Category Archives: Inspiration

Encountering Two Tigers

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.

When I first read the following Zen parable, I found the situation too difficult–even bizarre–to even imagine. It gives new meaning to the expression: “Embrace the present moment.”

A man traveling across a field encountered a tiger. He fled, the tiger after him. Coming to a precipice, he caught hold of the root of a wild vine and swung himself down over the edge. The tiger sniffed at him from above. Trembling, the man looked down to where, far below, another tiger was waiting to eat him. Only the vine sustained him.

Two mice, one white and one black, little by little started to gnaw away the vine. The man saw a luscious strawberry near him. Grasping the vine with one hand, he plucked the strawberry with the other. How sweet it tasted!


James Frey Visits Kitchener

Posted on by Joanne Guidoccio

Friday evening, I attended “An Evening with James Frey” at the central branch of the Kitchener Public Library.

This Premiere Series event was well-attended by fans of the best-selling author of A Million Little Pieces, My Friend Leonard, Bright Shiny Morning, and The Final Testament of the Holy Bible.

His latest book, Katerina, was released last week.

Before starting to read, James warned us that parts of Katerina were extremely dirty and the book contained tons of profanity. In an interesting twist, he asked members of the audience, to suggest excerpts.

Afterward, Michael Patterson, Drugs Strategy Specialist for Waterloo Region, engaged James in conversation. It didn’t take too long before the conversation veered toward the controversy that had surrounded (and still surrounds) A Million Little Pieces.

A bit of history…

2003 – Random House released A Million Little Pieces, a memoir of drug abuse and redemption.

2005 – Oprah selected the book for her monthly book club. Over two million copies were sold within months of the announcement.

January 2006 – The Smoking Gun released a report discrediting James Frey and the book. The investigative website reported that much of the book had been fabricated, including critical details about Frey’s criminal record and rehab experiences.

At first, Frey defended the book, but as the accusations mounted, he was forced to make a televised apology on The Oprah Winfrey Show. Nan Talese of Random House admitted that the company failed to fact-check the manuscript. You can watch the entire show here.

February 2006 – Random House published and included a note from James Frey, apologizing for fabricating portions of the book, in later editions.

September 2006 – James Frey and Random House reached a tentative legal settlement. Readers who felt they had been defrauded by the book would be offered a refund.

Friday evening, James admitted that a brief unpleasant period followed the telecast of the Oprah show. He faced 17 class action suits and five lawsuits. After receiving death threats and dealing with constant harassment from the media, he left the country with his wife and one-year-old daughter.

In spite of the controversy and scandal, James has no regrets and wouldn’t do anything differently. A Million Little Pieces has changed many lives and given hope to addicts. Two audience members publically thanked James for writing the book.

During the Q & A period…

• James was inspired by Henry Miller’s controversial novel, Tropic of Cancer. After reading, James set himself the goal of becoming the most notorious author on the planet.

• A Million Little Pieces was not an overnight success story. It took twelve years to write.

• James doesn’t fear failure. If something doesn’t work, he tries a different approach.

• While he finds much of contemporary literature boring, he did enjoy reading Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng. He also reads thrillers.

• He believes that authors don’t take enough risks. Too many of them attend writing school (something that didn’t happen thirty years ago) and write what he calls “homogenized literature.”

• James advice to writers (and all creatives): “If you work hard and believe deeply enough, you can pull it off.”

• He gave the following advice to an audience member struggling with her memoir: “Call it a novel or hire a lawyer.”

• While James wasn’t involved in the filming of A Million Little Pieces, he thought it was awesome when he saw it last week at TIFF. The film stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Billy Bob Thornton, and Odessa Young.


You are Special – Don’t Ever Forget It!

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.

After a disappointing experience, I like to reread this modern-day parable. It’s a great pick-me-upper!

A popular speaker started off a seminar by holding up a $20 bill. A crowd of 200 had gathered to hear him speak. He asked, “Who would like this $20 bill?”

All 200 hands went up.

He said, “I am going to give this $20 to one of you but first, let me do this.” He crumpled the bill up.

He then asked, “Who still wants it?”

All 200 hands were still raised.

“Well,” he replied, “What if I do this?” Then he dropped the bill on the ground and stomped on it with his shoes.

He picked it up, and showed it to the crowd. The bill was all crumpled and dirty.

“Now who still wants it?”

All the hands still went up.

“My friends, I have just showed you a very important lesson. No matter what I did to the money, you still wanted it because it did not decrease in value. It was still worth $20. Many times in our lives, life crumples us and grinds us into the dirt. We make bad decisions or deal with poor circumstances. We feel worthless. But no matter what has happened or what will happen, you will never lose your value. You are special – Don’t ever forget it!

