An Interview with Ohio Author Cecile Bibawy
Recently I had the opportunity to connect with
Cecile. She attended the Monday Creek Book Festival in November. Her book Loving
Her Mind: Piecing Together the Shards of Hope (January 2021) is about
her “never-ending desire to spread the truth about mental illness, inspire
people to tell their story, work toward ending the stigma that keeps people
sick, and promote the health of mind, body, and spirit.”
From Cecile’s bio: “After sunrises and coffee,
that is, when she's not writing, she's exploring the pursuit of truth,
goodness, and beauty with her children as she and her husband classically
homeschool them. She teaches Zumba classes and tells her stories and struggles
to anyone who will listen. Bibawy was a public relations practitioner for Faith
Mission Homeless Shelters in Columbus, Ohio and also promoted Job Corps for a
while in Upstate New York. She is available for key-note speaking about her
story to your people.”
Welcome, Cecile!
GM: What is the premise for your new book?
CB: Overcome stigma’s sting, break free of your
glass room to help the mentally ill and instill hope for their caregivers.
GM: How do you maintain thoughts and ideas?
CB: I have a separate journal just for ideas. In a
pinch, I "scribble" ideas into my phone's notepad, then transfer to
the journal.
GM: Where do you like to write?
CB: At my little white secretary's desk or at a
coffee shop. At my desk, I face a wall of framed family pictures in the living
room. There's just enough space for my laptop and a coffee mug, which sits on
the fancy ceramic coaster that my kids bought me for Christmas a few years ago.
It's really the best place to write. While everyone's sleeping is the best
time. Otherwise, my favorite coffee shops, Roosevelt's and La Chatelaine, serve
as good environments - mainly because the coffee is good. That is very
important.
GM: Do you have a muse or other inspiration that
sparks creative ideas?
CB: Not yet. I wish I did. It would be wonderful
to have something I could fall back on when I'm fresh out.
GM: What are you currently reading?
CB: Switch on Your Brain by Dr. Caroline
Leaf.
GM: What are you currently writing?
CB: Nothing. But I have the idea for my next book
and two more for after that!
GM: Do you have advice for novice writers?
CB: Keep writing. Try to write daily. When you get
stuck and have nothing to say, take a walk or other type of break for a few
minutes to an hour. Then try again.
GM: Please share your book marketing
secrets...
CB: Don't treat your book like a business card. Write
your marketing copy as if you're speaking to one person. What would you say to
the one?
GM: List 10 things your fans may not know about
you...
CB: 1) My favorite food is Mexican
2) I love classical music
3) I am a Zumba instructor
4) I knit things
5) Coffee makes me happy
6) I've been to Australia
7) I have a severe phobia of snakes
8) I can play the piano
9) I'm double-jointed
10) My favorite food to make and serve is stuffed
grape leaves
Connect with
Cecile…
Facebook Page: Cecile
Bibawy, Author
Facebook Group:
Join here! Cecile
Bibawy, Author
Instagram: @sincerelycecile
Shatter the Walls of Secrets and Shame at
thirteen, Cecile Bibawy is told that her best friend is part of a committee of
evil psychiatrists who watches the family around the clock. A few of her
closest friends and family members are not to be trusted and pose a great
danger. If only she could know that these things are not so. Truth to a budding
teen is whatever your mother says, and it is her mother that says it -- but
only to her. No one else can know. When stigma traps her in a glass room of
secrets, Bibawy finds herself stuck within walls named shame, fear, neglect,
and loneliness. A real tragedy of mental illness is the secrecy that encloses
those who struggle inside glass rooms, crystallizing their isolation. The
caregivers struggle, too. In this account, Bibawy breaks free, learns to love
her mother, and discovers the ability to love herself. By telling her story,
despite the suffocating confines of family, culture, and stinging, penetrating
stigma, Bibawy reveals how God shattered the glass, raising her mind to
discover an ocean deep desire to instill hope for caregivers of the mentally
ill, inspire them to tell their story, and remove the shame that secrets and
stigma infuse. Are you held captive by your secrets? Are you hiding yours or
your loved one’s struggle with mental illness? Open these pages to discover:•
solutions instead of secrets • belonging instead of banishing • real love
instead of fear. Loving Her Mind pieces together the shards of hope
based on the author’s experience of caring for her mother through which she
discovered a stigma-slaying life.
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