An Adoption Story
Memoir
Date Published: October 22, 2024
Publisher: Double Entendre Ink
A twin herself, Lisa Crawford Watson believes she has the insight needed to mother twins. Mounting obstacles impede the adoption process, and she examines whether such setbacks are signs that she shouldn’t adopt. But when identical twin infant sisters in need of a permanent, stable home come into her life, she falls in love with them and knows what she must do.
Adopting premature twin girls who were born drug- and alcohol-addicted, and jostled, separately, from foster home to foster home, creates one hardship after another. Lisa quickly learns that raising children is a feat of sacrifice and unpredictability, and caring for children born into trauma may be more difficult than she ever could have imagined. Over the years, the twins wreak havoc on every relationship within the family and on Lisa’s heart. Has adopting the girls caused more harm than good?
What We Wished For: An Adoption Story shares a woman’s quest to build a loving family. It is a tale of courage, perseverance, and what remains when things don’t go as imagined. This memoir speaks to anyone who has ever struggled with a life-altering decision, one from which there is no turning back.
Interview with Lisa Crawford Watson
Does writing energize or exhaust you?
While writing is essential to who I am, to how I spend my day, and to whose story I am “getting out,” and while it typically energizes me to represent or elevate others and to craft the artistry of writing, yes, sometimes it—or the process of getting it published—is exhausting.
What is the first book that made you cry?
“Little Women,” by Louisa May Alcott; I was eight. The most-recent one is my own.
How did publishing your first book change your process of writing?
More than any other book I’ve written and had published, this new book, “What We Wished For: An Adoption Story,” demanded, required of me, deserved that I elevate my writing style even further, to do it justice.
What do you owe the real people upon whom you base your characters?
“What do I owe them.” Powerful question. Gratitude, empathy, love, and the distance to pursue their lives authentically.
Where did your love of books/storytelling/reading/writing/etc. come from?
Starting when we were very young my grandmother, a writer, used to drop my twin sister and me off at a fantastic, legendary local bookstore, “Thunderbird Books,” to explore “the stacks” and find books to read while she attended meeting or shopped or whatever she did in her absence. I loved the stories I was reading, yet I found myself studying the writing, the craft, how the author brought the story to life, igniting emotion. I wanted to do that. Apart from that, I have shared stories with friends and family my whole life, beginning with “Guess what?!” and later, with more of a social consciousness, asking, “May I tell you a story?”
What do you like to read in your free time?
Once I have shut down my computer and my day, I end the evening with a backlit Kindle and read fiction, sometimes even romance—the kind where people prevail on their own merit, not by being rescued—as well as memoir by those who have overcome or achieved or changed something profound. I read the quality of the writing as well as the storyline. And I read any and everything by my writer colleagues. My “guilty pleasure” is People Magazine, but I flip the pages past trauma and crime.
Can you share some stories about people you met while researching this book?
Other than returning to a few practitioners for a moment of clarification, I didn’t research this book as much as I lived this memoir. Yet, while developing the text, finally in earnest, I met fellow authors, a couple dozen, who are pursuing their own manuscripts and published works, women all of them, with whom I have attended conferences and retreats, participated in an ongoing text stream, traveled in their company—and through them, have learned so much about writing and the power and importance of finding one’s tribe. Particularly when we are doing really important, sometimes difficult or demanding work.
Why did you choose to write in your particular field or genre? If you write more than one, how do you balance them?
I felt compelled to write this memoir because it is an intense, complex, important story. It was time to get it out of the dark, where fear lurks, and into the light, where I could see it, understand it, and write. As a feature journalist, memoir is my most natural style. In my subsequent two books, one also is memoir, and one is fiction. . .if there is such a thing.
How do you begin writing a new book? What challenges come with it?
“Once, upon a time. . .” Kidding. I pay attention to moments of inspiration—short stories I hear, conversations, quotes—I have a pen and paper or my phone with me at all times, to catch the ideas and quote the phrases which, if I don’t pay attention, will scuttle back into my brain where I can no longer retrieve them. I write a paragraph or a page. I return to the book later, often focused on another part of the story. I write the beginning, which typically gets eclipsed, several times, by new beginnings. Sometimes I focus on what I believe will be the ending—it rarely is—and then write backwards. It is not a simple, linear process but a circuitous evolution.
Share a place that inspires you to write
My desk at home. My desk in classrooms at the University while my students are writing, or between classes. The living room couch. Carmel Beach. The doctor’s office waiting room. In the car on a long drive—as a passenger. Anywhere and everywhere I have a moment to write.
Thank you for asking,
Lisa Crawford Watson
About the Author
A fifth-generation Northern Californian, Lisa Crawford Watson has published seven books and thousands of articles in local and national newspapers and magazines. She earned a bachelor’s degree in sociolinguistics from the University of California, Davis, and a master's degree in education administration from California State University, Sacramento. She currently teaches communications, writing, and journalism at California State University, Monterey Bay.
Lisa lives with her husband in Carmel on the legendary Monterey Peninsula, where she focuses on fitness, family, and philanthropy. As a resident of the “Canine Capital of the Country,” Lisa has a devoted following for her weekly dog column, for which she has profiled more than seven-hundred furry friends.
Contact Links
Website: lisacrawfordwatson.com
Facebook: Lcwcarmel
Instagram: @lisacrawfordwatson
Substack: Lisa Crawford Watson
Purchase Link
2 comments:
This sounds like a really good book. Love the cover.
Very inspiring read!
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