11/11/19 @9:15am pst - Michelle Danner is an acting coach at the Los Angeles Acting School who specializes in the Meisner, Strasberg, Adler, Hagen, Chekhov and Stanislavsky techniques. She is also the founding and artistic director of the Edgemar Center for the Arts

LISTEN to today's conversation with Michelle Danner.

ABOUT
Michelle Danner is a world renowned acting coach, film and stage director, author, and teacher.

Michelle has taught acting for the last 29 years and has worked with many A-List Actors privately and on set including: Chris Rock, Gerard Butler, Seth MacFarlane, Melanie Brown, Jamie Lynn Sigler, Penelope Cruz, Verne Troyer, Grant Bowler, Kate Del Castillo, Michael Pena, Isla Fisher, Common, Salma Hayek, Chris Martin, Brian McKnight, James Franco, Marcia Cross, Christian Slater, Catherine Bell, Zooey Deschanel, Gabrielle Union, Justin Chatwin, Jennifer Coolidge,Justine Wadell, Rob Estes, Rick Fox, Henry Cavill and Michelle Rodriguez and many others.

Voted favorite acting coach by Backstage readers, teaching remains a passion. She was brought in for her expert coaching on the WB show The Starlet and was featured with Andy Richter on The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien.

Michelle trained extensively in Paris and New York with Stella Adler and Uta Hagen. She was the Managing Director of the Larry Moss Studio since it's inception in Los Angeles for 20 years.

She is the Founding Director of Edgemar Center for the Arts and raised $1.3 million to construct the two theaters and the art gallery at the Center. At the opening ceremony, Steven Spielberg commented, "Here we have a venue that can turn out some extremely experienced, daring and resourceful artists." She is currently serving as Artistic Director and teaches ongoing classes at the Michelle Danner Studio, housed at Edgemar.

Her seminars are taught internationally in South America, Europe, Toronto, Vancouver, Dubai, New York, Sydney and Australia. She has taught in several cities including: Johannesburg, Cape Town, Istanbul, Paris, and Moscow.

Michelle has directed and acted in over thirty plays and musicals in New York and Los Angeles. Her favorite acting credits include Tennessee William's The Rose Tattoo, which garnered LA Weekly critic's pick and five Dramalogue awards including best actress; House of Yes, Bright Ideas, Ibsen's Ghosts the world premiere of One White Crow.

Her highlights at Edgemar have been pioneering new works that include The Night of the Black Cat, a world premiere and winner of the 2005 Best Musical of the Year at the Los Angeles Music Awards. She directed the world premiere of Mental the Musical, winner of several 17th Annual TicketHolder awards for acting and musical score. She wrote and directed the world premiere of You're on the Air, an improv based comedy which is in development to become a movie. She directed the west coast premiere of Hello Herman by John Buffalo Mailer and co-directed Jane Fonda in the Court of Public Opinion starring Anne Archer.

Michelle also produced and acted in the award-winning short film Dos Corazones, which premiered at the Nashville Film Festival and went on to win Best Cinematography & Audience Favorite at the Malibu Film Festival.

In 2006, she made her feature film directing debut How to go Out on a Date in Queens which was nominated and won four L.A. Film Awards including Best Director. It starred Jason Alexander, Esai Morales, Ron Perlman, Kimberly Williams, Rob Estes and Alison Eastwood. Her production company, All in Films, has several projects in the works: You're on the Air, The Bandit Hound II, and The Will To...

In April 2011, she completed Hello Herman starring Norman Reedus (AMC's The Walking Dead), Martha Higareda, and Garrett Backstrom. The film premiered at the Hollywood Film Festival to a sold out audience and had its international premiere at the Monaco Charity Film Festival where it won the award for social relevance. It opened nationwide in June 2013 and was distributed on VOD in 100 million homes across the U.S. by Warner Brothers.

She is putting the finishing touches on her acting book, The Golden Box, which will be released in the fall of2015. Her latest film, The Bandit Hound, is in post production and slated to be released in the fall of 2015.


- IMDb Mini Biography By: Michelle Danner
Trivia (2)
Renowned acting teacher of the Larry Moss Studio.



Artistic Director of the Edgemar Center for the Arts.

11/11/19 @9:00am pst - Author and Crime Corner host Matt Coyle, who's releasing the sixth book in his Anthony Award-winning Rick Cahill series. “Lost Tomorrows” (Dec. 3, 2019, Oceanview) joins Janeane live on KUCI 88.9fm.

Author and Crime Corner host Matt Coyle, who's releasing the sixth book in his Anthony Award-winning Rick Cahill series. “Lost Tomorrows” (Dec. 3, 2019, Oceanview) joins Janeane live on KUCI 88.9fm.

His book is a gripping new mystery where Rick Cahill finds his past colliding with his present and which weaves revenge, redemption, and the hope of new love all in one action-packed thriller.


About
Matt Coyle is the author of the best-selling Rick Cahill crime novels. He knew he wanted to be a crime writer when he was fourteen and his father gave him the simple art of murder by Raymond Chandler. He graduated with a degree in English from University of California at Santa Barbara. His foray into crime fiction was delayed for thirty years as he spent time managing a restaurant, selling golf clubs for various golf companies, and in national sales for a sports licensing company.

Writing at night for over a decade his debut novel, Yesterday’s Echo, was finally published in 2013. The wait was almost worth it as it won the Anthony Award for Best First Novel, the San Diego Book Award for Best Mystery, the Ben Franklin Award for Best New Voice in Fiction.

Matt’s second book in the Rick Cahill series, Night Tremors, was a Bookreporter.com Reviewers’ Favorite Book of 2015 and was an Anthony, Shamus, and Lefty Award finalist.

Dark Fissures (Cahill #3), was a finalist for the Macavity and Lefty awards and was a 2016 Top Pick for Bookreporter.com.

Blood Truth (Cahill #4) was a Shamus, Lefty Award finalist, a Foreword Reviews Book of the Year Silver Award winner for Thriller/Suspence, and a top pick by Bookreporter.com for Best Mysteries of 2017.

Cahill #5, Wrong Light, was a Lefty Award and San Diego Book Award finalist and has been nominated for a Shamus Award. It was also a top pick by Bookreporter.com for Best Mysteries of 2018.

Lost Tomorrows, Matt’s sixth Rick Cahill novel, comes out in December.

His short story, The #2 Pencil, was a finalist for a Derringer and Macavity Award.

Matt lives in San Diego with his yellow Lab, Angus, where he is writing his seventh crime novel.

11/4/19 @9:00am pst - Dr. Pedro Noguera is the Distinguished Professor of Education at the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at UCLA. Dr. Noguera appears as a regular commentator on educational issues on CNN, MSNBC, National Public Radio, and other national news outlets. He joined host Janeane Bernstein live on KUCI 88.9fm

LISTEN to today's conversation with Dr. Pedro Noguera. 

Dr. Pedro Noguera is the Distinguished Professor of Education at the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at UCLA. Prior to joining the faculty at UCLA he served as a tenured professor and holder of endowed chairs at New York University (2003 – 2015) Harvard University (2000 – 2003) and the University of California, Berkeley (1990 – 2000). He is the author of eleven books and over 200 articles and monographs. 

He serves on the boards of numerous national and local organizations and appears as a regular commentator on educational issues on CNN, MSNBC, National Public Radio, and other national news outlets. His most recent books are Excellence Through Equity” (Corwin 2015) with Alan Blankstein, “School for Resilience: Improving the Life Trajectory of African American and Latino Boys” with E. Fergus and M. Martin (Harvard Education Press 2014), and “Creating the Opportunity to Learn” with A. Wade Boykin (ASCD, 2011). 

Dr. Noguera appears as a regular commentator on educational issues on CNN, MSNBC, National Public Radio, and other national news outlets. From 2009 - 2012 he served as a Trustee for the State University of New York (SUNY) as an appointee of the Governor. He serves on the boards of numerous national and local organizations including the Economic Policy Institute, the Young Women’s Leadership Institute, The After School Corporation and The Nation Magazine. 

In 2013 he was appointed to the Kappa Delta Pi Honor Society and in 2014 he was appointed to the National Academy of Education. Noguera recently received awards from the Center for the Advanced Study of the Behavioral Sciences/Sage for outstanding achievement in advancing the understanding of the behavioral and social sciences as they are applied to pressing social issues, the National Association of Secondary Principals for distinguished service to the field of education, and from the McSilver Institute at NYU for his research and advocacy efforts aimed at fighting poverty.
WATCH his TED TALK, "Are we failing our students?"

www.PEDRONOGUERA.COM

10/28/19 @9:45am pst - Selene Calloni Williams - Using Ancient Secret Practices of Shamanic Yoga to Transform Your Life!

LISTEN to today's show!

Can the ancient practices of Shamanic Yoga transform unhealthy behaviors to create an empowered life?

Hidden at the heart of nearly all spiritual and esoteric traditions lies the powerful teachings of The Mother Mantra. Its initiates have preserved its consciousness-expanding techniques for millennia. Originating in the ancient practice of shamanic yoga, this tradition allows us to perceive the full complexity of reality.

It helps us see both the visible and the invisible, moving beyond the consciousness of duality that limits us to only the material world. Operating in this heightened state of non-ordinary consciousness, we can see beyond our subconscious programming and behavior patterns and understand our possibilities and powers. By removing all fear, it allows you to love yourself exactly as you are.





Selene Calloni Williams, with a degree in psychology and master’s in screenwriting, has authored several books and documentaries on psychology, deep ecology, shamanism, yoga, philosophy, and anthropology. A direct student of James Hillman, she studied and practiced Buddhist meditation in the hermitages of the forests of Sri Lanka, and is an initiate of Shamanic Tantric Yoga. She is the Founder and Director of the Imaginal Academy Institute in Switzerland, where she hosts workshops in the Alps.

Some topics that Selene speaks on:

Explore the origins of The Mother Mantra
Learn about the ancient secret practices of shamanic yoga
Discover how nature brings us in harmony with our true selves
Learn how survival instinct plays a part in the evolution of consciousness
Learn how the Great Image plays a part in our spiritual development
Understanding and using the four movements of the Mother Mantra
How often would we do our spiritual practices
Tips on poses to channel energy for ultimate release & expression
Insights on the Spiritual Revolution and how it's impact on humanity
Tools for transforming subconscious negative beliefs and fears
Empowerment tips for living your highest life possible







The Mother Mantra: The Ancient Shamanic Yoga of Non-Duality by International best-selling author Selene Calloini Williams, is the initiate’s guide to the healing practices, spiritual exercises, and ancient secret rites of the Mother Mantra tradition.

Publisher: Inner Traditions /
Bear & Co. (January 8, 2019)
ISBN-13: 978-1620557921

Available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and all Indie bookstores.


Selene is having her book featured in Spirituality & Health Magazine (print & online) next moth, she is also traveling from Switzerland to be a guest speaker at the Science & NonDuality Conference. (https://www.scienceandnonduality.com) in San Jose toward the end of this month, followed by a book signing and workshop at East West Bookstore on November 1 & 2. https://www.eastwestbookshop.com/collections/november-2019-events-1

10/28/19 @9:30am pst - Dr. James Gordon, MD joined Janeane live on KUCI 88.9fm

LISTEN to today's show!

How do human beings recover from trauma or can they? In his latest book, The Transformation: Discovering Wholeness and Healing After Trauma, renowned expert, Dr. James Gordon, MD, helps us understand that trauma is a human experience, not a pathological anomaly.

