Zada Connaway

Zada Connaway, 1947 - 2014

Born and raised in Washington, Zada grew up in a variety of places such as Seattle, Port Townsend, and many other cities and towns. She learned about the flora and fauna from her family members and friends.  Many hours were spent in the woods and public parks.

Married three times, and divorced as many times, she learned that she was marriage challenged and that she did not always make the best choices. Nor did she make a good ‘wife’; instead, she was content to be a partner in life with her best friend. He was instrumental in letting her take a new course in her life.

In school, she enjoyed the English and composition classes, seldom having to take essay assignments home. She was able to finish the work in class and often assisted other students with theirs. She also took writing courses at Highline College in Midway Washington. Doing her rough drafts in her head, the final drafts always met with approval, gaining her an "A" as her final grade.

Due to a freak accidental fall in which her ankle was badly fractured, she spent months on her back during recovery, allowing time to formulate the story line for her first book. Since she was no longer part of the work force, she had the time to sit and write.

Abused as a child, and sustaining further abuse as an adult, when she decided to embark on a writing career, she was told to write about what she knew.  She took her own experiences and attributed them to various fictional characters in her novel, Mother's Journals, Parts 1, 2 and 3. While she had taken journalistic license, she did not commit any crimes that are depicted in her work.

Her fiction is not for the young and impressionable, as there are many explicit passages better left to the mature reader. Indeed, portions of this novel should be X rated!



At the age of seventeen — pregnant, married, and estranged from her family — Margery finds herself transplanted to Charabourgh, a small logging town in the woods of Washington State. When she dies at the age of seventy-seven, she leaves her papers and letters to her daughter Mary.

Mary finds the journals her mother had written, stashed away in a trunk; she begins to read and is often surprised by what they contain. The hardships and abuse her mother endured, and the crime she committed for the survival of her children, makes Mary aware of how fortunate she was to find and marry John so many years earlier.

Her brother Stuart, his wife Joan and daughter Ellen are also impacted by Margery's journals, often in very different ways. Ellen's tragic love affairs lead her on a path of her own, and she receives help from a very unexpected source.

Find Zada's book here: Amazon.com