Source: Livin3 Blog


Movie Review: God Bless the Broken Road

Posted on by Joanne Guidoccio

Inspired by the Rascal Flatts song, “God Bless the Broken Road,” this film follows Amber (Lindsay Pulsipher), a young war widow struggling with her husband’s untimely death in Afghanistan. A second storyline focuses on Cody (Andrew W. Walker), a headstrong NASCAR driver who has been forced into coaching and community service with a local racer (Gary Grubbs).

Two years after her husband’s death, Amber reaches the end of her rope. Her job at the diner barely covers the essentials, her house is on the verge of foreclosure, and her overbearing mother-in-law (Kim Delaney) doesn’t hesitate to criticize Amber’s parenting of her daughter, Bree (Makenzie Moss). Amber becomes increasingly angry at God and refuses to attend church. Frustrated and desperate, she pawns her engagement ring and takes out a 38-percent loan to make house payments.

Cody winds up helping Bree and the other children in the church community build their own go-karts. Eventually, Amber and Cody meet and start dating.

Unfortunately, their respective situations worsen.

Unwilling to curb his recklessness on the track, Cody crashes but manages to emerge unscathed. Shocked by his near-fatal accident, Amber takes distance and forbids Bree to participate in the upcoming go-kart races.

As Amber loses her home to foreclosure, she faces more criticism from her mother-in-law and growing rebellion from Bree, who is determined to race her go-kart and live with her grandmother.

Bree’s disappearance brings all the characters together in an emotional finale, culminating with the singing of the title song. Remember to bring tissues!


Inspired by Jann Arden

Posted on by Joanne Guidoccio

Yesterday afternoon, I joined over 600 people at War Memorial Hall in Guelph for “In Conversation with Jann Arden,” one of several special events taking place as part of the 30th edition of the Eden Mills Writers’ Festival.

A beloved Canadian icon, Jann has distinguished herself in the music industry, releasing 13 albums, 19 Top 10 singles, and receiving numerous awards, among them 8 Juno Awards and 3 Prairie Music Awards. She is also the accomplished author of four books.

After a short introduction from University of Guelph president, Dr. Franco Vaccarino, and Guelph Public Library CEO, Steven Kraft, Jann read from her best-selling memoir, Feed My Mother, an entertaining and inspirational account of her experiences as primary “parent” to her mother, who is in the grip of Alzheimer’s Disease.

Jann then shared her life experiences in a talk, aptly titled: “How Good Things Come Out of Bad Things.”

While I have listened to many of her songs, I was not familiar with her extraordinary journey. Here are some highlights:

Growing up in Springback, Alberta with an alcoholic father and a mother who “gave up” was difficult. Jan’s older brother turned to alcohol and was later convicted of first-degree murder. He is currently serving a life sentence. The younger brother emerged, for the most part, unscathed. As for Jann, she retreated to the basement, determined to avoid her father at all costs.

While in the basement, Jann discovered an old guitar that had belonged to her mother. She started playing and got the bug. To his day, she still plays by ear, never having learned to read music. At age 11, she started writing songs. By age 18, she had written 300 “terrible” songs that she kept a secret from her parents. She did, however, find the courage to sing at her high school graduation.

For ten years after graduation, she joined bands and sang in bars throughout northern Alberta, Saskatchewan, and the B.C. interior. While she did accumulate over 600 songs on cassette, she also developed a drinking problem. She has many regrets from that dark period.

When she partnered with Dave Hart, a keyboard player who was twenty years her senior, she learned much about music and life. Dave encouraged Jann to include her original songs in the show. She also started searching for representation. Unfortunately, she met with rejection after rejection; recruiters claimed her music was too personal and too depressing.

Jann’s big break came unexpectedly.

Allan Reid, a young recruiter at A & M, initially rejected her cassette. A week later, his fiancée decided to call off the wedding. Heartbroken, Allan went for a drive and turned on the cassette player. Jann’s song, “I Just Don’t Love You Anymore,” started playing. He finally “got” her music and agreed to represent her. She’s been with A & M for over twenty years and continues to play to sold-out venues.

Jann’s personal life took a dramatic turn when her mother started losing her memory. After the diagnosis, Jan became her mother’s primary caregiver. Determined to keep her mother at home, Jann hired four full-time and four part-time workers to help provide around-the-clock care. While she was fortunate to have the financial resources, it did cost $140,000 a year for the care.

Her partner of ten years issued an ultimatum: It’s either me or your parents. The relationship crumbled.

To release pent-up emotion, Jann decided to share her experiences online. The response was mind-blogging; her first post received over one million views. Those posts and a collection of recipes became the basis for Feed My Mother.

Jann will star in a sitcom loosely based on her experiences with her mother’s Alzheimer journey. It is scheduled to be released by CTV in March 2019.

