About this item
"I could not put down this book -- it is a triumph, a work of great honesty and insight. It is a necessary book for our time." -- Karen E. Bender, author of Refund In Flunk. Start., Sands Hall chronicles her slow yet willing absorption into the Church of Scientology. Her time in the Church, the 1980s, includes the secretive illness and death of its founder, L. Ron Hubbard, and the ascension of David Miscavige. Hall compellingly reveals what drew her into the religion -- what she found intriguing and useful -- and how she came to confront its darker sides. As a young woman from a literary family striving to forge her own way as an artist, Hall ricochets between the worlds of Shakespeare, avant-garde theater, and soap opera, until her brilliant elder brother, playwright Oakley Hall III, falls from a bridge and suffers permanent brain damage. In the secluded canyons of Hollywood, she finds herself increasingly drawn toward the certainty that Scientology appears to offer. In this candid and nuanced memoir, Hall recounts her spiritual and artistic journey with a visceral affection for language, delighting in the way words can create a shared world. However, as Hall begins to grasp how purposefully Hubbard has created the unique language of Scientology -- in the process isolating and indoctrinating its practitioners -- she confronts how language can also be used as a tool of authoritarianism. Hall is a captivating guide, and Flunk. Start. explores how she has found meaning and purpose within that decade that for so long she thought of as lost; how she has faced the "flunk" represented by those years, and has embraced a way to "start" anew.
About the Author
Thanks for your interest in my author page here on Amazon!My memoir, RECLAIMING MY DECADE LOST IN SCIENTOLOGY, was named one of the top ten books in religion and spirituality by Publishers Weekly, and was a finalist in Creative Nonfiction--one of just five books-- for the Northern California Book Awards. I hope you'll take a look at the reviews and other information I've posted here, and on my website, sandshall.com. My other books include a novel, CATCHING HEAVEN, (Ballantine) , and a volume of writing essays and exercises, TOOLS OF THE WRITER'S CRAFT. When I was in my late thirties, I was fortunate enough to be accepted into the Iowa Writers Workshop, where I earned an MFA in Fiction; then I took myself across the Iowa river, which runs through that lovely campus, and earned a second MFA in Theatre Arts. This dance between interests, which also includes singing/songwriting, has sometimes seemed a bit schizophrenic, but in the end, they all have to do with my love of words, and so on I go.Words figure too, of course, when one is a teacher, which I also am. I recently retired as an Assistant Teaching Professor of English and Creative Writing at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania; where I was also the founding editor of the F&M Alumni Arts Review, which published the work of F&M alums. I teach annually for the Community of Writers at Squaw Valley and the Iowa Summer Writing Festival, among other conferences (for current teaching schedules, please visit my website, sandshall.com. I am also a writing coach, and at times conduct workshops around my own kitchen table. As a theatre artist, my resume includes acting and/or directing for the Oregon, Colorado, and Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festivals, in addition to other regional theaters. I've also wandered into playwriting: My produced plays include an adaptation of Alcott's LITTLE WOMEN, and the comic-drama FAIR USE, which explores the controversy surrounding Wallace Stegner's unacknowledged use of the life and writing of 19th century writer and illustrator Mary Hallock Foote in his award-winning ANGLE OF REPOSE -- it's a very juicy story!I'm also a singer/songwriter. A few years ago I recorded my first CD, RUSTLER's MOON, and am in the studio working on the next one. You can listen to and/or buy songs on my website, and/or download them in all the usual places.Thanks again for your interest! I hope you'll be inspired to take a look at some of the reviews and links I've posted about my recent book, RECLAIMING MY DECADE LOST IN SCIENTOLOGY.
