Barbara Delinsky is one of my favorite writers. Her birthday was yesterday. Sixteen of her books are on my shelves. I’ve loved every one and have read several more than once.
Her life is rich with experiences that I believe have informed her writing. I was amused to learn that she got kicked out of high school Honors English and that her first pen name was Bonnie Drake.
When we think of Bill Clinton’s presidency, passage of the Violence Against Women Act isn’t typically the first thing that comes to mind. Yet, he is a tremendous champion for family violence prevention and for people who have experienced abuse. He’s walked in our shoes.
Laura Kalpakian wrote my all-time favorite line in Steps and Exes:
“Bullshit,” said Eve,
but not too loud.
The book is set at Useless Point on Isadora Island, a fictional artistic enclave in the San Juan Islands of the Pacific Northwest. The heroine, Celia Henry, became a young widow before she realized her late husband was not Henry West ~ she had married Henry Westervelt, the scion of a lumber baron family. Her life is unconventional and filled with a tribe of step children and ex-spouses and lovers. She runs a bed and breakfast on property that belonged to Henry’s great aunt Sophia. (See Educating Waverly by Laura Kalpakian.)
Mary Ruth Kuczkir created the perennially best-selling Fern Michaels brand, and the rest is history. Ms. Kuczkir’s books have been so successful that she was able to put all five of her children through college, and she’s set up the Fern Michaels Foundation to fund scholarships and help single mothers. She lives in a 300 year-old plantation house in South Carolina.
Elizabeth Gilbert is the quintessenial role model for leveraging a person’s talents to learn how to survive, thrive, and find joy. When life handed her the lemons of a bitter divorce, she squeezed those lemons into the stratosphere of best-selling books. Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India, and Indonesia was on the best seller lists for over a year. She’s been on Oprah, and Julia Roberts will star in the movie. In true Pretty Woman tradition, she rescued herself before she met the charming Brazilian “prince” Felipe.
This is the most liberating book I’ve ever read. The author, Marie M. Fortune, helped me debunk and jettison distorted religious teachings that held me prisoner and severely damaged my self-perception. It ignited a feminist spark within me and launched my quest into biblical scholarship.
SARK is one of us. She experienced physical and sexual abuse at the hands of her brother. She adopted the name SARK which stands for Susan Ariel Rainbow Kennedy.
Today’s post is in a rainbow of colors because that’s how SARK writes her books. They are a riot of colors in SARK’s scrawling handwriting. She beautifully illustrates all her books in ways guaranteed to make you smile.
Tina Turner is the Chairwoman of my “Kitchen Cabinet” of virtual advisors and mentors. She is a life raft without equal.
We share a birthday. She is nine years my senior. We both grew up in the St. Louis area. We also share a history of domestic abuse at the hands of very powerful Scorpio men able to negatively impact the trajectory of our careers.
Six years ago, Carolyn Jessop achieved a miracle. She escaped from an abusive polygamist marriage to FLDS leader Merril Jessop.
Slowly, I discovered I could find mentors, role models, and friends in books. I am indebted to the generosity of authors who shared their stories and became my life rafts. The book that has been my most valuable life raft is Gloria Steinem’s Revolution from Within: A Book of Self-Esteem. She has helped me understand and appreciate how the intellectual constructs of researchers like Alice Miller manifest in the reality of our lives. As this web site grows and evolves, I will do a more in-depth explanation of what I have learned from both women.
Anne Caroline Drake 