I’m in the process of writing my next book
and want to include real stories from real women in each chapter.
Millions of American women take care of aging relatives, young and adult children, partners and spouses, friends and family members who are going through illness, job loss, divorce, mental health challenges and so many other “things” that life can throw at us while still trying to manage and live their own lives.
Sound like you?
If so, I want to hear from you!
If you want to share your personal story about being a caregiver, knowing that it may be included in the book I’m currently writing, please submit it as follows:
Guidelines:
- Only Word Documents will be reviewed (do not send as a straight email)
- No more than 500 words
- Not all stories will be included in the book, but may be used in future articles to promote the book
- Submission of a story means you are giving me permission to use it in the book and/or in a future article to promote the book
- If your story is one chosen to be used you will be contacted by email
- Your story must be true, actual and factual, not fiction
- This is not a writing contest, so it doesn’t have to be perfectly written, but it DOES have to be written from the heart
- For each personal story chosen, no direct payment or fee will be paid to you but a donation of $25.00 will be made to American Heart Association in your name
- Please try to have your personal story address ONE of the following “Caregiving Challenges.” Please state the category in your Word Doc.
- Please include details, such as: what the challenge was, what your life was like, how did you react to the challenge, how did it affect your other relationships, did you have help, did you have to leave your paying job, and details on how (or if) you met the challenge and resolved it (or, it could be ongoing, in which case, please include that info). And in all cases, please include any tips and advice that you received and/or that worked for you and that you’d like to share with other women.
Categories: In all case, try to include details about how some of these “categories” affected your health, wellbeing, confidence, self-esteem, ability to care for others, and so on:
- HEALTH: How my health and wellbeing was affected
- EMOTIONAL WELL-BEING: How the stress of caregiving affected my emotional life and what I did (do) to resolve it (meditation, therapy, etc.)
- FITNESS: How I can’t find time, or did find time, to exercise to keep my strength up
- EATING WELL: How eating well became an afterthought–I gained weight, lost weight, become unhealthy, etc.
- SLEEP: How I wasn’t sleeping well/enough and what I did to address that
- SELF-ESTEEM: How feeling good about myself and about how I look, i.e., body image, makeup, style, etc. became more important, less important, and so on
- REACHING OUT FOR HELP: How I reached out to friends and family to help me (or didn’t/couldn’t)
- WORK/CAREER: How I managed working and caregiving, the challenges and so on
- PERSONAL FINANCES: How my finances were affected, how I dealt with “system”
Of course, if your personal story about caring for others doesn’t fit into any one “box” . . . that’s okay! Just let me know when you send it!
PLEASE SEND NO LATER THAN
FRIDAY OCTOBER 17TH, 2014
SEND TO:
TakeItBackBook@gmail.com
I look forward to hearing from you and thank you so very much for participating in this book project. I am grateful and all the women (and many men) who will read, and be inspired by, your personal story will be grateful, too.
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