At The End of The Storm

If Daria Demarest didn't have ice water in her veins, like her coalminer father taught her, life might look bleak. She's divorcing successful but unfaithful Ted. She's lost her glam job as a network morning show host, and she's discovered that Ted's secret gambling habit drained their substantial savings. With no alimony, she's raising two teens in 1990's image-is-all Connecticut. Though she abandoned spiritual aspirations in the freewheeling sixties, when pregnant by an anti-war activist who chose causes over commitment, Daria creates Awakenings, a show for women seeking healing in everything from aromatherapy to mindfulness meditation. She's back on top, until, during a winter storm, her teen daughter Lizzy announces she's pregnant. Walking through Lizzy's pregnancy, Daria faces her own mother's rejection and unyielding judgments that led Daria to surrender her firstborn. If shame and fear hadn't ruled her as a pregnant teen, she wonders, would she have kept her first child? Could she have allowed T. J. Townsend, her steadfast college admirer, to love her? When Daria arranges to meet her first daughter, the reunion stirs up more than it resolves. Angela's an actress, who proves to be as us unforgiving as she is talented. Desperate after Angela's rejection, Daria struggles to find the same healing she's offered her TV audience. Then T. J., now a noted alternative physician, appears on Daria's show, offering her opportunities she passed up years earlier. Is she ready for the man who loved her when she couldn't love herself? She's not sure. The only way to find out is to walk, no matter how haltingly, through whatever storms ensue, relying on her untested faith and newfound relationships with family and friends. Marleen Pasch's short fiction, creative nonfiction and articles on health, healing and spirituality appear in numerous journals and anthologies. As a writing coach, she helps aspiring writers find their power on the page. A Cornell graduate, she is a member of the National Women's Book Association. She lives and writes in South Florida.