I was a healthy baby. No issues there.
It’s when I grew older that I felt a corruption sinking into me. The need for money. For safety and security, to the exclusion of other people. I’ve tamped much of that. I try to help as much as I can. I work in a field committed to saving ourselves from the excesses of the past, to stop and reverse this changing climate that any self-respecting subject matter expert will tell you is a big trouble. It’s a wonderful cause. It needs to be done.
Identity is funny. I die, I get reborn. I reimagine my writing voice, always in cycles that demand I write at times for others, until I remember that I’m just one person, and I should be writing for me. I’m in that cycle now. The Trent Lewin cycle of weirdness and mashed genres, of finding characters that live and breathe just the same way I do. I’m right in that life, and it’s where I want to be. The trick is not in figuring things out. The trick is in remembering where I want to be. Who I am.
I’m really proud to see myself published in a legendary journal: Grain Literary Magazine. My story, titled Titan Arum, comes out in the fall issue. I shouldn’t need that kind of justification to amplify the trueness of whatever my voice is, but honestly, it’s so affirming and validating. I feel warm. I feel grateful. I feel a bit undeserving, too. But over all of that, I feel like I need to blaze hotter and brighter, and that’s exactly what I’m going to do as this sensation persists. Dream hard.
Thank you for listening to me, everyone. I treasure those of you I’ve met and talked with here. You are my friends.
I cannot tell you how happy I am for your rebirth! And congratulations on being published. Of course, it is okay to care, even if you do write for you… Nothing wrong with being read, I say…
I’m silly happy, Dale. And thank you.
You should be!!
Whatever voice you’re dreaming, screaming, raging into the void with, I’m here to hear it.
I miss you, Jones. Hard to imagine how much I miss you. I need your voice in my life. Where can I find it?
Congrats! Nothing wrong with some external validation. As much as we are supposed to write for ourselves, it’s nice to know that someone else wants to read that story, to elevate that story, to celebrate it. Welcome back.
Don’t ever give up. Don’t ever quiet your voice.
It warms my heart to see you here. You are one of the most deserving writers I have ever encountered. You just keep going, sometimes at different paces, and the whole time you are supportive and encouraging to those of us who only dream of writing on your level. Congratulations on being published! Well done.
You make me blush, Michelle. Thank you so much.
Congrats on the story in Grain! Very cool news and definitely something to be proud of!
Thank you, Walt! It’s a big ‘un for me.
I dunno, man. I clicked on this to see what was going on and don’t have much to say but feel obliged to say something since I’m already here and all and others have bothered.
So, I love this post. Wish I had written it. I’d hit the like button now but already tried to do that before reading it and it wouldn’t accept my like. Now after reading it, maybe for the best.
Guess I’ll go do some creative writing now by going to a bunch of my internet accounts and changing my usernames and passwords. It’s like haiku with its defined format and limited structure as to what letters and characters are permitted and just as easily forgotten. Toodles.
Dude – you crack me up. We doing to see something out of you? You’re a writer, let’s see it.