20 Books I'll Never Write

Hello friends!

I’ve had some terrific guest posters recently and been spoiled.  If you haven’t read their posts yet, take a few minutes to read Have A Dog and The Benefits Of Reading As A Third Culture Kid.

Since I last blogged, three weeks ago, I’ve had a bump in my road in the form of some breakthrough symptoms of depression.  I’m proud of myself for recognizing what was happening right away and I’m actively implementing cognitive/behavioral strategies.  I also contacted my healthcare provider and she increased my anti-depressant dosage. Between those two strategies and the loving support of my husband, family and friends, I am already beginning to feel better.

For me, one of the ways depression expresses itself is through a sharp decline in words, verbal and written.  This means I’ve fallen behind on Magic Within, but I am still aiming for, and hoping to achieve, a November release date.  As the novel progresses and the date approaches, I’ll keep everyone apprised.

Meanwhile, I’m funneling most of my words into Magic Within and will keep this post short.

Even when it’s moving like chilled molasses, my brain does like to entertain me.  I often find myself chuckling over odd bits and pieces that seem like they’d make terrific book titles.  I’ve been keeping a list of these and hope they give you a grin!

20 Books I’ll Never Write

1. Dead Bodies Don’t Giggle

2. Crafting With Ramen

3. Canine Dream Analysis

4. Bald Eagles Chirp, Not Scream

5. The Tooth Fairy’s Nephew

6. Super Ticked: The Story Of A Serial Killer Whose Victims Failed To Signal Their Intent To Turn

7. Never Trust a Budgie With A Secret

8. Bingo In The Dining Hall: Addictive Gambling In The Geriatric Population

9. Ear Wigs: Grow, Trim & Donate Your Ear Hair To The Younger & Less Fortunately Endowed

10. Vampires Loath Aoli

11. Fiddle Sticks

12. Where Is My Werewolf And What Should She Wear?

13. Spitting Into The Wind: Why People Have To Learn Shit The Hard Way

14. Ewww: The Ten Most Disgusting “Wonders” Of The World

15. Her-She: Chocolate Is For Women

16. DysFUNctional: A Family Story 

17. Gurdies, Donuts, Spoons & Flashers: How To Speak Like A Salmon Troller

18. Food Reclamation: The Fine Art Of Eating What Others Have Discarded

19. Oopsy!  The True History Of The Best Creative Mistakes Ever Made

20. Rough Elbows & Hairy Legs: Rejecting The Cultural Norms Of Female Beauty And Grooming

Does your brain keep you entertained?  Feel free to comment and share with me what sorts of silly gymnastics your grey matter likes to perform!

May you have a joyful day.

Magic All Around is available in digital and paperback formats from Amazon and can be special ordered for purchase at most brick and mortar bookstores.

Have A Dog

I'm thrilled to introduce you to L. Darby Gibbs a.k.a. Elldee as today's guest poster.  Elldee and I were first introduced on Twitter by @Belinda_Pollard and the three of us, of course, talked about dogs and writing.  Within a couple months of first interacting I told Elldee how much I like the way her brain works! :-)  I think she understood that was my code for, "Wanna be critique partners?" because she graciously steered the conversation in that direction and the rest, as they say, is history.

  

L. Darby Gibbs

Cagney

Muse Extraordinaire

Have a dog, and then we'll talk.

I had a weekend to myself a couple of weeks ago:  Just me, the dogs and my book going through a redraft.  Every now and then one of my two labs would let me know they needed love.  I am a reasonable facsimile for one of them, but for the other, I am a major part of her world.  She will sit next to me leaning against my hip and stretch out her neck so her nose is thrust into my armpit. 

Now I know this is not actually the best image, but let me add some details.  Her nose is warm and dry.  I will put my arm around her so that my hand is on her soft yellow chest.  Warm love in the soft furry economy package running from my hand and the inside of my arm right up to my shoulder on one side and from hip to armpit on the other:  This is love.  Sometimes we sit together with my arm around her for half an hour.  She will stay in this position until her legs get so tired holding her up she must sit.  This is what makes it okay to be alone for two and a half days in a large house by myself.

I don't like it when I am without a dog in my life.  They add finish, a sense of completion.  Too many years went by before we got these ladies after our last Labrador died.  I would sometimes wander the house looking for something.   I wanted to talk to someone, but I didn't know who it was that I needed.  Don't have that problem anymore.   There is always this sweet yellow lab, Cagney, ready to commune in perfect silence with me.

I am a dog person.  I put my faith in the companionship of a dog.  My father was like that.  He too suffered without a canine friend and called me nearly every week gratingly lonely, dripping with sadness.  Then his darling Rhea arrived, and I didn't hear from him for two months.  I had to call him to find out how he was doing.  I could feel his smile through the phone.  It bubbled in his voice, frothed through his laughter and energized his discussion, of course it was largely about Rhea. 

Not feeling like yourself?  Don't have a drink.  Have a dog. 

Loneliness troubling your heart, making you search through pictures for happier memories?  Have a dog.

Feel like no one cares if you come or go?  Have a dog and find a celebration at your every appearance.

Just have a dog, and then we'll talk.

