My Books
Here’s what my memoir, I AM – My Journey To A Creative Life, is about:
After surviving five cardiac arrests in one night following a minor accident, I vow to ditch my career and live the rest of my one and only precious life writing fiction, making photographs, and creating art.
Wanting to make sense of my decades-long frustrating quest for an artistic life and discover how creative work became my salvation, I search my memory cache and sift through five decades of personal journals. Delving deep into my psyche brings to light my attempts to break free and follow my bliss.
On this voyage of self-discovery, I learn how my relentless pursuit of career success and making money, of doing and achieving, repeatedly eclipsed my cherished creative dreams. Along the way, I explore the source of my ambition, my chronic anxieties, and my habitual coping mechanisms.
In my memoir I share my thought processes and struggles to become an artist. I reveal the rollercoaster highs and lows, the joys and fears, the successes and failures that represent my life as a passionate, restless, constantly re-evaluating artist.
I AM – My Journey To A Creative Life, illustrated with full-color images of my art, is available from Amazon as a printed paperback and hardcover book and as a Kindle eBook. The eBook is also available from Smashwords.
Clutter and hoarding, creativity and the artist, and death and dying come together in my dystopian novel, The Naked Law. It’s available from Amazon as a paperback and as a Kindle eBook. The eBook is also available from Smashwords. Here’s a short description on what it’s about:
Before you die, you must divest yourself of all your worldly goods. That is The Naked Law of a new world order. But if you keep telling stories, or if you keep making art, you may just delay the Final Reckoning.
“The Naked Law” opens with the launch of a blog that shares stories about life after The Final Catastrophe. You will hear from a chorus of voices including Sheri, a collector who is preparing for her day in court to argue against the Essential Goods Inventory form; Laszlo the Fixer, an old-world rebel who helped rebuild society after The Great Resolve; and Amy Anderson, author of the Clutter-Buster’s blog. You will also encounter Lena Lorca, an artist struggling with creativity and death in a brave new world.
Themes of fractured dreams, poignant memories, and loneliness unite the fourteen short stories in “Open Wounds, Secret Obsessions”. My collection of short stories is available as a paperback and as a Kindle eBook from Amazon. The eBook is also available from Smashwords. Here’s a short description of what it’s about:
In this debut collection, you’ll meet a variety of eccentric characters including a young traveller who is duped by a charismatic thief in Rome, a woman who obsessively attends strangers’ weddings, a son who gets to really know his father only after he has died, and a woman whose mother’s puzzling disappearance has tainted her life.
In each of the stories, a deceptively smooth surface cracks open to reveal ogres and monsters below. The characters mysteriously pass from normalcy into serious obsession, if not madness, with the reader never quite able to say when this happens.
The stories show young people providing perceptive insight far beyond their years, while older ones often appear naïve. Many of the characters are broken, badly hurt by life and by the passage of time.
Background
Linda honed her creative writing over the course of a successful career as a writer, editor and communications consultant. She has an Hons BA in English from McMaster University. Mentored by the late Paul Quarrington, she earned a Certificate in Creative Writing from The Humber School for Writers. Linda also took part in a workshop with Isabel Huggan at The Humber School for Writers.
27 comments on “My Books”
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Linda Joyce Ott
Linda makes conceptual and abstract paintings, collages, photos and 3D boxes. Her studio is in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada - halfway between Niagara Falls and Toronto. Check out her website at www.lindajoyceott.com
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The Optimism of Color 
Love your idea! Congratulations on surviving. I’ve never had an NDE but I’m a color person too! I moved into the brownest of brown basements and immediately painted all the walls the most beautiful shade of yellow I could find. Color can heal you.
Wow. Surviving five cardiac arrests is amazing. Good for you. Beautiful blog.
Because I love your pictures, I nominated your blog for the ABC Award: http://thenorthwardroute.wordpress.com/2012/04/25/awards/. Have a nice day, and please keep posting your beautiful pictures 🙂
Jennifer
Thank you so much for the nomination and your kind comments. Cheers, Linda
Hi Maša!I used to check your flickr aoncuct where you upload your awesome shots!I truly think that you are an amazing artist with have such a good talent!keep doing what you really enjoy cause it’s a really pleasure to see it!Congrats,RoDoLfO
lovely photos!
