Blog Tour: 'TIS THE SEASON TO FEEL INADEQUATE by Dorothy Rosby

 

'TIS THE SEASON TO FEEL INADEQUATE

Dorothy Rosby

 

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GENRE:  Humorous Essays

 

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BLURB:

 

 

Christmas comes but once a year; chaos never ends! Happy Halloween, merry Christmas and joyful Lumpy Rug Day. That’s real, by the way. Lumpy Rug Day is celebrated every May 3, though “celebrated” might be too strong a word. It’s the American way to create a celebration for everything, then turn it into a chore or worse, a nightmare. ’Tis the Season to Feel Inadequate is a collection of humorous essays about how we let our expectations steal the joy out of Christmas and other holidays and special events. It’s understanding for those who think Christmas form letters can be honest—or they can be interesting. And it’s empathy for anyone who’s ever gotten poison ivy during Nude Recreation Week or eaten all their Halloween candy and had to hand out instant oatmeal packets to their trick-or-treaters.

 

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Excerpt Three:

 

Excerpt from Essay: Cooks in Crisis

 

Every year while I prepare our Thanksgiving meal, such as it is, I tune into the annual live call-in show, Turkey Confidential, on National Public Radio. Food experts talk turkey about all sorts of dishes I’d love to gobble up.

 

And on the biggest cooking day of the year, Turkey Confidential guests come to the rescue of cooks in crisis across America. I’ve never had the nerve to call them myself, though I’ve had my share of cooking crises, and not just on Thanksgiving. But there are a few calls I could have made over the many years I’ve listened to the show.

 

1. Help! My goose is cooked but my turkey isn’t. I told my guests we’d eat at noon. Then I told them one. It’s now two. The relish tray is empty and someone sampled the pumpkin pie, but the turkey juices are far from clear and the little pop-up thingie shows no sign of popping up. Opening the oven every five minutes to check probably isn’t helping.

 

I should have seen this coming. Our turkey wasn’t quite thawed even after it sat in our fridge for four days, maybe because our refrigerator runs a little cold. That usually isn’t a problem since I mostly just use it to make ice cubes.

 

If that weren’t bad enough, our oven has been running a little cold too, maybe out of sympathy for the refrigerator.

 

My question is, should I go ahead and serve my guests leftover tuna casserole now and have the turkey as a bedtime snack? A lot of people sleep after Thanksgiving dinner anyway.

 

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Topic: What was your writing process like when writing this book?

’Tis the Season to Feel Inadequate is a collection of humorous essays about the stress we put on ourselves in the name of celebrating—how we let our expectations take the joy out of Christmas, other holidays and special occasions. I start with Christmas because no holiday makes me feel more inadequate than Christmas—except maybe Nude Recreation Week which just gets a mention. But I work my way through the year with all sorts of major and minor holidays, observances and events we celebrate, including birthdays, weddings and class reunions.

I’m a syndicated humor columnist who also does some storytelling and entertaining talks in my community. So my process included digging through every essay, column, speech and story I’ve ever written about holidays and special occasions and updating, marrying some together and tossing some out and starting them over. It also included a great deal of weeping and gnashing of teeth. Really.

Everything I write follows a predictable pattern. I have an idea I love and I’m convinced it will be the best thing I’ve ever written. I’m excited, inspired and motivated — for about half an hour. Eventually everything degenerates into work. Starting a new project is always a struggle for me. This is the moment where I might succumb to a serious case of writer’s block if I didn’t have a deadline. And I did have a strict deadline. For obvious reasons, I needed this book to be out before the holiday season. Working through the initial stages is always hard but once I get a rough draft down on paper, it becomes fun again. At this point I start polishing, moving things around and looking for funnier ways to say things. I know many writers hate revision, but for me, this part of the process is so fun that if I hadn’t had a deadline, I might still be working on the book.

 

 

 

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Dorothy Rosby is an author humor columnist whose work regularly appears in publications throughout the West and Midwest. Her humor writing has been recognized by the National Society of Newspaper Columnists, the National Federation of Press Women and the South Dakota Newspaper Association. In 2022 she was named the global winner in the Erma Bombeck Writers Competition in the humor writing category. She’s the author of four books of humorous essays. 

 

Website: https://dorothyrosby.com/

 

https://www.facebook.com/rosbydorothy

https://www.goodreads.com/dorothyrosby

https://www.instagram.com/dorothyrosby/

 

 

 

Amazon   https://www.amazon.com/dp/0578295520

 

Audible  https://www.audible.com/pd/Tis-the-Season-to-Feel-Inadequate-Audiobook/B0CBW57GYM

 

 

 

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GIVEAWAY 

The author will be awarding a $20 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner.

 

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