Marin author Tommie W. Whitener will be launching his new novel Mother Earth: Three Couples on July 10 at Book Passage in San Francisco, at 6 p.m.
The personal development world was new to Alex, Roberta and Marie when they joined twenty or so others (the “Stars”) for a series of residential “leadership” courses at a retreat center deep among the redwoods in Sonoma County. The fact that they had left their spouses behind should have been the first harbinger of trouble.
As the “Stars” did their ropes courses and told their innermost secrets to each other as part of their development, they experienced changes not shared by their husbands and wives at home. Thus, the spouses were often not ready for the “evolved” person who came back to them with new ideas of honesty, life purpose and, sometimes, deep and growing spirituality. A period of adjustment was the norm. Most of the couples were successful. All were changed by the experience.
Tommie W. Whitener has practiced Family Law in Marin County and the Bay Area for many years. As he winds down his law practice, he is now putting his extensive knowledge of people and relationships gained during that time to work in his new career as a writer. After having handled thousands of divorce cases, he believes he is particularly well qualified to write on the marital connection and the effect on it when one of the spouses “develops” and the other does not. Such is the subject matter of his first novel, “Mother Earth: Three Couples.”
He is also at work on a collection of short stories and memoirs and a volume of historical fiction concerning two remarkable generations of his ancestors in Arkansas. He lives in Novato with his wife Svetlana, who is an executive coach.
