Local author Vikki Claflin will read from her new book Shake, Rattle & Roll With It: Living and Laughing with Parkinson’s at the Hood River Library on Saturday, February 7 at 2 p.m.
Vikki has been a longtime resident of Hood River, moving here when she was just four years old. She graduated from Hood River Valley High School in 1974, then attended Oregon State University for four years before starting a career that included many years as a writer, humorist, professional public speaker and newspaper columnist.
At age 50, Vikki was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. After many dark days spent coming to terms with her diagnosis, her natural comic optimism and irreverence began to surface and she started writing on her blog about the funny side of living with Parkinson’s.
Described as “Erma Bombeck meets Michael J. Fox,” “Shake, Rattle & Roll With It” is a collection of Vikki’s honest – and hilarious – essays about the ups and downs of life with a chronic illness. She shows us how to laugh at ourselves by first laughing at her. Vikki unabashedly shares with us her most embarrassing moments in her battle with Parkinson’s.
Vikki says, “Right now, there’s no cure for this disease, and that can be very frightening to a Parkinson’s patient, and to their loved ones. I wrote this book to help people whose lives are affected by Parkinson’s to find the funny in it. Because with laughter, there’s hope. And hope is everything.”
Vikki lives in Hood River, OR, where she writes the award-winning humor blog Laugh Lines, sharing the hilarious ups and down of midlife. She believes that laughter, a good glass of wine, and an econo-sized box of Milk Duds are the path to true zen. Vikki has been featured on the Michael J. Fox Foundation website, Erma Bombeck’s Writer’s Workshop, The Huffington Post, Scary Mommy, Generation Fabulous, Midlife Boulevard, Better After 50, and Funny Times Magazine. She also received a BlogHer14 “Voices of the Year” Humor award. Vikki recently released her new book Shake, Rattle & Roll With It: Living and Laughing with Parkinson’s, recently added to Amazon.com’s Editor’s Favorite Books of 2014, which chronicles her hilarious, and sometimes poignant journey living with Parkinson’s disease. Her book is available at Amazon.com.
The presentation is free and open to the public. For more information, please contact the Hood River County Library District at 541-386-2535, info@hoodriverlibrary.org, or visit their website at hoodriverlibrary.org.
