Local authors Julie Mastel and Bronwyn Wilson are forging into a new promotional experiences for their currently released books by joining over 300 other writers at the 8th annual Tucson Festival of Books set to happen on Mar. 12 and 13 at the University of Arizona. With attendance expected to exceed 110K, Mastel and Wilson hope to reach people who struggle with childhood and mental health related issues.

Mastel, a native of Minnesota, moved to Maricopa in 2006. The mother of three wrote a faith based book on bedwetting in 2013. The book entitled, “Jesus was with me all along: A book about bedwetting”, explores the shame and embarrassment a child may experience when he wets the bed.

Her second in the series came later that year with “Jesus was with me all along: a book about divorce”. This one takes a look at the pain and loneliness a child experiences when his parents’ divorce. Both books take a faith based approach to help a child feel comforted knowing he has a friend, Jesus, who was always with him.

Mastel explained the books came from experiences she had when she was a child.

“I experienced many years of shame and it was a very difficult experience to go through,” Mastel said. “The one about divorce, my parents got divorced when I was about 16, and I just know that kids have a hard time with that too. It came about from just the personal experience. I was in counseling, I just felt inspired to write a book about bedwetting.”

Wilson added, “Because you didn’t want children to feel shame and there’s too many where the parent doesn’t understand and they think (the child) can stop and they can’t stop it.”

The books, illustrated by Toby Mikle, have already began to impact children and their families, Mastel said.

“One person has a writers group here in Maricopa,” said Mastel. “She showed up at my first booking signing here at Honeycutt and bought it for her grandson. She said he just loved it and he wanted to read it over and over again and it was really helpful to him. He was four at the time.”

Wilson, a former writer for the Woodinville Weekly in Washington, moved here in 2011. While writing for the local paper, Wilson found herself struggling with health problems.

“I thought something was wrong with me because I had hives, I had dizziness, I had all kinds of physical things going on,” she said. “So I went to the doctor. I was checked for all these horrible things, cancer, tumors, brain aneurism, I mean everything. Then they (were) ruling things out… pretty soon there was nothing left.”

Her husband Jerry suggested a potential eating disorder because of the lack of food intake, but after seeing a counselor for food-related disorders, they suggested that Wilson had depression and anxiety.

“That’s when I started looking into it,” Wilson said. “I wasn’t ready to make any changes at that point. At some point, I started getting stomach troubles and I just thought, “I’m sick of being sick’.

She decided that she needed to get some help and went in search of a book to read. She said they were all in doctor-ease. She couldn’t find a book she could relate to. As she went through therapy to break down her fears, she was able to understand what the fear was doing in her life.

“Once you face it… it dismantles the power,” said Wilson. “As I started getting better, healing from all of this, I started thinking, I’m going to write a book about this to help others and write a book that’s entertaining. But also say the different things that helped me heal. (In the book) I say the different steps that helped me recover. I wouldn’t say that I’m 100 percent recovered because I don’t think anybody gets 100 percent recovered, it’s just that it doesn’t haunt me anymore.”

Both Wilson and Mastel have one hope with their books: to touch the lives of people who endure similar struggles.

Mastel said, “With both of (my books), just so the children don’t think that it’s their fault. So often in divorce, “oh, I did something wrong”, or “my parents didn’t stay together”. I don’t want the kids to thinks it’s their fault and they’re not alone.”

Wilson added, “I wrote about my cruise to the Mediterranean which makes it a fun travel read if you’re curious about different countries. Then I flashback to my childhood while I’m on the cruise to remember things that happened that maybe caused me to get to a point of not going on elevators… It’s like taking a journey with me. Not only a physical journey to the Mediterranean, buts it’s also an inner journey for whatever challenges we have in our life, how to deal with them and what can help you with them.”

The authors are both working on their next books. Mastel is working on an addition to the “Jesus is with me all along” series with a focus on autism that she expects to release sometime later this year.

“I have two kids on the autism spectrum, so I am kind of basing it off my daughter and her experience, Mastel said.

As for Wilson, she is keeping the subject of her next book under wraps for the time being, but said she is already a few chapters into the new endeavor.

The authors and friends decided to take their books to the festival to spread the word about them.

“I had seen it over the last two years and I wanted to attend it to see what is was about and I asked Bronwyn if she wanted to share a booth so we could get involved,” said Mastel.

“I said lets go for it,” Wilson said. “We connected through our writing and our other mutual interests. And we since then have started a support group.”

The Tucson Festival of Books is open from 9:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. on both days with free admission and free parking. The writing duo will have a booth, hold book signings as well as read their books at the event. The proceeds from the event to go promote literacy.

Wilson and Mastel’s books can also be purchased through Amazon and Barnes and Noble, and are available for checkout through the Pinal County Public Library System.