Dear Laura: a memoir

Dear Laura is a touching story of love and passion. Determined to abandon his cookie-cutter life in Los Angeles working as a geologist, the author puts down.
Table of contents

Then I started Haven, and I realized what was missing in my writing life. Willing and helpful feedback! Writing is hard work in every way. And that makes it even more critical that we find our kindreds. You need awareness, stamina, and support. So be choosy when you sign up for any sort of group writing adventure. If anyone is promising you five easy steps to getting published or setting themselves up to be a guru. In fact, I often write in bed. In other words, I make it comfortable for myself to go into subjects that are often very uncomfortable.

I delight in my writing practice. I value the role it plays in my life. My best advice for writers is to find your most natural voice on the page. That means you might not write every day. Find a writing practice that works for you based on your true self—your habits, your personality, your responsibilities, your real life. And commit to it. Start small, like with working out. Three times a week from Twenty minutes before you get out of bed? Make it work based on who you truly are, not who you think you should be or how other people do it. And no matter what, find delight in it.

Writing has the power to transform your life. And all it takes is a pen, a piece of paper, and an open heart. Tagged as girl friday productions , Haven Writing Retreats , how to write a book , how to write a memoir , how to write a novel , Montana , This is not the story you think it is , tips for writers , writers , writing , writing advice , writing retreats , writing workshops. This is for you. These are some of my audiences and some of my speaking topics. You have all inspired me. Laura Here is the youtube video. Please enjoy and share: Tagged as authors , books , crisis , empowerment , laura munson , marriage , This is not the story you think it is , videos , writers , writing.

I am so absolutely thrilled and honored to be going live with the esteemed and inspiring Dr.

Christiane Northrup on her Hay House radio show! Wednesday April 6th from Tune in and give a call if the spirit moves you. Ever wonder what it looks like in real life? Ever run up against some rocky places in your relationship that scare the crap out of you?

The Ethics of Writing About Family: Laura’s Dilemma

If you answered yes, read this book. I for one devoured it in 24 hours. Filed under Listen to an Interview , My book: Tagged as doctors , Dr. Christiane Northrup , Hay House radio , health , inspiration , menopause , Oprah , psychology , self help , This is not the story you think it is , wellness. But when this writer approached me for her article, I was intrigued.

Her question was unique: I liked being asked this question because I love my husband, and it got me thinking. How do we gift our loved ones? Especially in this season of giving. Allow Space for Solitude When author Laura Munson and her husband got married, their ceremony included a quote from the poet Rainier Maria Rilke, which read, in part: Tagged as Experience Life , gifts , giving , holiday season , laura munson , love , marriage , philosophy , relationship , support , This is not the story you think it is. I like this phone interview with Audrey Adams.

Tagged as Audrey Adams , author , Interview , laura munson , marriage , This is not the story you think it is , writing. Arielle Ford has inspired so many with her groundbreaking book Soulmate Secret and her trove of professional treasures as a long time publicist and speaker in Everything You Should Know. I am so honored that my book is 4 on her Huffington Post top picks for Tagged as Arielle Ford , best of , books , huffington post , laura munson , This is not the story you think it is , top ten lists.

It is the tomato sauce commonly made in the summer by Tuscans and put up in jars for the winter. They call it the Pomarola sauce, and for it they use the freshest tomatoes from as close to the sea as they can find. To me the Pomarola sauce captures much more than that. It is a symbol of a year in my life in which I found my heart language in a place and a family far from home.

It is a symbol then, of finding home inside myself in a time of my life when I was morphing from child to adult. I had longed for it for all those 21 years, aching for it, naming it as the most important year of my life, yet not granting my return. I had realized a few dreams, some of which felt within my control: Getting married, having kids, building a home in Montana. So after years of longing for it, I realized that I needed to stop basing my happiness on things completely outside of my control.

I could write the books, and I could submit them for publication, but the rest was out of my hands. I decided to embrace the freedom of this surrender. Going back to Italy, with my daughter, to live with this wonderful family , was just that. So I booked it and went.

