For many years, good friends have urged me to write a book about my life. As I approach a mile-stone birthday, this seems like a good time to launch my second book, “Insight Out: One Blind Woman’s View of Her Life.” Here is the synopsis, which you will see on the back cover. I hope you will be inspired to buy a copy through

dldbooks.com/maryhiland

Have you ever had questions about how a blind person survives in a sighted world? Have you ever wanted to know more about guide dogs or service animals? If so, did you think that asking such questions would be rude or inappropriate? Have you ever avoided a conversation with a blind person because you didn’t know what to say? Or have you made assumptions that you found out too late really didn’t apply?

Insight Out: One Blind Woman’s View of Her Life gives you a peek inside the life of a real live person who is totally blind. While she’s never climbed Mount Everest or sailed across the ocean alone, she reveals her strategies for pursuing a life full of experiences, achievements, and realized goals.

This memoir is constructed not in chronological order, not as a medical history, but as a realistic description of many aspects of the author’s life. While each chapter reveals a new facet of how she meets the demands of living without sight, this is no Pollyanna–like picture. Ms. Hiland tells it like it is. She is always honest. Her observations are authentic, and her story is inspiring.

Her personality is on full display. You’ll feel her frustrations, celebrate her victories, and share in her sense of humor. You’ll gain new understanding of how blind people are different and how they are not. Myths and misperceptions are explored through thoughtful, sensitive, and personal stories—some of which may even give you a new perspective on your own life.

This book is for you if you know someone who is blind and would like to understand that person better. It’s for those who are experiencing vision loss and need a positive perspective to deal with this traumatic time in their lives. It’s for sighted people who are simply curious, who want to learn more about people who are not like them. And it’s for people who are blind, so they can say with the author, “Yes. This is how it is.”