I have been a writing a lot lately and I thank the Lord for that. I was going through a difficult time with my writing, which started sometime before Tales From the Dry Side was published and lasted right up until about the end of 2014. Part of the reason was due to being so busy in early 2014 with the book and starting a new job back in the nursing field (yay!). I love and am absolutely proud of Tales From the Dry Side, but the marketing that goes into self-publishing a book successfully is astronomical.The other big reason for having a difficult time with my writing was that I was having a hard time connecting with myself and I just couldn’t seem to get it together to make the sentences come as often as I would like.
Some of my blogging, maybe half of it, is writing designed to teach and inform, mostly about Sjögren’s syndrome and autoimmune diseases in general. The rest of it takes the form of a personal essay. If I just wrote personal essays for the rest of my life, that would be fine with me. I may try my hand soon at fiction again; we will see. I may try and publish another book. The jury is still out on that one.
Lately, for reasons that have recently become clear to me, my writing has been more intense, more authentic, and not to sound like a jerk, but good. More like great. Great because I am more willing to share more of my personal experiences and feelings with my readers and at the end of the day, we are all human. We all want to connect and know that someone else feels how we do. Some of the writing never gets published or makes it to my blog; its just for me.
My girlfriend, Tina, is one of those people who connects well with others. I know that if I want to get together and have a chat with a gal pal and have a conversation with some real depth to it, she’s one of my girls. A few months ago, Tina introduced me to a website called The Manifest-Station, founded by Jennifer Pastiloff. Jen is a writer, yoga instructor, and overall great human being. She leads sold out workshops all over the world which you can check out HERE if you’d like. Tina knows how much I am devoted to writing, yoga, and how sensitive a soul I am. The Manifest-Station is a website/blog where sensitive souls, and excellent writers (including Jennifer) share their personal experiences and more importantly, look for the beauty in every day life. Also known as Beauty Hunting.
Tina also called my attention to the fact that The Manifest-Station was accepting essay submissions. I was working on a piece that had to do with body image issues and I thought it would be a good fit for The Manifest-Station. I found out yesterday that the piece was accepted and it was published this morning.A huge thank you to Jennifer Pastiloff and her staff for loving this piece as much as I do. You can read it by clicking on this link:
Leave a Reply