In March, my book, I’m Your Daughter, Julie: Caring for a Parent with Dementia, was published. This is a book is close to my heart.

Although many people encouraged me to share my story, I couldn’t immediately immerse myself in the painful memories of watching Mom slowly lose her mind, deteriorate physically before my eyes, and take her last breath. Nevertheless, eventually, I felt compelled to write the book out of a desire to help others learn from my successes and mistakes as a caregiver. By sharing my intimate journey, I hoped to make the process of bit easier and provide comfort to those losing a loved one to dementia so they wouldn’t feel alone.

I’m so grateful that my book has been well-received with several five-star reviews including one from Readers’ Favorite.

My Next Book

After promoting my latest book, I’m happy to get back to writing again. Next up, a book to help those over 50 who are struggling to lose weight.

Confession time. After caring for my mother for a few years, I had gained a lot of weight stress-eating. Since I had neglected my health during that time, a check-up was in order. The doctor bluntly informed me that I had gained 20 pounds since my last visit. Okay, I already knew that, but it was still painful to hear!

So began my quest to drop the weight. 

Let me tell you, losing weight is a whole new ballgame as you age. This was a a learning experience as I mastered what worked – and found out what didn’t work anymore now that I’m older.

I’m ready to share my secrets. No dangerous surgeries, expensive weight loss programs, or crazy fad diets involved.  I hope to have it finished and ready to publish by the end of the year just in time for 2020 resolutions.

On a personal note, this fall, I will fulfill a lifelong dream and visit South Africa with my husband, Scott.

One of the reasons I think our marriage works so well – even after 40 years – is because we support each other’s dreams. Going to Africa has been more my dream than his, but he jumped on the bandwagon quickly when we saw a great price. But then Scott became super excited about the idea of shark cage diving with the great whites in Cape Town. Oh dear! Although I consider myself an adventurer, visions of the scene of a shark attacking the cage in Jaws kept dancing around in my head.

Now, for the big question. Will I do it?

Drum-roll please….yes, we have booked this adventure.

Mind you, this decision was not made lightly. I did plenty of research and watched several videos so I’d know what to expect. I discovered that the companies in South Africa do not chum the waters or feed the sharks and closely follow safety regulations. I couldn’t find any reports of fatalities, but I did see a viral video of a cage dive gone wrong on Guadalupe Island in Mexico when safety precautions were ignored. Horrifically, the shark ended up thrashing around violently inside the cage with a man – who miraculously was unharmed. By the way, even though I am scuba certified, I would never go shark diving without a cage or try to feed the sharks. I have my limits and that just seems dumb and dangerous.

Now, if I could only stop hearing “duun-dun, dun-dun, duun-duun, dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun” every time I think about the cage dive.

Stay tuned, I’ll be blogging all about my experience.

Welcome to my new author website and blog! I have several exciting writing projects in the works. I’ll keep you informed of all the latest news and ramble about my writing life.

My Journey as a Writer

As a writer, I am in love, captivated, and addicted to words. And with good reason.

Inspiring words can lift us up, bring joy, motivate us to do good, offer hope, heal, and excite us. Words are powerful and sometimes even magical. Words evoke our imaginations and create wondrous worlds to explore.

However, being a professional writer and author is anything but easy. Along this journey, many tears of disappointment and frustration were shed on this crazy roller coaster ride of emotions.

As George Orwell said: “Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand.”

Don’t get me wrong, the highs are incomparable. When I saw my byline for the first time, landed a famous agent to represent my first YA novel, co-wrote a book published by McGraw Hill, won three journalism awards, and lived out my dream of a book signing at Barnes and Noble – I was on top of the world!

But there’s a flip side. I submitted my work for six long years before being published for the first time, received enough rejection letters over the years to wallpaper a house, quit my daytime job too soon and had to work a humiliating temp job, and got dumped by that famous agent when my first novel didn’t sell.

I swore off writing many times throughout the years. Am I glad I persevered? You bet!

Writing is an addiction, a compulsion, a seduction that tugs at your soul. I started down the path of a becoming a writer 30 years ago and still love the endless possibilities that this career offers.

So, stick with me and stay tuned. Let’s see what the future brings…

Image courtesy of praisaeng at FreeDigitalPhotos.net.