Category Archives: Uncategorized

Holes In My Shoes – The Jack Beers Story

Vitality Stories

holes_promo_photo

Jack Beers, promotional photo provided by Holes In My Shoes

Jack Beers

What are we living for?

Holes In My Shoes

I recently watched Holes In My Shoes, a documentary directed by David Wachs, chronicling the life story of 94 year-old, Jack Beers. As lessons tend to go, Jack’s story drove home something I’ve been hearing and writing about a lot lately: whatever you choose to do, put your heart into it.

Jack Beers was born in 1910 and survived the Great Depression, growing up in Lower East Side New York City. He decided to drop out of school because he wanted to help support his parents and siblings. When he told his father, his dad said, “If you’re going to sweep floors, I want you to be the best floor sweeper. Anything you do, be the best at it.”* And so Jack set out to be the best at everything he did. Continue reading →

The Best Way To Meet Your Parents

Vitality Stories

Leona Beck

The Best Way To Meet Your Parents

 

Sometimes it takes two

If you really want to get to know your parents, or a loved one, write their memoirs.

My mom, Bonnie, and I wrote her memoirs and the experience changed the way I think about her as a person. Before Memoirs (BM) she was my imperfect mother. But today, I think of her as a woman who was navigating her way through life, in a different era, making choices that resulted in pride, laughter, tears, or regret. I catch myself comparing my life at forty-four years old to what she was doing when she was forty-four, and every single time I think, whew, I’m so glad I’m not in those shoes. (If I was, I would have eight kids with a ninth on the way, a troubled marriage, a pile of bills, and I’d be struggling with undiagnosed bipolar disorder.) I also learned to accept that her perception is her reality and this makes me more patient when our collective memories or experiences don’t add up.

What I’m trying to say is writing your parent’s memoirs might be one of the best gifts you’ll ever give to yourself. It will be a different gift for each person. In my case, it was forgiveness.

But where to start? How to start? There are many books available on how to write memoirs. I’m sure my process will continue to improve, but for those of you who are thinking about this worthwhile project, here are the steps I take with each of my clients. Continue reading →

How To Pay Off Debt With Heart

Vitality Stories

photo by Gretchen LeMay Photography

photo by Gretchen LeMay Photography

How To Pay Off Debt With Heart

Sometimes it takes a village

In Tiger Drive, Carrie Sloan is seventeen and knows college is her only way out of her neighborhood and away from her toxic parents and absent, older siblings. She is conflicted about leaving her two little brothers behind, but believes breaking free from the family mold is the best thing she can do for them. But even without the family’s secrets and choices complicating her every move, Carrie won’t be able to pursue her education without financial aid and she is determined to write a winning scholarship essay.

While Tiger Drive is fiction, I can relate to Carrie and the obstacles she faces and I drew from personal feelings to write her. At seventeen, I was a senior in high school and supporting myself with two jobs after school and on the weekends. If not for a Pell Grant and a generous Continue reading →

Kathie Lee & Hoda’s Favorite Things: I’m Going to the Doctor?!

My Favorite Minute

KLG & Hoda's Favorite Things

“It’s for little kids, who are afraid. It’s a sweet little book.” Kathie Lee Gifford, Kathie Lee & Hoda’s Favorite Things, TODAY (May 25, 2015)

Watch the Video

Click Here to Order from Amazon

I am over the moon to share that Kathie Lee Gifford shared my first children’s book, I’M GOING TO THE DOCTOR?!, on TODAY.

What a ride! I appreciate everyone’s support and enthusiasm. People rock!

Available at Amazon

 

It’s here! I’M GOING TO THE DOCTOR?!

It’s here!

I’M GOING TO THE DOCTOR?!
GTD cover Amazon

A little over a year ago I decided to tap into my rainy day account to follow anything but a rainy day dream. I quit my job, moved to the East Coast with my supportive boyfriend, set up my writing room, and pulled a 2011 draft of Tiger Drive out of a box. Thanks to feedback from a few talented peers, Tiger Drive is complete and I am now querying agents. Fingers tightly crossed.

In the meantime, I quickly learned I needed to build an author’s platform and social presence — Egads! I jumped into Dan Blank’s Get Read course where I explored my audience, goals, and identified my content for a website that didn’t exist. As you know, it does now. As a bonus to the class, I made new friends and gained a few subscribers from the start.

All of a sudden, I recognized synergy between my creative writing and my ghostwriting. On one hand, I’d finished Tiger Drive, but on the other hand I kept hearing from my seniors, “I wish I would have finished this…I wish I would have finished that…” And every time I heard someone dish this sage advice, instead of patting myself on the back and saying “You did it, Teri. You wrote Tiger Drive,” I would think about this thick padded envelope in my closet containing Continue reading →

Vitality Stories Lesson #3 – February 21, 2015

Vitality Stories Lesson #3

YOU ARE HERE Color

YOU ARE NOW HERE:

When to Embrace the Past and When to Pass

The Past Doesn’t Exist?

Helping elders with their memoirs is a trip in time. On one hand, I’m enrolled in Life 101, learning valuable lessons that I can apply to my own existence, relationships, and choices—a veritable checklist of Do’s & Don’ts for a Happy Life. On the other hand, I spend A LOT of time digging around in someone else’s past, and before I know it BANG!—something happens Continue reading →