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Published on 11/09/1998 All articles from this issue

Los Altos native writes about 'Lives Charmed'

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By Carol Tiegs

Special to the Town Crier

Linda Tisch Sivertsen was inspired by a dream when she set out to write "Lives Charmed: Intimate Conversations with Extraordinary People."

"I literally had a dream that I would talk to people able to demonstrate success" on all levels of their lives, said Tisch Sivertsen, a 1982 graduate of Los Altos High School. "That didn't seem impossible in the dream, but it was harder in real life. I decided people needed to be honest with me about the less perfect parts of their lives."

"Lives Charmed," released last month, includes interviews with 17 well-known figures from diverse walks of life, including Arnold Palmer, Leeza Gibbons, Paul Williams, Robert A. Johnson and Woody Harrelson.

Tisch Sivertsen said she found many similarities among this range of individuals. "They told many of the same principles and processes, but in different ways," she said.

Among those principles was "a very strong spiritual faith," she said. "They all said life becomes chaotic for them when they fail to observe spiritual discipline. They all practice daily prayer."

All shared an ability to visualize what they wanted before they got it, Tisch Sivertsen said. And, "they have the ability to feel their fears but not to be held back by them."

Tisch Sivertsen said her work on the book has affected her life. "I used to waiver a lot," she said. "But I saw some of the same traits in myself as I heard in the interviews, and it strengthened them in me."

Tisch Sivertsen returned to Los Altos to care for her mother, Joanne Tisch, while working on "Lives Charmed."

"My mother died while I was writing the book," she said. "It affirmed for me that there is very little time to waste if there's something you want to do. I feel the people in the book have that same sense. Talking to them has made my belief in my own endeavors stronger." She hopes people reading the book will feel the same.

Tisch Sivertsen currently lives on a ranch in a forest of New Mexico with her husband, Mark, and their son.

She is working on a sequel book for her publisher, Health Communications, Inc., publishers of the "Chicken Soup for the Soul" series.

"Lives Charmed" is available at Heintzelman's Bookstore in Los Altos and the East West Bookstore in Mountain View.