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“Always being the 'good girl,' pleasing others, and internalizing your feelings is self-destructive. Our childhood is stored in our body, and if we do not heal our wounds someday, the body will present its bill. Roberta Dolan had the courage to transform and heal herself. The techniques she utilized to do so and the changes she made can benefit all those who have ever been abused, physically or psychologically. I strongly recommend reading this book to help you to release whatever pain exists within you and to restore your own life and body. It is never too late to leave the past behind and begin anew, as Roberta did.” ―Bernie Siegel, MD, author of 365 Prescriptions for the Soul and 101 Exercises for the Soul Say It Out Loud—a unique blend of memoir and how-to—exposes the emotional scars of sexual abuse and explains the process of healing. In straightforward prose, step by step, Roberta Dolan provides readers with tangible healing strategies—including journaling, visualization, and more—that she employed during her own years in therapy for a childhood of sexual abuse. Inspiring and accessible, Say It Out Loud offers guidance and support for any kind of healing journey, equipping readers with the skills and courage to transform a life of darkness into one of joy. Author: Roberta Dolan Publication Date: October 7, 2014 -
“Grace Orenstein’s book points to the power of interaction between childcare staff members to enhance or destroy the emotional climate of a child care center. The childcare community will value this important resource which gives directors and caregivers a blueprint for improving adult dynamics within their centers, supporting retention and continuity, and building stable, nurturing environments for both children and adults.” —Leslie Koplow, author of Unsmiling Faces: How Preschools Can Heal and director of Emotionally Responsive Practice at Bank Street There are more than 11 million children in the United States who spend part of each day in professional care. With more than 64 percent of all new mothers heading back to work only a few months after giving birth, 1 in 4 children will be cared for by others. Building Blocks for Reflective Communication is for those “others”—the caring but underpaid, devoted yet unevenly skilled workers who go to work each day to face executives who stand less than three feet tall and occasionally resolve conflicts with their teeth. The emotionally charged nature of the environment in which these early care and education professionals work affects all involved: the children, of course, but also parents, fellow teachers, colleagues, bosses, and the worker herself. Communication skills are key to the mental and physical health of staff relationships. Straightforward and accessible, Building Blocks for Reflective Communication raises the bar towards greater professionalism and workplace quality for those who have chosen to dedicate their lives to the health and well-being of children. Author: Dr. Grace Manning-Orenstein Publication Date: October 7, 2014 -
Freddie was raised on faith. It’s in her blood. Yet rather than seeking solace from the Almighty when she loses her husband of many years, she enters a state of quiet contemplation—until her daughter, and then her sister, each come home with a host of problems of their own, and her solitude is brought to an end. As Freddie helps her daughter and sister deal with their troubles, her own painful past—a wretched childhood at the hands of an unbalanced, pious mother—begins to occupy her thoughts more than ever, as does Anna, the grandmother she’s always wished she’d known better. Freddie feels that she and Anna are connected, not just through blood but through the raising of difficult daughters, and it’s a kinship that makes her wonder what unseen forces have shaped her life. With all that to hand, a new family crisis rears its head—and it forces Freddie to confront the questions she’s asked so many times: What does it mean to believe in God? And does God even care? Author: Anne Leigh Parrish Publication Date: October 15, 2014 -
Years after suffering sexual and verbal abuse at the hands of her stepfather, Melanie is still haunted by her past. Her husband, Julius—a cop, and thus experienced in dealing with crime and punishment—struggles to understand his wife’s silent pain, but he can’t give her the closure she needs. Determined to exorcise her past, Melanie must choose between revenge and forgiveness. The first may destroy her marriage—but she’s not convinced that the second will bring her the peace of mind she so desperately yearns for. Haunting and hard-edged, Trespassers is an unflinching exploration of what happens to an individual—and a family—in the aftermath of abuse. Author: Andrea Miles Publication date: October 28, 2014 -
