Author Spotlight, Jim Giglio

James N. Giglio, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of History at Missouri State University and currently Distinguished Scholar-in-Residence at Drury University, is the author of seven books including Call me Tom: The Life of Thomas F. Eagleton and Musial: From Stash to Stan the Man. He lives in Springfield, Missouri and is our current author spotlight!

by Brittney Warrick, Publicity Intern

Thomas F. Eagleton was a moderate liberal in a conservative state. What were some of the specific viewpoints he held that were challenged the most, and why?

Eagleton's liberal position on gun control and his opposition to the death penalty were unpopular.  The former almost cost him the Senate election in 1968.  His stance on social issues supported by the Democratic party also invited oppostion in outstate Missouri.

When Eagleton’s mental illness was discovered why was it so crippling to his life within politics?

The fact that he underwent shock treatments more than once raised questions about his mental condition.  There was a misconception about shock treatments that frightened some voters.

 With holding interviews with over 85 people, what was it like to become so immersed in the history of somebody else’s life so personally?

That is what a biographer does or should do although you can't completely understand a person.  You do find out a lot about him or her that you sometimes don't expect.  That is what makes it so interesting.

 Who was the most interesting interviewee you encountered when doing research to find out about Eagleton’s life and why?

Joe Biden was interesting because he is vice president and knew Eagleton well.  He was also well prepared for the interview.  Eagleton's wife Barbara also was interesting because she knew him the best over time.  Their courtship stories added to the story of a younger Eagleton.

 What has been your favorite place that you have traveled to?

Boston.  I made many trips there in my study of John F. Kennedy.  I fell in love with the city and its restaurants and its culture.

 What was your favorite book in college?

The writings of Francis Parkman.  I also enjoyed biographies back then.

 What has been your favorite book/subject to teach as a professor?

I loved teaching the New Deal and events leading up to the civil war and the 1960s perhaps because they involved my three favorite presidents--Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt, and Kennedy.  When I taught a graduate course on the Nature of Biography, my three favorite biographies were Benjamin Thomas's Abraham Lincoln, C. Vann Woodward's Tom Watson: Agrarian Rebel, and James MacGregor Burns's Franklin Roosevelt: The Lion and the Fox.  These are now dated, but they are classics.

 What are hobbies/interest you have outside of your profession?

I am an avid but mediocre golfer.

Author Spotlight, Doug Feldmann

Doug Feldmann is the author of Gibson's Last Stand: The Rise, Fall, and Near Misses of the St. Louis Cardinals, 1969-1975. He is an Associate Professor in the College of Education at Northern Kentucky University and a part-time scout for the Cincinnati Reds. He is the author of nine books, including El Birdos: The 1967 and 1968 St. Louis Cardinals, and is our current Author Spotlight!

by Brittney Warrick, Publicity Intern

In what ways do you feel the game of baseball has changed the most since Gibson’s last day on the field to present day?

This, ironically, was one of the themes of the book; both Gibson and the Cardinals owner, August Busch Jr., were bemoaning what they envisioned – separately, and for separate reasons – changes that were occurring in baseball by the early to mid-1970s.  For Gibson, it was the dissipation of what he called the “rancor” between the pitcher and the batter… that is, the ability for the pitcher and the batter to resolve on-field disputes themselves, without the umpire constantly jumping in with a warning for a pitch too close, a warning for a threatening tone from the batter, etc.  For Busch, he saw the typical player of the mid-1970s as one of a new breed – that of greed and ungratefulness.  It truly soured his love for the game, and hastened his retreat from running many of the day-to-day operations of the club.

  How would you personally describe the Golden Era of baseball?

