Author Archives: Joanne Guidoccio

Spotlight on Words for Patty Jo

Posted on by Joanne Guidoccio

I’m happy to welcome writer and artist Jill Arlene Culiner. Today, Arlene shares her new release, Words for Patty Jo.

Blurb

A passion for books creates a lasting bond between teenage Patty Jo and David, but small-town prejudice and social differences doom their romance.

After a summer of reading and falling in love, David heads for university, foreign adventure, and a dazzling career; Patty Jo marries slick, over-confident Don Ried.

Yet plans can go horribly wrong. The victim of her violent husband, Patty Jo abandons her home and children to live on the streets of Toronto. David, a high-ranking executive in Paris, is dismayed by the superficiality of corporate success.

Forty years later, Patty Jo and David meet again. Both have defied society; both have fulfilled their dreams. And what if first love was the right one after all, and destiny has the last word?

Excerpt

“I’ve had two husbands, but neither was what people call a great love.” As soon as the words are out, she regrets them. They smack of failure, and she has betrayed an honorable dead man. The two women at the table are startled (perhaps secretly gleeful). Hadn’t she been the adored wife of a respected judge? Isn’t she a well-off widow, owner of a fine brick Victorian house, a woman with an impressive career behind her? What unsightly cracks has she just exposed?

It’s the fault of four glasses of white wine and the anticipation of what morning will bring. Or is it this rare evening of confidences, the conjuring up of vanished sweethearts and irrecoverable youth?

Secretive, she listened to the other women’s stories of faded romances, lost chances, marriages gone sour, but didn’t mention her many lovers. Yet, she remembers them fondly, for time affords indulgence (although, surely, she has forgotten some, and others were less than agreeable). But isn’t this a sign of aging—remembering positive things, blocking out the negative, showing tolerance?

The others want more. How to divert their curiosity? What can she give them? Not the truth, for that might jinx her prospects (the superstitious thought almost makes her smile). Would they, twenty years her junior, find ridiculous the romantic dreams of a silver-haired woman in her seventies?

Author Bio and Links

Writer, artist, and teller of tall tales, Jill (J.) Arlene Culiner, was born in New York and raised in Toronto. She has crossed much of Europe on foot, has lived on the Great Hungarian Plain, in a Bavarian castle, a Turkish cave dwelling, and a haunted house on the English moors. She now resides in a 400-year-old former inn in a French village where she protects spiders, snakes, and weeds. She delights in hearing any nasty, funny, ridiculous, or romantic story, and when she can’t uncover gossip, she makes it up.

She has won the Tanenbaum Prize in Canadian Jewish History, the 2024 Canadian Jewish Literary Award for Memoir, was shortlisted for the Foreword Magazine Prize, and twice for the Page Turner Awards.

Website (Author) | Website (Artist) | Storytelling | Instagram | Goodreads | Facebook | YouTube | All Links

Giveaway

Jill Arlene Culiner will award a $10 Amazon/Barnes & Noble gift card to a randomly selected winner. Find out more here.

Follow Jill on the rest of her Goddess Fish tour here.

An unlikely couple from opposite sides of the tracks, Patty Jo and David first meet as teenagers in the 1960s. Despite their different upbringings, they bond over books and fall passionately in love during an unforgettable summer. Afterward, they are forced to part ways: David heads for university and a life of privilege while Patty Jo quits school and starts waitressing.

In the decades that follow, Ms. Culiner traces their diverging lives with great care and insight. David drifts into the life prescribed for him and achieves what appears to be success—a career, a marriage, stability—yet beneath the surface lies a growing discontent.

Patty Jo faces a harsher path. Her marriage to a charming but abusive salesman erodes her self-esteem as her sons bear witness to the indignities she endures. Her eventual escape to Toronto is an act of survival, an attempt to reclaim what has been suppressed for too long. Living on the margins of society, she experiments with theater while meeting and connecting with a colorful cast of characters. Among them is a kind, older gentleman who alters the trajectory of her life.

Ms. Culiner’s writing style is both lyrical and precise, rich with vivid imagery that brings emotional depth to the narrative. Patty Jo and David emerge as fully developed, three-dimensional characters, flawed and easily recognizable. They do not simply inhabit the story; they stay with us long after we turn the final page.

A compelling and beautifully written story that gently dismantles romantic illusions while bringing a hard-won sense of closure.

Highly recommended!




Poetry Collection Review: To the Women

Posted on by Joanne Guidoccio

April is National Poetry Month, a month set aside to celebrate poetry and its vital place in our society. Launched by the Academy of American Poets in 1996, this month-long celebration has attracted millions of readers, students, teachers, librarians, booksellers, and poets.

