Don’t Call Me Mother by Linda Joy Myers
“I wanted to tell the secret stories that my great-grandmother Blanche whispered to me on summer nights in a featherbed in Iowa. I was eight and she was eighty . . . ”
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.
Praise for Don’t Call Me Mother
The new afterword pulls back the veil and lays bare the actual healing power of memoir. Poignant, visceral, and triumphant, this new section left me shaken and stunned with its raw beauty. As a reader, I felt I was witnessing transformation.
–Kathleen Adams LPC, Author, Journal to the Self and Scribing the Soul
Director, Center for Journal Therapy and Therapeutic Writing Institute
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
With poetically visceral prose, Linda Joy Myers tells of her relentless work to emerge from an abandoned and abused child to a forgiving and loving daughter, mother, and grandmother. This must-read memoir brings her raw dark secrets to life. I couldn’t tear myself away. –Madeline Sharples, author of Leaving the Hall Light On
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.
—Jerry Waxler, M.S., founder of the Memory Writers Network, author of Memoir Revolution, and Four Elements for Writers
Linda Joy Myers eloquently renders the details of her past in this transformative memoir, allowing all of us to find redemption through her
honest courage. For anyone yearning for self-discovery, Don’t Call Me Mother serves as a compelling guide on a journey to wholeness. I loved the book.
—Michele Weldon, assistant professor, Northwestern University and author of I Closed My Eyes, and Writing to Save Your Life.
Click here to Order the Paperback
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Journey of Memoir: The Three Stages of Memoir Writing by Linda Joy MyersJourney of Memoir–The Three Stages of Memoir Writing is a workshop in a book. If you are writing a memoir, you know that you have begun a journey that begins with flickering memories and moments and develops into powerful stories that make your readers enter a world they never knew before your story brought them there.
The memoir writers I work with struggle with how to begin–Stage One. How to develop their story–Stage Two. And what to do with it once they have finished the first draft–Stage Three.
What stage are you right now with your memoir?
Buy now from Amazon $16.75
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The Power of Memoir by Linda Joy Myers 
The Power of Memoir by Linda Joy Myers, Ph.D. 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.
Buy from Amazon.com $11.53 U.S.
Kindle Edition: $9.99
Click here to Order the Paperback
or Download Kindle Edition Now!
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This lovely binder invites you to write!
We need all the help we can get to get our stories on the page. This unique binder designed and assembled by Linda Joy Myers will invite you to write so you can fill in each tab with stories from your life!
When we write a memoir, we need to be reminded of life events, turning point moments, and memories that are hard to dig up on our own. This My Memoir binder with hundreds of writing prompts can help you get unstuck!
Keeping your stories organized with topics and categories helps you keep track of what you have written, and helps you keep notes on stories you will write in the future. Each section gives you topics and writing prompts to get you started.
This 8×10 three-hole memoir story organizer has eight tabs, labeled with these intriguing subjects.
1. Roots and Legacies: my family
2. Childhood Memories
3. Land that I love; Houses
4. The seasons of my life
5. Births and deaths
6. Love, Marriage, and Children
7. Secrets and Hidden Truths
8. Spirituality and Creativity
You can even add clear plastic sleeves for photos that go with your stories, and collect writing prompts to put into any of the categories for future reference.
The organizer will be sent to you via the USPS and the cost includes shipping via book rate shipping. If you prefer expedited shipping, please contact us BEFORE PURCHASING at customersupport@namw.org and will help determine the best option for you.
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