This will be my first DFA event for my first book, This Was Meant to Be - How Loss and Vulnerability Generate Passion and Success. It is an odyssey of overcoming loss and vulnerability with the help of extraordinary mentoring by Simmons’ educators and by pursuing her passions in music, athletics, and academia. As an at-risk teenager with severely compromised vision and ADHD, Simmons had much to overcome. The worse things became at home, the more deeply she delved into her lifelong passions. These circumstances shaped the type of teacher she would become as chronicled in Part II of this book in which her classrooms come alive as a microcosm of society spanning three and a half decades.
• "Find solace and inspiration in This Was Meant to Be . . . In this part memoir, part self help book, Simmons shares key moments from her life in a dysfunctional family . . . and the teacher who changed her life, along with tips for finding happiness and success . . . " - Michelle J. Mills, Pasadena Star News and San Gabriel Valley Tribune
• "“This was Meant to Be is a book rich in intelligence, perseverance, passion, and steadfast follow-through in the face of monumental loss, compromised vision, and Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD). Anyone with ADHD can see the exceptional talent and special advantages as well as the difficulties that come with this disorder.” - Dorothea McArthur, Ph.D., ABPP Diplomate in Clinical Psychology Private PracticeAvailable from publisher (Dorrance) or on amazon.com as a paperback or an e-book
Information on my second book, Class Acts - Short Stories for Teenagers, now in the presses, will be available at the festival, as it doesn't appear the book will be published by October 5. However, one can always hope. I spent a semester working with an English class on the stories that are relevant to their lives: abortion, the military, coping without parents, friends with benefits, bullying, hooking up with predators, etc.
I will be sharing a table with Dennis Sanchez, who has mentored me through becoming a participant in this festival.