#AUTHOR DIARIES IS PLEASED TO WELCOME Kristin Seborg, GRAVITY IMPRINT AUTHOR of The Sacred Disease.
What is your book’s genre/category?
My book is a memoir. More specifically, a medical memoir.
Please describe what the story/book is about.
The Sacred Disease is about my journey learning to live with seizures and epilepsy at the same time that I studied to become a physician and during my early years as a mother.
NOW FOR THE JUICY, FUN PART ~ DISCOVERING MORE ABOUT WHAT MAKES YOU, THE AUTHOR TICK.
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Living in the moment with nothing to worry about and no tasks to complete. In my “perfect” happiness world, I would be surrounded by nature and my children.
What is your greatest fear?
My greatest fear is that my epilepsy and recurrent small seizures will lead to early onset cognitive changes and/or memory loss.
What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
I like to call it “realism,” but I tend to see the negative side of things. My husband is an eternal optimist so he nicely balances this tendency of mine
What is the trait you most deplore in others?
I have limited patience for laziness or an attitude of victimization. The best way to change things and change your life is to rouse and do something about it!
Which living person do you most admire?
I most admire people who succeed and excel despite adversity. Specifically Helen Keller (OK, she’s dead!) professional surfer Bethany Hamilton and all of the Gravity Imprint authors!
What is your current state of mind?
I am grateful, excited, and nervous. Grateful to Gravity and Booktrope for giving me the opportunity to share my store and raise awareness about epilepsy, excited that I no longer have to pretend that I am silently struggling and nervous because I have “spilled my guts” on paper in my book! I am more vulnerable than ever but hope that my words and story will help others with chronic illness.
On what occasion do you lie?
Friend/coworker: “How are you?”
Me: “Great!”
It’s often easiest to tell a half truth instead of the whole story.
Which living person do you most despise?
Currently? Donald Trump and Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker. They are politicizing fear and exclusionism and motivating voters to follow them by creating a culture of anxiety and unease
Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
“That’s a good question”
“Absolutely”
“I get it”
“like. . . “
What or who is the greatest love of your life?
My husband, Andrew, and our three fantastic children, Alex, Will, and Kalli
When and where were you happiest?
College at the University of Wisconsin. Endless promise and anticipation for the future, great friends, and no pressure beyond the need to study for exams. Adulthood with a mortgage, jobs, and children is a little more stressful!
Which talent would you most like to have?
I’d love to be a little more artistic. I admire art and admire people that can draw and paint but I have no innate artistic ability. I do my best “painting” with words.
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Can I say three things?
My medical degree (lots of blood, sweat, and tears!)
My children
My book
Where would you most like to live?
Someplace warm with natural beauty and not overcrowded. Oahu, Hawaii would be wonderful.
What do you most value in your friends?
Honesty and selflessness. My closest friends will both tell me if my hair looks terrible and take time out of their day to help me fix it!
Where can we find your book?
The Sacred Disease is available on Amazon.
Kristin is a practicing pediatrician in Madison, Wisconsin, where she lives with her husband and three children. An advocate for epilepsy awareness, Kristin hopes that writing about her disease will help decrease the stigma associated with seizures.
You can find Kristin at www.kristinseaborg.com, at www.oneintwentysix.com, on Facebook at Kristin Seaborg MD, Author, and on Twitter @KristinSeaborg. 100% of author royalties from the sale of this book will be donated to CURE. Learn more about CURE’s mission at www.cureepilepsy.org
Thank you, Kristin for sharing your courageous journey, spreading Epilepsy Awareness, and Advocacy. I hope that your love of nature, family, serenity and a seizure-free life always find you.
Wishing you continued success with life, your writerly pursuits and poignant memoir, THE SACRED DISEASE.
ABOUT JACQUELINE CIOFFA
Jacqueline Cioffa was an international model for 17 years and celebrity makeup artist. She is a dog lover, crystal collector and Stone Crab enthusiast. Her work has been featured in the anthologies, Brainstorms, Feminine Collective’s Raw & Unfiltered Vol. 1, and numerous literary magazines. Living with manic depression, Jacqueline is an advocate for mental health awareness. Her poignant, literary fiction debut, The Vast Landscape, gives new meaning to intense, raw and heartfelt. Fans of the emotional, soul stirring first novel will not be able to put the exciting sequel, Georgia Pine, down.
“The essence continues because you do. Harrison leaves the door open a crack. I seize the opportunity to revisit my whole, healthy self a bit longer, live in the mystic beach home I adore, dream eyes open. Hope is our greatest asset. To choose hope against the worst possible odds is the true measure of life.” ~ Georgia Pine by Jacqueline Cioffa
Look for her column, “Bleeding Ink” with Feminine Collective.
The Infamous Proust Questionnaire
In the 1880s, long before he claimed his status as one of the greatest authors of all time, teenage Marcel Proust (July 10, 1871–November 18, 1922) filled out an English-language questionnaire given to him by his friend Antoinette, the daughter of France’s then-president, as part of her “confession album” — a Victorian version of today’s popular personality tests, designed to reveal the answerer’s tastes, aspirations, and sensibility in a series of simple questions. Proust’s original manuscript, titled “by Marcel Proust himself,” wasn’t discovered until 1924, two years after his death. Decades later, the French television host Bernard Pivot, whose work inspired James Lipton’s Inside the Actor’s Studio, saw in the questionnaire an excellent lubricant for his interviews and began administering it to his guests in the 1970s and 1980s. In 1993, Vanity Fair resurrected the tradition and started publishing various public figures’ answers to the Proust Questionnaire on the last page of each issue.
Comments