Use fiction to rewrite your life | Jessica Lourey | TEDxRapidCity

After her husband committed suicide just three weeks after they were married, author Jessica Lourey thought that grief defined her. But by fictionalizing her life story, she found healing. In this talk, Jessica explores how everyone, not just authors, can use the power of fiction to transform.

Jessica Lourey (MA, MS) is best known for her critically-acclaimed Murder-by-Month mysteries, which she began writing in 2002 to recover from her husband’s suicide. The series has racked up hundreds of thousands of downloads and earned multiple starred reviews from Library Journal and Booklist, the latter calling her writing "a splendid mix of humor and suspense." Lourey also writes sword and sorcery fantasy as Albert Lea, edge-of-your-seat YA adventure as J.H. Lourey, and magical realism, literary fiction, and thrillers under her given name. She has been a tenured community college writing and sociology instructor since 1998. In addition to classroom and online teaching, Lourey leads exciting, interactive novel-writing workshops all over the country, from New York to San Francisco, Seattle to Boston. You can find out more at www.jessicalourey.com

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx