I’m so jazzed that I’m over at the National Association of Memoir Writers today to host my friend, former student and brave writer Dawn Novotny to celebrate her book Ragdoll Redeemed: Growing up in the Shadow of Marilyn Monroe. I was with her during the birth pangs of her stories, which at the time she had no intention of putting into a book–but now, she’s an author.

This is what can happen when you’re just writing to heal, and writing to learn how to write–you might find yourself an author!

Dawn has said many times, “I just wanted to learn about verb tenses. I didn’t really know what I was getting into!” Dawn’s journey from new writer to brave writer to author will inspire you, as it did me and the other members of our workshop. For three years, Dawn worked hard to get out some very painful stories, one by one, and then learned how to edit and develop the stories. I’m pleased for her that she was so determined to not only heal, but then to put a book together. As you will learn in her book, she goes from being “nobody” to being the wife of Joey DiMaggio, plunged into the world of the rich and famous where she finds out about other aspects of Marilyn Monroe than what was published in the press. From there her life takes downward spirals and upward transcendence as she develops into a whole person, and eventually a gifted therapist. Dawn draws parallels between Marilyn, who was also a lost, abused, and discarded child and herself, and many other girls who were abused and confused by parental dysfunction, sexual abuse, and the demands on a girl/woman by society in the 1950s.

Join us over at the National Association of Memoir Writers to visit Dawn’s blog post today. Leave a comment and join the conversation!

Dawn D Novotny, author of Ragdoll Redeemed: Growing Up In the Shadow Of Marilyn Monroe, is a clinician, teacher, author, spiritual director and national workshop leader. She writes a weekly blog @ http://www.thefaceswelive.com. and her website is http://beyondtheparts.com