One afternoon, my Italian host mother, Milvia, showed us how to make this sauce, how to can it, what to look for in ingredients. A Season of Unlikely Happiness, wherein I got the chance to practice what it is to embrace the present moment in a place of creating, not wanting. Of claiming responsibility for my own well-being despite what was going on with my husband. Of focusing on beauty and freedom and even joy. Instead, it feels quite deliberate, subconsciously. As if each jar represented of year of not claiming a dream that was completely within my control, and focusing so hard on another dream that was not.

So I pass on this message to you, in the form of a recipe. What is your Italy? What do you deprive yourself of that you CAN create in your life? What place do you long to re-visit in your life? So often I find that there is the nurturing element of food attached to our fondest memories and even our wildest dreams.

Durations reviewed by Christine Baleshta Otowa, Rebecca. At Home in Japan: Lynn Goodwin Parkhurst, Bodie. Her reviewed by B. Lynn Goodwin Patchett, Ann. Notes from Untamed America reviewed by Susan J. We Used to Own the Bronx: Clear Skies, Deep Water: What I Learned at Bug Camp: Love in Condition Yellow: The Unlikely Lavender Queen: A Year of Dancing Dangerously: Not Becoming My Mother: Called Out Of Darkness: Called Out of Darkness: A New Southern Woman: A Single Square Picture: Coyota in the Kitchen: Starting With Goodbye reviewed by B.

Cut, Stapled, and Mended: Memoir; Life Lessons Rosner, Jennifer. If a Tree Falls: Standing in the Light: A Matter of Panache: A Career in Public Education. A Traumatic Brain Injury. Space Between The Stars: Honey in the River: Year of No Sugar: The Lost Ravioli Recipes of Hoboken: Not a Perfect Fit: And His Lovely Wife: A Memoir reviewed by Susan J. Last Dance at the Savoy: Twenty Chickens for a Saddle: Memoir; Creative Life Seeley, Tracy.

A Church of Her Own: Leaving the Hall Light On: Turning Chaos into Confidence reviewed by Susan J. The Meaning of Matthew: Settled in the Wild: The Vast Unknowing reviewed by Susan M. An Ecobiography reviewed by Khadijah A. An Ecobiography reviewed by Susan J. Letters Like the Day: Women Writing on Family: She Bets Her Life: As a Farm Woman Thinks: Inside the Dementia Epidemic: Anatolian Days and Nights: The Way of the Happy Woman: Returning to My Mother's House: Don't Miss This reviewed by Khadijah A.


  • The Ethics of Writing About Family: Laura’s Dilemma - Laura Davis?
  • Dear Laura : A Memoir - leondumoulin.nl.
  • This is not the story you think it is | HAVEN.
  • History of the Scottish Nation Vol 2.

Stirring It Up with Molly Ivins: Somebody Stole My Iron: Power in the Blood: Karma, Deception, and a Pair of Red Ferraries: Walking in Grace with Grief: Cooking with Italian Grandmothers: Big Topics at Midnight: Meeting in the Margins: Don't Sing at the Table: The Beet Goes On: Barren, Wild, and Worthless: Pieces of Light reviewed by Donna B. First They Killed My Father: Notes from a Small Town reviewed by Khadijah A. Weaving a Way Home: The House Leroy reviewed by B. Lynn Goodwin Wakan, Naomi Beth. More of Life's Spices: Where the Crooked River Rises: Not Without My Father: I'll Be There to Write the Story: No Cheating, No Dying: I Had A Good Marriage.

Then I Tried to Make it Better. Cherry Blossoms in Twilight: Memories of a Japanese Girl reviewed by Susan M. Life on the Rocks: Lonely reviewed by Susan M. Andrus Memoir; Relationships White, Rossandra. Someone to Talk To: I had a story that would move people, a story worth telling.

