Make That Mental Shift

Posted on by Joanne Guidoccio

Welcome to my Second Acts Series!

Today, we have Emelia Sam talking about the dismantling of her first act and the mental shift that enabled her to start an exciting second act.

Here’s Emelia!

emeliasamcroppedFor most of my life, I’ve fallen in line. I did the “right” things. Said the “right” things. Pursued the “right” things. I followed the script that society dutifully laid out for me. “Pick something,” it said. So, I did and I made a practical decision to become a dentist.

There was only one problem.

Two years into dental school, I found out I abhorred general dentistry. But the script was written so I followed it to the end. In an attempt to escape, I entered a residency in Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery.

There was only one problem.

It didn’t resonate with me. I found it extremely interesting. I was initially captivated by the newness, but somewhere along the line, I realized I wasn’t enjoying it in the way my colleagues were. I thought to myself, “I have a right to be happy, too, don’t I?” But, I suppressed and finished the script.

I was fortunate enough to work in private practice combined with academia for two years. There was only one problem. I was dying little by little, day by day. As Maya Angelou has said, “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”

emeliasamspiritualityThat’s when it began. The dismantling of my life as I saw it. All of a sudden, the set seemed foreign. I didn’t understand my supporting characters. And I was more than ready, to relinquish my uncomfortable role. The unraveling of the costume I had donned years before had begun. The First Act was coming to a close.

This was scary. Terrifying really. For the first time in my life, there was no set pattern to follow, It was up to me to make my own way. To improvise. To flow.

It took some time, but I have found my way to authenticity and continue to do so. I’ve returned to my creative core I once tried to ignore. My love of writing and contemplation have made their way to the forefront. This is the work I am supposed to put out into the world. The more I do it, the more aligned I feel with my true purpose.

I encourage others to shift from practicality to purpose. I’ve been there and I can attest to the fact that once you make that mental shift, life opens up.

I respect the lessons that I’ve learned along the way. Wherever I have been has been necessary for my evolution. I haven’t rejected my past because it has shaped who I am. I lived coloring within the lines and now I’m learning to paint my own pictures.

This time, there will be no script. I’m accepting the fluidity of life and eagerly awaiting the next plot twist. Yes. The Second Act is firmly underway…and I’m loving it.

emeliabook

Where to find Emelia…

Website | Twitter | Facebook

Joanne here again!

Thank you for sharing your amazing  journey, Emelia. I look forward to our online chats and take special note of your remarkable insights and advice.

I would encourage anyone reading this post to follow Emelia online. You will be inspired!

Writer or Author?

Posted on by Joanne Guidoccio

writer

Fellow GWIN member Lisa Ivaldi asked, “Do you want me to add Author to your profile?

Author with a capital A.

My heart beat faster as I considered the implications of that particular title.

According to the dictionary, a writer “expresses ideas in writing” or “is engaged in literary work” while an author is an “originator or creator of written work.”

The definitions appear similar, but there is a definite difference, one clearly articulated by many English teachers: “You become an author when your books are published, but if your writings never publish, you remain a writer.”

Best-selling author Dean Wesley Smith has a different take on it.

He strongly believes that “a writer is a person who writes, an author is a person who has written.” According to Smith, writers focus on the process of writing and as soon as they publish one book they’re onto the next. On the other hand, authors devote their energies to promoting their book instead of writing the next one.

It is no surprise that Smith considers himself a writer as opposed to an author, having written more than 100 novels and 200 short stories. And his final advice is sound: “Authors are missing the best promotion tool there is for their old books. Their next book.”

While I agree with Smith’s advice, I tend to gravitate toward the more traditional definition of an author. The word has a more professional ring to it, declaring  that a writer is finally taking his/her craft seriously.

A fact that wasn’t so apparent when I first launched my second act as a writer.

For three years, I dabbled. Travel writing. Business articles. Blogging, Poetry. Cozy mystery. Angel stories. Memoir.  Fantasy. Depending on which online course or workshop I attended, I immediately embraced the new genre and tried my hand at it.

I met with modest success and  enjoyed seeing my articles, book reviews and short stories in newspapers, magazines and online. Interestingly enough, most editors included the following short bio: “Joanne Guidoccio is a Guelph writer.”

With the launch of my debut novel, Between Land and Sea, close at hand, I feel confident and ready to call myself an Author.

author2

Never, Never, Never Give Up!

