News and Links

I'm all over the interwebz and thought I would post a few links to indulge my braggadocios tendencies.

First, thank you to Jacqueline Bach for profiling me on her blog series, The Process Project!  The interview was fun and really made me consider just how I go about putting my thoughts together when I write.  I love this series.  Writers always want to know what other writers do and how they create, hence the popularity of books on craft or The Paris Review's "The Art of Fiction" series.  But it is nice to see a project that embraces beginning writers, like myself, along with more established folks to show how we all do what we can to make our dreams happen.  What a fantastic idea!

So to Jacqueline,


Second, a small personal essay I wrote for the online magazine mater mea went live today.  mater mea "is a website that tells the stories of women at the intersection of motherhood and career. Launched in 2012, the site offers a more realistic depiction of black women in the many spaces they occupy: as mothers, daughters, employees and employers, lovers, and friends." 

It is one of a few essays I've written about my twins' difficult birth and the lessons I've learned trying to navigate my feelings around it.  A larger essay will be in Quaint Magazine's next issue, but I am not certain when that issue will be available.  I am currently working on another short essay related to parenting, covering a topic that also deals with my sons' prematurity. 

For some reason other than the obvious reasons, I feel inspired lately when I think about them, and I am writing about them more.  Maybe because it has been two years since their birth, and now I finally feel able to discuss that event without breaking down in self-shattering guilt and panic.  Maybe it is because I am entering a new phase of parenting, the toddler phase (aka, "my kid is an asshole" phase), and I have more to learn and therefore more to write about.  I have a feeling that I will continue to write about my kids for a long time to come, even when they are bigger than me and have moved out of the house.  But, for right now, I am trying to deal with the fact that others will soon know how I went into early labor, and it freaks me out a little.  This first foray in autobiography has been positive though, so I will lean on that for a little while longer.

So for me and my self-promoting, no humility having ass...