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New York Times bestselling author Lara Love Hardin will discuss her memoir, “The Many Lives of Mama Love: A Memoir of Lying, Stealing, Writing, and Healing,” an Oprah Winfrey Book Pick, on Feb. 7 at the Veterans Memorial Building in Hollister. The event is sponsored by Hill’s Bookstore.
Titled after her prison nickname, the book is a chronicle of Hardin’s life, from being a soccer mom in Aptos to becoming the “neighbor from Hell,” using stolen credit cards to feed a heroin addiction.
“I was never a normal human being,” she told BenitoLink. “I used physical pain pills for emotional pain. It allowed me to pretend everything was okay when it was not. My biggest issue was an inability to ask for help.”
As her addiction consumed her life, Hardin stopped working and fell behind on her bills. In 2009, she was arrested and pleaded guilty to 32 felony counts related to identity theft to avoid a possible 27-year sentence.
“I knew right from wrong,” she said, “but I could not stop. I began stealing from friends’ purses, neighbors’ mail, and at my children’s private school. When I was arrested, a sheriff told me I would never see my sons again and that I should not be anyone’s mother.”
Sentenced to just under a year in Santa Cruz County Jail, Hardin found her “entire identity erased” as a prisoner, something she considered, after all she had been through, to be a gift. Surprisingly, she found prison culture familiar in some ways.
“The politics of prison,” she said, “are not that much different from the politics of a PTA meeting. I didn’t have one person from my cul-de-sac come to visit me, but the women in the jail really saved me.”
Hardin found her path to redemption in jail by using her writing skills to help inmates, writing letters for other women to judges to secure treatment instead of prison.
“It gave me a sense of value again,” she said, “But after release, jobless, homeless, and separated from my children and community, it felt like all the good I’d done was erased. I struggled for two years to find work because I was a felon.”
Eventually, she answered a Craigslist ad for a personal assistant at a literary agency run by Doug Abrams, eventually becoming the Co-CEO of Idea Architects and founding the True Literary Agency.
Along the way, she ghostwrote three other bestsellers, including books by the Dalai Lama and Bishop Desmond Tutu. But her own story, she realized, was also worth telling. That book, derived from her jail nickname, was “The Many Lives of Mama Love.”
“I raised four boys in Santa Cruz and always wanted to write a book,” Hardin said. “Never did I say, ‘Dear Diary, I hope that my first book under my own name will be this story of me completely imploding my life.’”
She also helped launch The Gemma Project, which provides trauma-responsive services to incarcerated and formerly incarcerated women.
“I never cared about incarcerated women until I became one,” Hardin said. “We work to keep families together and provide support so they can rebuild their lives without the same shame I experienced.”
Hardin, who now lives in Hawaii, was encouraged to come to Hollister following a dedicated Instagram campaign by people who had read “The Many Lives of Mama Love” as a selection of the Crave Wine Co. book club.
“It was the first memoir we read,” Crave’s Maura Cooper said. “I included it because it happened in our own backyard. I thought it was an incredible story that could give hope to others. It became a real-life conversation, and we are honored to welcome her.”
According to Kimberly Hill, co-owner of Hill’s Bookstore, a response from Hardin came within a few days of the club’s social media push.
“She told us,” Hill said, “that she was shocked at how many people loved her book just from this one book club, and she’d be very happy to join us for an event. We are super excited to be hosting her.”
Hardin will be interviewed by Realtor Donna Silva on Feb. 7 at the Veterans Memorial Building. The event will start at 2 p.m. and tickets are free, though a donation to American Legion Post 69 of Hollister is requested.
For more information, contact Hill’s Bookstore at 831.294.3126.
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