Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Life from Scratch Book Tour



Let me start by saying, I LOVED THIS BOOK! Life from Scratch by Melissa Ford is everything I hoped it would be and more. Reading it felt like hanging out with old friends in the coziest café. I love that Rachel’s BFF is a single mom by choice. And that she didn’t get there easily. “After 2 miscarriages, three fresh IVF transfers, four frozen IVF transfers, several months of daily Lovenox injections, a premature delivery, and a NICU stay, Arianna had Beckett” For me, it was five cancelled IVF cycles, one fresh IVF transfer, two donor frozen embryo transfers, six weeks of Lovenox injections, eight weeks of progesterone in oil injections, and a c-section, that I have my Sunshine. I felt a kinship with Arianna. It’s hard enough to decide to become a parent on your own, having trouble conceiving compounds that.

I loved hearing Melissa’s voice in novel form. Loved the little New York details, like when Rachel and Arianna decide not to stop for bagels at H&H when on the way to Zabars. You have to really know New York city to know that H&H has the BEST bagels, and that they're across the street from Zabars.

I hope I can do the book justice with this post. I’m really feeling the sleep deprivation these days. My very active, teething, not great at sleeping 15 month old, our two cats, and I have just moved into a new apartment. The process has been long, stressful, and isn’t quite over. (Lots of odds and ends to still bring over, and still have to figure out where everything should go.) So this post may not be all I’d like it to be.

Now on to the questions.

If you had a year to do what you wanted, what would you do?  Would you learn to cook or something different?

Ooooooh! Whatever I want?!?!?! I would travel! I love to travel, and really hope my daughter will love it, too. Ideally, I would have someone to deal with the luggage while I focus on wrangling Sunshine, and also to help with childcare so I could do things that you can’t do with a toddler in tow. I would love to take the opportunity to learn new things in different places. For instance, I know of a villa in Tuscany that offers workshops in Tuscan cooking. Maybe a glass blowing class in Venice. Show my daughter the world. See the world through her eyes. Watch her get covered in powdered sugar eating beignets at Café du Monde in New Orleans. Make sure she knows to “Mind the Gap” on the London Underground. Etc.

Rachel's blog Life from Scratch is itself a character in the story. Do you think non-bloggers will understand the details of blogging (blog awards, stats and stat counters, other true life blogs mentioned) and how does writing her blog tie into her story making it appeal to the mainstream?

I’m not really sure. I hope so. I am a mother, my daughter is here in the world, because of my blog. The generous woman who donated embryos to me found my blog through a mention on LFCA. A site maintained by Melissa Ford! It helps when people understand the blogging world when I tell our story. Although, I think even if non-bloggers understand the details of blogging, it’s really hard for outsiders to understand the kinship in the ALI community. We are there for each other through struggles, losses, and successes. It’s hard for outsiders to understand when I tell them I’ve received baby gifts from people I’ve never met face to face. That I sent a baby gift halfway around the world to a blogger I’ve never met in person. That a community is working together on a project for a blogger who’s suffered an unthinkable loss. That we send each other socks. Yes, socks. Because we know it makes it a tiny bit easier to put our feet in those damn stirrups when we see a pair of colorful socks that someone chose for us.

How would you react if your blog hit the big time -- if you had hundreds of thousands or even millions of readers hanging on your every word, if you won awards, if mainstream media wanted to interview and feature you? Are there aspects of blogging fame that you'd refuse? How would the content of your blog change?

Hmmmmm. Well, I just don’t think I’m that good a writer. I like being semi-anonymous with my blog. I use a pseudonym on here, but I’ve never hesitated to tell my fellow bloggers my real name via email. For a long time I didn’t post any identifiable photos. Since my daughter was born I’ve posted plenty of her, and a few of me. If my blog went viral, I might consider removing the photos and not posting any new ones of us. And regardless of my blog’s popularity, I’m sure I'll think harder about what I post about Sunshine as she gets older. I sure wouldn’t mind Heather Armstrong’s money, though. (And I'd be happy to review the iPad here if Apple wants to send me one! Hello, Apple Marketing Dept!) Fame is such an odd thing. I had a surreal moment at a friend’s baby shower/meet the baby party to celebrate the adoption of her son, when a woman came up to me and said, “I know you from your blog!” Wild! Turns out she’s another SMC blogger. We had no idea we had this mutual friend.

