CreateWriteNow is pleased to host Rita Pomade and her personal story of how writing has helped her learn who she was, as part of her WOW-WomenOnWriting Blog Tour.
I would never fully know myself if I didn’t write. It’s the mirror that reflects back to me who I am. My early journals and poetry going back 50 years are a record of who I was and how I’ve evolved over a lifetime. I don’t often look at them, but when I do, I’m reminded again of my journey. I see the core of me that is constant, and the changes in perception as I grow older. Some of the material is fodder for another memoir.
But a lot of it is getting in touch with my younger self and how it relates to my evolution over the years. I’ve kept dream journals, and there too I find insights about myself that I couldn’t see at the time but with the passing of years, I am able to analyze them with the fresh eye distance time brings.
When I write, whatever lies dormant in my unconscious comes to the surface. And when I read consecutive pieces, I see various threads or themes running through what I’ve written. I once thought I had a peripheral interest in women’s issues and the role of women in society. I wasn’t aware how passionate I was about the role women have been assigned in society until I read some of my writing. Wounds surfaced. Injustices that I had suppressed called out to be addressed. I became less apologetic as I became more present to my hidden anger, and it gave me the courage to speak up and speak out, not only on paper but in my daily life.
Writing, especially memoir writing, is a great healer of old wounds. When I started to write SEEKER: A SEA ODYSSEY, I was aware I carried a lot of hurt feelings about the voyage. The journey was frozen— static, like an endless frieze on an unending wall. In the process of writing the book, I discovered that I had grown more insightful over the years, and that with the distance that time gives; there were shifts in my perception about things that happened. Memory is malleable, and our stories mutate with time if we don’t get stuck in them.
Recent research has shown that the pain of an emotional impact lasts for little more than a minute, but memory can keep it alive forever. From my new perspective I healed old wounds and found myself more generous in my capacity to forgive. This didn’t take effort. It happened because in the writing, I could see the same story from different points of view. The greatest gift in writing SEEKER was that once I had put down my story on paper, I could let it go. I have little memory left of the trip, and have to refer back to the book when people ask questions about what I had written. In the process of writing my story, I freed my mind for whatever else was ready to take up residence inside.
- Rita Pomade
WOW! WOMEN ON WRITING TOUR
OF
Seeker: A Sea Odyssey
Tour Begins June 29th
Book Summary
Seeker: A Sea Odyssey is the story of two people who meet in Mexico and fall in love. Rita is an American part-time English language teacher and freelance reporter for an English language tourist magazine struggling to raise two young boys on her own. Bernard is a French geologist under contract to the Mexican government to search for underground thermal springs. She dreams of finding Shangri-La after witnessing a bloody government crackdown from which she barely escapes. He dreams of having a yacht and sailing the world. Their dreams mesh, and they immigrate to Canada to earn the money to build their boat.
Print Length: 330 Pages
Genre: Memoir
Publisher: MiroLand
Seeker: A Sea Odyssey is available to purchase at Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, and Books-a-Million. You can also add this to your Goodreads reading list.
About the Author Rita Pomade
Rita Pomade, an intrepid nomad originally from New York, now lives and writes in Montreal. Her work has appeared in literary magazines and poetry reviews, and her monologue for auditioning actors was selected for inclusion in the Monologue Bank. An excerpt from her forthcoming memoir Seeker: A Sea Odyssey was included in two travel anthologies.
-- Blog Tour Dates
June 29th @ The Muffin
What goes better in the morning than a muffin? Grab your coffee and join us in celebrating the launch of Rita Pomade's book Seeker: A Sea Odyssey. You can read an interview with the author and enter to win a copy of the book.
https://muffin.wow-womenonwriting.com/
July 2nd @ Fiona Ingram's Blog
Visit Fiona's blog and you can read a guest post by the author about how she could have enriched her journey at sea.
http://fionaingramauthor.blogspot.com/
July 5th @ CK Sorens' Blog
Visit Carrie's blog today and you can read her review of Rita Pomade's memoir Seeker.
https://www.cksorens.com/blog
July 6th @ Create Write Now
Visit Mari L. McCarthy's blog where you can read author Rita Pomade's guest post about what she learned about herself through writing.
https://www.createwritenow.com/
July 7th @ The Faerie Review
Make sure you visit Lily's blog and read a guest post by the author about cooking on a shoestring at sea.
http://www.thefaeriereview.com/
July 8th @ Coffee with Lacey
Visit Lacey's blog today and read her review of Rita Pomade's book Seeker: A Sea Odyssey.
