04 Thursday May 2017
Posted in art, book, dementia, Fractured Memories, gratitude, interview, Uncategorized
Tags
art, author Emily Page, author interview, book review, dementia, Emily Page Art, Emily Page author, Emily Page book, find new authors, Fractured Memories, interview, Raleigh artist, Raleigh author
The IndieView just posted an interview with me about my book, Fractured Memories: Because Demented People Need Love, Too. Head on over and check it out! Then browse the rest of their site for other great author interviews.
01 Monday May 2017
Posted in death, dementia, family, Fractured Memories, gratitude, mental health, Uncategorized
Tags
caregiver, dementia, dementia care, family fun, fly a kite, love
Facebook reminded me recently about taking my dad out to fly a kite. So this is just a reminder for anyone else going through the caregiving experience. Dedicate some time for fun with the person you’re caring for. It can’t all be about the daily caregiving grind. You need to find a way to enjoy the person and remember why you love them enough to care for them in the first place.
For the year that we all lived together, we made Sundays a day to go out and do something fun as a family. So if it was a nice day, we flew a kite or went to a playground. If it wasn’t, we went bowling or out to dinner. Look for ways to rejuvenate yourselves and your love for each other. Get chair massages. Go out for ice cream. Have a picnic in your living room. Watch kids playing at a playground. Enjoy your favorite movie together.
And take pictures. I promise you that you’ll be so grateful later to see pictures of the person you love smiling.
The memories you build on those days will be a comfort once your caregiving experience is over.
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Thanks so much for reading my ridiculous thoughts! If you’d like to see my ridiculous thoughts translated into art, visit my website, or follow me on Facebook and Twitter. Know a caregiver, or someone with dementia, or someone who knows someone with dementia, or someone who knows someone who knows someone else who’s a caregiver? Or heck, do you know a person? Well, you should tell them about my book, Fractured Memories: Because Demented People Need Love, Too. Part memoir and part coffee table art book, I recount my family’s heartbreaking and hilarious journey through my father’s dementia. Available to purchase here (this is my favorite way if you live in the U.S.), here or here if you’d rather get the eBook than a print copy, and here (especially if you want a hard cover copy).
26 Wednesday Apr 2017
Tags
art with children, art with kids, dream come true, entertaining children, entertaining kids, makeup tips, making dreams come true, mower, mowing, Oprah, painting with kids, seeing the world through the eyes of children, tractor, tractor rides, wonder
I’m a dream-maker. My closest childhood friend brought her kids down for a visit at the beginning of this week, and it was a nonstop party, y’all.
T, the six year old, loooooooves art. I’m firmly convinced that I’m secretly her biological mother (I’m pretty forgetful, so it’s possible I birthed her and just don’t remember it). We had a blast coloring and painting and making messes all over the place. Several articles of clothing were sacrificed to the Art Gods in our efforts to fulfill her art-y dreams.
C, the four year old, not surprisingly, loves all manor of vehicles and heavy machinery. Luckily, we just happen to have two riding mowers and a tractor. Despite getting at least twelve inches of rain the first two days they were here, the skies cleared enough for us to head out to the haunt to see the equipment. C’s face when he saw the tractor and then honked its horn was hilarious. And then when he got to drive it? Utter joy. Dreams coming true all over the place! And S was awfully cute showing them how to work the bucket and stear. It was clear he was having as much fun as they were.
I feel a little like a fairy godmother or Oprah or something. YOU get a dream! YOU get a dream! YOU get a dream! I love kids at these ages because they still think I’m cool and everything I do is new and amazing. It’s so much fun watching the world through their eyes. You should have seen how fascinated they were when I let them watch me taking my contact lenses out, for heavensake. The most mundane things are magical to them. It’s a good reminder to look for the wonder in the world around us.
They packed up and left this morning. The cats are relieved to have their house back. I’m totally exhausted, but it was totally worth it. Now I’m off to wash my face a few dozen more times and pull the thousands of hair clips out of my hair.
If anyone has a fancy event they need hair and make-up done for, I know two little humans who would gladly help.