Sophie believed her childhood nightmares were safely behind her when she married and moved from France to the US—but when her mother, Marcelle, calls her to her deathbed and asks her to honor one final request (“Find Pourrette!”), Sophie can’t refuse. Marcelle, who never knew her father, has carried the Pourrette name—along with the shame of illegitimacy—her whole life; now it’s up to Sophie to scour that stain from her family’s past. Kate, Sophie’s friend, who gave up her illegitimate child for adoption during wartime, finds herself awash in her own shame when her now-thirty-year-old daughter reappears in her life—and she jumps at the opportunity to help Sophie search for her grandfather in France. Like the braiding of three strands of brioche, the lives of these three women become inextricably intertwined as each struggles to resolve issues from the past that have defined their lives. Author: Carole Bumpus Publication Date: October 27, 2014 -
On November 5, 1917, Taylorville, Illinois native Clara Taylor stepped off a Trans-Siberian Railway train into a city then called Petrograd, Russia. Employed by the YWCA as an industrial expert, Clara had been sent to Russia to help establish Associations in Petrograd (now St. Petersburg) and Moscow. Her main charge while in Russia was to survey and report on factory conditions, but Clara only spent a fraction of her stay in Russia visiting factories; due to the vagaries of the political, social, and economic revolution—the upheaval of an entire culture—Clara and her colleagues spent most of their first year in Russia teaching English, home economics, book keeping, literature, and basketball, and sponsoring lectures, dances and sing-alongs for Russian working women. Clara’s letters, collected in this book, tell of both the mundane and the extraordinary: what the YW staff ate for dinner; how the Bolshevik suppression of free speech impacted Americans’ ability to communicate with those at home; shootings in the streets; bartering for pounds of sugar; conversing with nobility, with intellectuals, and with workers; attending the opera; and sight-seeing at monasteries. Together, Clara’s letters to her family—her “dearest ones at home”—tell a compelling story of one American woman’s experiences in Revolutionary Russia. Author: Katrina Maloney and Patricia M. Maloney Publication Date: October 21, 2014 -
2016 Next Generation Indie Book Awards: Winner, Memoirs (Other) 2016 IPPY: Silver medal, Sexuality/Relationships 2016 International Book Award Finalist in Self Help: Relationships Ann has two kids, two careers, two divorces, a pile of friends and sings soprano in the church choir. But after twelve years single, she is sick of celibacy. She’s been through enough to know that marriage is not what she was brought up to expect, and that love can be slippery and uncertain. With a re-awakened libido and a longing for adventure, she steps outside her comfort zone—embarking on a boundary-pushing, soul-searching journey into the world of online dating. Ranging from Montclair, New Jersey to Harare, Zimbabwe, Daring to Date Again: A Memoir is a compelling, often racy memoir of one woman’s late-life adventures with sex and dating in the modern world. As she rollicks (and bawls) her way through dozens of relationships, Evans tackles some touchy topics with humor and insight: the morality of dating married men, whether women over sixty should consider having children, what age difference is too much, and more. Daring, frank, and a little bit nutty, Daring to Date Again is a story about what happens when a lonely, sex-starved sixty-year-old woman decides to put herself on the market again—but on her own terms. Author: Ann Anderson Evans Publication Date: November 11, 2014 -
WINNER: 2015 International Book Awards, Best Multicultural Nonfiction FINALIST: 2015 IndieFab in Travel FINALIST: 2015 International Book Awards, Best New Nonfiction Fly-by-the-seat-of-her-pants mom Jennifer Magnuson knew her spoiled suburban brood needed a wake-up call—she just couldn’t find the time to fit one in. But when her husband was offered a position in India, she saw it for what it was: the perfect opportunity for her family to unplug from their over-scheduled and pampered lives in Nashville and gain some much-needed perspective. What she didn’t realize was how much their time in India would transform her as well. Peanut Butter and Naan is Magnuson’s hilarious look at the chaos of parenting against a backdrop of malaria, extreme poverty, and no conveniences of any kind—and her story of rediscovering herself and revitalizing her connection with those she loves the most. Hers is a story about motherhood that will not only make you laugh and nod with recognition—it will inspire you to fall in love with your own family all over again Author: Jennifer Hillman-Magnuson Publication Date: November 11, 2014 -
