Last week, I published my Hearts and Pages newsletter through Substack about some heroes in our midst. One of them, two weeks ago at Vishyvanka Day, organized by the Comox Valley Ukrainian Society as part of an annual event held worldwide to celebrate Ukrainian culture expressed through beautifully embroidered shirts worn by men and women.

There, I met a hero, Darrell McKay. A few months prior, I had stumbled upon his book, My Time With Heroes: One Canadian’s Story of Supplying Humanitarian Aid to Ukraine. His memoir is an extraordinary story of an extraordinary time spent by an extraordinary man.

When Darrell learned of Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, an independent and sovereign country, in February 2022, he felt moved to help. Darrell, born in England, and now living in Canada on Vancouver Island, has no Ukrainian roots. And yet, he was motivated not to fight but to help those who were fighting for their survival, those who feared living once more under Russian thumb. Darryl’s another unsung hero in this crazy war.

At the Vishyvanka Day in Comox, Darrell was sitting at a table selling his books. When he’s not helping the wounded and distraught at the Ukrainian front, he’s back home raising money through his book sales and speaking about what’s he seen at the front.

I approached him and told him I had his book but hadn’t finished reading it yet. I then spoke of the trilogy I had written about my Ukrainian grandmother, Lukia Mazurets, which begins with her life in Russia during WWI and afterwards. I also shared how Russia’s war with Ukraine had affected me from day one. I teared up as I related my experience, and he responded by tearing up as well.

He reminded me of my father. I had grown up with a dad, who teared up at the kitchen table when my mother talked about what it was like living in Ukraine during World War I under Russian rule. So, when Darrell teared up, I saw another sensitive man who understood another person’s pain.

Darryl McKay’s Book

Back home, I finished reading My Time With Heroes which gives details about the people he met: the soldiers on the ground, the aid workers, and the victims of Russia’s assault. He shows the incredible work being done to help Ukrainians physically, spiritually, and emotionally. I’m sure many feel alone when they continue to endure one aerial assault after another that leaves innocent people—soldiers, civilians, and outside volunteers dead or maimed physically and/or psychologically. This war that never should’ve happened is now over four years old.

The Resilience of Ukrainians

But Ukrainians are a resilient people. They continue to sing, laugh, and dance, despite the hardships life throws them. Rather than succumb to the brutality of Russian forces, those in Ukraine and in the Ukrainian diaspora all over the world have responded with great celebrations of their culture, traditions, and language.

Another Hero

Speaking of heroes in our midst, I’d like to mention an unlikely one, as heroes come in all forms. Our good friend Jack Fournier. He didn’t go to any war front, but he fought a different war—that of cancer. Loved by his friends and family, he never complained—though I wouldn’t minded if he did—and joked until the end. He was also a devoted husband, a man who loved the sea and his cat, and a master carver. His wife, Lou Milner, wrote an excellent book about Jack, — Jack & The Cat Go Adrift —a light-hearted and fun read.

Jack loved my Ukrainian family saga trilogy. Though he was dying of cancer, he couldn’t wait to read the next book in the series.

At the celebration of Jack’s life that Robert and I attended, his wife played a song at the end that sums up Jack. And a song I’d like to leave you with: “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life.” It helps to remember this as we deal with our worries, whether it’s our families, the wars happening overseas, the AI threats, or the climate crisis. Humanity is amazing. There are so many good people worldwide doing great things.

As for AI

I’ve been of two minds about it. I value being able to find all kinds of information quickly. For example, putting in my MRI results gave me much needed information, not only about the kind of exercises that would benefit my condition, but also who the best spine surgeons are for my back problems. I am seeing a physio now, but it’s helpful to cross-reference what I’m getting with what AI has given me.

I used Chat GPT, but now I’m hearing that Claude, developed by Anthropic,might be a better choice, as the developers, Daniela and Dario Amodei, seem to have a conscience and are putting in guardrails. However, these same developers are being sued in a huge lawsuit for having used countless novels to train their AI without the authors’ permission and/or payment. I know they’ve used two of mine: Lilacs in the Dust Bowl and A Cry from the Deep. I wonder if I and the other authors named in this lawsuit will get any satisfaction.

Much as I appreciate the quick help AI can provide for various queries, I am concerned about the impact it and cloud computing has on our environment. There is talk about finding ways to re-circulate the water and energy it needs for its large data centres. Currently, they are playing havoc in the communities where they are built.

On an opimistic note, Fareed Zakaria, political jouranalist on CNN, gave a wonderful speech to the grads at Bard College about the amazing capacity of the human brain as compared to AI. Worth listening to.

What I’m Writing

Well, I haven’t returned to my work-in-progress yet—another novel—but I will soon.

I’ve been too busy promoting my latest book, A House Full of Strangers, a collection of short stories set in the 1940s and 1950s in Winnipeg, about Ukrainian immigrant landladies, their families, and the people who rent rooms from them. By the way, besides being available as an ebook and paperback, it’s also available in Large Print. Here’s the Amazon link for the Large Print, or you can ask your independent bookstore or library to bring the book in for you.

Review Are Always Welcome

If you’ve read A House Full of Strangers or plan to read the book, and you like it, please leave a review on the site where you purchased the novel. Even a couple of sentences will do. Leaving reviews helps both readers and authors. Thank you!

Thanks for Following

Hope your days are filled with sunshine. ‘Till Next time.

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What’s in the Book?

A House Full of Strangers is my first short story collection—two novellas and eleven short stories—and  another historical fiction book I thought I’d never write. My trilogy—Lukia’s  Family Saga: Sunflowers Under Fire, Lilacs in the Dust Bowl, and Paper Roses on Stony Mountain—were also books I never planned to write. But it’s the way it works. Writers don’t always consciously choose their stories. Sometimes the stories choose them. The characters speak and as a writer, you feel compelled to write them down.

I hadn’t realized until recently that my life growing up with strangers living overhead wasn’t that common. I never thought much about it, except one time, when I was in university and my date, after driving me home, called my house “Psycho.”

I was appalled, and hurt.

Many of you don’t remember the movie“Psycho” directed by Alfred Hitchcock, but it was a horror film. And yes, there was a big old house that housed this odd woman with her adult son. I recall being in the theatre and screaming out loud during the famous shower scene, acted by Janet Leigh.

To me, my home was not scary in the least, despite it being a house full of strangers. The roomers lived on the second and third floors of my home, and they were all young women, mostly in their twenties and thirties. They’d come to the city from rural areas to study or find a job. (By the way, in the photo used for my cover, my friend Sylvia stands with my mother and father in front of the third rooming house I lived in.)

