Song of the Plains: A Memoir of Family, Secrets, and Silence - Paperback

by Linda Joy PhD Myers (Author)

Ever since she was a child, Linda Joy Myers felt the power of the past. As the third daughter in her family to be abandoned or estranged by a mother, she observed the consequences of that heritage on the women she loved as well as herself. But thanks to the stories told to her by her great-grandmother, Myers received a gift that proved crucial in her life: the idea that everyone is a walking storybook, and that we all have within us the key to a deeper understanding of life--the secret stories that make themselves known even without words.
Song of the Plains is a weaving of family history that starts in the Oklahoma plains and spans over forty years as Myers combs through dusty archives, family stories, and genealogy online. She discovers the secrets that help to explain the fractures in her family, and the ways in which her mother and grandmother found a way not only to survive the great challenges of their eras, but to thrive despite mental illness and abuse. She discovers how decisions made long ago broke her family apart--and she makes it her life's work to change her family story from one of abuse and loss to one of finding and creating a new story of hope, forgiveness, healing, and love.

Author Biography

Linda Joy Myers is president and founder of the National Association of Memoir Writers. Her memoir Don't Call Me Mother--A Daughter's Journey from Abandonment to Forgiveness was a finalist in the ForeWord Book of the Year Award, a finalist in the IndieExcellence Awards, the winner of the BAIPA Gold Medal award. She's the author of three books on memoir writing: The Power of Memoir--How to Write Your Healing Story, Journey of Memoir, and Becoming Whole. She's a coauthor with Brooke Warner of two books: Breaking Ground on Your Memoir and Magic of Memoir. Myers writes for the Huffington Post and co-teaches the program Write Your Memoir in Six Months with Brooke Warner. A therapist for thirty-six years, Myers also speaks about memoir, healing, and the power of writing the truth.