To Date
Author - Field Notes from the Middle: A Tale of Bold Moves, Bad Breaks and Good Magic.
My debut book is a memoir of dark times, discovery and delight. Unfolding over a decade, it traces the arc of my fifties in my quest build a life around me as a person, not just a parent.
As a long-time solo parent facing an empty nest and a fiftieth birthday, I didn’t want my best times to be behind me, for work to take over my life or to ultimately die alone. I wanted to find adventure, travel, purpose and my person to stack onto the life I had so I wrote a list, Fifty Wishes for My Fifties, as a jumpstart and guide.
Writing the list was easy but beginning something new was daunting. After a brief feral phase, dating drama and changing relationships with friends as I change, I find traction. I meet someone, take on bigger roles at work, travel, juggle family and friends and check off wishes like crazy. Losses and threats emerge and I must make choices that will change my course and my wish list.
My book explores the ambition for more in mid-life, the dynamic tension between intentionality and openness, and plans and possibilities. But mostly it reminds us that we are always writing our story.