Experiencing great success with her story “On Hearing of My Mother’s Death Six years After It Happened“, Lori Schafer is an author you want to get to know. She has also authored “Stories From My Memory Shelf“, which I will be picking up in short order.

I wrote a review of “On Hearing of My Mother’s death Six Years After It Happened” on November 19th, and you can find it here: http://booksandopinions.com/2014/11/19/on-hearing-of-my-mothers-death-six-years-after-it-happened-lori-schafer/ 

I was fortunate enough to get to read this story before it was released to the public, and I cannot recommend this book enough. It is a wonderful read, and if you have ever had to deal with, live with, or witness the devastating effects that mental illness has not only on an individual, but on their family as well, you need to read this story!

Lori is a writer of serious prose and humorous…

This week’s Writer Wednesday is all about Lori Schafer’s memoir, “On Hearing of My Mother’s Death Six Years After It Happened: A Daughter’s Memoir of Mental Illness.”

I couldn’t put it down. I’m usually early to bed around here, and up before dawn, but this one had me seeing midnight. I like to think of that as a real “grown up” hour. I’m not sure there are enough adjectives for me to truly describe this memoir: poignant, touching, heartbreaking, and triumphant.

The author takes us through her journey as the daughter of a mentally ill mother. Although no definitive psychiatric diagnosis was ever given – to either the reader, or the author – the rollercoaster ride of fear and struggle and attempting to be a normal teenager was depicted so clearly, I felt as though I was with the author in the story. The narrative had me invested in the…

Lori Schafer’s memoir On Hearing of My Mother’s Death Six Years After It Happened is a very deep and brutal book. When I read the answers in the interview it was like something scary passed through my body. The author earned my respect for the bravery to tell such a personal things. Are you ready for some real deal life story?


– Lori, What is your book On Hearing of My Mother’s Death Six Years After It Happened about?
– On Hearing of My Mother’s Death: A Daughter’s Memoir of Mental Illness commemorates my adolescent experience of my mother’s psychosis. I was sixteen when it happened, and I watched helplessly as she became violent and dangerous, to the point where I literally feared for my life. Her fears and delusions grew so powerful that for a time she took me out of our house, and even out of school. After…

One can only wonder what would lead someone to not know of their mother’s passing until such a long time after the fact. And then you read this story.

It touches you, and it moves you. It makes you angry, and hopeful. You do not feel sorry for the main character, you just feel sad. Sad that someone would have to go through such a difficult situation. Sad that someone was robbed of a loving mother due to an illness that affects so many, and is yet so hard for most to talk about.

The author is not looking for sympathy, or anyone to feel sorry for her. She does not have a “woe-is-me” attitude. She made the best out of a very tough situation, and persevered; succeeded; beat the odds when so many others would have given up.

Have you felt true fear? The type of fear that comes…

BOOK REVIEW:

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Blurb:

It was the spring of 1989. I was sixteen years old, a junior in high school and an honors student. I had what every teenager wants: a stable family, a nice home in the suburbs, a great group of friends, big plans for my future, and no reason to believe that any of that would ever change.

Then came my mother’s psychosis.

I experienced first-hand the terror of watching someone I loved transform into a monster, the terror of discovering that I was to be her primary victim. For years I’ve lived with the sadness of knowing that she, too, was a helpless victim – a victim of a terrible disease that consumed and destroyed the strong and caring woman I had once called Mom.

My mother’s illness took everything. My family, my home, my friends, my future. A year and a half later I would…