I was born in a rooming house, again, a house full of strangers, one Mom and Dad rented in the North End of Winnipeg. They worked six days a week at various jobs to save enough money to buy one of their own. We moved to the second one when I was five and then three years later, moved across the city to a three story home, formerly owned by a minister. The one my date called Psycho.

The stories in A House Full of Strangers are woven with my memories and imagination. In the book, you’ll find a wide range of tales that include the sad, the tragic, the inspirational, the comical, the sweet, and the sexy.

Early Reviews

I’m thankful for some early reviews.

Carol Thomson with Readers Favorite gave my book, A House Full of Strangers, a five star review.

“ The variety of tones across the stories keeps the collection engaging, moving between serious, uplifting, and occasionally playful moments. “

And the Editor-in-chief of The Seaboard Review of Books was also complimentary.

An Excerpt: The Opening Pages

Something in the Blood

With the boys finally asleep, Irene Melnyk sat down at the Arborite kitchen table to write the letter she didn’t want to write. She filled her fountain pen from the bottle of black ink by her writing pad, then stared out the window at the snow-covered backyard where the children’s sled lay half-buried. The evening light was fading, and the sky was slowly turning an inky blue. Their neighbours had switched on the lamps in their living rooms, perhaps reclining in an easy chair to read, or listen to a soap opera on the radio. No music or stories played in Irene’s house. It seemed almost too quiet for the storm in her mind. Should she or shouldn’t she write this letter?When she looked down at the stationery pad, her hand was shaking. She told herself to calm down if she wanted to write anything legible. This was too important a letter to mess up.

How had it come to this? The world she inhabited no longer seemed to be hers. She’d been walking about in a trance ever since the doctor had given her the news she’d feared. She tried to stay cheerful for her children’s sake and, of course, for Nick, but her grim thoughts pushed any cheer aside. Just yesterday, she had been so caught up with her thoughts that she burned her hand on the element while stirring cabbage soup on the stove, and then, on a visit to the grocery store, she teared up when a neighbour simply said hello. She mumbled an apology before walking away. Grab a hold of yourself, Irene, she said to herself. You’re twenty-four, and you’ve got two children who depend on you. Yes, she had them and a very sick husband.

Putting her grim thoughts aside, she picked up her cigarette from the amber glass ashtray and flicked off the long ash that had accumulated. She took a long puff and blew out a ribbon of smoke. Opening the pad of paper, she began to write on the blank page. First, the date, then Dear Mama. The ink wasn’t even dry on the page when she scratched out Dear Mama. She crumpled the paper in her fist and threw it into the wastebasket by the door. It bothered her to call her mother “Dear” as they hadn’t been on good terms when she left home at nineteen to be with Nick, who’d taken a job thousands of miles away. And with the distance, their relationship hadn’t improved.

She leaned back in her chair and snorted. Leaving home years ago had been a risky move, but she’d proven her mother wrong. “He’ll never marry you,”her mother had said. Irene replied with some choice words—under her breath, of course—and packed her bags. But Nick had married her when he’d seen her condition. He immediately went with her to City Hall, where the justice of the peace sealed his fate, and hers. Being a decent fellow, Nick never even asked—like some guys might—if the baby was his. It was, but she was grateful he never asked.

The only regret she had was getting married in a civil ceremony in a suit—not in a white wedding dress, like her sister—and not in a church with her family around her. Not that she was religious. She wasn’t, but her mother and oldest sister were. Irene had stopped believing in God long before she’d met Nick. Praying changed nothing,she thought. And with doom and gloom on the horizon, what choice did she have? Still, she remembered wondering if she was making a terrible mistake.

Irene exhaled deeply as if she had lifted a heavy load, then turned her attention back to the well-used writing pad her friend Rosie had given her. There were only a few pages of the paper left, and Irene had no money to buy more. As it was, she’d have to borrow the money for the train trip back to Winnipeg. Not just for her ticket, but for Nick’s and the boys’, too. That is, if Mama said yes.

She smoothed the fresh sheet of paper with her hand and started again. This time, she left Dear Mama on the page. Sighing, she wrote, I know I haven’t written for a while. You know what it’s like with two little boys. She paused. She wanted to crumple up this page, too. At least erase the last sentence. Her mother had seven children and managed a rooming house with no help from Irene’s father. Of course, she would know what it was like to raise two boys. She’d probably say, “What’s two boys? Look what I have to deal with!” Yes, she’d say something all right. And Irene couldn’t blame her.

Not wanting to waste any more paper, Irene pursed her lips, steadied her hand, and wrote:  I’d like to come home with Nick and the boys. He’s so sick, Mama. He’s been coughing up blood, and I’m afraid of what lies ahead. The doctor here thinks it’s his heart, but he’s not sure. He said something about maybe a blood clot in the lungs. It’s very serious. I know you have a houseful, and …

Where to Buy A House Full of Strangers

You can ask your library to bring it in for you or you can order it through your favourite bookstore. You can give them the title and author name. And if need be, you can give them the ISBN (International Standard Book Number) 978-1-988180180-26-7

The ebook and paperback of A House Full of Strangers are available for sale on all major online booksites Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Chapters Indigo, Apple, Bookshop.org, and more

Thank you for stopping by.

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A House Full of Strangers Book Launch of Paper Roses on Stony Mountain A HOUSE FULL of STRANGERS

What does love have to do with it? I’ve been thinking a lot about that, while I’m preparing to launch A House Full of Strangers, my first collection of short stories, set in Winnipeg in the 1940s and 1950s. The book launches online on May 9th at all booksellers. There’s a lot of love in this historical fiction, from the Ukrainian landladies who loved their families to the tenants who looked for love, some of them in the wrong places. The ebook is available for Pre-Order Now.

5 Star Review

” Readers who enjoy historical fiction and character-centered storytelling will find A House Full of Strangers appealing, particularly those interested in stories about community, perseverance, and life shaped by changing circumstances.“

Carol Thompson for Readers’ Favorite

I’m also in discussion with a bookstore on Vancouver Island about an in-person talk to their book club. I’ll be posting here once I know.

This past Orthodox Easter Weekend

I grew up in a Ukrainian Orthodox Christian household. This past weekend, our family celebrated Ukrainian Easter. And what does love have to do with that? Well, this, to my mother, was the most wonderful time of the year. A time of nature awakening, blessing of the Easter baskets, great family gatherings, delicious food and wonderful song around the table. Mother showed her love by cooking and baking for the week ahead. We were so blessed to have so much love in the family.

