cover image REMARKABLE CHANGES: Turning Life's Challenges into Opportunities

REMARKABLE CHANGES: Turning Life's Challenges into Opportunities

Jane Seymour, with Pamela Patrick Novotny, preface by Christopher Reeve. . Regan Books, $24.95 (240pp) ISBN 978-0-06-008747-0

Readers know Seymour best as the beautiful TV star of Dr. Quinn, but the actor, née Joyce Frankenberg, is also a painter and devotee of all things self-help. Thus, this straightforward, simplistic book is Seymour's contribution to the personal growth genre. Full of spiritual advice on how to cope with kids, marriage, divorce and illness, the book features such chapter headings as "Find Guidance in the Spiritual." Seymour underscores her central theme—be positive—by citing her own story and her mother's internment at a Japanese POW camp during WWII. Seymour also includes vignettes of others who've triumphed over loss and adversity. Whether noting the tragic accident that crippled her longtime friend Christopher Reeve or sharing the travails of women who endure cancer or diabetes, Seymour trumpets the need for hope and optimism. As such, she shares, in a restrained way, her own disappointments in love, her friendships with ex-husbands and her determination to champion the blended family. The Emmy Award winner believes we can choose to make the most of our circumstances, whatever they may be. She's candid about Hollywood rejections, but also about how she was often offered plum roles at particularly low points in her life. Not surprisingly, she's a big believer in leaving the past behind: "I think if you give it time and patience and leave yourself open to whatever the next experience... will be, you'll surprise yourself." 16 pages of color photos not seen by PW. (May)

Forecast:Seymour has starred in loads of TV miniseries, and fans of that genre may welcome her personal philosophies. A 25-city radio campaign, 15-city TV satellite tour and author appearances in Los Angeles and New York will kick things off.