Dear Ann,

I am thinking of you. May your darling Angel Mother watch over you and protect you and everyone in your circle. May she be mighty, happy and beautiful forevermore.

00:01 – 01:53 October 9, 2025 Teresa Jade LeYung, San Francisco, California; added more photos, links and tags 16:55 October 9, 2025

Author Ann Tashi Slater says:

“I’m a writer and speaker exploring how our personal histories and cultural roots shape us and how we find meaning in a world where everything—including we ourselves—changes and ends. My new book, TRAVELING IN BARDO: The Art of Living in an Impermanent World (Sept. 2025, Balance/Hachette), interweaves explorations of impermanence in relation to marriage and friendship, parents and children, and work and creativity with stories of my Tibetan ancestors and Buddhist perspectives on the fleeting nature of existence, offering a new way to navigate change and live life fully.”

TRAVELING IN BARDO is available in hardcover edition, Kindle e-book, and audio book format.

Please support your local booksellers and public libraries.

Ann Tashi Slater’s website: https://www.anntashislater.com/

Ann Tashi Slater's poignant memoir TRAVELING IN BARDO: The Art of Living in an Impermanent World. Ann Tashi Slater in conversation with Sylvia Boorstein - photo by LeYung

Ann Tashi Slater reads the opening lines of her book TRAVELING IN BARDO: The Art of Living in an Impermanent World.

https://youtu.be/kAj-jkRT-8c   56 seconds filmed by LeYung

Ann Tashi Slater in conversation with Sylvia Boorstein at Book Passage in Corte Madera, California

Sylvia Boorstein , Ph.D. and Ann Tashi Slater at Book Passage, Corte Madera, California - photo by LeYung

With a foreword by NYT best-selling author Dani Shapiro and praise from Elizabeth Gilbert, Melissa Febos, Sharon Salzberg, and others, Ann Tashi Slater’s book has been named a Next Big Idea Club “Must-Read” for September 2025. Publishers Weekly calls it a “rich and freewheeling meditation on life, death, and impermanence.”

photo: author Ann Tashi Slater and adoring family members, Book Passage, photo by LeYung

Publishers Weekly calls it a “rich and freewheeling meditation on life, death, and impermanence.”

Ann Tashi Slater autographing her compelling memoir TRAVELING IN BARDO: The Art of Living in an Impermanent World - photo by LeYung

TRAVELING IN BARDO is available in hardcover edition, Kindle e-book,

and audio book format

TRAVELING IN BARDO - book front cover and back cover

Cheers to author Ann Tashi Slater and her poignant memoir TRAVELING IN BARDO: The Art of Living in an Impermanent World

Please write your reviews for Ann’s compelling book

https://www.amazon.com/Traveling-Bardo-Living-Impermanent-World/dp/0306835215

Ann Tashi Slater with new fans - photo by DS at Book Passage, Corte Madera, California

Ann Tashi Slater dedicates her book - TRAVELING IN BARDO: The Art of Living in an Impermanent World - to her husband David

Ann Tashi Slater’s website: https://www.anntashislater.com/

audience at Book Passage cheering for Ann Tashi Slater in conversation with Sylvia Boorstein - photo by LeYung 2025.09.27

I wish everyone vibrant health, peace and happiness always!

Sincerely,

Teresa Jade LeYung

Author / Blogger / Story-Theme Consultant / Photo Historian

https://m.youtube.com/@teresajadeleyung/videos

https://LoveMadeOfHeart.com/blog/  goes to Teresa Jade LeYung’s Blog on Wellness, Story Themes, Archetypes

Love Made Of Heart ®

By car, the time it would take to say “Bonjour” to … Paris, Aix-les-Bains, Avignon, Apt and the Villages in the Luberon, and, Nice (in FRANCE)…  would be more than 13 hours without stopping.

On foot, it would take me more than 10 days… and that is if I do not stop to take photographs, use les toilettes, sleep, bathe or eat.

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My friend Sharon taking photos in Avignon / Mon amie Sharon prend des photos à Avignon

21 juin 2025 Avignon FRANCE

I used to drive, a lot.  [ Je conduisais beaucoup.]

I drove all over the state of California in USA for my mother-daughter novel Love Made of Heart - to bookstores, schools, libraries, writers’ conferences, writers’ organizations, book festivals, trade shows, community events.   I will always be grateful to literary agent Stacey Glick, Vice President, and everyone at  Dystel, Goderich & Bourret LLC; acquisition editor/director John Scognamiglio, president Steven Zacharius, publisher Laurie Perkin, art director Louis Malcangi, and everyone at Kensington Publishing Corp. in New York; sales representatives, teachers, librarians, my then spouse, my sister, friends, mentors, colleagues, the folks at the day job – the East Bay Regional Park District, the folks in the communities, members of California Writers Club, members of Women’s National Book Association, members of Women’s Brain Exchange, every reader …  everyone who cheered for me and my work, everyone who invited me and my book to show up.

