Give the Gift of Comfort

I bet you haven’t completed your holiday shopping yet. There probably are a few names on your list especially difficult to shop for. They are the ones who aren’t into the merriment of the season as much as the memories of past seasons; the seasons before they suffered the loss of a loved one whose absence has made every holiday season since incomplete. Or maybe it’s a number of losses of family and friends. I think that as we get older, we get filled with our losses.

These special names on your list might do well with a gift of comfort that comes from reading a memoir of loss and recovery. I suggest my memoir of loss and recovery Staying Alive: A Love Story, nominated for the 2012 Christian Small Publishers Book of the Year.  Called, "a beautiful reminder of what really matters," the book also received a Readers Views 2012 Award and the recommendation of the American Association of Health Care Professionals.

You can read an excerpt and readers' comments on Staying Alive: A Love Story, available in print and ebook formats, on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and the iBooks Store. For even more information on the book, go to my website.

Staying Alive: A Love Story might be the right read for a special person on your holiday list. The one seeking comfort as much as joy.

Staying Alive: A Love Story Nominated for Award

My memoir, Staying Alive: A Love Story, has been nominated for the 2012 Christian Small Publishers Association Book of the Year Award in the Non-Fiction - Christian Living category. Please support it by clicking here to vote.  You'll have to scroll past 3/4s of the way down  the page to find it on the bottom right !

Voting takes place during February and March.

The memoir, a series of essays that chronicles my and my children's struggle after my husband's death over ten years ago, has been described by one reviewer as a beautiful reminder of what really matters. Others have referred to it as a personal, humorous, and inspiring view into the grief process.

These reviews and other information about the memoir can be found on my website.

Thank you for your support.

Interview Follows Review of Staying Alive: A Love Story

A lot going on this week! After review of my memoir Staying Alive: A Love Story,  I was interviewed.


Click here for interview.

Click here for  review .

Extra Extra

Bear with me as I interrupt this blog of wedding news with other family news.

The Mommy of the Bride has just become the published  Mommy of the Bride.

If, while reading about the closer-than-ever nuptials,you have  strayed to the right margin of the blog and ventured to my website at http://www.laurabhayden.com/,  you are aware of the book I wrote – last year – about my family. One MOTB blog, in May,  spoke of the death of Emily’s father over ten years ago. Emily, her brother Conor, and I have come a long way through the years, adjusting to our daily lives without Larry.Yet his presence has really never vanished. Every day, what we say, what we do, what we think, triggers memories of his love and devotion to us.

I began writing the memoir about our life with Larry – and our life without him a few years ago. If you feel as if you have become part of my family by reading about Emily’s wedding, I invite you to become an even greater part of it by reading the memoir Staying Alive: A Love Story.You will find the first chapters  here for Kindle readers and here for Nook readers.  The paperback can be ordered here from Barnes and Noble and here from Amazon

Now, back to the busy-ness of planning a wonderful wedding.