Murdering My Youth by Cady McClain

I met Cady McClain at Write the Dream last March.  I knew who she was from her days on the soap opera All My Children.  I had a babysitter named Alice who loved daytime TV.  All My Children was one of my favorites. Yes, I loved soap operas long before I should have been watching them, but that is an entirely different story...

Anyway, Cady led a workshop that was amazing and helped me to create some really good pieces of writing.  Some I have shared, some I haven't. She is one of three or four real celebrities that I have ever met, but more, she is one of the most genuine and real human beings I have ever talked to.  She made me, and I think, the rest of the attendees of the writing conference feel like we really mattered and that our work really mattered.

At the conference she talked about her book and about the process and pain she went through to write and publish it.  Now that I have read her story I know why it was so hard.  I also have even more respect for her as a person.  She did not have an upbringing that would typically turn out such a genuinely kind person.  To say that Cady was taken advantage of as a child by her parents and others close to her would be an understatement of epic proportions.  Her experiences are nearly unbelievable, so heart wrenching, so raw, and yet she tells it like it is.  Her ability to put her life on the page with no holds barred is what kept me reading.  I finished this book in about 2 sittings.  I just could not stop.  She is proof that a person can come through devastation, can learn from mistakes of others and herself, and in the end can learn to trust in humanity again.

When our workshop was over and I was saying goodbye to Cady, she gave me a hug (or let me give her one).  I didn't think anything of it.  She was just that sort of warm, sweet person.  The kind of person who you want to hug.  After reading her book, I look back at that moment now and see something a little more special.  Trusting someone to be in her personal space like that is a big deal, and she trusted me.  Thanks, Cady! Thanks for sharing yourself with me, with other aspiring writers, and with the world.

Check out Cady's website here to find out more about her and to get your own copy of this amazing read.