Media Kit

Short Bio (258 characters) Author Molly Krause’s memoir Float On debuts Dec 1, sharing her experiences growing up in a bi-racial family, a gay father who dies from AIDS, family struggles with mental illness & substance abuse, & ultimately, great lessons about love. www.molly-krause.com 

Medium Bio (77 words) Author Molly Krause’s memoir Float On debuts Dec 1. She shares her early experiences of growing up in a bi-racial family, having a gay father die from AIDS, family struggles with mental illness and substance abuse, and ultimately, great lessons about love. She currently makes her home in Lawrence, Kansas with her husband, two teenage daughters, and two dogs. When not writing or teaching others how to write, she’s probably in ballet class or paddle boating. www.molly-krause.com 

Long Bio (299 Words) Author Molly Krause debuts her memoir Float On, (Flint Hills Publishing) December 1, 2017. Growing up in Topeka, Kansas in the 1970s, Molly Krause and her family experienced challenges different from the traditional stereotypes of America's Heartland. Krause shares her complex early life with two sisters—the oldest biological and the other an adopted African-American baby. A mother left to raise three young girls when the father revealed he was gay and moved across the country. Struggles in the family with mental illness and substance abuse. A dance talent that was nurtured. A family separated by divorce and distance but brought together by a deadly disease. And through it all, humor, dedication to each other, and a deep love free from judgment.  Says Rachel DeWoskin, author of Foreign Babes in Bejing, “In her memoir Float On, Molly Krause gives us a kaleidoscopic view of family life: the episodic atmosphere of childhood, adolescence’s exquisite and excruciating transformations, and the very real joys and tragedies that turn us into fully-rendered adults. She writes with clarity and dignity as her father comes out to the family as gay, as her mother drinks and gives up drinking, as Molly herself comes of age, falls in love, and struggles with her sisters and their parents to keep their family intact, even after they lose their father. From Topeka, Kansas to New York City, from dance rehearsals to family therapy sessions, Krause guides readers the way good memoirists must, by rendering with nuance and complexity a story full of the kinds of love and truth that matter for us all.” Krause currently makes her home in Lawrence, Kansas with her husband, two teenage daughters, and two dogs. When not writing or teaching others how to write, she’s probably in ballet class or paddle boating. www.molly-krause.com  

  -FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE- 

TO HONOR WORLD AIDS DAY, AUTHOR MOLLY KRAUSE RELEASES MEMOIR FEATURING THE STORY OF LOSING HER GAY FATHER TO AIDS. 

Lawrence, Kansas U.S.A.   

December 1, 2017, will mark the 29th World AIDS Day whose purpose is to raise awareness of the epidemic and to mourn those who have died. Despite progress in slowing the spread and progression of the disease among certain populations and locations, experts warn that we must not become complacent. More than 1.1 million people in the U.S. live with HIV, and 1 in 7 don’t know it. (https://www.hiv.gov/hiv-basics/overview/data-and-trends/statistics) Globally, over 36 million live with HIV with 30% not knowing their status. (https://www.avert.org/global-hiv-and-aids-statistics) In the U.S., black and Hispanic gay men ages 13-24 have seen a 22% and 25% rise in infections in recent years. ( https://www.cdc.gov/hiv/group/msm/index.html) President Trump has proposed cutting back medical assistance to HIV infected persons who receive assistance from Medicaid, Medicare, and the AIDS Drug Assistance Program. (http://adapadvocacyassociation.blogspot.com/2017/05/trumps-proposed-federal-budget-puts.html) as well as international assistance. (http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2017/03/29/trump-and-pence-want-to-slash-350-million-from-hivaids-prevention-budgets/) 

Though the statistics on the HIV/AIDS epidemic are important to understand, personal stories told by talented writers can touch our hearts. Debuting on World AIDS Day, Molly Krause’s memoir Float On explores her complex early life shared with two sisters—the oldest biological, the other an adopted African-American baby. A mother left to raise the three young girls when the father revealed he was gay and moved across the country. Struggles in the family with mental illness and substance abuse. And despite separation through divorce, a coming together of the family to help the father during his illness and death from HIV/AIDS.  

Says Krause, “Though my father died in 1996, the story of his illness is still relevant today. When I read stories about spikes in HIV infections among different groups like the small town of Austin, Indiana that has seen an increase in infections due to use of contaminated needles or the rising numbers among young gay men of color, I realize it is more important than ever that we increase awareness of the disease. There is no room for shame, we must be honest. Hopefully sharing my family’s story can shine a spotlight on the reality of living with and dying from AIDS.”  