I was taught Christ had died out of love for mankind; he died for our sins. His Father made the ultimate sacrifice; loved mankind so much he gave up his only son. With that kind of foundation, I grew up trying to do my best, and to love my neighbour like myself.

Love in the News

This is why it’s so disheartening to see wars continue in the Middle East and in Ukraine.

Every person lost is someone who is loved and will be missed.

It’s no secret that the leader of America is oblivious to other people’s pain. He has no love for anyone. He’s a man who, according to his niece Mary Trump, a psychologist, did not get the love he needed. She says on her website: “We are here because the one thing Donald most desperately needs, and has never gotten, and will never get because of how damaged and depraved his own father rendered him, is love.”

Love in Our Families

As I mentioned above, Easter was always a very special time of year in my family. My mother said it was better than Christmas. There was so much love in every dish she cooked and baked for the family Easter dinner that would include about twenty people.

Love for Family

And what does love have to do with it in my writing? A lot! It was my baba’s (grandmother’s) love for her family that gave her the strength she needed to survive WWI, the wars that followed, and the losses of those she loved. Love of her family also gave her the strength to leave her mother and the country she loved. This story is covered in my historical fiction trilogy, Lukia’s Family Saga: Sunflowers Under Fire, Lilacs in the Dust Bowl, and Paper Roses on Stony Mountain.

What I’m Reading

I had previously abandoned The Piano Man’s Daughter by Timothy Findley, but after my husband raved about the story, I’m reading it again and loving it. Maybe it’s the way I read. I tend to read quickly. Findley is not an author you can read quickly. His words are ones to savour; his sentences pack a punch. He writes about love, both the joy and pain of it, and he makes the characters come alive, as only he can do it.

One of my favourite books of Findley’s is the novella, You Went Away. I plan to re-read it again. Set in 1942, it’s a story about a romantic young R.C.A.F. pilot who captures the heart of a young married woman with an eleven-year-old son. She has a neglectful, philandering husband—so no wonder she strays. Again, we all want and need love.

Another beautiful novel about love is Elizabeth and After by Matt Cohen, a Governor General’s Award winner. Elizabeth is deceased at the beginning of the novel, but she leaves behind some secrets, ones that will shock her husband and adult son. The novel covers her years in a small farming community peopled by characters struggling to make sense of their own lives. I’d never read anything by Cohen before, but now I’m a fan. I hope to read more of his works.

Wishing you a Happy Spring

From my garden to your nature place. Wishing you a happy spring!

With Love,

The post What Does Love Have to Do With It? appeared first on AUTHOR.

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But this past year has tested us all, lots of hope and frustration, with the war in Gaza and Ukraine (the birthplace of my parents), and AI threatening many livelihoods and our climate, which is already under duress. So much is out of our control. Though I grieve when I see bad news, I’m an optimist by nature, so I continue to look for that silver lining.

Looking for the Silver Lining

As I mentioned in a previous newsletter, I’m dealing with severe back issues, but I try to look for that silver lining. I’ve travelled far, and now, that I’m more limited, I look for pleasures close to home, like my husband and family, my writing, books to read, and the joy of nature, like the humming bird that entertains me from my office window.

As for world issues, we do what we can, by contributing to our causes, writing to politicians, consuming responsibly, acting in good faith with others, celebrating our cultures, and taking care of ourselves and our families. All this is within our control. This is where we find the silver lining and keep up our hope for a better future.

Here’s Judy Garland singing LOOK FOR THE SILVER LINING, a song from my early childhood. Have a listen then come back to this page. I have wonderful memories of Hollywood musicals on the big screen.

Inspirational Books

Inspirational books work on lifting people’s spirits, helping them realize they can do something about a bad situation, and find the silver lining.

A recent bestseller, Let Them by Mel Robbins, encourages people to not fret about what we can’t control. Instead, it advises the reader to let go of the need to control others and focus instead on their own pursuit of personal happiness and other goals.

The message from that book is basically a twist on the same encouraging one I give in Along Came A Gardener, my motivational self-help book. When we get bogged down and frustrated with a loved one or a co-worker, I emphasize “that we can’t control anyone else’s behaviour, but we can control our own. If we change what we’re doing, the other party will not respond in the same way. It’ll break the unhealthy pattern and make room for a healthier one.”

My New Book and Cover Reveal

I’m in the home stretch of publishing my short story collection, A House Full of Strangers. My book’s been edited, I’ve gone through the revisions (as suggested by my editor), and now I’m in the proofreading phase.

And I have a book cover. Sound the trumpets because that’s how I feel. Thrilled to get this far. The house on the cover is the house I lived in from the time I was 8 until I got married at 19. I plan to release the book in late spring 2026.

The text that will go on the back cover of the paperback may look like this:

After surviving the Great Depression, many Ukrainian immigrants left the heartache of farming and went to Winnipeg to try their luck. To supplement their income from blue-collar jobs, some rented rooming houses, and hoped in time they would own their own. And then there were those who added to their rental income by selling homebrew.

Set in the 1940s and 1950s in Winnipeg, Manitoba, A House Full of Strangers is a collection of fictional short stories based on true tales about Ukrainian immigrants, their families and those who rented rooms from them.

Diana Stevan, the author of the award-winning Sunflowers Under Fire, is the daughter of Ukrainian immigrants. She spent her childhood and teenage years living in a rooming house.

Rooming House Blues

Given our inflationary times, I’m sure the next few years will spawn more rooming house stories. So many can’t afford to rent a condo and will end up renting a room like they did in the 1950s. There will be more stories showing hope and frustration, that curious mix of feelings we all have when world and other events are not in our control.

Writing Hopes and Frustration

Hope is what has kept me working on A House Full of Strangers, despite my frustration with my back, which I’m trying to manage with physiotherapy, common sense, and no surgery. Hopefully, I can keep the surgeon’s knife away.

But joy of joy, I can sit and write and not feel pain. I just have to remember to get up from my chair and stretch my back every 15 minutes.

And now that this book of short stories is well on its way, I can get back to the novel I’m writing, and finish narrating the audiobook of Along Came A Gardener.

What I’m Reading

I read the wonderful novel Dancer by Colum McCann, based on the ballet dancer Rudolph Nuryev’s family life in Soviet Russia, and his life when he became a world superstar. A fascinating read by a brilliant author.

