Thank you Angela for sharing information with readers!  -The SCBC, Inc.

1. What is your book about?
Dear Son: Letters From a Birth Mother is a collection of letter I wrote over the course of twenty years to the son I placed for adoption. Dear Son offers a candid look into the heart of a birth mother and the process she undergoes to accept her decision.

If you ever wondered about the heart of a birthmother. How could she carry a child for 9 months and give him away? What went through her mind when she signed the adoption papers? How can she overcome the shame and guild of her decision and learn to forgive herself? How does she feel about reuniting with her son? This book will answer these questions and many more. Grow, cry, laugh, forgive and heal with me. Learn, as I did, that sometimes saying, "Good-bye," is the best way to say, "I love you."

2. Who will benefit from reading this book?
Dear Son will appeal to anyone involved in the adoption process. Birth parents will see their feelings and thoughts validated. Adoptive parents will understand the sacrifice involved in placing a child for adoption. Friends and family, who frequently don't talk about it, will have new avenues through which to empathize with their loved ones. And adoptees will receive validation and comfort in knowing they were not forgotten. However, longing for a lost child is not a unique experience reserved for those involved in the adoption process. The book will appeal to anyone who has lost a child through any means.

3. What inspired you to write this book?
I wanted to give birthmothers a voice. While we frequently learn from adoptive parents and adoptees, the plight of birth parents is often ignored. Except for the touching reunion stories that are sometimes reported on the local news and talk shows, we don't know how placing of a child for adoption affects birth parents.

4. Do you have a specific writing style?
Some reviews for my book use words like,"raw-intense-emotional-transparent-open-honest." I was raised by an alcoholic father. In that environment feelings are often stifled to satisfy the addict. As an adult I make up for that by writing and speaking with an edge that says passion and truth.

5. How did you come up with the title for your book?
Dear Son: Letters From A Birth Mother seemed appropriate because I never named my son or even met him. On one hand it sounds detached and impersonal. But on the other hand, to say "my son" is also personal and familiar. The ambiguity in the title was an opportunity for me to express the struggle I had with carrying this child, giving him birth and never truly knowing him.

6. Is there a message in your book that you want readers to grasp?
This story will show how personal reflection and self-discovery carried me from grief and guilt to acceptance and appreciation for the experience. There is hope, forgiveness and growth in life's adversities. Every event in our lives has God's fingerprints on it. If readers get that from hearing my story, I will be truly blessed.

7. How does your family feel about your book?
I could not ask for a more supportive husband. This book comes with his blessing and approval. I feared some of the details of my past life might cause him to reject me or the book. I even offered to write under a pen name so he wouldn't be adversely affected by the book. Instead, he insisted this story be told with his last name on the cover. My mother, on the other hand, has not yet read the book. This book is my life story. That means many loved ones are included in the pages. Some welcome that and some are not ready and that is OK.

8. If you had to do it all over again, would you change anything?
No. While this story is difficult to share with the world, it is necessary. A fellow writer once said to me, "It's not your story. It's God's story. Who are you not to share how He works in the lives of us mere mortals." She is right. This is the story of God working in the life of a teenager even before she knew He existed. That He would use this story to speak to many other teens and adults is awesome.

9. How will your book speak specifically to African American readers?
There has always been a stigma attached to placing a child for adoption, but I think this has been especially true in the African American community. This book will give African Americans the opportunity to see that adoption is a valid option for pregnant teens.

10. Anything else you want your readers to know?
I am working on a follow-up book, Dear Mom and Dad, a collection of letters from adoptees to their birth parents. If you would like to contribute to this book, please visit my website at www.dearson.net.

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