Minot educator and author to host book signing Oct. 19
Local educator and author Lisa Goldade will sign copies of her book "Ugly Wrapping Paper Priceless Gift" Wednesday (Oct. 19) from 3:30-5 p.m. at Barnes & Noble Bookstore in Dakota Square Mall, in celebration of National Education Week.
A Minot State University alumna and Minot Public Schools teacher and counselor since 1995, Goldade has keen insight to the damage and destruction young people suffer as a result of growing up in an alcoholic or otherwise dysfunctional home.
"People say addiction is an illness. I also believe addiction is a murdering force that takes your life away, literally and figuratively," Goldade said. "Since I became a teacher, I can see it in others."
"Ugly Wrapping Paper Priceless Gift" started as a short story meant to serve as catharsis in Goldade’s personal healing process. She passed the manuscript around to a few friends for feedback and one day received a call from Xlibris Corporation, a self-publishing company.
"Many years ago, Dr. Rioux (her psychiatrist) told me the last step of any therapy is to find something good that happened as a result, and then move on. At the time, I thought he was crazy. There came a point where I realized I was carrying all this dead weight around every day, and in order to get well, I had to put my suitcase down. So I thought I’d tell my story one last time, then put my suitcase down and walk away," Goldade said.
"But when Mary (from Xlibris) called, she told me my story was worth telling to more people, but that I needed to talk more about my dad, the process of my healing and why I wrote it. So, this summer, I walked dogs for the Humane Society in the morning, then came home and wrote," she said. "I finished it in a month and cried the whole time."
"Ugly Wrapping Paper Priceless Gift" is a short read that chronicles Goldade’s childhood with an abusive alcoholic father. Early in the book, she candidly describes vivid memories that haunted her long into adulthood and interfered with acquiring honest, sustaining relationships with peers throughout her teenage and adult years.
Later in the book, Goldade describes meeting her one true friend during her darkest hours of desperation and fatigue. The meeting was the catalyst in her life changing journey towards creating a vital and emotionally healthy life.
"There is no doubt that writing the book was very painful, but once it was done, I looked at it, and there was no denying -- I felt my journey was complete and was over," Goldade said.
"By telling my story and showing others how I worked through things, I hope this helps them see it is possible to move on."
Copies of "Ugly Wrapping Paper Priceless Gift" are available at Barnes & Noble, or online at amazon.com in paper or electronic form.
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Published: 10/17/11 |