What if the life you were always meant to live was hiding inside the one you were already living? In episode 262 of Joy Found Here, Katie DeBonville — writer, musician, and first-time memoirist at 53 — shares how a pandemic-era MFA, a lifelong love of music, and the quiet courage to finally call herself a writer converged into her debut memoir, Grace Notes: A Musical Memoir. For Katie, the story wasn't about starting over — it was about finally letting every part of herself show up on the page at once.
In This Episode, You Will Learn:
(04:54) How a blank book from her dad sparked a lifelong love of writing — and why flute nearly won
(07:17) The crisis of confidence that redirected Katie from music to arts fundraising
(10:01) Why the pandemic and a low-residency MFA at Lesley University changed everything
(11:28) The friend's book launch that led her to Sibylline Press — and an acceptance email in three days
(12:27) Getting the life-changing news on a bus in Scotland
(14:33) The three mentors who transformed a seven-page draft into a full memoir chapter
(24:38) Why she resisted the \"memoir\" label — and what finally made her embrace it
(36:50) Why the world's shrinking expectations became her greatest creative freedom
Katie DeBonville is a writer, musician, and arts fundraising professional whose debut memoir, Grace Notes: A Musical Memoir, is published by Sibylline Press — a house dedicated to women 50 and over. A lifelong flutist who once dreamed of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, she spent 30 years in arts development before the pandemic gave her the push she needed to pursue her MFA in creative writing at Lesley University, where her thesis became the memoir she was always meant to write.
In this episode, Katie DeBonville shares the winding road from childhood writer and aspiring musician to first-time published memoirist at 53 — a journey shaped by crises of confidence, a pandemic-era MFA, and mentors who refused to let her call a seven-page draft \"done.\" She opens up about the writing community she found at Lesley, her composer grandfather whose work appears on a Nina Simone record, and why it took another woman calling her a writer before she could claim the title herself. She also drops a line Stephanie immediately flagged for a mug: \"The world has fewer expectations of me, so I can have more expectations of myself.\"
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Book: Katie DeBonville - Grace Notes
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