Ballard author has hope that heals

Photo by Heather B. Allison Photography

Ricks said that through writing her memoir she found her voice and healing by sharing it with others.

By Christy Wolyniak

Ballard author, Ingrid Ricks, has been an unstoppable force since the release of her memoir, Hippie Boy - a coming-of-age story of a girl grappling with abuse, crippling poverty, love, and religious misuse.

Hippie Boy sets the stage for a young Ricks up until the age of sixteen, who travels as a tool-selling vagabond with her father in a desperate attempt to escape a dysfunctional home environment with a controlling stepfather and devout Mormon mother.

Ricks story was a long time in coming to fruition. Afraid to hurt her family by exposing painful memories, Ricks endured the rubble from her past.

Upon being diagnosed with a rare degenerative eye disease in 2004 known as Retinitis Pigmentosa, her doctor recognized that Ricks was suppressing serious issues from her childhood and said to her, If you dont think that carrying this inside of you is impacting your physical health, youre crazy.

Ricks hastened to write as her vision was now threatened. Her daughters, Hannah, 11 and Sydney, 15, were also part of her inspiration in documenting this book.

She describes a memory of walking with her daughters who were 8 and 11 at the time, when they began to hobble around with an imaginary cane saying, My book, my book! I have to finish my book! The idea that she was not pursuing her dreams, which was clearly imparted upon her young daughters, horrified Ricks.

Ricks self-published her memoir in 2011 and then relied upon her public relations and marketing skills to promote her book for the next two years.

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Ballard author has hope that heals