What Inspired Me to Write my Memoir and Romcom? Writing is fulfilling, fun, and cheaper than therapy.
(plus heartfelt obsessions, book hugs, and feral cats on mushrooms)
I’m a bit obsessed with trying to make sense of the human condition, especially when it comes to navigating relationships. In my travel memoir, I set out to satisfy my explorer’s itch in an attempt to understand more about the world and the people in it. I also set out to search for something that felt missing in my life and ended up looking for true love with mishaps along the way. In my romcom, through my characters, I explored how childhood emotional wounds influence adult romantic relationships and the thrill of meeting a heartmate then engaging in all the funny little dances we often do while trying to make the relationship work.
Well, that was vague. More specifics, please. What inspired me to write Unsettled: A Memoir?
In Unsettled, I rent out my house in Rochester, New York and relocate to Seoul, South Korea to teach English then end up on a four-year nomadic, global adventure of sorts (I mean, I got pap smeared in S. Korea and the doctor couldn’t “find” my ovaries, y’all). I needed to write my memoir to try to make sense of it all. I mean, what the hell was that? It’s one thing to want to see the world, but I went about it in a rather crazy-ass way, all the while looking for love. Dating at midlife can be challenging under any circumstances, but when you’re a fifty-year-old transient volunteering for room and board, let’s just say it’s more challenging. Way more challenging. Then, after returning “home” to the U.S., I fell in love. Careful what you wish for, y’all because when I moved in with my beloved—into the house he’d lived in for thirty years—I felt and acted like a feral cat on mushrooms. It all turned out okay (great, in fact), but after all that, I guess I was inspired to write Unsettled, in part, because it was cheaper than therapy.
And what inspired me to write Anita Farleigh Unpacks?
While I am not Anita Farleigh, there are parallels between my romcom and my real-life story. Anita teaches college English in Asia for weeks at a time which creates, to say the least, challenges in maintaining a romantic relationship. So, when Anita meets quirky, compassionate Oscar (a talented nurse who’s all homebody as hell and who just happens to fill out his scrubs in exactly the right places), her coping mechanism of living with one foot out the door is thrown for a loop, which I can certainly relate to.
The main inspiration for writing my romcom, however, is my love of the subgenre. Romantic comedies come in all different styles, voices, spice-levels, and temperaments and I love writing laugh-out-loud, heart-tugging love stories.
The bottom line is, it’s fun to write funny dialogue and quirky observations and, more than anything, it feels good to write about love because love is a good thing. Love is everything.
Heartfelt Obsession
My daughter’s pups (my grandpups). To the left is Gigi, a 3-year-old Boston Terrier who wears her heart on her sleeve and whose real name is Dwaeji, which means pork in Korean. I call her "Face."
The little guy in the cone is recently neutered Francis, a rescue pup who was surrendered to the shelter because he had Parvo when he was 7 weeks old. He is now a very healthy dream dog who, according to his doggie DNA test is mostly wolf (go figure). I call him "Francis" and "Dream Dog."
Book Hugs
My Books
My Memoir, Unsettled. Now available for preorder here:
https://linktr.ee/lauriewoodfordauthor
My romcom, Anita Farleigh Unpacks. Will be available for preorder very soon.
Happy Thanksgiving! Wishing you a perfect turkey and stuffing combo, buttery mashed potatoes, and pie. Lots and lots of pie.