Featured Interview With Susan A. LeBron
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I am originally from South Florida. I was an Irish/Italian girl who grew up in a Cuban neighborhood. I enjoyed grandma’s pizza on Saturday’s with all the cousins, and then frijoles negros con arroz on Sundays. Our family headed to North/Central Florida in the early 1980’s. After bouncing around to “find myself” and finally graduating college, I met a military man and have continued to move Coast to Coast for the past 18 years. We currently live in sunny San Diego with our six children. We also have a rescue Lab/Pit mix that we love very much.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I have always had a very active imagination and loved creative writing assignments with open ended prompts as early as the first grade. My inspiration was a fabulous teacher named Ms. Lovelace. I enjoyed pretending through role play and stepping into another world through books. I always dreamed in color and would share my nightly adventures to anyone who would listen. The numerous behavioral studies writing assignments in college encouraged me to explore various perspectives of issues and topics. I utilized this experience to develop and present information to audiences with various levels of learning styles and abilities in my first career positions in the Social Services Industry. I fine tuned my interpretive and instructional writing skills as I developed staff and sales training materials for several Fortune 500 companies.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
I enjoy learning. I do not follow any particular author or have any parameters for choosing a book to read. Having a household of children, I have found it difficult to just sit and read any book cover to cover. If I was forced to choose, I would say I prefer non-fiction. I like to know behind the scenes details and learn the who and why behind how a life was lived and the choices they made. I usually read snippets here and there and love to hang on to quotes that challenge, convict, or attempt to change my heart and mind.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
No Fig Leaves Allowed! Getting Emotionally Naked! is a self-help book designed to bring awareness to an individual’s and/or a couple’s barriers to intimacy and help them create a “Safe Haven” where they can communicate about anything with a renewed openness and 100% honesty. The book utilizes the acronym S.H.A.M.E. Share, Have Fun, Accept & Adjust, Mirror & Make Changes, and Express Love. It begins with ‘My Story’ and peeks into some of the challenges and disillusions I have faced in my own marriage and how Rich & I fought to find our own “Safe Haven”.
It is loosely based on the iconic and Biblical story of Adam & Eve addressing deception of both ourselves from unrealistic expectations, and how we may be deceiving each other by not being forthcoming of our true feelings. Having, or believing that we have “issues” in various areas of our lives, often causes us to cover our true feelings with “fig leaves”. Over a period of time, this can build a wall of indifference, resentment leaving a couple wondering if they have a relationship at all. The goal for readers is to identify and remove these leaves, walking open and unashamed with those closest to us so we can all have the honest, loving, and compassionate relationships we deserve. Readers will be led by personal anecdotes and eleven exercises to identify and reveal their desires, insecurities, and frustrations…revealing those truly important “non-negotiables” that may be keeping them from having fulfillment in their relationships.
No more mind reading! No more holding it in to not “rock the boat”. I believe it is time for everyone to Get Naked! After reading, No Fig Leaves Allowed! Getting Emotionally Naked!, it is my hope that those words will not just be another title on your shelf. They will become the very phrase you will use in your own lives as a cue to get or keep your relationship’s communication on track. You can be the one to ensure that you and those you love are able to communicate freely with 100% honesty by saying No Fig Leaves Are Allowed!
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