Jann’s Advice for Caregivers…

Give in. Give up. Go where they go. Surrender.

Don’t correct them.

Be brave. Be easy on yourself.

Let the world do what it’s going to do.

Insights from Jann’s Mother…

You don’t need to remember things to be happy.

You forget to be afraid.

Honoring Grandma Moses

Posted on by Joanne Guidoccio

Born this day in 1860, Anna Mary Robertson Moses was the third of ten children. As a child, she attended a one-room schoolhouse that is now the Bennington Museum in Vermont. She took art lessons at school and was encouraged by her father at home. At a later age, she wrote, “I was quite small, my father would get me and my brothers white paper by the sheet. He liked to see us draw pictures. It was a penny a sheet and lasted longer than candy.”

As a young wife and mother, Moses applied creative touches to her home. She used house paint to decorate a fireboard, created beautiful quilted objects, and made embroidered pictures of yarn for family and friends.

At the age of 76, she developed arthritis and was forced to abandon embroidery. She turned to painting, focusing on episodes of farm life she had experienced firsthand. A prolific painter, she created over 1,500 canvasses in three decades. She was “discovered” in her eighties.

Here are ten of my favorite quotes from Grandma Moses:

A strange thing is memory and hope; one looks backward, and the other forward; one is of today, the other of tomorrow. Memory is history recorded in our brain, memory is a painter, it paints pictures of the past and of the day.

I like to paint something that leads me on and on into the unknown, something that I want to see away on beyond.

I’ll get an inspiration and start painting; then I’ll forget everything, everything except how things used to be and how to paint it so people will know how we used to live.

A primitive artist is an amateur whose work sells.

People should take time to be happy.

Life is what you make it.

If I hadn’t started painting, I would have raised chickens.

I look back on my life like a good day’s work. It was done and I am satisfied with it.

Even now I am not old. I never think of it, and yet I am a grandmother to eleven grandchildren.

I would never sit back in a rocking chair, waiting for someone to help me.

Happy National Grandma Moses Day!


You Can Change the Odds

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 their latest release, How Luck Happens, authors Janice Kaplan and Barnaby Marsh share real-life examples of individuals and groups that have triumphed over challenging circumstances. The following “underdog” story is one of my favorites:

In 2016, the English football club Leicester City was given a 5,000 – 1 chance of winning the championship of the Premier League. For some perspective, bookmakers gave the same odds to Bono becoming the next pope. Essentially those odds mean Are you crazy? It’s not going to happen.

The Premier League is big and powerful, with no draft or salary caps, and the same four teams have won the championship for the previous twenty years. Little underfunded Leicester City had lost so many games the previous season that they barely escaped being tossed out of the league altogether. The closest they had come to a championship was finishing second in the 1928-29 season. They spent about a tenth as much on their players as the more popular teams like Manchester United and Arsenal.

But with all that, they won. One way to think of 5,000 – 1 odds is that if the teams in the Premier League played for five thousand years, Leicester City would win the title once. The BBC called it “one of the greatest sporting stories of all time.” Closer to home, NBC Sports said, “It’s not like anything we can comprehend in America.”

Various pundits had explanations for why it all happened. They praised the analytics the team used in recruiting and signing players, pointed to the surprising coach, and noted that the famous four top teams all sputtered.

However you cast it, the Leicester City story is inspiring. However long the odds, if you want to make luck happen, you don’t quit. Something can happen. You can change the odds. You can surprise yourself and everyone else.

The Guest House by Rumi

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.

Over 700 years ago, an Afghan man had to flee his homeland. In exile, Jal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi wrote volumes of exquisite poetry abut life, love, and loss. Here’s one of my favorites:



Walking into the Light

Posted on by Joanne Guidoccio

Welcome to my Second Acts Series!

Today, we have Soul Mate author Jeri Bronson sharing her inspiring journey to a light-filled second act and her debut novel, Seeking Perfect.

Here’s Jeri!

I’ve been thinking about Second Acts, so this blog was perfectly timed. My first novel debuted this year, but before we discuss the now we need to talk about the before, the first act. I really want to lie and tell you this amazing story of my beginnings, but I can’t. My first act was tough, so tough that I longed to hide in the dark forever. I learned at an early age that everyone had an angle and absolutely no one could be trusted.

Then a day came when I could no longer hide from my darkness I had to walk into the light. I did a lot of reading, self- reflection and learning about who I was and who I wanted to be. It was one of the hardest roads I walked, but I am grateful for that tough road.

I was lucky enough to have gotten laid off from my full time job and stayed home with my kids in 2007. Jesse and Derek’s story was born that first summer. Jesse taught me so much about myself that I will be forever grateful to her, which brings me to the Second Act. Now that Jesse is out in the world I have been set free. Writing was the best possible medicine for me on this journey of self –reflection and I must say I’m really excited for my Second Act.

