Podcast Notes
Persistence U with Lizbeth Podcast
Podcast episodes are posted Wednesdays and include stories by and for survivors and strivers, all threaded together with a dose of persistence.
Top Five Blog Posts of 2012
Top Five Blog Posts of 2012 Can you believe it's already been a year that we've been together? Thank you for each and every time you've tuned in. I had no idea what I was doing when I began except that I needed to develop a platform for my book on related topics....
The Ingredients to Lasting Love/ Interview with Danny and Joan Meredith
It’s Valentine’s Day this week; time to celebrate love and romance. What do I know about love and romance? As a single mother of 23 years and a blogger on domestic violence and kidnapping, this is not my area of expertise. I can talk endlessly about warning signs of...
The Danger of Victim Stereotyping
Recently, a legend from the fifties passed away quietly. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/24/nyregion/linda-riss-pugach-whose-life-was-ripped-from-headlines-dies-at-75.html?_r=0 Linda Pugach was a twenty year-old girl in 1959 when she left her older and married...
Q and A with Kindle Bestselling Author Tammy Harding
Did you ever have a pen-pal? Author Tammy Harding -http://pennockislandproductions.com/ I did as a little kid. I got another one this year when a friend of mine had a chance-meeting at an airport with author Tammy Harding, and passed her e-mail to me. We’ve been...
The Benefits of Smelling Roses
I should have done it a long time ago. My good intentions to be a supportive mother, reliable worker, and consistent volunteer has has dealt a crushing blow to my rest and relaxation time. I knew I was in trouble when friend of mine asked me to get together, and...
Sunday Roundup – My Top Three Stories for the Week
Liz's Top Three-- Local Women Fight to End Domestic Violence When 20 year-old Shannon Shockey was murdered by her former boyfriend 15 years ago, her aunts agreed never to let her memory fade. They've created a website-- http://www.winservices.org/ --and an...
Remember their Names and Get Involved to End Violence Against Women
Is it me, or has this past year been especially violent towards young adult women? Maybe it’s simply that I have heightened awareness since my own daughters are now young adults, but a couple of stories have haunted me in recent months, that of local girl Samantha...
New Years Resolutions Inside-Out
Happy New Year to you. How will you spend it? Some years ago, I created a new tradition for each New Year. I take a moment to look back at the accomplishments or changes I've made the year before and celebrate them, rather than simply focusing on what’s next. As a...
A Holiday Short Story – Excerpt from the Santa Next Door
Merry Christmas! What's your favorite holiday memory? Is it the food, the parties, or the music that you look forward to most each year? I'm only just beginning to enjoy the traditions. For years, the sound of Christmas music was as welcoming as splashing acid...
Finding Family, Steve Jobs Style
What if you found out you were living a lie? That a family secret had kept you away from a sibling or parent that you did not even know existed? Mary Lou Lockhart, printed in Anchorage Daily News 12/9/12 Today's Anchorage Daily News article What is Never Spoken ...
My World View From Google
This week, I got sick during a work trip and spent more time lying about than I have in ages. My isolation was prolonged when I arrived home after several days, having left my only phone at the hotel. It turned out to be a much-needed break. After being reunited with...
Single White Female Seeks Literary Agent/ How Finding an Agent is like Finding a Date
This week, I sent my revised book proposal to an interested agent. Fingers crossed. For those of you unfamiliar with the book-selling process, here’s how it begins: You need an agent. Literary agents are the baleen to the publishing industry's whale. The Brita to the...
Secrets of A Thanksgiving Survivor: Guest interview with Jack the Turkey
I met Jack the Turkey last spring when I visited my sister's farm in New Mexico. I was smitten immediately. Outside of his obvious good lucks, I loved the way Jack walked with us around the property, keeping up with our conversation, interacting with the other farm...
What Veterans Can Teach Us About Healing from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Happy Veterans Day. Today, I stumbled upon this great slide show about new techniques used to restore our returning Veterans from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).http://takepart.msn.com/veterans/?section=gallerylong_4_1#section=gallerylong_4_1 A simple...
More Than Happy In Our Shrinking World
This was a crazy week. With Hurricane Sandy images everywhere, Halloween coinciding with a full moon, and too many evening commitments after my nine hour work day, the one thing I did look forward to was my friend Duane's birthday...
