What is your most recent book? Tell us a bit about it.

Riding the Infertility Roller Coaster: A Guide to Educate And Inspire I wanted to write a book that would help people battling infertility to become empowered, feel less isolated, and help them to advocate for themselves. I am proud to say it won multiple awards including best book of the year from the Nation Association of Parenting Publications. I also included interviews with men and women who chose different paths in their infertility experiences. I combined my personal experience and clinical expertise as a 30 year social worker.

Tell us something about yourself.

I am from Chicago, Illinois. I am a medical social worker. I wrote my first book, Patient Power: How to Have a Say During Your Hospital Stay, in 1988, while I was working in a hospital. I realized if patients and their families had the right information it wouldn’t be as frightening an experience. All my books and writing have an advocacy theme.

What inspired you to write this book?

I was at a author event featuring Naomi Wolf talking about her book Misconceptions. She was discussing her outrage and frustration when her doctor’s wanted her to have a C-section. It got me thinking about my experience with infertility and the utter sense of loss of control and being overwhelmed. I worked out the outline for my book on the ride home and decided to do a literature review to see if it was already written. I didn’t find anything like it so I wrote my book and did my first author event in that same bookstore about 18 months later.

How did you publish this book? Why did you decide on that publisher?

My first publishing experience was easy and I mistakenly assumed this would be the same. I wrote over 40 publishers and got responses like nobody cares about infertility. A friend gave me an article about a publisher, Nancy Cleary, who loved working with stay at home mom authors because she understood they were bright and talented and got a bad shake in the publishing world. I wrote her the next day and she signed me up with Wyatt-MacKenzie Publishing. She had many years of publishing expertise and great contacts and networking throughout the publishing industry. It was a great experience.

How did you know you wanted to be a writer?

That first experience with my Patient advocacy book helped me realize the power of writing and it was a new way to help people that satisfied my social worker persona.

What do you believe is the hardest part of writing?

For me the hardest part is coming up with fresh ideas and topics I feel passionate enough to put in the enormous time and energy writing takes.

How do you do research for your books?

I go to bookstores and see what has been published and what publishers publish them. Then I go to the library and do a literature review and of course spend lots of time on the internet seeing what’s been done and what I like and don’t like. I want to make sure my perspective is unique or I have something to say that hasn’t been said.

Did you learn anything from writing this book? What?

I learned the incredible changes that have occurred in the publishing world and also the marketing world. I did much of the marketing work on my book and I learned a great deal about that and how to use the internet to help with this.

What is the best advice you could give other writers about writing or publishing?

Write about something you feel passionate about. Unless you have an agent and a publisher prepared to spend a lot of money you have to be ready to be highly involved in the marketing of your book. Know how to use the web and build your brand and platform.

Where can readers learn more about you and your book?

Learn more about me and my book at infertilityrollercoaster.com, and at Amazon.