I’m currently reading The St. Julian’s Killing by Karen Dodd, a prequel story to the excellent Everybody Knows: a Nicolo Moretti Crime Thriller. My husband who’s also read this book by Karen Dodd, compares her style to John Grisham. An exhiliarating read for those who love crime thrillers!

Christmas Gifts

If you are planning on giving a book for Christmas, I’d encourage you to get your order in as soon as possible, as paperback printing takes time. If you have a favourite bookstore, you can ask them to bring it in, but it’s likely faster with Amazon at this time of year. If you’re interested in any of my books, I’ve given you online links to my books below.

Lukia’s Family Saga—Sunflowers Under Fire, Lilacs in the Dust Bowl, and Paper Roses on Stony Mountain—can be read as a trilogy or each book can be read as a standalone. The series is based on the true story of my grandmother and family’s life in Ukraine during WWI and its aftermath, and in Canada during the Great Depression and early years of WWII. I’ve posted the link with each title if you want to know more. This historical fiction series is both inspiring, heartwarming, and heartbreaking.

And then there’s my latest book, Along Came A Gardener, written for anyone thinking of going for counselling or anyone wanting some ways of managing their difficult relationships. Over 25 years working in a variety of settings, including private practice, I met people from all walks of life, who came to me for help with their personal problems, whether in the workplace, home, or community. I’m grateful for their stories, and their trust. Anyone interested in self-help and personal growth, will find this book helpful.

Hope was what inspired me to write Along Came A Gardener. As a clinical social worker, I had helped a young woman, who was suicidal. She wrote me a poem called The Seed of Hope, suggesting I was the gardener who came along and planted the seed of hope. My book gives tips on riding life’s emotional roller coaster. In it, I share what I know about anger and stress management, addictions, depression, and other family and personal mental health challenges.

But if you’re looking romance, mystery, and adventure, you’ll enjoy reading A Cry from the Deep. This novel is about Catherine Fitzgerald, an underwater photographer, who’s now a divorced and single mother living on a lavender farm in Provence. She’s wooed back to diving by the editor of National Geographic, who wants her to cover a dive led by a notorious salvager off the coast of Ireland for one of the lost ships of the Spanish Armada.

But before Catherine goes to Ireland, she buys an old Claddagh ring at a flea market in New York and begins to have dreams and visions of a woman from another time. Why she’s haunting Catherine becomes as mysterious as the treasure hunt in the Irish Sea. A handsome but unavailable marine archaeologist on the dive team and her ex, a psychiatrist in New York (who still loves her), complicate Catherine’s life. She thought she had given up on love.

And then there’s The Rubber Fence (women’s fiction), the book that was inspired by my work on a psychiatric ward. It’s a story of three women: a psychiatric intern who risks her career and marriage when she tries to stop an arrogant psychiatrist from shocking her patients, a mute young mother and an elderly woman who’s already been shocked too many times. Set in the 1970s, it could easily have been set today, because shock treatment continues to be the treatment of choice many psychiatrists use when they feel they’ve run out of options.

My Substack Newsletter

This post first appeared in my Substack Newsletter, Hearts and Pages. I don’t always repeat myself on my blog, so if you’re interested in my latest Book News or the odd opinion I may throw your way, please subscribe.

Season’s Greetings

Robert and I wish you a very Merry Christmas, or Happy Hanukkah, or a blessed Kwanzaa. We continue to hope and pray for peace in the Middle East and in Ukraine. Thank you for your readership and I look forward to sharing more news and thoughts in 2026.

The post A Year of Hope and Frustration appeared first on AUTHOR.

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Here’s Patsy Cline, a famous singer from the 1950s, singing “I Fall to Pieces”, a song about love and pain.

My Work as a Therapist

It’s a rare couple who can go through life without hitting some bumps in the road. I was a family and marriage therapist for 25 years and saw many couples from all walks of life, people suffering from love gone wrong. I wrote about that journey in Along Came A Gardener, a memoir of my therapy practice including examples of people I helped (their identities are kept confidential). The book also contains how-to-help-yourself ideas, no matter what personal problem you’re tackling.

The title Along Came A Gardenerr comes from a poem a young woman sent me after I’d helped her and her sister deal with a schizophrenic mother who they couldn’t rely on for the love they needed. The poem was called The Seed of Hope. And I was the gardener who came along to plant that seed of hope.

What Goes Wrong

Why do love and pain go together way too often? Some of it has to do with the way our brains work; how we are tricked by lust. We fall in love and don’t think clearly.

Falling in love is a wonderfully delicious feeling but it can quickly sour once you start making decisions about whether to marry or not, where to live, who to see, what you spend your finances on, whose family to visit, what vacations to take (if any and where), whether to have children or not, where to go to church, or the synagogue or the mosque, or not go at all. The decisions are endless.

Robert and I have been married for 62 years! Wow, huh? I was 19; he was 24 when we got married. We were madly in love (still are), but oh so much of what we needed to learn was yet to come. Love and pain go together, when one of you gets hurt in the relationship. It can be over the smallest thing; or it could be something major. To experience that disconnect is common. And that is why there are so many stories and songs that underline the passion that can blind us to what lies ahead.

Here’s our favourite song, one that was played at our wedding. The lyrics “Wise men say, only fools rush in, but I can’t help falling in love with you,” says it all.

Healthy Communication

Very few think about all the decisions they will have to make when they are in the heat of passion, when they are in lust, when they are in love. All of these decisions can put a strain on a relationship. That’s why communication is so important.

In Along Came A Gardener, I write about the importance of healthy communication (what’s helpful, what’s not) and the power of genetics. Our families shape who we are; it’s where we learn how to communicate. But each family is unique with it’s own patterns of communication. And we’re not born with a blank slate. We are who we are right from the get-go. So there’s a lot to contend with when people fall in love.

It’s not easy navigating relationships, but well worth it when you fall in love, hopefully, with someone who will love you back and treat you with the respect you deserve. When that respect is missing, that’s when a relationship or marriage falls as quickly as dominoes.

Love and Pain are strange bedfellows, but from them, we learn some valuable lessons in life if we take the time and care.

Finding Love Today

I write about the challenges of finding love today in my latest Substack newsletter on Enduring Love. If you want to read my post, you can sign up to receive my monthly newsletter, Hearts and Pages, here.

I hope you enjoy life, and meet the downs with hope in your hearts.

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It is now streaming in the USA on Apple TV/iTunes, Amazon Prime, Google Play, Fandango, and YouTube. In Canada, you can see it on Apple TV/iTunes or YouTube. I loved seeing it again, this time with captions. Being seniors, Robert and I miss some of the dialogue, so it’s great to have captions as an added bonus for viewing at home.

