ELIZABETH MAYNARD SCHAEFER is a science journalist, editor, and author who has suffered from bipolar depression. She has a PhD in biological sciences from Stanford University and has taught a creative writing course for people with mood disorders through Stanford's psychiatry department since 1998. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.
THE AUTHOR SCOOP
Read any good books lately? I read almost everything – non-fiction, fiction, poetry, memoir. I’ve recently loved A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini; Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain by Sharon Begley; and Peace Is Every Step by Thich Nhat Hanh.If you had to boil your book’s message down to one sentence, what would it be? Don’t hesitate, just write; you’ll feel better.Tell me a story that other people might not know about you. My husband and I are adopting a child from China – hopefully very soon!How do you cheer yourself up when you're feeling down?Go to a coffeehouse, read a book while I eat a scone and sip coffee, then write out what’s on my mind and plan how to cope.Where were you when you found out your book would be published?I was by a very noisy hotel swimming pool in Las Vegas, where my husband and I had gone to rendezvous with his parents for a few days. It was so loud I could hardly hear my agent on my cell phone!
