Excerpt Spotlight & Giveaway ~ YA GOTTA LAUGH by Barbara Alldritt

Ya Gotta Laugh
by: Barbara Alldritt
Genre: Contemporary Short Stories
Release Date: September 29, 2021
Publisher: Tellwell Talent
Amazon | Paperback | Hardcover | Goodreads

In "YA GOTTA LAUGH", Barbara Alldritt presents a series of short stories based on her own experiences, and those of others, about living life with joy & happiness, in spite of life's challenges.

While pursuing an academic career, Barbara was hit hard by a debilitating disease. She quickly determined she needed a new direction in life. Always interested in writing, she turned to creating stories about this new path.

These are stories that show that even in trying circumstances, there are still ways to find humour.

Renaissance scientist René Descartes posited the separation of spirit from matter during the seventeenth century. Science took over matter and the church got spirit. In the twenty-first century, the talk is about reintegrating the matter of body with spirit.

Athletes, as well as science, now show us that the power of mind, the third aspect of who we are, influences the outcome of every human endeavour. So in any attempt to change or improve, all three aspects of the self—body, mind and spirit—must be addressed. It’s become almost a cliché.

Mystics cultivate spirit through meditation, prayer or various rigorous controls of the body. Athletes mentally rehearse perfect physical performance. Countless books, lectures and workshops address this process of reintegrating body, mind and spirit. For me, however, it just seemed to happen as a natural response to the challenges of ill health.

Over the space of a very short time, what was diagnosed as multiple sclerosis put me in a wheelchair, and my doctors believed I would remain in it for the rest of my life. This idea and the very real health challenges I lived with every day were a serious limitation to the joys of life as I had known them. It went well beyond being unable to walk.

Purchase Ya Gotta Laugh from:

Amazon | Paperback | Hardcover | Goodreads

Author Barbara Alldritt was born and raised on a farm in Saskatchewan and although there was always work around the farm she preferred hiding behind the couch reading a book rather than be out in the fields hoeing potatoes or washing dishes in the kitchen. After High school, she traveled extensively in Western Canada and then set out on a 2-year adventure around the world and met her husband on that trip in Western Samoa. They returned to Canada settling in Calgary. Barbara then returned to higher education at the University of Calgary and completed her Honours Degree in 1988, and was awarded the Faculty of General Studies Gold Medal and the Lieutenant Governor’s Gold Medal for that year.

They then moved to Vancouver, BC, and Barbara entered a master’s program at UBC. In the throes of completing her MA and preparing to start her PhD, MS hit her hard and put a stop to her academic work.

Needing a new direction and given her interest in both research and writing she looked into many options for maintaining her health from taking up aqua-fitness to nutrition and what she should and should not eat. She also became active in the MS Society and produced their newsletter, in which she wrote stories that looked at the humorous side of living with a disability.

Many who read her stories were inspired to contact her to tell their own tales and adventures. She interviewed them and added them to the newsletter, resulting in this compendium of stories.

Places to find Barbara Alldritt:

Website | Goodreads

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