Want to make this your most productive, creative, and financially fulfilling year? Then please subscribe to my newsletter, Self-Care For Writers. I read somewhere once that, when you break, you don’t quite get put back together the same again. The Japanese art of kintsugi repairs those broken pieces with gold but, to be honest, I’ve never really felt like my scars were majestic parts of myself to show off. Instead, I’ve mostly kept those physical and emotional scars hidden deep beneath the surface — one at time peeking out when I felt strong enough to share. For years, I’ve prided myself on being fearless in my writing and yet I’ve kept…
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July 2018 Writer’s Life: Writing about recovery… and more [#yearofwriting]
Please subscribe to my newsletter to get writing news and updates. Last month, I finally hit my goal of making $5k a month… And I am thrilled that this month was even better. It was a difficult month, however. Despite my financial goals, I want to pause and acknowledge that financial success doesn’t necessarily mean that things are going fantastically well. To be honest, it has been a bit of a struggle lately. I’ve had anxiety come up more than once due to stress outside of work (my husband and I bought a house, AHH!) and it’s been a struggle. I’m really grateful for the work that I have, and that my…
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On writers… and our middle-of-the-night insomnia
Please subscribe to my newsletter to get writing news and updates. Writers all have those nights, don’t we? I know I do. It starts out innocently enough. I get up to go to the bathroom. I quickly check my phone. Then something happens in my brain… and I can’t seem to turn it off. I’m writing this at 4 in the morning because I haven’t been able to fall asleep again since somewhere around 2:30am. I’m starting to realize that these nights happen to me once every couple of months. They come, and they go, and then they disappear again. But they always come back. It wasn’t always like this, however. In…
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Here’s what I learned about partying sober since I gave up alcohol
Please subscribe to my newsletter to get writing news and updates. When I first gave up alcohol and went into recovery in July 2015, I didn’t know all of the changes that it would bring to my life. However, one of the more obvious changes are socializing sober. When I was in New Orleans last September for my baby brother’s birthday (and having fun in the cute restaurant bathroom in the picture above), I realized just how different my life had become in the last year. I’ve learned a lot about maintaining a happy and alcohol-free life in this time, but it hasn’t always been easy. For one, I had a few…
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A year ago, I was single, unemployed, homeless, broke, fat and drunk
Please subscribe to my newsletter to get writing news and updates. Exactly a year ago, I had just arrived in my hometown of Fort Myers, FL. After 11 and a half happy years as a resident of New York City, I had decided to move back to Southwest Florida with my tail between my legs. Unknown to my friends at the time, I had just come out of the darkest place of my life and decided that what I needed was to restart. So in early April 2016, I accepted my parent’s invitation to move back home for a little while and set about changing my life. I packed up my apartment, sold as…
