Acton Author has Book Signing and Reading in Boxborough

Thursday night, local author and columnist, Dana Snyder-Grant, had a book signing at the Sargent Memorial Library in Boxborough. Dana signed copies of her 2006 book, Just Like Life, Only More So and Other Stories of Illness, and read certain passages to the audience.

Dana, 55 years-old, has been living with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) since she was 25. Even though there were some physical and emotional hurdles in her life ("especially in the begining years"), Dana has overcome them in many ways.

Dana works at the Eliot Center in Concord as a psychotherapist, specializing in illness and disability – helping others manage living with an illness.

“When the book first came out, I gave a lot of book readings all over the state and outside the state too, and I sort of felt like a roving support group leader,” said Dana. “I often read in front of groups of people affected by MS and my readings often turned into support groups for people who wanted to talk about their own difficulties, struggles an triumphs living with a chronic illness.”

Dana self published the book - at first trying to get a publisher.

“I did not have the patience to spend a year sending out my stuff,” said Dana.

According to Dana, she was receiving a lot of good feedback from friends and decided to publish the book herself, for a relatively cheap price. Recently, Dana saw that Amazon.com was offering self-publishing opportunities and decided to publish through the company.

“The book is a series of essays about my life with MS for 30 years – both living with MS and working with people with illness and disabilities,” said Dana. “The essays are stories about illness, but also about life. I often will start from another person’s story and broaden it into a more universal theme.”



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