🏰 Author Interview Featuring Terese Luikens, Author of 'A Heart's Journey to Forgiveness'

Terese Luikens has been married for forty-four years to the same man, although she is on her third wedding ring, having lost one and worn out another. She lives in Sandpoint, Idaho, enjoys being mother to three grown sons and grandmother to her much-loved grandchildren. She is the author of A Heart’s Journey to Forgiveness, a Memoir of her inspiring journey of emotional healing from her father’s suicide. She facilitates retreats and workshops focusing on forgiveness, and publishes her own blog, Why Bother? 

You can visit her website at www.tereseluikens.com.

 

 

 

 

🏰Welcome to Book Bloggin’ Princess, Terese. I’d like to know more about you as a person first. When did you start writing? What was your first published piece?

I began writing after getting married and becoming a Mom. Instead of dropping my son off at daycare and returning to the 9-5 routine, I chose to stay home and raise our son. My husband became the full-time breadwinner. 

Staying home with our son gave me time to explore the idea of writing. I began with journaling, and then decided to try submitting an article to Mother Earth News, a publication I loved to read. This was in the 1980s before everyone in the world had a computer connected to the world wide web. I typed my article on a manual typewriter and submitted it via snail mail, to Mother Earth News. I was surprised and elated that they bought my article for $80.00 After that I pursued other publications that purchased articles from people such as myself, a freelancer. 

🏰As a published author, what has been the most pivotal point of your career? 

Writing a book is so much harder than writing articles. With articles, I had word limits such as 250, 500 or 800. Writing a book I wrote until I came to the end of the story which amounted to about 80,000 words. Writing a book showed me that I have a lot to say!

🏰If you could go anywhere to write your next book, where would that be and why?

Currently, I am writing my second book and I don’t need to go anywhere other than upstairs to my office. Our sons are all grown and gone, so my husband converted two of our sons’ bedrooms into a writing space for me. My desk faces west and I have a beautiful view of trees and mountains. 

🏰If you had 4 extra hours of extra time today, what would you do?

I had two extra hours today so I took my two grandkids out for ice cream and we  walked down to the city beach. I love spending time with them. My grandson is 14 and my granddaughter is 11. They love to tell me everything that is going on in their lives and I love listening to everything that is going on in their lives. 

🏰Why was writing A Heart's Journey to Forgiveness so important to you?

Even though my dad’s suicide was a terrible family tragedy, we never discussed it as a family. For me, writing A Heart's Journey to Forgiveness, was important because I finally got to tell my story. Telling my story seemed to give my siblings and me permission to finally talk about what we’d never talked about. 

🏰Any final words?

Thank you for the privilege of being posted on your blog.  

 About A Heart's Journey to Forgiveness

For Terese Luikens, a picture-perfect childhood it was not. Frequent cross country moves, an emotionally absent mother and an alcoholic father who ends his life by suicide when Terese is just thirteen years old. 

The sixth of seven children, Terese grew up in an unstable and chaotic household–invisible to her mom yet cherished by her father. 

This heartfelt memoir documents the chain reaction of a tumultuous family history. From her stormy childhood to the far-reaching effects of her father’s suicide, Terese shares her inspiring journey to escape the shame of her past, find healing and live, learn to trust, and discover faith in a real and personal God.  

A Heart’s Journey to Forgiveness is available at Amazon.