Okay some of you may have noticed the name change in my profile, please let me explain. Over the past year I’ve been playing a long running battle of ‘Truth or Dare’ with myself.
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© The Ponder Room
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I started this blog under the comfy cover of my alias, Serena. Some of you from other forums will only know me by that name.
Anonymity is a wonderful thing.
However over the past 12 months I’ve been agonising over whether to ‘come out’ as it were, and tell you my real name. As with any major decision naturally there were pluses and minuses, and these have been played out at length, as witnessed by the copious screwed up lists strewn across my office floor. Meanwhile after much advice, from several valued directions, I’ve been reluctantly coaxed out from the grainy internet shadows, so please be gentle with me.
One of the main reasons for doing this was that I was told to use the blog to blatantly promote my book ’50 Ways To Grieve Your Lover’.
My sincere wish is that you don’t ever need a book like this, but if you do, then I hope that the lessons I’ve learnt will help you find new ways to smile again and gain back control.
The book contains….
A series of 50 lighthearted emails to a friend
100 Tips
85 quotes
Cartoon images from my partner Michael Collins (a well known WA cartoonist)
About writing the book
I wrote the book a few years ago after the sudden passing of my partner Michael, and finding few books about the period after the funeral, and none with any element of humour. I was fortunate enough to have a degree in psychology behind me, however I also spent months devouring any information I could that would tell me what to expect, and whether I was ‘normal’. Okay, okay I can hear my friends out there answering that question for me.
Anyway a year later a very good friend asked for advice, so I fired off an email titled ’10 things I’ve learnt so far’. After a coffee and several chocolate biscuits the list grew to 50 things, and I felt compelled to write the book. The name of the book is a story for another time, as is the process behind getting it published, radio interviews etc, etc.
I am both shocked and delighted to say that my little book has been able to help, and the letters I receive keep my heart warm (see a sample of these on the ’50 Ways To Grieve Your Lover’ page above). Aside from individuals, it has also been purchased by:
Carers Australian (WA)
Solaris Cancer Support
New Zealand Counsellors Association
Grief counsellors in Queensland
Australian Red Cross Society
I’m most in awe of the fact that a bulk order was purchased to help survivors of the Victorian Bush Fires (via the Australian Red Cross), and that the counsellors working on the New Zealand Pike Mine Disaster are currently working out how to raise funds to buy more copies.
At the moment I’m in discussions with an e-publisher to convert the manuscript into an e-book, so it can get out to help even more people, and in more languages. For the writers amongst you I will let you know how that experience goes.
If you’d like to know more about the book, see the dedicated page above, or if you’d like to find out about my Consumer Psychology work please go to http://www.glennysmarsdon.com/.
If you would like to receive a review copy of the book simply contact me.
Now that’s more than enough about me, so go read another post.
Coming up is a post about a recent luncheon I attended for the Esther Foundation, inspirational stuff
