I thought I’d add a quick post to say that I have started reviewing for The Wee Review based in Scotland. I have been doing this for the past couple of months and will be focussing on Theatre and Books for the time being.
Inerestingly, the theatre shows seem to tour all over the place and at the different festivals, so if you are into this sort of thing, keep an eye on my reviews!
My blog turns five today. Thank you, readers, for keeping the reading going 🙂
I love you all and am very grateful for your support.
Thank you, everybody! Hope you had a great Hogmanay!
Here’s an excerpt:
A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 2,000 times in 2014. If it were a cable car, it would take about 33 trips to carry that many people.
You might remember a recent review of a Holocaust based book that I put up. Go read it again. Here!
I’m very excited to announce that the author Matt Freese, who by the way, is a very interesting gentleman with many things to talk about, is going to stop by my blog. He will have written about a topic I have posted to him and will also be answering a few questions. The tour runs from January 12th- February 13th, 2015 and I will be participating in January, hurray! I really enjoy finding out from authors what makes them tick and I hope you lot will stop by too.
About the book: “A weirdly wonderful short story collection exploring the Holocaust from diverse perspectives in literary styles ranging from gothic and romantic to phantasmagoric.”
I Truly Lament: Working Through the Holocaust is a varied collection of stories: inmates in death camps; survivors of these camps; disenchanted Golems complaining about their designated rounds; Holocaust deniers and their ravings; collectors of Hitler curiosa (only recently a few linens from Hitler’s bedroom suite went up for sale!); an imagined interview with Eva Braun during her last days in the Berlin bunker; a Nazi camp doctor subtly denying his complicity; and the love story of a Hungarian cantor, among others.
 Title: I Truly Lament: Working Through the Holocaust
Author: Mathias B. Freese
Genre: Literary Fiction
Formats: Paperback & eBook
Published by: Wheatmark
ISNB: 9781627871617
Pub. Date: Sept. 14, 2014
Number of pages: 252
Content Warning: 18+ for graphic violence
Purchase at: Amazon.com and Barnes&Noble.com
Other than that, good friends, Happy New Year 2015! Have a great one. And as always, thanks for sticking around in 2014 🙂
I know I have fallen back on blog posts. Life has been getting in the way an so has various other forms of writing. But I have been reading quite a bit on the side as well. So book reviews that are pending are
They will be up soon, I promise. One has got to make time to write, no excuse there.
I notice some new followers, so I have renewed enthusiasm and eternal gratitude. Thank you all.
I haven’t been keeping up with my regular updates. A lot has been going on in the past couple of weeks and it will continue into the next couple of weeks as well. To top it all, I’ve been feeling a little under the weather.
So, a wee break folks. I’ll be back soon. Thanks for understanding.
Without much waffle, here is Tanya, answering some of my burning questions!
BM: Brian and Abigail have faced very different kind of trauma; but how come the manifestations are the same?
TP: This is tricky to answer (unless you want a lengthy paper or even a non-fiction book, but I don’t think anyone wants that!). It’s tricky because it’s complex, and it’s tricky because nothing regarding human psychology and behavior is black-and-white. I’ll try to address it in a nutshell.
While the manifestations aren’t quite the same (Brian has panic attacks, extreme worries, and an automatic impulse to hide from the world, while Abigail has tantrums and alternating withdrawal and developmentally inappropriate attachment patterns), both of them are responding to the world from a mindset of fear and a lack of knowing what else to do (because neither of them was ever taught how to live in the world.) Generally speaking, all people respond to stressors by internalizing (turning the stressor inside) or by externalizing (acting out). Everyone does both, but some do one more than the other. That’s why you see Brian’s panic attacks and Abigail’s tantrums. They’re different, but similar, ways of responding to anxiety and triggers. These are externalizing behaviors. They have similarities because they’re human. But there are differences because each individual human is unique. (For example, Brian has, among other things, generalized anxiety disorder. That disorder (like all others) has defining features, but exactly how those features manifest is different for every single person who lives with GAD. This is why Brian and Abigail have both similarities and differences.
BM: Are you the patient or the counsellor? Whose character has drawn greater inspiration from your life?