In my opinion, the “Golden Era” of baseball would begin in the Great Depression, through World War II and the 1950s, and into the 1960s.  It was a time when ballplayers not only loved and respected the game, but had to watch their money carefully.  For example, in 1934, Cardinals shortstop Leo Durocher was asked to take a 40% salary cut due to the economic times – from $8,500 a year down to $5,000.  Could one imagine a player today accepting a 40% pay cut? (at least without a lot of whining and moaning?)  Likely not!  What is more – the fact that the players during the Great Depression, like so many others in the society, had to fight for any extra nickel they could earn; what this produced was a hard-fought World Series in 1934 (for example) between the Tigers and the Cardinals, in which each player on the winning side would receive an extra $5,800 – money that was desperately needed, even by major leaguers, during this time.  Therefore, fans were thus treated to a hard-fought World Series, with players on both sides giving everything they had.

As a part time scout for the Cincinnati Reds can you explain the process of scouting?

As a part-time scout, I assist full-time scouts in covering some of their geographical area.  With the cuts that many clubs have made to their full-time scouting staffs, some scouts now have to cover the equivalent of two states or more.  If there is a player in my area that the full-time scout would like for me to see, I do so, fill out a report on the player, and send it in to the club.  So, I serve as an extra “set of eyes” in evaluating the given player, helping the organization decide if it would like to select the player during the June amateur draft.

Who are your favorite major leagues sports teams?

My father played for the Cubs and the White Sox in the minor leagues in the late 1940s and early 1950s, and our family was raised mostly Cubs fans on the north side of Chicago (my mother is a Cubs fan as well – even though she was raised in Joliet, Illinois – definitely more of a White Sox town, south of Chicago).  Additionally, my father was raised in southern Illinois, which is Cardinals territory (and my mother was born in St. Louis) – so, we have some Cardinals connections within our family as well.

 What are your hobbies and interest outside of your profession?

I also work part-time for the Major League Baseball web site, MLB.com – I enter the play-by-play on a laptop for the Cincinnati Reds games from the ballpark press box, so that people can follow the game if they are at a computer, but perhaps away from a television or radio.  I also like to run, read historical biographies, and hang out with my wonderful wife Angie, and our playful dog Dizzy! (who, incidentally, is named after former Cardinals pitcher Dizzy Dean – the subject of my first book from 2000).

 As the author of nine books, where do your main ideas and thoughts come from and how do you go about pursuing the research for them?

Most of my nine books have dealt with a particular team in a particular baseball season; for example, I have written books on the 1934 Cardinals, the 1967-68 Cardinals, and the 1985 Cardinals (in addition to Gibson's Last Stand, which looks at the team from 1969-1975).  Part of my reasoning for choosing a particular topic is "selfish," and the other part is "practical."  The selfish part means that I select  years or teams that were personally meaningful or interesting to me; the practical part means that I select years or teams with an especially-compelling story to tell, arising from the given baseball season or that era/year in society.  The "selfish" part is what drives me (and is, I am sure, what drives many authors); the "practical" part helps me finish the job, as I attempt to create associations in the story that others will understand and find interesting.

  Where has been one of the most interesting places you have traveled to?

Speaking of my dog, Dizzy... when I was conducting the research for my first book, I traveled to the last home of Dizzy Dean in Wiggins, Mississippi - a small town on U.S. 49, and one of the last stops on the way to the Gulf Coast at Biloxi and Gulfport.  Bond - the community next to Wiggins - was the hometown of Dizzy's wife Pat, whom he had met during one of Dizzy's minor league stops back around 1930.  They decided to retire there in the 1960s, and their home is now an orphanage known as "Deanash" (a combination of Dizzy's last name and Pat's maiden name, which was Nash).  Also, there is now the "Dizzy Dean Rest Area" off of U.S. 49 in Wiggins, with pictures from his career with the Cardinals.  Diz and Pat are buried in the Bond Cemetery, which is tucked away through some back country roads in a quaint, remote, and peaceful area.

Who do you predict to be the winner of the next World Series?

I don’t like making predictions; however, I do see the Cardinals having another strong year!  I believe some people are writing them off, simply because of the loss of Albert Pujols; however, with the return of Adam Wainwright to the pitching staff, as well as the development and acquisition of other certain players, I think the 2012 Cardinals could be even better this year than their World Series-winning club of a year ago.

