Some people claim they'd like to walk away from their lives -- Shelley A. Leedahl had the nerve to do it. Was it selfishness, or self-preservation?
Drawing upon childhood memories, hikes, road trips, foreign travel, her self-imposed exile to a prairie village, fortuitous meetings with strangers, and her compulsion for starting over, again and again, Leedahl has crafted a provocative and candid collection of essays that explore the implicit complexities and contradictions when personal and professional lives both complement and clash. Can a writer be a good mother when her calling requires her to be away -- sometimes countries away -- from her school-aged children? And why are some people more themselves with strangers in foreign lands than with their own kith and kin? Along the way, parental dilemmas, relationship breakdowns, new love, and emotional chaos make their presence felt in this engaging work. The interior life of a writer dedicated to her craft is revealed for what it is -- joyous and forlorn, singular and relatable.
About the Author: Multi-genre writer Shelley A. Leedahl assuredly shifts her creative focus between critically acclaimed books of poetry, short fiction, novels, and children's literature. With I Wasn't Always Like This the seasoned writer now adds creative non-fiction to her literary repertoire. Her numerous titles include Wretched Beast, Listen, Honey, Orchestra of the Lost Steps, The Bone Talker (with illustrator Bill Slavin), The House of the Easily Amused and A Few Words For January. Leedahl's work has appeared in anthologies ranging from The Best Canadian Poetry in English, 2013 to Great Canadian Murder and Mystery Stories, Slice Me Some Truth: An Anthology of Canadian Creative Nonfiction, Country Roads: Memoirs from Rural Canada, and Outside of Ordinary: Women's Travel Stories. Born and raised in Saskatchewan, Leedahl now makes her home in Ladysmith, BC. Aside from literary writing, she also works as a freelancer, editor, and writing instructor.
