Ep 22: Writing Breath Taking, A Memoir (with Jessica Fein)

One of Jessica's most remarkable accomplishments is as a mom of three amazing kids. When her beautiful daughter Dalia passed away in March 2022 from an ultra-rare mitochondrial disease called MERRF syndrome, she was compelled to transition from how-to format and personal essay to long-form memoir.

Her newest book, Breath Taking, will be released in 2024 (which cannot come soon enough). 

In this episode, we talked about her journey through the writing and acquisition of this newest book. 

 Highlights include: 

• Discovering in what unexpected ways her story was extraordinary WHILE writing. (This marks the difference between “Here’s what happened” and “Here's why it mattered.”)
• How the book kept blossoming into a bigger and bigger story (and how she got her arms around all while not getting overwhelmed by the massive amount of content)
• Going from "This is a tough read" to writing so people will be uplifted and inspired, because that’s what the overall theme/message is
• How she included others’ role in the story (even when they were main characters) in order to protect others’ experiences and ownership of their own story
• The BEST words when it comes to how to write your first draft 
• Why Jessica still hesitates to claim the label of “writer” (even though she's already published and was a columnist for a major national publication and a contributor to another)