Books by Linda Joy Myers, Ph.D.:
The Power of Memoir is a groundbreaking book that presents an innovative step-by-step program using memoir writing on the journey of emotional and physical healing. By drawing upon the eight steps outlined in The Power of Memoir, you’ll learn how to choose the significant milestones in your life and weave together your personal story. You’ll discover how writing your truths and shaping your narrative propel you toward a life-changing transformation. The Power of Memoir offers the tools you need to heal the pain of the past and create a better present and brighter future.
Praise for The Power of Memoir
“With a gentle spirit and a clear voice, Linda Joy Myers creates a safe place for writers. With her 8 Step Program, Myers guides writers through the dark places of the heart, to ultimately arrive at a place of power and grace.”
—Sue William Silverman, author, Fearless Confessions: A Writer’s Guide to Memoir and Because I Remember Terror, Father, I Remember You
“Myers makes a compelling case for the power of words as a form of healing and growth.” —James W. Pennebaker, Ph.D., professor of psychology, The University of Texas at Austin and author, Opening Up and Writing To Heal
“A powerful and unique writing guide—one that will lead any writer straight to the heart of their richest material, help them heal, and then teach them how to shape it into literature. Destined to become a classic!” —Jordan E. Rosenfeld, contributing editor, Writer’s Digest magazine and author, Make a Scene: Crafting a Powerful Story One Scene at a Time
“…this material s found nowhere else.” —Sharon Lippincott, MA, author, The Heart and Craft of Story Writing
At the age of four, a little girl stands on a cold, windy railroad platform in Wichita, Kansas, to watch the train take her mother away. For the rest of her life, her mother will be an occasional and troubled visitor who denies her as a daughter.
Linda Joy Myers’ compassionate, gripping, and soul-searching memoir tells the story of three generations of daughters who long for their absent mothers, all the while unwittingly recreating a pattern that she’s determined to break. Accompany Linda as she uncovers family secrets, finds solace in music, and begins her healing journey. Learn how she transcends the prisons of childhood to seek forgiveness for her family and herself.
This new edition includes an afterword that wraps up the saga as Myers confronts her family legacy and comes full circle with her daughter and grandchildren, seeding a new path for them.
“It’s never too late to have a happy childhood,” said one of my academic colleagues. In this new edition of her memoir, Linda Joy Myers illustrates just how powerful the combination of memory confronted, forgiveness offered, and new love expressed, can be. What I admire most about this book is the way the author takes you to her most sustaining love — the prairie land of the Midwest — and concludes her story as a return to that place where forgiveness becomes “a feather on my heart, as natural as the plains wind.”
Shirley Showalter, former president of Goshen College, author of the blog I Have a Story
Don’t Call Me Mother takes me deep inside the mind of a young girl who has been spurned by that most important person in her life, her own mother. Without a guide to help her develop into a woman, Linda Joy is forced into a vulnerable, innovative search for dignity and survival that is at the heart of every hero’s tale. The second edition, adds a fascinating layer, revealing the author’s struggle to come to terms with memories that continue to feel dangerous. Linda Joy’s powerful sharing of both parts of her journey, to become an adult and then to uncover the child’s passage to personhood, provide a wonderful gift for anyone who wants to travel either one of these journeys themselves.
Jerry Waxler, M.S. founder of the Memory Writers Network, author of Four Elements for Writers and Learn to Write your Memoir
This haunting story chronicles a lonely child’s attempt to understand her complex and difficult family and make sense of a confused and chaotic world. Myers does what a good memoirist always does. She reveals a great deal about herself and, at the same time, helps us to understand more about our own lives.
Susan Wittig Albert, best-selling author of Writing From Life: Telling Your Soul’s Story.
Could you still love your mother, even if she left you? In this gut-wrenching, poetic
memoir, Linda Joy Myers explores three generations of maternal abandonment
in her family—and movingly explores her own quest to break the chain.”
Melanie Rigney, former Writers Digest editor.
Beautifully written, Don’t Call Me Mother is an aching history that
holds out a torch to the girl inside us who longs to connect with her
mother. A story of healing and, ultimately, love.
Jessica Inclan, author of One Small Thing
Don’t Call Me Mother is an acutely moving story of one woman’s
yearning for tenderness and truth. Linda Joy Myers’ exquisite
language stirs my own desires to find my mother who was once lost to
me. Teresa LeYung Ryan, author of Love Made of Heart
Breaking Ground on Your Memoir
A memoir offers hard-earned wisdom, testimony, and legacy. But in order for a memoir to become beloved, it must reach the heart of others; it must make a difference.
In Breaking Ground on Your Memoir, Linda Joy Myers (President of the National Association of Memoir Writers) and Brooke Warner (Publisher of She Writes Press) present from the ground up—from basic to advanced—the craft and skills memoirists need to draw upon to write a powerful and moving story. From identifying themes and takeaways to crafting believable dialogue and making scenes come alive through detail, this accessible, comprehensive guide to memoir writing offers information every memoirist can benefit from—no matter where they are on their journey.
Full of rich insights and practical advice and strategies, Breaking Ground on Your Memoir offers all the tools writers need to write a powerful, publishable memoir.
Magic of Memoir is a memoirist’s companion for when the going gets tough. Editors Linda Joy Myers and Brooke Warner have taught and coached hundreds of memoirists to the completion of their memoirs, and they know that the journey is fraught with belittling messages from both the inner critic and naysayers who don’t understand or support the idea of writing a memoir. These voices make it hard to stay on course with the writing and completion of a book. The inherent challenges presented by the emotional journey itself often stalls memoirists from completing their dream of finishing and publishing a book.
In this collection, writers share their stories of hard-earned wisdom, including tips for dealing with the inner critic, practical strategies that provided motivation in dark times, and lessons learned from mistakes made and overcome. Also included are interviews of high-profile memoirists by Myers and Warner. Their encouragement and inspiring stories are sprinkled throughout the book, giving readers a broad perspective on the discipline and inspiration it takes to write a memoir from memoirists who have one important thing in common: they made it to the finish line!