I love to hear that our story has inspired others. I had a long phone conversation with a blogger about our open embryo donation process. Since our conversation, she and her husband have donated their embryos. I received an email last year from a woman who said she passed my URL on to a friend who was single and struggling with the idea of winding up childless. I also recently found out that after meeting me and Sunshine at an SMC event last Summer and hearing our story, a woman donated several embryos to another woman she met at the same event. So, famous or not, we never really know when we tell our story, whose life we may change.

So, if you haven’t read it yet, hop over to Amazon.

To continue to the next leg of this book tour, please visit the main list at Write Mind Open Heart.

11 comments:

Lori Lavender Luz said...

May I travel to all those places with you? We could put Tessa to good use wrangling Sunshine :-)

I hope that iPad comes your way!

You're right about the ALI community, but I disagree with you about your writing abilities.

Great answers, Dora!

Magpie said...

I so liked her book too.

Barb said...

Great answer to your second question. And I so love that your story inspired others! How cool is that?!? (How cool is your story to begin with?) I think I'll be reading more. :)

Kathy said...

Here for the first time with the book tour! I really like the picture the picture on your header!

I am glad that you enjoyed Life from Scratch so much! So did I!

I hope you get to spend a year traveling like that someday! It sounds wonderful!

I got a different list of question than you (I am posting tomorrow) and so appreciated getting to see the book in a different light from the questions you chose and your answers. You are the only person I have read so far you chose the 2nd question you answered, so I found that especially interesting.

I LOVE that you mentioned the "Sock it To Me" exchange that Kym started. I participated in the first one she did and had so much fun with it! I think it was almost two years ago now, as I recall posting a picture of me wearing my socks on my 2nd Blogoversary and my 4th is coming up in April! My socks came at a critical time during one of my pregnancies and I wore them to an important Dr. appt. and felt like they brought me a lot of good luck and positive vibes.

I also liked what you shared in the last question about the connections you have made through blogging, even unexpected ones and how you have been able to help others through your experience. That's awesome.

Thanks again for sharing! :)

Baby Smiling In Back Seat said...

I can attest that Tessa is good with babies Sunshine's age.

It is so awesome that other people have ended up donating/receiving embryos because of you. I've heard many people in blogs and in person struggle with the fate of their "extra" embryos (not a problem I had, but I know that some people do actually end up with multiple viable embryos).

The NYC stuff felt authentic to me as a repeat visitor, but good to hear that it felt authentic to a lifelong New Yorker.

Hooray for almost being done with your move!

Kristin said...

Great review. I loved the book and I loved all the things it made me think about.

Anonymous said...

I love Melissa's blog!! And yours too! Blogging in general gives me place to vent and a place to read about others experiences and know I am not alone in this world!!
And thank you for all your great comments/advice! I am sure when this little enters the world, I'll have more questions for you and Sunshine!!
Bethany

Kir said...

HI there,
you answered a question I hadn't seen yet, the one about how the blog itself is a character and I loved how you told us about it. I worried that some of the friends i shared this book with would not "get it" either, but then it helped them come find my blog and understand that commmunity i belong to. I think that in today's world, anything computer related is RELATABLE.

and I loved how you explained HOW you would travel. Seeing it through Sunshine's eyes. I got all weepy.

now go UNPACK. :) Hoping in the next few weeks I'll get to see you and the new place!!!!! I'll be in touch.

Anonymous said...

Here from the book tour and I really enjoyed reading your take on the book. I got chills when I read that you found your donor embryos through a woman who read LFCA. Melissa has really done so much good for the ALI community.

I look forward to following your story and I hope you get to do all the traveling you want, and get your iPad :)

Lollipop Goldstein said...

I so want to take a year and travel too...

Arianna would not exist without all of the incredible SMBC I met in the ALI blogosphere. She is an amalgamation of all of you. I hope I have infused her with your incredible strength (and by the way, she's back in a big way for the second book).

Thank you so much for doing this.

loribeth said...

Great answers! I love hearing about how blogging has changed your life. Some amazing stories there!!