Category Archives: Writing

Community. People. Home.

2010 was a difficult year. The first quarter was spent trying to sell our house while my mother’s health rapidly declined. Nathan was three years old and I worked part time both at home and in the office, which was 40 miles away. In April, Mom died and the next day we accepted an offer on our house. Within two months we moved and now that I was closer to my office, I raised my hours to full time out of the house. It was chaos.

The fog finally started to clear and the next thing I knew it was the summer of 2011. I wasn’t happy in my job and needed something more. I started writing again and revived my blog, though I wasn’t sure what I would do with it. I had tried my hand at various niches: parenting, frugal living, and minimalism, but most of it didn’t feel right. Something was missing, yet I kept it up.

In early 2012, as I was still finding my way, I happened upon a tweet that sounded interesting. I followed the link and at the bottom of the post was a yeah write badge. Ever the curious one, I clicked the badge and discovered a whole new world. Bloggers were writing stories, not just how-tos and DIYs. The focus was on the storytelling and suddenly it became clear to me what I’d been missing all along: my own voice. I had been trying to write as I’d seen others write, never putting my own authentic voice in my work.

I was not a frugal living blogger. I did not have the answers to life’s tough parenting questions. I don’t do anything myself that I don’t have to out of desire or necessity. I finally knew what I really wanted to do. I wanted to talk about me.

I spent a few weeks lurking before I decided to give it a go. I sat looking at the first post I planned to submit, staring at the badge I finally figured out how to add, and paused to will myself out of getting ill. If I did this, submitted this post, writers would know I was trying to write. My following up to this point had been approximately 3 people. This was some scary shit.

I did it, then had trouble submitting and left a comment on the post that sounded yelly. This prompted my first conversation with Erica. I still laugh about that because on top of all of my nerves, now the executive editor was going to hate me. But this is what I do. I make friends wherever I go.

I didn’t tank that first week, which was a relief. I showed up the next, and then I kept showing up. I learned. I read every single post – kick off, opening grid, voting. I learned what the editors were looking for and tried to follow their suggestions. I improved. I got recognition. I grew my readership.

In 2013 I started opening the moonshine grid and then a month later I took over the Tuesday post. I cannot tell you what it meant to me that the people I so desperately wanted to impress and was so afraid of pissing off a year earlier now had enough confidence in me to let me in on the behind the scenes action.

More than the vote of confidence, the friendships I’ve made are invaluable to me. If I couldn’t be an editor anymore, I’d be sad. But if these people ceased to be my friends, to have my back, to lift me up on the dark days when my aspirations (writing and otherwise) seem so far out of reach I just want to crawl into a hole and die, I don’t know what I’d do. I’d probably just start digging.

Because, yes, the writing is important. The growth, opportunity, blog traffic, and all the other great stuff that comes along with participation here were and still are important to me. But all of that means nothing without community.

Yeah write is my community, my people, my home.

Happy birthday, yeah write. Erica, what you’ve created here is unparalleled. Thank you for everything. And to the rest of the editors, I’m proud and honored to work with you all. I’m looking forward to what the future holds for all of us.

 

Feeling sentimental this week as I join in yeah write’s birthday celebration. *sniffle*

Stuff and Things. Things and Stuff.

Have you ever tried to eat chicken noodle soup when the entire lower right quadrant of your face is numb from dental work? It’s not easy. If this post feels sort of brothy, now you know why.

You might be wondering why I’m trying to eat soup and blog at the same time. The reason for that is simple: I have about 20 minutes to do both, and not eating isn’t an option because I might starve to death if I don’t do this right now. I have to go to the grocery store when I’m done here and I don’t want to go there hungry, so here we are. It’s particularly important this week since my dental depression will likely lead me to buy something I know I shouldn’t and if I’m hungry it will only be worse.

Perhaps now you are concerned about my oral health. It’s fine. Well, fine-ish, I guess. I had some exposed root. My dentist is pretty cool in that he will let me put off work that isn’t 100% necessary right this minute because he understands my extreme dental phobia. Today’s work was done to prevent “something major in the future.” This tactic usually works with me because going for a cleaning had me in the throes of a vomiting panic attack on Tuesday and I’m fairly certain that “something major” will cause me to panic to death. Please don’t ask me why. I know it’s crazy and that it doesn’t hurt that much and all that stuff, but whatever, I still puke about going to the dentist.