I used to see the world from behind the steering wheel. Now I see not only with my eyes, but also, with each foot step I take.

In France, I walk and gawk … at the architecture, the window displays at shops, the heavy doors, the balconies, the gardens, the churches, business signs, the trees, les boulangeries, les pâtisseries, the names of streets, the sky, the food, the food, the food. Aahh… the visuals.

As for the audios .. I adore hearing the French language. My favorite phrase right now is “Je vous en prie.” I feel like I’m eight years old again… learning a new language. It’s slow going for me; the verb conjugations; the article-noun pairing; the silent letters, the silent syllables; the “liaison” (connecting sounds). At first, I thought… why do so many French words begin with the letter “L”?  That’s what I hear.  When I see the spelling … no more mystery; when a noun begins with a vowel, the pronunciation of the article preceding the noun is rolled onto the noun.

le + appartement becomes  l’appartement — sounds like  “la-par-te-mont”

le + aéroport becomes l’aéroport — sounds like “lair-o-port”

le + orchestre becomes l’orchestre — sounds like “lor-kestr”

“]”

Me Teresa Jade, with Sasa and Sharon / Moi Teresa Jade, avec Sasa et Sharon

Festival du livre de Nice 2025

le chien Claude et Guillaume, le mari de Sasa.

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20 juin 2025

Last night June 19, 2025, after a cool shower (it was 36 Celsius / 96.8 Fahrenheit in Avignon), new energy flowed through me.  I worked until 8:00am June 20, then, I went to bed.

I haven’t been this happy in many many months.  I am grateful. I celebrate everyone who has been kind to me.

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Caroline's magnificent plant / La magnifique plante de Caroline

Being in FRANCE this time has revived me. It’s because for the first time, I am in a real home for many weeks, not a vacation rental. Through the kindness of MCC who had asked her dear friend CK to rent me the studio apartment in her house in Avignon… I am experiencing tranquility.

CK is kind and creative, and, she has finished rewrites of her novel. Also, she has written a series of stories for children. I celebrate CK’s perseverance!

Happiness spreads.  Just the day before, I opened an email from author Ann Tashi Slater https://www.anntashislater.com/

who shared her happy news -

Traveling in Bardo: The Art of Living in an Impermanent World (Hachette Book Group) is arriving September 9, 2025!

I celebrate Ann’s perseverance!  I met Ann at San Francisco Writers Conference when Sasa Southard, Mary E. Knippel and I were presenters, and, our pal Margie Yee Webb was in Linda Lee’s super team.

I pre-ordered Ann’s remarkable book.

https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/ann-tashi-slater/traveling-in-bardo/9780306835216/

And… I so hope to see Ann on September 27, 2025 at Book Passage Corte Madera in California.

https://www.bookpassage.com/event/ann-tashi-slater-sylvia-boorstein-traveling-bardo-corte-madera-store

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Sharon et Marie-Christine au Le jardin Singulier /Esprit des lieux / Maison forestière 84390 Saint-Léger-du-Ventoux - photo by TL

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A bookstore in a forest?  Oui.

https://www.provenceguide.com/patrimoines-culturels/mont-ventoux/le-jardin-singulier-esprit-des-lieux/provence-5294194-1.html

The quote from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry -

“Si tu diffères de moi, mon frère, loin de me léser, tu m’enrichis.”

[  "If you differ from me, far from hurting me, you enrich me." ]

 https://francearchives.gouv.fr/fr/commemo/recueil-2000/38930

 http://evene.lefigaro.fr/citation/differes-frere-loin-leser-enrichis-1406.php

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22 juin 2025

In this blog post, I shall include references to movies that have hooked my attention this month.

Why do I study movies? To honor the writers of the scripts. While the names of the authors for books and stage plays are almost always associated with the title of the book or the play … the names of the writers for screenplays aren’t always the foremost association with the movie titles.  Generally, in the public’s eyes.. the names of the actors and directors get the most attention.  When a movie compels me to watch it again, I always rewind to the opening credits to say “Thank you” to the writer(s).

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15 juin 2025 in Avignon, FRANCE

Today I realized that I know more people who are dead than those who are alive. I’m not being funny… it’s  just that on June 11, 2025, I said to Marie-Christine that I would like to show Sharon one of my favorite places in the town of Apt  – Maison du Parc du Luberon https://www.parcduluberon.fr/ 60, place Jean-Jaures, 84400 Apt. While I was mesmerized by the display showing a scale of geological times in the Luberon region (10 million years ago, 35 million years ago, 150 million years ago), the phrase “ashes to ashes, dust to dust,” came to mind.

Standing there, in front of the display

… the voice inside me said  … when I die, I shall be part of the geology of the planet.

[ … la voix en moi m’a dit … quand je mourrai … je ferai partie de la géologie de la planète.]

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https://www.theluberon.com/villages/

https://en.luberon-apt.fr/

https://www.luberon-apt.fr/apt-et-les-villages

Those words ”ashes to ashes, dust to dust” – spoken by the character Delbert in this movie – made me chuckle.

Undertaking Betty – original title: Plots with a View (comedy movie) – To start a new life, she had to fake her own death!

• Writer:  Fred Ponzlov
• Director:  Nick Hurran
• Stars:  Brenda Blethyn, Alfred Molina, Christopher Walken
• Thank you, Youtube Channel: Cinéfilm, for posting

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21h45 le 16 juin 2025

The mighty wind in this part of FRANCE… Le vent puissant…

Avignon, FRANCE https://www.avignon.fr/

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https://www.britannica.com/place/Avignon

Avignon, city, capital of Vaucluse département, Provence–Alpes–Côte d’Azur région, southeastern FRANCE. It lies at a point on the east bank of the Rhône River where the narrow valley opens into a broad delta plain, northwest of Nîmes. It was the capital of the papacy from 1309 to 1377. Recognized for its architectural beauty and historic importance, the centre of Avignon was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1995, and the city served as the European cultural capital for 2000.

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I wish everyone excellent health, peace and happiness always.

Je souhaite à tous une excellente santé, la paix et le bonheur toujours.

 

me, Teresa Jade, at L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue https://www.islesurlasorgue.fr/

 

a grateful Teresa Jade LeYung

Une Teresa Jade LeYung reconnaissante

 

Author / Blogger / Story-Theme Consultant / Photo Historian

 

Auteur / Blogueur / Consultant en matière d’histoires / Historien de la photo

 

https://m.youtube.com/@teresajadeleyung/videos for short short movies of Aix-les-Bains and Paris, FRANCE 2024 and 2025; Portland, Oregon USA 2024; Kuala Lumpur, MALAYSIA 2024

 

https://www.youtube.com/@teresajadeleyung/shorts for “shorts” 

 

https://LoveMadeOfHeart.com/blog/  goes to Teresa Jade LeYung’s Blog on Wellness, Story Themes, Archetypes

 

Love Made Of Heart ®

What have I been reading?

“Traveling in Bardo” by Ann Tashi Slater (also the author of Travels Within and Without, a chapbook of  the author’s Tibet-related fiction and non-fiction, produced for “Dreams, Memories, Journeys: Stories of a Tibetan Family,” her multi-media presentation at The Rubin Museum in NYC on July 6, 2016). What is “bardo”? In Tibetan Buddhism – the journey between death and rebirth.

Slow Medicine: The Way to Healing by Dr. Victoria Sweet (also the author of God’s Hotel: A Doctor, a Hospital, and a Pilgrimage to the Heart of Medicine)

The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat: And Other Clinical Tales by Oliver Sacks (also the author of Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain)

And, the book which I have multiple copies of (to lend to friends) is  The Brain’s Way of Healing: Remarkable Discoveries and Recoveries from the Frontiers of Neuroplasticity by Norman Doidge, M.D. (also the author of The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science)

Then there are delicious novels (including sociologist Margaret R. Davis’s The Miranda Affair ) – I shall blog about these novels in another post.

As Platform-Building Coach Teresa LeYung-Ryan, I am helping author / sociologist Margaret R. Davis promote her new novel The Miranda Affair -  How does one find happiness as women and men struggle to climb the corporate ladder?

As Theme Consultant Teresa LeYung-Ryan, I am helping my client (who is a chaplain at a hospice) structure his memoir (theme: letting grief ease). Bravo!

My own work in progress is a memoir related to my “Talking to My Dead Mom” monologue series.

Cheering for all story-tellers, writers and readers!

Theme Consultant/Platform-Building Coach Teresa LeYung-Ryan who teaches my clients (writers and artists) how to reach out, not stress out, before and after publication –

* identify themes in your manuscripts so that you can rewrite with ease;

* identify themes in your intellectual properties and create scripts for your websites/blogs, pitches, query letters, press releases, talking-points, one-minute videos, photo slideshows, and the all-mighty blog posts.

Coach Teresa’s motto:  “Reach out, not stress out. Help your fans find you BEFORE & AFTER publication”

Coach Teresa LeYung-Ryan here . . . this is what happened from my POV. Please tell me and my colleagues your point of view by submitting comments to this blog post.  How? Click on the blue title bar of this post, scroll down to get the boxes, fill in boxes and click on “submit comment” button.

