Bethany Hegedus tried her hand at several careers before becoming a published novelist.  As she herself says, “I had to hear a lot of “No”s before I ever heard a “Yes!”  Now she runs two writing schools mentoring other writers and publishes children’s books.

I drove with Bethany on Highway 36 out to Bridgeville School in California.  We enjoyed our time together, talking about life and walking through Cheatham Grove in Grizzly Creek State Park.  Bethany is a 9/11 Ground Zero survivor.  While trying to find healing after 9/11 she attended a talk given by Mahatma Ghandi’s grandson, Arun Gandi. She hoped the talk would heal some of the effects of working at 1 World Financial Center on 9/11/2006.  Arun’s talk touched her deeply. She thought about it for months afterwards.  Then she called him and asked him to collaborate on a children’s book with her.  Arun had been bullied by white people while growing up in South Africa.  Like Trevor Noah, he was too white for some people and too black for others. For example, even though he was just a kid, there were white adults who felt Arun deserved to be beaten because he was whistling. And so, they did.  Together Arun and Bethany healed from past traumas while working together on Grandfather Gandhi.

I asked Bethany why she felt that anger was an important topic to write about.

Bethany, “I was an angry kid.  Many of us carrying around anger without realizing that it doesn’t need to be a negative emotion.  We can transform it into something good.”

And that is what happens in Grandfather Gandhi as Arun learns to choose the lamp instead of the lightning.

If people want to find out more about what Bethany has written or her current projects, you can visit her website at https://www.bethanyhegedus.com/books/.

Or if you want to know more about her mentorship programs you can check those out at https://www.bethanyhegedus.com/mentoring/. Enjoy the day!