Writing & Books
Win a Book, Read It, and Review It!
Book reviews are manna for authors and readers alike. This final giveaway invites you to win a copy of Legacies, read it, and share what you think.
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Who's That Guy? Enter to Win a Book!
Can you name the man in the picture and his connection to When Losses Become Legacies? This week's anniversary giveaway puts your knowledge to the test.
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A Giveaway to Honor Mom
In one sentence, capture the woman who shaped you. This Mother's Day giveaway invites readers to honor their moms — whether here or on the other side of time.
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When Losses Become Legacies Turns One
To celebrate one year of When Losses Become Legacies, my co-author and I are hosting three weeks of book giveaways centered on honoring moms, art, and the power of reader reviews.
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One Cool Dad
A year after my dad's passing, I discovered old Army photos of a well-dressed dandy I barely recognized — and came to see the cool guy he was before parenthood shaped him into the alpha-male who built tank engines and made chicken soup.
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What Does Uncomplicated Grief Feel Like?
After losing my mom to cancer and my brother to suicide, my dad's death surprised me with something unfamiliar: uncomplicated grief — in many ways, sweet.
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Dads and Motherless Daughters
My dad has been Dad and Mom for almost three decades. Nothing breeds empathy for your parents like becoming one yourself.
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Retroactive Grief
Watching friends send their children to college stirs a grief I didn't expect — mourning not just my mother, but the tears she never got to cry for me.
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Fleeing Breast Cancer, I Found a Miracle
I scheduled my preventative double mastectomy in September to give that dreaded month a chance to redeem herself. She didn't disappoint.
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Why I Said Yes to Cancer-Preventing Surgery
After one too many MRI biopsies, I decided I wasn't taking another lap around that monstrous circle of hell. Cancer or not, I was finding a way out.
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Sorrow, Strangely Sweet
Postpartum depression, mother loss, my brother's suicide — life's most tragic stories aren't without beauty. Somehow, hardship makes joy sweeter, and redemption lurks in the mire.
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Rarefied Air
Climbing Pikes Peak taught me something about growing up motherless: it's harder to breathe in rarefied air, but the thin atmosphere makes it easier to hear God's voice.
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My Mother's Faith
A childhood autograph book revealed my mother's unwavering faith — a faith forged through abuse, abandonment, and loss that she passed to me like a torch before she died.
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The Bright One
I finally learned the gender of the baby I lost between my two children — a girl. Naming her Lena Karen gave her a wholeness that grief alone could never provide.
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A Mother Lost, a Mother Born
Losing my mother at 15 left a grief I carried into every milestone. Becoming a mother myself reopened the wound — and, unexpectedly, began to heal it.
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