Writing Career Coach Teresa LeYung Ryan here, looking forward to four related events/projects.

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Thanks to Bardi Rosman Koodrin’s encouragement, I’m sponsoring a writing contest through the San Mateo County Fair Literary Arts Dept.

DIVISION 342 – THE IMMIGRANT EXPERIENCE: NOVEL, MEMOIR, OR SHORT STORY Writing Contest
Sponsored by Teresa LeYung Ryan, author of  Love Made of Heart (the story that inspires daughters and mothers to speak from their hearts)

Contest entries must be received by 7:00 pm, Friday, April 29, 2011 or postmarked by April 25^th, 2011

http://www.sanmateocountyfair.com/competitive-exhibits/departments/literary-arts

After you go to above link, look at left side of the webpage and click on [ Entry Book Pages ] for general rules.

http://www.sanmateocountyfair.com/pdf/guide_book/creative_arts.pdf

Scroll down to page 66 for details of  THE IMMIGRANT EXPERIENCE: NOVEL, MEMOIR, OR SHORT STORY writing contest.

http://lovemadeofheart.com

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Wisdom Has a Voice: Every Daughter’s Memories of Mother

This groundbreaking anthology, to be released October 2011, will include 25 true and compelling stories about mothers (or mother figures) that express the wisdom shared or learned from a particular experience with each woman.   http://wisdomhasavoice.com

Editor-in-Chief Kate Farrell has asked me, Teresa LeYung Ryan, to write advance praise; the other two members of the editorial team are JC Miller and Ana Manwaring; they are only weeks away from completing final edits. I so look forward to reading stories written by women representing each continent. Kate, I’m honored.

I’m a fan of Kate Farrell’s literary works. Take a look at her young-adult novel Girl In the Mirror

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Saturday, May 21, 2011 Asian Heritage Street Celebration (AHSC), organized by the AsianWeek Foundation

Two years ago author Margie Yee Webb helped me reconnect with the Asian-American community by inviting me to exhibit my book Love Made of Heart at the Asian Heritage Street Celebration (AHSC). Thank you, Margie!

This year, Margie Yee Webb (author of Cat Mulan’s Mindful Musings), Lloyd Lofthouse (author of My Splendid Concubine), Patricia Tsang, M.D. (author of Optimal Healing: A Guide to Traditional Chinese Medicine) and yours truly Teresa LeYung Ryan (author of Love Made of Heart and Build Your Writer’s Platform & Fanbase In 22 Days) will share a booth.  Please stop by the California Writers Club booth and say hello if you’re going to the Asian Heritage Street Celebration

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May is National Mental Health Month in the United States of America.

Thank you to mental health professionals and advocates and organizations including National Alliance on Mental Illness NAMI, Stamp Out Stigma (founded by Carmen Lee), and BringChange2Mind (created by Glenn Close, the Child and Adolescent Bipolar Foundation CABF, Fountain House, and Garen and Shari Staglin of International Mental Health Research Organization IMHRO.

BringChange2Mind Walks with NAMI BringChange2Mind is forming NAMIWalks teams across the country, and a portion of the funds they raise will benefit their mission to combat the stigma associated with mental illness via a national communications campaign.

Twelve million children and adolescents suffer from diagnosable mental health disorders.

1 in 6 adults and almost 1 in 10 children suffer from a diagnosable mental illness. Yet, for many, the stigma associated with the illness, can be as great a challenge as the disease itself. This is where the misconceptions stop. This is where bias comes to an end. This is where we change lives. Because this is where we Bring Change 2 Mind.   The video  BC2M Nami Walks 2010 is at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=it2S0ja2GlU

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“My beautiful mom suffered mental illness and its stigmas all her life. I celebrate National Mental Health Month, Mother’s Day, and all mental health advocates.  Mom, I celebrate you!”

Sincerely,

Teresa LeYung Ryan

]]> http://lovemadeofheart.com/blog/writing-contest-immigrant-experience-asian-heritage-street-celebration-2011-wisdom-has-a-voice-anthology-mothers-and-daughters/feed/ 0 http://lovemadeofheart.com/blog/happy-birthday-to-the-characters-in-love-made-of-heart/ http://lovemadeofheart.com/blog/happy-birthday-to-the-characters-in-love-made-of-heart/#comments Fri, 01 Oct 2010 18:00:55 +0000 admin http://lovemadeofheart.com/blog/?p=1533 Happy Birthday to Love Made of Heart!  My novel (published by Kensington Publishing, New York) made her debut on October 1, 2002

Thank you to everyone named on my acknowledgment page!

In addition to the folks I thanked on my post http://lovemadeofheart.com/blog/first-book-turned-seven-in-october/, I wish to thank everyone else who has kept Love Made of Heart alive and well!

I celebrate the memorable characters who have taught me how to talk to my mother, how to see life through new eyes, how to forgive one’s self.

author Teresa LeYung Ryan celebrates the characters in Love Made of Heart

I celebrate everyone who advocates compassion for mental illness.

• Love Made of Heart inspires adult-children of mentally-ill parents to speak openly about the stigmas that their parents suffer.

I celebrate National Alliance on Mental Illness www.nami.org From its inception in 1979, NAMI has been dedicated to improving the lives of individuals and families affected by mental illness.

