Straight Chatting from the Library: Jackie M. Stebbins

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Jackie M. Stebbins will be awarding a custom #StebbinsStrong t-shirt (US only) to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

READ THE INTERVIEW

What is the favorite book you remember as a child?

One of my fondest memories is of my mom sitting outside with my older brother and I on a summer evening and reading The Wind In The Willows to us. And I loved all of my Berenstain Bears books, until I began reading my Hardy Boys chapter books.

Tell us about your current book in 10 words.

Unwillable: A brain disease shattered me, but I survived and rebuilt.

What are you reading right now?

I’m always reading at least two books. I have a morning and evening book. My current morning book is Easy Beauty by Chloé Cooper Jones, a memoir plus, and my evening book is My Stroke of Insight, a memoir by Jill Bolte Taylor.

Do you have any bad book habits?

The worst habit I have is carrying books with me in various purses or bags when I’m on the go. Growing up, my mother demanded that her books be kept in pristine condition and that stuck with me. It was only a few years ago that I allowed myself to maybe underline a passage or a dog-ear a page.

When do you do most of your reading?

I love to read first thing in the morning when I get out of bed. I pray my devotional, then I spend an hour reading my book with a hot cup of coffee before my kids need me to help them get to school. And closing my evening book is the last thing I do right before I shut my eyes to sleep for the night.

Favorite place to read?

I do most of my reading in my home office, in a beautiful, brown leather chair with an ottoman that sits by the window. Since getting sick with autoimmune encephalitis and having my life repeatedly disrupted, I often sit in that chair reading, writing, and looking out the window.

Favorite genre?

Memoir. I believe we learn so much in life from the stories of others. And in the words of Mary Karr, “Who needs fiction when nonfiction is this good?”

Do you loan your books?

Very seldomly. That’s another (bad) book habit I picked up from my mom. She wouldn’t even allow me to borrow her books (and I’m her favorite – ha)!

Favorite book to recommend?

I mostly love to recommend Unwillable. I’m proud of my memoir and myself for being so open about my life before, with, and after autoimmune encephalitis. I wrote it to hopefully help others, because Susannah Cahalan’s Brain on Fire helped aid in my diagnosis and in some ways helped save my life. I want others affected by this disease to have another book alongside Brain on Fire to help them in their journey with this rare and devastating brain illness.

READ THE BLURB

I was easily confused, and I did abnormal things. I said, “This looks weird,” or “Why can’t I do this?” about routine objects and tasks. Right after I got out of the ward, Sean asked me what I was doing, and I told him I was doing my laundry. When he went upstairs to check on me, I had put my clean underwear on the floor beneath my dresser and was putting my sweats and shorts in and around the sink in our bathroom.

Once, as I sat in my recliner and my legs were shaking badly, I told him I couldn’t feel them.

I thought my phone looked “weird,” and I kept commenting to him that something was wrong with it, because the screen was green. When he looked at it, everything was fine. I also texted Lacie and Betsy some odd things about seeing them when I hadn’t. Sean finally took my phone away from me. When I no longer had my cell phone, I picked up our landline phone, believing it was my cell phone. I tried to text from it, but could not do so, so I asked Sean to help me. He remembers almost losing it with me at that moment.

MEET THE AUTHOR

Jackie M. Stebbins was living her dream as a nationally recognized family law, criminal defense, and civil litigator. But Stebbins’s career as a lawyer abruptly ended in May, 2018, when she was diagnosed with a rare brain illness, autoimmune encephalitis. Stebbins persevered to make a remarkable recovery and turned herself into an author and motivational speaker. Stebbins is the author of the JM Stebbins blog and host of the Brain Fever podcast. Stebbins’s side hustle includes raising three lovely children with her wonderful husband, Sean, in Bismarck, North Dakota, and in her leisure time she can be found reading, trying to be funny, and aqua jogging.

Buy Links:

Amazon: https://a.co/d/d89kann
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/unwillable-jackie-m-stebbins/1141495526

https://www.facebook.com/JackieMStebbins/
https://twitter.com/jmstebbs
https://www.instagram.com/jmstebbs84/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackie-stebbins-725081173/
https://www.tiktok.com/@jmstebbs
http://www.jmstebbins.com
http://www.unwillable.com
https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/61125194

ENTER THE GIVEAWAY

a Rafflecopter giveaway