"Turning 50"
Sheila Key and Peggy Spencer

May 4, 2008

"50 Ways to Leave Your 40s"

Tick-tock, y'all! Hear that? Tick-tock.

You're thinking of a clock, no doubt, and you're right. For what else is a birthday -- any birthday -- if not a measure of the passing time?

But the Big Five-oh? That really is big. Like Welcome-to-Life's-Second-Half big -- which is to say, gigantic. Momentous. Pivotal!

Shh, listen! Is it the ticking clock that sounds throughout these pages, or is it your beating heart? Either way, this book grooves to the rhythm. With a title spun from an old Paul Simon hit, and me (a radio DJ from back in the day) calling the tune, Fifty Ways to Leave Your Forties was bound to pound out a jammin' beat.

Did I say "pound"? Oh yeah, this book was also bound to be a chunky little thing, packing that other kind of pound. For your most momentous, pivotal, gigantic Five-oh, Dr. Peg and I wanted merely to give you the world. I'd have called down the sun, moon and stars, too, but Peg, in her doctorly wisdom, prevailed on me to make this a book that "people our age" could actually lift! So we kept everything short but still packed a lot in. For you, dear reader, all for you!

SHEILA KEY is an award-winning writer and graphic designer who has freelanced for publications ranging from corporate business journals to New Age magazines to anthologies of poetry and art. Before writing and designing full-time, Sheila worked in radio for ten years, including stints as a rock DJ at commercial stations in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Most of Sheila's broadcast work was in the noncommercial realm, however, including jobs at NPR affiliates and community radio stations in North Dakota, Wisconsin, West Virginia, Tucson, and San Diego. Sheila lives with her husband and two children in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where she tends to her garden, her brand new online gift shop, StudioFiftyForty.com, and the 50 Ways blog: 50WaysToLeaveYour40s.Blogspot.com.

PEGGY SPENCER has a B.A. degree from the University of California Santa Cruz and an MD from the University of Arizona. She completed a residency at the University of New Mexico, is board certified in Family Medicine, and is currently employed at UNM as staff physician at the Student Health Center and adjunct faculty at the School of Medicine. She writes a column for the New Mexico Daily Lobo newspaper answering reader-submitted health questions, and contributes articles to UNM Parent Matters and UNM Today. Peg is married with two children and lives in Albuquerque. Recipient of the SouthWest Writers Award for best essay in 2006, she¹ll be leaving her forties this year. Visit her blog at PegSpot.Blogspot.com.