I am writing to you now–with immense joy and enthusiasm–to announce the publication of my new book, Married to Distraction: Restoring Intimacy and Strengthening Your Marriage in an Age of Interruption.  It hits the bookstores today March 16, 2010. It is actually not my new book, but our new book, as I wrote it with my wife, Sue Hallowell. It is the first time that Sue, a social worker and couples therapist, has teamed up with me to write a book, and we are over-the-top excited about it. We’ve been married for 20 years. We have 3 children. We’ve been getting ready to write this book since we first met, some 25 years ago. That’s why we’re so excited.
Excited enough to promise that you will love this book. At least if you care about love, you will love this book.
It probes the world of closeness and commitment in today’s crazy busy world. It is not a book about ADD in marriage, it is a book about modern life and marriage. It looks at how difficult it can be just to get your partner’s attention and deal with constant interruptions. It looks at how frustrating it can be to conduct a relationship via cell phone, BlackBerry, or email. But is also shows how the problems can be solved and marriages can thrive in our modern, fast-paced world. Our book shows how people can get from their relationship what they are truly looking for.
It shows how to end what we call “the big struggle” and replace it with a relationship based on mutual empathy and understanding. It shows how you have fun together once again, laugh and play together, and enjoy life. We show you how to make your relationship special, in the way that we all want our number one relationship to be special. We believe in romance, but we also believe in practical advice and dealing with reality. We offer many concrete tips, and we close the book with a workbook called “30 Minutes, 30 Days.” We ask you as a couple to spend 30 uninterrupted minutes with each other, once a day for 30 days, and we give you various enjoyable exercises to do during those 30 minutes, exercises that will bring you closer together, that will make you laugh and cry, that will lead you to plan and feel hopeful and excited to be together. If you do what we know you can do, if you make your marriage as good as it can be, life’s other problems recede into proper perspective.
We fervently believe, indeed we know, that marriage can not only improve but can rise to the level of fulfillment and fun you yearn for and seek. That’s the promise of this new book.
We hope you will order it, read it, and send us your feedback. We love getting thoughts and ideas from our readers. If you are receiving this email, we already know that you are interested. We can’t wait to connect with you after you’ve read the book.
With warm wishes,
Edward (Ned) Hallowell, M.D. and Sue George Hallowell, LICSW