As a Newbie, I am continuously exploring online for articles that can benefit me. Thank you
you inspire me, thanks.http://www.acertemail.com
What an incredible journey you have travelled Linda~ Bless you always and can’t express how happy I am for you finding complete passion in your art as a celebration of surviving such adversity. The Optimism of Color is a very perfect name for your blog — can’t wait to explore more soon… Much Love, Blessings, Health and Peace always, Robyn
Thank you for your feedback Robyn. Like you I was pretty happy with my life and where it was going before my accident. I couldn’t believe that on the cusp of finally carving out more time to more fully explore my creative destiny, in painting, photography and writing, I hit the abyss. But that’s part of “the full catastrophe of life” for everyone, isn’t it? To be sure I have my “why me?” and “what if” moments and I’m often scared but but I also love the adventure, and surprises, of each day. And my blog has been really cathartic and fulfilling for me in more ways than I could have imagined. Love, Linda
Wow…congratulations on surviving not one, but five, cardiac arrests. Such strength and deep health to do so and what a wonderful way to celebrate your life. I love your blog’s title as well. You may be interested in reading my essay on touching death twice. It’s on the elizabethweaver.wp blog and titled “This Edge of Sea.” Thank you for creating this blog, your art and for visiting mine. All blessings….
Hi Elizabeth:
I just read your awesome story and am deeply moved! You and I are both incredibly blessed, aren’t we? I have written some of my experience and find it very difficult and incredibly draining to go there. Yet I feel it’s important too. Yours in the struggle, Linda
Wonderful blog! I can connect with you on the healing effects of making art : )
Thanks for stopping by my blog and liking my art.
Thank you Tahir for your kind comment about my blog. I appreciate the feedback. And the pleasure is all mine for discovering your blog and your beautiful art. Cheers, Linda
Very inspiring. Excellent premise for this project. I want to see more. I’m going to enjoy trawling through the posts.
Thank you for your feedback and for visiting my blog. I hope you enjoy trawling through my posts as much as I did trawling through my photo and art files to find the images for posting. Cheers, Linda
According to Jamie’s Blog:
1. Share one random thing about yourself; and
2. nominate 5 other blogs for this award.
The easiest one I come across so far.
I leave a comment when I appreciate a article on a blog or I have something to add
to the discussion. Usually it’s a result of the fire communicated in the article I read. And on this post About | The Optimism of Color. I was excited enough to leave a commenta response 😛 I actually do have a couple of questions for you if you usually do not mind. Could it be only me or does it seem like a few of these remarks look like they are left by brain dead individuals? 😛 And, if you are posting on other online social sites, I’d
like to keep up with anything new you have to post.
Could you make a list all of all your public pages like
your linkedin profile, Facebook page or twitter feed?
Good to read that you survived! ♥ Enjoy life and keep up the good work. I’ll be back for more; I’m your new follower.:-)
Greetings from the Far North
Dina
Hi! I really enjoy your blog and wanted to share that I nominated you for “The WordPress Family Award”, you can find the criteria to accept here: http://sabrinacarvalho.wordpress.com/2013/08/13/the-wordpress-family-award/ if you would like to accept. Congrats!
Hey Linda!!! Thank you for visiting Keep Picturing and of course for likes. I found your paintings really wonderful. Recently I have been learning how to understand an art piece so it wonderful to visit optimism of color…Nice to meet you. See you soon. Have a good day..:)
Hey Linda !!! Time to share it with you now 🙂 I’ve nominated you for the One Lovely Blog Award, if you haven’t received it before, or if you even receive awards; either way your a great read and a good soul… so here is your award and yes they have rules if you follow! 😛 on Keep Pictuiring ….
http://keeppicturing.wordpress.com/2014/09/16/two-lovely-blog-awards/
Great work-well done
Hi Linda, thank you for visiting my blog. So glad it led me to yours. You take incredible photos and I’m looking forward to more! 🙂 – Faye
https://wordpress.com/post/free13644.wordpress.com/3671#
Hi Linda and Congratulations! You have been nominated for the Sunshine Blogger Award! Please see the above link for more details! Enjoy your work!
Behold is an dazzlingcontribution in place of you. http://leslinkrumlong.tk/ylp5q
There is a frailoffers in place of you. http://poortumbskydag.tk/siva