Amidst so many half-finished short stories, novels, and screenplays, publishing my novel Dream Walking in 2013 felt so good. Between raising two kids almost entirely on my own, freelance writing, and working full-time, I had zero time to promote it other than a few in-person events. Last summer, I visited Dream Walking’s Amazon page and was overjoyed to find this July 2019 review:
5.0 out of 5 stars A nuanced personal experience with bipolar disorder you never see — and a damn good read
“I downloaded this on a whim and was smitten at the outset, I couldn’t stop until it was done. The story takes us inside the author’s college-age descent into bipolar disorder and some pretty chaotic and awful trains in the years after. But the author’s take on herself clearly isn’t pity, it’s fascination and sometimes even mirth for life’s craziness. Without romanticizing or belittling the awful toll this disorder took for her, the author embraces her tale as a pretty ripping yarn, and one with a good ending that she straight out earned. I’m glad I read this, I’m glad she wrote it.” —Amazon review Erikopolous
Do you trust book reviews?
Reviews of non-fiction books have guided me to some amazing reads and provided me with insight into various realms. Most of the non-fiction books that blow me away are written by journalists or experts in their field.
However, I no longer trust reviews of fiction books, particularly literary fiction. Recently, I read an obituary of a literary icon whose name was familiar to me. This author was also an English professor. I checked out her most famous book from the library.
An entire paragraph detailing the arrangement of items in the overhead compartment of an airplane made me want to bang my head against the wall.
The narrator’s observation that plain women were destined to be relegated to booty call made me cringe. I totally disagree. How a woman is treated has a lot to do with how good she feels about herself and how adept she is with establishing boundaries. There are plenty of gorgeous women who “love too much” and end up getting played.
The mind
A March 4 Los Angeles Times review by Leslie Pariseau of Christine Smallwood’s recent novel caught my eye because of the novel’s title, The Life of the Mind. My soon-to-be published memoir and information guide Intact: Untangle the Web of Bipolar Depression, Addiction, and Trauma is all about what influences the mind and what can go wrong with the mind.
Quoting Pariseau’s review A tome that teeters on the brink of TMI, “Time in this slim yet yawning book is slippery, cataloged by bloody expulsion in public bathrooms over about a month.” That sentence is so well-crafted it takes my breath away. “Yawning book” says it all in two words. Overall, Pariseau’s review was mixed and praised Smallwood’s sophisticated use of plot and literary devices.
There was no “Look Inside” feature for The Life of the Mind so I can’t offer my opinion. The Amazon profile did include two stellar reviews from The New Yorker and Publisher’s Weekly.
Another book with the same title popped up while searching online. The Life of the Mind by Hannah Arendt was published in 1977. This book did offer the “Look Inside” feature on Amazon. Here’s one of its sentences, “The questions raised by our thirst for knowledge arise from our curiosity about the world, our desire to investigate whatever is given to our sensory apparatus.”
This well-regarded scholarly work reads like a philosophy text and is not something I could read despite this compelling review:
“A passionate, humane intelligence addressing itself to the fundamental problem of how the mind operates.” —Newsweek
Motivation
One child is in college now and the other will be there soon. Between needing a distraction from missing their company and the bit of extra time I will have means that I can make the time to promote. If you are time challenged, it is recommended to trade your writing time for promoting time to promotion for one year.
Telling jokes on stage = fun. Promoting products and others = challenge. Promoting my own work = torture. What motivates me to keep going is my desire to influence the culture surrounding mental health and addiction prevention and treatment.
Mental health and addiction are often intertwined. Managing a mental health condition, addiction, or both becomes a puzzle, and often key pieces are not addressed. Learning disabilities, the lingering effects of trauma, the lack of vocational rehabilitation or not having had vocational education in high school, deficient nutrition, toxic air and/or water, temperament, and the lack of integrative treatment are some of the factors that can play a part.
While researching the information guide chapters of Intact, I came across, “Elevated empathy in adults following childhood trauma,” (David M. Greenberg et al., PLoS ONE, 3(10): e0203886, October 3, 2018). This study helped put my personal experience in perspective. Gaining insight that enables you to help others gives meaning to traumatic experiences.
Ladybug
A ladybug landed on my wrist Friday while I was lunching outside. Perhaps it was attracted to my high-protein veggie burger, cherry tomato, cucumber, and romaine lettuce salad. I don’t come across those tiny red and black insects often and took it as a good omen, because early that morning, before work, I had just finished approving my uploaded files for Intact. All that remains before publication later this month is reviewing the printed proof copy.