In honor of May being Asian & Pacific American Heritage Month, this Big Blend Radio "From the Vault" conversation features author Bethany Mangle, who discusses her young adult novel debut “Prepped.” The story weaves a narrative together with humor, excitement, and romance while exploring themes from Bethany’s Korean identity, sisterhood, and finding your place within your family and the world. She creates honest characters against an adventurous backdrop, and captures raw emotions and a sincere portrayal of the teenage experience. Bethany is now also the author of "All the Right Reasons," and "Conditions of a Heart." More at https://www.bethanymangle.com/

This "From the Vault" episode of Big Blend Radio focuses on the documentary film SALT IN MY SOUL: THE ART OF DYING (Giant Pictures) which is based on the bestselling posthumously published memoir of the same name. It’s is a classic coming of age story about Mallory, a young woman figuring out how to live with cystic fibrosis which she was diagnosed with at the age of three. In her twenty five-year battle with the deadly disease, she carved out a life that most of us don’t come close to.

Using Mallory’s posthumously published 2500-page secret diaries, hundreds of hours of newly discovered footage, and audio recordings, the film offers Mallory as the narrator of her own extraordinary chronicle.

Featured guests are filmmaker William Battersby and Mallory's mother Diane Shader Smith. More: https://saltinmysouldoc.com/

With today being World Lyme Day (May 1, 2024), this "From the Vault" episode of Big Blend Radio features Anna Penenberg, author of “Dancing in the Narrows: A Mother-Daughter Odyssey Through Chronic Illness.”

Dancing in the Narrows (She Writes Press) chronicles a mother and daughter’s multi-year journey through illness and trauma. At sixteen, Anna’s youngest daughter, Dana, is stricken with a mysterious and debilitating condition, eventually diagnosed as Lyme disease. Desperate to find a cure, the two women are thrust into the established medical world, then far beyond. Full of adventure, humor, and blind faith, Dancing in the Narrows is an inspiring story of self-discovery as a single mother fights to save the life of her child. https://annapenenberg.com/