Author Spotlight, Darryl Dickson-Carr

By: Sarah Mason, Sales Intern

Dickson-Carr is Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in English at Southern Methodist University, where he teaches courses in twentieth-century American literature, African American literature, and satire. He is the author of The Columbia Guide to Contemporary African American Fiction (Columbia UP, 2005), which won an American Book Award in 2006, and African American Satire: The Sacredly Profane Novel (2001). He is completing Spoofing the Modern: Satire in the Harlem Renaissance and is our latest author spotlight!

What inspired you to write “African American Satire”?

The genesis of African American Satire may be found in work I did early in my graduate school career many years ago. I'd planned to study the history of satire when I began my program, and did so enthusiastically. I simultaneously found my interest in African American literature growing as another generation of scholars—Houston A. Baker, Jr., Hazel Carby, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Bernard W. Bell, Trudier Harris, Arnold Rampersad, Frances Smith Foster, among others—opened up numerous possibilities for studying the tradition from a myriad of critical perspectives. As I studied these two fields, I found it curious that very little information could found on African American satirical literature. A few people had written critically about African American humor, but seldom about satire, much less literary satire. With the supervision of my advisors and the help of research assistants, I started researching and writing what would eventually become African American Satire to fill that gap.

 "African American Satire" is about looking at some authorss' writings in others ways. What ideas or events do you encourage readers to reconsider and think differently about?

African American Satire asks readers to recognize a couple of central ideas. First, I highlight where satirical modes—expressive approaches, if you will—may be found throughout African American literary and cultural traditions. Second, satire by African Americans has been ignored or dismissed because it challenges prevailing ideas of a particular time, whether within or without African American communities. In addition, since it is to misunderstand satire or to conflate satirical humor with racist, stereotypical views of African Americans' humorous expression, black and white observers alike have been reluctant to give satire its due as a powerful took against intolerance, bigotry and ignorance. Satire may not solve the world's problems, but it lets us know they exist, and that we're responsible for resolving them.

What is your favorite place you have travelled to and why?

That would have to be New York City. It's such an amazingly rich and complex center of culture and the arts. It's also the home of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, which is located in Harlem. Many of the authors I've studied lived, worked, and wrote in New York. I always find the city enriching and surprising.

What was your favorite book in high school or college?

When I was a junior in college, I read for the first time two books that changed the course of my life: Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift and The Autobiography of Malcolm X. I'd long enjoyed satire, but Swift's narrative offered the most devastating view of humanity I'd read until that point. Malcolm X lived an extraordinary life, but so many of his experiences were startlingly common. Like so many other young people, I found myself identifying with him on some levels and wrestling with the many challenges he posed to the way the average person thinks about American and world history. Together, Malcolm X and Swift helped me to become a more critical thinker.

Do you hope to do another book in the future? Any themes you'd like to explore?

I am currently working on "Spoofing the Modern: Satire in the Harlem Renaissance." I argue that satire was at the heart of the Harlem Renaissance movement. The most significant writers of the time employed satirical modes and called upon others to do the same. In fact, writers and intellectuals who held their peers respect—W.E.B. Du Bois, James Weldon Johnson, Wallace Thurman, Langston Hughes, Zora Neal Hurston, George S. Schuyler, and Rudolph Fisher—considered satire critical to the growth of African American culture. My book traces their perspectives and analyzes its effects upon subsequent literature.

Author Spotlight, Dave Fiedler

By: Sarah Mason, Sales Intern

David Fiedler, a former captain in the U. S. Army Reserve, is now an independent writer living in St. Louis, Missouri. He is currently working on his newest historical fiction and counter part novel My Enemy, My Love, is the author of The Enemy Among Us, and is our latest author spotlight!

Why was MO chosen as a place to host POWs?

Missouri was chosen as a place to host POWs since its relatively sparse population and distance from the coasts made government planners think that there would be less chance for successful escape and/or sabotage attempts.  Plus a heavy agricultural economy meant that their was a great need for POW labor.  Eventually German and Italian prisoners were housed in virtually every state in the continental US. 

