My Brain Has Left the Building

But my joy is tripled!

Digging in with Joan Fernandez” is a weekly newsletter with ideas for you on shattering limits to reaching your true potential, told through bits from the life of Jo van Gogh (the woman that would not allow Van Gogh to die twice). Please sign up here.

Many moons ago when I was a new mom with my daughter.

I cannot possibly write about my book today. It is impossible for . . . wait, what’s that?

What did you call me?

Was it. . .

New Grandma?

Oh yeah, you did!

As of 8:42 a.m. to be exact when our daughter sent the text, “She’s here!”

A new granddaughter.

I am sublimely happy. I cannot fathom forming a solid sentence for you because I must—immediately—write to her.

What I Wish

This is what I wish for you, darling girl.

You will come to know me as Grandma Jojo and perhaps someday find out that I wrote a book and maybe one day even read it. But it’s OK if you don’t because your mama is the epitome and essence of the woman I imagined Jo van Gogh to be. Resilient. Takes no prisoners when seeing through bullsh*t.

Up for wild rides fueled by her heart.

And so, I wish you your mama’s strength but also her humor. Her kindness. A lightheartedness earned by the wisdom of hard-won trials surviving past toxic people and coming out the other side. (Once when I complained about annoying work mates your 20-something mom calmly patted my arm. “Everyone’s got a little crazy, mama.”

Oh, that helped. It was just their crazy I saw. Hiding saner attributes.)

See what I mean? And so, I wish you hours and hours of hearing stories. There are so many! For it’s so short-sighted and ridiculous—this current cultural effort to take down statues and ban books and rewrite accounts about strong women from the past who rose up to right wrongs—as if courage can stay mute.

Inane of them.

As though the erasure can silence the teaching written in our cells, whispered in the dark, nestled in our sterling hearts.

I’m biding my time.

For, oh, you have inherited a legacy!

And I would wish you a good head on your small shoulders but you have already demonstrated solid smarts by choosing cool parents who have created a home where creativity abounds—whether in design or music or fighting off squirrels from flower pots—though your brother. . .I believe he will be a formidable partner/champion/challenger. In just his first two years he’s picked up some good life hacks (like carrying around a step stool to reach high places). Once more vocabulary becomes available, I’m confident he’ll have tricks to confide.

Oh, I relish the adventures your parents will have with you!

May you travel to farflung countries and cross this one coast-to-coast to hear new languages and different dialects and so see how big this world is and how ready it is for the unique gifts you will bring to it.

We’ve been waiting for you.

And you’re here.

With joy,

P.S. Shout-out to another family member,

Ashley@Briefly

who wrote a lovely tribute to Jo (and me!)

My book

Saving Vincent, A Novel of Jo van Gogh, is about the woman that would not let Van Gogh die twice. This biographical historical novel is based on a true story.

In the early twentieth century, a timid widow—and sister-in-law of the famed painter—Jo van Gogh takes on the male-dominated art elite to prove that the hundreds of worthless paintings she inherited are world-class in order to ensure her young son will have an inheritance.

Buy Here

Book Recommendations about generations of women

Order on Stephanie Claypool's website

Satisfying story is a gem

This heartwarming tale centers around Lily, a retiree whose life jackknifes when she becomes overnight caregiver for her eight-year-old granddaughter, Emma, who is orphaned when her parents die in a car accident. Still grieving over the death of her husband, Lily is thrust into grappling with big decisions: Does she provide the right stability for her troubled grandchild? Should she take on her daughter’s dream and expense to open a quilt shop? As Lily struggles to find answers, the story tenderly cheers for Lily’s gradual emancipation from her own limiting beliefs. At a time in life where society expects retirees to fade, Lily doggedly presses forward, fighting obstacles while finding support from new friends who become new family. Set in a picturesque small town, this satisfying story is a gem.

Order on Bloomsbury Publishing website

Stunning tour de force

A fierce cleaver of a book, WOMEN TALKING, slashes through ugly cords of patriarchy and fundamentalism in this searing story of eight women in a remote Mennonite community. They are meeting clandestinely to debate their response to the exposure of a horrific trail of rape and sexual violence they and their children have been victims of for four years when eight men used an animal anesthetic at night to knock them unconscious and attack them. At first I felt like I wanted to read half turned away from the page, afraid of reading the next ugly revelation. But as the complicated story unspools and the women emerge as distinct personalities, their humor, intelligence, missteps, hope and bravery pulled me straight into the tension. WOMEN TALKING is a stunning tour de force.