About & Contact
Contact Hope via email: hopekatzgibbs@gmail.com
From my heart to yours — a Note from Hope: First and foremost, I want to thank you for perusing this website, which is the precursor to the first in a series of books my company will be publishing on the topics of divorce and marriage.
This first part of the project began as a research initiative in 2014 to answer the burning question that I’ve been noodling myself: Why Divorce? As you’ll read in the introduction on the homepage, it took more than a decade for me to have the courage, resources, and sheer will to separate from my husband, who was — and still is — my best friend.
Instead of leaving, I engulfed myself in my favorite defense mechanism — reporter mode, and began conversations with dozens of couples about their marriages.
Most people I talked with were more than willing to share details of the trials and tribulations that filled their unions. Some were happily married, and told me why that was the case. Others were less than satisfied, and explained why. Several had divorced once, and remarried, and shared those experiences.
More than I would have expected confided that they had affairs, and how that decision (almost always a regret) played out in their lives. Others shared tales of abuse and addition (their spouses, and their own), and how they coped with those challenges. Their brutally honest observations are now part of our Case Studies: 5 Reasons to Leave.
That’s where you come in: What’s Your Story?
Before I print this work as a paperback, workbook and ebook, I am hoping to gather more qualitative data. (I thank my wonderful professors teaching the positive psychology MA program at Claremont Graduate University where I studied last year for teaching me how to do that!)
Here’s how you can participate: On our What’s Your Story? page, you’ll find a form with a multitude of questions to prompt you to share your experience with divorce.
- Answer some, all, and feel free to share more details, as well. Then hit “send” I’ll be in touch to follow up with you about posting your story on the website and including you in the book project.
- Don’t feel comfortable sharing your story online? Send it to me in an email.
- If you have a friend who would like to share their story, please forward the link along.
I want you to know: You are not alone.
My goal is to accumulate at least 30 case studies, and the more the merrier. The reason, aside from Central Limit Theorem, is that divorce sucks. Plain and simple. Even if you are in a situation that you clearly must get out of — changing your home, financial situation, friends, and so many other familiar things is about as stressful. While there’s more to the data than numbers, the qualitative research around divorce is pretty staggering.
I refer you to the hours of research collected by the San Diego law firm Wilkinson & Finkbeiner, LLP, which compiled divorce statistics for 2018 from more than 115 case studies.
Here are some of the most recent divorce stats:
- Hold your breath: There is one divorce in America every 13 seconds. That equates to 277 divorces per hour, 6,646divorces per day, 46,523 divorces per week, and 2,419,196 divorces per year.
- The American way: The divorce rate in America is one of the top in the world following Russia, Belarus, and Gibraltar.
- Women lead the charge: Wives file for divorce 66% of the time, and 16.9 women in 1,000 file for divorce annually — a number that is about double that of 1960, but down from 22.6 from the early 1980s.
- Why remarry? The odds are against us: Nearly 41% of first marriages end in divorce or separation (and last about 8 years), as do 60% of second marriages (which last about 7 years). In fact, if both you and your partner have had previous marriages, you are 90% more likely to get divorced than if this has been the first marriage for both of you. Shockingly, the divorce rate for third marriages is a 73%.
- Age matters: The average age of couples going through divorce is 30; the range is 25-39. Interestingly, those who marry after they are 25 are 24% less likely to divorce.
- Need more data? Click here to learn more: www.wf-laryers.com/divorce-statistics-and-facts
So that’s my story. Now it’s your turn! In advance, I thank you for your time, consideration, and for trusting me to help you tell your story of Why Divorce. I look forward to connecting with you soon. — Hope
Hope Katz Gibbs,
author, “Why Divorce: 5 Reasons to Leave” • founder, Inkandescent™ Publishing
Contact: Connect by email.
Journalist, author, publicist, public speaker, and serial entrepreneur, Hope has been a professional writer since graduating from the University of Pennsylvania in 1986. She has won awards for her newsletters, blogs, and feature articles that have appeared in hundreds of publications including The Washington Post, USA Today, the National Press Club blog, Virginia Business magazine, university alumni magazines (The George Washington University, The University of Pennsylvania, Baylor, and more) — and Costco’s magazine, The Connection, where she interviews bestselling authors.
