Tens of thousands of homeless people walk the streets, forgotten, yet each with their own story to tell. Marie James, a 69-year-old bag lady, and a frequent guest at an inner-city mission in Chicago, sat with Jane Hertenstein through the summer of 1995 and recorded this shocking and moving story of life filled with sorrow, loss, mental instability, and hope. Her memoir will break one's heart, yet encourage and inspire. -- "Harrowing inside view of homelessness", -- Publishers Weekly, Augus...

It's a natty little euphemism, isn't it? Of a certain age. A flow of words so undergirded by conventional politesse that it's entirely possible a woman coined it herself. Vague enough to be gentle enough. But the ambiguity cuts both ways. You can't describe what you don't even take the time to notice. And as any woman past the age of none of your business will attest, the first horseman is invisibility.Woman of a Certain Age does what oth...

Suddenly we remember, triggered by a familiar smell, the taste of a cookie, the touch of soft skin. Flash, and we are back in the past. Memories. They are elusive, mysterious, with a mind of their own. If only we could harness them and turn them into memoir.Now you can. In the amount of time it takes to brush your teeth, you can jot down a memory to be later expanded upon or used in sequence with others. Flash Memoir: Writing Prompts to Get You Flashing will guide you in constructi...

"How would you like to go to paradise?" asks Louise Keller's father, a Baptist minister who has accepted a position as a missionary on the small island of Panay. Fourteen-year-old Louise, a writer of poetry who chafes at small-town life, is eager for the change. But the new experiences Louise has dreamed of soon turn nightmarish: when the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor, the war, which had seemed so far away, rapidly threatens their island existence.This unusual first novel is based on ...

Anthology of poetry, art, and short stories from 23 contributors across the globe.

Many of us are looking to write memories—either in the form of literary memoir or simply to record family history. This how-to book looks at memoir in small, bite-size pieces, helping the writer to isolate or freeze-frame a moment and then distill it onto paper.Jane Hertenstein is the author of close to 70 published stories, a combination of fiction, creative non-fiction, and blurred genre both micro and macro. In addition she has published a YA novel, Beyond Paradise and a non-fic...

Writing is a journey. Every time we sit down to begin a piece or write the first chapter or the first line we are venturing into uncharted territory. 365 Affirmations for the Writer is about listening to those who have gone before us and letting them guide us with their insight, their own trials. By reading what others have said, we can survey the path before us, count the cost, and plunge ahead.Jane Hertenstein is the author of numerous short stories and flash. Her work has been i...

Fifteen-year-old Hanna Berkenski journeys from her family's tiny apartment in the Warsaw Ghetto through an awful night spent in a cattle-car with her mother and sister to the welcoming orchestra at Auschwitz where she was to be a violinist for three years.As the train arrives at Auschwitz, flowers, sunshine and music feel like warm welcomes to her. She's been told she'll be spending the next few weeks in a "work camp" until her family can be reunited and relocated. Even the snowfla...

The second in a series of true short stories from foster carer Mia Marconi.India was a child who was destined to end up in care. She came to foster carer Mia Marconi’s house when she was three; she’d already been in care for five months by then. But her mum Amy didn’t get on with her carer and threatened to kill her so India was moved.But no matter how inadequate parents are, children in care love them and want the world to love them too.Amy had had a hard life: she...

In the much-anticipated follow-up to Sunday Times bestseller Trapped, foster carer Rosie Lewis tells the heartbreaking true story of 13-year-old Zadie.When the young teenage girl runs away from home and is discovered hiding on the city streets by the police, it is clear that all is not as it should be.Taught to believe that Westerners should not be trusted, when Zadie is initially delivered into the experienced hands of foster carer Rosie she is polite and well-behaved, but...

The Boy They Tried to Hide is the startling, true account about a troubled young boy who disappears into the woods by his house. Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction ...Shane Dunphy was working as a resource teacher in a rural town when he was approached by the mother of one of his pupils, seeking help. She is worried for her troubled young son, who has been found leaving the house late at night to go deep into the woods near their home. He has spoken of meetings with ...

A difficult and distressing tale of a young boy who desperately needs to be loved.Nathan is a troubled young child. Disruptive, aggressive and, most disturbingly, prone to violent mood-swings Nathan soon finds himself in at the school’s behavioural unit, managed by Casey – Ms Watson to her students. What’s even more disturbing is Nathan’s split personalities; from Jenny with a bright blonde wig to sexually frustrated Jack, Nathan’s behaviour demonstrates some serious psychological ...