HELENE’S BOOKS

Helene’s been writing since elementary school: poems, short stories, and lyrics. But it wasn’t until she took her first, once-in-a-lifetime, cross-country road trip with her husband, three-year-old son, and their black Labrador Retriever, that she started journaling her adventures and escapades.

Visiting intentional communities, exploring, and camping in National Parks, hiking the cinnamon-colored redwood forests of northern California and the desert-like coastal dunes of Oregon, spending a month at Esalen, a new-age community nestled on the mystical coast of Big Sur, California, changed the DNA of her writer’s voice.

“This was an eye-opening experience, an unexpected fork in the road, an adventure that changed my life forever. The people I met, and the philosophies they shared, were liberating. For the first time in my life, I began to understand the interconnectedness between all living things.”

Helene is the author of two coming-of-age, young adult novels: The Journey of Hannah Woods and Stoked-1969.

The Journey of Hannah Woods, published in 2013, is a coming-of-age story of a fourteen-year-old girl who suffers from panic attacks.

Stoked-1969, is a historical, coming-of-age story with a fish-out-of-water twist. It follows the journey of fourteen-year-old Jake Edwards, a dyslexic teen, who struggles to become literate in a divided America during the year 1969.

“It’s my hope that the themes weaved within my writings will provoke people to think and question, to raise awareness, and to promote and affect change.”

During Helene's four and a half years as a graduate student in Harvard's Masters of Liberal Arts (ALM) Creative Writing and Literature degree program, she wrote feature news articles, scholarly essays, short stories, featured award-winning screenplays, and a structured literacy workbook for educators teaching phonemic awareness. The power in her writings educate, stimulate thought-provoking discussions, and spark emotions that build connections with a reader, always leaving an unforgettable impact.