L. Darby Gibbs (aka Elldee) biography: born, traveled, graduated, married, gave birth, live life - all while writing.
Elldee  has four books on Amazon and can be found all over the Internet including at her
Smashwords author page

http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/LDGibbs
In Times Passed book page
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/77866
Gardens in the Cracks & Other Stories page
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/177065
blog at Blogspot.
http://ldarbygibbs.blogspot.com/
Goodreads author page
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5109451.L_Darby_Gibbs
Twitter @LDarbyGibbs


I hope you're having a marvelous Monday!

The Benefits Of Reading As A Third Culture Kid

This week, I'm delighted to introduce you to a woman who reads so many books, that I log into GoodReads every single day just to see how many she's gone through in the last 24 hours.  I've referred to myself as "a voracious reader" but today's guest blogger redefines that phrase.  Without further ado, please meet Rowena.

The Benefits Of Reading As A Third Culture Kid

I don’t think it’s an understatement to say that books have played a large role in making me the person I am today. Books have been especially important to me as a Third Culture Kid (TCK). In brief, a TCK, also known as a cultural chameleon, is a person who has spent a large part of their formative years outside their home culture.  The term “third” refers to the fact that the individual does not relate to the parents culture (first culture) or the host culture (second culture), and instead feels the need to create a third culture. There are of course many advantages associated with being a TCK but it’s not always easy to be one. We as a group definitely have special needs that are, unfortunately not commonly recognized. Identity development is one of the issues that TCKs face; feeling like we have no roots and without any clear sense of belonging means that cultivating an identity is very difficult. On top of that, there is always a transitional interruption when moving between places, which results in stress and also social marginalization.

I made the rare move of being from the Third World, growing up in the First World and returning to the Third World as a pre-teen. Talk about extreme culture shock, and at such a pivotal point in my development too! It was not a move I made happily. Luckily I was able to take home most of my books. Books definitely had a very stabilizing effect on my life and I shudder to think of how I would have coped without them.

Quite a few people I’ve talked to about my love of literature have been surprised by how important I think fiction is. Perhaps they feel that I’m exaggerating because many of them don’t see the benefits in reading fiction in particular. They prefer non-fiction because they want to focus on reading things that enrich their lives, advance them in the job market and so on. To me it’s quite a tragedy that some people really don’t see the benefit of reading fiction. I can think of lots, especially from my experiences as a TCK.

Books helped me learn more about my culture and my surroundings. I was supposed to know all about a culture I had never lived in, but I didn’t. Reading African novels and short stories really helped me fill in some of the gaps. Suddenly I was reading books where characters were named Zione and Dalitso instead of Scott and Debbie. Towns and cities in the books changed from London and Cardiff to Zomba and Chichiri. The flowers went from daisies and honeysuckle to frangipani and jacaranda.  It was definitely a big change and an exciting one for me.

Books comforted me when I was homesick.  The UK was my first home, the only home I really knew, and the place where I had had my first memories. Reading books that were set in the UK helped me to maintain my connection to that place while I felt I still needed to (until I had become more or less socialized into my home culture). Books written by Enid Blyton, Roald Dahl, Robert Louis Stevenson and Jill Murphy were special favourites. Historical fiction based on my favourite Scottish heroes Mary Queen of Scots, William Wallace and Robert the Bruce made me feel less ashamed of not knowing any African history. And as long as I received one of the British comic annuals that came out every Christmas (Oor Wullie, Dandy, Beano etc.), I was happy.

Books were about revelation. Realizing the unfortunate fact that despite being a black African I was quite the outsider due to my British mentality, and feeling embarrassed that my European and North American high school teachers knew more about my culture than I did, I felt the desire to change that fact. For the first time, I was reading African books and I was fascinated.  The three books that stood out to me where Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, Mariama Ba’s So Long A Journey, and Peter Abraham’s Tell Freedom . Finally I was learning more about my continent.

Books encouraged confidence. TCKs are often thought of as being a bit weird, and they may overwhelm people around them at times with their worldliness and their ways of thinking and being. For young people it’s so easy to just conform and suppress one’s true self in order to allow others to feel comfortable around you. Reading books about other unique people who stayed true to their selves is another thing I got out of my reading. My heroines were definitely Pippi Longstocking and Anne of Green Gables.

I think that being a TCK attracted me to science fiction and fantasy novels. I suspect this is because TCKs feel the need to create a third culture, an alien culture. I felt very comfortable amidst the goings-on in Narnia (Lewis), the Foundation world (Asimov) and Middle Earth (Tolkien), and in the lands up the Faraway Tree (Enid Blyton). It made me feel, as Anna Quindlen remarked in her book, How Reading Changed My Life, “I am not alone. I am surrounded by words that tell me who I am, why I feel what I feel.”

So here I am years after I made that first big move and years after I made that second move to Canada. I still stand by the opinion that fiction-reading is rewarding and has helped me to understand myself and the world around me.

Rowena is a soon-to-be grad school student who is curious about the world and those in it. Her passions include multiculturalism and diversity issues, social activism, literature, music and travel.  Rowena can be found at her blog, on Twitter and on GoodReads.

I'm grateful to Rowena for guest posting and, thus, allowing me to spend more time writing Magic Within, Book II of the Magic All Around series (Due out November 17th!)

May you have a joyful day!