Carol Balawyder

I hold an undergraduate degree with a major in English Literature and a graduate degree in Criminology. I have taught English in various colleges in Montreal, Concordia University and Ho Chi Minh University of Technology in Vietnam. During this phase of my teaching career, I developed teaching material including Open For Business (Harper & Row), Windows on Sci-Tech (Thomson Publishing).
In the second half of my teaching career, I taught criminology in Police Technology and Corrections Programs. My area of expertise was in drug addiction where I worked in a methadone clinic with heroin addicts. I helped set up and animate a writing workshop for women in prison and have worked in halfway houses and drug rehab centers.
My short stories have appeared in Room Magazine, The Canadian Anthology of Fiction, Mindful.org, Between the Lines, Carte Blanche and I was awarded an honorary mention for a play submitted to The Canadian Playwright Competition.
I also manage a blog where I write about: Women Nobel Prize winners for literature, writers’ desks, Femmes Fatales, book reviews, India. and my dog, Bau. www.carolbalawyder.com/blog

Blog: http://www.balawyderblog.wordpress.com

absent fathers    alzheimers symptoms    art gallery    dating a younger man    donut shop    early alzheimers    electra complex    fulfilling dreams    grief and loss    incest    indian boyfriend    letting go    memoir    midlife dating    mourning    murder investigation    parental alienation    pole dancing    prince charming    sexual abuse    spirituality and inspiration    starry night    university friends    yoga retreat   

• Parallel Lives on April 29, 2016
  
  If you’ve ever wondered why relationships are so difficult, Ana Linden’s book Parallel Lives offers ample reasons for this diversity and complexity between a man and a woman. Amalia, the main character in the book, provides contemplative insights into finding someone she can like, accept and respect for who he is, from the very beginning. The book reads like a psychological treatise on such subjects as cheating, the death of feelings, suffocation familiarity, compromises, high school love, jealousy and intense sensations. As a character, Amalia is strong and in control of her life. She has a take me or leave me attitude and offers no apologies for her feelings or lack of them towards the men she becomes involved in, challenging some of them about their own infidelities and double lives – thus the title Parallel Lives. Every woman who has ever questioned why she doesn’t have any physical desire for a kind man who worships her, will find she is not alone here: you just can’t fake chemistry. What I liked and admired the most about Amalia was that she remains true to herself and her value system. In her affair with the married man, Robert, I couldn’t help but think of Fifty Shades of Grey with a feminist twist and without the dominant/submissive contract. Submission is not at all part of Amalia’s make-up. She is much too strong willed and independent. Parallel lives is a refreshing, insightful and encouraging look at what happens when women take charge with confidence of their own desires. The book also offers some tender and sensual moments and a clear look at how differently men and women view relationships, especially sexual ones.