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Beginning in 1999, Margaret Roach was Editorial Director at Martha Stewart, a high pressure, highly coveted job. But in 2007 she threw over her dynamic publishing position in favor of a life centered on nature. She talks about making this seismic life shift and the "dropout memoir" she wrote to record it, "And I Shall Have Some Peace," at New Canaan Library on March 29. Motivating Roach's life-changing decision was a feeling that her success in one realm, publishing, had meant giving up her dreams in another. Her goal was to reclaim what she'd sacrificed. She says, "I craved completely different rewards: solitude, a return to the personal creativity of writing, and a closer connection to nature and my first passion, the garden I'd been making on weekends for 20 years." With carpe diem fervor, she moved out of New York City to her weekend house in a sparsely populated area of New York state. There, she first began her blog, AWayToGarden.com, which the New York Times called "the best garden blog" and then, a year later, she had secured a book contract. Roach describes the chronicle she wrote as "a book about dropping out, at midlife and in peak career; about trying not to be afraid about lost prestige or about money or about snakes and electric storms and a collapsing economy and whatever else rattles my cage." It's also a book that garnered three and a half stars (out of a top of four) from People Magazine, which said, Her writing is witty and elegant, proof that despite her seemingly perfect fast-lane life, she was indeed meant for more artistic pursuits." Kirkus Reviews called it A moving, eloquent and joyously idiosyncratic memoir. On March 29, hear Roach talk at New Canaan Library about her bold move and its fulfilling aftermath. Her talk is free and begins at 7 p.m. For more information, visit the Library's website.
Can you imagine yourself brave enough to make the kind of move Roach did? Let us know by posting below.
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