Q. What prompted you tell your story in book form?

A. my neighbor was having difficulty with writing ten defining moments her psychologist suggested. I started writing down my defining moments and could not stop. My son suggested that I write a book as people would find my life interesting. He suggested that I write a trilogy and my life has fallen into three distinct areas. I wrote Conversations with Teddy to tell the larger hidden story about my upbringing and my mother, my father and how I survived psychically and emotionally.

Q. Throughout Conversations with Teddy, you include conversations and other details that seem impossible to completely re-create. How did you decide how much creative license to allow yourself in presenting the past? Were there any struggles between factual accuracy and narrative style?

A. Apart from my excellent memory I had a wealth of information, letters, and diaries, numerous photos of all sides of the family, tapes, and family members who could recall their perspective. I was able to discuss several matters with my mother and uncle who died before completing the book.
There were conversations I couldn't triangulate, because the persons involved had died—my father, aunts and uncles but many scenarios floated back into my mind with a vengeance as I delved into my childhood. I wrote while pondering these scenes, sharing what I knew about their characters in my conscious and striving to put myself back in the shoes of the person and the little girl’s feelings.

Q. Having experienced public reaction to your life story what kind of responses did you get initially?

A. Overwhelmingly positive with many people admiring my strength and courage. Some people have shared their own experiences. One lady said that she has revisited her childhood as she became aware that there were many unresolved issues that were preventing her from moving forward in her relationship with her partner.

Q. Is it difficult to place yourself and your loved ones in public scrutiny?

A. Most definitely! I try to distance myself as I am writing; trying to think it is about somebody else. In one sense it is. It’s about a victim but I am now a survivor. There’s a schizophrenic aspect to it like a entire new persona.

Q. How did you prepare to handle this sort of attention with the publication of the book?

A. I focused on my main aim; to provide some help for somebody who may read my book as is struggling with similar issues or who is unconsciously treating their child in a similar manner. I want people to know that cycles can be broken. We do not have to remain victims.

Q. What experiences do you hope readers take from your life story? Is there a lesson to be learned from your book?

A. I would like to think that the book makes readers aware that we all have our good and bad qualities and that those ambiguities don’t make us less worthy of love, just more human. I would like my readers to know that help is available, cycles of abuse can be broken, past hurts and fears can be healed.

Q. You clearly have a strong sense of who you were as a child and young woman, and how you arrived at the life you have today. If you could say anything to yourself as the girl at the heart of Conversations with Teddy what would it be?

A. Be fearless and true to myself. You, little Sweet Pea, are worth more than you think. I have come to love that little girl, a resourceful, intelligent, bright little girl. She is no longer a dork, a puppet, or a fool.

Q. What’s been happening in your life since the end of the memoir?

A. I have been studying with Swinburne University and have numerous writing projects on the go. the 2nd and 3rd books of my life; Whisperings and Finding My Voice. Many of the conversation with my Teddy in Conversations with Teddy I have revisited and am writing them as children’s stories. I am writing a teenage realistic fiction book entitled Talk to Me.

Q. What is your next project?

A. I’m currently working on any of the conversations with my Teddy in Conversations with Teddy as children’s stories. I am also writing a teenage realistic fiction book entitled Talk to Me.

Q. Can you see putting yourself at the center of your work again in the future?

A. I have developed a first-person narrative style in part two and part three of the memoirs; Whisperings and Finding My Voice. Hopefully they will be completed in 2009.

Q. You ended Conversation with Teddy with a poem, are you writing any poetry in these books?

A. Right now, it’s mostly narrative but there is always the possibility that I might fight writing poetry will portray my feelings and experiences better. However, I’m always writing poetry and I’d love nothing more than to publish a volume of it. That’s my biggest hope not yet realized.