July 9, 2020

No Rules is about a sixteen year old girl in 1971 who has lost hope in her future as a result of her unhappiness and that of her Catholic parents. She decides to change her life by running away from home with her older sister. All her problems will be over, she believes, if she flees the narrow life her parents insist she live and no longer has to abide by their strict rules.

The book follows the next four years of her life as she moves to California to join the hippies, to back east leaving her sister behind, hitchhikes across Canada and lives in a commune in upstate New York. Her new life requires that she learn to adapt and survive in an adult world for which she is unprepared.

Along the way she experiences joy and fear, love and abandonment, and makes mistakes as she learns and matures, while re-evaluating her spirituality. The journey awakens her to feminism as she develops her own strength and discovers the real rules confining her are imposed by a patriarchal society.   

Discussion points:

1. How do you write an honest memoir without apologizing for your past?
2. 4 ways I sought help to complete this book.
3. What do you include and what do you remove?
4. Why I chose my publishing path.

BIO
In addition to being an author, Sharon Dukett worked in a number of positions including cocktail waitress, medical claims examiner, computer programmer, project manager, and deputy director in state government. In her debut memoir, No Rules, she was inspired to write about her journey of awakening to feminism and her own strength during an early 1970s counterculture journey. She wanted to capture an era that is often misunderstood to share a personal account of the growth that emerged and changed our culture.

No Rules was chosen as Book of the Week by Womens eNews and received a five star review from Readers’ Favorite. Kirkus Reviews said “This illuminating coming-of-age account chronicles a young woman’s counterculture journey. Dukett’s revealing memoir effectively captures the restless disillusionment of many members of the generation that came of age during the ’60s and ’70s.”

Sharon loves reading memoir from a variety of backgrounds―to learn how others feel, experience life, and deal with their struggles. No Rules is her debut memoir. She is working on a novel that focuses on climate change. You can read her blog and learn more about her on her website https://sharondukett.com/. Email her at: sharondukettauthor@gmail.com

To follow her on social media:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sharon.dukett/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sharondukettauthor/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/travelsed

Listen to audio recording here: