Rambler: A Family Pushes Through the Fog of Mental Illness

Linda K. Schmitmeyer’s memoir, “Rambler: A Family Pushes Through the Fog of Mental Illness,” is an intimate and forthright look at her experience of raising children with a husband who has a severe mental illness.

She fondly recalls the first time she imagined herself a writer. In grade school at the time, she overheard an aunt praising a story she’d written about growing up in a large family. (She has 10 brothers and a sister.) But being a writer wasn’t something little girls living in the Midwest in the 1950s set out to be, so she became a teacher. Eventually she morphed into a writer. When not writing—or thinking about writing—she enjoys traveling and bicycling, with her husband, Steve. They have three adult children.

" Many things move me, both as a person and a writer. A walk in the woods. An elderly face creased with wisdom. A child’s chubby hand. Stories of people who push through and persevere. But I believe that creativity comes more from within, especially as it pertains to writing. In order to write “Rambler,” I had to learn how to look inward, to be quiet before sitting down to write. I often meditated as a way of achieving a focus that allowed me to hear the story in me. " - read our interview with Linda K. Schmitmeyer in The Crazy Mind magazine.