“A heart-wrenching and inspiring contribution to the literature of loss and disability, A Leg to Stand On offers the visceral detail, black humor, and grit of a fine novel combined with all the vulnerability of the deepest, most honest memoirs. Colleen Haggerty captures the tender and defiant voice of the 17-year-old she was when she lost her leg in a terrifying auto accident. But the author manages to imbue that voice with the ferocity required of her as she found a way to accept and surmount her disability. Anyone who has ever confronted limitation will be inspired by Haggerty’s story.” —Amy Friedman, author of Desperado's Wife: A Memoir When Colleen Haggerty lost her leg in an accident during her senior year of high school, she could have retreated from life and let her disability become her defining quality—and no one would have blamed her for it. Instead, she went the opposite way. In the years following her accident, Haggerty explored her physical world with vigor, testing the limits of her body by joining a ski team, playing with a co-ed soccer team, and taking up kayaking and backpacking. She also tested the limits of her heart, pursuing love and passion with restless men. In A Leg to Stand On, Haggerty recounts her life as a disabled woman, from redefining herself as a young woman after tragedy—fierce and able, but haunted by hard choices and suppressed grief—to choosing marriage and motherhood. That choice comes at great cost to the physical freedom Haggerty has fought for, but ultimately she finds redemption, fulfillment, and self-acceptance in the bargain. No one will read this book without being inspired to accept their past and create the future they always wanted. Author: Colleen Haggerty Publication Date: November 11, 2014 -
What’s Your Book? is an aspiring author’s go-to guide for getting from idea to publication. Brooke Warner is a publishing expert with thirteen years’ experience as an acquiring editor for major trade houses. In her book, she brings her unique understanding of book publishing (from the vantage point of coach, editor, and publisher) to each of the book’s five chapters, which include understanding the art of becoming an author, getting over common hurdles, challenging counterproductive mindsets, building an author platform, and ultimately getting published. Brooke is known for her straightforward delivery, honest assessments, and compassionate touch with authors. What’s Your Book? contains the inspiration and information every writer needs to publish their first or next book. Author: Brooke Warner Publication Date: September 18, 2014 -
“Truly intimate with the world, Lone is a compelling heroine that takes us on an unforgettable journey into both dark and light places of our human heart, mind and soul, helping us discover how truly powerful we are.” – Kristine Carlson, Author of Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff for Women and Heartbroken Open. Seeing Red: A Women’s Quest for Truth, Power, and the Sacred is an intimate memoir about one woman’s search for personal power—a journey of climbing inner and outer mountains that takes her to the holy Mt. Kailas in Tibet, through a seven-year marriage, and into the arms of the fierce goddess Kali, where she discovers her powerful, feminine self. This is the story of Denmark native Lone Mørch’s transformation—a story of love and passion, and also a story of self-betrayal. After realizing that she’s given up on herself, Mørch has to strip herself bare, lose everything she’s held dear, and tear down everything she’s ever built in order to reclaim her life and sense of self. Seeing Red has received the Mary Tanenbaum Literary Award for a Nonfiction work in progress and an Honorary Mention at the San Francisco Book Festival. Author: Lone Mørch Publication Date: October 29, 2012 -
"In this new edition of her memoir, Linda Joy Myers illustrates just how powerful the combination of memory confronted, forgiveness offered, and new love expressed, can be. What I admire most about this book is the way the author takes you to her most sustaining love -- the prairie land of the Midwest -- and concludes her story as a return to that place where forgiveness becomes "a feather on my heart, as natural as the plains wind." -Shirley Showalter, former president of Goshen College, author of the blog I Have a Story. “I wanted to tell the secret stories that my great-grandmother Blanche whispered to me on summer nights in a featherbed in Iowa. I was eight and she was eighty . . .” At the age of four, a little girl stands on a cold, windy railroad platform in Wichita, Kansas, watching a train take her mother away. For the rest of her life, her mother will be an only occasional—and always troubled—visitor who denies her the love she longs for. Linda Joy Myers’s compassionate, gripping, and soul-searching memoir tells the story of three generations of daughters who, though determined to be different from their absent mothers, ultimately follow in their footsteps, recreating a pattern that they yearn to break. Accompany Linda as she uncovers family secrets, seeks solace in music, and begins her healing journey—ultimately transcending the prison of her childhood and finding forgiveness for her family and herself. This edition includes a new afterword in which Myers confronts her family’s legacy and comes full circle with her daughter and grandchildren, seeding a new path for them. Author: Linda Joy Myers Publication Date: February 1, 2013 -
Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Award Finalist IndieFab Awards Finalist (Top 15) “Reed’s charming novel stars a neurotic singer with mother issues who has been avoiding auditions and attending frustrating therapy sessions instead. When Cecilia meets a homeless boy on the streets, however, her life takes a risky new direction. A well-written, endearing book that surprises . . . ” —Kirkus Reviews Approaching forty, unemployed but well-off, talented but unknown, functional but depressed, former musical actress Cecilia Morrison reluctantly starts therapy, hoping for a change in her life, but ultimately it's a runaway teenager who cons her out of sixty bucks, not therapy, that gives her the inspiration she's looking for. Author: Mary Hutchings Reed Publication Date: April 23, 2013 -
London Book Festival: First Place Autobiography, December 2013 Independent Publishers: Bronze Award, May 2013 New York Book Festival: Honorable Mention, June 2014 Tasting Home is the history of a woman’s emotional education, the romantic tale of a marriage between a straight woman and a gay man, and an exploration of the ways that cooking can lay the groundwork for personal healing, intimate relation, and political community. Organized by decade and by the cookbooks that shaped author Judith Newton’s life, Tasting Home takes readers on an extraordinary journey through the cuisines, cultural spirit, and politics of the 1940s through 2011, complete with recipes. Author: Judith Newton Publication Date: March 1, 2013 -
“Fire & Water is simply a wonderful read. From the very first page, story and characters urge the reader forward. Yet even as the plot rises and tangles, vital issues are examined: Can a surgeon, who thinks she can fix anything, fix a broken heart? A broken mind? Art, like life, is transient. With a discerning eye for detail, and some truly beautiful love scenes, Fasbinder takes the reader on a most compelling and satisfying ride, all the way to the final four words.” —Sands Hall, author of Catching Heaven and Tools of the Writer’s Craft Only in the glaring light of hindsight does aspiring surgeon Kate Murphy understand that she was groomed for the path she’s taken. Raised by a widowed dad and a misshapen, sometimes comical trio of parental surrogates from Murphy’s Pub, her father’s Irish bar in San Francisco, Kate has never understood how protected she is—but when she learns that her well-meaning family has hidden bitter truths about her mother’s mental illness and death, the rest of her family history unravels. Author: Betsy Graziani Fasbinder Publication Date: February 14, 2013 -
Though educated as a painter, fifty-three-year-old Lee MacPhearson has lived her life coloring inside of the lines. The quintessential working mother of four, Lee has been the proper faculty wife—an ill-fitting role at best—while somehow managing to nurture her passion project, Mad Dog Gallery, into one of the Pacific Northwest’s most notable galleries. The casualty in all of this has been Lee’s marriage—and her sense of self. Having just delivered her last child to college, Lee is overwhelmed by her empty nest, and she’s left wondering what happened to the woman she once was. Ultimately, however, Barb Yakamura, Lee’s best friend and the brilliant and irreverent Artistic Director of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, is the one who truly overflows with ideas about what Lee should do—including one that leads Lee, Brian, and the entire MacPhearson family to an ending they never expected. Author: Tracey Barnes Priestley Publication Date: May 14, 2013 -
At 18, Tré Miller-Rodríguez gave her newborn daughter up for adoption. At 19, her only sibling was killed in a car crash. At 34, she lost her husband to a sudden heart attack. Then, at 36, her now-teenaged daughter found her on Facebook—and began to reshape the course of Tré’s life. With sharp, immediate prose, Tré unpacks the experience of being young and widowed in New York City: the “dumb sh*% people say”; the “brave face” she wears to work and social events; the solace she doesn’t find in one-night stands; and how her perspective only begins to shift when she spontaneously brings Alberto’s ashes on a trip and sets into motion the ritual of spreading him in bodies of water around the world. Author: Tré Miller Rodríguez Publication Date: March 5, 2013 -
“Memoir guru Linda Joy Myers packs a lot into this useful manual. This is more than a workbook full of exercises and prompts—it’s a guide from a veteran who understands the complexity of the memoir journey. If you’re writing a memoir, this workbook will become your new best friend.” —Brooke Warner, author of What’s Your Book? In Journey of Memoir you will find lessons on how to write a great scene; information on the difference between freewriting and outlining, and why you need both; timeline and turning point exercises to help create structure; and much more. This unique workbook gives you the tools you need to begin, develop, and complete your memoir. Author: Linda Joy Myers Publication Date: February 19, 2013 -
2013 IndieReader Discovery Awards: Winner, Best Travel Writing When an American woman and her British husband decide to buy a two-hundred-year-old cottage in the heart of the Cotswolds, they’re hoping for an escape from their London lives. Instead, their decision about whether or not to have a child plays out against a backdrop of village fêtes, rural rambles, and a cast of eccentrics clad in corduroy and tweed. Part memoir, part travelogue—and including field guides to narrative-related Cotswold walks–Americashire is a candid, compelling tale of marriage, illness, and difficult life decisions. Author: Jennifer Richardson Publication Date: March 4, 2013 -
