Featured Interview With Jill Dobbe
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
Besides being an author, I am an overseas educator. I am currently living and working in my 7th country, Honduras, and in the past I have lived and worked in Ghana, Guam, Singapore, Mexico, Egypt, and India. I am originally from Wisconsin, USA, and have two adult children. My daughter is also an overseas educator and is with us in Honduras, and my son is studying to be a doctor.
I got into writing when I realized I had lots to tell about my family’s unique lifestyle and experiences while living overseas. It was not always an easy lifestyle, but the many exciting adventures and famous sites we saw around the world made up for the difficult times. When my husband and I first went overseas our two children were toddlers. Ten years later we moved back to the U.S. when they were teenagers. Moving back to the U.S. was also a time of reverse culture shock for all of us.
My travel memoir, HERE WE ARE & THERE WE GO: Teaching and Traveling With Kinds in Tow, highlights the good and bad times, as well as, the lessons we learned about living and accepting other cultures and other ways of life.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I have been a big reader all of my life. I never really considered writing my own book though until I got into this lifestyle. It was then that I realized how much I liked to read travel memoirs, especially about women, and I learned that there were other readers out there like me.
My husband was actually the person who encouraged me to write about our lives overseas. As I wrote my memoir I reminisced with him and my children about our numerous experiences. As a result, writing my memoir became a sort of family project and they found it exciting that they were all in it!
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
I don’t really have any so-called favorite authors, however I extremely enjoy reading memoirs, especially travel memoirs. I don’t mean to be biased, but I find that I can relate better to female authors who write travel books and memoirs.
I wrote my memoir in a year and a half while I was also working full time as an elementary administrator. I am proud of it, but learned a lot more about writing a book AFTER I got mine published. I am currently writing my second memoir about living and working in Egypt, India, and Honduras (this time without kids) and am taking it slower, especially since I am still living it. I enjoy writing and hope to produce many more travel memoirs; as long as I can keep traveling the world.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
My memoir, HERE WE ARE & THERE WE GO, chronicles my family’s ten years of living and working as educators in four different countries (Singapore, Mexico, Guam, Ghana). My husband and I, with our two toddlers, first set off to the island of Guam and end with a year’s stint in Mexico before returning to the U.S. During those ten years we encountered a hurricane, shook hands with then president and first lady, Bill and Hillary Clinton on their visit to Ghana, swam with humpback whales, and almost got chased by lions. My memoir also describes our life with other cultures as we were introduced to their foods, their festivals, and their daily lives. Our many travels abroad finally ended as we returned to the U.S. and experienced our own version of reverse culture shock.
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