📚 A Bookish Chat with 'A Heart's Journey to Forgiveness' Terese Luikens | Author Interview | #AuthorInterview #Memoir

Today we welcome Terese Luikens to The Writer's Life e-Magazine! Terese is the author of the new memoir, A Heart's Journey to Forgiveness. This interview is part of his Blog Tour by Pump Up Your Book. Enjoy!

Terese Luikens has been married for forty-four years to the same man, although she is on her third wedding ring, having lost one and worn out another. She lives in Sandpoint, Idaho, enjoys being mother to three grown sons and grandmother to her much-loved grandchildren. She is the author of A Heart’s Journey to Forgiveness, a Memoir of her inspiring journey of emotional healing from her father’s suicide. She facilitates retreats and workshops focusing on forgiveness, and publishes her own blog, Why Bother?

You can visit her website at www.tereseluikens.com.

Welcome to The Writer’s Life, Terese! Can you give us your earliest recollections of when you started writing?

Terese: I began writing after getting married and becoming a Mom. Instead of dropping my son off at daycare and returning to the 9-5 routine, I chose to stay home and raise our son and my husband became the full-time breadwinner.

Staying home with our son gave me time to explore the idea of writing. I began with journaling, and then decided to try submitting an article to Mother Earth News, a publication I loved to read. This was in the 1980s before everyone in the world had a computer connected to the world wide web. I typed my article on a manual typewriter and submitted it via snail mail, to Mother Earth News. I was surprised and elated that they bought my article. After that I pursued other publications that purchased articles from people such as myself, a freelancer.

I love the title of your newest book, A Heart's Journey to Forgiveness. Can you tell us how you came up with that title?

Terese: At first I titled it Snapshots because it seemed like my story was made up of several snapshots of life. But a good friend and fellow writer told me that the story and title really didn’t coincide very well. She came up with the title, A Heart’s Journey to Forgiveness and I liked it right away.

Can you tell us a little about your childhood?

Terese: I grew up the sixth of seven kids and one of my siblings told me later in life, “You were born into chaos.” The household was busy and when Dad went outside to smoke an after dinner cigarette, I’d climb up onto his lap. He was my refuge.

Was there anyone you could confide in as a child? Grandma? Friend? Aunt? Cousin?

Terese: For the first eight years of my life, we lived in the same town as my grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. Sleeping over at Grandma’s house with a cousin who was the same age as me was always a treat. Then we moved away and I felt the loss of being so far away from everyone.

What part of the book was the hardest to write?

Terese: It was hardest to write the first few chapters because those chapters chronicled the most difficult time of my life; my dad’s suicide.

What part of the book makes you smile?

Terese: I inserted some family photos and I love the memories that are attached to those photos.

What’s next on your writing to do list?

Terese: Presently, I am writing devotional book for suicide survivors.

For Terese Luikens, a picture-perfect childhood it was not. Frequent cross country moves, an emotionally absent mother and an alcoholic father who ends his life by suicide when Terese is just thirteen years old.

The sixth of seven children, Terese grew up in an unstable and chaotic household–invisible to her mom yet cherished by her father.

This heartfelt memoir documents the chain reaction of a tumultuous family history. From her stormy childhood to the far-reaching effects of her father’s suicide, Terese shares her inspiring journey to escape the shame of her past, find healing and live, learn to trust, and discover faith in a real and personal God.

A Heart’s Journey to Forgiveness is available at Amazon.