Ponzi Scheme Wipes Out Oprah Book Club Author Jacquelyn Mitchard

(June 28) -- Jacquelyn Mitchard, author of the best-selling novel "The Deep End of the Ocean," says she has been virtually wiped out by a $190 million Ponzi scheme.

The author, a mother of nine children in Madison, Wisconsin, is the victim of an international Ponzi scheme masterminded by Trevor Cook, a Minneapolis trader who bilked over 1,000 investors out of millions of dollars.

Stefano Paltera, AP

Author Jacquelyn Mitchard, here in 2005, whose book "The Deep End of the Ocean" was the first novel Oprah Winfrey chose for her book club, said she lost her fortune in a Ponzi scheme.

Until now, Mitchard's life story seemed to have a happy ending. In 1996, she was a "broke" and "terrified" widow when Oprah Winfrey chose "The Deep End of the Ocean" as the first novel ever to be featured in her kingmaking Book Club. Overnight, Mitchard became a bestselling author.

After investing with Cook, however, the writer says her family is struggling to make ends meet.

"I went from being a widow with no money, to being an author with lots of money, to being an author with nine kids who's hanging on with her fingernails," she told AOL News in a phone interview.

About a year ago, Pamela English, her longtime assistant, called her to deliver the devastating news.

"The money," English told Mitchard. "It's all gone."

In April, Cook pleaded guilty to fraud and tax evasion, and agreed to pay restitution to his victims. If convicted, he could face 25 years in prison. According to the Pioneer Press, Cook's court hearing is scheduled for July 26.

Mitchard said that at first, she was both angry and embarrassed that she had fallen victim to a ponzi scam. She said she and her husband were not foolish with their money, did not expect extraordinary returns on their investment, and live in a house they built themselves. But that's when she realized it could happen to anyone. Mitchard wondered why no one had chronicled the ordeal before.

"I thought there would be a welter of these stories of people being wiped out. But there isn't," she said. "There's so much shame attached to it."

Ponzi schemes like Bernie Madoff's infamous swindle have devastated thousands of investors across the country, but very few have written about the experience of being victimized by one of them. Late last year, Parade Magazine published Mitchard's first-hand account of what it felt like to lose everything in a scam.

"Going weak in the knees is literal. Your circulatory system constricts; the brain is blood-deprived for a moment; you find it difficult to stand," she wrote. "We still had our bank accounts. But there was nothing in them."

But Mitchard has vowed to start over, yet again. She's published a sequel to "The Deep End of the Ocean" called "No Time To Wave Goodbye." And more recently, she submitted an audition tape for Oprah's "Your OWN Show" contest to find America's next great talk show host.

She says her idea -- to host a talk show about how to reinvent yourself and the world -- is probably well suited for the times.

"There are a whole lot of people who thought their lives would be one way and in recent months, they've found out it's going to be something different. They're starting over, as I am at 56 years old," she told AOL.

Of course, that's not to say the author is happy about what happened to her. She just knows how to roll with the punches.

"Fifteen years ago -- widowed, broke and terrified -- I thought I'd paid my dues," Mitchard wrote last year. "Sometimes I think I'll crack from anger and overwork and regret. But most lives run in cycles."