Question: Who is the intended audience?
Answer: Women and couples who have fertility related difficulties, single women interested in extending their childbearing years, and anyone wishing to continue birthing new creations (books, businesses, healthier bodies).

Q: What is the book about?
A: After a decade and a half of teaching, the book outlines the Fertile Heart™ Conceptions diagnostic tools that have given thousands of women the confidence to pursue motherhood without succumbing to the collective hysteria of the last good egg (readers in their forties) or turning the biological clock into a time bomb (the younger reader). Weaved into the narrative are case histories of clients, followed by a practice section with imagery, movement sequences, dream reading and a discussion of fertility boosting foods and recipes. The imagery, movement and dream work help identify inner obstacles that hinder conception. With the current expansion of the $5.5 billion baby-making business worldwide, The Fertile Female offers a much needed antidote to the ills of the Infertility Industrial Complex.

Q: Why are you the best person to write this book?
A: In 1992 I was diagnosed with soaring hormone levels which according to the latest research in reproductive endocrinology reduced my childbearing years to zero. Several world class specialists concurred that I was beyond repair. Hormone stimulants or medical technology was no longer an option. In a last ditch effort to prop up my wilting ovaries I began a physical and emotional overhaul with radical lifestyle changes and rigorous self-examination. My first book, Inconceivable (Doubleday 2001) takes the reader through that pilgrimage from total despair to a place where I began to trust myself and how that led to conceiving my daughter naturally at the age of 44. Soon after I conceived, I began sharing my experience through informal support groups and later workshops and my website, www.fertileheart.com. In 2001 I was on Oprah and Good Morning America and my work became known internationally.

Q: How is this book different from other books on this topic?
A: Rather than bemoan the white-knuckle ride of the “infertile,” or overwhelm the reader with medical jargon, the intention of my work is to turn this difficulty into the absolutely best thing that ever happened to us. Regardless of outcome. It’s not motherhood that saves our lives. It’s that a baby is for many of us the one shiny apple we’ll do anything to reach. And in the process we discover that we are far more fertile than we ever imagined. We can then go on and apply the same tools to birth all our subsequent creations.

Q: Is there anything else we should know about this book?
A: Though my approach was initially met with skepticism in the medical community, in the last ten years a growing body of scientific literature validates my work. Most recently, several new studies link fertility treatments with birth defects, findings that encourage more and more people to seek alternatives to conventional treatment.

“This is the book Anne Lamott might have written had she become engaged and gotten into gardening.” –Pacific Sun 

Question: Who is the intended audience?
Answer: New moms and gardeners or . . . anyone who thinks they have “family issues.” I can top them off. Throughout High School, My sisters and I referred to our mother as “The Queen Bee”, not mom. That should give you a hint.

Q: What is the book about?
A: Growing Seasons is a compilation of journal entries written to my one year-old son. It chronicles my own insights, insecurities and confusion on a plethora of enigmatic life lessons, but especially the changes that occur in a marriage when a baby is born. Included are stories about my zany relatives, ridiculous tales about working in the egomaniacal movie industry, trying to learn patience in the garden while becoming a California Master Gardener, and struggling with the complexities of aging parents. This is the irrepressible diary of a transplanted New Yorker on marriage and motherhood . . . and why my plants won’t grow any faster! From Chapter One entitled, “Your People Barely Survive the First Year” to the final chapter entitled, “Tom Jones, Morphine or Bust”, I hope you’ll sit back and enjoy the ride!

Q: Why are you the best person to write this book?
A: Because I moved into new motherhood without a bit of grace!

I began writing Growing Seasons for myself to keep sane in those first few years of new motherhood. I was also still examining, as I had done for years before, my difficult yet fascinating and loving relationship with my mother. She was a stay-at-home mom in the 1950s when mothers supposed to look perfect and be happy 24/7, while making dinner and cocktails for their husbands when they came home from a hard day at the office. I finally understood why my mother was somewhat bitter and cranky! And then Oprah broke down the conspiracy of silence last year when she had a program called “The Truth about Motherhood.” Finally, we were all allowed to admit that it wasn’t all picture-perfect every single minute. Mothers are human, not saints!

As for some cheap advice from the book, I’d say that women must trust their gut feelings — which is hard to do in that first year because you are in shock, overwhelmed by changes and so, so busy. Asking for help is a critical part. Letting your husband be an active part is huge. Men are great with babies, and we must finally stop this false stereotype that dads are clueless. The more involved they are, the more everyone wins.

Q: How is this book different from other books on this topic?
A: I think it’s very honest about the realities of new motherhood and how a marriage shifts when a baby enters it. It takes a lot of challenging balancing work to find time to be with your partner again without being in “parent” mode, but back as friends and lovers again. Imagine that!

Also, for most of the book you’re not sure if you should cry or laugh at the kooky cast of characters and misfits I call my family. I have a strong-willed gaggle of sisters who appear throughout the book, a demanding job in the egocentric movie industry, a mother-in-law obsessed with Thomas Kincaid “tchotchkees” and an aunt who only plays old Tom Jones hits all day long. You’ll feel right at home, I swear.

Q: Is there anything else we should know about this book?
A: Yes. Three things.

1. I was studying in the California Master Gardner’s horticultural program the same year I wrote the book, so it’s filled with fun gardening tips for novice gardeners. I think it makes a nice switch of topics within each chapter, so you’re not consumed with constant entries about babies and chaotic “family lovefests” with the Queen Bee.
2. The last chapter deals with our aging parents and how we grow up and all of a sudden we’re taking care of them. We switch places. We drive them to their doctor appointments and to do their errands. They finally get to aggravate us as much as we annoyed them as teenagers. It’s payback time, baby!
3. ACT (Adults and Children Together)is where I donate a percent of the proceeds from the book sales. My favorite part of my booksigning is when I stop talking about me (imagine that!) and speak about the work that ACT (Adults and Children Together) is doing. ACT was started in 2000 by the APA (American Psychological Association) and the NAEYC (The National Association for the Education of Young Children). Nearly a half-century of psychological research has proven that violence is a learned behavior, often learned when a child is young. But children can also be taught nonviolence. The best teachers they have are their parents. They will copy behavior from the people closest to them. The ACT project stresses teaching nonviolence in the home especially during the early childhood ages between birth and age eight. Please visit: actagainstviolence.org