Joanne’s book, “By Accident: A Memoir of Letting Go” is now available from your favorite online or retail book seller. Joanne may be speaking at a bookstore near you. If you’re interested in having her come to your local bookstore, or your book club, contact her directly at joannergreene@gmail.com or get updates on her website at joanne-greene.com and make sure to sign up for her newsletter!

Most of us fall into the category of either farmer types or hunter gatherers. Farmers can think long term, they plan and then they wait. Not me. With relatively quick reaction time and a short attention span, I’m better suited to have been a hunter gatherer. As a woman living in the latter part of the 20th century, I found writing 5-minute newscasts and 60 second radio features to be a good career fit. It’s also why it’s hard for me to believe that over the past many years, with the help of writing coaches and editors, I’ve written and published a full-length book. Crazy.
By Accident: A Memoir of Letting Go tells the story of how it took getting hit by a car, enduring a major hurricane, and surviving cancer for me to learn how to slow down and trust that it was okay to relinquish control. Control, I learned, is a seductive illusion, that people don’t like me because of how much I accomplish. I came to understand that while optimism has its limits, gratitude does not. You can feel through your grief and anger, and even feel sorry for yourself, as long as you keep moving forward. One foot in front of the other.
Everyone’s parent or grandparent had sayings that they’d repeat ad nauseum. “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” was one that I particularly hated. It’s also fueled my recovery time and again. “Count your blessings” may win the best advice award; It’s certainly the cheapest, safest, most accessible antidote to self-pity I’ve ever encountered. And “this too shall pass”, if you really consider it, is a reminder that whatever pain you’re suffering, be it physical or emotional, is temporary. Unless of course it’s not.
What enabled me to embark upon, and ultimately complete, a long-term project? I moved beyond the perceived need to get whatever it was done, as soon as possible. I acknowledged that while I’d been paid to write things for decades, I knew virtually nothing about writing a memoir. So, I found experts to enlist and invested time and money in my own growth. And then I stuck with it. When Brooke Warner of She Writes Press told me that she’d publish my book if I agreed to hire a developmental editor, then a copy editor, and finally a proof-reader, I said “Absolutely.” All of that made my book better and now, years later, I’m proud of the work. How does it feel to have spilled my guts and shared my most vulnerable moments in both print and an audiobook? It’s a question I’m choosing not to ask myself.