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Thanks so much for reading my ridiculous thoughts! If you’d like to see my ridiculous thoughts translated into art, visit my website, or follow me on Facebook and Twitter. Know a caregiver, or someone with dementia, or someone who knows someone with dementia, or someone who knows someone who knows someone else who’s a caregiver? Or heck, do you know a person? Well, you should tell them about my book, Fractured Memories: Because Demented People Need Love, Too. Part memoir and part coffee table art book, I recount my family’s heartbreaking and hilarious journey through my father’s dementia. Available to purchase here (this is my favorite way if you live in the U.S.), here or here if you’d rather get the eBook than a print copy, and here (especially if you want a hard cover copy).
10 Monday Apr 2017
Posted in art, blog, book, death, dementia, Fractured Memories, gratitude, interview, Uncategorized
Tags
art about dementia, artist interview, author interview, book about dementia, Connecting Caregivers, Emily Page artist, Emily Page author, Fractured Memories, Linda Burhans, radio show about caregiving, radio show about dementia
Hey boys and girls,
Saturday’s radio show with Linda Burhans was a blast. It’ll be archived on her website soon, but if you missed it and just can’t wait, visit The Choice Radio Network’s Facebook page and scroll down to April 8th at 12:01pm. The show is broken up into 2 parts, and focuses more on my book in the 2nd part. Hopefully I’ll be able to give you a link to the complete show in one piece soon.
In the mean time, Joy Johnston, over at the Memories Project wrote a fantastic review of the Fractured Memories. So head over and give her site a little love!
Happy Monday! Now go out and kick a little ass!
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Thanks so much for reading my ridiculous thoughts! If you’d like to see my ridiculous thoughts translated into art, visit my website, or follow me on Facebook and Twitter. Know a caregiver, or someone with dementia, or someone who knows someone with dementia, or someone who knows someone who knows someone else who’s a caregiver? Or heck, do you know a person? Well, you should tell them about my book, Fractured Memories: Because Demented People Need Love, Too. Part memoir and part coffee table art book, I recount my family’s heartbreaking and hilarious journey through my father’s dementia. Available to purchase here (this is my favorite way if you live in the U.S.), here or here if you’d rather get the eBook than a print copy, and here (especially if you want a hard cover copy).
05 Wednesday Apr 2017
Posted in art, gratitude, kindness, mental health, painting, Uncategorized
Tags
art, artist, choose joy, cultivating happiness, happiness, inspiration, inspirational quote, inspirational saying, inspiring art, inspiring painting, life is beautiful, love, painter, painting, self worth
Just a gentle reminder for anyone feeling a little blah about themselves, or life, or how “themselves” are doing life:
Prints, greeting cards, and other fun merchandise available here.
30 Thursday Mar 2017
Tags
Author Offering, blogging, Emily Page Art, Emily Page author, find new authors, Fractured Memories, inspiration, marketing, self publish, self-publishing, writers
As I dive into the world of promoting my own book, I’m discovering tons of other authors who are in the midst of the same insanity. Like with my art, the writing was the easy part. The promotion? That’s definitely the hard part. In an effort to help other writers who could use a little bump in sales, I’m going to start periodically sharing links to their blogs (so you can get a feel for their writing) as well as a link to their books in case you’re interested in supporting an indie author.
Here’s a wrap-up of the ones I’ve found recently:
April Munday’s blog https://aprilmunday.wordpress.com/ and book The Heart That Lies
Phil Taylor’s blog https://thephilfactor.com/ and books https://www.amazon.com/Phil-Taylor/e/B00AC8PM8A/ref=dp_byline_cont_pop_book_1
Shelley Wilson’s blog http://www.shelleywilsonauthor.co.uk/ and book How I Changed My Life In a Year
Colleen Chesebro’s blog https://colleenchesebro.com/ and book The Heart Stone Chronicles: The Swamp Fairy
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Thanks so much for reading my ridiculous thoughts! If you’d like to see my ridiculous thoughts translated into art, visit my website, or follow me on Facebook and Twitter. Know a caregiver, or someone with dementia, or someone who knows someone with dementia, or someone who knows someone who knows someone else who’s a caregiver? Or heck, do you know a person? Well, you should tell them about my book, Fractured Memories: Because Demented People Need Love, Too. Part memoir and part coffee table art book, I recount my family’s heartbreaking and hilarious journey through my father’s dementia. Available to purchase here (this is my favorite way if you live in the U.S.), here or here if you’d rather get the eBook than a print copy, and here (especially if you want a hard cover copy).
