Author's e-books - memoir. Page - 1
This is a short story memoir of a cross cultural love story. The author is first generation Hmong American, and living in Saint Paul, MN.
This is a story inspired by the my childhood memory. Most of my writing is inspired by how I grew up. I am Hmong American, living in Saint Paul, MN where I've lived most of my life. If you want to read a story about ethnic minority first generation immigrant struggles of trying to make it in America - or want to peer into the life of others, this story is for you. I always seek to provoke feelings with the reader or to inspire.
When Lynne Ashdown, her new lover, and more than fifty Italian male cyclists departed Italy in June of 1990, no one had yet ventured into the Long-closed reaches of Eastern Europe since the falling of the Iron Curtain more than forty years before. They would be cycling almost a thousand miles from Verona, across Northern Italy, Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Poland to Warsaw, in just ten days. Ashdown hadn't realized she would be the only woman cycling with the fifty-four men. One American Woman Fifty Italian Men tells not only of a sweeping journey of adventure, romantic disaster, and cultural collision, but also of a revelation of Ashdown's identity, forged by her will in the constant pain of trying to keep up with the men who were stronger. This trip back in time shows the stark contrasts between the world she knew as an American and the world she saw in impoverished Eastern Europe. This true story, rich with images of the countries they cycled through, describes the warmth and the cycling lives of the Italians, as well as the lives of people who lived under communism for so long and the values that survive all governments. In One American Woman Fifty Italian Men, Ashdown conveys the aloneness of cycling over vast distances even in a spread-out pack, the growing pain and fatigue of each pedal-stroke, and the caring of the men for her and for each other. This journey draws us into a universal drama not just of cyclists, but also of hearts and possibilities.
A prognosis of six months to live turns out to be a gift. In this memoir, Muriel Vasconcellos tells the story leading up to the news that her breast cancer has spread and takes the reader on the path that eventually leads her to health and peace of mind. Thirty years later, she has outlived the doctors who believed she was about to die.
The memoir focuses on a 20-year arc in the author's life with flashbacks to a tragedy in her childhood that left her with lifelong corrosive guilt and to a deeply painful experience as a young adult that has haunted her with remorse.
She eventually finds love and happiness when she meets her soul mate, Sylvio. Their life together is magic - a true love story. His unconditional support infuses her with confidence and self-trust. They have six happy years together - until she finds a lump in her breast and learns that she has cancer. Just when they think they have overcome this hurdle, life turns dark again: Sylvio asks her to take him to the Emergency Room, and he never comes home. As he struggles to die, he begs her to help him make his passage. The doctors agree to withdraw life support, but she cannot come to terms with the decision. Soon afterwards, she is told that cancer has spread to her bones. Unremitting pain, both physical and psychological, sends her to the depth of despair, where she seeks to end her life.
Instead, something shifts inside and she embarks on a courageous quest for health that includes not only her body but also her psyche and spirit. She releases the limiting beliefs and self-punishing thoughts that have trapped her for most of her life and discovers that all aspects of her being are a single tapestry; when one part heals, so do the others. Her pain disappears and her medical tests stabilize. New insights constantly expand her awareness and understanding. They always seem to appear at the moment she is ready.
As she continues her journey, she has her third bout with cancer. This time she has the understanding and tools to walk away from conventional treatment and practice gentle approaches to becoming and staying well. In the end, she finds deep inner joy and serenity - her invincible summer.
This is a book about the intriguing true story of Pam Evans, who has been married and divorced four times, and lived to tell the tale – with honesty, humor, and a heartfelt message for her readers. Pam first married at 18, then again in her 20s, her 30s, and her 40s. She reveals that her many treks ”down the aisle” were part of a ”long and winding road” that, each time, led eventually from the altar to the divorce court. Why has Pam decided to disclose these very personal aspects of her life? ”I was inspired to write this book for a couple of reasons. First, writing made me work on self-discovery and reflect about my past choices and often hasty decisions, my behavior and my relationship patterns. For example, I often did minimal vetting of my potential partners. Another reason for ’coming clean’ about my many marriages is that I truly want to impart realizations, insights, and, I hope, wisdom to others who are caught in the multiple marriage syndrome. Those who have never been married or married only once or are curious about multiple marriers can also learn from my experiences.” Open the pages of Ring EXchange, and join in Pam’s fascinating journey.
'Hitting Fear Head On’ is a powerful, chilling, true story of child abuse and neglect, the illness of alcoholism spanning generations, years of infertility issues, all culminating in a miracle child that is called back home to Heaven at the age of eight. Ironically, he along with 4 others, are killed in a head-on collision with a drunk driver. His parents, broken in body and spirit, survive, and are guided daily with his presence from heaven.
–Linda Warrick, Editor
"Laurie Boggs has been wounded by the darkness and redeemed by the light. What she has been through, and what she learned, is a message of inspiration and hope for everyone. She turned tragedy into its opposite -- not just for herself, but for anyone who reads her story."