I celebrate Carmen Lee & everyone at Stamp Out Stigma.  www.stampoutstigma.org Stamp Out Stigma is a consumer driven advocacy and educational outreach program designed to make positive changes in the public perception of mental illness and inform the community about the personal, social, economic and political challenges faced by people living with mental illness. Founded by Carmen Lee.

I celebrate Glenn Close and everyone at Bring Change 2 Mind bringchange2mind.org The idea of a national anti-stigma campaign was born of a partnership between Glenn Close and Fountain House, where Glenn volunteered in order to learn about mental illness, which both her sister and nephew suffer from.Glenn Close’s documentary film “Pax” will be featured at the 2nd Annual Lady Filmmakers Film Festival! Oct 8-10, 2010 Click Here http://ladyfilmmakers.com/Home_Page_MV6D.php for more information.  At the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica, CA

Love Made of Heart inspires adult-children of mentally-ill parents to speak openly about the stigmas that their parents suffer.

Publisher’s Note: Kensington Publishing Corp, NY

“The Chinese word for ‘love’ is made up of many brush strokes. In the center of the word ‘love’ is the word ‘heart.’ Love is made of heart…”

Twenty-seven-year-old Ruby Lin has what many women envy: a beautiful apartment in one of San Francisco’s best neighborhoods, a busy social life, and a coveted position as manager of special events for the tony St. Mark’s Hotel. But it’s Ruby’s personal life that’s become unmanageable ever since the day her mother’s emotional breakdown forced Ruby to hospitalize her, shaming the family. Now, Ruby is caught in the crossroads between two vastly different cultures-one in which she is the American girl, raised on kitschy television shows and black-and-white movies, and one in which she is known only as Daughter, the eldest, fulfiller of responsibilities.

In putting together the pieces of her mother’s life, Ruby finds herself exploring the wounds of her own past. Starting with a forbidden locked tin box and the yellowing photograph inside, Ruby embarks on a startling journey of self-discovery that takes her through a family history rife with violence, betrayal and loss that reaches back through generations, from China to America, and finally to the secret pain of a mother’s sacrifice. Like the Chinese calligraphy that adorns her walls, Ruby comes to see that “life is not a straight road,” but a language drawn with many brush strokes, where every misunderstanding must yield to the simple message of the heart.

Filled with warmth and wisdom, this luminous debut novel heralds the arrival of an exciting new voice in fiction as it explores the complex bonds between mothers and daughters, the choices that divide us, and the love that brings us home.

From http://www.mhprofessional.com/templates/chases/special-months.php

October is:

•    Antidepressant Death Awareness Month
•    Depression Education and Awareness Month
•    Domestic Violence Awareness Month

Sincerely,

Teresa LeYung Ryan, author of Love Made of Heart; writing-career coach, founder of GraceArt Publishing

This is Post #4 to follow-up on my three posts published on July 25 & 27, 2010

Re: what happened to my cousin July 22/July 23, 2010

Thursday August 5, 2010 a Victim’s Advocate at Community Violence Solutions “CVS” http://www.cvsolutions.org/ called me to offer help.

I gained nuggets from our conversation:

• The Victim’s Advocate at CVS  said the police ought to have escorted my cousin (because of her mental capacity of a ten-year-old or younger) to a “Children’s Interview Center” that night.  The Children and Adolescent Sexual Abuse Resource Center (CASARC) is an agency in the San Francisco Department of Public Health http://www.sfghf.net/programs/casarc.html For Contra Costa County, CA, there is: The Children’s Interview Center of Contra Costa, a program of Community Violence Solutions http://www.cvsolutions.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=55&Itemid=70
• San Francisco Women Against Rape SFWAR  http://www.sfwar.org/resources.html I looked at their website; they show pamphlets in many languages;  http://www.sfwar.org/programs.html lists their programs

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Resources for Caregivers from the National Alliance on Mental Illness NAMI
Full list at http://www.namisf.org/support.html (for families & friends in San Francisco)

NAMI-SF SUPPORT GROUPS
For Family Members Caregivers and Friends Only

• 1010 Gough, San Francisco
  2nd Wednesday at 6:30
  Contact Vicki Evans at 415-661-5208
• SF General Hospital
  7th Floor Room 7 M 30
  Tuesdays, 5:15 – 6:45 p.m.
  Call Susanne Killing at 415-558-5900

• New Family Support Group at Kaiser Hospital, French Campus, 4141 Geary Boulevard, San Francisco on the second Saturday of each month 10:30-Noon.
  Contact Pam Polos at 650-862-2886
• Sibling & Adult Children Network
  Call Mary Gullekson at 415-474-7010 for information
• Bilingual & Monolingual Support Groups
• Chinese Families Mental Health Alliance. Ed Koo 415-352-2047

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Perhaps these nuggets are to help everyone gain awareness, get resources, and further promote advocacy for the mentally disabled community.  Law enforcement personnel need more education. We all need more education and resources to better help those who cannot speak for themselves.

My cousin’s siblings are focusing on their sister’s well-being and I am 100% supportive of their efforts.

I’ll be writing to  BringChange2Mind.org (the not-for-profit organization created by Glenn Close, CABF the Child and Adolescent Bipolar Foundation , Fountain House, and Garen and Shari Staglin of IMHRO International Mental Health Research Organization).

http://www.bringchange2mind.org/

Sincerely,

Teresa LeYung Ryan

http://lovemadeofheart.com/blog/