Afraid of Everything WOW Blog Tour and Review with Karen Jones Gowen
Posted by Kathleen Pooler/@kathypooler with Karen Jones Gowen/@karengowen
” Anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows,but only empties today of its strength.” ~Charles Spurgeon
Anxiety is a condition that we all experience from time to time. We all have fears and concerns, both founded and unfounded. But, for people who have been diagnosed with General Anxiety Disorder or Panic Disorder, these fears become uncontrollable and immobilizing, often preventing them from living their lives to the fullest. Karen Jones Gowen explores these issues in her new novel.
Please join me in welcoming Karen in her Wow! Women on Writing Blog Tour for her new women’s fiction book, Afraid of Everything. Karen has written a creative and engaging novel which sheds a vivid light on how anxiety can impact one’s life.
Author Karen Jones Gowen
My Review:
When I started reading Karen Jones Gowen’s new novel, Afraid of Everything, I had to double-check that it was a novel and not a memoir. The beginning details a woman’s struggle with an uncontrollable anxiety through the interaction with a psychotherapist. The protagonist, Helena, is a Labor and Delivery nurse, whose extreme anxiety and fear of harming a patient have forced her to take a leave from her career. Anxiety permeates every aspect of her daily life, rendering her helpless to move forward. As Gowen slowly builds tension in her story, I found myself experiencing her fears and anxieties. Her writing is free-flowing and engaging. She paints a vivid picture of how anxiety looks and feels.
“When Mom died, my grief came like a silent howling creature, one whose throat was cut before it could scream. Sorrow was too mild a word for what coursed through me like a living being of destruction.” (Chapter Five, page 40)
In a unique plot twist, she is critically injured in a car accident and ends up in a coma. It is what happens while she is in a coma that keeps me turning the pages. Without giving away too much of the story, she finds her truth and her priorities and emerges a stronger person who is able to fully participate in her life. Although this is fiction, there are many valuable lessons for all of us. I highly recommend this well-crafted, creative novel which sheds light on anxiety and how it can impact our lives. It is an enjoyable and enlightening read.
Book Synopsis:
Afraid of Everything is a touching and expertly written book about the life and experiences of Helena Carr as she explores an intriguing new world.
Helena Carr is afraid of everything. After a crisis at work, she quits her job and feels lost. It’s time for a serious change, to beat the extreme anxiety that has plagued her since childhood. Something different, unplanned and radical. Sell her house, move to a foreign location, turn her life upside down in an effort to end the emotionally paralyzing fear.
Before Helena can act on her options, however, she has a terrible accident on a Southern California freeway. Instead of going on an exotic vacation, she is in a hospital, in a coma, traveling to strange worlds in another dimension, meeting people who seem to know more about her than she knows about herself.
As Helena explores this intriguing new world, she realizes the truth about her past and the purpose of her future. And she is no longer afraid. She is at last ready to live. But first, she must wake up from the coma.
Paperback: 285 Pages
Genre: Women’s Fiction
Publisher: WiDo Publishing (October 7, 2014)
ASIN: B00OAC0N6U
Twitter hashtag: #AfraidGowen
Afraid of Everything is available as an e-book and paperback at Amazon
About the Author:
Born and raised in central Illinois, Karen Jones Gowen now lives and writes in Panajachel, Guatemala. She and her husband Bruce are the parents of ten children. Not surprisingly, family relationships are a recurring theme in Gowen’s writing. Her children’s stories have appeared in the Friend, and her essays in the Jacksonville Journal Courier. Gowen’s published books are Farm Girl, Uncut Diamonds, House of Diamonds, Lighting Candles in the Snow, Farm Girl Country Cooking: Hearty Meals for Active Families and Afraid of Everything. She blogs at her website, karenjonesgowen.com and at Coming Down the Mountain.
Karen can be found online at:
Website: karenjonesgowen.com
Blog: karenjonesgowen.blogspot.com
Email: karenjonesgowen@gmail.com
Twitter: @KarenGowen
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/karen.gowen.1?fref=ts
How about you? How has anxiety–either in yourself or in others– impacted your life?
We’d love to hear from you. Please leave your comments below~
Reminder: I am on a Lenten Sabbatical from my own blog posts and social media until 4/13/15. However, I will be available for comments and sharing of all guest posts.
Next Week:
Monday, 04/06/15:
“What I Learned When Memoir Writing Crept into My Book on Happiness by Flora Brown.”
