I Know Why the Chameleon Smiles

About the Book

After retiring from a career in wildlife, the author discovered one of her “life buckets” couldn’t wait any longer. A year-long trek back through time, mining her memories, and recapturing some entertaining highlights, the author ultimately discovered that several surprising themes from her mental excavations lay hidden beneath the whirl of her busy life. Like the paints in her watercolor art, themes swirled and collided, revealing two surprising, metaphoric familiars as avatars to help probe the deeper levels of her recollections—a colorful chameleon along with wolf tracks across the landscape of her memories. The memoir of real-life stories interweaves revelations about the author’s whole self, like the breadcrumbs of Hansel and Gretel, so she can share them with her family and dear friends, and they can never be lost.

About the Author

Native Virginian Sally Angus Guynn, PhD, sits among the stubble in a harvested Montana wheat field. She likes the imagery. “It reminds me of memories,” she says. “We can just let them sit there like a bare bunch of lonely little stalks, or we can repurpose them and discover the power that lies hidden in their combined stories.” Guynn’s down home, self-deprecating, good ol’ Southern girl vernacular spices up the hilarity and drama and touches of mystery in her witty storytelling about a colorful life well lived. Never bashful about telling all, she promises her studies in psychology, earning a master’s degree from the University of Virginia, a PhD from Colorado State University, and a career in wildlife conservation never got in the way of her learning or remembering what matters most. Her kaleidoscopic montage of stories provides a juicy glimpse into the author’s compelling journey of contrasts, courage, creativity, and contentment.