https://coffeewithlacey.com/
July 10th @ 12 Books
Visit Louise's blog and read her review of Rita Pomade's book Seeker: A Sea Odyssey.
https://12books.co.uk/
July 11th @ Bookworm Blog
Visit Anjanette's blog today and you can read her review of Rita Pomade's book Seeker: A Sea Odyssey.
http://bookworm66.wordpress.com/
July 12th @ It's Alanna Jean
Visit Alanna's blog today and you can read a guest post by author Rita Pomade about the ten best traits you need for living aboard a yacht.
http://itsalannajean.com/
July 13th @ The New England Book Critic
Join Vickie as she reviews Rita Pomade's book Seeker: A Sea Odyssey.
http://www.thenewenglandbookcritic.com/
July 14th @ Bev. A Baird's Blog
Visit Bev's blog today and read her review of Rita Pomade's book Seeker: A Sea Odyssey.
https://beverleyabaird.wordpress.com/
July 15th @ Reviews and Interviews
Visit Lisa's blog today where she interviews author Rita Pomade about her book Seeker: A Sea Odyssey.
http://lisahaseltonsreviewsandinterviews.blogspot.com/
July 16th @ Author Anthony Avina's Blog
Visit Anthony's blog where he reviews Rita Pomade's book Seeker: A Sea Odyssey.
https://authoranthonyavinablog.com/
July 17th @ 12 Books
Visit Louise's blog and read author Rita Pomade's guest post discussing sailing myths.
https://12books.co.uk/
July 18th @ Author Anthon Avina's Blog
Visit Anthony's blog today and read his interview with author Rita Pomade.
https://www.authoranthonyavinablog.com
July 20th @ Bev. A Baird's Blog
Visit Bev's blog again and you can read author Rita Pomade's guest post featuring her advice on writing a memoir.
https://beverleyabaird.wordpress.com/
July 21st @ Jill Sheet's Blog
Visit Jill's blog where you can read a guest post by author Rita Pomade about how her handwriting analysis skills made her a better writer.
https://jillsheets.blogspot.com/
July 22nd @ A Storybook World
Visit Deirdra's blog today and you can checkout her spotlight of Rita Pomade's book Seeker: A Sea Odyssey.
http://www.astorybookworld.com/
July 23rd @ Choices
Visit Madeline's blog today and you can read a guest post by author Rita Pomade about the benefits of spending time abroad.
http://madelinesharples.com/
July 24th @ Books, Beans and Botany
Visit Ashley's blog today where she reviews Rita Pomade's book Seeker: A Sea Odyssey.
https://booksbeansandbotany.com/
July 24th @ Tiggy's Books
Visit Tiggy's blog today and read her review of Rita Pomade's book Seeker: A Sea Odyssey. She'll also be chatting a bit with the author!
https://tiggysbooks.com/
July 26th @ CK Sorens Blog
Visit Carrie's blog today and you can read a guest post by author Rita Pomade about how she jumpstart her writing process.
https://www.cksorens.com/blog
July 27th @ Memoir Writer's Journey
Visit Kathleen's blog today and read her review of Rita Pomade's book Seeker.
https://www.krpooler.com/
July 28th @ Lady Unemployed
Visit Nicole's blog today where you can read a guest post by author Rita Pomade talking about stepping outside of one's comfort zone.
http://www.ladyunemployed.com
July 31st @ Wild Hearted
Visit Ashley's blog where you can read a guest post by author Rita Pomade about why she jumped at the chance to go to sea.
https://wild-hearted.com/
Author bio: Rita Pomade— teacher, poet, memoirist—lived six years aboard a small yacht that took her from Taiwan to the Suez to Mallorca, dropping anchor in 22 countries. She and her husband navigated through raging monsoons, encountered real-life pirates, and experienced cultures that profoundly changed them. Seeker: A Sea Odyssey, published by Guernica Editions under the Miroland label tells her story.
Rita Pomade, a native New Yorker, first settled in Mexico before immigrating to Quebec. During her time in Mexico, she taught English, wrote articles and book reviews for Mexconnect, an ezine devoted to Mexican culture, and had a Dear Rita monthly column on handwriting analysis in the Chapala Review. In Montreal she taught English as a Second Language at Concordia University and McGill University until her retirement. She is a two-time Moondance International Film Festival award winner, once for a film script and again for a short story deemed film worthy. Her work is represented in the Monologues Bank, a storehouse of monologues for actors in need of material for auditions, in several anthologies, and in literary reviews. Her travel biography, Seeker: A Sea Odyssey, was shortlisted for the 2019 Concordia University First Book Award.
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