In The Transformation, Dr. Gordon, MD, discusses his comprehensive, evidence-based program to reverse the psychological and biological damage that trauma causes. Drawing on the latest scientific research, 50 years of clinical experience, timeless wisdom, and inspiring life stories, he shows how we meet the challenges that trauma brings, and discover the ordinary joys as well as the meaning and purpose of our lives.

James S. Gordon, MD , a Harvard-educated psychiatrist, is internationally recognized for using self-awareness, self-care, and group support to heal population-wide psychological trauma. He is founder and executive director of the nonprofit Center for Mind-Body Medicine in Washington, D.C., a clinical professor at Georgetown Medical School, and was chairman (under Presidents Clinton and GW Bush) of the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy.

Dr. Gordon’s latest book, The Transformation: Discovering Wholeness and Healing After Trauma, helps us understand that trauma will come sooner or later to all of us. Trauma, he explains, is a human experience, not a pathological anomaly. In The Transformation, he guides us step by step in a comprehensive evidence-based program to reverse the psychological and biological damage that trauma causes. He shows us, drawing on the latest scientific research, 50 years of clinical experience, timeless wisdom, and inspiring life stories, how we can, as we meet the challenges that trauma brings, discover the ordinary joys as well as the meaning and purpose of our lives. We come to know that our broken hearts can open with greater compassion and love.

More info at https://jamesgordonmd.com

The Transformation: Discovering Wholeness and Healing After Trauma by James S. Gordon, M.D., in which the world-recognized authority on post-traumatic stress and acclaimed mind-body medicine pioneer is the first comprehensive, evidence-based program for reversing the psychological and biological damage caused by trauma.


The Transformation represents the culmination of Dr. Gordon’s fifty years as a practitioner, teacher, and advocate of integrative approaches to overcoming psychological trauma and stress. Offering eye-opening research, innovative prescriptive support, and inspirational stories, The Transformation for the first time gives the reading public clear guidance in the methods that Dr. Gordon has developed and that he and his team have used to relieve the suffering of hundreds of thousands of children and adults around the world.


Dr. Gordon’s work is grounded in a basic understanding:

Trauma will come to all of us, sooner or later

Each of us has the capacity to understand and heal ourselves.

So, what if we lived in a world where trauma was seen as an accepted, inevitable human experience, and not a pathological anomaly? What if healing and reversing trauma was the key to attaining the joy and fulfilment that every human deserves?


In this a field-tested approach to whole health. The Transformation, Dr. Gordon answers these questions and delivers an inviting narrative that allows readers to easily use his step-by-step evidence-based program—which so many others have used—to reverse the psychological and biological damage that trauma causes, and to restore their hope and heal themselves.


In his role as the founder and executive director of The Center for Mind-Body Medicine (CMBM), Dr. Gordon has created and implemented what may well be the world’s largest and most effective program for healing population-wide trauma. He and his 130 international faculty have brought this program to populations as diverse as refugees from wars in the Balkans, the Middle East, and Africa; firefighters and U. S. military personnel and veterans and their families; student/ parent/teacher school shooting survivors; and Native American children and their families—as well as stressed out professionals, stay-at-home mothers, inner-city children, White House officials, health professionals and medical students, and people struggling with severe emotional and physical illnesses.

One published study of child survivors of war in Kosovo—the first randomized controlled trial of any intervention with war-traumatized children—is exemplary. After participating in an 11-week-long group where they learned the skills taught in The Transformation more than 80 percent of the children no longer had symptoms of PTSD.

10/28/19 @ 9:15am pst - Music plays a key role in healing from hidden loss ‘The Trumpet Lesson’ explores how societal attitudes about teenage pregnancy, race, adoption, family, and homosexuality affect personal integrity. Author Dianne Romain joined Janeane live on KUCI 88.9fm

LISTEN to today's show!

