thoughts on a book launch event

A wonderful alchemy occurs when people come together for a common cause: to write down, share and reflect about their life experiences. Although the book launch occurred about two months ago on November 12, 2016, I was once again struck by the synergy of how seamlessly the editor-facilitator strung together the book readings and the progression of the stories in this collection.

Each successive piece bulit upon the previous. The end product became greater than the sum of its parts. So true that, thanks to the Community Memoir homepage, "A story is the shortest distance between two people."

I would add: A story is also the shortest distance between two people across time.

One of the reasons it took awhile for me to post about this book is because the book is only available in print at the moment. I kept waiting for the ebook version to come out and realized that digital version won't be out yet. So you can purchase a print copy at the Community Memoir Project webpage.

My own contribution to the book is a piece called "The Yin and Yang of Loss." Below is the final version of the cover of the stand-alone work of the same name that I plan to publish later this month. Unsplash | Matthias Heil The topic of grief and loss takes time. I have found myself wanting to expand on the work that I initially contributed to the memoir anthology. I am about halfway through the illustrations in the book. I also plan to add a section at the end to generate discussion. Thanks for staying tuned.

...And here we are -- from the day of the book launch event. :-)