What is (was?) your specialty or role in the U.S. Army Reserve?

In the U.S. Army Reserve, I served as an officer in a field hospital.  I was responsible for the non-medical side of hospital operations, i.e., hospital defense, vehicles, supply, food service, etc.  We joked that our job was to draw fire away from the doctors and nurses.

It was in training for this position that I first encountered physical traces of the POWs here in the U.S.  when I saw etched into the concrete of a well cover on a Texas army post the words, “Built by the German soldiers, 1945”  And at annual training (the two-week summer camp  duty that reservists perform) at Fort Leonard Wood, I saw a handful of black and white photos of German POWs working outside the post in towns nearby like St. James and Waynesville that drove my interest in this story here.

What is your favorite place you have travelled to?

Related to my interest in this story, I have had the good fortune to spend some time in Germany.  A summer language program in Goettingen in 1991 gave me useful skills in this research, and a two-week summer exchange with a German army medical unit in 1997 helped both develop valuable contacts and gave me real-life context for use in the fictional counterpart, a novel that is paired with The Enemy Among Us that came out this past fall.

What was your favorite book in college?

Anything that didn’t have heavy mathematics.

What other historical events fascinate you/spark your interest?

I am interested in relatively recent Missouri history (i.e., 20^th century) and how these events still influence us today.  For instance, the story of Harry Truman and his rise from relative obscurity into prominence and power in part thanks to the backing of the Pendergast political machine is very fascinating to me.  I have been reading about Charles Lindbergh a lot lately too with his ties to Missouri.  His flight across the Atlantic propelled him to a fame that he didn’t seem to enjoy and his fate as a private individual (who sometime expressed unpopular opinions) who was thrust very much into the spotlight is interesting to me as well.

How was it finding and interviewing people who experienced/knew about the POW situation for both of your books?

A very nice aspect about this story for me was in talking to people who were excited and usually glad to talk about their role in the POW history.  It didn’t hold the same difficult and tragic memories of wartime experiences that others faced who spent longer time in battle.  For many people, they saw it as a very positive dimension of the war, both surprising and touching that people could make these heartfelt connections and very pleasant memories when it was in fact the war that brought them together, initially as enemies, and if nothing else, as people inclined to be suspicious/distrustful/hateful toward the other.

Hog Butcher for the World, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat . . . and Host to 10,000 Writers

By Ned Stuckey-French

The Associated Writers  & Writing Programs (AWP) Annual Conference for 2012 was the biggest ever, so big it felt as if I were experiencing only the tiniest sliver of the event, even though I tried to schedule the four days carefully, plotting out all my panels, readings, parties, and receptions, and meetings over coffee, drinks, lunch, and dinner in advance.

I had a great time at the conference in Chicago last week, but am glad it was Spring Break at Florida State, where I teach, when I returned home this week, as I needed the time to recover.

For me, last week’s convention included the annual Pinch/Normal School party, meetings with editors, several great panels and readings, and dinners with old friends from FSU, Purdue and Iowa, and a book signing for my new book, Essayists on the Essay:Montaigne to Our Time (U of Iowa P), but the highlights were the two panels I was on.

Friday at noon, I participated in Why We Need a WPA for the 21st Century along with Miles Harvey, Kimberly Dixon and our capable convener and moderator Sandi Wisenberg. We talked about the history of the Works Progress (later Project) Administration, related New Deal programs such as the Federal Writers Project and Civilian Conservation Corps, Richard Wright, current challenges for arts administrators, and the many strikes, demonstrations, and marches to which Roosevelt and his Brain Trust were responding—working-class activity involving tens of thousands of workers and the rightwing backlash that cost dozens of them their lives. The Q & A was lively and productive, and Sandi has set up a blog where people can continue the conversation.

My research for the panel revealed to me that the WPA and New Deal have been constant, important, even essential parts of my own life. My high school was a New Deal project, so is my daughter’s. My hometown post office featured WPA murals, and the cover art for my book, The American Essay in the American Century (U of Missouri Press, 2011), is a painting titled “Subway 1934” by WPA artist Lily Furedi.

