by LibbyAtwater | Jan 31, 2016 | Blog, Memories, The Spirit of Villarosa
Last weekend nearly 30 inches of snow blanketed the East Coast, including my native New Jersey. I remember times like that when I was a child. I would sit on my bed, my nose pressed against the cold storm window as snow fell silently, covering the gray-brown winter landscape with a coat of white. I’d watch cars slip and slide as they tried to climb the hill on which our house sat. Often the oil trucks that came to fill our furnaces slid off the road while attempting to make their deliveries. (more…)
by LibbyAtwater | Jan 26, 2016 | Blog, Reviews, What Lies Within
I have been enjoying finding new friends and other voracious readers on Instagram since I joined the photo-centric social media platform. You wouldn’t think so initially but there is a passionate literary community on Instagram including book reviewers, avid readers, and authors alike.
Freesia of www.instagram.com/bookishreview recently read my memoir What Lies Within. Her review is touching:
“I was honored to meet Libby Atwater here in Instagram and read her memoir What Lies Within. I give it 4/4 stars. Her story starts by discovering she was adopted. How much strength finding that out would take is amazing. She traveled across the country to California, enduring more personal losses but becoming stronger and still fulfilling her dreams.
I enjoyed how she connected her story with the current events at the time, like the civil rights movement.
I think that time period certainly affected people’s lives more than ours might now. If you enjoy memoirs, I heartily recommend this one by Libby J Atwater. Thank you so much for sharing your story Libby! I was truly touched by your truth that comes through in this book!”
If you are on Instagram, I hope you will connect with me at www.instagram.com/libbyatwaterbooks.
by LibbyAtwater | Jan 24, 2016 | Blog, Memories, What Lies Within
Each year on January 24th, I think of my sister Blanche and wonder where she is. The last time I saw her was December 1979, and the last time we spoke was in fall 1993.
During that call she informed me that she wanted nothing to do with our past. “Does that include me?” I asked. “Yes,” she answered.
I began to cry. (more…)
by LibbyAtwater | Jan 22, 2016 | Blog, What Took You So Long?
I am very excited to offer you, my dear readers, a sneak preview of the next volume in my memoir. It is entitled, “What Took You So Long?” and I look forward to sharing the journey to its publication with you. (more…)
by LibbyAtwater | Jan 19, 2016 | Blog, The Spirit of Villarosa
In 2003 a colleague asked me to write the story of noted 20th century figure Horace Dade Ashton, a renaissance man, and his son Marc, the victim of a brutal kidnapping. Horace was no longer alive, but he tape recorded many of his amazing exploits before he died, and his sister detailed his celebrity in scrapbooks. Interviews with Marc revealed his close relationship with his father, but these did not tell the whole story.
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by LibbyAtwater | Jan 12, 2016 | Blog
I find it wonderful to enter a room to speak and hear someone say, “Hi, Libby.” That’s exactly what happened on Sunday, January 10, when I spoke at Temple Beth Torah in Ventura and many of my neighbors attended. So many familiar faces smiled at me as I told my tale of living in three worlds: the one in which I grew up, the one I chose as an adult, and the one I discovered in late middle age. To say that my life is a juggling act would be an understatement.
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