Author Maurine Doerken Featured In Online Interview at TheBookInsider.com

Maurine Doerken is in private practice as a licensed Marriage, Family, and Child Therapist in the state of California. Previously she has worked as an elementary and secondary school teacher both there and in England. Ms. Doerken received her BA in English Literature (graduating Magna Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa) from UCLA where she was nominated as a Departmental Scholar in 1972. Between 1972 and 1980 she earned two teaching credentials and a Masters of Science in Education from USC, and in 1994 a Masters in Clinical Psychology from Antioch University, Los Angeles. Ms. Doerken's other published work includes Classroom Combat: Teaching and Television, excerpts in Rereading America: The Borzoi College Reader, and articles and reviews for Educational Technology Magazine. She currently lives in Santa Monica, California with her husband and four children.

(PRWEB) April 10, 2005 -- TheBookInsider: Where did you grow up and was reading and writing a part of your life? Who were your earliest influences and why?

Maurine B. Doerken: I grew up in Santa Monica by the beach and am a native Californian. Reading has always been an integral part of my life. I discovered the joy of words at an early age, 7 or 8, and haven't stopped since. My friends and family tell me I "always have my nose in a book," and if I have a little extra money it will find its way to a bookstore. I also started writing at any early age, poems and short pieces, and it always felt natural to have a pen in hand. It was a way of keeping myself company. My earliest influences were some fine teachers who cultivated an apprecuate of language and the written word and a love of literature that has survived to this day. And, of course, the influence of all the fine authors and writers I have read over time has stayed with me.

TheBookInsider: Why do you write?
Maurine B. Doerken: I write because I cannot not write. There is something compelling for me about language and putting words down on paper. I feel I am at my truest, best, and most real self when I am writing. Call it a happy madness.

TheBookInsider: "Stepparenting Without Guilt" is a wonderful book --- If you could give one single piece of advice to a new stepparent, what would it be?

Maurine B. Doerken: If I could give a single piece of advice about being a stepparent it would be to cultivate patience and as much as possible to take a loving and compassionate stance toward the difficulties and challenges that can be involved in being in a stepfamily situation.

Read the full interview at http://thebookinsider.com/Interviews/MDoerken.htm

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