Widowhood Happens by Gene K. Garrison

Interview

 

TheWritingCorner is very happy to interview, Gene K. Garrisson, another very experienced writer.

Gene has been writing since 1972. She first freelanced to magazines and had amazing luck, then she became a feature articles writer for a regional magazine for 20 years and in the late 70s she started writing some books. Two of these books were published by the “traditional way”.

When these two books went out of print, she switched to the more modern way, print-on-demand publishing (POD). Subsequent books have also become, in the interest of time, POD produced.


The books “JAVELINA (Have-uh-WHAT?)” and “Widowhood Happens” were both published through the use of CreateSpace's Print-on-demand books.

The book “FROM THUNDER TO BREAKFAS”T was published through Xlibris and the book “THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT CAVE CREEK (It's The People)” was published through Lulu.


Our interview with Gene K. Garrisson is about her book titled “ Widowhood Happens”

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What made you want to ask the questions about widowhood? When did you first start to think about widowhood?

GKG: It wasn’t my idea at all. A recently widowed friend, having read my magazine articles and my first book, persuaded me to write it, saying that it was needed. She was experiencing all kinds of strange situations that she had never heard about, and felt that I would do the subject justice. The more I thought about it the more sure I became about the necessity to share the information. Also, I might be one of the widows some day.

As I said in the book, “It’s a surprise ending.” It was also a learning experience for me.

 

What has your book accomplished so far? Has it accomplished what you had hoped and dreamed or does it still have some work to do?

GKG: So far it is out there, available from a variety of venues— bookstores, Internet booksellers such as amazon.com, e-books such as Kindle, and is written about on authorsden.com/ggarrison and Amazon Author Central as well as news releases all over the country. Now it’s up to readers.


 

How did you decide where to begin in writing your book? How long was the process of writing the book and did you deal with any rejection to the idea of your book?

GKG: After I interviewed Margaret I chose one after another people to write about.  It seemed like a natural progression. Something someone said was a clue to another interview, and it went on down the line. It didn’t all happen in the order of the final book. I had to put it in logical order. The process of writing the book was long because of the three editions. If I condensed it into one project I would say it took about a year. How long it took is not important. What’s important is the final result. There were no objections to my writing the book. All the people I talked with were very cooperative. They had been running their stories about their experiences through their brains for a long time and appreciated having someone actually listening to what they were saying. It was cathartic for some.

 

 

With all of your accounts of people dealing with widowhood, did you have to cut any inspiring accounts?

GKG: No, I didn’t have to cut anything.


 

In chapter 2 of your book Widowhood Happens, you talked to Gordon Sloan James Ph.D. and you mostly asked questions regarding women and widowhood. Was your main focus for the book to be based towards women and how they would deal with widowhood?

GKG: Yes. In the beginning my main focus was about women’s experiences. That is why the book went to a second edition. I realized after a while that I had neglected men. Of course they also have experiences relating to the deaths of their spouses, so I took care of that. I used the approximation of six or seven women to one man. That came out to twelve chapters about women and two about men. Another few years went by before I realized that I should have mentioned Hospice in my list of helpful organizations, so that is how in the third edition came about.

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Get in touch with Gene K. Garrisson:

Contact
Gene K. Garrison
www.AuthorsDen.com/GGarrison
gkgarrison@suddenlink.net
Amazon Author Central