Introducing Sonia Marsh

I met face to face with Sonia Marsh for the first time yesterday after a long virtual friendship and a lot of win-win networking.

She is the author of the newly released memoir Freeways to Flip-Flops (available at Amazon.com in both paperback and Kindle, as well as Barnes and Noble) and the Gutsy Living blog. I posted my gutsy story there in June, and I’m pleased to say, I won for the gutsiest story of the month. Please go over to Gutsy Living to receive a special gift. Just scroll down and look for the red starfish.

So Sonia and I talked nonstop – mostly about how to go about the business of selling a book. We shared websites, conference information, how to get on panel discussions, what organizations we belong to. I urged her to join our Greater Los Angeles Writers Society. Although Sonia lives in Orange County, GLAWS has members who come to meetings and events all the way from Arizona.

Yesterday’s highlight was meeting with one of the proprietors of my local indie bookstore: Pages in Manhattan Beach. Pages: A Bookstore held a wonderfully successful launch event for my memoir, Leaving the Hall Light On, in May 2011, and now Sonia will also have a book signing and reading there as well. 

Please look for more information about Sonia here at Choices. She’ll be my guest in September answering questions about her book, and I’ll post a review just as soon as I finish it.

Her topic – living on a tropical island for a year with her husband and three boys – is very reminiscent of the 19 months my family lived on a tiny island in the South Pacific back in the mid 1970s. 

Goodreads giveaway and launch press release

My publisher, Dream of Things, has officially launched the paperback edition of my memoir, Leaving the Hall Light On, with a Goodsreads giveaway. Please enter to win one of five copies and tell your friends. The giveaway opportunity ends on August 28, 2012.

Mike O'Mary, owner and publisher says:

This week is the official launch of the trade paperback edition of Leaving the Hall Light On by Madeline Sharples. Previously available only in hardcover, this is a powerful book that aligns perfectly with the Dream of Things goal to bring you "distinctive voices, meaningful books." Read on for more details -- and get 20% off the cover price of Leaving the Hall Light On at the Dream of Things website
<http://dreamofthings.com/
hall-light>when you use coupon code "Light" at checkout.

Also, if you are a member of Goodreads.com, be sure to enter the Goodreads Book Giveaway to be eligible to win a free copy of Leaving the Hall Light On.

Goodreads <http://www.goodreads.com>Book Giveaway
<http://www.goodreads.com/
book/show/15795234>

Leaving the Hall Light On
<http://www.goodreads.com/
book/show/15795234>

by Madeline Sharples
<http://www.goodreads.com/
author/show/4541179.Madeline_Sharples>

Giveaway ends August 28, 2012.

See the giveaway details
<http://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/30738>
 at Goodreads.

Enter to win
<http://www.goodreads.com/
giveaway/enter_choose_address/30738>

And here's the official press release

*Dream of Things releases paperback edition of Leaving the Hall Light On*

Memoir focuses on surviving every family’s worst nightmare

Downers Grove, Ill. – Leaving the Hall Light On by Madeline Sharples is now available in a trade paperback edition from book publisher Dream of Things.

Leaving the Hall Light On: A Mother’s Memoir of Living with Her Son’s Bipolar Disorder and Surviving His Suicide charts the near-destruction of one middle-class family whose oldest son committed suicide after a seven-year struggle with bipolar disorder. Author
Madeline Sharples goes deep into her own well of grief to describe her anger, frustration and guilt. She also shares the story of how she, her husband and younger son weathered every family’s worst
nightmare—including struggles with her own thoughts of suicide, and ultimately, her decision to live and take care of herself as a woman, wife, mother and writer.

Originally published in 2011, the hardcover edition of Leaving the Hall Light On garnered critical praise, as well as the attention of groups focused on suicide prevention and survivor support services:

 “A moving read of tragedy, trying to prevent it, and coping with life after.” – Midwest Book Review
 “I recommend this book to suicide survivors and to mental health professionals. Madeline Sharples is much more honest about what it is like to survive suicide than most patients and clients allow
themselves to be.” – Fran Edstrom, American Association of Suicidology
 
“Recommended to those who lost a child or who struggle with the mental illness of a child, and to anyone who wants a deep, intimate read where the author bares her soul and lets you into her world!”
– Bonni Rubinstein, Organizer of the Facebook group “Loss of an Adult or Young Adult Child”

“I am thrilled to offer this very moving and inspiring memoir in this new format,” said Mike O’Mary, owner and publisher of Dream of Things. “As many others have noted, this is a remarkable book for people who have been touched by bipolar disorder or suicide, while also inspiring many others to survive their own tragedies.”

