About this item

On the day that she decided to marry a widower -- also a long-time friend -- Betsy Graziani Fasbinder knew that she wasn't only gaining a husband, she was inheriting a son. Unlike many stepmothers, Betsy didn't have to struggle with an ex, or court battles, or the weekend shuffle between houses -- but she did have to navigate living in the shadow of a young mother taken too soon, to honor the memory of her son's first mother, and to become the kind of parent and partner she herself wanted to be. Over time this family would learn how love's roots were formed in their shared losses, and how the new family love and joy they created together would become the richest kind of inheritance.



About the Author

Betsy Graziani Fasbinder

Betsy Graziani Fasbinder's newest book, Filling Her Shoes: A Memoir of an Inherited Family will launch May 2017. When she was about to become a mother for the first time, Betsy found that none of the stories about motherhood, even step-mothering seemed to describe her circumstances. They talked about pregnancy and baby names, or they spoke of getting along with "the ex". But she wasn't pregnant, and there was no "ex" to contend with. Betsy was becoming a mother by marrying a widower and adopting his young son. There was no child support or custody battle. Instead, her new joy in being a wife and mom was accompanied with the knowledge that her joy was possible only because of a tragic loss of a young mother, taken too soon. This is a simple, sweet-bitter story of how love and loss are not opposites, but cohabitants and how love is the richest of all inheritance. Betsy's debut novel, Fire & Water, is a dark love story set in San Francisco. This is a story that redefines the word "family", explores the depth of friendship and the damage that secrets can cause. Fire & Water is a story that shows that love is always a matter of life and death. Fire & Water is a silver medalist in the Wishing Shelf Book Awards and has received honorable mentions in the Los Angeles and New York Book Festivals. For other works, Betsy has been awarded the Floyd Salas Award for Fiction, and has been honored with a Jack London award and two East of Eden awards for both fiction and memoir pieces. Four of her works have been produced as Readers' Theater in the historic Miners' Foundry Theater in Nevada City, California. Fasbinder is currently working on a collection of personal essays titled Filling Her Shoes: My Love Story of Inherited Motherhood and a new novel set in Northern California's Wine Country. Betsy lives nestled in the soft hills of Marin County, California with her husband, in their intermittently empty nest. . Her salt and pepper golden doodle, Edgar is her faithful writing companion.



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