Join us as we talk with author Catherine Gildiner who at age 12 moved with her family from her Niagara Falls home to a Buffalo suburb, leaving behind a family business, small town contentment, and the rebellious childhood chronicled in her first memoir, Too Close to the Falls. While her uprooted parents struggle to adjust, Gildiner stumbles in making new friends and edging into puberty. Her restlessness and a fundamentally outspoken and argumentative nature regularly catapult her further than simple teenage trouble, and she frequently fails at the standard American girlhood, often with comic results. The conflicts between the narrator’s individuality and conformity propel her into her first relationship at the same time that the seismic shifts in American society, culture, and politics hit home with ever-increasing force. Tune in as she talks with us about her life and the experience of living in the sixties.
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I've been in a writing frenzy of late. I have finally submitted my book about psychological heroes to my agent. It used to be named STILL STANDING, but that has changed to GOOD MORNING, MONSTER, (how one client's mother greeted her every morning.) I've changed the book to include my history as a psychologist and what I learned over the years.
Now I am working on another book about the Underground Railroad yet untitled. I grew up in Lewiston, New York which was the last stop on the underground railroad as it is on the border of Canada. I lived around the houses that had 3 fake basements where the slaves were hidden and my relatives were part of the underground railroad. All this local history fired my imagination as a child and I am writing like a wild woman now. Hope it works.
I'm pretty excited about the new book I'm writing. Just finished the 2nd draft. It is tentatively entitled STILL STANDING: PSYCHOLOGICAL PROFILES IN HEROISM. I was a psychologist for 25 years before I was a writer. I am writing about patients I've had over the years who have been abused in one way or another but maintained their sanity. The book came about because I was fed up with how our society defines heroism. Heroes get a medal for short bursts of testosterone. They are measured in short term. I think it should be measured over time. What about patients who have mostly been prisoners of war in homes that have brainwashed and tortured them. They were tiny children who had to fight every day of their lives in cruel homes just to maintain their sanity. These people were brave for decades till they could get out. Then they had to learn how to live in the world. The book is a tribute to the patients I had in therapy who made it.
Ok so who is going to be in Florida in December or who do you know who will be there? I am going to be speaking at The bookstore, BOOKS AND BOOKS in Coral Gables. So whoever lives in Miami come on out on December 8th. Also I am in Palm Beach at the Society for the Four Arts on December 10th. See below. Both events are free!