Thank
you for visiting our website!
What an amazing journey
this has been! What we learned forever changed the way
we see ourselves and how we live our lives. We wanted to share our story
in the hope that it might allow others to see what's possible in their
own lives.
We've just returned from The Global Scavenger Hunt, which proved to be one of the most thrilling, exhausting, memorable experiences we've ever had. We saw more of the world in three weeks than we thought would be possible in a lifetime. We raced up a hill before sunrise in Melaka, Malaysia to the colonial St. Paul's church, visited Sultan Abu Bakar's Mosque overlooking the Straits in Johor Bahru and hunted down "hell money" in Singapore's Chinatown, along with dozens of other scavenges, all in less than twenty-four hours. We witnessed riverside burial cremations in Nepal on a full-moon day and spent an evening mesmerized by an Egyptian sufi dancer in Cairo (followed by a lounge singer sporting a gray ponytail and a shiny suit, who turned out to be one of the best vocalists we've heard in years!)
We're currently in the last country of our mother/daughter adventure this year, south France, to recover, reflect and recount for our next book, which will come out in fall 2009. Needless to say, the ten pounds we each lost running around the globe has been quickly regained!
We promised a random drawing of those who donated to the worthy causes this trip supported and will be sending K.B. of Missouri some goodies from our trip upon our return at the end of September.
We hope you're all enjoying your summer and treasuring those you love
Mia had her
first article published, on the New York Times Op Ed page! She
wrote about how Britney Spear's current situation highlights the danger
of blurring the line between socially celebrated behavior and behavior
with profound psychological causes.
We're happy to announce that a new PS edition
of Come
Back will be out in August 2008. In it we talk about the process
of writing a memoir, how we came to write the book, and what it was
like working together. Included
are copies of many of the letters we wrote while Mia was "locked
away."
Come
Back” is the Winter 2007 Bookmarked
Club
Pick at Target®! Each season, Target's literary experts
select what they consider
“the one book you must read” for their Club Pick.
Look for our book at your local Target® store.
Last
February, US Surgeon General Dr. Richard Carmona presented us with
the Dr. Richard Carmona Doorway of Hope Award from HomeBaseYouth
Services, for work that inspires youth to leave the
streets. The event raised over $900,000 for homeless youth in Arizona.
Bill O'Reilly interviewed us on April 25,
discussing the cost of child abuse. We were on the Montel
Williams Show on 2/15, which re-aired this summer.
An update with Mia aired on July 27th.
Last
April, we attended a luncheon on Capitol Hill honoring lawmakers
who supported Childhelp's efforts
to get the Adam Walsh bill passed.
Please see our events page
for recent and future speaking engagements. We speak together about
our journey, and the mother/ daughter relationship. Mia is an
inspirational speaker for young adults; Claire speaks on the craft of
writing. If you'd like to have us speak at your event,
please see our contact page.
We have so enjoyed our conversations with book
clubs - we've "met" such amazing women! It's been meaningful and interesting
to hear your responses and feedback; we've
learned and grown from all of you. We will
be unable to meet with book clubs until June, as we embark upon (and recover
from!) The Global Scavenger Hunt.
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Check out our interviews at: 5minutesformom.com, mamazine.com, identitytheory.com, jewishaz.com, thepioneerwoman.com
Mia
Fontaine
Following her “journey to hell
and back,” Mia returned home and went on to receive a scholarship
to a top East Coast university. When her interest in the nuances of
ancient Greek pottery waned a few semesters later, she changed her
Classics major and in 2004 received her B.A. in English, with a minor
in French.
In between Tolstoy and Twain, Mia worked with the Special Olympics, the Smithsonian Institute, and the National Geographic Society. Near the end of her senior year, Mia was about to accept a job offer from National Geographic when her memoir found a publisher. Over the next year and a half, Mia and her mother wrote Come Back, after which Mia began working in the publishing industry, where she is now a senior publicist.
In addition to public speaking with Claire, Mia is an inspiring motivational speaker for college and high school students.
Her favorite hobbies are travel, sculpture, history, literature, and eating her mother’s food.
Check out Mia's myspace page!
Claire
Fontaine
Claire Fontaine worked as a screenwriter
with award-winning directors and producers for several years until
she came home one cold January night to find her daughter, Mia, missing.
Her life changed in an instant, personally and professionally.
After she and Mia healed their once-shattered relationship, Claire turned her focus to sharing what they learned from their experience. Three years later, Come Back was published. She and Mia are popular public speakers, sharing their story as well as addressing topics such as triumph over adversity, the mother/daughter relationship and substance abuse. Claire speaks individually on the writing process and memoir writing.
Claire has degrees in design, art history and film. When not writing at home, she can be found working in libraries, cafes and park benches across Europe. She looks forward to returning to fiction in both screenplays and novels that take place where history, science, art and love intersect. Aside from writing and reading, her great passions are travel, history, art and food.Visit Claire's Blog for her musings on writing, art, food...