BOOKS BY MY FRIENDS S. DEBORAH DESSER, LISA DOGGETT, LYNNE HUGO & KAREN A. WYLE
MARCH 21, 2024
This article may contain affiliate links which may result in the author receiving a commission when readers purchase items through the links.
You are receiving this message because you previously signed up for notifications or participated in a program/course with Joy. You may unsubscribe at any time.
Welcome to Books By My Friends! Today we are featuring
S. DEBORAH DESSER
LISA DOGGETT
LYNNE HUGO
KAREN A. WYLE
BOOK: The Last Leaf
AUTHOR: S. Deborah Desser
GENRE: Children's picture book
BLURB: The Last Leaf is an honest, simply told story about the circle of life, as explained through the four seasonal changes and narrated from the perspective of one leaf on a tree. While everybody works through their own emotions and experiences differently, The Last Leaf may help guide both child and adult as they embark on the first steps of their journey to coping, understanding, and healing.
3 FUN FACTS ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Translated at the box office (French + English) during Panther/Canadiens hockey games; traveled to Europe on my own to Greece, Israel, and Turkey (before cell phones and GPS); have started, bought, and sold several companies, all in creative fields.
BOOK: Up the Down Escalator: Medicine, Motherhood, and Multiple Sclerosis
AUTHOR: Lisa Doggett
GENRE: Memoir
BLURB: A memoir of triumph in the face of a terrifying diagnosis, Up the Down Escalator recounts Dr. Lisa Doggett's startling shift from doctor to patient, as she learns to live with multiple sclerosis while raising two toddlers and running a clinic for uninsured patients in central Austin. Facing the prospect of a career-ending disability, Dr. Lisa Doggett is forced to deal with a new level of uncertainty and vulnerability, and the everyday fear that something new will go wrong. Taking off her white coat—becoming a patient herself—she confronts unimaginable fears, copes with her limitations, and sidesteps her skepticism of alternative medicine to seek help from unlikely sources. Drawing on riveting patient stories, Doggett also reveals the dark realities of the dysfunctional U.S. healthcare system, made all the more stark when she becomes the one seeking care.
3 FUN FACTS ABOUT THE AUTHOR: I've written in a journal every day since age 11 (I'm 50 now). I've biked the MS150 (over 150 miles from Houston to Austin or Austin to College Station) four times. I learned to scuba dive last summer.
BOOK: The Language of Kin: A Novel
AUTHOR: Lynne Hugo
GENRE: Literary fiction
BLURB: Eve, a chimpanzee orphaned by poachers and used for experiments in a medical lab, can finally lead a new life at the Dayton Ohio Zoo, but co-workers Kate and Marc must overcome serious professional differences to build a relationship with her. Forced to work together, Kate and Marc find common ground when they discover they both are the sole caregivers for their mothers, one who has been deaf her entire life and the other who recently lost her ability to process words. After a life-threatening crisis occurs, can they find the courage—and the shared language—to reach across these silent divides to heal the ones they love?
3 FUN FACTS ABOUT THE AUTHOR: You can move the girl to the Midwest, but you can't take New England out of the girl. Our dog has proudly earned the title Terror of All Squirrels. I still have clothes I bought in the eighties in my closet.
BOOK:Â Far From Mortal Realms
AUTHOR: Karen A. Wyle
GENRE: Fantasy
BLURB:Â The Fair Folk (fae, faeries) have made themselves known in one region of Vermont, and father-and-daughter legal team Abe and Adira now represent mortals who wish to make bargains with the fae despite the dangers of doing so. It's a dangerous way to practice law.
3 FUN FACTS ABOUT THE AUTHOR:Â
--I sometimes mutter to myself in fingerspelling (aka the manual alphabet).
--I wrote my first novel as a love gift for my fifth grade teacher.
--I swear in Polish even though I don't speak Polish.
ADVERTISEMENTS
JOY E. HELD is an author, educator, editor, entrepreneur, and literary citizen responsible for this site and its contents. She is the author of
Writer Wellness: A Writer’s Path to Health and Creativity (Headline Books, Inc., 2020)
Writer Wellness Workbook: A Guided Workbook and Journal to Accompany Writer Wellness: A Writer’s Path to Health and Creativity (Headline Books, Inc., 2023)
The Mermaid Riot (Melange, 2024) Young Adult Historical Fantasy
She writes spicy historical fiction under a pen name.
She is the winner of multiple writing and book awards:
West Virginia Writers, Inc. Annual Writing Contest, Honorable Mention, Novel, 1998.
New York Book Festival, Honorable Mention, Writer Wellness, 2020.
Next Generation Indie Book Awards, Finalist, Writer Wellness, 2021.
Northeast Ohio Romance Writers of America, Member of the Year, 2020.
Northeast Ohio Romance Writers of America, First Book Award, 2020.
She is an adjunct faculty member in the Southern New Hampshire University Online MFA Creative Writing.
She is a proud graduate of Seton Hill University in Greensburg, PA with an MFA in Writing Popular Fiction.
She is a member of The Authors Guild and the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.
Joy is the founder and CEO of My WRITEDAY Subscription Box for writers and readers.
