Crazy Carousel Life: Mind Games

(Paperback)

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An unconventional relationship story tackling contemporaryissues; Alzheimer's, loneliness, ineffectual parents, religion, sex, adoption, women's roles, body image and everyday insecurities, Crazy Carousel Life, is a thought-provoking 35,300-word novella. Set in any city, Crazy Carousel Life tells a story of love overcoming psychological insecurities created through parental control. Robert and Angelica, both tarnished by their upbringing, manage parental encroachments in contrasting ways. Despite being a competent IT technician with IT Etc., Robert strives to overcome his critical father and his mother's death through escaping reality. Robert conjures himself heroic characters or fantasy animals; a World War 11 flying ace, the Red Baron, a unicorn, or other creatures, and also dreams a guardian angel will transform him from his perceived bland self into debonair Mr Suave, perhaps unconsciously, into a "lady-killer" like his philandering father. His perceived "angel" appears, but Robert blows ittoo busy daydreaming himself as Pegasus, the wild stallion with magical hooves, and his "angel" vanishes. Robert's "angel" is a respected Researcher/ Marketing Consultant with "Two Hands Clapping," a company working in remote parts of the world training locals in former war zones, to detect and destroy unexploded ordinances and develop new methods to find and dispose of unexploded land mines. She is smart and successful; however, she lacks confidence and must overcome her own issuesprincipally a picky, critically religious, lonely mother who Angelica often visualises in the form of artworksand to confront her doubts has developed a mantra that she will be positive and assured. Angelica and Robert become friends, and after a work trip to Mozambique, Angelica arranges a dinner with her mother, her stalwart Uncle Ray and "Walter," Robert's nickname, taken from an old classic The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. Keen for her daughter to marry, Angelica's Mother is eager to meet "Walter," however, Angelica and Robert are jolted by intimate revelations when Angelica's religious Mother realises Robert is her secret, illegitimate son. With her mother's lifetime deception stripped bare and parental influences destroyed, Angelica indeed sees herself as "Angelica, hear me strong" and achieves the confidence to accept her sexuality. Robert gains a real guardian angel, and they are both free to jump on the carousel of life. Crazy Carousel Life is not a typical love story but is a story of love.

Author Bio

Ros Armstrong, born in the "Lucky Country," Perth, Western Australia, has also lived in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide, Australia, Croatia, France, Ireland, the United Kingdom and on a Greek Island. She studied Creative Writing at the University of Western Australia, Psychology at Murdoch University and holds a Graduate Certificate in Human Resources Management, Curtin University of Technology. Ros worked for a Canadian gold mining company in a ground-breaking fly-in/fly-out position as the first on-site female Human Resources Superintendent for the international Company, working for over five years on a mine site located on the western edge of the Great Victoria Desert, Western Australia. Raising three children, Ros Armstrong has also travelled extensively throughout Europe, USA, Canada, Africa, Asia and the South Pacific. Initially writing newspaper travel articles, she later diversified and gained recognition and awards for short story, poetry, play, and essay writing. Ros' memoir It's Enough, Simply Symi Island, Greece and book of quirky, illustrated poems about an audacious lady with a big backside, Amazing Aunt Dolly in Action, are available through all e-book distributors. Crazy Carousel Life, a relationship story, is Ros' first novella. In between looking after her four grandchildren, Jackson, Sofia, Aaliyah, and Sebastian, Ros is finalising a full-length children's rescue story, a book of poetry and short story collection.