Mexico – A breathtaking look at the impact of a life-long secret occasioned by 1960’s attitudes toward teenage pregnancy and race, Dianne Romain’s debut novel, The Trumpet Lesson (She Writes Press, September 24, 2019), cross-examines music, family, and friendship in recovery from a lifetime of hidden longing, shame, and grief.


Fascinated by a young woman’s performance of “The Lost Child” in Guanajuato’s central plaza, painfully shy expatriate Callie Quinn asks the woman for a trumpet lesson — and ends up confronting her longing to speak of her own lost child, the biracial daughter she gave up for adoption more than thirty years before. Callie learns the value of playing and speaking from the heart. Yet, having convinced herself that she must remain silent for her daughter’s sake, Callie uses denial, dark humor, and evasion to guard her secret. She risks abandoning everyone she dares to love. But to speak, Callie must confront the deepest reasons for her silence, the ones she conceals from herself.


The Trumpet Lesson was recently announced as the winner in “Women’s Fiction” for the 2019 American Fiction Awards.

Dianne Romain grew up in Missouri and studied philosophy at the University of Missouri at Kansas City. After completing her PhD in Philosophy at UC Berkeley, she taught feminist ethics and philosophy of emotion at Sonoma State University and published Thinking Things Through, a critical thinking textbook. While in California, she practiced fiction writing techniques in a women’s writing group. In Guanajuato, where she lives with novelist Sterling Bennett, she took up the trumpet as research for her debut novel, The Trumpet Lesson. Her current writing projects set in Guanajuato include short stories and a second novel. Visit her at https://dianneromain.com/.


Praise for The Trumpet Lesson


“The Trumpet Lesson is a beautiful literary novel focused on healing and the families that are forged abroad.”

― Foreword Clarion Reviews

“Romain clearly renders the complex racial dynamics of the times in which the characters lived.” — Kirkus Reviews

“Dianne Romain’s daring and delightful first novel, The Trumpet Lesson, crosses boundaries, opens wounds, and heals them, too. This is a book for anyone who has known the pains and joys of families, both old and new. Are there lessons in this book that moves gracefully from Missouri to Mexico? Indeed there are. Those who go below the surface of the narrative will find them, and they will be amply rewarded for their efforts.”

— Jonah Raskin, author of A Terrible Beauty: The Wilderness of American Literature


“A beautiful story of a woman adapting to a foreign land, The Trumpet Lesson breathes with the authentic atmosphere of Guanajuato, colorful characters, how a trumpet lesson feels, musical lives, and plenty of philosophy. Bravo!”

— John Urness, soloist and principal trumpet of the State of Mexico Symphony Orchestra


“Try as she might, Callie’s plan to hide from life after a fateful decision is doomed. This witty, heartwarming ‘lesson’ in human nature navigates the complexity of guilt, regret, and longing. It

shows how the heart will always find a way to form family, no matter how unconventional. All you have to do is learn to breathe — and perhaps buzz your lips.”

— Rita Dragonette, author of The Fourteenth of September



The Trumpet Lesson

Dianne Romain | September 24, 2019 | She Writes Press

Paperback ISBN: 978-1631525988 |

Women’s Fiction, Literary Fiction




Royalties will be donated to the Laurie Frink Career Grant for young brass musicians and Mujeres Aliadas for women’s reproductive health.



In an interview, Dianne Romain can discuss:


Finding common ground between members of different cultures


Her backgrounds in philosophy and fiction and how they influence each other


How she learned to play the trumpet to get to know her trumpet-playing characters


Shifting gears in writing: her experience writing short fiction, analytic philosophy, and now literary fiction


Her fiction-writing journey and how it led her to this novel


Her decision to donate royalties to nonprofits





An Interview with

Dianne Romain





You grew up in Missouri and lived in California for many years. What drew you to move to Mexico? What role does location play in The Trumpet Lesson?