Posted on by Joanne Guidoccio

The theme of my upcoming novel, Between Land and Sea, is one of reinvention. Over the next two months, I plan to devote at least one post a week to this topic. In addition to sharing my own experiences, I will also feature other successful second acts.

joannefromcindyI am honored to welcome my first guest, JoAnne Myers.

Here’s JoAnne!

My adulthood began like many young women’s do; I became a wife and mother. I loved that role, but children leave the nest. I found myself with much too much time on my hands and sank into my first passion–art.

Over the years as my family grew, I wrote poetry and short stories–never completely severing my love for writing. I always had plenty of paper and pens on hand, and collected paints and brushes, anticipating the time I would be serious enough to actually start my painting career. My children and grandchildren knew of my love for the arts, and there was no surprise when I wrote seven books and decorated my home with dozens of paintings.

croppedpoetryI now have a four-book contract with Melange Books and my true crime biography, “The Crime of the Century,” is involved in a tug-of-war with four publishing companies interested in publishing it.

My advice for others is to never give up on your dreams. Life might get in the way, but keep your love for art always at arm’s length. No matter what heartaches life threw at me, I always believed in family values and following my dreams.

Where to find JoAnne…

Website | Blog | Amazon

Joanne here again!

Always enjoy meeting other Joannes or JoAnnes, especially creative ones.

Thank you for sharing your inspiring story, JoAnne. Best of luck with all your creative endeavors.

joannecroppedpix

Book Review: Signs and Wonders

Posted on by Joanne Guidoccio

signsandwonders

I agree with the reviewers who described this collection of sixteen short stories as a gift. And I would also describe the stories as gifts of unexpected love, love that does not appear in its usual wrappers.

While Alix Ohlin’s conflicted characters are struggling to make sense of their relationships, they are surprised to discover love in situations they thought they would never choose or even welcome into their lives.

In the title story, the protagonist suddenly realizes she hates her husband of 26 years. Ready to divorce him, an unfortunate accident turns her well-orchestrated life upside down, forcing her to face the prospect of tending him indefinitely.

While sitting in a hospital waiting room with her daughter and the second wife, a divorced woman discovers she still has feelings for her ex-husband.

Reena agrees to accompany her aunt on “The Cruise,” a post-divorce ritual that unleashes a torrent of feelings.

After connecting with the one who got away in “Who Do You Love?” Janet re-examines all her relationships and reaches an unexpected conclusion.

Alix Ohlin is gifted storyteller with an amazing eye for detail. Some of my favorite descriptions…

“She’d gotten married in a flurry of sex and promises, wearing a white dress so hideously confectionary that she felt like a parody of herself, a joke told in crinoline and lace, and even that made her happy, because it was silly and she knew they’d laugh about it later.”

“Our boss, Eric, was an elderly bohemian who wore pilled woolen cardigans and too-short pants, and spent afternoons in his office reading manuscripts while twirling his beard between his thumb and index finger, making a little curl that stood out from his chin. By five o’clock his beard would be a tufted mess of curls, all fluffed out like the feathers of some preening bird. Because of this, Sarah and I called him the titmouse.”

Book Review: The Burgess Boys

Posted on by Joanne Guidoccio

burgess3Elizabeth Strout likes populating her novels with difficult characters. A talent that was evident in her previous novels; in particular, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Olive Kitteridge.

In The Burgess Boys, we meet three conflicted siblings.

First-born Jim is the classic over-achiever and worthy of his birth order. From class president and football star to celebrity lawyer, Jim has that uncanny ability to always say and do the right thing. But his eyes never smile and many of his comments, especially those directed toward his younger brother Bob, border on bullying.

Laid back and liberally minded Bob accepts the casually tossed “slob-dog,” “knucklehead” and other put-downs from Jim. And he knows that his twin sister Susan doesn’t think too highly of him either. He stoically carries the burden of having accidentally killed his father when he was four years old.

While her brothers were able to escape small town Maine and move to New York, Susan is still stuck in Shirley Falls. The bitter, divorced optometrist is raising an emotionally fragile Zachary on her own.

When Zachary throws a frozen pig’s head through the door of a local Somali mosque during Ramadan, racial tensions in the small town escalate and force the return of the Burgess Brothers to Maine.

Their efforts, however, leave Zachary worse off and as the brothers shuttle between New York and Shirley Falls their own lives start to unravel. An unexpected disclosure from Jim forces Bob to question that “crust of doubt” he has carried for most of his life. Poor judgment on Jim’s part causes his well-orchestrated life to spiral dangerously out of control.

