Aspects of Life – Thoughts and Conversations
Good morning! Ok, I need to say something here. I’m taking a break in my blog about talking about adoption, about colonization, about the heavy things that I think about 25 hours of the day, because there is so much more to me than being an adoptee within a structure that has sought to destroy […]
Seeking a simpler life. Isn’t that what any of us are trying to do, usually beginning the day after January 1st? We make changes, try to get a few do-overs. Frantically work or read all the ways to make ourselves happier, healthier, less stressed, more motivated. Just like a lot of people, I’ve done this […]
Bitterroot: A Salish Memoir of Transracial Adoption took home two awards from the 2019 High Plains Book Awards – Indigenous Writer and Creative Nonfiction. It was indeed a humbling moment, because, like any event, it doesn’t sit alone and isolated, but is mixed and kneaded with so many life-changing events around it. One such event […]
2019 would have been Dad’s 92nd birthday. He passed away when he was 74. It’s hard to believe it’s been 18 years since I last saw him Anyone who has read my book, Bitterroot: A Salish Memoir of Transracial Adoption, knows that I write significantly about my adoptive father. I write about his abusive and […]
You know how after you write a book you scan the web for reviews, interviews, sales, and anything with your name attached to it? And it pretty much comes up the same? Until it doesn’t. There is a ton of happenings around Bitterroot and its reception over the past few months. Upcoming events? September 23-27, […]
Ok, I just gotta say this: being a speaker at TEDxMileHigh is a (terrifying) rush! And for me, a relative introvert, it overwhelmed my senses. After preparing for this moment for almost 2 months, complete with several intense and interesting trainings, Rick and I walked down the hall and toward the dressing room. One of […]
Is American Indian a ‘racial’ or ‘political’ identity? It’s complicated. I’d just posted on FB how the conservative right (the Goldwater Institute) is attempting to upend the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 (ICWA) through its state-by-state litigation. There are two legal arguments, both funded by right-wing think-tanks, whose money can be traced to the […]
The one thing that I really enjoy is talking about Bitterroot: A Salish Memoir of Transracial Adoption. Whether it is at a book festival, in a lecture hall, in a book club or on the radio, I get a little jazzed when I’m asked for an interview. Especially when the interview questions are as detailed […]
Book ideas don’t materialize out of nothing. Built on foundations of experience, or rooted in something larger than a single story, ideas begin as ethereal and boundless shapes. Over time they take form, eventually becoming distinct and real. Bitterroot: A Salish Memoir of Transracial Adoption is such a book. Although shaping the story has its […]
Just before I left for London last week, I was notified that Bitterroot: A Salish Memoir of Transracial Adoption had been chosen as one of four finalists in the Creative Nonfiction category of the Colorado Book Awards. I am thrilled and I am so very honored to be among this list of great writers with […]