Bio
Short (78 words):
After surviving the ’50s and ’60s, as well as twenty years in toxic academia as a professor, Lorraine Segal was inspired to start her own business, Conflict Remedy. Now she happily teaches, coaches, blogs, and consults around workplace conflict transformation. She is addicted to reading novels and enjoys walking in beautiful Northern California, where she lives with her wife. Her cartoon muse, Bookie, insisted that she write Angels and Earthworms: An Unexpected Journey to Joy, Love, and Miracles.
Longer:
After surviving the ’50s and ’60s, as well as twenty years in toxic academia as a tenured professor, Lorraine Segal was inspired to start her own business, Conflict Remedy. Now she happily teaches, coaches, blogs, and consults around workplace conflict transformation. She’s been writing a well-received blog about conflict, communication, and forgiveness for ten years (which you can find at ConflictRemedy.com) and contributed to the anthology, Stand Up, Speak Out Against Workplace Bullying. She is addicted to reading novels and enjoys walking and hiking in beautiful Northern California, where she lives with her wife. Her cartoon muse, Bookie, insisted that she write Angels and Earthworms, which details her transformation from miserable self-doubt to self-acceptance, true love, spiritual awareness, and right livelihood.
Book Description
How many big mistakes can you make and still end up with an amazing life? A whole lot, it turns out, especially if the Goddess has your back.
Lorraine Segal is a misfit little Jewish girl growing up in a conservative Christian community: smart, funny, fierce, and utterly miserable. But a loving Goddess shows up just in time.
With persistence and humor, Lorraine learns to embrace her mistakes and herself, moving from desolation to miracles.
Along the way, she accidentally yet actively participates in major cultural movements of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, including the Berkeley peace movement, radical feminism, gay rights, the AIDS crisis, twelve-step addiction recovery, with bonus adventures in teaching ESL, lesbian ballroom dancing, and surviving mobbing in toxic academia. Through stories both poignant and hilarious, Lorraine shares her progress from the cramped confinement of her 1950s childhood all the way to her rich, layered life today, as a happily married lesbian, conflict transformation expert, and writer.
Blurbs and Title Explanation
“A delightfully quirky, transformational memoir.” —Lisa Tener, The Joy of Writing Journal
“The stories in this memoir are a series of sparkling jewels, funny and poignant by turns.” —Ginger Moran, American Queen
“Tender and laugh-out-loud funny. I felt wrapped in cherished memories and fascinating glimpses of LGBTQI cultural history.” —Laurel Etheridge
“Stories told with extraordinary candor and eloquence, which become the magic and mirror we can all draw from as we navigate our life’s journey.” —Dennis Pitocco, Reimaginator 360º Nation
“With charm and insight, this memoir takes you on the step-by-step journey of how Segal found ways to heal herself with all the detours on the way.” —Isabel Aurbach
“A fascinating read with lots of heart. I recommend!” —Marian Linder, The Emotionally Available Partner
Why Angels and Earthworms?
From therapy session number 203 (approximately)…
“But, Ahbi, I don’t want to keep making so many mistakes over and over. I wanted to be an angel of light!” I lamented.
Ahbi, my therapist, pinned me with her gaze. “Then what would you do here on the planet with all the rest of us earthworms?”
Interview Questions:
- How did you come to write this book?
- What was your writing process like?
- Why did you call it Angels and Earthworms?
- What were your biggest challenges? Greatest success?
- The structure of your memoir is a bit unconventional. Why did you decide to have many titles and headings?
- How would you describe the book in two sentences?
- You describe in the memoir growing up in southern California in the ’50s and ‘60s. What was it like to be an outsider in your small town?
- How important was the radical feminist movement in your development as a person? How did it shape you?
- You called the section about teaching ESL “ESL Lessons.” What were the “lessons” you learned?
- The Goddess is an important character in your memoir. Tell me about your relationship with her.
- You eventually found true love, but it wasn’t an easy path. Tell me about that.
- You’ve said that the hardest part of the memoir to write was the chapter called “College of Darkness.” What made it so difficult?
- And how did you escape from that abusive workplace and create a new career you love?
- Since your subtitle says “An Unexpected Journey to Joy, Love, and Miracles,” I’m not putting in a spoiler when I say your book has a happy ending. What is your message of encouragement to everyone?
- How did you learn to turn your mistakes into stories?
Possible Book Club Questions
- What aspects of the author’s story could you most relate to?
- What parts were the most amusing? The most touching?
- Why do you think the author chose to tell this story?
- The author felt like an outsider for a lot of her early life. Have you ever felt that way? Why?
- Have you ever been bullied or mobbed or witnessed it happening to someone else? What was that experience like?
- One part of the book is about finding true love. Has that been part of your path? Explain.
- Do you have a spiritual practice? Is it like the author’s or different? Explain.
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Lorraine Segal Headshots
