Dueling Divas

Volume 1 - Episode 2

 Ali misses last week with only 4 comments to my 5. But her next blow is wicked. Here's her question for this week: 

If your life story were a book, what would it be titled and what would the chapters be titled?

First of all, she doesn't play fair. She knows I SUCK at titles. That's why my first book went for months without one. This is a low blow and I might just have to give it some thought. 

*Tapping fingers on desk*

Okay, I guess the title of the story of my life would be . . . 

"Stolen Identity"

For most of my life I've been searching for something that was lacking in my life. I went from being my father's daughter to my husband's wife and then to my boys' mother. Somewhere in between all those titles I lost myself. I no longer felt that I had an identity. Putting all of my dreams aside, I worked alongside my husband for 20 plus years to help him achieve his dream of owning his own restaurant. That took a big majority of my time. As much as I loved working with my husband (okay, there were moments when I hated it) I never felt fulfilled and knew there had to be more to my life than making pizzas. 

My husband brought a 3-year-old son into our marriage who had multiple disabilities, so there was never any US time either--no honeymoon period for us to get closer. I was instantly Steven's mother and a few years later I was Joshua's mom as well. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE being a mom and a wife. I just felt that there was NO time for ME. No dreams, no wishes, just feeding our customers and our kids.

About 18 months ago I took my life back. With my husband eager to support my dreams and my youngest at 16, I quit our restaurant and started writing again. I'd dabbled at it throughout our marriage, but never took it seriously until I started writing Blood Bound. Now nothing could hold me back.

Now, as far a chapter titles goes. I'm not sure.  Maybe "My Father's Daughter" for the first one. "The Butch, the Baker and the Pizza Maker" for the second. (my brother is a baker and my sister's husband is a butcher). Then I suppose there should be a chapter in there called, "Learning About Disabilities the Hard Way" and another one that's titled, "The Joy of Infertility." (for without it we wouldn't have adopted Joshua) And then there's "Making It Up As I Go" or "Life, Unedited."  

There, that's all I got for now. The rest of the book is not yet written, so stayed tuned to find out how it ends . . . hopefully a LONG time from now.

So, how did I do?  Be sure to visit Ali's blog to find out what question I asked her and to see how she answered it.  www.alicross.blogspot.com