How did 7 years sneak up on us?
This little project was meant to last 30 days and here we are, counting 7 years of sharing dementia stories from personal experience to help others on the journey.
Anniversaries are for celebrating so we’re taking a look at our accomplishments from 2021-2022 and what’s coming up next.
We’re grateful you’ve accompanied us on this mission, and ask you to stick around as we grow and develop more resources for your dementia journey.
2021-2022 Highlights
We opened our own shop!
We recently opened an online shop where you can purchase apparel, bags, mugs, you name it with the elegant logos designed by our creative director Kathryn Harrison, author of Weeds in Nana’s Garden. Each purchase supports our mission, and the shop is open 24/7. You are sure to find something you’ll love, and many of our products make wonderful gifts. Find it here.
Two new authors joined our management team
Susan Landeis joined us and quickly became an invaluable member, not only creating the beautiful artwork and designs on our social media but putting together the gorgeous bookshelves that come with our Custom Caregiver Collections with her husband Randy.
Rosanne Corcoran also joined the management team and built our exclusive new Shop. She is currently working on a video program where Judy Cornish of The Dawn Method will answer our readers’ tough questions on dementia care.
Our podcast, Untangling Alzheimer’s and Dementia, grows
Our podcast continued throughout the year, publishing 64 episodes and attracting 37,000 downloads. We joined The Health Podcast Network and were recognized by Feedspot as one of the 25 Best Alzheimer Podcasts, and as one of the 10 Essential Podcasts for Family Caregivers by AgingCare.com. The podcast continues with every other week episodes. Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform so you don’t miss a word. Start listening.
We launched our Virtual Question & Answer Series
Our first Virtual Q&A: Everything You’ve Always Wanted to Ask About Living with Dementia But Were Afraid to Ask, featuring Wendy Mitchell, Jennifer Bute, Gerda Saunder, Michael Ellenbogen, and Peter Berry launched last June. This was an emotional, inspirational hour where our authors freely shared how dementia has impacted their lives, holding nothing back. You can catch the replay here.
In February, we hosted a second VQA called Love Stories: Keeping Romance Alive in Dementia Care. This episode featured four of our authors – Tony Copeland Parker, Sue Ryan, Gincy Heins, and Richard Creighton – each caring for a partner in a different stage of dementia in different circumstances. Their stories were heartwarming and genuine. You can catch it here.
And on June 7th, we’re hosting our third VQA When Dad Has Dementia. Authors Andrea Couture, Patti Davis, Irene Olson, and Tanya Ward Goodman will come together to share their experiences of life with a father’s dementia diagnosis. You can register for the program here. It’s free.
We added a seventh traveling library
Our Traveling Libraries grew to seven this year when Debra Tann, Ed.D. author of The Race of Dementia, volunteered to serve as a librarian in Valdosta, Georgia. Traveling Libraries are collections of our books, all donated by their authors, for display at in-person, live Alzheimer’s and dementia events. Currently we have Traveling Libraries in North Carolina, Ohio, New York, Montana, Texas, California, and Georgia. To learn more about these mobile book displays visit our website.
What’s Coming Next
We will officially launch our Custom Caregiving Selections this month
This is one of our most exciting initiatives, a dream for years. We have always pushed the digital editions of the books in our collection because it’s so easy for busy caregivers to obtain them, but as lovers of physical books we wanted to find a way to share the hard copies of these wonderful stories and caregiver guides. Our Custom Caregiver Collections (CCCs) put real books into the hands of real people in real places. We have placed 10 prototypes of these collections, all presented in a beautiful, solid wood bookshelf made exclusively for AlzAuthors, across the country. We will officially launch this program on June 13th. You will soon be able to obtain your own CCC for the memory cafe, caregiving support group, assisted living center, or caregiver gathering place that means something to you. Stay tuned!
We’re partnered with Kensington Senior Living for an Exciting Author Event June 8th!
On the Same Page: A Collection of Stories for When Caregiving Calls
Beyond knowledge, entertainment and a great escape from the demands of the day, books have a number of benefits that can make life better, including their power to heal, inform and inspire. They can provide comfort, encourage reflection, reduce stress, and support you during the caregiving journey. They can take you to places you’ve never been or sneak a peek into the lives of people you’ve never met. Join Kensington Park Senior Living and authors, Marianne Sciucco, Tami Anastasia, Christy Byrne Yates, Lauren Dykovitz, and William Peters, as they share their caregiving wisdom and stories of their personal journeys. Register here.
Our Summer Book Series with HFC continues
For the third summer, we will partner with HFC for a summer book series, featuring Ruth Stevens, author of Stage Seven, a novel on June 14th; Renee Harmon, MD, author of Surfing the Waves of Alzheimer’s: Principles of Caregiving That Kept Me Upright, on July 12th: and Christy Byrne Yates, event moderator and author of Building a Legacy of Love: Thriving in the Sandwich Generation, on August 16th. Watch your inbox and this website for details. Please note: these discussions will be valuable even if you don’t finish – or start – the book, so don’t let that deter you from taking part. And it’s free.
We’re hosting our first film screening!
Join us this fall for an exclusive screening of Frank Silverstein’s 15-minute short film Lousy: Love in the Time of Dementia. When Frank and his family encountered both parents’ dementia he used his skills as a television producer to document their story using his iPhone. The screening will be followed by a Q&A. Watch your inbox and this website for more details. This is also free. You can read more about Frank here. He is currently helping us create a promotional video to help tell our story and what AlzAuthors offers caregivers and other concerned bout dementia.
Changes for next year
With growth comes change, and we have had to make some smart decisions to accommodate our growth without making ourselves crazy. We love finding new books and authors to share with caregivers, easing their journeys, and developing useful resources, but there are only seven of us and it can get pretty hectic managing all of our programs. As we move deeper into providing the CCCs and more audio and virtual events we need to step back a bit, so we will now be posting a new author and book every other week instead of weekly. Alternating with the new books will be a new podcast. We hope this new schedule will fill the needs of our followers and readers while allowing us to grow in new directions. We welcome your thoughts on this. You may send your comments to alzauthors@gmail.com.
Once again, thank you for supporting us these seven years, and if you’re new to AlzAuthors, welcome. We appreciate the time you have given us and look forward to spending more time with you in the future.
Your AlzAuthors Team,
Marianne, Jean, Vicki, Ann, Kathryn, Susan, and Rosanne
