About DANCE

Deborah Ann Lucas sensitively explores the wild self-yearning for art, recognition and connection, and how she grew to define herself as sister, wife and woman, and ultimately reclaim her artistic self. With humor, pathos and well-drawn characters, we see her family-both human and horse-as clearly as we see her art. A beautiful excursion into memoir from a driven artist triumphing over chronic pain and sharing the wisdom gained along the way.

~ Allison K. Williams

…Lucas pens her story in heart-warming transparency, exploring family bonds…she learns to embrace her unique path, particularly after meeting Greg, whose steady, loving presence grounds her and inspires pursuit of her artistic dreams…. As Lucas builds a secure self-identity, readers will be moved by her touching story of found family and the unwavering love between siblings….

~ BookLife Review

…her relationship with her brother is honest and raw, and though readers know the outcome from the beginning, the ending packs a punch. A heartfelt, often engaging exploration of messy family dynamics, grief, and healing.

 ~  Kirkus Review

Lucas’s story is a testament to perseverance, as she navigates obstacle after obstacle with unwavering determination. With skillful pacing and vivid descriptions, the author puts us right in the saddle, experiencing every triumph and heartache of her wild ride.

~ Joan Fernandez, author of Saving Vincent

I couldn’t put the book down. Deborah pulled me into her world and didn’t let go. Reading her memoir Dance While the Fire Burns is like watching a movie….Fast paced and at times breathless, she tells her story with an unflinching look back on the first forty years of her life.

– Michaela von Schweinitz, writer, editor, and book coach

…when an author manages to pull you in so completely and you feel you stand with her in the story of her family and her life, you know you’ve got something special in your hands.

~ Sandra Postma, writer, editor, and book coach

Deborah Ann Lucas’s decades-spanning memoir Dance While the Fire Burns is a bold and beautiful tale of an extraordinary life. Lucas’s love for her family, her art, and the many animals that come into her life, is palpable and richly told.

~ Jennifer Landau, writer, editor, and book coach

Dance While the Fire Burns is a masterful weaving of the threads of the author’s life-horses, art, and her family-all coming together in a way that couldn’t be more compelling. It has inspired me to adhere to my dreams no matter what challenges may appear.

~Mary Yero Bernstein, book coach, editor, and writer

This memoir was engaging from the first page. I couldn’t put it down….To read of Deborah’s bravery and tenacity through her life’s many challenges, of her healing by and of horses, of her true and enduring call as an artist and her refusal to deny what was calling her–this is all so inspiring and calls for self-reflection by the reader. Dance While the Fire Burns is a book of hope for writer and reader.

~ Karen, Goodreads review

Deborah Ann Lucas’ memoir is a captivating tapestry woven from threads of resilience, creativity, and healing that invites readers to embark on their own transformative journeys….I find myself enchanted by her ability to turn calamity into opportunities for growth and empowerment.

 ~ Catherine L., Goodreads review

This memoir spans different continents and the narrator’s hardships and triumphs, be those failed relationships, familial challenges and personal resilience, or a nurtured dream that is delayed but later pursued and achieved. Follow the narrator, an American girl from an underprivileged background, from her family’s brief stay in Australia through her move back to the United States, from various (often short–lived) periods of employment and the consequent financial instability, through her hard-won education, professional growth, and ultimate realization as a visual artist. This is far more than a collection of personal recollections. It is a fresh and compelling testament to human survival and subsequent flourishing.

~ US Review of Books

Deborah Ann Lucas weaves family, artistic ambition, horses, relationships, physical pain, and grief together in Dance While the Fire Burns, a memoir concerned as much with becoming oneself as with recounting the events of a life. Lucas traces the development of her identity as a sister, wife, woman, and artist, including the periods when those roles competed with one another and the difficult process of reclaiming the creative life she had always wanted. Horses and other animals are not incidental details but recurring emotional anchors throughout that journey.

Lucas is especially effective when writing about complicated family love. Her relationship with her brother Chuck carries much of the memoir’s emotional weight, while her relationship with Greg offers a different kind of stability and encouragement. She is willing to portray family tensions without pretending that love automatically erases resentment or disappointment. That honesty becomes particularly moving toward the end as Chuck’s death forces her to deal with both immediate grief and the larger family history surrounding it.

The memoir covers a great deal of personal territory, which gives it an expansive, sometimes episodic quality, but the recurring threads of art, animals, family, and persistence keep it cohesive. Its closing movement back to the farm is particularly satisfying: Lucas returns to the horses, mourns her brother, and begins creating a home through repairing, planting, building, and nurturing. Dance While the Fire Burns ultimately feels less like a story about triumphing over every hardship than about continuing to create a meaningful life while hardship is still part of it.

~ Next Best Reads 2026