Check Out Valerie Foster’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Valerie Foster.

Hi Valerie, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself. 
One of my inherent beliefs is that every moment of my life shapes every moment of my life. I will shorten my long one to four moments that were signposts.

1. When I was six years old, I wrote my first song. Pretty short.

2. In eighth grade, we practiced creative writing based on photographs. Mine was submitted to the principal.

3. I spent thirty years teaching writing and great literature.

4. In 1999, during a quiet moment, sitting wrapped in an oversized velvet chair, I had an epiphany: my greatest secret desire was to have a book on the shelf. Fast-forward: today, I have two published books and one published short story, and I’m still a writing fool.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Creative work is never smooth, but always worth it. Writing is hard, hard work. And lonely. But when I enter that mental and emotional zone between my pen (or keyboard) and me, I am in a universe of one. One of the biggest struggles for me has been balancing it with working full-time and raising children.

Consequently, my first book took me five years, writing in secret. My second book also took me five years, collaborating with a very difficult woman and her even more difficult life story. Ya have to believe in what you’re doing. And for me, I have to enjoy either the process or the outcome or both! The key is prioritizing one’s devotion to one’s art. That can be particularly hard for women.

Thanks – so, what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
My first published book is about my having a years-long conversation with a Holocaust survivor. Helen Handler was a frequent guest speaker in my high school literature classes, and although many had asked to write her inspiring, dramatic story, she asked me to!

Our book, The Risk of Sorrow, is archived in six countries and throughout the United States. My second book, Dancing with a Demon, reveals how my family triumphed to save my daughter from a severe eating disorder.

What I am most proud of is that both of these books continue to inspire and give hope to others, and I most love presenting their themes. In fact, just a few minutes ago, a friend told me how sharing Dancing with a Demon with her neighbor was greatly helping another family in crisis. No greater reward. In a way, I’m still teaching.

What are your plans for the future?
I am very excited to say that a new Second Edition of The Risk of Sorrow will be coming out in a few months under a new publisher, Black Rose Writing. I have written an Epilogue in which I have been freed to reveal some details that I felt I could not while Helen was still alive. In it, I answer many questions readers have long had. It also includes an exceptional Reader/Discussion Guide that can be easily applied in any classroom, Grade 6 on.

My hope is that this will lead to more public speaking on the important themes of both of my books. I am also becoming involved in a fantastic organization near my home, Free Arts for Abused Children of Arizona.

Contact Info:

• Website: valeriebfoster.com
• Instagram: @valeriefosterwrites
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/riskofsorrow/posts/pfbid027ws6WavDsJKiktnWSQVk4XE2JbvV8XCBqX6DL5GhknFRzDFGbovUNi42d3bdxSiMl
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/valerie-foster-86a89a5b/
• Twitter: @Lostearrings
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3tpK7KTdhU&t=42s
• SoundCloud: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgheVftT2r4
• Other: https://www.amazon.com/Risk-Sorrow-Conversations-Holocaust-Survivor/dp/0615978223/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr= 

Image Credits
Tom Foster