Each Friday of April, I will share a favorite poetry collection.

Today’s selection, To the Women: Wise Words Every Woman Needs, has been described as “a celebration of the beauty, strength, and joy of being a woman.”

When Donna Ashworth self-published the original version of this book in 2020, she could not have anticipated how profoundly it would reshape her life. At the time, she was adrift, unsure of what she was doing, where she was going, and what she wanted. Motherhood had slowed her down and allowed her to readjust her perspective. The “rat race” had lost its promise. She was tired of running too fast all the time and never keeping up.

To her astonishment, the book resonated with women in the United Kingdom and far beyond. What followed was not just success, but a whirlwind of connection, far greater than she had hoped. The 2025 edition has been revised and updated with over seventy new poems.

I set aside an entire day to read and sit with this collection, savoring the wisdom, comfort, and inspiration of beautifully written poems such as “Be That Woman,” “Age Gracefully, “There Will Be Days,” “Remember Her,” and “To the Woman Who Thinks She Isn’t Good Enough.” Underlying each poem is the importance of listening to our innermost voices, reconsidering long-held beliefs, and embracing the call to reinvent ourselves.

An ideal gift for any season or occasion, this collection will delight and resonate deeply with the poetry readers in your circle.

Here’s one of my favorite poems:

Age Gracefully

Age gracefully, they say
but I fear that what they mean
is age quietly, slip aside
be wise but stay unseen

age gracefully, they say
but I think, they’re afraid
that we may all wear purple
and wrap silver hair in braids

age gracefully, they say
don’t succumb to the knife
but don’t let standards drop
don’t wear your clothes too tight

age gracefully, they say
but don’t be looking old
likewise, not too young
take your place, fit the mold

age gracefully, they say
but grace means, being at ease
flowing with the winds of change
so, doing as we please

age gracefully, age tastefully
age like a fine red wine
just age with your acceptance
and you’ll never fear the lines

age gracefully, my friends
whatever path you tread
walk it with your own permission
it’s your home, so make your bed.

Relax! God is Working

Posted on by Joanne Guidoccio

On Wednesdays, I share posts, fables, songs, poems, quotations, TEDx Talks, cartoons, and books that have inspired and motivated me on my writing journey. I hope these posts will give writers, artists, and other creatives a mid-week boost.

Here’s a thought-provoking reflection from international speaker and bestselling author Joyce Meyer:

Being relaxed feels wonderful. Being nervous, tense, and worried are not so wonderful. Why aren’t more people relaxed? Jesus said if we are weary and overburdened, we should go to Him and He will give us rest, relaxation, and ease. Jesus wants to teach us the right way to live, which is different from the way most of the world lives.

It would be putting it mildly to say that I was an uptight woman for the first half of my life. I simply did not know how to relax, and it was due to me not being willing to completely trust God. I trusted God for things, but not in things. I kept trying to be the one in control. Even though God was in the driver’s seat of my life, I kept one hand on the wheel just in case He took a wrong turn. Relaxation is impossible without trust!

If you know you can’t fix the problem you have, then why not relax while God is working on it? It sounds easy, but it took many years for me to be able to do this. I know from experience that the ability to relax and go with the flow in life is dependent upon our willingness to trust God completely. If things don’t go your way, instead of being upset, you can believe that getting your way was not what you needed. God knew that, so He gave you what was best for you, instead of what you wanted.

If you are waiting much longer than you had hoped to , you can get frustrated, angry, and upset, or you can say, “God’s timing is perfect. He is never late. And my steps are ordered by the Lord.” Now you can relax and simply go with the flow of what is happening in your life. When it comes to things that are out of our control, we can either ruin the day or relax and enjoy it while God is working on the situation. As long as we believe, God keeps working!

Source: Trusting God Day by Day by Joyce Meyer

Don’t Be Afraid to Dream

Posted on by Joanne Guidoccio

On Wednesdays, I share posts, fables, songs, poems, quotations, TEDx Talks, cartoons, and books that have inspired and motivated me on my writing journey. I hope these posts will give writers, artists, and other creatives a mid-week boost.

In The Rules of Life, international bestselling author Richard Templar shares a personal code for living a better, happier, more successful kind of life. Here is an excerpt from Rule 18, “Don’t Be Afraid to Dream”:

This may seem incredibly obvious, incredibly easy but you would be surprised how many people seriously limit their dreams. They’re your dreams for heaven’s sake. There should be no limit to them. Plans have to be realistic; dreams don’t.

You are allowed to dream as high, as wide, as big, as extravagant, as impossible, as wacky, as silly, as bizarre, as unrealistically nonsensical as you want.

