Manuscript meets Editor

My manuscript is off to the editor. I've completed my final edit of "They Only Eat Their Husbands," a memoir about my 9 years in Alaska, and my yearlong trek around the world alone. It's a story about a woman who tries to find her worth reflected in men, then seeks a wider world and finds her worth reflected in her journey.

At 26, after a lover threatened to kill me, I ran away to Alaska. In the Last Frontier, I landed in a love triangle with two alcoholics. At 35, sick of addicts, I ran again, to backpack around the world. From China to Ireland, adventure became my path from self-destruction to recovery.

That year of my global trek, I was on a shoestring budget. I saved the money for four years. Though I'm not wealthy, I realize there are many women who cannot afford such a luxury. I hope that as women read my story, they recognize that pursuing our spirit of adventure does not require that we travel. It only asks us to open our hearts and minds to the world outside ourselves, and through that, seek a way deeper inside ourselves.

I'm really excited to have found a small independent publisher that cares about my work. My editor told me, "I love stories about 'The Lost American.'" I had to laugh, because he had me: I was a lost American. But I believe now I'm found. Now I just have to wait and see what he finds within the story to keep, and what he decides needs to get lost.

If you'd like to read an excerpt from "They Only Eat Their Husbands," check it out at http://www.girlstrektoo.com/book.php. It will come out in paperback in spring of 2010.