Author Patricia Reis is a Midwesterner at heart. In the mid- 1800s, her German immigrant ancestors pioneered a farm in southwestern Iowa and their portrait gave her this story. She has lived on both coasts and currently resides in Portland, Maine where she is active in Maine Writers and Publishers. She spends six months of each year in Nova Scotia. Reis holds a BA in English Literature from the University of Wisconsin, an MFA from UCLA and a degree in Depth Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara. She also main- tains a private practice of psychotherapy for women. Reis’s memoir, Motherlines: Love, Longing, and Libera- tion (SheWrites Press, October 2016) won a gold medal for memoir from Independent Press Publishers. Alon
