Because my friends (A, B, and now C) have spoken so highly of working with you and (press name), because I have so enjoyed their stories, and because I’ve enjoyed our connection on social media, I’m hoping my memoir will be a fit for your press.
THE FULL CATASTROPHE: All I Ever Wanted, Everything I Feared (80,000 words) is a memoir of how I built a family out of the ashes of the one I’d lost, only to watch it crumble. The Rules of Inheritance meets Beautiful Boy in this story of the search for belonging, the fight to save a struggling child, and the quest to find meaning in the wake of repeated loss.
Orphaned at 12 and soon the only surviving sibling, I became determined to create a loving family, ensuring I’d never again be alone. I married early, had three children, and thought I’d found the life I longed for. But when my husband’s emotional abuse escalated along with his drinking, I filed for divorce.
This couldn’t have come at a worse time for my children, especially Eric, my charismatic, adventure-seeking firstborn son. As his father’s rejection and a bad breakup threw him off course, I became consumed by endless demands to prove my worth as a mother and restore peace to our family. Struggling alongside Eric, I discovered relentless resilience and a spiritual grounding vastly different from the one I’d known. When he died at 20 in a single-car crash, I understood how these changes in perspective had prepared me for that day. Yet I wondered whether they would be enough to sustain me in a world where so many of the people I loved could die.
In conversation with memoirs like Rachel Brathen’s To Love and Let Go, Jayson Greene’s Once More We Saw Stars, and Nora McInerny’s No Happy Endings, THE FULL CATASTROPHE—equal parts spiritual reckoning and love story—will speak to those who did not see themselves woven into a family tapestry, found themselves thrust into tragedy, or had to rebuild their lives from a new foundation.
The overwhelming response to “Still,” my recent compressed flash essay about Eric’s death, published in Split Lip Magazine and nominated for Best of the Net, illustrates how my writing about this topic resonates with readers. My work has also appeared in The New York Times, HuffPost, The Manifest-Station, Next Avenue, Barren Magazine, The Under Review, Brevity’s Nonfiction Blog, Circulation: Genomics and Precision Medicine, and Modern Loss, among others. In addition, I also write for WebMD.com and The Family Heart Foundation, an organization dedicated to raising awareness around the genetic cardiovascular disorder that affects my family and for whom I serve as an Ambassador.
I would be delighted to forward my completed manuscript and/or my book proposal at your request.
Thank you so much for your consideration.