You are allowed to wish for anything you want as well. Look, wishes and dreams are all private affairs. There are no wish police, no dream doctors who are on the rampage, looking out for unrealistic demands. It is a private thing, between you…and that’s it. Between you and absolutely no one else at all.

The only note of caution here—and I do speak from personal experience—is to be very careful of what you do wish for, what you dream of, it might just come true. And where would you be then?

A lot of people think their dreams have to be realistic to be worth dreaming about. But that’s a plan and that is something quite different. I have plans and I take logical steps to make them come to fruition. Dreams are allowed to be so improbable that they are never likely to come true. And don’t go thinking you’ll never achieve anything by sitting around day-dreaming all day. Some of the most successful people have also been those who have dared to dream the most. It isn’t a coincidence.

Source: The Rules of Life, pp. 38-39.

Happy Birthday, David Suzuki!

Posted on by Joanne Guidoccio

Today is Dr. Suzuki’s 90th birthday. Born in Vancouver (British Columbia), he is a renowned Canadian scientist, environmentalist, university professor, and broadcaster known for his work in promoting sustainability and raising awareness about climate change.

A geneticist with a PhD in zoology, he became widely recognized for his long-running television series, The Nature of Things, in which he explained complex scientific topics. He is also the co-founder of the David Suzuki Foundation, which focuses on environmental conservation and climate solutions.

Voted one of the Top Ten Canadians, he has published more than fifty books. He is celebrating his birthday with the release of Lessons from a Lifetime: Ninety Years of Inspiration and Activism.

My favorite quotes from David Suzuki:

My parents survived the Great Depression and brought me up to live within my means, save some for tomorrow, share, and don’t be greedy, work hard for the necessities in life, knowing that money does not make you better or more important than anyone else. So, extravagance has been bred out of my DNA.

I can’t imagine anything more important than air, water, soil, energy, and biodiversity. These are the things that keep us alive.

Ultimately, we need to recognize that while humans continue to build urban landscapes, we share these spaces with other species.

Nature surrounds us, from parks and backyards to streets and alleyways. Next time you go out for a walk, tread gently and remember that we are both inhabitants and stewards of nature in our neighbourhoods.

Our personal consumer choices have ecological, social, and spiritual consequences. It is time to re-examine some of our deeply held notions that underlie our lifestyles.

Change is never easy, and it often creates discord, but when people come together for the good of humanity and the Earth, we can accomplish great things.

We are in a giant car heading towards a brick wall, and everyone’s arguing over where they’re going to sit.

We must reinvent a future free of blinders so that we can choose from real options.

Scientists have been warning about global warming for decades. It’s too late to stop it now, but we can lessen its severity and impacts.

The human brain now holds the key to our future. We have to recall the image of the planet from outer space: a single entity in which air, water, and continents are interconnected. That is our home.

Interview on The Social


Welcoming Spring

Posted on by Joanne Guidoccio

Known as the UK’s best-selling living poet, Donna Ashworth first rose to prominence during the 2020 lockdown, when her poem “History Will Remember When the World Stopped” went viral and helped raise funds for the NHS. In the years since, her work has continued to resonate, offering reflections on resilience, connection, and hope.

Here’s one of my favorites…perfect for the season:




Allowing for Hope

Posted on by Joanne Guidoccio

>On Wednesdays, I share posts, fables, songs, poems, quotations, TEDx Talks, cartoons, and books that have inspired and motivated me on my writing journey. I hope these posts will give writers, artists, and other creatives a mid-week boost.

I highly recommend The Healing Power of Resilience by Dr. Tara Narula, board-certified cardiologist and chief medical correspondent for ABC News. Here’s an inspiring and thought-provoking excerpt:

Countless times I have witnessed patients beat the odds and live beyond expectations—even if it was a stretch to think they would survive just one more day. For many it is that one more day, and that one more day has so much value for them and the people who love them. Allowing for hope is a key part of how we can help people and patients build resilience. Instead of limiting our expectations of what happens next to fit within the smallest, safest perimeter, we should allow people the room to grow, to live into whatever might be possible.

Hope is difficult to define; we just know it when we feel it. One definition of hope that I like defines it as an “optimistic state of mind based on the expectation of positive outcomes in one’s life or the world.” This means to me that hope is something we can choose to cultivate. Hope is a positive motivational state based on a sense of agency (the belief that you initiate and direct actions) and action (the belief that you can find ways to achieve your goals). It’s not simply wishful thinking; it’s a belief in the possibility of a better future, coupled with the conviction that you can play a role in making that future a reality. If we believe that resilience is, rather than the ability to bounce back, the ability to bounce forward and to find peace with a new normal, hope is believing that we can make that new normal a good place to be.

Source: The Healing Power of Resilience, pp. 192-193.