Quick update. I was recently interviewed by Shoutout Colorado magazine and thought you might want to check it out. You can see the full interview here. Below are a couple of responses to some of the questions they asked me.
Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
My response: For many years I wrote content for a vast array of clients, as I built up my own content writing business. My journey began after I left the corporate realm back in 2015. And I loved it. I worked with some excellent people and learned a lot about my craft and myself in the process– practical things I never learned in grad school. I worked HARD. It took nearly two years to build out my professional portfolio of clients. Yet for the same amount of time, I was always talking about the fiction I was working on, including one idea in particular for a novel. Many of the individuals I worked with insisted that I take on the project I talked about all the time, claiming that I just HAD to do it. They really needed to read it, they said. So, eventually, I did. I reluctantly said goodbye to my fabulous clients who paid me well and started working on my novel this year, while blogging about my writing journey and other writerly things. Right now I’m working on my first novel, which will take the more dystopic version of the world in which we live and hopefully turn it on its head, in a good way. I’m hoping to create a narrative that helps us see a realistic way out of the doomsday world in which we currently live, without cutesy utopic visions. But without the heavy sarcasm and doom we all feel sometimes, too. I am adding a bit of suspense, action, drama, and of course, romance, to keep the narrative interesting. My experiences over the past few years have taught me that evolving as a writer is a good thing but not always easy, and that it’s a great idea to shake up what you’re doing every now and then to stay sharp and motivated long-term. As I write my current novel, I hope to raise funds on my website to keep myself and my LLC going. I am offering subscription options to access daily writing prompts that will help my fellow writers on their writing journeys too. All subscription fees and donations on my website go toward literacy and social justice initiatives
Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My response: My story and career would not be possible without all the smart, persistent women entrepreneurs, authors, activists, and philosophers who keep me going every day. When I read something new and bold that they have written and advocate for, my faith is restored in humanity and what is possible… especially when times seem so grim, as they do now. Without the example and support of my close female friends who are authentic and warm, especially those who write and spearhead their own businesses, and seminal authors and philosophers like Mary Wollstonecraft, Hannah Arendt, Toni Morrison, and Sue Monk Kidd, I don’t know where I would be. I suppose I would dedicate my career and life to all those women out there who aren’t afraid to push the envelope with an equal amount of tenacity and grace. Especially those who choose to write about it.
Access the full interview here.