I was pleased and proud to accept a “First Place–Adult Non-fiction” award from the Northern California Publishers and Authors association at a banquet near Sacramento on Saturday.

When Your Child Has Lyme Disease: A Parent’s Survival Guide, which I co-wrote with Sandra Berenbaum, LCSW, “nailed every one of the 10 criteria we looked at,” according to one of the judges.

The book’s “voice” alternates between that of Sandy and me. Sandy’s chapters draw on her life experience and work as a psychotherapist counseling Lyme patients and their families. Mine spring from being the mother of a daughter with Lyme, support group leader and activist with LymeDisease.org.

Our primary motivation in writing the book was to help parents and their children make it through an illness that can be shattering to family life.

But I must admit, it’s nice to get validation from a professional association of publishers and authors. Thanks, NCPA!

Click here for more information about the book.

TOUCHED BY LYME is written by Dorothy Kupcha Leland, LymeDisease.org’s VP for Education and Outreach. She is co-author of When Your Child Has Lyme Disease: A Parent’s Survival Guide. Contact her at dleland@lymedisease.org.