Today I am pleased to present a guest post written by Ordinary World author, Elisa Lorello. I reviewed Ordinary World on Tuesday and got the opportunity to interview her as well.
Elisa is guest-posting here today as a stop on her blog tour. What is a blog tour? Well a blog tour is similar to an author’s book tour, but it’s hosted online, instead of at, say, a bookstore. The touring author visits a number of blogs (otherwise known as “blog stops”) over a set period–typically, a month. And today it’s me!
So please welcome Elisa.
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Andi, thank you so much for letting me post on your blog, and how appropriate, being that my protagonist’s name is also Andi!
I love things that come in packages.
I love boxes, bottles, and bags.
I love things that are iconic in popular culture. Wonder Woman. Cookie Monster. Absolut Ads. The Volkswagon Beetle.
I’ve always been a collector of one thing or another. When I was little, I collected key chains. When I was a teenager, I collected all things Duran Duran. In my early twenties I bought a coffeetable book about the shopping bag as “portable art” and started collecting shopping bags. When I was an impoverished undergraduate living in an on-campus apartment, I hung the bags on the wall, and every visitor we welcomed had something positive to say about them.
In my mid thirties, however, I began to wonder if my collecting was the sign of some pathology. I saved cards, letters, and journals too, some dating back to when I was a teenager. For at least ten years I’d saved an unopened bottle of Pepsi that someone had brought me from Italy (that was during my Pepsi-logo-collecting days). I had saved a nail file—that’s right, a nail file (never used) that an ex-boyfriend had given me. Why was I attaching so much sentimentality to these objects, and why was I so afraid to lose them?
It probably comes as no surprise that one of my interests is feng shui. As I read books about the art of placement (feng shui literally means “wind” and “water”), be it a couch or a photograph, I learned that objects have energy, just like the space that occupies them. The energy could be positive or negative. I also learned that I often attached a memory to the object, hence the source of my fear of losing the object. I didn’t want to lose the memory.
Only problem was, some of ‘em weren’t very happy memories.
It became clear that I was running out of space, and I couldn’t possibly house or display all this stuff I’d accumulated. It also became clear that the energy of the objects reflected the energy of my life. My personal life was cluttered, weighed down and run down, inert. Thus, I examined each object and gave myself a simple rule: If I love it or use it, keep it. If I don’t love it or don’t use it, get rid of it. I paid close attention to how every object—be it a cup or key chain or cap—made me feel. I touched each object as I did so.
The exercise resulted in my giving away or getting rid of a lot of stuff. Other things I kept, with a promise to look at them again in five years. I discovered that I still have the memories without the stuff—especially the good ones—but that I am also lighter, freer, than I was before. I am prosperous. I am flowing with creativity. And I miss very little, if any, of what I no longer own.
When I wrote ORDINARY WORLD, I knew that objects were going play a specific role in the story. In the aftermath of Andi (the protagonist)’s husband’s death, his objects become the symbol of her desperate attempt to hold on to him and the life she knew and loved. She saves a voice mail so she can hold on to the sound of his voice. She wears his clothes in an attempt to remember his scent. She saved every note and letter he ever wrote. A collection of bobble-head dolls that she always thought to be stupid suddenly becomes a shrine.
Objects have energy, plain and simple. But we can’t let them take over our lives. We can’t use them to fill whatever is empty in us, or what we think we are missing.
That doesn’t mean my collecting days are over. Look around my home or office and you’ll notice a few of my collections have lingered. My Animaniacs memorabilia from when I worked at the Warner Bros. Studio Store, for example, is placed in various quadrants of my apartment, and some of my colleagues and students have found out about my love of Wonder Woman. I even have a few shopping bags hanging. But from time to time, I still go through my space, touch each object, and pay attention to how I feel.
In the end, less really is more.
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Thanks Elisa!
And because I am such a huge fan of Ordinary World I want to give away both her first book, Faking It, where all the characters in Ordinary World are introduced as well as a copy of Ordinary World. You will fall in love too! If you are interested in winning these two books, go HERE.
And if you can’t wait and want to buy them now, here’s where you can get them:
Faking It:
Lulu in paperback
Kindle at Amazon
In paperback at Amazon
Ordinary World:
Lulu in paperback
Kindle at Amazon
If you have a blog or website and would like to host an author, WOW-WomenOnWriting are accepting a few choice blogs to participate in their programs. Come and join the fun! Email Angela & Jodi at blogtourATwow-womenonwritingDOTcom.
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
I haven’t heard about blog tours before !
That’s a good idea !
Thank you again, Andi!
La Grenadine, this is my second blog tour. It’s a lot of fun.
Wow, that was a very insightful look into why we collect. I used to be a collector of many things. Then when we lost everything in a house fire, things were put in perspective for me. Great post, thanks.
Cheryl — packing up and moving put things into perspective for me. I scaled back a lot. I’m so sorry about the fire — I hope you’ve recovered. Thanks so much for posting a comment.