Join author Tanya Ward Goodman to celebrate the release of her memoir, "Leaving Tinkertown." Author reading and book signing along with special musical guest, Jason Ward. Hosted bar, snacks and art created and inspired by Ross Ward and Tinkertown Museum.
100% of proceeds from ticket and book sales along with all other donations will benefit the Alzheimer's Association - California Southland Chapter.
LEAVING TINKERTOWN
Released August 15, 2013 by The University of New Mexico Press
Tanya Ward Goodman's father painted carnival signs for a living and raised his family in Tinkertown Museum, a roadside attraction in rural New Mexico whose walls were made of beer bottles. When he was diagnosed in his 50s with early-onset Alzheimer's disease, Goodman gave up her writing career and a new love in Los Angeles to move back home, only to become more and more unmoored as her father's memory grew hazy. Being her father's daughter was what she did best; when he inevitably forgot her name, who would she be? Her memoir, LEAVING TINKERTOWN, is an account both humorous and heart-wrenching of the ways that loss reshaped her eccentric family and propelled her to realize that her place in the world lay outside "the museum."
What people are saying about the book:
"Leaving Tinkertown will crack you up, make you cry, grip your heart, and move you to live to the absolute hilt.
--Heather King, author of Parched and Shirt of Flame
"This memoir is a lovely rendering of the pain and difficulty involved in watching a beloved parent succumb to Alzheimer's Disease. But more subtly and importantly, it's about the benefits and detriments of an eccentric childhood. Tanya Ward Goodman writes about both subjects with full sincerity and great humor."
--Neal Pollack, author of Alternadad and Stretch
Leaving Tinkertown is a compassionate, and thoroughly entertaining memoir about growing old, and also about growing up, and about letting go. Though not sentimental, it reeks of love and true intimacy. In all, this is one of the most special books I have read in a long while, and I will give it to many friends as a true gift from the heart."
--John Nichols, author of The Milagro Beanfield War and On Top of Spoon Mountain
A FAMILY OF ARTISTS
Tanya Ward Goodman's essays have appeared in Brain Child Magazine, The Huffington Post, Literary Mama and in numerous anthologies. She is a regular contributor to the Urban Dweller section of TheNextFamily.com. "Leaving Tinkertown" is her first book.
Jason Ward has been writing and recording music for decades. His indie bands BigDamnCrazyWeight and Starsky recorded with Resin Records and SubPop. He currently plays with Sad Baby Wolf, a band that recently opened for The Shins. He is co-owner of Star Tattoo in Albuquerque, New Mexico. http://sadbabywolf.bandcamp.com/
Ross Ward was an artist, carnival showpainter, woodcarver and the creator of Tinkertown Museum a magical folk-art environment in the mountains of New Mexico. In February of 1998, at age 57, Ross was diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease and passed away November 13, 2002. The Ward family continues his legacy by maintaining and running Tinkertown in his memory. www.tinkertown.com
