Chasing Tarzan Chapter 5 ‘Bones’ made the national literary journal Clockhouse’s Top Ten Favorites for Nonfiction. Chapter 22 ‘ Like Lawrence of Arabia’ is a semi-finalist in New Millennium Writings journal.

Chasing Tarzan is a story about the long term effects of bullying. The book is a journey over decades, uncovering how childhood informs the character’s choices in men, the relationship with her mother, and bond with her own daughter. The book opens in Africa on holiday with her husband and eleven-year old daughter, Kyra. Her child’s presence, and Africa, awaken memories of Tarzan, an imaginary companion and protector from childhood tormentors. He would be the first of many Tarzans. The book also bears the ingredients of a panoramic travel memoir: present day Botswana and Zimbabwe, intertwined with reflections on past relationships in New Zealand, Peru, Egypt, Turkey, Greece, Morocco, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Amsterdam, Britain, and Minnesota.

Chasing Tarzan is my story. Through the course of the book, I come to terms with a self-destructive pattern with men, discover my ‘Real Tarzan,’ and accept I cannot be my child’s ‘Tarzan,’ saving her from tormentors, bad choices, and life’s sorrows. My drawings inhabit the book. These images appear as ‘drawn thoughts,’ and as one reader commented, are “sewn into the fabric of the book.”