The new anthology “Fits, Starts & Matters of the Heart: 28 True Stories of Love, Loss & Everything In Between” includes an essay by Amy Mayer (MJ ’98). She writes about how a friendship with an African American man 70 years ago may have influenced her grandmother’s acceptance of a lesbian granddaughter. The collection comes from Freelance Success, an international network of professional writers that created the juried selection of essays partly in response to the dwindling market for essays and partly as an experiment in collective self-publishing. UC Berkeley undergraduate alumna Judy Gruen (BA ’83) is also featured. The book is available on Amazon and BN.com. Amy lives and freelances in western Massachusetts with her partner and their 5-year-old son.