Kidnapping survivor Jaycee Dugard writing memoir
By HILLEL ITALIE, Associated Press
Sep 27, 2010 8:04 AM CDT

Jaycee Dugard, who survived being kidnapped at age 11 and held captive for 18 years, is writing a memoir.

Dugard's book is scheduled to come out next year, Simon & Schuster announced Monday. Financial terms were not disclosed.

According to the publisher, the 30-year-old Dugard will write the currently untitled book herself and cover her life from her abduction in 1991 to how she is doing now.

"When I read the pages, I was moved and inspired by the raw power of Jaycee Dugard's voice, her strength and her resilience," Simon & Schuster publisher and executive vice president Jonathan Karp said of what she has written so far.

Last week, a judge in California temporarily suspended criminal proceedings against Phillip Garrido, the man accused of kidnapping Dugard, citing worries about Garrido's mental state. Garrido faces 29 counts of kidnapping, rape and false imprisonment in the disappearance of Dugard. A preliminary hearing had been scheduled to start Oct. 7.

The judge did not halt proceedings against Garrido's wife, Nancy, who faces similar counts. The couple are accused of holding the girl captive in a backyard jumble of tents and sheds for nearly two decades until they were arrested in August 2009.

Authorities said Dugard bore two daughters to Garrido while being held.