Tag Archives: PTSD

Atlanta memoirists risk writing truth about living relatives

Date: October 29th, 2012, 6:13 pm

Between family members, the truth is a delicate thing. That’s why memoirs are popular. We like reading about people who take the risk to bear witness to their intimate lives, because most of us will never go there, especially not in public.

This weekend, two Atlanta authors of new memoirs will speak locally about risking family relationships. Lynn Garson and Christal Presley overcame major emotional hurdles to confront and understand their family dysfunction.They crossed that emotional tightrope and stayed connected to the family members despite writing critically about them. Doing so changed them into healthier adults.
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Posted in Atlanta, Inspiration, Michelle Hiskey, Saporta, Self-Help | Tagged Atlanta, author, book, depression, Hiskey, memoir, PTSD, Saporta, suicide, Vietnam, writer | 6 Comments

While battling Vietnam scars, memoirist receives nearly $5,000 in city water fight

Date: May 21st, 2012, 11:00 am

While Christal Presley was uncovering her and her father’s scars from his service in Vietnam, she also ended up unearthing subterranean trouble familiar to other city of Atlanta homeowners:

Water meter problems.

Despite minimal water each month, and even in a city beset by the highest combined water and sewage bills in the country, Presley’s bills were about double her neighbors’.

To write her book and solve her water problems, she had to probe what for too long had seemed normal.

Answers came from questioning authorities – first her own father, and then the city of Atlanta. Continue reading →