At SSU we had a number of students with Mexican heritage, and so I went to Mexico on sabbatical to improve my Spanish and learn more about Mexico. I fell in love at first sight with Guanajuato, a small, historic canyon city with stunning geography; colonial architecture; and international and national music, art, and literature. Something delightful and unexpected happens all the time.


As for The Trumpet Lesson’s location, Guanajuato offers a wealth of symbols: mazelike pathways, blind alleys, tunnels, and the Subterrania (a street that winds above a hidden river). There are mine shafts in the surrounding hills. Callie gets lost in town and she panics at dark mine shafts. She is lost and afraid of knowing herself. But there is gold to be found in dark places.

Can you tell us a little bit about the differences you’ve experienced in writing your textbook and your novel? Was there any unexpected overlap?

I wrote my textbook with two audiences in mind: undergraduates taking critical thinking and their professors. I wanted the textbook to be engaging and user-friendly for students and yet precise and thorough enough for their professors. I wrote the novel for an audience interested in character-driven fiction, music, and life outside the US. As for overlap, I do some story telling in the textbook. Both books highlight different ways to use language, address emotion, and invite reflection and compassion.


What has been your experience with music? Why focus so much of this novel on the trumpet?


I grew up with music. My mother sang around the house and for weddings and funerals. I sang in the church choir and high school chorus, took piano lessons, played flute in junior high, and banged a bass drum in the high school marching band. In graduate school I returned to the piano and took lessons off and on for years. I also played tin whistle and pounded out piano cords when we hosted Irish music parties at our old farm house in California. We also hosted piano concerts when my piano teacher or one of her students would come up from Berkeley. She and her husband performed for the launch of my text book. I took up the trumpet as research for The Trumpet Lesson.

As for the focus on the trumpet in the novel, I was looking for work in Guanajuato for a young woman from the US. The orchestra served that purpose. I like questioning stereotypes, so I made the woman first trumpet. In the novel Callie is hiding from others and from herself. You can’t hide when playing the trumpet. Callie has trouble breathing. You have to breath to play the trumpet.

What inspired you to write Callie’s story?

I was writing about a writing group member who had written stories of the other members of her group, but had not written her own story. It came to me one morning that she had relinquished a baby and had never told anyone. I was so moved that I began shaking. I knew then it was the story I needed to tell.

Did you find it difficult to write certain aspects of her story?

Writing Callie’s thoughts of losing her baby was the most painful emotionally. I added humor to the story as it was too difficult otherwise for me to manage the pain. As far as the writing craft, it was difficult tying all the subplots together: Armando’s lost dog, Armando’s troubled love life, Pamela’s relationship with her mother, the mysterious behavior of Callie’s mother. It was like trying to weave many colors and textures together in a coherent design. Or trying to have the elements of a meal be varied, complementary, and ready to be served at the appropriate time.

How has your background in philosophy influenced your writing?
My study of ethics relates to the difficulties the characters have with integrity, and my study of emotion relates to how I describe the inner lives of the characters. Because of my study of feminist philosophy I’m interested in the complexity of race relations, in stories with characters from marginalized groups, and in imagining a healthy society. Callie is from a white working-class family, fell in love with a black youth, and relinquished a baby. Societal attitudes in the 1960’s led her to experience her love and her loss alone. The novel offers an alternative society, where characters form a mutually supportive family with members from marginalized groups.

The Trumpet Lesson touches on so many aspects of life, race, sexuality, what family means, to name a few. Ultimately, what do you hope readers take away?

Reflection, compassion, and another view of Mexico. Readers tell me that they reflect on their own secrets and regrets when reading the novel. They feel comforted, too, by the novel. Readers also tell me that they feel more compassion for women who have relinquished babies. Many readers comment, too, on the descriptions of Guanajuato. One reader said she wanted to move there after reading the novel. I expect other readers will take away a different view of Mexico and Mexicans than the US press offers.