TP: I’m both! I’m credentialed as a nationally certified counselor (US), and I’m also a patient. I have bipolar disorder and have dealt with anxiety issues as well. Brian definitely has drawn inspiration from my life. He’s not autobiographical in the least, but the anxieties I’ve dealt with made it natural to portray Brian. His thought processes are very similar to what my own have been!
BM:Â What’s next?
TP: I’m well into a novel about a character who has dissociative identity disorder. It’s about him as well as his family and a close friend. It’s the story of what DID is really like (as opposed to the way its portrayed in film) both for people who have it and for those in their lives. It’s really fun to write, but it’s a challenge. I can’t stop now because I’ve thoroughly bonded with the characters. I’ll face the challenge and (hopefully) do their story justice.
*************************************************************
Part 1 is here! I do think she is a brilliant writer and the research that went into her book shows.
Previously, as part of the Book’s Blog Tour, Trailer, Teaser, Review. Also, Leave of Absence
Without much waffle, here is Tanya, answering some of my burning questions!
BM:Â Describe where you are just now and the things around you; give us a peek into your life!
TP: At the moment I’m writing this, I’m sitting in my backyard. I’ve made myself comfortable in a low camping chair (that I really do use for camping), my computer is on my lap, an my bare feet are resting on the soft, freshly-mowed grass. I’m in the shade of a fairly large evergreen tree, so the temperature is ideal despite the 85-degree heat of the summer afternoon. I can see my flowers blooming: a variety of roses, a cluster of black-eyed susans just beginning to unfurl, my newly planted corner garden of lavender, daisies, dahlias, coreopsis, and more in tiny but vibrant bloom. It’s peaceful and inspiring. For optimal well-being, I need to spend time outdoors. I love writing outside!
BM: Let’s dive into the book then… When raising a child, how does a parent/teacher know if the child is just being a child and throwing tantrums or is dealing with more important issues?
TP: While of course every child is unique, with his/her own personality, there are defined stages that all experience at a given age. These stages include general ways of behaving and responding to the world. For example, a two-year-old who doesn’t have full command of her language can’t always express strong emotion verbally; thus, it’s natural for her to have tantrums. By the time that child has entered elementary school, she’s at a different developmental stage, has better command of language, can regulate her emotions more than she could at age two, etc. While an occasional outburst is still to be expected (depending on personality, some have more outbursts than others), if the tantrums are frequent and severe and there are other things going on (acting too clingy or dependent or too aloof or problems with social skills, for example), it’s a sign that there could be something more going on. The tantrums are a symptom of a problem rather than an age-appropriate behavior.
In the story, Abigail Harris can have a tantrum for very little reason (well, for very little reason as seen by an outsider. From her perspective, the tantrums have a definite reason.) Her tantrums are severe, and they can be long lasting or stop abruptly. Her behavior switches from dependent to independent and back again. (I won’t say more to avoid spoiling things!). These are not typical seven-year-old behaviors. For reasons I won’t say, she has an attachment disorder that accounts for her behavior.
Basically, parents and teachers should consider how a child acts compared to other children of similar age. Look for patterns. What is the child doing that’s out of the norm? When does this happen? Knowing these things is a great starting point for helping the child.
BM:Â Can Brian’s condition be quantified by severity? Say, on a scale of 1 to 10, how bad is his disorder?
TP: Definitely! One way of assessing mental illness in general is to consider how much it affects a person’s life and overall functioning. Can someone function well and just needs a bit of therapy or medication? Or are they completely incapacitated and in need of hospitalization? Or something in between?
Brian’s disorders are debilitating.  They’ve completely limited his life in almost every way imaginable. On a scale of one to ten, I would categorize him a nine. He’s not at a ten because he is living his life, albeit in a very restricted fashion. He can get to work, he has an activity he enjoys. But his anxiety chokes him to such a degree that he experiences panic attacks over nearly everything, including just the thought of some things. The poor man is miserable and feels powerless to get better.
*************************************************************
Stay tuned for Part 2! I do think she is a brilliant writer and the research that went into her book shows.
Previously, as part of the Book’s Blog Tour, Trailer, Teaser, Review. Also, Leave of Absence
BookMark 