I don’t usually promote authors or books on my blog, but there’s a first time for everything and I want to do my part to support the writing community. Plus, these women and their work are inspiring!

First there is the newly released Daddy: Reflections Of Father-Daughter Relationships, edited by one of my favorite bloggers, author K.E. Garland. I discovered Kathy’s blog, Kwoted, when I came across her first book, The Unhappy Wife during a Google search. (I’ll leave it to your imagination why I was doing a search that led me to the title.) Unlike her first book, which tells true stories of unhappy wives written by Kathy, Daddy is written by guest authors who have had challenging relationships with their fathers and, in their own way, have come to terms with it. The stories are powerful, painful, beautiful, and heartbreaking. Kudos to Kathy for giving women a venue through which to voice their deepest truths about their father-daughter relationship.

Then there’s Joanne DeMaio, who happens to be a distant relative, my father’s first cousin’s wife. I haven’t seen her in years, and only then at the occasional wedding and funeral, but I’m excited for her success. When a publishing deal she had hoped for fell through, she decided to self-publish her first novel and it went on to become an Amazon bestseller. The best part is that her publishing success happened when she hit her 50s, so there is hope for us in middle age! She is now the author of a series of novels that tell the stories of friends who live in a small, cozy town by the sea. Fun fact: Her daughter is her marketing agent.

I hope you’ll visit both women’s websites to learn more about them and their work.