About Me.

Thank you for finding me. It’s taken me quite some time to get here.

One of the primary things I’ve been longing for all these years of writing—of trying to find the intersection of heart and mind and craft on the page…is the reader. You. The completion of the trajectory that begins each day at my writing desk and wants to land in your hands, as you spend an hour in bed reading in the wee hours, or on your commute, or in a quiet corner on a Sunday afternoon. It’s you whom I want to reach, and it’s you whom I need to make my work whole.

People ask me how it is that I could have spent the last 20 years writing so devotedly when I’ve not met with big-time publication. The answer is simple: I am obsessed with writing. You have to be obsessed if you are going to live the writer’s life. Years ago when I announced that the precarious and non-lucrative field of writing was my true passion, someone asked me: “If you could look into your future and see that you’ll never be published, would you still write?” Without batting an eyelash, I said, “Yes.” That’s how I knew I was hooked.

And so it has been. I’ve written 14 novels in the last half of my life. All currently unpublished. I’ve managed to clear a few major hurdles along the way-- my short stories and essays have appeared in literary journals and magazines, and I have a terrific agent who has stopped at nothing to connect me to the best editors. But, alas, my novels remain in stacks in a closet, despite her efforts. It’s just not easy to convince an editor, in this economy, that it’s worth taking a risk on an unknown writer from Montana. I’ve almost gone all the way, three times. But to no avail. Until now.

Funny how things go.

A few years ago, I went through a hard time in my marriage. (You may have read my essay on this subject, “Those Aren’t Fighting Words, Dear,” that appeared in the New York Times Modern Love column on August 2, 2009.) Because I’m a writer, my compulsion during that time was to write my way through it. That’s what we writers do. We write about what we know, and some of us write what we know for the greater good. That’s what occurred for me as the chapters accrued. I knew that since I needed that book on my bedside table and it didn’t exist, there must be thousands of people who were going through a crisis alone, who needed to hear from the trenches, and who could benefit from my story. Not a self-help book, nor a specifically spiritual tome. But a common story. I’ve been told that while my message may be as old as the hills, in today’s reactionary society it’s also seemingly revolutionary.

I met my husband’s dis-affection with our marriage with a gut response, “I don’t buy it,” I said. I felt his was a crisis of self, one I’d experienced after the loss of my father coupled with the stress of my own failure in my career. So I decided to simply get out of my husband’s way and be responsible for my own well-being despite his actions and sentiments. Letting go of what the future would or wouldn’t bring.

Several years later, we are back in a loving relationship. But even if we weren’t, I would still consider that time in my life a personal success, because to live like that- - being responsible for your own happiness— is very powerful. I can’t stress this point enough.

And as things would go, I now sit here with a bio to write, on a web page to share, in hopes to inspire you, especially if you’re in crisis, or especially if you’re a writer (which is to say that you are potentially thwarting crisis every day!). I want you to believe in yourself and in the arc of whatever truth begins in you and goes out to the world. Even when things seem bleak—in our relationships, or in our careers…—sometimes things go our way. Especially when we are honest. Surrendered to outcome. Especially when we live and relate in our most raw and real selves. Vulnerability is vital to our human experience. We don’t have to be alone.

That’s why the book art form will never die.

I hope that you are inspired by my words. And I thank you for your support.

Yours
Laura

“This book is fabulous. Laura Munson's noble quest to become the source of her own happiness will take you by the hand and heart as it guides you through the steps to living a life without suffering. Her story pulls back the curtain on the only magic we ever need to know: how to make the shift from fear to love.”—Arielle Ford, author of The Soulmate Secret

“Laura Munson's powerful and buoyant book gives us wisdom in generous slices. But it is Munson's abilities as a storyteller that show us how to discover how to find and feel the real wisdom that may arise from our lives, as messy and heart-breaking as they may be. Woman, wife, mother, neighbor--this fine writer converts her own life's journeys into a series of vignettes so focused and compelling, so heart-breaking, sometimes so funny, that they resound with the force of parables.”—DAVID BAKER, POETRY EDITOR OF “THE KENYON REVIEW,” AUTHOR OF NEVER ENDING BIRDS

“Laura Munson takes the spiritual stuff and the personal stuff and the love stuff and the pain stuff and she brews them all together in a very fun and touching memoir. I'm a fan. This is a wonderful book.”—Marianne Williamson, author of THE AGE OF MIRACLES, and A RETURN TO LOVE

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