Finding Sisters will be out the end of September: pre-ordering is now available!

(September 12, 2021)

When I wrote my last blog in June, I really thought that after teasing you with covers I had rejected in the cover design process, I’d be able to send you an update and final cover preview in early August, but here we are in September instead. The delays have been for good reasons—Sunbury is working on many new releases for the fall and the book designer had lots of manuscripts to lay out—but also because of a change I instigated regarding my book. I had a meeting in late July with the marketing consultant from Sunbury to make some plans for pre- and early release marketing strategies, and he convinced me that I needed a more exciting and engaging subtitle for Finding Sisters, a subtitle that highlighted the story more immediately and used more descriptive catchphrases that might attract possible readers.  So, instead of the relatively dry and academic, “My Journey to Find Genealogical Relations Through DNA Testing,” after a few days of back-and-forth conversations, we settled on the much more active and engaging, “How One Adoptee Used DNA Testing and Determination to Uncover Family Secrets and Find her Birth Family.”

So, with a new subtitle there had to be a revision in the design before the front cover art could be revealed. A couple of miscommunications later, the new front cover design is finally ready to be revealed, though the back cover is still in the final stages of the design process. I’m excited by the quality of the artwork, and a number of folks who have previewed the design have said it would make them interested in checking out the inner contents of the book itself, so between the image and the new subtitle, I’m hoping lots of folks will be interested enough to pick up a copy and browse once it hits bookstore shelves.

The image, created by artist Alyssa Roth using mostly photos I provided, includes faces from several places in my genetic family tree superimposed over the silhouette of a large and striking tree on a hillside (a photo of her own Alyssa had). Of the photos I provided, one is a picture of my birth mother from her high school yearbook; another is a photo of my paternal grandmother provided by one of my new cousins, and another is an image of a maternal half-sister (now deceased) that I never got to meet because she died before I ever embarked on my genealogical journey, provided by my other maternal half-sister. I love how the cover image engages the viewer and hints at mystery but is actually based in real family relationships I was able to discover during my genetic genealogy journey.

The book is not quite ready for prime time yet since there are a few last editing and design tasks to complete before the official release, but it’s due out before the end of this month (pre-order info at the end of this post). Once it’s in print, shipping and delivery from the publisher typically takes about two weeks. It will eventually be available on Amazon as well, but I don’t have a date for that just yet. There will also be a Kindle edition soon, and eventually, an audiobook read by yours truly, hopefully before the end of the year. If you want a signed copy of the print book, you will need to order that from me directly (or mail me the copy you receive from Sunbury, Amazon, or your local bookstore, which I will sign and send back to you), but I won’t have my copies any sooner than anyone else…though I have just seen and approved the pdf file for the final print book design (everything between the covers), and it looks great!

Here’s the description of the book from the Sunbury Press pre-order site:

Where does she come from?

Who are her genetic parents?

Who is she?

Does she even want to know?

With almost no information of her genetic heritage, adoptee Rebecca Daniels follows limited clues and uses DNA testing, genealogical research, thoughtful letter writing, and a willingness to make awkward phone calls with strangers to finally find her birth parents.

But along the way, she finds much more.

Two half-sisters.

A slew of cousins on both sides.

A family waiting to be discovered.

With the assistance of a distant cousin in Sweden and several other DNA angels on the internet, Daniels finally comes face to face with her birth mother just months before her passing. Join in on this author’s discovery of family and self in Finding Sisters: How One Adoptee Used DNA Testing and Determination to Uncover Family Secrets and Find her Birth Family

“Finding Sisters is an excellent example of what it takes to solve a family mystery. Yet it’s also a captivating story of human relationships in the age of secrecy-revealing DNA databases…. Refreshingly honest and personal. Like no other DNA success story, Finding Sisters uses footnotes and family tree diagrams to show exactly how the search unfolds. This makes the book a clever hybrid of a memoir and a case study” – Richard Hill, author of Finding Family: My Search for Roots and the Secrets in My DNA

The book is now available for pre-order here.