My Memoir needed Pizzazz- so I added Pumpkin Spice!
The leaves are falling and over one-third of us are putting down our rakes and rushing t0 indulge in a PSL- a Pumpkin Spice Latte. Has this gateway beverage encouraged you to buy all sorts of other pumpkin flavored treats? You can now fill your grocery cart with pumpkin spice vodka, pumpkin spice cereal and oatmeal, pumpkin spice ice cream, pastries, and even pumpkin spice kale chips. You can also splurge on non-edible products like pumpkin spice scented candles, moisturizers, and lip balms. The message is clear- if you want to be heard, or tasted, in the marketplace, add pumpkin spice.
I initially planned to write a memoir. I procrastinated for forty years, which allowed me to stockpile enough memories to fill a book. About a year ago, I fired up my laptop and began to write. After a few months of typing a thousand words a day, I decided to read and edit my work product. Ouch, my biggest fan, my dog, took one look at my memoir and fell asleep, and even I had to admit my opus was boring. Chapter after chapter about doing the laundry and going to the grocery wasn’t going to cut it.
I needed pizzazz, and so I spiced my writing and transformed my memoir into a novel. Why Pumpkin Spice? It’s a traditional spice mix that usually contains cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves that have been combined with pumpkin in sweet pie recipes since at least the late 1790s. Pumpkin spice conveys a sense of warmth and family, tradition and special gatherings, all of which are key ingredients to The Golden Life of Charli- RSVP.
I added a dash of pumpkin spice because:
• I wanted to entertain readers with humor and positive stories about life on the retirement roller coaster.
• I wanted my book to be bigger than me. I wanted to share the universal concerns of:
how to deal with growing older,
why retirement gives us more free time but also more wrinkles, and
who is this old person who is always underfoot and how do we reconnect?
• I wanted to explore more than how to load the dishwasher the right way. As we age, what are our desires, fears and dreams?
Pumpkin spice mania is not new, and dealing with a new chapter of life is not new either. Adding spice to my book allowed me to add YOU to my story; now we can all share the joys and challenges of growing older.
I initially planned to write a memoir. I procrastinated for forty years, which allowed me to stockpile enough memories to fill a book. About a year ago, I fired up my laptop and began to write. After a few months of typing a thousand words a day, I decided to read and edit my work product. Ouch, my biggest fan, my dog, took one look at my memoir and fell asleep, and even I had to admit my opus was boring. Chapter after chapter about doing the laundry and going to the grocery wasn’t going to cut it.
I needed pizzazz, and so I spiced my writing and transformed my memoir into a novel. Why Pumpkin Spice? It’s a traditional spice mix that usually contains cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves that have been combined with pumpkin in sweet pie recipes since at least the late 1790s. Pumpkin spice conveys a sense of warmth and family, tradition and special gatherings, all of which are key ingredients to The Golden Life of Charli- RSVP.
I added a dash of pumpkin spice because:
• I wanted to entertain readers with humor and positive stories about life on the retirement roller coaster.
• I wanted my book to be bigger than me. I wanted to share the universal concerns of:
how to deal with growing older,
why retirement gives us more free time but also more wrinkles, and
who is this old person who is always underfoot and how do we reconnect?
• I wanted to explore more than how to load the dishwasher the right way. As we age, what are our desires, fears and dreams?
Pumpkin spice mania is not new, and dealing with a new chapter of life is not new either. Adding spice to my book allowed me to add YOU to my story; now we can all share the joys and challenges of growing older.
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JenaBooks
Jena is a writer of humorous novels, a reader and reviewer, a book promoter, and beta read. Yes she’s a book lover. Her three book series, The Golden Age of Charli mixes humor, romance, and mystery wi
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