Aspects of Life – Thoughts and Conversations
Ok, it’s that time again. The time to come out of my feel-good world of flowers and sunshine and bunnies, and overwhelming gratitude for all things, into the real world where it is the 4th week of January, cold, snow sits in dirty splotches on the ground and Super Bowl LIV (54) is this weekend. […]
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 […]