Victoria Costello
AUTHOR

Victoria Costello

Literature & Fiction
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Victoria Costello's latest book, Orchid Child blends history, mystery, science, fantasy, and romance to imagine a tragedy-plagued, Irish American family's youngest member halting the chain of suffering that came before him by tapping his neurodiversity and the ancient wisdom of his Celtic ancestors. Partly autobiographical, in writing Orchid Child, Victoria Costello drew on her own experience as a neurodiverse woman, her genealogy, and the highs and lows of raising two wonderful, now-grown sons as a single mom. Orchid Child reflects the author's fascination with ancestry; how the legacies of those who came before us can appear in our lives in mysterious ways, and the challenges faced by second and third generation descendants of immigrants who wish to understand and reclaim their ancestry. As author Rudy Ruiz wrote in his review of Orchid Child, "Costello artfully weaves together an intimate family saga that spans continents and centuries while reminding us that the deep ties that bind souls together have the capacity to supersede time and space, and – when understood and nurtured – the power to illuminate and heal multigenerational wounds." Before turning to fiction, Victoria Costello earned Emmy and American Society of Journalists & Authors Awards for her writing on the environment, neuroscience and psychology. Her feature articles have appeared in Scientific American MIND, Brain World, and Psychology Today. She has blogged on family mental health and parenting for HuffingtonPost, Mamapedia, PsychCentral, All About Psychology, Tween Parent, DivineCaroline, and Yahoo Health & Wellness News. In a memoir titled A Lethal Inheritance, published by Prometheus Books in 2012, Costello tells parallel personal and scientific stories. She details three generations of mental illness and addiction in her family and offers new research into possible causes and treatments of child and adult mental disorders, along with strategies for prevention. Andrew Solomon, National Book Award winning author of Noonday Demon, An Atlas of Depression, called A Lethal Inheritance "lucid," and "invaluable." UNDARK Magazine EIC, Deborah Blum said of Costello's memoir, "Read it because the lessons are so valuable. Read it because it's a story so beautifully told." For the past two years Victoria Costello's has added teaching to her creative journey. With classes offered in person at Southern Oregon University, and online through WritingWorkshops.com, Costello offers a mixed genre approach to Life Writing involving the theory and craft of both memoir and autobiographical fiction, aka autofiction. With these workshops and courses she seeks to help writers tell their stories by getting at the greater truths they seek by tapping both memory and imagination. Her guidebook, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Writing a Memoir remains a favorite resource for writers newly tackling their life stories. Find out more about Victoria's writing and workshops for writers at her author website www.victoriacostelloauthor.com.
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