This Week on WomanTalk Live: “Survival Guide for the Blindsided and Brokenhearted” with Justina Chen

Several years ago, Justina Chen found herself living quite the cliché.  She got THE CALL and the man on the other end of the line – the very same one who promised to love her forever – said, “We need to talk.”  After relocating the family half-way around the world for his job, he was now calling to let Justina know that he was leaving her for his secretary (or executive assistant – but, you get the point).

As you can imagine, she felt deceived, brokenhearted, disoriented, decision-impaired and discombobulated.  And, more.  Lot of things to be taken care of immediately -  the children… moving back to the States… figuring out what the heck was going on… starting over… staying sane.

Looking back, she realized that the first question she asked herself was, “What now????”.  As a result of that question, she decided to write a Survival Guide for other women who find themselves in similar situations.    What Now – Survival Guide for the Blindsided and Brokenhearted is the “To Do” list for the first thirty days after your relationship ends.  You can read all of the other books about how and why your relationship ended later.  This book – a sister-to-sister guide – helps you move through the days and weeks and take care of  the immediate needs.

Justina Chen is an award-winning novelist for young adults whose most recent book, Return to Me, was called an “uplifting story” by Publishers Weekly.  North of Beautiful was named a Best Book of the Year by Kirkus and Barnes & Noble. Her other novels include Girl Overboard (a Junior Library Guild premiere selections) and Nothing but the Truth (and a few white lies), which won the Asian Pacific American Award for Literature. Additionally, Justina co-founded readergirlz, a cutting-edge literacy and social media project for teens, which won the National Book Award for Innovations in Reading.   What Now is her first adult book.

When she isn’t writing for teens, Justina is a communications strategist for executives and was the speechwriter and executive communications manager for a president of Microsoft. She conducts popular corporate storytelling workshops and has presented at prestigious organizations ranging from the Mayo Clinic to NASDAQ and AT+T to SAS.

Tune in this week when we talk about taking control, learning to breathe again, and facing the future with courage.

Saturday, June 22nd, from 6:07-7:00 pm ET on Talkradio 680 WCBM Baltimore or “Listen Live” online  

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Carrie, Ann, Betsy and Tracey

Be sure to check out last week’s show – The LGBT Community: You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby – when I talked with three amazing women in the Conscious Conversations Café – Betsy Cerulo, the CEO and Founder of AdNet AccountNet, Inc.; Carrie Evans, the Executive Director of Equality Maryland, the state’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender civil rights organization; and, Tracey Gersh, Ph.D., the Chief Program Officer at Chase Brexton Health Services – about the past, the present and the future as it relates to the social and political advances for gender and sexual minorities.

If you missed the show or you want to share it with a friend, it’s in the podcast archive now.  It’s the June 15th show!