Cheryl’s published works cover a wide range of topics: travel, Northwest history, findability, writing, gratitude, journeys, cats, mental health, and homelessness.
The Best I Can Do
Winner of the Gold Book Award for Nonfiction from Literary Titan and the Silver Book Award for Nonfiction from the Nonfiction Book Awards
Cheryl and Tom were college sweethearts who married after they graduated and settled in Seattle. For nine years, their lives were like an extended honeymoon. Then Tom’s personality began to change as his sales job at a Fortune 500 company grew more stressful. He began fearing someone was following him. At first, his episodes were brief, so Cheryl assumed each one was a passing phase. But as the stress increased, so did his paranoia.
Then Tom was laid off from his job and decided to change careers to finance, which required a move to New York City. After a year of struggling with rejections, he gave up. Paranoia consumed his life, and he lost trust in everyone. Cheryl tried to get help for him but discovered there was nothing she could do. Their marriage unraveled. Tom vanished and resurfaced months later, homeless.
Cheryl also became homeless. While living in her car, she struggled with guilt from not being able to help Tom while working two jobs to pay off bills she didn’t know about until after the marriage shattered. She learned how to cope and survive through strength, resiliency, and her spiritual connection with nature.
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Cheryl’s recorded interviews and upcoming book events:
- Saturday, October 5, 10 a.m.-3 p.m.: Cheryl will sell her books at the 2024 PNW Authors’ Bookfair at the Peninsula Church Center, 5000 N Place in Seaview, WA (near Long Beach). This event is free and open to the public.
- Tuesday, October 8, at 6-8 p.m.: Cheryl will read from The Best I Can Do at WordFest at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, 1428 22nd Avenue in Longview, WA. This event is free and open to the public.
- Friday-Sunday, November 15-17: Cheryl’s books will be on sale at the Northwest Independent Writer’s Association’s table at the Portland Holiday Market at the Portland Expo Center, 10799 N Expo Road. Cheryl will be working at the table on November 17 from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m.
- Saturday, November 23: Cheryl will sell her books at the 2024 Written in the Northwest Book Fair at the Lynnwood Event Center, 3711 196th Street SW in Lynnwood, WA. The event is open to the public, and there’s an admission charge.
- Friday, February 7, 2025: Cheryl will read from The Best I Can Do at Village Books and Paper Dreams, 1200 11th Street in Bellingham, WA. This event is open to the public, and registration is required.
- Watch Cheryl’s interview about this book by filmmaker B.J. Bullert.
- Listen to “How to Write about Difficult Topics in Memoirs” on The Writing Podcast by Journey Sixty6.
- Watch Cheryl’s interview with Ann Rockley about “Surviving at Work While Caregiving at Home” on The Essential Mindset on BrightTalk. If you don’t have a BrightTalk account, you’ll need to sign up for one to access the video. Registration is free.
For book clubs:
Download a list of questions for discussions about The Best I Can Do.
List of resources about mental illness and homelessness:
Download the resource list. The links to the websites in this list are active. This list will be updated periodically.
Rainbows in the Snow
Journeys come in different shapes and sizes. They aren’t necessarily a trip from one point to another. They can be the experiences along the way, such as a transformation, a realization, a discovery, or a resolution. Rainbows in the Snow is a celebration of these journeys through stories, photos, and an occasional haiku—from a cat diffusing a heated conference call to a conversation with a bored ten-year-old during a ride on a ferry. The photos are from Cheryl’s travels.
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Those Wild Northwest Days
Those Wild Northwest Days is a lively collection of 25 true stories about the pioneers who settled the Pacific Northwest and the towns where they lived from the late 1800s through the early 1900s. Among the characters you’ll meet:
- Lyman Cutler, whose disagreement with a pig almost caused an international incident
- Elijah Elliott, who led a wagon train onto a new shortcut from the Oregon Trail to the Willamette Valley and became lost in Oregon’s high desert country
- Fern Hobbs, the personal secretary of former Oregon Governor Oswald West, who shut down a rowdy mining town on the banks of the Snake River
- Noah Kellogg, a down-on-his-luck, jack-of-all trades whose misadventures with a stubborn mule led to the discovery of one of the richest silver lodes in the Idaho Panhandle
- Asa Mercer, who played matchmaker for the lonely male settlers in Washington Territory by recruiting “brides” from the northeastern United States
Second edition coming soon!
Beautiful America’s Seattle
Beautiful America’s Seattle is a coffee table book featuring an overview of the city’s culture, neighborhoods, and tourist highlights, along with a chapter of things to do outside the city. Cheryl wrote the text, and Jamie and Judy Wild provided the pictures.
Beautiful America’s Idaho
Beautiful America’s Idaho is a coffee table book highlighting the state’s beauty and destinations. Cheryl wrote the text, and a range of Northwest photographers contributed the pictures.
Published Chapters, Essays, and Photos
The Community Book Project: Celebrating 365 Days of Gratitude
(2023 and 2024 Editions)
In The Community Book Project, writers with a wide range of backgrounds and professions contributed 200-word thought-of-the-day essays filled with an appreciation for life. In the 2023 edition, Cheryl wrote two essays about her seatmate during a flight from Havana to Miami and one of the special cats in her life. The 2024 edition has essays about Cheryl’s experiences in Normandy and one of her happiest birthday celebrations that occurred during a difficult time in her life.
In Rescuing Cats I Lost My Mind But Found My Soul
This book by Cheryl Kwasigroch contains 19 heartwarming short stories about cats based on her experiences in animal rescue and working in animal shelters. Some stories are written from Cheryl Kwasigroch’s point of view, while others are written from the cat’s perspective. Cheryl Landes provided photos for this book and edited it.
The Language of Technical Communication
Fifty-two top technical communications professionals contributed chapters to The Language of Technical Communication. Each chapter is a term and description related to the field of technical communications. Cheryl wrote the chapter about findability and indexed this book.
The Language of Content Strategy
Fifty-two top content strategy professionals contributed chapters to The Language of Content Strategy. Each chapter is a term and description related to the field of content strategy. Cheryl wrote the chapter about findability and indexed this book.