Author(s): Mary-Lou Stephens

BIOGRAPHY

Miraculously, Mary-Lou Stevens has just made it into her forties. With the aid of therapy and NA/AA she has overcome a tricky childhood (youngest of six kids, evangelical parents); drama school; drug and alcohol addiction; the lure of rock and roll; and her spectacularly poor taste in men. She has landed a dream job as a broadcaster for the ABC. Life is looking good. Except that Mary-Lou has a new boss, a psychopath in a suit, a harridan in high heels. Determined to avoid MORE therapy, and desperate to cope with an increasingly toxic work environment, Mary-Lou signs up for a ten-day meditation retreat that requires total silence, endless hours of sitting cross-legged, and a food-as-fuel kind of a diet (i.e. basic). For a woman who talks for a living, is rarely still and cooks for comfort, this was never going to be an easy ask. Sex, Drugs and Meditation is a tale of learning to sit still, shut up and gain wisdom. It is a woman-against-the-odds scenario. But rather than travelling to the Third World or battling drought and pestilence on the farm, Mary-Lou must take the hardest path of all: to confront and overcome, once and for all, the darkness within. Funny, sage, insightful and just a little bit twisted, this is meditation for the mainstream and New Age without the whoo-whoo.