“An alluring story of New York nightlife and its seedy players.” —Cat Marnell, VICE columnist “Equal parts Patti Smith’s Just Kids and The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Beautiful Garbage is a voyeuristic panorama of the vice and vanity of the downtown art scene in the 1980s.” —Ivy Pochoda, author of The Art of Disappearing and Visitation Street “Beautiful Garbage offers up one woman’s tour of duty of a New York City consumed by art, sex, and ambition. By turns passionate, cruel, shocking, and engrossing, this is a novel steeped in the lure of glamour and transformation the Big Apple’s always had to offer.” —Rachel Kramer Bussel, editor of Women in Lust and Fast Girls Jodi Plum: smart, talented, ambitious, troubled. Fresh out of her teens, she leaves suburbia for Manhattan’s glam and gritty art scene, and almost immediately falls into the clutches of Monika, a beautiful photographer. With the help of her new mentor, Jodi quickly becomes a rising star—but when a skeleton from her past surfaces, her dream life crashes to a halt, and she slips into a world of parties, drugs, and high-class prostitution. Set in the crime-plagued New York City of the 1980s, Beautiful Garbage parallels an artist’s journey with her sexual epiphanies, exploring the notorious milieu of the decade’s downtown art scene from the point of view of a young female artist—and offering a satirical and irreverent look at post-’70s sexual politics and the world of elite call girls. Author: Jill Di Donato Publication Date: April 1, 2013 -
In 1991, Julia Wilkes, a zealous young reporter, covered the murder of a teenage girl in Fairbanks, Alaska. Julia’s stories relentlessly linked the girl’s boyfriend, Josh Harrison, to the crime—up to the day that the basketball star shot himself in the head. Twenty years later, Julia, now a Seattle journalism professor and syndicated columnist, comes back to Fairbanks on a sabbatical just in time to hear about a serial killer’s confession to the long-ago slaying. With Josh exonerated, Julia is haunted by whether her stories pushed him to end his life—and when a stalker begins to make attempts on her life, the stakes grow even higher. Suspects and motives abound: Julia’s enraged a pro-life group with a recent column; she’s drawn a jealous woman’s wrath; she’s unintentionally drawn the attention of a demented homeless person; and there’s always the possibility that someone from her past has come to collect vengeance for Josh’s death. Author: Patricia Watts Publication Date: March 19, 2013 -
In Class Letters, we meet Anne English, single mom and high school English teacher (yes, she enjoys the irony). She loves the students she teaches, and hopes to not only educate them, but to prepare them for life after high school. In an attempt to connect with her senior English class on a deeper, more personal level, Anne begins to write them monthly letters, addressing intangibles such as honesty, gratitude, and love. To her surprise and delight, her students reply with heartfelt responses, sharing many of their personal challenges and successes. Author: Claire Chilton Lopez Publication Date: April 16, 2013 -
“Parrish weaves linked, darkly humorous tales of aging, death, love and alcoholism using the gothic tropes of Southern literary fiction.” —Kirkus Reviews The 2013 International Books awards named Our Love Could Light The World a Finalist in the short story category. Our Love Could Light the World has been named on the Kirkus list of recommended books in the “Indie” category. You know the Dugans. They’re that scrappy family that lives down the street. Their yard is overgrown, they don’t pick up after their dog, their five children run free—leaving chaos in their wake—and the father hasn’t earned a cent in years. The wife holds them together on her income alone. You wouldn’t want them for neighbors—but from a distance, they’re quite entertaining. Set in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York, the twelve linked stories of Our Love Could Light The World depict a dysfunctional family that’s messy and rude, cruel and kind, and loyal to the end. Author: Anne Leigh Parrish Publication Date: June 3, 2013 -
2013 IndieFab Gold Award: Winner, General Fiction Rebecca Lev, a Chicago psychotherapist, is balancing a heavy workload, two demanding kids, and an unhappy second marriage—so when she learns that her father, Charlie, is in trouble, it’s just one more worry to deal with. Charlie’s moved into a grand home in the Bay Area with his new wife, Vicky, and Rebecca’s convinced that her new stepmother is physically abusing her father—but Rebecca and Charlie have grown apart, and he rejects her offers of help. Years after marrying Vicky, Charlie dies of a cerebral hemorrhage, and Rebecca strongly suspects that his wife is implicated. Feeling guilty that she didn’t better protect her father, she returns to the Bay Area to investigate, vowing to find out what really happened. Author: Nan Fink Gefen Publication Date: May 1, 2013