But I was ambivalent about blogging something so intimate. But what about the daughter and the niece? For you to understand my decision, I need to fill you in on some family history. Thirty years ago, when I was 27, I remembered being sexual abused by my grandfather, the father of my mother and my aunt. I told my mother, expecting sympathy, and instead sent shock waves of horror at me, not at my grandfather throughout my family. Three years later, Ellen Bass and I published The Courage to Heal , a healing guide for women survivors of child sexual abuse.

The Courage to Hea l became a bestseller and a touchstone for millions of incest survivors. My private pain suddenly became extremely public—and I spent the next several years speaking, being on national TV, writing more books about healing, and unexpectedly becoming the public face of incest in America. I was the poster child for healing from sexual abuse.

I was furious, too, and hurt by their denial. This led to a painful stand off: I wanted my family to believe and support me; they wanted me to recant. It was only when I gave birth to my son, twenty-one years ago, that things started to thaw, first with my mother, and later, with the rest of her family.

Dear Laura (John Joseph Lintott, #1) by Jean Stubbs

By the time our youngest was born 17 years ago, my mother and I were well on the road to reconciliation. At the core of my reconciliation with my mother is that we agreed to disagree. As my relationship with my mother healed, other family relationships were rekindled. Now, more than 30 years after my revelations rocked my family, I have re-established positive relationships with almost all of them. These relationships stand on a new equilibrium based on contemporary, shared experiences.

And part of that equilibrium relies on an unspoken, understood agreement. We do not discuss my grandfather.

Get A Copy

I am comfortable with this arrangement; after three decades of healing, incest is just one of many threads in the tapestry of my life. The fact that many of my relatives have never been able to accept my truth no longer stings or bothers me. I need nothing from my family except for them to be exactly who they are. If I were to write about this family reunion, I knew that for it to be meaningful, for it to be more than just a sweet saccharine story, I needed to include the context—the fact that I had been estranged from my aunt and uncle in the past.

That back story was essential. It needed to be there, even if I only mentioned it in a single paragraph. But for me to put it there, I had to once again mention the elephant in the room—the incest. I feel nothing but fondness and compassion for my elderly relatives and I knew it would be easy for me to write about them from a place of love.

I also knew that mentioning our past history would deeply upset my aunt and uncle, and because of that, I never disparage my grandfather in front of them. I have no personal reason to do so anymore. My reason for referencing him in my account as well as the estrangement my revelations caused was to create a better, truer story. And that was my dilemma. Just writing those words makes my stomach squirm. These are not easy choices. I feel less conflicted about my decision where my mother is concerned.

I also gave her the opportunity to include her own perspective on our relationship, in her own words, right in the body of the book. Aside from this tacit permission she gave me to write about her, my relationship with my mother is primal to me. It is my core material as a memoir writer, material I can hardly ignore if I want to continue to write.

But my aunt and uncle? My relationship with them feels far more fragile and the ethical line feels more blurry. People sent my posts to their friends and urged me to expand my story into a book. As a writer, this is what my lifework is about. This is what I do best. And consistently, over more than three decades, my words have inspired and moved people. Will they ever read my blog? Will they ever know I told the story? But what if they do? What if they find out and read it? What if they come to me feeling angry, hurt and betrayed? Then what I will say to my relatives is this: The same person—me—your daughter, your niece, your cousin—did all those things.

And all of them were a genuine expression of who I am.

Nonfiction by, for, and About Women

I did them out of love. I did them out of gratitude.


  1. See a Problem?.
  2. Erotic Gay Tales 7: The Bitten Peach Luxury Resort.
  3. Crossover Spy.
  4. Dear Laura!
  5. Shadow of the Moon (Wolf Born Book 1)!
  6. Learning to Live Out Loud: A Memoir.
  7. The Five Mouse Brothers?

    8. I wanted people to read it. And that, too, is part of who I am. I read it over and over because it IS sweet — and truthful. Thank you, and well, if your secret is ever discovered there will probably be more understanding from your relatives than you think. Eventually, I would like to write my own stories and if it will bother someone s , so what. Even the titles of your books echo that love. Thanks Sunny, coming from you I really appreciate this. Because I know how much you honor and love the elderly.