Book Tour
Excerpt, Giveaway and Author Interview
Memoir
Date Published: November 12, 2021
Publisher: Acorn Publishing
Seven-year-old Leslie has a serious problem: someone is trying to kill her.
She must fight to save herself and her little brother from the stark realities of living with their mother’s raging psychosis. To evade the evil Russian spies her mother believes are after them, they forgo sleep, speak in whispers, and live on the run. Her mother searches for hidden listening devices, writes rambling manifestos about the impending Communist takeover, and attempts to kill herself and her children to protect them from rape, torture, and murder at the hands of the government. Controlling the chaos seems impossible—Leslie rebels, which only angers her mother, but when she obeys, terrible consequences follow.
Eventually, the police place Leslie and her brother in foster care. Freedom from her mother’s paranoia and violent tendencies offers the young girl a glimmer of hope, but she plummets into despair under the oppressive weight of abusive, alienating homes. All seems lost until a teacher intervenes, risking everything to bring Leslie to safety, to show her the redemptive power of trust and patience, and to prove unconditional love is possible, even without the bond of blood.
When I Was Her Daughter is a raw, honest account of one girl’s terrifying childhood journey through madness, loss, and a broken foster care system, where only the lucky and most resilient survive.
About the Author and Interview
Leslie Ferguson is an accomplished educator, editor, and writing coach. As a youth in foster care, she dreamed about becoming a teacher. She earned her credential at the University of Redlands and returned to her alma mater to teach advanced English before obtaining a master’s degree in English literature and an MFA in creative writing from Chapman University. Her work has been published in numerous literary magazines and anthologies. A member of the San Diego Memoir Writers Association and the San Diego Writers and Editors Guild, Leslie is a repeat performer at So Say We All’s VAMP! and Poets Underground. She lives in the greater San Diego area with her husband, where she binge-watches coming-of-age character dramas and reminisces about her glory days as an All-American basketball player and collegiate Hall-of-Fame athlete. When I Was Her Daughter is her first book.
Interview
- When did you really start evaluating your childhood?
As I think about the answer to this question, it hits me that, even though I journaled about my biological mom after I started my teaching career, I probably didn’t begin evaluating my childhood until 2005, about ten years later. After I divorced my first husband, I found an amazing therapist, and she was the one who first helped me admit that I’d experienced some tremendously traumatic and horrific events as a child. That’s when I really started to process everything I’d been through.
- What helped you the most with overcoming your traumatic memories?
Time, journaling, processing aloud and writing poetry, drafting and crafting my memoir–these are the methods by which I’d say I actively engaged in the healing process. I also think being an athlete and exercising regularly helped a great deal. While it’s true that exercise (and playing sports in general) allowed me to escape and deny my past, it became such a healthy outlet for releasing anger and sadness. When you drive your body hard for two to four hours every day, you’re often too dang tired to be sad. Ironically, when I did feel sad or depressed, those emotions seemed to drop from out of nowhere, and because of that, my fear and confusion about my feelings amplified my grief. I also think it’s important for me to add here that one of the most important aspects of my healing came from my strong, committed, loving parents who gave me space to grieve. They kept showing up for me and loving me; eventually I came to believe they would not give up on me. I cannot stress enough how vital it is for a kid in foster care to feel safe in their home.
- What four words best describe your book?
Inspired, truthful, hopeful, and well-intentioned
- Is there anything you want the reader to take away from your story?
I want readers to understand just how challenging life can be for families dealing with mental illness and separation, and how important it is for foster parents and adoptive parents to educate themselves about the needs of displaced children. I believe the path to a happier society starts with social and emotional education and with prioritizing children.
- What did you edit out of this book?
Hopefully, I edited out all the right things. I cut many scenes, including one in which my brother and I discover our mom has climbed a telephone pole in the middle of the night and falls into the camellia bushes, escaping with nothing more than a gash on her forehead. I also cut a scene that takes place shortly after the beach scene that opens the book–one in which our neighbors bash our apartment windows in with baseball bats and splinter our front door with an axe, screaming that they’re going to kill us (my mom, aunt, brother, and me).
- What is something most people don’t know about you?
Most people don’t know I rescued a dog that I watched get hit by a car. I was in high school, and on the way to my basketball game. I was already running late. I saw these four little legs, backlit by the headlights of an oncoming vehicle, trotting in front of the car ahead of me. The driver ran over the dog and never stopped. I pulled over, ran into the street, and scooped up this huge, injured dog–that smelled like death–and put him in the backseat of my car. This was before everyone had cell phones. I turned around and drove home, and my parents took the dog to the vet while I went to the gym for my game. When I got home that night, my parents reluctantly told me the dog had mange and needed to be put to sleep. I still have my letterman jacket that I was wearing that night, and despite many trips to the dry cleaners, it still smells like that dog.
- What book are you reading now?
I usually have three or four books going at once in order to satisfy whatever mood I may be in when I read. Currently, I am reading The Wingless Angel, by Fabrice Wilfong; The Body Keeps the Score, by Bessel van der Kolk; We Were Never Here, by Jennifer Gilmore; and The Burning Light of Two Stars: A Mother Daughter Story, by Laura Davis. I’m also line editing a book for work, so I’m reading that!
Thanks you so much for sharing with us, Leslie. It’s always so much more interesting to get to know the lady behind the creation. ~ Debbie
Visit her online at LeslieFergusonAuthor.com.
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I enjoyed reading the interview, Leslie and When I Was Her Daughter sounds like great, heart tugging memoir that will hold me captive! Thanks for sharing it with me and have a magical holiday season!
I loved her interview as well. You learn so much about the author through interviews.
Thanks so much for your comment.