Our guest today: Joshilyn Jackson
Why we love her: Her unique narrative is fabulous--we love it!
Her latest: Someone Else's Love Story
The scoop: Shandi Pierce is juggling finishing college, raising her delightful three-year-old genius son Nathan, aka Natty Bumppo, and keeping the peace between her eternally warring, long-divorced parents. She's got enough complications without getting caught in the middle of a stick-up and falling in love with William Ashe, who willingly steps between the robber and her son.
Shandi doesn't know that her blond god Thor has his own complications. When he looked down the barrel of that gun he believed it was destiny: It's been one year to the day since a tragic act of physics shattered his world. But William doesn't define destiny the way others do. A brilliant geneticist who believes in facts and numbers, destiny to him is about choice. Now, he and Shandi are about to meet their so-called destinies head on, making choices that will reveal unexpected truths about love, life, and the world they think they know.
Our thoughts:We loved this one--it was heartwarming and delighful!
Giveaway: TWO copies! Leave a comment and you'll be entered to win--we'll choose the winners on November 21st after 8am PST.
Where to read more about Joshilyn: Her website,
LIZ & LISA PRESENT....JOSHILYN JACKSON'S 5 DOS AND AS DO OVER
DO try yoga. I was an obnoxious yoga poo-poo-er because I am pragmatic to the point of mental illness. Yoga seemed so … woo-woo. Friends said it would help with my insomnia and lower my anxiety, and I’d mock them, saying, “Yes, let’s do yoga, and then I can eat a hemp rope salad as I ting my little finger bells. Later we can lick some healing quartz and prance around a tree.” Then I tried it, and what do you know? It lowered my anxiety and helped so much with my insomnia. It’s a beautiful discipline. I had to go back and apologize to about nine people.
DO join a book club. I did, just this year, and I can’t think why I didn’t before. It’s marvelous! The club’s picks push my reading boundaries, and I read deeply because I know I have to articulate my reactions to a lively crew of smarty-pantses. Also, we have cookies. Win-Win.
DO get into a relationship with an animal. Dog person, cat person, horse person, rat person---it doesn’t matter. You get a friend who won’t talk your ear off or judge you, and it is spiritually nutritious to act as a care-taker to a dependent creature.
DO pick the experience over the thing. New dishes or play tickets for you and your best friend? Tickets! You have plenty of shoes, so wear the old ones and take your sister out to eat at that new Persian place that serves food you can’t pronounce. If your car can get you safely from spot A to spot B, why trade it in? Use it to drive someone you love to spot C, which neither of you has ever seen before.
DO tell your own love story. If you are in a relationship, and you want it to last, then formalize the tale of how you came together. Grow it between you by telling it back and forth, remembering all the best parts together. Connect his recollections to yours to find the version you can call “ours.” Immortalize the moment when you knew, when he knew, who knew first, who woke up to it later. Tell it to new friends. Retell it to old friends. Make it good---put in all the funny details, all the tiny, fated hinges that had to swing exactly when and how they did so you could find each other. Make it one of your Go To “getting to know you” stories. Bring it out, all shiny and funny and sweet, and let it loose at parties. Let it become a large piece of your personal mythology. Telling it reminds you. It solidifies you. It defines who you are as a unit, binds you, and wards you against that small but deadly sin against love—taking your partner for granted.
DO over
I wish I’d learned earlier to ascribe the kindest possible motive to any inexplicable word or action in a social situation. People often speak before they think, and then realize what they’ve blurted out and die a thousand shame-deaths. I used to feel judged or attacked, but I care a lot less what people think of me these days. Not caring has let me see I was taking things personally that were just badly phrased or awkwardly timed. As for the few people who actually mean to be snide or petty? I’ve learned blithe, oblivious kindness is not the reaction they were hoping for, and it’s fun to thwart them by constantly assuming they couldn’t possibly be such jerks on purpose.
Thanks, Joshilyn!