My second panel, The Lyric Essay: A Collapse of Forms or a Form of Collapse?, was scheduled for the final time slot, 4:30 on Saturday, and my fellow panelists and I had worried that we wouldn’t have much of an audience. We needn’t have. The Continental A ballroom of the Hilton was packed to overflowing, thanks in large part by the current kerfuffle about truth in creative non-fiction sparked by the release of Lifespan of a Fact, the new book by John D’Agata and John Fingal, which had been featured the previous weekend in both the New YorkTimes Book Review and Magazine.

I thought my fellow panelists – Jocelyn Bartkevicius, Steven Church, Colin Rafferty – and I were taking a measured and humorous, if finally critical, stand on D’Agata’s willingness to fudge the facts in the name of Art, but some in the audience thought otherwise. The Q & A was the most contentious I’ve ever seen at a conference. But, our estimable convener Wendy Rawlings did a tremendous job of moderating the discussion, which in the end forced us all to think more deeply about the issues of accuracy, truth, subjectivity, and the relationship between memory and imagination that have troubled essayists since Montaigne.

Audience members were tweeting from the ballroom during the tension-filled Q & A. In the last few days, many of them have posted about the panel on their blogs, including at the Brevity Blog, where Dinty Moore kindly posted my presentation in its entirety – a “Dear John” letter to John D’Agata.

This debate won’t be going away soon; in fact, I suspect there will be plenty of panels on the essay at next year’s AWP conference in Boston.

The Power of Two

Isabel Stenzel Byrnes & Anabel Stenzel

We've heard Anabel's story about the process of publishing and now Isabel elaborates on the journey that followed.

Click here for information about The Power of Two premiere movie showing in Kansas City

My name is Isabel Stenzel Byrnes, and my twin Ana and I published, The Power of Two: A Twin Triumph over Cystic Fibrosis in 2007. Ana already elaborated on our writing journey, but I’d like to share our adventures following the release of our book. Only nine months after the publication of the UMP memoir, my Japanese mother’s long-time friend submitted a query letter to several Japanese publishers. Iwanami Shoten, the second largest publisher in Japan, agreed to translate The Power of Two. After painstakingly editing down the manuscript to one-third of its’ length, Mirakuru Tzuinzu (Miracle Twins) was translated and published in September, 2009. Just a few months earlier, after much debate, Parliament passed Japan’s groundbreaking organ donation law, thus making organ transplantation a hot topic for public discussion. Organ donation remains highly controversial in Japan, a country that generally does not accept brain death and has numerous religious superstitions about death—and organ donation. Our book would be a welcome personal story to highlight the benefits of organ donation to recipients, while also portraying the healing from grief that organ donation can offer to donor families. A small group of Japanese organ donation and cystic fibrosis advocates embraced our book and organized a ten- city book tour. After speaking limited Japanese in the home growing up, Ana and I crammed and prepared professional, medically-oriented Japanese lectures about our lives, perspectives on illness and death and the ethics of organ donation. Our mission: to be outspoken Japanese-American advocates for this life-saving cause.

A few months before our anticipated Japan tour, my husband, Andrew Byrnes, met a filmmaker who focused on social causes. Marc Smolowitz, an Academy-Award nominated filmmaker, read our book immediately and felt compelled to create a film. Since Ana and I had retained the rights to film from UMP, our plunge into cinematic storytelling was rather straightforward. My husband-turned-producer initiated fundraising efforts, and before long, a film crew of five joined us for a 26-day tour of Japan in October, 2009. We traveled from tropical Okinawa to cool northern Sendai; we lectured all over Tokyo and managed to visit historic temples in Kyoto, in between lectures at medical schools and public consortiums. Our relatives joined several events and we appreciated the chance for such a special reunion. The book received positive reviews and sold well at our events, although we couldn’t read it ourselves! The Japanese were visibly fascinated by our stories: in Japan, illness carries a stigma and most patients are not public about their experiences.

