Never Alone

      Solitude is a wonderful feeling but, as one of the peanuts gang once noted, while sitting on a dock, watching the water, "it can get very lonely when you're by yourself."  I had that cartoon taped to the inside of my High School locker during a time of my life when I was always lonely, even when surrounded by teeming hallways of other people just my age.

 I love solitude, and seek it often, locking myself in the bathroom in a tub of hot water if I can't really get away, or staying up, even though I'm exhausted, just to drink in the silence once the rest of the house if sleeping.  Writing is a process that requires a lot of solitude for me, I need to be uninterrupted as I allow my mind to play with the thoughts and words that might sometime flow into someone else's mind in a delayed conversation, but must be born in quiet contemplation.  But Loneliness is deadening, it kills the spirit and energy that good writing must be filled with.

I love to write about the ideas and experiences that I have shared with those I love, and to expand those ideas into new plans or take them off on a tangent ow "what if . . . fantasy
 but of course, first, I have to share those experiences and one I have written about them, I want to share my writing.  I want to see if the thoughts that made me angry, can infuriate you, if my laughter triggers yours.  I want you to love the characters who lived in my head first.

And I want to someday make more than a few dollars on the writing that I do, so that I can feed my family and care for my home and still have time to write even more.  I truly believe that my stories are my gift to the world and that the beauty I see can help other people find a reason to smile and the hope of love and a breath of fresh air on an otherwise gloomy day.

So sometimes I have to reach out to other people.  I have to say, look at what I have to offer, what can you share with me.  How can we help each other make this world a better place for our parents, our children and everyone?  It is easier to write than to look someone in the eye and tell them that they will find my book to be worth their hard earned money.  Learning to treat writing as a business does not come naturally.

 But I have found an incredible group of people who have helped to make my life less lonely.  I have found that social networking really is both, a social experience with give and take, and a connection that links each of us together in a supporting net.  I have found the net that did appear when I took the leap out in faith.

Author Central, on Facebook, and Amrita Press and Orangeberry Book Collective and a whole bunch of writers who work at almost every level and cover almost every writing field, have pulled together to shout out and celebrate each one of us.  Instead of competing and trying to say, My book is better, we have been encouraging and supporting and understanding that everyone has a story worth telling and they jut need help finding the person who needs to hear that story.

 We have been celebrating the joy in being writers and tweeting each others news and liking each others pages - AND - surprise, Surprise - LIKING each other

The chemistry between us has been magical and has created a group with a powerful voice.  You should stop by Author Central and see what I mean.

 We have flooded each other with support and it has already been bearing fruit.  And since I am already talking about on-line places where I have found support and friends, let me also mention a few others who have jump started me on the road to my best future.  NaNoWriMo, is the National Novel Writing Month site where you can find support to write a quick and dirty first draft of the book you've always wanted to write.
 FlyLady.com is where you can learn the babysteps to turn a overwhelmed house into a loving home.  NoExcusesWorkouts (NeWo) with Jonathan Roche will give you a simple set of nutrition and exercise goals that make you feel strong and energized and never like you are hurting.

Oh, and did I mention, If you love fantasy, especially journeys to other worlds like Narnia or Oz or Neverland, Check out my novels, Duffy Barkley is Not a Dog and Duffy Barkley: Seek Well