Life Takes Time. So Do Books. By Janet Grace Riehl

Post #82 – Women’s Memoirs, Book & Video Raves – Kendra Bonnett and Matilda Butler

Welcome to Day 23 of Women’s History Month celebration on Women’s Memoirs. Recently, Janet Riehl shared with us information about one of her stories that is in the anthology with 23 women, The Spirit of a Woman. We asked her to tell us about this experience.

She says “Life takes time. So do book.” And we might add, so do memoirs. In a must-have-it-this-instant world, we appreciate her wisdom that:

LIFE TAKES TIME. SO DO BOOKS.
By Janet Grace Riehl

Some things just take a little time. Terry Laszlo-Gopadze envisioned a collection of women’s stories exploring how the sacred enters our lives. Ten years later she finally held the anthology The Spirit of a Woman: Stories to Empower and Inspire. It was as good as she’d hoped it would be–filled with 23 stories by 23 women of diverse professions, faiths, and cultures. I am one of those women. It only took me five years to see my essay “Sliding Glass Door” in print. Best of all, my name appears on the cover along with nine women whose work I know and admire.

I entered Terry’s anthology project in 2005 when I spent most of my time in one room making sure my mother was safe. Luckily, there was a computer in this room that connected me to the world beyond those four walls. It all started with an email from one of my writing friends, Marcy Burns. [Come back next Wednesday to read my story about “Women of Inspiration.”] She told me that her cousin Terry Laszlo-Gopadze was putting together an anthology of women’s stories and she thought I should send her some of mine.

Terry chose my essay “Sliding Glass Door” about a 13 year friendship that ended. In that ending something was lost and something was found. My work has now been included in four anthologies. I’ve learned that these collections are long term projects. Mostly, I do what I need to do and then put it all out of my mind. When the book finally comes out, it’s like a Christmas present from a rich relative—something unexpected and special.

Throughout these five years I checked in with Terry every now and again. We emailed, and finally spoke on the telephone. I had a peek into her adventures in publishing as deals were made, fell through, and then made again. Terry was intrepid in her belief in this book of women’s stories. Things started to fall in place. When you follow your bliss long enough, and work hard enough that’s bound to happen. The book caught some lucky breaks. She found a good publisher in Santa Monica Press. The mix of stories shifted as new stories came in. Angeles Arrien—an imminent cultural anthropologist and figure in feminine spirituality—agreed to write the forward. After publication New Dimensions Radio interviewed Terry. Mary Ann Moore covered it for Story Circle Network Book Reviews.

On Wednesday March 23rd—the same day this post appears on Womens Memoirs, I’ll be at my local library in St. Louis giving a presentation on The Spirit of a Woman: Stories to Empower and Inspire with Alice Butler Collins who’ll come down on the train from Chicago. It’s been a year since the book was published. We started planning this Women’s History Month event last June. Yes, sometimes things take a little time.

If you’d like more information: http://womens-spirit.com

Here’s the link to the Kindle version of The Spirit of a Woman.


Janet Grace Riehl is one of those special women with an incredible talent. Women’s Memoirs is pleased to share this guest blog with our readers.






















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