He Said Books Or Me: Guest Post with Ivette Garcia Davila

Hi Everyone!

I am excited to be here today to bring you a guest post from Ivette Garcia Davila.

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I remember the day I fell in love with writing. Well, I was in love with it already, but the day I found out “we” were meant to be. I was in the second grade and I had to write a paper on my favorite thing.

I remember the yellow #2 dancing across a blue page, my little self trying to think of ways to describe my obsession with that cold, creamy, gooey ball of goodness that always leaked through the precipice at the end of the sugar cone and left me with sticky fingers, no matter how fast I tried to suck it all up. As I wrote, I wondered ‘if this is homework, how come it feels so good?’ Imagine my delight when my paper on ice cream was chosen to be displayed on the school’s bulletin board.

I recall standing in front of my essay, crucified with thumbtacks and protected by a sliding plexiglass door. I was quite proud in spite of the one typo the teacher caught (which still bugs me to this day). In composing that essay, I had found the writer’s high and I’ve been chasing it ever since.

Much later (and after spending most of my teenage years writing bad poetry), I went to college and earned a Bachelor’s in Creative Writing and a Master’s in Film. I then moved to Los Angeles where I started writing screenplays instead of short stories and at some point, moved to the Philippines to teach screenwriting. I thought I’d found my jam. I loved writing scripts. Then, I got pregnant. And then, I had my baby.

Some moms suffer from postpartum depression. My baby gave me something far more menacing to me (cue in sinister music): writer’s block. I couldn’t come up with any fictitious ideas or characters. Every time I found the time to hit the keyboard, I could only think of my current life as a mom to a nursing newborn. My hands were all wrapped up in making swaddles for my infinitely beloved daughter. My brain was stuck somewhere between the weird limbo sleepless nights and the never ending breastfeeding (Why did no one tell me how much it would suck?!). My intellect was occupied with constantly second-guessing my maternal abilities to raise a child.

This “performance” anxiety led me to start re-reading notes and links I had collected during my pregnancy in the hopes of preparing myself for what was to come. I did more googling to find cures to current afflictions which led me to cross reference the heck out of everything. Always the nerd, I jotted my thoughts and findings. I also bought books to help me deal with my new responsibilities but none felt like they spoke to me, or if they did, they felt devoid of facts. I wanted to learn so much about motherhood, but also have a good time while doing so.

Something clicked. I thought, maybe, just maybe, I could write the book I would’ve liked to read before I had my baby. And so I begun to shape those jumbled tidbits into coherent paragraphs that started to breed into pages and pages. I couldn’t stop — I was getting high! In fact, I started to get my fix every morning while my little girl napped from 4:30 - 8:30am. People say: ‘sleep when she sleeps’. I say, ‘write when she naps’.

In three months, I had a very rough draft. I spent the next three years flushing it out, re-writing, editing, re-writing, reading, finding more topics I had to add to the book, re-arranging them, researching to make sure I had all the facts straight, and then re-writing some more. I was tweaking till I was told I could tweak no more.

My second baby, “I’m The One Pushing: A Practical and Renegade Guide to Choosing Your Own Motherhood Adventure,” was born past its due date, but thankfully before my (real) baby boy is born in October. We’ll see what writing he inspires. But till then, I’m happy to report I still love ice cream as much as ever.

LINKS:

buy book on Amazon:

http://tinyurl.com/y7ub7ujn

Buy book on Nook:

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/im-the-one-pushing-ivette-garcia-davila/1126961853?ean=9780999013816

Buy on Kobo:

https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/i-m-the-one-pushing

link to buy book via create space

https://www.createspace.com/7273080

youtube book trailer

https://youtu.be/gafEq_yzd70

follow author on amazon