- Marianne Williamson, #1 NY Times Bestselling Author
"Laurie Boggs' survival of the tragic ordeal makes her a heroine in my eyes. Hitting Fear Head On is a true life account that is gripping and compelling. This book is a true testament to the power of love, courage, and fortitude. You will be touched."
- Richard Paul Evans, #1 NY Times Bestselling Author
Bonnie, age four, along with four of her siblings, was taken by force from her home in rural Canada and placed in the care of the Children's Aid Society. Over the next fourteen years, the children are split up and reunited multiple times, moving from foster home to foster home, always hoping to find one another again.
By luck or providence, the four sisters spend the majority of their young lives together working on a tobacco farm and living in an attic, where the stovepipe offers warmth, comfort, and news from the outside that they do not receive from their foster parents. Surviving some of the worst torments a child can know, Bonnie and her sisters depend on each other to meet even their basic needs, forming an unbreakable bond.
Bonnie Virag's heartrending yet triumphant memoir, The Stovepipe, recounts the author's experience growing up as a foster child in the 1940s and 1950s. In an honest, unflinching voice, Virag engrosses readers with not only the darkness that she and her siblings endured but, more important, their ability to join together to create a sense of light.
This unforgettable story is informed by Bonnie's recollections, remembrances from her sisters, and the official records received from the Children's Aid Society in Canada. This book is not an indictment of the foster care system and its many missteps. Rather, it is a testament to the resilience of the soul and the importance of family, friendship and fortitude.
On my twelfth birthday, I was in a roll-over car crash with my mom. We rolled four times, and the outside of the car ended up looking like an old, beat-up tin can. We were taken to the hospital, where we were x-rayed and then sent home. It is an experience that is burned into my mind forever.
In this memoir, the author explores questions of race, adoption, and identity, not as the professor of cultural studies she became, but as the Black child of German settlers in Guatemala. Her journey into the mystery that shrouded her early years begins in the US when she realized it was not just her foreign accent that alienated her from Blacks. Under layers of privilege (private schools, international travel, the life of a fashion model and actress in Europe) she discovered that her most important story is one of disinheritance. The author’s determination to find out who her parents really were and why she was taken from them, tests the love of her White husband and their son, and returns her to Guatemala to find a family that kept her memory alive as legend. In the end, she learns truths about the women who were her mothers, and the disrespect committed long ago against a birthmother and her child in the name of love.
The propaganda war in Chechnya, an age-old horror that dates from the Trojan conflict.
This is a short story memoir of a cross cultural love story. The author is first generation Hmong American, and living in Saint Paul, MN.
This is a story inspired by the my childhood memory. Most of my writing is inspired by how I grew up. I am Hmong American, living in Saint Paul, MN where I've lived most of my life. If you want to read a story about ethnic minority first generation immigrant struggles of trying to make it in America - or want to peer into the life of others, this story is for you. I always seek to provoke feelings with the reader or to inspire.
When Lynne Ashdown, her new lover, and more than fifty Italian male cyclists departed Italy in June of 1990, no one had yet ventured into the Long-closed reaches of Eastern Europe since the falling of the Iron Curtain more than forty years before. They would be cycling almost a thousand miles from Verona, across Northern Italy, Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Poland to Warsaw, in just ten days. Ashdown hadn't realized she would be the only woman cycling with the fifty-four men. One American Woman Fifty Italian Men tells not only of a sweeping journey of adventure, romantic disaster, and cultural collision, but also of a revelation of Ashdown's identity, forged by her will in the constant pain of trying to keep up with the men who were stronger. This trip back in time shows the stark contrasts between the world she knew as an American and the world she saw in impoverished Eastern Europe. This true story, rich with images of the countries they cycled through, describes the warmth and the cycling lives of the Italians, as well as the lives of people who lived under communism for so long and the values that survive all governments. In One American Woman Fifty Italian Men, Ashdown conveys the aloneness of cycling over vast distances even in a spread-out pack, the growing pain and fatigue of each pedal-stroke, and the caring of the men for her and for each other. This journey draws us into a universal drama not just of cyclists, but also of hearts and possibilities.
A prognosis of six months to live turns out to be a gift. In this memoir, Muriel Vasconcellos tells the story leading up to the news that her breast cancer has spread and takes the reader on the path that eventually leads her to health and peace of mind. Thirty years later, she has outlived the doctors who believed she was about to die.
The memoir focuses on a 20-year arc in the author's life with flashbacks to a tragedy in her childhood that left her with lifelong corrosive guilt and to a deeply painful experience as a young adult that has haunted her with remorse.
She eventually finds love and happiness when she meets her soul mate, Sylvio. Their life together is magic - a true love story. His unconditional support infuses her with confidence and self-trust. They have six happy years together - until she finds a lump in her breast and learns that she has cancer. Just when they think they have overcome this hurdle, life turns dark again: Sylvio asks her to take him to the Emergency Room, and he never comes home. As he struggles to die, he begs her to help him make his passage. The doctors agree to withdraw life support, but she cannot come to terms with the decision. Soon afterwards, she is told that cancer has spread to her bones. Unremitting pain, both physical and psychological, sends her to the depth of despair, where she seeks to end her life.
