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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
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