You may also be wondering where I’ve been. I didn’t want to let all of March go by without a post, so this is it. I have a few things lined up for April but I wanted to at least offer you up an explanation.

I have been writing, but it’s been almost all for the book. I’m determined, you guys. There’s still a lot of work to do, but I’m making steady progress which is very different than the progress I was making before. I’d call that progress intermittent at best, which is code for I wasn’t really writing all that much. I have several large blocks of time carved out in April exclusively for writing, so I’m hoping to make a really huge dent in things by the end of the month. Oh! And I have a new working title which is still a secret while I continue to work, but I think it’s a pretty good one. We’ll see.

So you’ll see stuff here next month, and I’ll be writing a bunch you won’t see for a long time (hopefully not for TOO long!), and you can also catch me weekly at yeah write. Every Tuesday I write a post to open our weekly nonfiction writing challenge. There’s also a fiction challenge and our newest thing, the gargleblaster, where you need to answer the prompt question in exactly 42 words. It’s fun stuff and good times, so I urge you to check us out. Unless of course you’re here from the moonshine grid (the weekend almost-free-for-all for those of you who are not visiting from there oh my goodness this is getting complicated), then you already know about yeah write, so hi!

Since I can’t always guarantee the frequency of my posts here, can I make a suggestion? How about you subscribe via email. It’s up in the sidebar, you just put your email address in there and you’ll get a notification when I post something. I don’t want you to miss anything in case I say something important.

I have to run for now. I was still hungry so I tried to eat a jelly doughnut. You’d think that would be easier than the soup that was dripping out of my head, but you’d be wrong. Jelly and powdered sugar everywhere. I need to go change my clothes and wash my face.

Goals and Stuff.

I’ve been kind of light on the blogging lately. If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a million times, I don’t know how people find the time to blog daily when they do other things. Since I do a lot of other things, the blogging has been a lower priority.

So if blogging isn’t number one on my list right now, what is?

I hereby present to you The Goals and Stuff for Two-Thousand-Fourteeeeeeeeen!!!!!

1. Writing. Wait, what? But you said…? I know I said blogging isn’t a goal, but writing is. This isn’t to say blogging isn’t writing, of course it can be. I just mean I’m focusing my efforts elsewhere: the memoir. It’s getting done this year, people. I mean DONE. If you’re newer to this blog, I’m writing my story of growing up with an alcoholic father who was never around and life with my mother who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis when I was 14 and died when I was 34. It’s a lot of ground to cover, some of it is pretty tough to write, but this story has been trying to burst out of me for years and I’m going to finally let it.

That means the blogging might be a little light at times. I don’t want to use all of the material for the book on the blog (I’ve done some of that, and if I ever get around to categorizing these posts you might even be able to find them!). And some days, after writing for the book, I’m tapped out. I also still have my yeah write gig, so that’s another different kind of writing that’s zapping my writing energy. I hope you understand.

2. Empty the house. I know, you think I’m kidding. I’m not. My goal is to empty this house of every single non-essential item. Obviously the people who live here will have have say and my non-essential is probably going to look different from your non-essential. But we have a lot of stuff and by the end of the year I want to have significantly less stuff.

It’s a purposely vague goal. I can’t say I will get rid of 1,000 things, or that I want certain rooms empty, or that for every one thing that comes in one thing will have to go out. What I can say is that my goal is to have what we need and no more. What we have will need to have it’s place and if there’s no physical place for it, it’s relative need will have to be examined. It’s not small undertaking, I assure you, but I do think it’s possible. My main targets at this point are my attic and basement. Both are filled with things set aside for a yard sale we’ve yet to have (it’s only been 3 years…) and at least a dozen bins and boxes are things of my moms that I need to sort through. So, yeah, it’s a lot.

3. Health. (Yes, I’m still on this one.) I still need to lose about 50 pounds. I still need to get into a regular exercise routine and make it stick. I still need to make eating well a daily thing. I still need to cut back on the caffeine and I still need to get more sleep. More about all that another time.

I have other things I’m working on, but those are the top three and they pretty much trump everything else right now. If I get where I need to be on any one of them, I’ll add something to the mix, but for now this feels like more than enough. I’ll keep you posted on my progress, I’ll still be here with some amusing anecdotes and I might even throw in a tear-jerker post every now and again. But if I steal away for a week or two, know that I just have my head buried in other things.

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