Saturday, March 06, 2010 My dear friend author Lynn Scott http://lynnscott.wordpress.com/ fed me a lovely meal today; then she critiqued my letter to Ms. Glenn Close and said exactly what I needed to hear. Lynn reminded me to speak from my heart. Thank you, Lynn!

Dear Ms. Close,

You and I speak the same powerful mission statement.

Your riveting article “Mental Illness: the Stigmas of Silence” for The Huffington Post http://www.huffingtonpost.com/glenn-close/mental-illness-the-stigma_b_328591.html, especially revealing the truth about the original ending of Fatal Attraction, and your comment about how “certain words have power over us” in your Aha! Moment for Oprah http://www.oprah.com/spirit/Glenn-Closes-Aha-Moment touch me deeply.

Your delivery of Iris in The Natural has inspired me to be “a good woman.”  Picturing you as Iris (a calm tower of strength) and reading about your confronting mental illness in your family gave me the inspiration to present my book Love Made of Heart to you.

Since the publication of that story, I have spoken openly about how my mother suffered terribly as an immigrant woman with a mental illness.  As a young girl, I had learned from relatives to blame my own mother for “bringing on craziness upon herself” and “not being able to let go of grief like everyone else.”

I was 27 years old when my mother came to visit me and my sister (we were sharing an apartment).  She moved in without any discussions.  In our apartment, our mother plotted her way to end her misery.

Please accept my book as my expression of gratitude to you for speaking openly and unabashedly about the suffering that your loved ones and you endured.

I can see your face when I read the lines spoken by Dr. Gloria Thatcher, the compassionate psychologist in Love Made of Heart.

I’m dedicating this week to writing posts on my blog about you and your work with www.BringChange2Mind.org
The video of you and your sister is most inspiring.  “Words are powerful.”
Sincerely,

Teresa LeYung Ryan   www.LoveMadeOfHeart.com

As an author and a community spirit, I, Teresa LeYung Ryan, use my novel Love Made of Heart to shed light on stigmas suffered by women, men and children with mental illness/traumas to the mind. I speak out for those who cannot speak for themselves.

Other resources:

National Alliance on Mental Illness   www.nami.org

Stamp Out Stigma  www.stampoutstigma.org

www.BringChange2Mind.org 1 in 6 adults and almost 1 in 10 children suffer from a diagnosable mental illness.

Actress Glenn Close and Author Teresa LeYung Ryan Share Mission Statement About Stigmas & Mental Illness

Tuesday I went to my half-time day job and got all caught up with voicemail and email.
Wednesday I knew I had to stay home and not push myself.  So, this week I missed a memorial, a Chinese meal with my aunt & uncle to celebrate Lunar New Year, and the Women’s National Book Association event at Castro Valley Library.  However, I had a chance to “chat” with a pal in Australia on Yahoo; I’m not a speedy typist but that worked out fine.

It’s Sunday. Rain is lovely. Got up around 9:30am.  Prioritized my work for next week.

I’m drinking green tea, watching old  movies on YouTube and working as the writing-career-coach.

Colleagues and friends made my day:

Margaret Davis, author of Straight Down the Middle, with her email acknowledging receipt of the CD of photos (of her beautiful book launch) I created for her.

Mil Pribble emailed to tell me about Chinese in Mendocino County.  Mil said: “…a very well done mostly pictorial account, published last year by Arcadia Publishing,  (Available through The Temple of Quan Tai in Mendocino.)  It was assembled and written by Lorraine Hee-Chorley, a friend of mine who is the great grand-daughter of  John Song Lee, aka Joe Lee, who in the early 1850s organized a  flotilla of seven junks and attempted to cross the Pacific, intending to land at Monterey.”

Kate Farrell, author of Girl in the Mirror www.girlinthemirror.info and Workshop Leader www.wisdomhasavoice.com , says the Redwood Branch of California Writers Club http://www.calwriters.org/ has grown so big that they had to change meeting place to Flamingo Conference Resort & Spa in Santa Rosa, CA

Pal Olga offers her home to host a private party.

My hubby started a new job a month ago and he’s studying for a course, so, it’s not like I’m missing weekend outdoor fun.

So, I’m working (with Carole Lombard movies on YouTube as inspiration), pumping vitamin C, and resting.

Webpages getting my immediate attention:

http://www.americanshortfiction.org/

http://savingcinderella.ning.com/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/glenn-close/mental-illness-the-stigma_b_328591.html

It’s almost 4:00pm; time to rest a bit. Being under the weather is nothing to “sneeze” at.
Happy Writing!  Happy Name Building!

Writing Career Coach Teresa

Creator of  Build Your Name, Beat the Game: Be Happily Published (a
http://WritingCoachTeresa.com

As an author and a community member, I use my novel Love Made of Heart to:
• shed light on stigmas suffered by immigrant women, men, and children
• advocate understanding of mental illness/traumas to the mind
• help survivors of violence find their own voices through writing

http://lovemadeofheart.com/Love-Made-of-Heart-journey-of-an-adult-child-of-a-mentally-ill-parent.html