Ruby Sparks, a writer's film

Zoe Kazan’s script for the new film Ruby Sparks touches on subjects I as a writer think a lot about – writer’s block and the power of artistic creation. Although I haven’t had a real bout of writer’s block, I wonder when and if it will hit. And now that I’m writing my first novel, I marvel at how my characters seem to take over the page – that my fingers are just vehicles for the words that come out of their mouths.

Kazan’s take is different. Her main character in the film, a once very successful writer, ends his writer’s block by creating a character that comes to him in his dream. He falls in love with her and then wakes up one morning and finds her real, in his house, making breakfast for him. I won’t spoil what’s to come, but I highly recommend my writer friends especially see this film. Kazan also plays the main character, Ruby, along side, Paul Dano’s portrayal of the writer, Calvin. Annette Bening, Antonio Banderas, and Elliott Gould are also memorable. Here’s the trailer.

And if you see the movie, please answer our very pressing question. Why does Calvin write on a typewriter rather than a computer?

My paperback launch is August 6

Since Dream of Things will launch the paperback edition of Leaving the Hall Light On: A Mother’s Memoir of Living with Her Son’s Bipolar Disorder and Surviving His Suicide this Monday, August 6, I thought I’d share the newest reviews posted on Amazon in the last three weeks.

They are all five-star.

I couldn’t be happier about the wonderful response to my memoir. I hope these reviews will entice you to read the book yourselves.

Madeline Sharples propels her readers through a startling emotional landscape of those left behind after suicide, in "Leaving the Hall Light on." Incredibly intimate and revealing….Her imagery, scenes, and movement through her family's recovery expertly nail the high art of the memoir. Ruth Belanger

It took considerable courage to write this book. Madeline Sharples describes a path from guilt and grief to recovery. Life goes on but it requires personal fortitude. Anyone who has experienced the suicide of a family member will find Madeline's story helpful. John D. Caldwell

This book takes you on an emotional journey which is gripping, frightening, and ultimately uplifting.…As their journey moves from alarm to acceptance, Madeline Sharples explains with great clarity, detail and compassion the impact that the events have on not just her as a mother, but on her entire family.…She offers us a window into the human heart and its capacity to deal with tragedy. A truly compelling book about the strength of family. Any father, mother, son, daughter, brother, or sister facing a family challenge, large or small, will find great strength, solace, and support in this courageously honest and well written book. Martin Robinson

Madeline Sharples has written a most heartfelt and courageous book about the mental illness and suicide of her son, Paul. It is amazing and touching that she could find such poetic, soulful and honest words to capture the relentless grief of a mother's love…. Alice and Richard Matzkin

As a mom, I've left the "hall light on" so many times, knowing that light would help bring my children home safely. It took great courage and incredible strength for this author to open up and share the most intimate details of her life and her story about Paul. Two thumbs up for Leaving The Hall Light On. Pat Hess

….This is not a "how to" book that tells you what to in case of a crisis in your family; it expresses Madeline's pain, frustration, and her journey to overcome the pain of losing a child….Madeline doesn't sugar coat her experience, she writes candidly about her experiences as a way to heal and to help others who face similar situations. Rae Ann Galinato

I have been friends with Madeline for many years and in fact had lunch with her a few days before her son's death.…When I heard her tragic news, probably the worst a parent can get, I wondered how she would ever cope. Her beautifully written, beautifully honest book answers that question. In a different way than she had always hoped, it nonetheless will be greatly helpful to any parent unfortunate enough to face a similar situation. Or to all of us who can benefit from an example of living with profound courage. Nancie Doughty

In this intensely personal memoir, Madeline Sharples, mother, author and poet, explains the heartbreak and loss of living and losing a son to bipolar disorder. Leaving the Hall Light On is a beautiful, haunting, yet ultimately redemptive book that will stay with the reader for a long time and carries a message of hope for others who may have been touched by the pain of mental illness….Leaving The Hall Light On serves as a beautiful love-letter to Paul. It tells him, and the reader, that his loss was not in vain, that his mother survived and found a way to live again and that she found some peace through writing. This story is a tribute to them both. Elizabeth Isenberg

….The gift that I take away from Leaving the Hall Light On is the way Madeline and her beautiful family responded to the worst tragedy any mother, father and family can endure. While it's true that Paul was bipolar and it is also true that he took his own life, what this amazing family has done is to say, that doesn't define who Paul really was as a human being. There are a million other things that describe Paul. He was a gifted musician, he was kind and caring and incredibly intelligent. He was a computer whiz and loved children. Paul loved his mother, father and his brother Ben. He fell in love and was loved back. These are the things he left behind, the evidence of a life, that Paul was so much more than his illness. What the Sharples family has done is choose not to live in the one horrific day and instead, remember the other million days. For anyone that has lost someone they love, this family can help you navigate your way through the darkness. It's clearly not easy, but it can happen. You can't have the same life, but a different, almost as good life. It is a sad but beautifully written book. Dina Kucera

A new poem from Esalen

 Looking down from the road

I spent five days last week writing poems at Esalen, a beautiful site high on a cliff in Big Sur CA.

