My guest is western romance author Joanne Kennedy. She shares with us her recent battle with Chronic Pain—how she's coped with it and distractions that have helped.
Sometimes when
the going gets tough, the tough need a little escape from reality. That’s why I
love romance novels. There’s nothing like plunging into the glittering world of
the Regency era, joining hunky Navy S.E.A.L.s on a stateside mission, or riding
the range with a hot hunky cowboy to take your mind off your troubles.
Once in a
while, I hear from a reader who says my books helped them through a difficult
time. Writing stories that offer solace when someone is ill or dealing with
loss gives my work a whole new purpose.
But this year,
the roles were reversed: It was knowing that there were readers out there waiting
for my stories that kept me going through my own tough times. Because last year
I joined the estimated 35 million Americans who suffer from chronic pain.
It’s not easy
to admit to this. I feel like I’m coming out of some dark closet, or admitting
to alcoholism. Though there shouldn’t be a stigma surrounding something you
can’t help, we instinctively keep pain hidden, like an injured animal who
crawls off and hides so no one will see his vulnerability. We don’t want to
risk being dismissed as neurotics or hypochondriacs. Besides, we all know the
surest way to end a conversation is to answer the question “how are you”
honestly.
In some ways,
I was lucky. The source of my pain was obvious—jaw joints severely degenerated
from arthritis, and two discs in my neck that protruded into my spinal cord. So
nobody dismissed my pain, and there were concrete solutions. But millions of
people, especially women, suffer from illnesses like fibromyalgia that are more
or less invisible. In addition to being in pain, they have to deal with the
fact that some folks—sometimes family and friends, and even doctors—don’t
believe their suffering is real.
That’s why
those of us who deal with chronic pain need to talk, not about the problem but
about the solution. And the first solution is the talking itself, because it’s
hard to solve a secret.
The best
solution I’ve found is distraction, and the best distraction is creativity. The
only really bad days were the days when I couldn’t perform the physical task of
writing. For two weeks after my neck surgery, I couldn’t type; I could barely
hold up a paperback book and read. All I can say is thank God for podcasts and
audio books! They kept me sane.
Once I could
write again, I could escape reality and lose myself in my characters and their
world. My heroine in Cowboy Crazy is
a little troubled and angsty, probably because of how I was feeling when I
wrote the book. But rodeo cowboy Lane Carrigan helped her through her tough
times, and he helped me, too.
All things
happen for a reason, and I learned a lot from this experience. I learned that
it’s important to have balance in your life—to get up and walk rather than
spending eight straight hours at the computer. I learned that it’s important to
listen to your body, and make adjustments when it gives you a little twinge to
remind you you’re not taking care of it. I learned to keep trying, to persevere
and never give up. Recently I found a doctor who’s able to help me, and I feel
like I’m finally on the road to recovery.
Most of all, I
learned to appreciate what I do and the people who allow me to do it. Thank you to all my readers for keeping
me going. You have no idea how much it means to know you care about my stories.
Because of you, the characters I love actually live out there in hearts and
minds, and bringing them alive for you is what kept me going through some very
difficult days.
- What keeps you going through the hard times? Do you treat yourself to something special, lose yourself in a good book, or take off on flights of creativity?
IN STORES JUNE 2012
Sparks fly when
sexy cowboys collide with determined heroines in a West filled with quirky
characters and sizzling romance. Acclaimed for delivering “a fresh take on the
traditional contemporary Western“ Joanne Kennedy’s books might just be your
next great discovery!
From stable to boardroom…
Joanne Kennedy is the author of four
contemporary Western romances for Sourcebooks: Cowboy Trouble One Fine Cowboy, Cowboy Fever, and Tall, Dark and Cowboy. She brings a wide
variety of experience, ranging from chicken farming to horse training, to her
sexy, spicy cowboy stories. She is a 2011 finalist in the prestigious Romance
Writers of American RITA© Awards, for One
Fine Cowboy. Joanne lives in Cheyenne, Wyoming, where she is working on her
next book, Cowboy Tough (Fall 2012).
For more information, please visit http://joannekennedybooks.com/.
Sarah Landon’s
Ivy League scholarship transforms her from a wide-eyed country girl into a
poised professional. Until she’s assigned to do damage control with the boss’s
rebellious brother Lane, who’s the burr in everybody’s saddle. He’s determined
to save his community from oil drilling, and she’s not going back to the ranch
she left forever. Spurs will shine in this saucy romp about ranchers and roots,
redemption and second chances. EXCERPT
To purchase Joanne’s latest release, Cowboy Crazy, please visit ganxy.com/p/62834.
For more information, please visit http://joannekennedybooks.com/.
