Meet author and playwright Ruth Stevens, discover a new podcast, and register for our next Writers Group Live!

Feb 16, 2022 2:01 am

Dear AlzAuthor,

Your management team has been hard at work this winter coming up with brilliant new schemes to not only benefit our authors, but to bring much needed relief and resources to our caregiving followers. As you know, we are all about easing the dementia journey through knowledge, comfort, and support. To that end, we work tirelessly to create new programs and products, all of this virtually as we are spread across North America, using our Slack channel and Zoom to get it all done. We have several new initiatives to release this spring, as well as future virtual panels and Writers Group Live! events on the schedule. Be sure to open this email every week so you don't miss out, and pay attention to our Writers Group on Facebook, where we also post news and info you need to know. And remember to share our news and info across your own social media and other platforms. There's an old African proverb: If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go with others. Stick with us.

💜 💜 💜

Introducing Ruth Stevens, Playwright and Author of Stage Seven, a Novel

Ruth writes:

As a lifetime lover of theatre, I first wrote Stage Seven as a play, a two-act dramedy performed in a community theatre production in 2018. During the four performances, the audiences reacted in ways I hadn’t anticipated. People laughed and cried, as I’d hoped they would—but some even told me the play changed their lives. After one performance, a woman from the audience told me, “I wasn’t going to come, because I lost my husband to Alzheimer’s recently and I thought it would be too depressing. My best friend had seen it and she said, go, it’s funny. And I’m glad I did. I felt like your play gave me permission to move ahead with my life.”

Read the entire post here:

https://alzauthors.com/2022/02/15/meet-ruth-f-stevens-author-of-stage-seven/

Please click the link below to retweet the announcement of this post:

https://twitter.com/AlzAuthors/status/1493759447759351808?s=20&t=68LQJx7khAwDee9Ya3QgMw

💜 💜 💜

On The Podcast: Helene Berger Untangles Choosing Joy in The Dementia Journey

Prior to assuming the role of dementia caregiver to Ady, her husband of fifty years, Helene Berger held positions of leadership throughout her life, in her home community of Miami, Florida, and across the United States. She is recognized as a powerful and inspirational speaker, and has used her voice and influence to marshal help for large and diverse groups of people with a wide variety of needs. Choosing Joy, Alzheimer’s: A Book of Hope is her first book. It was inspired by the unanticipated, positive results that her husband Ady achieved after his diagnosis of Alzheimer’s.

In this episode, we discuss many of the strategies Helene learned to help Ady thrive despite Alzheimer’s. Her techniques, delivered with patience and love, allowed him to maintain his dignity and individuality. These include her belief that it is better to ask questions rather than make demands, the difference between “not now” and “never,” and the wisdom that 50 years of marriage brought to their dementia journey. Helene acknowledges that her techniques may not work for everyone and may not produce the results she achieved with Ady, but they are certainly worth a try. Start listening now!

💜 💜 💜

Our Next Writers Group Live is March 7th at 2 pm

Please join us for a discussion on how to get book reviews. We'll go over why reviews are so important, how to identify your ideal reader, how to find reviewers to read your book, the etiquette behind review requests, and making your pitch. The meeting is on Monday, March 7th at 2 pm EST. Register here.

Catch the replay of Building Your Author Platform here.

💜 💜 💜

Find Us on the CircleOf App

We're pleased to announce we're now included on the CircleOf app.

CircleOf is a free app that assists busy caregivers, providing a one stop platform to organize care, keep others informed of their loved one's progress, manage tasks, appointments, medications, and more. We're listed as a resource on their Alzheimer's tab. You can check it out here.

💜 💜 💜

Help Feed Our Facebook Page

Like everyone else, we need content to feed to our Facebook followers. As our goal is to promote our authors on this platform as well as on AlzAuthors.com., we invite you to let us know when you've posted something to your FB page that may interest our followers. Please tag @AlzAuthors, @VickiTapia or @MarianneSciucco and make sure your post is shareable. We will then share it to our page, and include the title of your book in our intro. Thanks!

💜 💜 💜

Love Stories Replay is on YouTube

Our recent virtual event, Love Stories: Keeping Romance Alive in Dementia Care, featuring Sue Ryan, Richard Creighton. Gincy Heins, and Tony Copeland-Parker was full of deep insights into dementia care between spouses, offering much enlightenment and ideas to all who attended. Some comments:

I’m impressed with the positive attitude of the caregivers and the strategies they employ.
I love how each couple has kept up their own ways of socializing or managing. It goes to show how unique each relationship is.
This has been so rich and wonderful. I am grateful to all the presenters.
All of the panelists are so inspiring! I'm so grateful to hear their stories.
I love the way our panelists are so supportive of one another.
You are all remarkable, and a great inspiration.
Thank you for sharing so many honest thoughts.

Watch Replay

💜 💜 💜

Gerda Saunders in PBS Documentary

Please share this across your networks (copy and paste). Thank you.

Our beloved friend Gerda Saunders (author of Memory's Last Breath: Field Notes on My Dementia) and her family are featured in this PBS documentary chronicling their lives over the past 6 years with dementia. It airs on Utah PBS February 17th at 7 pm, MT and will be available for streaming the following day. Gerda says: "We hope that you, my readers and viewers, will not be so overcome by the story’s inevitable sadness that you miss the joy our family has in each other, the trust we have developed with each other over a lifetime, and our well-intentioned desire that our story will bring understanding; the sense that you’re not alone, whether you yourself have dementia or someone you love; the heroic labor of love that caretakers and other family members provide to a dementer; and the joy that persists for many years—now over a decade for us—after a dementia diagnosis." Learn more.

💜 💜 💜

Co-Founder Marianne Sciucco is Celebrating Her Birthday with a Facebook Fundraiser!

February 17th is Marianne's birthday and she's celebrating all month long with a Facebook Fundraiser! You can help her meet her goal to raise funds for her favorite non-profit here. All funds will benefit our mission to provide quality resources for caregivers on a dementia journey. Thank you for your generosity!

💜 💜 💜

Our mission is to provide quality resources for those concerned with Alzheimer’s and dementia. If you would like to help here are several ways you can support us:

Become an AlzAuthors Donor

Subscribe to our weekly blog

Follow our podcast and leave a review

Subscribe to our YouTube channel

Volunteer your time and talents

Submit Your Book, Blog, or other Resource

Designate AlzAuthors as your Amazon Smile charity

Buy a book (or books!) in the AlzAuthors Bookstore

Join our Amazon book club

Leave a review on Google

Start or join a Round Robin Book Review Circle

Share this newsletter with others on a dementia journey