Linda is a journalist who started out in the late seventies writing about women and their lives. In the eighties and the early nineties she was a prolific writer – and was also in therapy trying to get over a turbulent childhood.
Linda wrote a lot about personal issues as she began to see how she’d been operating as a result of her early experiences – and how other people operate as well. It was the start of a deep and ongoing interest in women’s emotional issues and how they live their lives – and how this either does or doesn’t produce contentment and happiness.
Linda took a break to help my husband’s career, have two babies, have more therapy, get divorced and raise their two sons (who both have specific learning difficulties) on her own as her ex went abroad. Being a full time mum gave her the opportunity to really talk to the many interesting women around her who were brought up – like her – to expect to ‘have it all’ – but instead found they were just ‘doing it all’ once we married and had children. Many of them feel disillusioned and as if life hasn’t quite worked out how they expected it to – but they don’t know what to do about it.
Linda began writing again in the early 2000s, but soon after found herself coping with serious, enduring illness that laid her low. Financial disaster followed swiftly on as her ex became reluctant to pay. It was what therapists might see as a ‘growth opportunity’ – it certainly gave her plenty of pause and cause for thought about what really matters.
In exploring what truly constitutes happiness and contentment even in the most difficult times, she is coming to learn how to have a fulfilling life no matter what it throws at you. Linda wants to share that with you in an ongoing conversation between friends.
Linda has written two books, Experiences of an Internet Dater, and How to be After Divorce.
Experiences of an Internet Dater
Whether you’re looking for real love and commitment, heady romance or just a quick fling for fun, internet dating offers all sorts of possibilities. Linda shares advice, tips, observations and the ups and downs of it all in this intimate and engaging book. And – yes – it does end happily, though not, perhaps, in quite the way you’d expect…
This is a glamorous, witty and stylish look at the internet dating scene for women of a certain age – and it’s so not ‘lonely hearts’. Linda is upbeat and open to possibilities to the end, when it shows you what women really want when they’re free to choose… Or this one, anyway. It’s a must-take companion if you’re about to embark on the thrills of dating on the web.
How to be happy after divorce
When Linda’s husband suddenly leaves her and their two young children to live on the other side of the world, their own world is turned upside down. As Linda struggles to pick herself up and put a life back together again for herself and their two sons, she realises there’s an opportunity in the chaos to remake a far happier life than the one she had before. She reviews how things had turned out, the ways in which she’d colluded, why she’d chosen certain modus operandi for herself and explores ways of reframing what happened.
Stopped in her tracks and given the chance to see if the way she’d been living and thinking had really suited her, she reflects on what she really wants out of life and how it could actually be with a more conscious approach. She explores what was holding her back and bringing her down. And then she finds the courage to change these things.
Linda decides to make up her own rules, presents herself to the world in the way she wants – and finally starts to live her own authentic life, free from the programming of her past and other people’s ‘stuff’, enjoying the present, and eschewing destructive games for honesty and intimacy. This is an empowering book for anyone – divorced or not – who wants to build a satisfying, happy life.
Both can be purchased here:
http://www.lindafranklin.co.uk/my-books/