21 Tuesday Mar 2017
Tags
Alzheimer's, alzheimer's book, author, book, book about FLD, book about frontotemporal dementia, book about FTD, dementia, dementia book, Emily Page, Emily Page Art, Emily Page author, FLD, Fractured Memories, frontal lobe dementia, frontotemporal dementia, FTD, FTD book, librarians, library
It’s official! I shipped out over 200 copies of Fractured Memories today. It was a little bit of a fiasco at the post office, but after about an hour, everything was out of our hands and safely in the hands of the awesome postal workers. I had mixed emotions sending them off. It was kind of like kicking my babies out of the nest for them to fly on their own. Part of me wanted to keep them safe at home and part of me wanted to get all those boxes the hell out of my living room. By sending them out, I open myself up to critique, and I suck at handling criticism, even when it’s well-intended. I know bad reviews will come. Not everyone will like it, but all I can do now is cross my fingers and hope that a majority will. And maybe some of those people will like it enough that they’ll tell other people about it. Hint, hint. Like, maybe people will post it on their social media or have their book group read it or…
If you haven’t ordered it because you’re short on cash, consider requesting it from your local library. And ask your friends to request it, too. If librarians get enough requests, they’ll procure copies for their library. If you have ordered it because you’re not short on cash, first of all, congratulations on all the money! Second, consider requesting it from your local library anyway! Then, when you pick it up, thank them profusely and threaten to stuff them full of cookies until they’re sick if they don’t read it themselves. In other words, harass them, but be really nice about it. Librarians can really drive book sales. If they find a great book, they tell each other and recommend it to readers. Maybe tell them if they recommend it to people, a unicorn will visit them in the middle of the night and leave presents and money like Santa and the Tooth Fairy. Or maybe don’t say that because we don’t want them to know how cray-cray you really are. Rein that shit in, people.
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Thanks so much for reading my ridiculous thoughts! If you’d like to see my ridiculous thoughts translated into art, visit my website, or follow me on Facebook and Twitter. Know a caregiver, or someone with dementia, or someone who knows someone with dementia, or someone who knows someone who knows someone else who’s a caregiver? Or heck, do you know a person? Well, you should tell them about my book, Fractured Memories: Because Demented People Need Love, Too. Part memoir and part coffee table art book, I recount my family’s heartbreaking and hilarious journey through my father’s dementia. Available to purchase here (this is my favorite way if you live in the U.S.), here or here if you’d rather get the eBook than a print copy, and here (especially if you want a hard cover copy).
15 Wednesday Mar 2017
Tags
Alzheimer's, Beyonce, book, book campaign, book promotion, book review, Christmas day, dementia, dementia care, Emily Page, Emily Page Art, Emily Page author, FLD, Fractured Memories, frontal lobe dementia, frontotemporal dementia, FTD, Gideon's bible, marketing, Monet, promoting, publish my book, signature
My first order of books arrived today!! So now my living room looks like this:
As I start to empty the boxes, the cats are becoming ecstatic. They’re convinced it’s Christmas day. So. Many. Boxes. They keep hopping from one to the next.
I’ll be spending the next couple days signing books and preparing to ship out all of the pre-ordered ones. It’s a daunting but exciting task. Especially because I don’t really have a “signature” yet. I mean, I don’t want to sign the way I’d sign a document. My signature on paintings takes too long. So now I have to come up with a new one. Perhaps I should just sign them all with Monet’s signature. That’s legal, right? Think it’d boost my sales? Or maybe I should sign them with Beyonce’s signature – Beyonce the singer, not Beyonce the giant metal chicken (that’s just chicken scratch).