I go to this particular workshop almost every summer. Led by poets Ellen Bass, Dorianne Laux, and Joseph Millar, I always learn some lessons about writing poems, I hear excellent poems read by my fellow poets taking the workshop with me, and I never lack for something to write my poems about.

This year I wrote six poems using prompts given at the end of each day’s craft talks on: 1) a coming into consciousness poem, 2) a poem with sentiment and no sentimentality, and 3) a poem using various line break and syntax techniques. We also beg our leaders to give us a list of ten words and an assigned phrase with which to create a poem. Once in a while we’re asked to include our pick of a body part, season of the year, or time of day.

Writing to a list of words is like solving a puzzle. But sometimes the poems turn out just plain silly. This year I wrote a couple of silly poems and a diatribe focusing on the word “junk.” I couldn’t resist writing a rant about how junk food connects to our current childhood obesity epidemic.

Here’s one without any of that silliness. The assigned words were: effluent, cauterize, jowls, flange, egg, phobic, chew, skunk, floor, gels

And the phrase was: “What falls away”

(By the way, it’s always okay to use any form of the given words.)

                                         The bathhouse built into the cliff

Now for the poem:

Progression

I have my mother’s jowls.

Deep furrows from

my lips to the sides of my chin

create flanged sacks

wanting to reach

toward the floor.

I also have her deep lines

just above my eyebrows.

Every time I look up,

she haunts me

years after her death,

leaving me phobic

that the ravage

to my once egg-smooth visage

will go on.

Your face has character

they chide.

But I know it as the first signs

of what falls away,

of what becomes skunk-like effluent.

There is no way

to cauterize the progression.

Only what’s left is

to chew and swallow it down,

to gel with it and accept

what’s yet to come.

Esalen Big Sur CA photos

Esalen is one of my favorite places. Its beauty,  serenity, and healing powers cannot be surpassed. 

Here's a few shots from my cell phone camera.

 My favorite view from the hot sulfur baths

 The rocks below

 The back garden

 Resident blue jays

Last look 

Another book launch - oh my!

I now have a paperback edition of my memoir, Leaving the Hall Light On, in my hands. It just arrived. Getting it to this point has taken just short of three months, but well worth the time and effort. The edition looks great.

I decided to keep the same cover design because it has been my brand for the last year. I felt changing it could be confusing to my followers and even to me. Plus I love the front cover photo, taken by my young girl friend, Madison Poulter, whom I’ve known since she was eighteen months old. Can’t believe she’s off to Lewis and Clark College in the fall.

So both my publisher, Mike O’Mary at Dream of Things and I have been doing a lot of planning to get ready for the launch. Mike made an excel spreadsheet with activities to accomplish between now and January. Here are some of the things we’re doing right now:

• I’ve communicated with friends and family about the launch and asked them to write a review and post it on Amazon if they’ve already read the book. My reasoning is that my wonderful reviews helped me find a new publisher, so couldn’t they also help spread the word about the merits of this new edition my book? (Please write one if you've read my book and haven't yet.)
• Mike has launched the paperback edition on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other online outlets such as Powell’s and Red Room
• Mike set up a Leaving the Hall Light On page on the Dream of Things website – please go visit it. It looks awesome.
• Mike is going to set up a “Search Inside” feature on Amazon, so people can browse a little before they buy
• Mike is going to send the book out to other possible reviewers such as TheCompulsiveReader.com, ArmchairInterviews.com, etc.
• We will both come up with a list of possible reading/signing events in California at book stores, libraries, colleges, community centers, coffee shops, book groups, writer groups. (If any of you are in California and can recommend a place to contact, please let me know.)
• And I joined SheWrites.com for another networking resource

That list just gets us up to today.

We still have stuff to do relative to Goodreads, compiling a media kit, making a list of book clubs to contact (by the way, we’ve added two pages of reading group discussion points to the new edition), and late in August, the launch of the eBook.