Brenda Wilhelmson got sober 14 years ago. Her marriage fell apart ten years later after finding out her husband of 21 years spent the last five of it hooking up with married women on cheating websites while raiding their 401K and attending therapy to save their marriage. While swinging from blaming herself to fantasizing about killing him, Brenda had an inkling her challenge was a doctoral dissertation from Universe U. And she wanted to get an A.

Brenda, award-winning author of Diary of an Alcoholic Housewife, has written for CNN, Chicago Tribune, Huffington Post, Chicago Reader, and others. She lives with her two sons and two dogs in a Chicago suburb.