It’s interesting how life takes a turn and you find yourself doing something that you hadn’t planned to do: ADVENTURES IN MOTHER-SITTING has been revised. It has been a few years since the first publication, and due to several factors (friend’s urgings and well-meaning suggestions in a review), I decided to take a second look. It was time for me to read my own memoir.

 I’ve come a long way with regards to my writing abilities thanks to opportunities to be a beta reader of other authors’ stories, continuing to learn the craft, and teaching a GED class of adult students. Receiving helpful feedback from author friends while writing A SACRED JOURNEY, my first fictional story, taught me so much and nourished the writer in me in unexpected ways. I’m indebted to many authors for their support, but in particular to Lisette Brodey and Julia Hughes for their immeasurable helpfulness and confidence in me. So during this past summer, I pulled up the initial file of my memoir, put some glue on my seat, and took a walk back in time through one of the most poignant adventures of my life.

In this revision of ADVENTURES, the storyline itself is unchanged, but it's had a facelift —a cover that was beautifully designed by Charles Roth. I deleted some redundant passages, took out a few chapters (incorporating some parts into other chapters), and refined some of the experiences that I’d had with my mother. I’m told that the descriptions of those are more vividly expressed in this new version because of the way that I’ve learned to craft my words. It helped that time has passed since my mother’s death; my emotions didn’t overwhelm me. Instead, rewriting my memoir helped me go through some residual grieving more easily.

 

For the week of February 23 - 27, I'm on a blog tour, thanks to the coordination efforts of Juniper Grove Book Solutions.