Lindsey Paley's new book, The Wish List Addiction

Now, how can you not stop and ask about this intriguing title?

Lisa: Lindsey, tell us about the book.

Lindsey: Lots of us make lists - some of us, like Rebecca, draw up lots of different lists. There's the daily 'To Do' list, the carefully researched 'Wish List' and the 'Bucket List'. They are a safety net for our overloaded memories. In 'The Wish List Addiction' I wanted to explore what would happen if those lists were taken away and Rebecca was forced to live life 'as it comes'. 

When we meet Rebecca, it's when her life is at an all time low. Everything has gone wrong and she is clutching the edge of sanity by her fingernails. Her obsession with list-making has not led to a happier life at all, in fact they were a catalyst for most of her difficulties. So, at the beginning of the story, her friends challenge her to 'ditch the lists' and instead pursue her life in a more random, 'dip in/dip out' choice of activities, without the safety net of her lists. 

So, no lists - the story is about how those golden coins of happiness can be found in the randomness of life, away from the rigid, tightly controlled organisation of her former existence. 

Lisa: What do you hope readers will tell other readers?

I hope readers will identify with Rebecca's struggles and cheer for her success from the sidelines. I also hope that the novel encourages readers to consider their own 'wish lists' and maybe take a peek at 'The Little Green Book of Wishes' themselves.

We are consistently advised that happiness lies not in the amassing of monetary gain but in the connections we make and sustain with others. 'The Little Green Book' does not advocate that you draw up a finite list of things to do before you reach a certain age or event and then you can die happy in the knowledge that your dreams have been achieved. Far from it - it's too stressful by half! The risk is that in the strenuous pursuit of one goal and the satisfaction of striking it from your list to move headlong on to the next, the Wish List Addict becomes oblivious to the fact that real life rushes by alongside - exactly what happened to Rebecca.

The back cover:

Rebecca Mathews is a Listoholic—you name it, she has a 'To Do' list for it. Coupled with her daily 'Must Achieve' List, she possesses a mid-term, creatively drawn 'Wish List' and an exhaustively-researched 'Bucket List'. But so far, they have delivered nothing but spectacular failure. 

With her much-loved career exploded in her face, her marriage terminated in an acrimonious divorce and her frail father's pleas to return to her native Northumberland ignored, Rebecca concludes that if it wasn't for her beloved four-year-old son, Max, she would be adding a trip to a Swiss clinic to her list.

A sparkle of light appears in Rebecca's life wrapped in the guise of 'The Little Green Book of Wishes', which challenges the reader to 'ditch the list' and instead to use its gems of wisdom as a 'dip in/dip out' lucky bag of challenges from all areas of life.

Persuaded by her colleagues to relinquish her obsessive reliance on her multiple lists, cast adrift from their reassuring structure, she agrees to complete random tasks selected for her from the 'little emerald book of miracles'.

Will it deliver the desired result and cure Rebecca of her Wish List Addiction? 

Buy The Wish List Addiction

Amazon

B&N

Visit Lindsey on Facebook - where she'd love to hear what's on readers' own wish/bucket lists