Pride and Persistance....Jeanna Ellsworth

I am so excited to have author Jeanna Ellsworth visit again. The first time she visited was as a debut author for her book, Mr. Darcy's Promise. Her latest release, Pride and Persistence gave her the opportunity to combine her professions. Not only does Jeanna write but she is also a Neurological ICU registered nurse. She has vast experience with the subject matter of this book, which, by the way, I found to be absolutely delightful. (More on that in a few days!) Thank you, Jeanna, for being my guest and now I will turn the 'post' over to you!

Thank you, Janet, for having me on your blog! I have to admit that I am tickled to talk about my next book that was just released, Pride and Persistence. It might help to tell you a bit about it.

               This book takes place immediately after the horrid Hunsford proposal. Both Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth are in turmoil; Elizabeth because she had never been so rude to anyone before and wants to apologize, and Darcy because he has to write the perfect letter to help change her mind. Mr. Darcy is so determined to get this letter into her hands that he rides out when a storm threatens and in the process his horse gets spooked and takes off without him fully mounted. Elizabeth witnesses the accident and is the first one on the scene. Although unconscious, they manage to bring him into the parsonage sitting room where Elizabeth stays by his side. She is riddled with guilt for not apologizing for being so offensive the day before.

               The next morning, Darcy wakes up but is clearly not himself. Here is an excerpt to show it. Mrs. Wilkinson is the Mrs. Collins’ terrible cook and friend of Elizabeth. In this excerpt, Elizabeth is standing outside the sitting room the morning he wakes up and overhears the following:

*****

She stopped at the door and overheard a little of what was going on.

               Colonel Fitzwilliam said in a very firm voice, “I am sorry, Darcy, you cannot stand up. Your foot is broken. The doctor said you cannot stand up, no matter what the reason.”

               Darcy spat back at him, “And would you prefer to do it sitting down?”

               Colonel Fitzwilliam responded, “It does not matter what I prefer, you cannot stand up.”

               Darcy nearly yelled, “I cannot keep having this argument! What is the matter with doing it the way I always do? My foot is fine! Here, I will prove it. MOVE! Cousin, if you do not lift your hands off my shoulders, I swear to you I will break your arm!”

               “Sorry, Darcy—doctor’s orders. You must do it sitting down.”

               “I will not!” Darcy bellowed.

               Elizabeth was very confused. What were they talking about and why was Darcy so agitated? She heard someone behind her, and she turned to see Mrs. Wilkinson. “What is going on?”

Mrs. Wilkinson let out a laugh. “I am afraid you do not want to know. But I would love to see you try to figure it out!” Elizabeth raised her eyebrow in curiosity and then gave her a pleading look. Mrs. Wilkinson laughed again and said, “There will be little peace until he does what the colonel tells him. I am afraid you will eventually figure it out with Mr. Darcy being as loud as he is. Let us just say it has been a long time since Mr. Darcy used the chamber pot.”

*****

              

Many know I am a Neurological ICU nurse (at least it is my night job – I work nights, not days). I get a firsthand look at the different kind of brain injuries and there is one particular area of the brain, that if injured, becomes quite difficult to manage. This is true for the patient, the family, and coming from first hand experience, is very taxing on the nurse. That injury is a frontal lobe injury.

             executive function of the frontal lobes involve the ability to recognize future consequences resulting from current actions, to choose between good and bad actions (or better and best), override and suppress socially unacceptable responses, and determine similarities and differences between things or events.
  If you think back to your anatomy, the frontal lobe is where complex thought, emotions, rationalizing, memory and sensory interpretation is located. This is how Wikipedia defines the function of the frontal lobe: “The

The frontal lobes also play an important part in retaining longer term memories which are not task-based. These are often memories associated with emotions derived from input from the brain's limbic system. The frontal lobe modifies those emotions to generally fit socially acceptable norms.”

So the story behind the idea for this book stemmed from a very, very, very long night of literally wrestling my patient to stay in bed, hurdling linen carts and family as he ripped out IV’s, trying to calm him and convince him that he really was injured. This photo just about sums it up for the life of that nurse. I mean, who needs to exercise when you break Olympic records to keep your patient in bed? (insert photos here)

The next week, and yes, it took nearly a week to recover from taking care of that patient. I was trying to nap before I went to work and the thought came to me that, as exhausting as that night was, it was really rather funny! What if Mr. Darcy had a frontal lobe injury and could not remember one day from the next? What if he was emotionally labile and had to be repeatedly told that he was injured? What if Mr. Darcy got fixated on the fact that he wanted to propose to Elizabeth but yet could not remember that he had already proposed and was refused? I’ll tell you that I did not get any nap that day because I jumped out of bed and wrote down a plot outline of what that “what if” looked like in 1812. I could not stop giggling as I thought of all the funny things my various patients said and did and how over time, they did show improvement, so why not have his proposals improve with time? We all have read the horrid Hunsford, proposal which still breaks my heart every time I watch it, but what if he seemed to learn from his mistakes, even with his injured brain? Would his persistence in proposing eventually pacify the prejudice that Elizabeth had?

You will have to answer that yourself. The book is now available on Amazon as a paperback and Ebook. Prepare to laugh, cry, swoon, and laugh some more.

Thank you Janet for hosting me today. It was fun to share a bit about my book. I hope you all get a chance to read it. I am giving away either an Ebook (internationally) or a paperback (U.S. only) to anyone who comments.

One more thing that I always feel like I must say, is although I write this as a romantic comedy, I am fully aware of the tragedy that brain injuries can be. I see the trauma first hand. I hold loved one’s hands as they patiently wait for their loved ones to come around. I cry with them as the painter learns that he will never use his right hand again. I offer tissues to the grandchildren as they disconnect the ventilator on their brain-dead Nanna. Trust me, I know that more often than not, it is impossible to laugh with brain injuries. But, I also have learned that occasionally, one must find laughter in any situation in order to heal and move on. So I dedicate the book to all the patients, families, and staff of Neurological ICU’s. I truly do pray for them daily.

I wrote this with true to life experiences, speech, and behavior of a patient with a frontal lobe injury. I had a wonderful time writing it and still laugh my pants off when I read it. I hope you do too.

You may find more about Jeanna Ellsworth and her works on her blog, Hey Lady Publications.

Thank you again for being my guest this week, Jeanna. I enjoyed your post. It was informative, interesting and insightful, giving us some first hand knowledge of the seriousness of brain trauma. I completely agree with your statement of finding laughter in any situation (if possible) in order to heal. It may be hard to find at times, but it does help with moving on. Now, on a lighter note, I love the cover, both front and back of this book! Outstanding!

Jeanna Ellsworth is giving away Pride and Persistence to two lucky people. A domestic winner will have the choice of a paperback or eBook. An international winner will receive an eBook. To be entered leave a comment below as I always love reading your 'share in the conversation'!  Good luck to all. Be sure to include your email address in the comment. To prevent unwanted spam, put your email address with (at) instead of @. Winners will be chosen in a random drawing. Giveaway will end at midnight, April 23, 2014.