New Book Fills Women with Enthusiasm and Encouragement in These Trying Times
This book started simply by four friends getting together at the kitchen table to talk about their lives. Week by week and story by story, they realized their support of each other could help other women struggling with life's myriad issues of work, family, and love, as well as the big questions of life and death. For more than a decade, the power and strength of their collective friendship has enabled these women to not only survive but to thrive. The remarkable results are this collection of lessons and stories and wisdom, which can help any woman turn any misfortunate event into a joy-filled opportunity.
San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) March 20, 2009
San Francisco, CA, March 20, 2009 -- Through a collection of stories, wisdom, and practical advice in This Is Not the Life I Ordered, readers will meet four ordinary women who have faced extraordinary life challenges. Together, they have a history of six marriages, ten children, four stepchildren, six dogs, two miscarriages, two cats, a failed adoption, widowhood, and foster parenthood. They have built companies, lost companies, and sold companies. One of them was shot and left for dead on a tarmac in South America, and two lived through the death of spouses. Raising babies and teenagers together, they have known celebrity and success along with loneliness and self-doubt.
From the introduction:
The paperback version of This Is Not the Life I Ordered enters a world that feels most days like a runaway train. Headlines read and television anchors scream that we have entered the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Truly it is a time that few of us saw coming and none of us ordered. It is also a time to believe that hope for a brighter tomorrow is not only a necessary strategy but a healthy and powerful way to live with the anxiety and fear that seems to be piercing the hearts of most women. In these historic, emotional, and uncertain days, this book gives 50 ways to keep your head above water when life keeps dragging you down. It is a message for today.
No better environment exists than now to form your own kitchen table group--a place where women come together to develop strategies, tactics, ideas, and avenues of opportunity even during the darkest of days. We give you a roadmap for creating your own group and a framework for sparking your motivation. This book's mission is to fill you up with enthusiasm, encouragement, and possibility even as world circumstances threaten to deplete you.
This book started simply by four friends getting together at the kitchen table to talk about their lives. Week by week and story by story, they realized their support of each other could help other women struggling with life's myriad issues of work, family, and love, as well as the big questions of life and death. For more than a decade, the power and strength of their collective friendship has enabled these women to not only survive but to thrive. The remarkable results are this collection of lessons and stories and wisdom, which can help any woman turn any misfortunate event into a joy-filled opportunity.
PRAISE FOR THE BOOK
"I wish I had this book thirty years ago. What a welcome source of inspiration and insight."
--Linda Ellerbee, journalist, award-winning television producer, best-selling author, breast cancer survivor, and mom.
"Even before you hear their stories, you feel their strength. When these four women came into my office, I knew I wanted to be a part of their mission. Readers will find themselves engulfed (in a good way) by their spirit."
--Gerry Laybourne, co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Oxygen Media
"...these are stories of individual strength to transform shock, despair, and paralysis into sheer will and guts. It contains the innate resources we have to climb out of the abyss and into a new life with unexpected happiness."
--Amy Tan, best-selling author of The Joy Luck Club
"A must read for all women and the men who love them."
--Rita Moreno, Actor and Winner of the Oscar, Emmy, Grammy, Tony and Presidential Medal of Freedom
"This book is an object lesson in the power of friendship -- and in the power of perseverance. It's a book you'll want to order a stack of, so you can share it with your girlfriends and your daughters."
--Arianna Huffington, author of On Becoming Fearless
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Deborah Collins Stephens is the cofounder and managing partner of the Center for Innovative Leadership.
Michealene Cristini Risley is an entrepreneur who has created some of the largest deals in the consumer products and entertainment industries.
Jackie Speier was sworn into the United States Congress in April 2008. She represents California's 12th Congressional District.
Jan Yanehiro is the executive producer of Pacific Fusion TV, syndicated in the United States, Europe, and Asia.
You can find the authors online at www. thisisnotthelifeiordered. com
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