Most people don't make changes until they've hit bottom. After losing my bookstore, Reflections, along with my health, I was alone, frightened and grief stricken. I was getting on in years and didn't think I'd be able to pull my life together after the failure. That's the place where people are faced with two choices: either you live, or you die. And if you decide to live you dig deep to find out what's important to you. Hiding isn't an option any more. I found my reason to go on when I began writing about the experience. 

Beyond the Blue Door is the sequel to that memoir, A Raven in My Heart: Reflections of a Bookseller that was inspired by all those readers who asked “What happened next?”
I never intended to write a sequel memoir, but let's face it, a lot happened next.

When I began writing many things conspired to get in the way. I was still healing after burning out when I found myself duty bound to care for my ill and aging mother. She needed help after the first of many mini strokes.

The road was rocky at first as two independent, strong-willed women shared a space, but I discovered something: the more I accepted my mother for who she was, the more I was able to accept parts of myself that I'd denied.