[Nfbofsc] My memoir, Carmella's Quest: Taking On College Sight Unseen available for download through SCTBS

[Carmella Broome]

I hope it is appropriate to post this here. I wanted to let  those interested know that my memoir, Carmella's Quest: Taking On College Sight Unseen (Red Letter Press 2009), though not yet available for download on the national BARD site, is available through TBS LionShare. TBS LionShare is a service similar to BARD provided by  SC Talking Book Services and the SC State Library for locally produced digital talking books and magazines available for download. Just like BARD, downloaded audio files are zipped and need to be unzipped onto a flash drive to play. You can access LionShare and search for Carmella's Quest, as well as  reading about  other titles recorded in the SCTBS studios, by visiting 
http://www.statelibrary.sc.gov/lionshare

I am told that TBS is working on getting Carmella's Quest into the  national collection/listed in the national BARD database. Those interested do not have to be from SC to download it from LionShare.  

By combining my own screen reading technology with   the technology available at TBS and the SC State Library, I was able to read Carmella's Quest myself, making the recording much more personal. I did this back in 2009.  I recently listened to it again, for the first time in a  long time, and continue to be very pleased with how professional the recording sounds.   I am very appreciative that Chris Yates  was willing to let me give my ideas for how to do this a try.  The whole process went better, and more smoothly, than either of us could have hoped. I'm very proud of the book and of the  recording and hope  others who are blind across SC will  enjoy it. 

Carmella's Quest  describes my freshman year at North Greenville College (now North Greenville University) in  1994-95.  Back then, NGC (a Southern Baptist affiliated liberal arts college) was much smaller than it is now. I was the only  legally blind student on campus and was struggling to figure out my place as someone with some  limitted  useable vision who wanted to seem as much like everyone else  as possible.  I wasn't entirely comfortable embracing my  identity as someone who is blind and that is clear throughout the story.  I  learned and grew a lot during this time, though, and  how I  chose to handle schoolwork,  getting around campus, and other people's reactions to me as someone  with limitted sight is  part, but not all, of the story.  

Carmella's Quest is also about  being away from home for the first time,  friendships and romantic relationships,  personal values, and  what it was like to attend this particular college in the mid 90s.  I believe it offers plenty of humorous moments, as well as serious and vulnerable ones. It was an exciting time in my life and I shared it with a quirky and caring group of friends.

Readers have described CQ as an easy  read that is conversational and entertaining. This book  is not a guide to how to  be a well-adjusted blind student in college.  It is a true story about  me and the choices I made and situations I faced at the time. I tell the story because I feel it is an interesting one. I believe that, if nothing else, I come across as human, as a girl in her late teens who wanted the same things as her sighted peers, including academic success, acceptance, and  solid connections with  others. In my own way, I found those things.

For more information  about the book itself,  including reader reviews, visit
http://CarmellasQuest.WordPress.com
or
http://CarmellasQuest.LiveJournal.com

 I can be reached with any questions or  feedback by email at
CarmellasQuest at hotmail.com

Carmella Broome EdS LPC LMFT
Counselor in group practice at Crossroads Counseling Center, Lexington SC
http://CounselorCarmella.WordPress.com