Big welcome to Barbara Wolf Terao, who joins the Author Spotlight this week to discuss her memoir

Author Name: Barbara Wolf Terao

Book Title: Reconfigured: A Memoir

Book Genre: Cancer memoir

Release Date: 7/18/2023

Publisher: She Writes Press

Hello, Barbara! Tell us a bit about your book.

Three months after moving alone from the Midwest to an island in the Pacific Northwest, I found out I had breast cancer. Reconfiguring my body, my mind, and my marriage amid the beauty of the Salish Sea, I gained the strength to be a survivor.

What drew you to write a memoir about this experience?

Shortly after my final cancer treatments, COVID-19 was declared a pandemic, meaning I was mostly isolated at home. At the beginning of 2020, I sat down at my desk one day and said to myself, “I’m a working writer.” With that inner declaration, I was no longer an aspirational writer, thinking, “Someday I’ll write a book.” I was someone who started a book about my experiences with island life, cancer, and marital issues—and wrote almost every day to complete it. We’re all different, but maybe my knowledge, humor, and perspectives can encourage and uplift others going through tough times.

What was your research process for Reconfigured?

Reading other writers’ memoirs, such as Educated by Tara Westover, or spiritual books about Buddhism and other topics, inspired me to go deep into my own writing. My memoir begins as I walk around Coupeville on Whidbey Island, waiting for my diagnosis. When I was writing, scenes came easily to mind as I remembered the stress I felt and a couple of odd synchronicities, such as walking by a vintage vehicle with my name painted on the side: “Barbie’s Dream Hearse,” a hearse made into a limo with a Barbie Dreamhouse theme. Not a great sign when one is contemplating death! Throughout the writing process, I relied on my memory and then added details by referring to my journals, photographs, and medical records.

From your perspective, what is the hardest thing about writing and researching? And what do you love most about it?

I’m nerdy enough to enjoy the research process and I tend to gather more material than I can use. On the other hand, I worry about losing readers’ attention, so I skim over things too quickly. I leave out too much. Time and again, my editor prodded me to say more, and I’m grateful to her for it. Not only do readers get more details, but I learned so much by trying to explain concepts (karma!) and information (the lymphatic system!) and, hardest of all, myself.

What’s capturing your imagination these days outside of reading and writing?

I’m looking forward to getting to know Washington State a little better, such as a trip to Lake Chelan. I love being outside in nature, and the landscape here of mountains, water, and forests is hard to beat! I also want to visit my sister and brother-in-law in Tucson soon. In my memoir, I wrote about a particular horse there and what he meant to me. Though he’s no longer around, I hope to find another horse to take me into the desert, through the saguaros.

Any new writing projects in the works?

I’m finishing an article about Mount Rainier as a healing place for the Sunday magazine of The Seattle Times. I’m also working on a book of spiritual and humorous essays and a children’s historical fiction book.

Where can readers find you?

My author website is barbarawolfterao.com and my Of the Earth website is ofthebluepla.net. I’m on Facebook as Author Barbara Terao. Reconfigured: A Memoir launches August 1, 2023, 7PM, at Third Place Books, Lake Forest Park (north of Seattle). My memoir is available at bookstores as well as Amazon, Bookshop, and other online sites.

Thank you, Barbara! Reconfigured is out now.

Reconfigured

When Barbara Terao moves into a new home in Washington, two thousand miles from her husband in Illinois, she doesn’t know when—or if—she’ll ever live with him again. Her diagnosis of breast cancer three months later changes both of them in ways they never imagined.

In the ensuing months, Barbara’s husband and adult children show up to help her through a year of difficult treatments and surgery, and Barbara, in her Whidbey Island cottage, learns to listen to her heart and intuition. Nurtured by Douglas fir forests, the Salish Sea, and her community, she changes her life from the inside out. Her journey, she realizes, wasn’t about leaving her husband so much as finding herself. Reconfigured in body, mind, and spirit, Barbara finally has words for what she wants to say—and the strength to be a survivor.