Book Tour + #Giveaway: Shattered Compass by Lenore Greiner @LenoreGreiner @RABTBookTours

 

A Memoir of Loss, Escape, and Renewal

 

Memoir

Date Published: June 11, 2025

Publisher: Acorn Publishing

 

How does a young woman cope when she cannot speak the truth?

When nineteen-year-old Lenore experiences sexual assault while studying abroad in Italy, her entire world shifts. Survival becomes the focus of her daily life, physical illness grabs control of her body, and no one can free her from her pain. A ghost of herself, she takes the path of denial, believing it’s the only way to protect her loved ones and herself from her harsh reality.

On her journey toward peace, she assumes the expected roles of mother and wife, but a traumatic diagnosis puts her at a crossroads. She must start living the life she wants or roam her days as a victim in the chaos of fear. Lenore’s escape through travel allows her to reconcile the imprisonment she’s suffered over the years.

However, when another family tragedy strikes, Lenore understands she must finally come to terms with the silence she’s kept. But what if one incident that happened decades ago is too destructive, too deep to be excavated? Will she be able to find herself in the rubble? Or will she be lost forever?

 

Interview with Lenore Greiner

How did publishing your first book change your process of writing?

Oh gosh, I learned so much while writing my memoir, Shattered Compass. Actually, this is my second book; as a travel writer, my first was a Las Vegas guidebook. So, after coming from a journalistic background, writing non-fiction, I had to dig deep so hard!

For my memoir, my writing process had to change immensely. For example, I had to ensure that I wrote in the morning when I was fresh. If not, I found too many mistakes or repetitions if I got too tired later in the day. And memoir writing can be very taxing emotionally.

Now I had to dig through old letters, photos, and journals and mine my history to create this memoir. And I enjoyed working with raw material to create something that was worthwhile for the reader to read.

What was an early experience where you learned that language had power?

Probably when I had said no to my mother as a little kid. No is a very powerful word when you're two years old. That one word allowed you to grab control of your life.

Later, in Catholic school in seventh grade, I heard a boy say the F word out loud. And I just remember my shock and my surprise after I heard the one word that no one ever said, and never wrote down. Yep, that also showed me how powerful language could be.

What one thing would you give up to become a better writer?

Wow, what a great question. That's a tough one. Would I give up my married and family life to live a life free of distraction so I could write? Or pack it in, go to Paris alone, and devote myself to my art, as many other writers have done?

I guess I’d give up my perfectionism. I spend too much time going over and over my work. I need to let go and write more freely.

Tell us a little about yourself? Perhaps something not many people know?

Well, I love languages. I can speak Spanish and Italian. And right now I'm diving into back into French, which is just kicking my butt. I've learned so much about English after learning other languages.

And it helps my writing. For example, I discovered words that worked for me because they worked similarly in another language. For example, the Italian word for window is finestra and in English we use the word ‘defenestrate,’ which means to throw someone out the window. So, seeing defenestrate for the first time, I knew exactly how to use it since I could tie it back to Italian.

If you had to do something differently as a child or teenager to become a better writer as an adult, what would you do?

Probably stay awake during English class and concentrate on the great literature assigned to me; I got bored a lot. We read Faulkner, Graham Greene, and James Baldwin in high school, but I never appreciated them. A lost opportunity.

Now, I wish I could go back and study them all. It’s sad that such greatness was wasted on the teenaged me.

What is the biggest surprise that you experienced after becoming a writer?

I think it was the morning when my travel feature was published on the front page of the San Francisco Examiner's travel section. I looked at my byline and realized that up to one million people might be reading my work. And that was just stunning to me.

Especially since we writers always work alone at our desks. You don't think about your readers in that way; you're just thinking about engaging them or if your writing will be interesting.

But on that morning, the sheer number of potential readers astounded me. You know, the reach we have as writers.

Could you tell us a bit about your most recent book and why it is a must-read?

Well, that famous quote of Joan Didion, “We tell ourselves stories to live” exemplifies why Shattered Compass is a must read.

I explored the lonely 19-year-old student I had been, living alone in Italy and surviving the worst thing that could have happened to me. Then I slowly transformed after traveling the world, fighting cancer, and surviving my father’s death.

Then, after I returned to Italy, I found a serendipitous peace.

I figure that if one young woman or young man reads about what had happened to me and avoids the same pain, then as a writer, I’ve done my job.   

 

About the Author

Award-winning travel writer Lenore Greiner grew up in Marin County where, at thirteen, she began her writing journey as a lifelong journal keeper.

At nineteen, her passion for adventure led her to Italy’s heart to study at the University for Foreigners in Perugia and immerse herself in the language and culture. There, the seeds of her memoir were sown.

Lenore has garnered eight prestigious Solas Awards for Best Travel Writing and was honored in Best American Travel Writing 2013, edited by Elizabeth Gilbert. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, Fodor’s travel guides, and three volumes of Shaking the Tree, an annual anthology curated by the International Memoir Writers Association.     

A graduate of UC Davis, Lenore married her college sweetheart, and they now call Southern California home. They share two kids, two kayaks, and too many rambunctious grandkids.

 

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