Dianne Romain grew up in Missouri and studied philosophy at the University of Missouri at Kansas City. After completing her PhD in Philosophy at UC Berkeley, she taught feminist ethics and philosophy of emotion at Sonoma State University and published Thinking Things Through, a critical thinking textbook. While in California, she practiced fiction writing techniques in a women’s writing group. In Guanajuato, where she lives with novelist Sterling Bennett, she took up the trumpet as research for her debut novel, The Trumpet Lesson. Her current writing projects set in Guanajuato include short stories and a second novel. Visit her at https://dianneromain.com/.

10/28/19 @9am pst - Mary Jane Black has released her debut work “She Rode a Harley” - she joined Janeane live on KUCI 88.9fm

LISTEN to today's show!

Mary Jane Black has released her debut work “She Rode a Harley” (She Writes Press, October 1, 2019). A tale of love and loss, “She Rode a Harley” depicts the true story of Mary’s escape from an abusive marriage when she falls in love with Dwayne, her soon-to-be second husband on a blind date. When Dwayne is diagnosed with cancer, Mary has to take on a new role as his caretaker, confronting the changes imminent in their relationship, and her life.


“With unsentimental language and unblinking courage, Mary Black recounts her big-life adventure—on Harleys, and off. If you’re looking for a great true-life love story, this one is it.” Joyce Maynard, author of The Best of Us


Motorcyclist’s memoir embodies love despite previous abuse

“She Rode a Harley” is a woman’s empowering tale of getting up on the seat of a Harley after experiencing decades of emotional mistreatment


AUSTIN, TX – Mary Jane Black’s debut memoir tells her inspiring story of finding love later in life, in the midst of abuse and pain. “She Rode a Harley” details the kick-ass adventures of a woman whose second husband, a biker since he was 13, taught her how to save herself by believing in her own strength, power, and individuality. Mary Jane writes courageously, as though her time spent riding Harleys has transferred to the page, with smooth, gliding transitions and powerful, engine-revving scenes.


In “She Rode a Harley,” a schoolteacher escapes an abusive marriage and finds a new love on a blind date. Mary Jane’s new man, Dwayne, is certain that riding a Harley will restore her confidence and, sure enough, Mary Jane ends up following the white lines with him through 15 years of marriage. Traveling together, they learn to be partners, both on and off the road, until Dwayne is diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Mary Jane writes of caregiving, and the joy and pain inherent in a love meant to last.

“With unsentimental language and unblinking courage, Mary Black recounts her big-life adventure—on Harleys, and off. If you’re looking for a great true-life love story, this one is it.”

-- Joyce Maynard, author of The Best of Us

“She Rode a Harley is a vibrant memoir about love, loss, and second chances… There’s warmth and immediacy in Black’s story” -- Foreword Clarion Reviews

“A compelling narrative” -- Kirkus Reviews

In an interview, MARY JANE BLACK can discuss:
How she escaped an abusive marriage, and her advice for other women who are suffering in their marriages


Remarrying and becoming a step-parent later in life


Becoming a caretaker after Dwayne’s cancer diagnosis, and her advice for other cancer caretakers


How she built a Harley Davidson motorcycle


Being a female motorcyclist and how her experience differs from male motorcyclists on the road

ABOUT 

MARY JANE BLACK: studied English and journalism as an undergrad, and went on to pursue a master’s in English with a concentration on creative writing. Teaching writing and literature at the high school level for fourteen years, she nurtured her students’ voices as she hid her own. After long days of teaching, she would spend sleepless nights scribbling stories in tattered notebooks found in her classroom and writing short poems in the margins of her desk calendar. Her first memoir She Rode A Harley will be published by She Writes Press on October 1, 2019. Excerpts from it have been published in Shark Reef Journal and Oxford American Magazine. She now lives in Austin, where she is a literacy specialist for the State of Texas. Visit her at https://maryjaneblack.com/.


“She Rode a Harley: A Memoir of Love and Motorcycles”

Mary Jane Black | October 1, 2019 | She Writes Press