November 2022 Newsletter
| Dear Friend, One of the advantages of being with a small book publisher is having more creative control over the finished product than I might have with a larger press. I recently worked with my book layout designer to choose fonts, something I had surprising preferences about. You can see the first page here. It looks like a real book, doesn’t it? You’d think with my memoir coming out next May, I’d be used to the idea of baring my soul on the page. I’m not. I still feel guilt and shame about how hard it was–and sometimes still is–for me to speak up. Occasionally, I’ll share a story of my struggles on Facebook, but lately, I’ve lacked the nerve. I need a place to share that’s less public but still accessible. Hello, website. I redesigned this page to house all my posts about people-pleasing. I’ll be writing short stories–micro blogs–about my successes and relapses and posting links on social media (and in this newsletter) to see how many people click through to read them. Why expose myself like this? Because when I share my truth, other women (and an occasional male) reach out to me to tell me they feel heard, that they learn. It’s why I wrote my memoir. It’s my purpose. You can read my first micro-blog here: Can shame make a person sick? Gulp. Last month, I forgot to link to this important essay I got published in Insider: I almost passed out getting my mammogram. Here’s what saved me the next year. If you’ve never heard of mammopads, you’ll want to take a look. All the best, Karen |
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| Growth: A Mother, Her Son, and the Brain Tumor They Survived. When her eight-year-old son begins to exhibit increasingly bizarre behaviors, a happily married mother of two must meet the overwhelming demands of motherhood and wrestle with her fear of conflict if she and her son are to survive. Forthcoming from Apprentice House Press, May 2023. |
| Karen is a happily married, slightly frazzled working mother of two when her eight-year-old son, Matthew, develops a strange eye-rolling tic. Gradually, her high-energy kid becomes clumsy and lethargic, her “Little Einstein” a gifted program dropout. Karen knows something is wrong. But she can’t get anyone to listen and lacks the backbone to crack the resistance. After three exhausting, desperate years, finally, an MRI reveals the truth: a brain tumor, squishing Matthew’s brain into a sliver against his skull. Following a delicate surgery, doctors predict a complete recovery. But the damage from the delayed diagnosis prolongs Matthew’s recovery, challenging Karen to grow in ways she never imagined. A fast-paced page-turner told with candor, insight, and wit, Growth takes you on a rollercoaster of painful truths and hard-won transformations. |
