Annie’s Song: Dandelions, Dreams & Dogs ~ Pub. Date 3/14/2023. Lucid House Publishing

Cross Genre Creative Fiction Memoir – Essays & Poems

Annie McDonnell’s shimmering Annie’s Song: Dandelions, Dreams and Dogs, a cross genre memoir/creative fiction debuts March 14, 2023, just in time for St. Patrick’s Day. Known to the literary world as one of its best book reviewers, Annie reveals her gift for storytelling in this soaring blend of essays and poems that traces tragedies and joys that mark her life and her determination to find that joy despite great suffering and innumerable losses: from the shocking rape and murder of her twelve-year-old best friend to facing the fact that she’d never have children after a hysterectomy at age twenty-three to giving up a career she loved due to disabilities and much more. Annie sees life through the lens of two people; one with a foot here and one with a foot in heaven. One of her writing teachers says she “lives in two worlds.” Annie’s response: “With such a huge loss as a child, I had to learn to believe fiercely in heaven to help me cope.”

HERE ARE SOME EARLY REVIEWS:

“Annie McDonell has a true, honest, powerful voice, and she puts it to beautiful use in Annie’s Song. And she’s right: The prose sings.”

—Darin Strauss, author of The Queen of Tuesday

 

“Annie McDonnell is a fresh and welcome voice in literature.”

—Camille Pagán, the bestselling author of Good for You

 

“Annie’s Song is an open-hearted memoir about a life spent loving the most vulnerable among us. These are stories full of joy and life that keep loved ones close, even after they’ve passed from this world. This poetic writing of untiring advocacy, compassionate witness, and deep love. Annie’s Song is a gift to the enormous community of writers—yes, those who have felt seen and uplifted by Annie McDonnell over the years, but also those who might be hearing her voice saying ‘you matter’ for the first time. This book is our chance to see how a life of empathy is born.”

—Diane Zinna, author of The All-Night Sun

 

Annie is one of those rare people, who always looks for the rainbow in the storm’s wake and uses her brokenness to help others by giving her heart to innumerable causes and being candid about what she’s going through in the hope that her honesty will give solace to kindred spirits. Thirsty for love, Annie breaks herself open at points only to learn the hard lesson that sometimes the love she seeks won’t ever come. Your heart will warm when you see her take on life. You will laugh, cry, and be moved. Her writing is a spiritual experience. Annie’s Song; Dandelions, Dreams and Dogs is her love song to trauma survivors, dog lovers and love seekers. She gives her gratitude to the dandelion wishes that came true, the dreams that sustain her, and her dogs that nurse and protect her. She wouldn’t change a thing.

Proceeds from the book sales will be donated to One Love Dog Rescue, which she has long supported and to The Muse Writing Center in Norfolk, VA., where she is a student.

https://www.facebook.com/OneLoveDogRescue

https://the-muse.org/