiled my essays into a collection On My Way to Someplace Else. I've taught nonfiction and essay writing in continuing education and private classes. Currently, I teach English Composition at John Jay College.

 

 Sandra can be found online at:  http://www.sandrahurtes.com/

 


 




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