Beyond the Blue Door: a writer's journey

Beyond the Blue Door: a writer's journey, a memoir, is a sequel to A Raven in My Heart: Reflections of a Bookseller. Through a series of unfortunate events that McCracken couldn't have foreseen or prevented, she closed her bookstore after five-and-a-half years. Beyond the Blue Door picks up where "Raven" ends. The blue door symbolizes anything you want to get beyond: fears, anxieties, illness, failures and even hopelessness. McCracken's book is about becoming the writer that she always, secretly, wanted to be; and the story is bound and intertwined with her mother's journey. "Blue" deals with the stigma of mental illness (depression and anxiety), the healing power of nature, writing, therapy, and becoming part of the writing community in British Columbia. Perhaps one of the biggest gifts of all is discovering who her mother really is. Go behind the scenes of the first Word on the Lake Writers' Festival that McCracken co-founded. Hang out with authors, poets and publishers at literary events. Humour and poetry illuminate the path that leads her beyond the blue door.