Three Wishes with Eileen Granfors
Today I have Eileen Granfors for a guest post. I met Eileen when I did a series of author interviews conducted by Grace Lightbourne, the main character in Winging It! You can read Eileen’s interview here.
But before you go (or go and come back), stick around and read the rest of this post because Eileen will be making three wishes, and maybe, Eugene, the nerdy genie from My Wishful Thinking, will grant them.
Only time will tell. Before we get to the wishes, here’s a little about Eileen’s newest book, The Pinata-Maker’s Daughter:
Scholarly Carmen Principia jumps into college unprepared socially. First, there’s her weird roommate. And the men she meets! Radical protester, Franco, who shares her Hispanic heritage, or frat rat Joe, who makes her laugh? Follow her adventures, some hilarious, some heartbreaking. Okay, take it away, Eileen!
When Shel and I talked about this blog post, I thought, “piece of cake.” Darn, a cliché already. But I did think it would be easy. After a few sleepless nights (I take things way too seriously), here’s my wish list:
Wish #1: Put reading books for pleasure back on the daily agenda.
My first wish is that we would once again become a nation of readers. Some of my friends and family members say they have no time to read anymore. They are so busy with Twitter, newsfeeds, and status updates in social media, they’ve crowded out reading for pleasure.
We’ll spend ten dollars on a movie (or more), but balk at the price of a book. Well, the movie is probably 90 minutes long. Most books provide three or more days of pleasure. And they can be shared, increasing their value. Whether your choice is e-book, paperback, or library edition, a book is an investment in yourself and in society.
Wish #2: Best sellers for positive books that are not about extreme sex and violence. I am thinking about books like Caroline Leavitt’s Is This Tomorrow, Anita Diamont’s The Red Tent, and Laura Moriarty’s The Chaperone.
My second wish ties in with the first. I write positive books with moral choices. My characters rarely swear, they don’t kill people, and they don’t blow things up. What they do is look at themselves and think about how to change. Their internal struggles may also include conflicts with family members, but my characters are not action heroes, psychopaths, or members of the mob. They are as close to real people as I can make them with times of heartbreak and times of humor.
Wish #3: Study other cultures. Think about the eradication of disease and illiteracy. Join forces with active movements. What a wonderful world it could be.
Do I need a third wish? I have one more. Since people will be reading more and reading books that aren’t so flashy, maybe we could understand one another better. Reading about other cultures in places where we ourselves have not travelled would be my third wish. Let’s open up our eyes to the rest of the world. ABC news reported that one fourth of America’s liberal arts majors said in a survey their #1 employer would be Disneyland. The world we live in is not Disneyland. Why pretend? A generation ago, the Peace Corps was a popular choice for American college grads. Let’s learn about India (Jhumpa Lahirir) and Africa (Clive Cleave) and Afghanistan (Khaled Hosseini). We live in a global economy. It would help us to understand other cultures.
Thanks. I love those wishes, Eileen!
You can check out Eileen’s new book, The Pinata-Maker’s Daughter here. And here are some other places you can connect with her on-line.
Her Blog Word Joy: http://www.eileengranfors.blogspot.com
Bio:
Eileen Granfors is a retired English teacher with a passion for reading and writing. She has published four novels, two anthologies of poetry, and an anthology of flash fiction. She loves the beach, all dogs, and the diversity of the world.
P.S. My Wishful Thinking is on sale for 99 cents through the weekend. It’s available here.
