Linda Rae Blair's Blog & Author Interviews

I'm pleased as Punch to be featured on Linda Rae Blair's  blog today. She is an author of the highest caliber with almost two dozen books in her name. Just look at her impressive list of novels! Here's an excerpt. I'm sure you can contact her too !

Linda Rae Blair, Author

AUTHOR INTERVIEW – SIGGY BUCKLEY (Creative Non-Fiction)

Welcome to Siggy Buckley!

 

Tell us about yourself—you know, all that stuff that makes you interesting!

 I was a college adjunct professor for teaching English (being a German native speaker) for years. Then my life took an unexpected turn. My then husband had opted out of the rat race for health and environmental reasons. He was a CPA, and made us emigrate to Ireland from a professional German background to become organic farmers in the sticks of Ireland: for THE GOOD LIFE. It was a challenge and a culture shock for me. This created a crop of misgivings and, unfortunately, our marriage broke up over it.

Where and how to find a new partner in a country where divorce wasn’t even legal yet? I started my own dating agency ‘to skim off the cream’ ─ as a journalist put it in an interview. I became the “Dating Guru” or “Chief Cupid” of Ireland. Enough to write a book about! When the Internet took over the dating scene even in backward little Ireland, I jumped on the cyber highway myself to find that elusive soul-mate. The book is called “Next Time Lucky: How to Find Your Mr. Right”. It is a sassy, sometimes naughty read. Its new edition has an additional chapter with practical dating advice.

 I’m now happily married and live in the USA. Unfortunately, due to chronic pain, I no longer have a day job but a loving husband who brings home the bacon.

 I love getting sucked into a gripping book. I used to golf and garden. Now I prefer to have a nice garden and sit and enjoy it. Dancing has also been one of my passions: Disco music, Bee Gees, Motown—I’m giving away my age here! So instead of sweating in the gym, I prefer to have music take me back to the best times in my life- in my own house dancing!

I wrote extensively for American Chronicles and Opednews on political and environmental topics. Having several blogs and books going in addition at the same time, my writing now concentrates on our travels – home swapping- as well as maintaining a writer’s blog. It gives writers a platform to get noticed.

 I’m a proud International member of the National League of American Pen Women. 

What is your genre?

 Creative non-fiction. I figure if I called it memoirs, I’d be in trouble. Not being a celebrity, who knows Siggy Buckley and would be interested in her memories? And I lived through enough material for another book!

What other writer inspires you? Your work?  

 I met an elderly lady on the oncology ward of the Mayo Clinic, where I volunteered at the time. We quickly connected over the writing, and she was very influential in my approach, learning process and she also edited my book. Thanks to her I’m now a member of the National League of American Pen Women –though I’m not even American but still German.

I like a strong female voice. After a long love affair with Joanne Harris’ books (author of “Chocolat”), I now favor Tana French, an Irish whodunit writer.  I know the Irish settings of her so far 4 books well and love the Irishisms she uses. They make me feel like being back home.......

My hub called Siggy’s Omnibus comprises 5 other sites. Unfortunately, it’s not supported by Apple products because it contains flash links.

My new book trailer is fun! .....For more, please go to Linda Rae Blair's website!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now I lay me down to sleep…

The people in our novels die a variety of ways. From vampire attacks to blazing gun battles we as authors play GOD by creating fictional worlds and deciding when and how our characters will meet their demise. In the real world though, we have no control, much less any idea as to how our own lives will end. Silently though, we hope it will be swift and painless.

From youth you may remember the child’s bedtime prayer or you may have even said it with your own children and grandchildren: “Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep…”  It’s one of those many things you carry through life as a gentle memory.

I thought of it recently while standing at the nursing home bedside of my mother-in-law. At eighty-seven years of age she had suffered with Alzheimer’s disease the last three years and the disease, now in its final stage, kept her bed-ridden and asleep. Conversation of any sort had stopped months ago. Her eyes rarely opened and when they did, only a distant stare came. Each day she weighed less than before, gradually becoming a mere wisp of the once vibrant woman I had known for thirty-six years. To watch her deteriorate to this physical state, merely breathing, not truly living, was torturous on the family. The next day she passed away. I viewed it as a blessing because her suffering had at last drawn to an end.

In those following days we received volumes of condolences from friends and family. As I read the letters and notes, I was struck hard by the realization almost everyone mentioned a friend or loved one that had suffered with the disease before dying or was presently suffering from it. The disease may physically affect one person, but the outreach of its talons leaves a cruel mark on many.

People die from other debilitating diseases as well. Alzheimer’s is not alone in that respect. What disturbs me is the physical and mental degradation you undergo from these maladies before the end arrives.  A once physically active person becomes a prisoner to a bed, no longer able to feed or bathe themselves. A wonderful writer can no longer recall his name much less compose a simple child’s story. A superb speaker grows mute, no longer able to form a coherent sentence. Each of us has witnessed these at some point in our lives, yet we do not want to consider how our own end will be. It doesn’t matter though. We will have little or no control when the time arrives.

 Walk through a nursing home, listen to the residents’ moans and let the smells scorch your mind. You will not leave with the same state of mind you carried upon arrival. You will have a sense of guilt about you because the residents must remain while you may leave. But I realized there is more to it. You feel a sense of guilt because you may maintain a degree of dignity about yourself while your loved ones have lost theirs and lay helpless. I was struck by this thought when one of the last things my mother-in-law softly said was “Help me. I want my dignity.”

 If I contract a disease and become confined to bed, before I move into a constant state of sleep, I hope someone will recite the bedtime prayer over me. And when the last grain of sand falls in my hourglass of life, all I too will want is to be able to die with dignity. 

Glenn Starkey http://GlennStarkey.net     

Twitter:    @GStarkeyBooks          

Facebook:  www.Facebook.com/GlennStarkeyAuthor