Everyone has a story and it’s your choice on how you let it define your life. Me, I really clung to a quote from Albus Dumbledore from Harry Potter. “Happiness can be found in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.” My light was always books and those amazing writers who saved me from the darkness. I want to encourage you to never give up on yourself because you are so worth it. I am telling you the truth. Maybe Jesse’s story will bring you hope with some light mixed in for good measure.

Blurb

Jesse learned early not to trust a soul, but what if he was her soulmate?

Senior year of high school should be about friendship, boyfriends and graduation, but for seventeen-year-old, Jesse Barnes, it’s about escaping the shame of life with an alcoholic mother.

Jesse’s goals are clear, keep a roof over her head, avoid the revolving door of leering men her mother brings home, graduate from high school, and do everything possible to keep her home life secret. Friends, boyfriends, not an option. Who would understand?

Then, perfect, popular Derek Aames, sits with Jesse at lunch. How can she discourage him? How can she keep him from intruding on her life and discovering her secret? And most of all how can she keep him out of her heart?

Will his persistence finally break down her walls, or just break her?

Excerpt

Jesse furiously tried to think of an excuse for Derek not to have to take her home on a Saturday night. It was like playing Russian roulette and she didn’t want him anywhere near the line of fire if Sheila decided to go off.

“You don’t have to take me home tonight. I’m not sure how long I will be here. Plus, I wouldn’t want you to miss out on hanging with your friends or whatever it is you do on the weekend.” She knew she was being rude after everything that he had done for her, but she was scared. What if he really meant it when he said he wanted to kiss me? What if he really does like me? Worst of all, what will I do when he breaks my heart, not if – when? To be involved with Derek Aames could not possibly have any positives. She had to try to maintain her focus so she could get to college. Six more months. Except all thought of college kept being blown away like a desert wind the minute he looked at her.

He sat silently finishing his lunch. It was becoming an annoying habit that was grating on her last nerve. She couldn’t fathom what he was thinking while she waited for him to respond. He took one last drink before he turned to face her.

“You’re not going to get rid of me that easily.”

She started to protest again to convince him that she had a lot of work. She didn’t want to ruin his weekend by making him feel obligated to give her a ride. He silenced her before she could even get a breath out by putting his index finger on her lips.

“Let me finish before you start giving me your rational explanations. I have an ulterior motive for taking you home. I want to ask you out on an official first date,” he said.

Book Links

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Soul Mate Publishing | Goodreads

Bio

I live in Orange County, California with my husband of 29 years and my 16 year old son. My daughter is off in college having her own adventures, but I miss her terribly. I love cats, fairies, castles and definitely chocolate. I do my best writing while I’m walking around my neighborhood. Lucky for me I haven’t fallen with my wandering mind. One of my greatest past times is watching tennis. I am a super fan. I’ll admit sometimes my writing wanes when a Grand Slam tournament is on…sshh, don’t tell. I work part time as a substitute high school teacher. I learn so much from the kids it’s a wonderful source for this young adult writer. I do have another young adult I’m working on as well as trying my hand at suspense. I never thought I would be a writer, but I never gave up. The door has been opened and I am never letting it close.

Where to find Jeri Bronson…

Website | Facebook |Twitter

Joanne here!

Jeri, Thanks for sharing your inspiring journey. Love the Harry Potter quote! Best of luck with sales.


Honoring Aretha Franklin

Posted on by Joanne Guidoccio

Aretha Franklin has passed away at the age of 76. A talented pianist with a powerful voice, Ms. Franklin is considered one of the best-selling musical artists of all time. She achieved commercial acclaim and success with such songs as “Respect,” “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman,” and “Spanish Harlem.”

The recipient of many accolades—among them 18 Grammy Awards and 112 charted hits—she also earned the “Queen of Soul” title and stood as a symbol of black empowerment during the Civil Rights Movement.

One of the truly amazing voices of our time!

My favorite quotations from Aretha Franklin:

I sing to the realists. People who accept it like it is.

Music does a lot of things for a lot of people. It’s transporting, for sure. It can take you right back, it’s uplifting, it’s encouraging, it’s strengthening.

Never take the music for granted…whether you have a hit or not.

Sometimes, what you’re looking for is already there.

People really don’t have to give you anything, so appreciate what people give you.

It really is an honor if I can be inspirational to a younger singer or person. It means I’ve done my job.

My faith always has been and always will be important to me.

Every birthday is a gift. Every day is a gift.

Be your own artist, and always be confident in what you’re doing. If you’re not going to be confident, you might as well not be doing it.

Being a singer is a natural gift. It means I’m using to the highest degree possible the gift that God gave me to use. I’m happy with that.

My favorite song …