Instead, something shifts inside and she embarks on a courageous quest for health that includes not only her body but also her psyche and spirit. She releases the limiting beliefs and self-punishing thoughts that have trapped her for most of her life and discovers that all aspects of her being are a single tapestry; when one part heals, so do the others. Her pain disappears and her medical tests stabilize. New insights constantly expand her awareness and understanding. They always seem to appear at the moment she is ready.
As she continues her journey, she has her third bout with cancer. This time she has the understanding and tools to walk away from conventional treatment and practice gentle approaches to becoming and staying well. In the end, she finds deep inner joy and serenity - her invincible summer.
This is a book about the intriguing true story of Pam Evans, who has been married and divorced four times, and lived to tell the tale – with honesty, humor, and a heartfelt message for her readers. Pam first married at 18, then again in her 20s, her 30s, and her 40s. She reveals that her many treks ”down the aisle” were part of a ”long and winding road” that, each time, led eventually from the altar to the divorce court. Why has Pam decided to disclose these very personal aspects of her life? ”I was inspired to write this book for a couple of reasons. First, writing made me work on self-discovery and reflect about my past choices and often hasty decisions, my behavior and my relationship patterns. For example, I often did minimal vetting of my potential partners. Another reason for ’coming clean’ about my many marriages is that I truly want to impart realizations, insights, and, I hope, wisdom to others who are caught in the multiple marriage syndrome. Those who have never been married or married only once or are curious about multiple marriers can also learn from my experiences.” Open the pages of Ring EXchange, and join in Pam’s fascinating journey.
'Hitting Fear Head On’ is a powerful, chilling, true story of child abuse and neglect, the illness of alcoholism spanning generations, years of infertility issues, all culminating in a miracle child that is called back home to Heaven at the age of eight. Ironically, he along with 4 others, are killed in a head-on collision with a drunk driver. His parents, broken in body and spirit, survive, and are guided daily with his presence from heaven.
–Linda Warrick, Editor
"Laurie Boggs has been wounded by the darkness and redeemed by the light. What she has been through, and what she learned, is a message of inspiration and hope for everyone. She turned tragedy into its opposite -- not just for herself, but for anyone who reads her story."
- Marianne Williamson, #1 NY Times Bestselling Author
"Laurie Boggs' survival of the tragic ordeal makes her a heroine in my eyes. Hitting Fear Head On is a true life account that is gripping and compelling. This book is a true testament to the power of love, courage, and fortitude. You will be touched."
- Richard Paul Evans, #1 NY Times Bestselling Author
Bonnie, age four, along with four of her siblings, was taken by force from her home in rural Canada and placed in the care of the Children's Aid Society. Over the next fourteen years, the children are split up and reunited multiple times, moving from foster home to foster home, always hoping to find one another again.
By luck or providence, the four sisters spend the majority of their young lives together working on a tobacco farm and living in an attic, where the stovepipe offers warmth, comfort, and news from the outside that they do not receive from their foster parents. Surviving some of the worst torments a child can know, Bonnie and her sisters depend on each other to meet even their basic needs, forming an unbreakable bond.
Bonnie Virag's heartrending yet triumphant memoir, The Stovepipe, recounts the author's experience growing up as a foster child in the 1940s and 1950s. In an honest, unflinching voice, Virag engrosses readers with not only the darkness that she and her siblings endured but, more important, their ability to join together to create a sense of light.
This unforgettable story is informed by Bonnie's recollections, remembrances from her sisters, and the official records received from the Children's Aid Society in Canada. This book is not an indictment of the foster care system and its many missteps. Rather, it is a testament to the resilience of the soul and the importance of family, friendship and fortitude.
On my twelfth birthday, I was in a roll-over car crash with my mom. We rolled four times, and the outside of the car ended up looking like an old, beat-up tin can. We were taken to the hospital, where we were x-rayed and then sent home. It is an experience that is burned into my mind forever.
In this memoir, the author explores questions of race, adoption, and identity, not as the professor of cultural studies she became, but as the Black child of German settlers in Guatemala. Her journey into the mystery that shrouded her early years begins in the US when she realized it was not just her foreign accent that alienated her from Blacks. Under layers of privilege (private schools, international travel, the life of a fashion model and actress in Europe) she discovered that her most important story is one of disinheritance. The author’s determination to find out who her parents really were and why she was taken from them, tests the love of her White husband and their son, and returns her to Guatemala to find a family that kept her memory alive as legend. In the end, she learns truths about the women who were her mothers, and the disrespect committed long ago against a birthmother and her child in the name of love.
The propaganda war in Chechnya, an age-old horror that dates from the Trojan conflict.