My Choice of Colors, Typeface Choices and Design [All That Good Stuff] Would Convulse My Team of Advertising Designers If They Saw This!

"Catch Autumn Before It Leaves" [For a Women's Fall Clothing Line] & "Rare Dining Well Done" [For a Restaurant Billboard Advertisement] are among my favorite headlines written during my decades long stint as an Advertising Copywriter.

The writing skills I developed in the Ad Biz were invaluable assets in writing my first book, ALL DRINKING ASIDE; The Destruction, Deconstruction and Reconstruction of an Alcoholic Animal.

Today, September 13, 2023, marks the 10th Anniversary of its publication.?

In celebration thereof, let me share a few of my favorite excerpts with you.

Feel free to share this post, including the Amazon link to All Drinking Aside.

Please consider offering it as a gift to any and all.

SIX EXCERPTS:

I.

"My father was a wood carver. He carved ducks out of wood. Like Michelangelo searching for the block of marble that contained the statue he would sculpt, in a block of wood, my father searched for a duck. he had the right tools. He was motivated. He was inspired.?

For?years I never had a reason to quit drinking and by the time I had a reason to quit, reason no longer had anything to do with it. I drank for escape and I ended up being unable to escape from drinking. Now, years later, I have found many of the tools of recovery. There are those who have inspired me, motivated me. Slowly, patiently, I must carve the frustration, self-pity and despair out of this block of wood. Carve out the envy, anxiety and intolerance. File down the burrs of hatred, jealousy and resentment. Chisel out the suspicion and sarcasm, the mistrust. Get rid of the apathy, the remorse, the self-deception. Cast out the doubt, the blame, the fear. Scrape out contempt and cynicism. Smooth out the rough edges." - All Drinking Aside, p. 241.

II.

"I can remember standing on the front porch of our house with my father when I was maybe ten years old. We lived in a small valley and a few miles away to the west was the rim of the valley. This was called South Mountain. We would catch storms approaching from the other side of the mountain. My father taught me how to predict when the storm would reach us by counting the seconds between when we saw the lightning and when we would hear the thunder. The closer the storm, the less time it takes between seeing the lightning and hearing the thunder. It takes a long tie, too, when you first get clean and sober to get a clear picture of reality. Relapse now and you many never hear the thunder and feel the rain was clean the debris of your disease.

My father and I stood on the porch. We saw the storm get nearer, saw the lightning, heard the thunder, the dog and cat beneath the couch because they were frightened and did not understand. And then the rain would come down in buckets, the street still hot, giant puddles of water, the steam rising and sometimes, just sometimes, after the storm, we would see a rainbow." - All Drinking Aside, pp. 201 - 202.

III.

"Alcohol is my poison, my prison. A brick wall, a trap door, a cancer, a bad joke, an empty bottle, an excuse, a leaky faucet, a loan shark, a broken promise, a cracked mirror, an earthquake, an avalanche, a train wreck, a recurring nightmare.

Alcohol is my insanity."?- All Drinking Aside, p. 127.

IV.

"My brain knows my disease. My brain loves my disease and my brain will never forget my disease because my disease has carved permanent grooves into my brain that no amount of sobriety can ever putty shut. The grooves in my brain lay waiting for me to pick up again so that the grooves can progressively deepen. I must depend on the help of others. Acting alone, I will be devoured by my disease. For addicts, alcohol will devour memories of the past and anxiety about the future, drowning them in the unreal, insane world of addiction. A living lobotomy. A blind man descending a spiral staircase leading to nowhere. No past. No present. No future. Addiction will survive by eating you alive.

Now, in recovery, I'm learning how to thrive." - All Drinking Aside, p. 162.

V.

"Addiction is godless, headless, insane. It rejects faith, reason, feelings. Addiction is heartless, the blackest night. No light. So sun. No stars. In its nothingness, we feel nothing and accept that nothingness is acceptable and true. 'Cunning. Baffling. Powerful'" - All Drinking Aside, p. 135.

VI.

"Loving to drink. Living to drink. Dying to drink. Dying from drinking. This is the progression of alcoholism. Wanting to live. Learning to live. Loving to live. Living with love. This is the progression of recovery." - All Drinking Aside, p, 252.

*****

May you find your own favorite passages within the pages of ALL DRINKING ASIDE: The Destruction, Deconstruction and Reconstruction of an Alcoholic Animal.

ALL DRINKING ASIDE: The Destruction,?Deconstruction & Reconstruction of an Alcoholic Animal??

Find it on Amazon. Book it here: https://www.amazon.com/All-Drinking-Aside-Deconstruction-Reconstruction/dp/149239730X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1NJOTD50MMO6N&keywords=All+Drinking+Aside&qid=1668889292&sprefix=all+drinking+aside%2Caps%2C3803&sr=8-1

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