After capturing nearly two hundred hours of interviews and scenes of the Japan Transplant Games and other cystic fibrosis and organ donation awareness activities, we returned home. Marc and Andrew decided to contrast Japan’s organ donation situation with film shoots at the U.S. Transplant Games and our advocacy work in Washington, D.C. After tremendous efforts, we raised enough money to complete the 94-minute film, also called “The Power Of Two.” While the film is inspired by our UMP memoir, it is so much more than our story. The film is a story about hope, survival and love. It also highlights the miracle of breath: something that we can all cherish. By featuring people who are waiting for- and who have received- the gift of lung transplantation, we are sharing the experience of a small segment of society who struggles to breathe, and who find that struggle alleviated by the generosity of organ donors. The complex cultural issues highlighted make this film globally relevant.

Since the film’s release, “The Power Of Two” film has been accepted into 20 film festivals and has received seven awards. In August, 2011, the film premiered at the Oscar-qualifying DocuWeeks theatrical showcase in Los Angeles and New York City, and in October, the film premiered in Asia at the Tokyo International Film Festival. We will secure a film distributor in the U.S. and Japan shortly. In this competitive cinematic landscape, we are very satisfied with the film’s success. We have also hosted numerous community screenings nationwide with non-profits and educational institutions to use the film to educate the public about cystic fibrosis and organ donation.

What a whirlwind! We never, ever imagined that our life experiences with CF would unfold into such extraordinary benefits like a UMP memoir, a Japanese memoir, and now a documentary film! And, these opportunities are just the icing on our cake of life... just to be alive and breathing well is a gift enough, and now we have one blessed opportunity unfolding after another. We are especially grateful to the entire UMP staff, which has supported us tremendously through our unconventional publishing adventure.

Thank you for reading our blogs. Right now, please stop and take a slow, deep breath and feel your life force enter all the way to the depths of your lungs. If you’d like to see if “The Power Of Two” film will be screening in your area, please visit our website at  www.thepoweroftwomovie.com. Thank you for your interest. May you be blessed with deep breaths always,

Isabel Stenzel Byrnes

To sign up to be an organ donor, visit www.donatelife.net.

The Power of Two

The Power of Two

Isabel Stenzel Byrnes & Anabel Stenzel

This book is now a film featuring the lives of Ana and Isabel, two half-Japanese identical twins that battle the genetic lung disease cystic fibrosis. Despite transplants and other medical difficulties these women emerge not only as authors but go on to help the world as global advocates for organ donations. 

The inspiring  film The Power of Two will be shown from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. at The Truman Forum in the Kansas City Public Library, Plaza Branch. 

4801 Main Street Kansas City, MO 64112

Doors open at 5:30 and RSVP request can be made online

Its a free public event so bring the family along!

My name is Anabel Stenzel and I’m a co-author of a University of Missouri Press (UMP) book, The Power of Two: A Twin Triumph Over Cystic Fibrosis. I wrote this memoir together with my sister, Isabel (or Isa). We are half-Japanese, half- German identical twins from California. In this two-part blog, Isa and I would like to share our experiences as authors, and all the adventures we’ve had since the publication of our book in 2007.

Back in 1972, Isa and I were born with cystic fibrosis (CF), a genetic lung disease that affects about 30,000 Americans. CF promises a very difficult lifestyle, but Isa and I were blessed to share the challenge. Together, we endured daily respiratory treatments and frequent hospital stays to treat chronic lung infections. By the time we were 18 years old, each of us had been in the hospital about 36 weeks of our lives, cumulatively. During these long hospital stays, Isa and I started a joint endeavor of writing a journal about our hospital experiences. That simple time exploring with writing helped fuel our desire to eventually publish a real memoir.

Unfortunately, with each lung infection, our lungs became progressively damaged. My lung disease worsened more rapidly than Isa’s. Despite tremendous fears, when I was 24, I decided to go on a waiting list for a double lung transplant. On June 14, 2000, a compassionate family who faced a tragedy said yes to organ donation, and a donor saved my life. Within 12 months, I was swimming, hiking, jogging, volunteering and working almost full-time. It was truly human resurrection--- thanks to an organ donor and many blood donors.