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Story Consultant & Writers' Platform-Building Coach Teresa LeYung-Ryan and Elisa Sasa Southard of Go-With-Sasa at Lori's Diner on Powell Street in San Francisco to fuel up before Day III of helping SFWC attendees

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authors & independent editors Kate Farrell, Mary E Knippel and Wendy Nelson Tokunaga--photo by author & independent editor Teresa LeYung-Ryan

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historical novelist Liz Newman receives cheers and advice from Story Consultant & Writers-Platform-Building Coach Teresa LeYung-Ryan

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Mary E. Knippel answers questions with smiles at SFWC Independent Editors Central

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Shannon Johnson receives cheers and advice from Story Consultant Teresa LeYung-Ryan at SFWC Independent Editors Central--photo by Tara Farquhar

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At lunchtime, we heard announcements of scholarship winners! Congratulations to winners!  Cheers to generous benefactors!

Martin Yan said lovely words about vibrant Shirley Fong-Torres, about how she smiled, how she enjoyed meeting her fans.  Martin reminded us to smile when we’re autographing books.  Smile.

Elizabeth Pomada introduced Laurie Fox (famous literary agent who also writes novels)–more about Laurie in another post (she is another super kind soul).  Laurie introduced Lolly Winston. Lolly delivered a heartfelt speech about her encouraging teachers and her perseverance. She is funny, sweet, and serious.

What a memorable hour–from picturing Shirley’s smile through Martin’s tribute; hearing Elizabeth speak fondly of Laurie; Laurie speaking fondly of Lolly; Lolly expressing her appreciation for relationships and the craft. So beautiful.

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Marty Castleberg & Linda Lee & Richard Santos inspire writers at SFWC

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presenters-authors-teachers Tanya Egan Gibson & Holly Payne meet up at SFWC and shine!

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Danine Manette shine at SFWC--photo by Coach Teresa LeYung-Ryan

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author / presenter / SFWC Marketing Director Barbara Santos with presenter / SFWC Volunteer Director / cyberspace genius Linda Lee

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Lynn Henriksen and Shulamit Sofia at SFWC (look who are sitting in back row! Sheldon Siegel, Elisa Sasa Southard and Kate Farrell!)--photo by Writers' Platform-Building Coach Teresa LeYung-Ryan

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Historical novelist Daniel Roddick receives Coach Teresa LeYung-Ryan's editing advice on first 2 pages of his manuscript

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Lisa Marie Pontier receives encouragement on her story from Coach Teresa LeYung-Ryan

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Nina Amir gives advice to author at SFWC--photo by Coach Teresa LeYung-Ryan

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memoirist and novelist Ann Tashi Slater with independent editors Mary E. Knippel and Gabrielle Harbowy--photo by Story Consultant Teresa LeYung-Ryan

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Agent Gordon Warnock answers questions from author while Mark Hopkins rep and Elizabeth Pomada go over details for autograph party--photo by Coach Teresa

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Andrew Rose chats with Kimberly Edwards & Sheila McDonald--photo by Coach Teresa LeYung-Ryan

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Margie Yee Webb & Michael Larsen & Harvey Pawl & Kimberly Edwards & Elisa Sasa Southard inspire writers--photo by Writers' Platform-Building Coach Teresa LeYung-Ryan

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Teresa LeYung-Ryan & Martha Alderson & Elisa Sasa Southard & Lynn Henriksen & Nina Amir all love to encourage writers at SFWC

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Women's National Book Association-San Francisco Chapter members-authors-presenters (back row: Margie Yee Webb, Lynn Henriksen, Tanya Egan Gibson, Verna Dreisbach; center Mary E. Knippel, Nina Amir, Apala Egan, Jane Omerod; front row: Elizabeth Pomada behind Barbara Santos, Teresa LeYung-Ryan, Linda Lee, Elisa "Sasa" Southard, Joan Gelfand) at SFWC --photo by Don Hudson who says Western Women Save the World

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authors Joan Gelfand & Teresa LeYung-Ryan & Cara Black having fun at SFWC autograph party--photo by Adam Hertz

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Teresa LeYung-Ryan & Elisa Sasa Southard & Shari Dunn & Margie Yee Webb at Thai dinner on Powell Street in SF after inspiring registrants at SFWC Day III

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Sincerely

Coach Teresa LeYung-Ryan

“Reach out, not stress out, to materialize your dearest dreams!”

http://writingcoachteresa.com

to preview the exercises for Day 1 & Day 2, go to Amazon books

Build Your Writer’s Platform & Fanbase In 22 Days: Attract Agents, Editors, Publishers, Readers, and Media Attention NOW

As editor/story consultant, Coach Teresa helps her clients polish their manuscripts by identifying their themes, universal archetypes, front-story and back-story.  http://writingcoachteresa.com

Her novel Love Made of Heart is used in college composition classes. Thank you, Teachers & Students!

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