When thinking of what inspires me as a writer, I have to say…you
guys. I’ve had the opportunity to meet
some really amazing people in the writing community.
I haven’t really had a lot of friends over the years.
Different things have happened to prevent the normal friendships people tend to
develop. I moved a ton during my childhood, so I never really made any lasting
friends as a kid. I quit high-school, so that kind of knocked out the whole “college”
friends thing. Haha. I was married at
eighteen. Having kids by my early twenties. My husband and I had a few friends
from our teen years but since we had a few screws loose during those years, once we tightened our bolts back up ,all those "friendships" fell by the wayside.
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| Speaking of loose screws, I LOVE this pendant. haha |
When my kids started
school, I was one of the youngest moms. On top of that, I seemed to wear a
blinking neon sign that read, “DO NOT BEFRIEND.” I never fit in with the other
mom’s. It’s like they took one look at
me and decided I didn’t belong.
And then I pulled my kids out of school and ended up home-schooling
them, which was an awesome life experience, but did nothing for the “making
friends” quest. Turns out most people (especially ten/twelve years ago) home-school
for religious reasons. The first thing they asked when we walked in the
home-school co-op was what church we attended. I said we didn’t, and spent most
of my time after that sitting in the corner with a book in my lap. I understand
why though. Their friendships were easy. Most of them had known each other for
years. It’s hard enough to let in someone new, without trying to befriend someone
with radically different beliefs.
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| A metaphor for my life. haha |
Luckily, I’m super close to my husband and kids. Mostly, they’re
enough, but I have to admit things got really lonely at times. Then, about five years ago, I started writing
and met some other writers. I’ve noticed
that, as a whole, writers tend to be non-conformists. For the first time in my
life, I found a group of people I fit in perfectly with. Hurray!! J
For reasons I’ve gone
into in the past, I don’t have an in person critique group anymore. I do,
however, have an amazing critique partner, Karen Denise—our entire friendship has
developed online. As much as I’d love to meet her in person, it’s cool that we’ve
gotten as close as we have just through emailing. I’ve also had some really awesome beta readers
that I met through GUTGAA, different contests and Write On.
And I have all the awesome people who stop by and read my
blog/offer words of encouragement and advice. I feel so much less alone now. I’m so glad I got on the contest circuit and started a
blog. I don’t know a lot of you that
well, but I love reading your blogs. I get happy when I see someone I’ve been
following achieve success, and sad when they hit a roadblock. You guys inspire
me to know that I can do this, because I see all of you doing it. And, what I really want is to know more about you
guys. I want to connect with the world out there—this huge world that I’m lucky
enough to be able to reach through a screen and touch.
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| Thought this was way too perfect to not include. haha |
So, I hope you don’t mind if I ask you some questions. Don’t
worry, I don’t expect you to answer all of them, I just thought it might be
easier to ask some questions than to say “Hey, tell me about yourself.” haha. So,
just choose whatever you want to answer. Or don’t answer any. It’s up to you. J
What made you decide to write a book? If you had realized,
way back when you started, how hard this would be, do you think you’d have done
it anyway? Does your biggest dream involve writing or something else? Do you find writing to be a lonely endeavor? Do
you have a critique group you meet with in person and, if so, how did you guys
all meet?
Like I said, feel free to answer whatever you want or just
tell me something random about yourselves!!And, hey—if anyone out there is within an hour of Savannah
GA, let me know. I’m down in SE Coastal GA and I would LOVE to meet some people
in person.
And that’s it for today. Oh, and btw, my post was on inspiration because I like to post on the Thursday’s Children bloghop—which is
all about sharing the different things that inspire us. It’s hosted by Rhiann
Wynn-Nolet at NEST OF WORDS and KRISTINA PEREZ. Make sure to stop by their
sites and we’d love it if more people joined in on the bloghop!!
Sorry for rambling
on!! Thanks for listening and being my inspiration!