Dominick Dunne Re-Do: A Parent Reaches Out to a Daughter in Peril
I love hearing about parents who openly share their successes and failures with respect to child-rearing. And I’m a sucker for anyone who’s gone through a tragedy and come out on the other side, ready to help others in similar circumstances. Lately, I’m obsessed with...
Arctic Cliffhanger’s Forensic Foray/ The Truth Shall Set You Free
Yesterday, for $35 measly dollars, I attended Alaska's Sister's in Crime (Arctic Cliffhangers http://www.arcticcliffhangers.com/ ) conference called the "Forensic Foray 2012." More relevant to my job as a probation officer than to my second job as a writer,...
The Eva Foundation: How One Woman’s Struggle to Leave Domestic Violence Became a Campaign to Help Countless Others
Have you ever met someone whose hardship inspired them to change their world? I met Eva at a local writer’s conference. Her quiet and gentle presence belied the fact that her fight to save the lives of her and her sons has touched thousands of lives...
The Furry Victims of Domestic Violence
October is National Domestic Violence Awareness month. There are a lot of reasons an abuse victim remains in a violent relationship. Want to know the reason up to half of battered women interviewed give for not leaving their violent partner? Fear of what would...
The Transformation: Signs a Victim Has Become a Survivor
You can now order my e-book THE SANTA NEXT DOOR on Kindle for 99 cents! (warning:graphic image below) Have you ever survived something that you feel completely defined you? The event defines how you divide your life? For some of us, it’s a break up of a relationship,...
In Search of Gratitude
My work took me to beautiful Ketchikan, Alaska this week. With flooding in my hometown of Anchorage and neighboring towns of Kenai and Talkeetna, I was fortunate to be a part of a nearly 70 degree heatwave in a place that's nearly constantly rainy. I should be...
My Path to Authorhood/ Alaska Writer’s Guild 2012 Conference
Have you ever gone to a conference or workshop that left you feeling invigorated, even in the face of apparent hopelessness? At the Alaska Writer's Guild's 2012 conference http://www.alaskawritersguild.com/events?eventId=451830&EventViewMode=EventDetails this...
How to Collect Treasures During a Difficult Journey Like Cheryl Strayed
I just finished reading Wild by Cheryl Strayed, a gorgeous memoir about a woman in her twenties whose life falls apart after her beloved mother dies. Strayed can't seem to pull it back together until she decides to hike more than 1,000 miles on the Pacific Crest Trail...
Four Secrets to Lifelong Friendships
As a little girl in the mid-seventies, I began collecting friendships that have lasted for four decades. Back then, Laura, Sarah, Susan, and I loved nothing more than to grab our sleeping bags and huddle in Susan’s living room for weekend slumber parties at her...
Lunching for Lao Literacy
What happens when you take four juvenile justice professionals, combine their energies with several enthusiastic juvenile delinquents to create and serve up wonderful meals to a caring community in Anchorage, Alaska? You get a much-enhanced library at the Dong Bang...
Making Domestic Violence Disappear: A New Twist on an Old Problem
Today, I watched You Tube make-up artist and sensation Lauren Luke’s public service announcement about domestic violence, titled How to Look Your Best the Morning...
10 Books, Blogs, and Movies that Improved My Writing and Helped Survive Winter
“The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a library to make one book.”—Samuel Johnson Do you ever feel guilty for needing time alone? I love nothing more than to read a good book or blog entry, or watch a...
The Four F’s to Zen
My life’s been so clenched lately. At work, we’re reorganizing. At home, I’m reorganizing, looking forward to a year with both of my daughters at home with more than a little anxiety. And there’s no reprieve in sight in my work or personal life for the next few...
Lessons from My Father(s)
My father Kova Meredith Today is Father's Day. It's a time when those who have one remember and (ideally) honor their fathers, those who had one remember their fathers, and those who had none mourn their losses. In my work with juvenile delinquents, it's common to...
Finding My Family/ Interview With My Favorite Locator
In late May of 1985, I received the gift of a lifetime when my dear friend, attorney Ira Uhrig, located my biological father. Kova Meredith was living on a farm in rural Kentucky, and had recently rented a home in Louisville. I was twenty. My father was seventy. ...