Daughters, Karen and Robyn attended the premiere as well. I wasn’t able to attend, so Robyn took a shot of the screen at the cinema when one of my scenes came up. I play Mrs. Webb in the film, a friend of the priest, played by Sherman Augustus.

How the Film Got its Footing

DEATH LETTER BLUES grew out of a short film Michael and Strack had worked on together when they were students at Dodge College, a filmmaking program at Chapman University, in Orange Calfiornia.

Since Strack had grown up in Greenville, Mississippi, and he and Michael decided it would be a great place to film DEATH LETTER BLUES and fulfil their dream of directing a film together.

As a professional actor, I was happy to be asked to be in the film, and few down with Robert to Mississippi. At the time, being Canadian, Michael was able to get permission from my union, UBCP (Union of BC Perfomers) for me to play Mrs. Webb, a friend of the priest’s. And Robert, Michael’s grandfather, played a few extra parts—a mourner and a cop.

A Little Background of My Work with Michael

When Robert and I moved to Vancouver Island, (four hours commuting time from the acting hub in Vancouver), to be close to our daughter Karen and family shortly after Michael’s birth—29 years ago—I cut down on auditioning for film and tv parts. I tried for a while (kept up my union membership) but it became too much of an ordeal commuting (the long distance) and dealing with the disruption from other activities in my life. So, it was a double pleasure to get a chance to act again, this time in our grandson’s second feature film.

But it wasn’t the first time Michael and I had worked together. He had been directing short films since he was very young. When he was 14, and had a project he wanted to write and direct—one with a very mature subject—I suggested he cast some adult actors in our community instead of his friends. I hoped we could find amateur actors who’d done some local theatre.

With help from family and community (including city hall and Joan Miller and Tanya Price of Island Film Commission) Michael, though nervous about directing adults, successfully directed the short film, Cipher, a thriller. Our local paper, The Campbell River Mirror wrote about his accomplishment.

That was followed by The Brother, which Michael and I co-wrote and co-produced. Again, this film drew on local actors, including myself, and generous help from other talent in the community. It won a number of film festival awards.

After following up The Brother with another short film, Michael was off to univesity. Though he was offered a full scholarship to Capilano University filmmaking program in Vancouver, he set his sights on Hollywood. It was a costly decision, but one his mother fully supported.

While at Chapman U, Michael continued to hone his skills with one short film after the other. After his second year, (on an extremely small budget) he wrote and directed his first feature film, Salton Sea, a wonderful domestic drama, now available on Amazon Prime. He was able to do it with many volunteers from his filmmaking program and donors through Kickstarter.

Our Time on the Set of DEATH LETTER BLUES

Robert and I had travelled to much of the USA, but this was our first trip to Mississippi, where we flew for the filming of my scenes for Death Letter Blues. We met some wonderful people and enjoyed southern hospitality, courtesy of Strack’s family and friends. Below is the carriage house where we stayed; it was in the back of a southern mansion.

Here are some shots from the set, clockwise, starting from the top left: me as Mrs. Webb at the door rehearsing a scene with Sherman Augustus as Father Moss; with fellow mourners; Robert (my husband) playing a mourner, Michael directing me and the car that plays a pivotal role in the story; Michael Stevantoni and Strack Azar.

So Many Hurdles to Overcome

The film was shot in 2019. But then came Covid and everything shut down. As if this wasn’t enough of a calamity, the young filmmakers then had to deal with the fallout from the Writers’ Strike and the Actors’ Strike. By the end of all that, they found that the streamers had too much product, much of it bought from countries outside of the USA.

While Michael and Strack continued to look for a distributor for their film, they kept submitting their movie to film festivals, where they won a number of awards.

Photos below are from the Newport Film Festival: cast with Michael and Strack, and the young directors with their parents.

Michael and Strack finally landed on Dark Sky to distribute their movie. It’s not a pefect fit, as their movie isn’t a typical horror film, but it’s a good one. As a supernatural gothic drama, DEATH LETTER BLUES will find its audience.

An End Note

If you see Death Letter Blues, please take a few moments to leave a REVIEW on Rotten Tomatoes and/or IMDB.com.

And you might want to check out Michael’s website. He not only directs (films, music videos and commercials) but he also does production design.

Thanks for subscribing

I appreciate you following my blog.

‘Till then, I hope you enjoy the rest of the summer.

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Reviewing What Went Right

1) One postive post book launch thought is the fact Along Came A Gardener was finally launched after seventeen years. I first thought about writing it in 1978, when I was working as a school psychologist for the Child Guidance Clinic of Winnipeg. That’s 47 years ago!

Crazy, when you think about it. But the good thing is that I never gave up on the idea. And I’m so glad I waited. I didn’t know half of what I needed to impart back then. To write a book about relationships and how to navigate them in today’s world requires some thought and research.

2) The fact I waited 47 years is also what went right. In order to write this book, my twenty-five years of working as a therapist in a variety of mental health settings helped immeasurably. Over that time, I met clients and patients of all ages, ethnic groups, sexual orientation, occapations and income levels. I also worked on my own marital and family problems in order to write a book that covers the hefty topics of nature vs. nurture, inherited trauma, post-traumatic stress, relationship conflict, anxiety, depression, grief, stress and anger management.

3) Another positive post book launch thought is the fact I had a wonderful launch talking about Along Came A Gardener to readers in several indie bookstores on Vancouver Island. I’m so grateful to the owners, Christina and Walter Kinney of Mulberry Bush Bookstore in Qualicum Beach, Brian and Jeannie Webber of Fireside Books in Parksville, and Andree Bizier of Windowseat Books in Nanaimo, who welcomed me and gave me the opportunity to show my book.

4) And the last positive post book launch thought I have is how grateful I am for several wonderful book reviews. You’ll find them in The British Columbia Book Review, The Seaboard Review of Books, and Reedsy. Here are a few quotes:

“Diana Stevan’s Along Came a Gardener is a masterful meditation on healing, personal growth, and the art of tending to the self, all framed through the evocative metaphor of gardening.” Selena Mercouri for the B.C. Book Review

“Stevan’s book encourages us to explore the roots of our own psyche and foster better emotional foundations, much like adding nutrients to the soil before planting.” Lori Green for the Seaboard Review of Books

“The book can feel like a attending a therapy session itself, as if Stevan is sat in the room, talking to you in a calming voice.” Alice Bennett for AEB Reviews for Reedsy

Reviewing What Went Wrong

5) One negative post book launch thought is how badly I messed up the date of my book launch. I had hoped to coordinate the day Along Came A Gardener went live online with my visits to bookstores. That didn’t happen. I made some errors ordering the books, and so my bookstore visits were delayed by two months.

