MY MOST RECENT BOOK, The Memoir Project, A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text on Writing & Life (Grand Central, 2011), was the love child born from my years of teaching memoir writing. In fact, most of my work includes a large helping of memoir, including The Roots of Desire: The Myth, Meaning and Sexual Power of Red Hair, (Bloomsbury, 2005), which chronicles the entire wild history of red hair from the beginning of story right through witchcraft, art, and fashion, and was written from my redhead perspective, to Another Name for Madness, (Houghton Mifflin, 1985), the dramatic tale of my family’s struggle with our mother’s Alzheimer’ disease.
I co-authored (with famed forensic pathologist Michael Baden) Dead Reckoning (Simon and Schuster, 2002), for which I did what’s known as participatory journalism, attending blood spatter analysis and forensic entomology schools, autopsies, trade shows of toes tags, body bags, and rib clippers, and pretty much everything else in between. That one let me fully explore the great dictum to “write what scares you,” since my lifelong terror of blood lent the book a definitive edgy pitch.
My Books
- Another Name for Madness, Houghton Mifflin,1985; Pocket Books, 1986. The dramatic story of a family’s struggle with Alzheimer’s disease. See it here.
- Dead Reckoning, Simon and Schuster, 2001; paperback, 2002. Co-written with famed forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Baden; join us in the world of crime scene investigation. See it here.
- The Roots of Desire: The Myth, Meaning and Sexual Power of Red Hair, Bloomsbury, 2005; paperback 2006. The title says it all. See it here.
- The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life, Grand Central Publishing, 2011. An impertinent, utterly useful book on how to write memoir, and see your life for what it really is. See it here.