 In addition to Float On, Molly Krause is the author of the novel Joy Again and the cookbook The Cook’s Book of Intense Flavors. Her writing has appeared in numerous publications including Brain, Child, Ragazine, and Front Page Review. She lives in Lawrence, Kansas with her husband and two daughters. When not hunched over a laptop writing, walking the border collies Lucy and Desi, or chasing down her teenage daughters, attending adult ballet class is the highlight of her week. 

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PROMOTIONAL ELECTRONIC COPIES of Float On are available by contacting Krause’s representative at Flint Hills Publishing: thearr@cox.net. 

KRAUSE IS AVAILABLE FOR INTERVIEWS AND SPEAKING.

Contact her at mmk1213@gmail.com (785) 218-4956 Website: https://mollykrause.net/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/molly.krause.587 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mollymargaretkrause/?hl=en 

“In her memoir Float On,  Molly Krause gives us a kaleidoscopic view of family life: the episodic  atmosphere of childhood, adolescence’s exquisite and excruciating  transformations, and the very real joys and tragedies that turn us into  fully-rendered adults. She writes with clarity and dignity as her father  comes out to the family as gay, as her mother drinks and gives up  drinking, as Molly herself comes of age, falls in love, and struggles  with her sisters and their parents to keep their family intact, even  after they lose their father. From Topeka, Kansas to New York City, from  dance rehearsals to family therapy sessions, Krause guides readers the  way good memoirists must, by rendering with nuance and complexity a  story full of the kinds of love and truth that matter for us all.”Rachel DeWoskin, author of Bling, Big Girl Small, Repeat After Me, and Foreign Babes in Bejing.

“By  the time she was 25, Molly Krause had seen several lifetimes’ worth of  trauma in her immediate family: divorce, suicide attempts, alcoholism,  crack addiction, AIDS, and untimely death. She endured loss after loss  without ever losing herself, and the qualities that carried her  through—equanimity, intelligence, honesty, and a sly sense of humor—are  the same ones that distinguish her prose in this deeply moving memoir.” Eric McHenry, 2015-2017 Kansas Poet Laureate, associate professor of English, Washburn University. 

“At  thirteen, Molly Krause spent a summer at the Dance Theater of Harlem,  the only white girl in her classes. One teacher called her the  ‘blue-eyed girl from the capital of Kansas.’ But nobody is a cliché,  especially a person who has spent years coming to an understanding of  family matters and how family matters. The matters: divorce, a  gay father HIV positive who dies of AIDS, a sister's suicide attempts, a  family struggling with drugs and alcohol. What matters: the honest,  direct, sympathetic account the reader finds in Float On, of lives spent yearning and learning to be whole.”Thomas  Fox Averill, Professor Emeritus, Washburn University, author of rode, A  Carol Dickens Christmas, and Found Documents from the Life of Nell  Johnson Doerr

1. Why did you decide to share such personal family stories in your memoir Float On?  

 Reading memoirs have influenced me greatly. Before I ever attempted to write anything beyond a restaurant menu, I devoured memoirs such as The Glass Castle, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, and Wild. I believe that when we bring out that which seems so personal, we can be connected to others in a universal way. Float On is my effort to take events that have been painful and to transform them through words into something beautiful.    

2. How did you get to writing books from a career in the restaurant business?   

I’ve always been an avid reader and didn’t get the itch to express myself through writing until I started blogging about my life in the restaurant business as a pastry chef, spouse of a chef, and family business owner. Once my husband and I published the cookbook The Cook’s Book of Intense Flavors, I realized that writing was what I wanted to pursue. I’ve since published essays, the novel Joy Again, and now Float On.   

3. Why release Float On on World AIDS Day?   

Part of my family story is losing my dad to AIDS complications in 1996. He came out as a gay man when I was just a baby and contracted the HIV virus in the 1980s. His illness and death has had a huge impact on my family and me. We are tempted to think that the problem of AIDS is behind us, but that's not true. HIV/AIDS still disproportionately affects young gay men of color and intravenous drug users. I want to be part of the conversation to remove the stigma and shame from talking about these issues.   

4. What are you working on now?   

I am developing an idea for an interactive journal/activity book for caregivers. I have a soft spot for those who care for love ones who are ill or dying and want to create a landing spot for them in the pages of a book designed just for their situation.