Seriously though. I just got my second review – again from someone I don’t even know. For some reason not knowing them makes me even more giddy because they’re not obligated to say nice things about me. I might have to change my name to Giddy-on. And we can all refer to Fractured Memories as Giddy-on’s Bible. We can put one in every hotel room! Thank you to Book Nation by Jen for a fantastic review. It’s so generous! Click here to read it, then take some time to read some other reviews on her site and maybe find more great books to pick up!
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Thanks so much for reading my ridiculous thoughts! If you’d like to see my ridiculous thoughts translated into art, visit my website, or follow me on Facebook and Twitter. Know a caregiver, or someone with dementia, or someone who knows someone with dementia, or someone who knows someone who knows someone else who’s a caregiver? Or heck, do you know a person? Well, you should tell them about my book, Fractured Memories: Because Demented People Need Love, Too. Part memoir and part coffee table art book, I recount my family’s heartbreaking and hilarious journey through my father’s dementia. Available to purchase here (this is my favorite way if you live in the U.S.), here or here if you’d rather get the eBook than a print copy, and here (especially if you want a hard cover copy).
12 Sunday Mar 2017
Tags
Alzheimer's, author talk, blogging, book signing, dementia, Emily Page, Emily Page Art, Fractured Memories, frontal lobe dementia, frontotemporal dementia, inspiration, Jenny Lawson, Quail Ridge Books, The Bloggess, You Are Here
So, this happened.
Yes, that’s The Bloggess, Jenny Lawson, hugging my book and pretending that she wouldn’t rather be barricaded in a pillow fort surrounded by furry woodland creatures. She is now my new best friend, by which I mean that I have met her and gotten her signature and forced my book upon her. If you’ve been hiding in your own fort and somehow don’t know about her, stop everything you’re doing and go start reading her blog immediately: The Bloggess, and then buy all 3 of her books. And then buy my book. I mean, Jenny Lawson is hugging it, which means that, even though she hasn’t read it, she totally loves it and thinks you will, too.
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Thanks so much for reading my ridiculous thoughts! If you’d like to see my ridiculous thoughts translated into art, visit my website, or follow me on Facebook and Twitter. Know a caregiver, or someone with dementia, or someone who knows someone with dementia, or someone who knows someone who knows someone else who’s a caregiver? Or heck, do you know a person? Well, you should tell them about my book, Fractured Memories: Because Demented People Need Love, Too. Part memoir and part coffee table art book, I recount my family’s heartbreaking and hilarious journey through my father’s dementia. Available to purchase here (this is my favorite way if you live in the U.S.), here or here if you’d rather get the eBook than a print copy, and here (especially if you want a hard cover copy).
09 Thursday Mar 2017
Posted in death, dementia, family, Fractured Memories, gratitude, music, singing, Uncategorized
I was going through old files on my computer, and stumbled across this. I had forgotten all about it. It’s one of only a couple recordings my dad and I made together (Dad on sax, me on vocals). I don’t know why we waited until after he had been diagnosed with dementia to sit down and record some music together. We had performed together with his band, The Red Hot Smoothies, a couple times, but we never took it seriously. I guess we always figured there’d be time for that in the future. Plus, as much as I do love it, I’m kind of shy when it comes to singing in front of people. And I looked up to my dad and I think I was always just a little bit afraid that my talent wouldn’t be quite good enough to merit performing with him. That was all me, not him. I know he would have been thrilled if I’d asked earlier. Regrets, y’all. Anyway, blame it on my youth. (be patient, it takes a couple seconds to start)
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Thanks so much for reading my ridiculous thoughts! If you’d like to see my ridiculous thoughts translated into art, visit my website, or follow me on Facebook and Twitter. Know a caregiver, or someone with dementia, or someone who knows someone with dementia, or someone who knows someone who knows someone else who’s a caregiver? Or heck, do you know a person? Well, you should tell them about my book, Fractured Memories: Because Demented People Need Love, Too. Part memoir and part coffee table art book, I recount my family’s heartbreaking and hilarious journey through my father’s dementia. Available to purchase here (this is my favorite way if you live in the U.S.), here or here if you’d rather get the eBook than a print copy, and here (especially if you want a hard cover copy).