In 2008, Hope founded Inkandescent Public Relations, a PR, marketing, and social media firm that in the last decade has helped hundreds of small business owners increase their visibility using her 8 Steps to PR Success™. Helping entrepreneurs supersize their small business is the focus of her 200-page interactive guidebook, “PR Rules: The Playbook,” lauded by reporters at The Washington Post, among others, and available at www.PRRulesPlaybook.com.
Also in 2008, Hope launched the TrulyAmazingWomen.com project, a blog that features hundreds of women who are making strides and changing lives. In 2015, she launched TrulyAmazingWomen.TV, a monthly series that showcases these remarkable women in videos on her popular YouTube channel, www.Inkandescent.TV. In 2018, she launched Inkandescent Women magazine. In addition to featuring cover stories that focus on trends and ideas important to woman (including the 2020 What’s Next project), the website offers distance learning classes for women, by women. Click here to subscribe for free.
Hope also turned the magazine she launched in 2010, BeInkandescent: The ezine for entrepreneurs, by entrepreneurs, into Inkandescent Health & Wellness magazine in 2018. Like Inkandescent Women, it is an editorial project that combines distance learning classes that include yoga, meditation, mindfulness and more. Click here to subscribe for free.
In 2020, she expanded InkandescentPublishing.com. In addition to WhyDivorce.us, she and her team are working on a dozen books that will be published in 2021. To check out the books, or have Hope and her team help you write, design, print, and promote yours, click here for details on how to get started.
In July 2020, Hope moved to Las Cruces, NM where she is working her friend and founder of the international networking group Success in the City — Cynthia de Lorenzi — to expand the InkandescentWomen.com project, and embrace life in the high desert under the Organ Mountains. “It’s the writer’s retreat I’ve been looking for my whole life.”
Michael Gibbs,
owner Michael Gibbs Illustration & Design
Michael Gibbs has been a freelance illustrator and designer since attending Pratt Institute as a photography and illustration major in the mid-70s.
His award-winning artwork has appeared in Newsweek, Time, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Worth Magazine, Consumer Reports, Harvard Business Review, and publications for United Airlines, Verizon, IBM, Sears, American Airlines, CitiGroup and Oracle. He has also illustrated the covers and features of dozens of alumni magazines including Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Syracuse, Vanderbilt, the University of Chicago and American University.
His illustrations have been recognized by prestigious art publications such as Communication Arts, 3×3 Magazine, Print, and Spectrum.
His work has also been exhibited at a variety of museums and galleries including the Society of Illustrator’s Museum of American Illustration in New York City, the Billy Shire Fine Arts Gallery in Los Angeles, and in Washington area at the Corcoran Museum of Art, the Sumner School Museum, Montgomery College Gallery and the University of Maryland Gallery.
Discover his award-winning work at www.mglenwood.com • Buy his stock illustration at www.stockillustration.com
Contact Michael: Michael@MichaelGibbs.com
Inkandescent™ Website Developer Max Kukoy, founder of Maxworks
Max Kukoy has been a Washington DC based freelance web developer/designer since 2000. Max earned his master’s degree in environmental science from the University of Oklahoma in 1993, then started working in public health and environmental policy at Washington DC based non-profits. After a few years of policy work, he started working on his organizations web site, eventually deciding to start working as a freelancer under the name maxwebworks.
Sites range from simple database-driven sites, to ones with e-commerce capability. Max uses widely used and supported open source software applications to build web sites. He believes the site should be easy for the client to use and maintain and emphasizes building accessible web sites.
Inkandescent™ Radio executive producer Brandi Wilsker
A digital design professional with more than two decades of marketing and graphic design experience, Brandi says: “I enjoy being at the epicenter of color, creativity, the written word, and helping radio shows spring to life.”
An artist at heart, she has written about art and paper crafting for the Philadelphia Examiner, and designed and implemented a popular art program for a summer camp in Pennsylvania that worked with more than 300 children.
Tired of shoveling snow, this Philadelphia native now resides in Phoenix, Arizona.
Looking to be featured on InkandescentRadio.com? Send us an email.
Inkandescent™ TV video editor Nelson Benavides
InkandescentTV videographer and video editor, Nelson Benavides was born and raised in Springfield, VA. A graduate of VCUarts kinetic imaging program, he has been on the InkandescentPR.com team since 2014.
Based in Richmond, VA, Nelson films videos at the company’s headquarters in downtown Richmond, VA, and travels nationally with the company’s founder Hope Katz Gibbs to tell the stories of corporations, entrepreneurs, and TrulyAmazingWomenTV.com.
