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I write to release stress and angst.  I write for sanctuary and peace.  Writing is like art for me, what I create brings me joy and pleasure and a sense of accomplishment.  It is what fills me up and acts as an emotional base for my anxiety.

 

 

 

  

 

Karla Yazzolino   I am a native to the Pacific Northwest, my home state is Oregon. I enjoy the rain, really I do! I guess I've become acclimated to this climate and actually believe it to be the most temperate in the country. I was raised by a single mother and that had a lot of pitfalls given my childhood was in the 60's! People didn't think about kids being sent home alone with a key on a chain around their neck in those days. I never knew my father and really didn't think it meant much having one since I never saw him. I have two siblings, both of which do not speak with me because of the inability to see me and accept my truth. Family dysfunction played a big part in feeling unloved and alone. Being sexually abused was a catalyst to many anxiety triggers that kept my life scary and un-balanced. I have four children of my own. Together with my husband we have 10 grandchildren! We all live pretty close to one another and stay close as a family. Photography has become a great hobby of mine and I have many of my own pictures in my home. I began writing during the new millennium and decided to put together a book in 2008. My story is unique in the fact that I speak out honestly and openly about my Chronic Anxiety disorder. My disorder is not unique, though, as many people suffer from this malady; more than you would contemplate to guess. I wrote to speak out in defense of my peers who suffer and to spread the word about what having anxiety means to the average person and how it can become all consuming. I also wrote to let those who suffer know that they are not alone and that there is a voice speaking truthfully for them. http://www.karlayazzwrites.com             Books-and-Authors.net: Where did you grow up and was reading and writing a part of your life? Who were your earliest influences and why?   Karla Yazzolino: I grew up in Vancouver and Ridgefield Washington.  I began reading at the dinner table with comic books.  My mother was a student most of her adult life and she read constantly both academically and for pleasure.  She read to me all the time.  I did the switched to novels in High School, when I took a literature class and we all read novels.  I began with Mary Stewart and those gothic romances.  But after about two years of that I branched out and starting reading Dick Francis and Dean Koontz.  From there  I went with Stephen King, John Grisham, Nora Roberts, Janet Evanovich, and more.  Reading has been a huge part of my life and I would never stop.  When I read it is to escape and go to new places or to have a laugh with a witty script. Books-and-Authors.net: Why do you write?  Karla Yazzolino: I write to release stress and angst.  I write for sanctuary and peace.  Writing is like art for me, what I create brings me joy and pleasure and a sense of accomplishment.  It is what fills me up and acts as an emotional base for my anxiety.      Books-and-Authors.net: Briefly tell us about If Seen... My Journey Living With Anxiety. Karla Yazzolino:  This book is about my life and my struggle to understand and accept having an anxiety condition.  I felt I was pre-disposed to have this condition and realized after taking a long look at my life that I was an anxious child with no parental guidance to assuage the fear.  I wrote to offer the public knowledge from a personal perspective about this condition because it is so debilitating and frightening.  I wanted those who lived with a person who suffers to be able to understand what an anxiety prone person goes through daily and to hopefully give them an understanding so to erase prejudice or judgment.  It also follows the process of therapy and shows a sufferer that there is always hope and to never give up.         Books-and-Authors.net: How old were you when you first experienced anxiety?   Karla Yazzolino:   I guesstimate my age was about five.  Everything in the world that I knew then frightened me and I had no outlet for explanation.   Books-and-Authors.net: I anxiety physical ,mental or both?    Karla Yazzolino:  Anxiety is a brain dysfunction and presents itself with physical symptoms or triggers.  It is a form of illness but having it does not make one abnormal.  It’s a wily foe, and sometimes doesn’t present itself till later in life, but mostly it comes early for most of us.  We have the ability to take our power back from this disease but it takes time and study and work.     Books-and-Authors.net: What advice do you have for others living with anxiety?    Karla Yazzolino:  I would advise everyone to seek Therapy with a good therapist you are comfortable with.  If that takes you five tries to find your therapist let that happen.  If you do not have an aversion to medication, medication can be a great assist.  But it takes both therapy, medication and exercise, a good diet, lots of sleep and a commitment to thinking in strength and trying to always be positive in thought.   Books-and-Authors.net: What do you hope to achieve with If Seen... My Journey Living With Anxiety?   Karla Yazzolino:   To spread the word about this condition, to help sufferers feel less alone, to open the eyes of corporate American to change orientations and training to support this disease and allow people like me a place in the job market.       Books-and-Authors.net: Discuss your children's series SeeMee "Says!".   Karla Yazzolino:  I wrote this first book to give parents and children a platform in which to begin communication. Communication lacked in my adolescent life and I sorely needed it! I grew up afraid of the world, and death, and people. Without adequate communication from my parent(s) I over dramatized my fears for lack of knowledge. I believe I was predisposed to anxiety, most likely genetically, and without insight/guidance from my parent(s) I just became afraid of living. The situations in my SeeMee books are true depictions of my life and the lack of oral exchange needed. This first published book SeeMee “Says!” is the first in three that I have written. I hope to have the other two published by the end of this year or sooner!     Books-and-Authors.net: What is it about children's books you enjoy and why? Karla Yazzolino:  Children’s books always have simple lessons that are important in a child’s development. I enjoy their visuals and creative messages. It is not easy to write a children’s book…it took my about five years of hits and misses to create my SeeMee books. You want it to be simple and engaging but also provocative and fun.       Books-and-Authors.net: What do you hope to achieve with the f Seen... My Journey Living With Anxiety. Karla Yazzolino:  I hope to send the message of communication. I want there to be a revolution in the way we see our children. A revolution of change so that children are looked at and seen in their fears, happiness, and development, and in the hope that whatever anxieties they have will be reduced by talking in truth, and teaching them to ask for what they need without consequence.     Books-and-Authors.net: What do you hope to accomplish with the SeeMee "Says!" Karla Yazzolino:  Out reach! I hope parents will just get a little “A-ha” moment when reading this book and rethink how they communicate with their child and exam their participation in their child’s life to the point of opening the door to talking.     Books-and-Authors.net: Who did the illustrations? Karla Yazzolino:  I did all the graphics myself in all three books. I dabble in graphics and have Publisher on my home computer!     Books-and-Authors.net: Where can SeeMee "Says!" series be purchased? Karla Yazzolino:  See Mee “Says!” is available at: www.amazon.com www.barnsandnoble.com www.blackrosewriting.com New Renaissance Book store, Portland, Oregon In Other Words, Portland Oregon A Children’s Place, Portland Oregon You can also buy direct through my website at www.karlayazzwrites.com and receive a signed copy! Books-and-Authors.net: What was the last book you read?   Karla Yazzolino: Dean Koontz What the Night Knows   Books-and-Authors.net: What's next?  Karla Yazzolino: I have a children’s book SeeMee “Says!” just released with two SeeMee books waiting in the wings.  And my follow up novel to If Seen… is too be finished this year and out hopefully by spring titled:  Me, Finally.  It’s about how life can feel joyless and also about how to see Joy in the ordinary day while living with anxiety.

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