Writing a Memoir When You've Been Entrusted with Others' Stories

The Florida Writer Podcast

Memoirs are tricky; you must first expose your life’s struggles on paper, then permit the audience to see your most vulnerable moments. Now, imagine doing that and sharing your story with your ten sisters’ stories of foster care, child abuse, separation, and reunion after 43 years. In this Florida Writer Podcast, Host Alison Nissen chats with Rev. Barbara Lane about the challenge of sharing all 11 stories.

Rev. Barbara Lane integrates her life experiences of being a foster child, sister, wife, mother, grandmother, entrepreneur, speaker, child advocate, educator, ministerial counselor, and author into her writing. By sharing her own personal journey, Barbara destigmatizes the fate of child abuse survivors, leading her to write her memoir Broken Water. In addition to her twenty-five year service in private practice as a ministerial counselor, Barbara’s educational background in human development, social sciences, and family psychology with a focus on child abuse, inspires her to share her expertise on interrelated issues: the family, family separation, the foster care system, attachment and bonding, child maltreatment, relationship formation, the resilience of the human spirit, healing from trauma, and the power found in having faith in something greater than the self. When not writing, you will find Barbara enjoying nature, reading, swimming, playing sports, and people watching. She especially enjoys spending time with her grandchildren. Barbara lives in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia with her husband, Jim, who remains her childhood sweetheart.