Also, weather played a role in what went wrong. We had a very rainy winter and early spring on the west coast—ideal times to meet with readers indoors. But the day of my bookstore visits was sunny and warm, a welcome departure from all the rain, so I didn’t get the crowd of readers I had hoped for. They were outside somewhere enjoying their gardens, walking the trails, or playing by the ocean.

6) Another negative post book launch thought was how I had bungled the whole lead-up to the book launch. Typically, authors of this kind of book have been building followers online for years. The therapy gurus hold workshops through their websites and go on TikTok, where they are talked about on #booktok. I did none of this.

I thought the contents of the book would sell itself. But you need reviews to stand out in a world of over 6 million books; you need lots of reviews to entice readers. I don’t have many, so if you read my book, please leave a review afterwards on the site where you bought it. However, I’m an optimist; I’m still hoping Along Came A Gardener eventually finds traction online.

7) And the final negative post book launch thought is the fact I’ve been having a hell of a time with my back. A year before my book launch I developed back issues, for which I evenually got an MRI. My doctor told me I have severe spinal stenosis, two bulging discs, scoliosis, arthritis, and spondylethesis. Back pain made it challenging for me to do more promotions live or online.

As I write this now (I have to smile because what else can go wrong?), I was just diagnosed with bursitis, so standing to write (which I’ve been doing for the past year) no longer works. Fun and games. I’m deciding whether to get a steroid shot or let my hip heal on its own.

Thankfully, I can write sitting down without pain. Again, because of my built-in optimistic nature, I’m hopeful my back will improve with another cortisone shot in September or some back surgery.

Parting Thoughts

I read a little from Along Came A Gardener on my Youtube page.

If you’d like to read Along Came A Gardener, it’s available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Indigo, Kobo, Apple Books, Books A Million, McNally Robinson and more. Or you can ask your indie bookstore or library to bring it in for you.

And by the way, I am working on an audiobook. More about this later.

Thank you for stopping by.

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I Used to Hire Therapists

Back in the 1990s, as the B.C. Director for Corporate Health Consultants, a national EFAP firm, I hired counselors throughout B.C. to provide confidential counseling services for employees and their families from many workplaces. Though a therapist myself, there were periods in my life when my husband and I sought help. Seeking help through a counselor is much like going to your GP or your dentist. There are some problems in life that require professional help.

The Following are 7 Thoughts on What to Look for in a Therapist

1. Make sure your therapist is qualified. A good therapist will be a registered psychiatrist, psychologist or social worker. They will have their MD, PhD, Master of Counseling Psychology, or Master of Social Work. It doesn’t hurt to ask for the background of who you want to see, no matter who recommends the service.

2. Did your therapist open the first session by telling you that if you said anything that suggested you were thinking of harming yourself or others, they had a duty to report to the proper authorities? Though this may raise alarm bells with you, professionals need to protect you and the public from harm. If they neglected to warn you, then perhaps they are not bound by their profession’s code of ethics and conduct. Perhaps they are not the professionals they say they are.

3. A good therapist needs to be warm and understanding. If the therapist is non-judgmental and makes you feel comfortable, then it’ll be easier for you to speak openly and from the heart.

4. If you are seeing a therapist with a spouse, partner or child for conflict resolution, and nothing changes from session to session, then it’s best to find someone else who can help. It makes matters worse to arrange counseling only to feel worse after each meeting. If you feel worse after only one session, then give it some time, especially if you like the therapist. But if you find that after a number of sessions, you’re still going in circles, it’s best to find someone else who can help you stop the unhealthy patterns of communication.

5. A good therapist needs to be a good listener. If you find your therapist talking too much, or lecturing, or giving advice before they’ve heard and understood your situation, you’d be best to walk away.

6. Does the therapist encourage you to keep coming for more sessions, even though you’re feeling you’re on the path to a better life? There is much debate about short-term vs. long-term therapy. With a good therapist, it is amazing how much can be accomplished in three to six sessions. However, I also know there are many who need longer term involvement, and that’s fine, too. The only reason I’m bringing this up is because when you engage a professional therapist for longer term, you are often paying for that service. It’s the way a therapist stays employed. They need that income. However, most are not mercenary. If they were, they would’ve chosen a different profession. And there may be other needs that aren’t addressed when a therapist encourages you to keep coming. Perhaps they enjoy what they do with you in the session. They are people, after all. And counseling is an intellectual exercise, one that often benefits both client and counselor.

7. If the problem you raise is psychiatric or one of addictions, is your therapist skilled enough to deal with these issues? If not, do they refer you to a specialist? As mentioned above, counseling is often a financial transaction. You don’t want to keep paying if the person you’re seeing isn’t an expert in the problem you present.

For More on My Book ALONG CAME A GARDENER

For more on personal and family therapy, on how it’s evolved over the years, and what I learned about managing life’s problems from my 25 years working as a family therapist, check out my book Along Came A Gardener, available on Amazon and other major bookseller websites. You could also ask your independent bookstore or library to bring it in for you.

If you like what you read, please place a review on the site where you bought it.

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Ernest Hemingway, the wonderful author of great works such as The Sun Also Rises and For Whom the Bell Tolls, was a master of folding memories into story. After he had received another bout of shock treatments, he said to a friend, “What is the sense of ruining my head and erasing my memory, which is my capital, and putting me out of business? It was a brilliant cure but we lost the patient. It’s a bum turn, Hotch, terrible.”

He committed suicide not long after that. Without memory, many writers would be at a loss as to what to write. Writers tend to write what they know, and folding memories into story is a common practice.

In each of the six books I’ve written, I’ve folded in my memory or my mother’s, my cousin’s, my husband’s, or through my mother, my baba’s. Like the strings connecting pearls on a necklace, I’ve also used my imagination to connect these memories or embellish them to create the drama needed to tell a good story.

Memories in A Cry from the Deep

Though my debut novel, A Cry from the Deep, had me researching fields I knew little about—scuba diving, marine archaeology, salvaging, psychics, and Irish folklore—there was plenty of story that used my memory. I found myself folding memories into story from our trips to Ireland, New York, and Provence. Slides of our trip also helped me visualize the landscapes that my protagonist, Catherine Fitzgerald, an underwater photographer, visited and worked in.

