About Jane

I’ve been many things in more than seven decades: a self-assured little girl, a “good girl,” (Yes, a “bad” girl, too), a student, a teacher, a dancer (well, an aspiring dancer in my next lifetime),  a wife and mother, a single parent, a publicist, a writer, an author, blogger, and the host of the podcast, “Older Women & Friends.”

I wrote my first “big” book, Dead Serious: A Book For Teenagers About Teen Suicide (Atheneum, 1987), in an attempt to understand my brother’s suicide. The book was named a “YSAD Best Book for Young Adults.” The second edition, with a revised subtitle, Breaking The Cycle of Teen Suicide (Bublish, Inc., 2018), hit #1 on Amazon’s Best Sellers List in “Teen & Young Adult Nonfiction on Suicide Social Issues.”

I thought I could write my way through my brother’s death; when I couldn’t, I came at it from a different perspective and took a hard look at our sibling connections from childhood through old age and published Brothers & Sisters: How They Shape Our Lives (St. Martin’s Press, 1991), (Ballantine Books, 1994).

Thanks For The Memories: Love, Sex, and World War II (Praeger Publishers, 2006), (Potomac Books, Inc., 2009)

was born out of a post-Thanksgiving conversation between my mother and her first cousin by marriage. The women swapped stories about their lives “in country,” while their husbands were either training stateside or overseas. Those four years revolutionized relationships between and among the sexes.

What am I up to now? I’m hosting the “Older Women & Friends”  podcast to tell the stories of ordinary older women who are doing extraordinary things. Their experiences and lessons learned help provide a roadmap for aging with resilience and joy. So, turn up the volume!