A natural storyteller with an excellent eye for detail, Elizabeth Strout has created a cast of characters who will linger in our collective memories.


Movie Review: The Heat

Posted on by Joanne Guidoccio

The mismatched battling duo of uptight FBI agent Sarah Ashburn (Sandra Bullock) and rude Boston police detective Shannon Mullins (Melissa McCarthy) provides many amusing and cringe-inducing moments in The Heat.

When Ashburn is assigned to investigate Mullins’ case, neither character is happy. Their distinctive personalities clash as they work together to catch a drug lord. In an early scene, the two women are stuck in a doorway, unable to move forward, unable to retreat, all the while trying to be the first one through that door. As the film progresses, the women bond in unusual and somewhat contrived circumstances.

One of my favorite scenes involves Mullins attempting to dress down Ashburn by ripping apart her clothing and exposing her Spanx.

Definitely light fare and entertaining, especially if you enjoy “buddy cop” movies.



Oprah and India Arie–Part II

Posted on by Joanne Guidoccio

oprahindiaarie

I’m so glad Oprah decided to continue the conversation with India Arie on today’s Super Soul Sunday.

At the young age of thirty-seven, the beautiful singer and songwriter has found that “sacred space of peace inside.” Glowing and radiating on screen, India openly discussed her remarkable journey of acceptance and surrender.

Losing money and losing her way in the music industry forced her to take a prolonged time-out. Only through prayer and meditation was she able to transform herself and restore emotional, spiritual and mental health.

Throughout the telecast, India and Oprah shared many wonderful insights that could easily serve as intentions or affirmations.

Let me be 100% guided by my soul.

Let me hear your voice and have the courage to follow.

You can stop at any time.

You don’t have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body.

It’s not just what you say. It’s how you show up.

Healing the world starts with you.

Prayer is where I know I can go and always be heard.

When you breathe and ask for calm, it always comes.

I have risked everything to tell the truth. Just tell the truth. (Maya Angelou)

Book Review: A Good Hard Look

Posted on by Joanne Guidoccio

agoodhardlookCharacter driven fiction at its best.

Ann Napolitano has crafted a compelling novel in the style of Southern Gothic, incorporating author Flannery O’Connor and her mother Regina into fictional situations with a cast of unforgettable characters.

Young and beautiful Cookie Himmel is the quintessential Southern belle. During a disastrous New York experiment, she meets rich and handsome Melvin Whiteson who follows her back to Milledgeville. Determined to start anew in his wife’s hometown, Melvin finds himself “making tiny adjustments to his demeanor, his expression, and even his accent, in order to fit in.” He could drop these pretenses only during his visits with Flannery O’Connor.

Compliant Lona Waters treasures her holy hour each afternoon, a time when she doesn’t have to worry about making enough money to pay the bills or be a satisfactory wife to her ambitious husband. All this changes when good friend and neighbor Miss Mary asks Lona to take on her troubled adolescent son as her assistant.

Gigi, Lona’s daughter, figures more prominently toward the end of the novel. Having spent most of her life with her beloved Miss Mary, Gigi’s life is turned upside down by a series of disastrous events that culminate in violence. Several descriptions of the adolescent appear throughout the novel, the most poignant being: “She was laden down and shaking…She looked liked the loneliest child in the universe.”

But the most intriguing characters are the peacocks, those infuriating birds that “do what they want, when they want.” Flannery’s flock of peacocks make their presence felt at all momentous occasions in the sleepy Georgia town.

The novel opens with a cacophony of noise that keeps the entire town awake on the eve of Cookie’s wedding: “The peacocks tilted their head back and bellowed and hollered their desires into the night. They snapped their shimmering tails open and shut like fans. Behind each male’s pointy head, a green-bronze arch unfurled, covered with a halo of gazing suns. The females brayed and shook their less-attractive tails in return.”

At the crack of a pistol on an otherwise peaceful afternoon, the peacocks join forces with all the other animals to create hell on earth: “The chaos seemed eternal. The peacocks were screaming to break eardrums. The chickens were beating the air with wings that couldn’t fly. Other birds flew in jagged circles. They descended on the porch like nails drawn to a magnet.”

Divided into three parts—Good, Hard, Look—this beautifully written novel exposes the artifices and veils that are often used to shield uncomfortable realities. But Ann Napolitano does not end the novel on a tragic or unsettled note. Instead, we see glimmers of hope and redemption as the characters pick up the shards of their shattered lives.