My love of snorkelling had me recalling my experience underwater and how wonderful that felt—how time stood still and how delighted I was to see brightly coloured fish and sea vegetation.

Having been a therapist myself, I also used my memory to write the chapters when Catherine needed to see one. And when she flew to New York to drop off her child with her ex-husband, a psychiatrist, I used my memory to fashion him after one of the psychiatrists I worked with in a mental health setting.

Memories in The Rubber Fence

Similarly, in my second novel, The Rubber Fence, inspired by my first job as a psychiatric social worker on a psychiatric ward, I again called upon my memory to draw from the people I worked with and the patients I witnessed seeking treatment.

Here again, my memory, research, and imagination helped me weave a story about Dr. Joanna Bereza, a passionate psychiatric intern, who tries to stop an arrogant psychiatrist, Dr. Myron Eisenstadt, from shocking her patients. Her friend on the ward, a young homosexual intern, was drawn from my memory of a homosexual psychologist I once worked with. At the time in my novel, 1972, homosexuality was considered a psychiatric illness. 1972 was also a significant year for another wave of feminism. It was the year, the Ms. Magazine was first published. Again, having lived through this significant time in history, I was able to scan my memories to write this story.

Memories in Lukia’s Family Saga

Not long after The Rubber Fence was published, I began to write my trilogy: Lukia’s Family Saga. Thank God, I had my mother’s stories on my computer. During the last two decades of her life (in her 80s and 90s), I recorded her tales on my laptop. She was a wonderful storyteller, but because she would ramble and move from one tale to another without stopping, I ended up writing her anecdotes down just to keep track of her stories myself. I never thought I would do anything with them, except keep a family record for our children and grandchildren.

Many of you know who inspired me to write this family story. Even though my mother once said that her life would make a good book, it wasn’t until our granddaughter, Chloe said, after hearing one of my mother’s anecdotes, “Bubby, why don’t you write your mother’s story?” (Side note: my mother was still alive, so she was Baba, and my mother-in-law was grandma, so my dear Jewish friend suggested Bubby, and I liked it and went with that). Chloe’s encouragement was the push I needed. So, I began writing and folding in my mother’s memories, which were also my baba’s—into Sunflowers Under Fire.

Mom gave me plenty of scenes and characters of her life in Kivertsi, Ukraine during the14 years she lived in the old country. During that time, she and her family saw their country change from Russian rule to Ukrainian control and then to Polish occupation, before they immigrated to Canada.

In 1988, when Gorbachev was the Russian ruler, Mom took our family back to Ukraine (at that time, Soviet Ukraine) to see her village. Memories of that trip also played a part in my historical and biographical family saga. Not much had changed. They still had an outdoor toilet with a hole in the ground.

Much of what my mother shared, she got from her mother, my baba, Lukia Mazurets. When I look back at my childhood and adolescence, I see my baba, this strong maternal figure, so loving, the one I ran to when mom spanked or scolded me. The one I took two buses with to go to Sunday’s Divine Liturgy at St. Mary the Protectress Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral in Winnipeg. We would sit in a front pew, and I would help her stand up from the kneeling bench. We shared a bed, and then later, a bedroom, and yet, despite all the time we had together, she never shared any of her memories.

After working as a therapist for many years, I understand now why people don’t share what they’ve gone through. While writing Sunflowers Under Fire, I became aware of the trauma my baba, my mother, and her siblings went through. They went through World War II, life in a refugee camp, the typhus epidemic, the Bolshevik revolution, the eldest girl in the family’s forbidden love, and other unimaginable losses. No wonder Baba didn’t share that pain. Like soldiers returning from war, she kept her painful experiences to herself. Who would want to relive them in the telling? But thanks to my mother, I heard those stories.

Once Sunflowers Under Fire was published, readers told me they wanted to know what happened next. So, I wrote two more stories about Lukia Mazurets and her family, and once again relied on memories—my mother’s, my father’s (I wrote down his stories as well while he was alive), and my cousin’s. I also relied on my memory to write about my uncles. I knew their personalities from the time I was a child and a teenager. They were adults with families of their own by then. But my work as a therapist allowed me to imagine what they were like as children, teens, and young adults.

These memories, combined with research and imagination, were woven into the sequels, Lilacs in the Dust Bowl, and Paper Roses on Stony Mountain. This time, I also used my cousin Jean Reid’s memories. She was my uncle Egnat’s eldest daughter. She was only a baby when she immigrated to Canada, but I was able to fold in her memories of her life on a farm in Manitoba for the third book in Lukia’s Family Saga, which takes place in the latter years of the great depression and the early years of World War II.

Memories in Along Came A Gardener

And then there’s my latest book, Along Came A Gardener, non-fiction, a self-help book and memoir, a complete departure from the rest, but one relying much on memory.

I had quite the journey as a clinical social worker, specializing in family therapy. I worked on a psychiatric ward at the Winnipeg General Hospital and in a Child Guidance Clinic in Winnipeg, on a community mental health team in Richmond, B.C., in the Cancer Clinic in Vancouver, at Interlock, a non-profit employee assistance counselling agency, and for Corporate Health Consultants, a for-profit employee assistance agency. I also had my own private practice in Vancouver.

Again I found myself folding memories into story. Memories of the people I helped and what I learned along the way are folded into this book along with my love of gardening. I found many lessons in nature that are worth absorbing.

Truth in the Telling

I’m currently reading another one of Anne Tyler’s novels. She’s a master of telling stories of family life, its strengths, challenges, loves, losses, and all manners of strife. I don’t know much of her background, but I’m sure she weaves in memories of what she has experienced, whether it’s what she’s lived through personally or what she’s witnessed or heard. If you haven’t read any of her works, I’d recommend Breathing Lessons, Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, Amateur Marriage, and The Beginner’s Goodbye.

My Short Story Collection

My short story collection, inspired by my memories of growing up in rooming houses, is still saved on my computer. I’m waiting to hear back from various publishers. Some of them take up to a year to let you know if they’re interested. If they’re not—luck plays such a big role in who gets published and who doesn’t—I’ll self-publish it myself. I’m waiting until fall to see if I get any bites.

Meanwhile

I’ve begun work on another novel. More news about this one will unfold when I’m further along.

Comments?

If you have any, I always love hearing from readers. It’s one of the biggest joys a writer has. Most of the time, we’re writing alone in our offices, at the kitchen table, or in some coffee shop. Hope your spring is going well, and you’re taking in nature in your part of the world.

