I’ve always wondered where the term back seat driver came from because from my point of view, those unwanted suggestions usually originate from someone in the passenger seat…especially in an RV. Sure, technically we do have a back seat and if we were hauling my grandmother, she would most definitely be giving the person her perspective on what to do while they were driving. But, my grandmother has been long gone, and the back seat of our RV is not used. Yet, both my wife and I do our fair share of back seat driving. I will admit, I am more bothered by her back seat driving than she is by mine. It tends to make me very cranky and then the expletives arrive, like they did when she gave me those instructions in Greece on the back of my scooter. The reason is that not only are those instructions generally not helpful to me, they actually add a fair amount of danger to the situation because they make me extremely nervous.

So…of course I looked up where this expression comes from. The roots are from the 1920’s where people had to actually provide instructions from the back seat to the person chauffeuring them around. So…since I am definitely not chauffeuring my wife around in our RV, I think the next time, I will revert to a joke and tell her to get in the back so I can chauffer her to our next destination if she feels so inclined to provide helpful suggestions and perhaps she won’t be able to see the road enough to give those suggestions!

Ironically, I want the book equivalent of a back seat driver because I am the type of writer to send out my draft manuscripts to a shit ton of people for their helpful suggestions. It doesn’t make me nervous or bring out my cranky side. I know I need help and I believe that is the crux of the difference. When driving, I don’t get cranky when I don’t exactly know how to follow the GPS system and not only do I request assistance from my wife, I welcome it. I also generally don’t get cranky when I ask her to help me back into a place…it’s when I don’t ask for help that I get cranky. I think I will look at reviews in the same way. I ask for them, so when I get ones that are not favorable, I should never get cranky, I should welcome them with open arms. Since I have a new book out (The Others), I am opening my arms wide to anyone who wants to check it out and become a back seat driver. You know the drill…click on the links below! And…don’t forget to check out the two sale books on the MyLesfic site from Dannie Marsden. Two more books from her wonderful Rayne series are available: Rayne’s New Beginnings and Faith in Rayne.

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