Two years after my surgery, Isa’s health declined precipitously. When she turned 30, she was forced to “retire” from social work and go on disability. Since we always thrived with some therapeutic distraction from illness, Isa decided to embark on writing our twin memoir.  She signed up for local writing workshops and read memoirs voraciously. Isa and I assigned each other various topics and stages of our lives that we wanted to write about. We’d proofread what we each had written, and of course, as sisters do, we bickered about divergent memories or perspectives, but ultimately respected our own voices.

The act of writing awakened something deep inside of me. A lifetime of physical limitations had made me feel self-conscious, insecure and inferior to my healthy peers. By writing down stories of my past, I found value in my unique perspective living as a twin and as someone with illness. I witnessed how my drafts started full of anger and gradually involved into a place of deeper introspection, maturity and even humor. The honest reflection and review of my life culminated in a sense of acceptance and understanding. I wrote about friends who had died, and through describing their laughs, mannerisms, and shared adventures; I could bring them back to life, and come to a place of closure in my grief.

While writing has always been my passion, professionally, I am a genetic counselor, while Isa is a social worker and health educator. We wanted our memoir to be a teaching tool for families struggling with illness as well as health care providers. We hoped that members of the general public could also value the spiritual lessons and existential messages in our story.

Finding a large corporate publisher who viewed the story as “marketable” proved to be a difficult task, and we soon turned to academic presses. University of Missouri Press had a history of publishing memoirs, so we submitted a query letter. Within weeks, Beverly Jarrett, the Editor-In-Chief at the time, requested that we mail the complete manuscript. Not long after, in October 2006, Isa and I met with Gary Kass, Acquisitions Editor, who happened to be traveling to our area in Northern California for a book meeting. We let out huge sighs of relief when UMP offered to publish our book. As Stanford graduates, Isa and I value academic institutions, and appreciate academic presses for their respect of the educational value of a book’s content. We were thrilled. The anticipation of a final product overcame the next months of meticulous editing and manuscript preparation. Sara Davis offered extraordinary support with the details leading to our final product.

Within months, for unknown reasons, however, my body started to reject my lungs, and soon I was in a wheelchair with lung failure. I felt terrified at the idea of Isa going on book tours without me. I was determined to see my book come out, exemplified once by my comment, “I’m too busy to die!” The book focused my energy on surviving. Thankfully, I was blessed with another second double lung transplant in July 2007. Being saved again, “the power of two” was once more robust.

When the The Power of Two was released in late 2007, Isa and I exploded into manic activity. Isa started a website, blog and got a business license and sales permit. Thanks to Marketing Manager, Beth Chandler, our book was featured in People magazine (which apparently led to exhilarant screaming by Beth Chandler in the office) and several other media outlets. We set up our own book signings at bookstores across the United States. In March 2008, we drove to the Pacific Northwest, and in April 2008, we started a 40-day tour across the United States that included book signings and lectures with cystic fibrosis and organ donation groups. On our drive from Albuquerque to Chicago, we made sure to drive through Columbia to stop by and greet our friends at the Press. I felt so blessed to have University of Missouri’s Press recognize the story of two Californian women!

Soon, the solicitations for speaking engagements from hospitals, universities and conferences started, and still continue today, five years later. Thanks to generous pharmaceutical grants, and UMP’s cooperation (especially Debbie Guilford and Lyn Smith), we have been able to provide free books at specific events to families living with cystic fibrosis. Countless families have praised and admired our book in ways that we never imagined. Our illness community was starved for hopeful stories and positive role models. Parents, siblings and patients could relate to our family’s struggles, thus feeling less alone. Best of all, Isa and I were healthy, traveling the world together and enjoying emotional highs we thought a life with CF could never offer.

Thank you for reading my long blog post. Isa will continue this blog with her version of what happened after the publication of The Power of Two.

-ANA