My Newsletter

I’ve been on Substack for a while now. This post was sent out earlier this week to all my subscribers. Though it was similar, it’s where I post more book news and some thoughts that don’t make it here. So, would love to see you there. Subscribe to Hearts and Pages.

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What We Know

In an article in the Globe and Mail, Wendy Cox, the Globe and Mail report wrote: “Lo was an involuntary outpatient in the care of a community mental-health team at the time of the attack. He was forced into hospital under the Mental Health Act in 2023 and 2024 and had recently been deemed a high risk for his mental health to decline…”

She also wrote: “His care team had concerns that Lo was unwilling to take his medication for schizophrenia and about two weeks before the attack, Lo’s psychiatrist suggested his dosage may be insufficient to be considered therapeutic.”

We also learned that Lo was dealing with considerable tragedy, the murder of his brother and his mother’s attempted suicide, certainly events that could trigger any fragile mind.

Lo’s care team said there were no red flags. Well, the fact he didn’t want to take his meds is a big one. But with the laws the way they are, protective of a patient’s rights, the psychiatric staff couldn’t force him to take what was needed to prevent his tragedy. Their hands were tied.

In response to the tragedy, Premier of British Columbia, David Eby vowed to review the Mental Health Act. However, mental health advocates cautioned the government not to be hasty in their conclusions about what was needed to fix the system.

A North American Problem

The Vancouver mass killing was done by a mentally ill man with an automobile. We’ve seen this type of mass killing before, in New Orleans recently, and in Toronto years back.

Cracks in mental health services have also been highlighted in news stories about mass shootings in America. It’s too easy to buy and make firearms that land in the hands of those who are unwell.

Because of fears of losing their gun rights (that old 2nd Amendment), too many Americans keep saying it’s not the guns that kill, it’s the mentally ill person. That’s true enough, but since it continues to be challenging to take care of the mentally ill in our communities and insure safety for the public, isn’t it better to err on the side of caution? Isn’t it better to restrict the sale of lethal weapons (AK47s and similar assault weapons) that should only be in the hands of the police or the military? Isn’t about time to do something about gun control?

Because of the cracks in mental health services, our governments need to work on putting public safety first by improving access to psychiatric services and tightening gun laws. Trump has been worrying about fentanyl crossing from Canada to the USA when it isn’t much of an issue at all. Rather, he should be concerned about the amount of guns crossing from the USA into Canada and Mexico. It’s a huge business.

Just read Gun Love by Jennifer Clement, who studied the problem of guns in Mexico. Mexico has only one gun shop, and that’s in Mexico City. The southern American border is dotted with gun shops that provide guns to Mexicans.

We also need to bring back involuntary care, both for the good of the mentally ill person who can’t manage the demons on their own and the good of society in general. There’s only so much psychiatric staff in the community can do. They can’t monitor the mentally ill 24/7.

A Bit of History

Asylums have largely disappeared. They began losing ground back in the late 1960s, when more attention was placed on patient rights. The problems with involuntary admissions was illuminated by stories like One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, a novel by Ken Kesey, released in 1962 in the middle of the civil rights movement.

In the book, the author Ken Kesey succeeded in underlining the brutality of psychiatric help at that time, especially the indiscriminate use of electro-convulsive therapy. The book was later adapted into a 1975 film starring Jack Nicholson.

In the 1960s and 1970s, lawyers got involved, clamouring for patient rights in British Columbia and elsewhere in North America. The health authorities responded by downsizing the mental health institutions and then eliminating them altogether.

My Husband’s Experience in Mental Health

My husband worked in mental health as a psychogeriatric social worker. In the late 1990s, he used to visit a scaled-down Riverview, an asylum in Coquitlam, British Columbia, once a week, to attend meetings to discuss the elderly who were to be released into the community. When the province of British Columbia began shutting down Riverview, responsibility for the care of the mentally ill was transferred to the community. Unfortunately, we’ve seen over time, that this has not worked as well as they had hoped.

When these mentally ill patients were released, they were virtually left on their own, many becoming homeless on the streets of Vancouver, unable to manage taking their much-needed psychotropic drugs in a timely manner. They either forgot or didn’t want to. They were also vulnerable to being robbed and beaten. They became victims when what they needed was help to make sense of their world.

Closing the asylums in Canada and the USA in the late 1960s and 1970s was like throwing the baby out with the bathwater. The cracks in mental health services were fully exposed.

My Experience in Mental Health

I worked in mental health as a clinical social worker for twenty-five years. I witnessed psychiatrists, nurses, and various other mental health personnel do their best in caring for those who had trouble coping in society. But unlike traditional medicine, which largely focuses on the physical body, the study and practice of mental health is an inexact science. I saw files with psychiatric diagnoses change from one month to the next. Because people are unpredictable, and emotions can overtake reason, it’s difficult to reliably assess who is at risk of hurting themselves or others. Especially people with psychosis, in other words people who’ve lost contact with reality.

I recall how horrified I felt in 1972, when I worked on a psychiatric ward and found that the psychiatrists were prescribing ECT at the Winnipeg General Hospital (now Health Sciences Centre).

I was so traumatized by what I had experienced that, later in years, I wrote the novel The Rubber Fence, set on a psych ward.

Shock treatment is still debated. There are some who say they’ve been helped by the treatment; others say they’ve lost their memory and the ability to function. This book tells the story of a psychiatric intern who risks her career and her marriage when she tries to stop an arrogant psychiatrist from shocking her patients.

We are the Caretakers, the Guardians, the Emotional Gardeners

I just published Along Came A Gardener, a non-fiction book based on my 25 years of working in mental health. Selena Mercouri, book reviewer, wrote about it for the B.C. Book Review.

It’s for anyone wanting tips on managing life’s emotional roller coaster. It’s a guide on how to get help and when to ask for it. This self-help book covers a range of mental health problems, ones many of us encounter in our life. And it weaves in lessons from my garden.

Takeaways from the Vancouver Tragedy

Though Lo’s story illustrates the cracks in mental health services, psychiatric help and support from other practitioners is needed for all levels of society. Without them, we’d have a whole lot more ‘Los’. He was obviously suffering. He was a runaway train.

World Mental Health Month

With May being World Mental Health month, it’s another reminder to take care of ourselves and those in need. My ebook of Along Came A Gardener is normally $9.95 but for the month of May, in recognition of mental health needs, it’s been reduced to $2.99 US. Canadians can also get it for $2.99.

Available on Amazon, Kobo, Nook, Apple, etc.

If you decide to read it and like it, please leave an honest review on the site where you bought it.

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