There was a very specific “line of demarcation” in my life: before cancer, and after cancer.
Before cancer, I spent more time at someone else’s office than I did at my own. My writing was something I worked to “squeeze in” if I had the time. After, I work for myself, and writing is job number one.
Well, not exactly. Being Mom is job number one. Since both kiddos go to school, I have 8 hours to try to knock things off that to do list I kept talking about last week.
This blog post isn’t filled with deep meaning, or points of advice. It’s just a quick snapshot of a couple of things I think are pretty cool, after cancer. 😉
My daughter is about to turn 13, so I’m an embarrassment more than anything else. Mind you, quite a few of her friends tell her they think I’m “cool,” but this does nothing to sway her mortified reaction to me doing – well, anything. Breathing in and out, walking, heaven forbid I should hum along to music. Despite this, I overheard her on the phone the day I self-published my first book: “Sierra, my mom’s a published author now!!!” This was punctuated by a lot of happy squealing, so I figure it means I am doing something right.
My son is about to turn 9, and when he was 5 he really had a hard time with the word “author.” He constantly mispronounced it. Not to be a killjoy, but I am that Mom who corrects her children’s grammar and pronunciation. This one, I couldn’t bring myself to correct: ARTHUR. When the little guy couldn’t say “author” he said “Arthur.”
Thus, my alter ego was born.
With my Auntie, I like to sign all correspondence as “Arthur.” I’m trying to come up with a genre for which a masculine pen name might come in handy. I have pen names already, and have published a few things under those names – but they are female pen names.
How would my tone change if I were a man? It’s not a profound post, just a couple of smiles that have come from taking risks and putting my own work out there.
“The spirit of creation is the spirit of contradiction. It is the breakthrough of appearances toward an unknown reality.” ~ Jean Cocteau
Happy #Monday, and blessings to you all!