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Piles of Books

BOOKS & SCRIPTS

DEBUT MEMOIR
OUT FOR AGENCY CONSIDERATION

The Key to loving who I am

is to stop needing

all the things

that made me

need you.

-Reed Cowan

     Reed Cowan's first memoir, To Stop Needing All the Things, is a meditation on the practice of shame, the catastrophic costs of living a life practicing shame and the power of reclaiming dignity through authentic living. This memoir is Reed's search to find the origins of the practice shame in his family history, in the Mormon religion and culture of his birth, and perpetuated and practiced by Reed in response to a childhood secret, and religious abuses in his

rural Utah community that led to a beating that would change the course of his life forever.

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ESSAYS & POETRY BOOK
OUT FOR AGENCY CONSIDERATION

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SECOND MEMOIR
CURRENLTY IN FIRST DRAFT PHASE

Reed Cowan's second memoir Up and Running chronicles his work as a journalist in breaking news situations at the television station known for personifying the term IF IT BLEEDS, IT LEADS. Reed confronted a new PTSD diagnosis after the violent death of his four year old son, Wesley Cowan while also starting work for the top-rated US television station known for graphic breaking news content. This work is a mediation not only on how men grieve and process trauma differently than women, but also the story of a man whose work life and personal tragedy intersected in a work environment and culture that is often numb to the personal impacts of tragedies that befall the real lives of the people whose stories journalists tell.

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THIRD MEMOIR
CURRENTLY IN FIRST DRAFT PHASE

     Reed Cowan's third memoir, Obitchuary, tells the story of his upbringing as the grandson of two grandmothers who were very different from each other in life, and in death. One grandmother, Fernie, was known by her family to be the long-suffering saint of the family, the glue of her family and the pride of all who knew and loved her. Reed's other grandmother, Sarah, was notorious for mean, awful and hateful. Both women lived only minutes apart. Both women died only minutes apart. Fernie died surrounded by a loving family who grieved her death. Sarah died a lonely death, with a small group of family members gathered at her coffin, one commenting, "she put the bitch in obituary." Years after Sarah's death, and having experienced his own tragedy, Reed went on a search to try to understand whether Sarah really was the mean witch he and others believed her to be. What he uncovered shed light on the damage of patriarchy in a rural Mormon town, and the perpetuation of family narratives that write some women off as "just mean and without morals." This book is not only Reed's love letter to both grandmothers, but to all women who are victims of domestic violence, and religious communities who fail to see and fight for women.

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STREAMING SERIES
CURRENTLY OUT FOR CONSIDERATION


 

THE 12 (WGA Registration Number 1711953) is an American television drama exploring whether an unchanging church wrought with secrets and steeped in tradition can long-survive in not only an ever-changing world, but also in a digital age where secrets don't last long. Set in Salt Lake City, Utah, the series exposes secrets unique to Mormonism in similar fashion to Dan Brown's THE DAVINCI CODE franchise. The rituals and traditions of THE 12 elderly men (whose seniority has afforded them ascension to the highest levels of leadership in the fifteen million member church) are exposed against the backdrop of modern-day issues, which threaten to shake Mormonism to its very core.

The 12 pits the patriarchy against two women united in a mission to expose secrets amidst the backdrop of a ticking clock, a PR engine, and an internal struggle for power.

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HUFFINGTON POST CONTRIBUTOR

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© 2024 by Reed Cowan.

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