The Journey... Life and Writing

Don't you wonder sometimes... where am I going?  What brought me to this point?  Who was responsible for where I am today and even who am I today?  So many variables, so many choices... so many people.  It's really like chapters of a book, but in life the characters bleed through to other chapters in your story.

It seems that this time of year always brings up good and bad memories for me of people that I've lost.  First and foremost, my Dad, because this is around the anniversary of his death.  I lost him many years ago, but his influence and love are still all around me.  What a good man he was.   And then there was a "sister" - well actually a real one and two "sisters by choice" as we called each other.  I lost them all to cancer.  My real sister started me on this writing journey by encouraging me to write a children's book (Fiona the Lighthouse Firefly) that she had always talked about.  Writing it became my grieving process.  After it was published, I established a scholarship fund in her name where all the proceeds from those two Fiona books go.  My other "sisters" had been in my life forever.  I laughed and cried with them, shared things that I had never shared with anyone else, accompanied them on the final journey they were taking  And my Mother, bless her.  She who caused me anger, heartbreak, and joy.  After our tumultuous times, we ended as friends, loving and respecting each other.  And then there were the men, of course, who as the Willie Nelson's song says, "came in and out my door."  Listen if you've never heard that song -   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVq0ONrSH-Q  Each and every one contributed to who I am - my strength, my resiliency, my ability to cope with loss and to open my heart and love.  Not all of the encounters ended well.  Some of the younger ones ended in disappointment; some were lost to accidental deaths; some were just lost over the years, but each and every one had an impact that "bled" through into the rest of my life.

Why am I telling you all this?  Because when I write, they all come to mind... their quirks, their looks, their ability to love and share, good traits and bad.  As a writer, you pull from your life experiences and the people who participated in them.  As the leader of my writer's group used to say, "you've been hurt, so what, everyone has been.  So you need to pick at that scab and tell us how it felt."  And I can tell you from experience, it's not easy but that's what readers connect with.  I even go back to the loss of my animals and the heartbreak their loss brought.  My first dog, Blackie, appears in many of my stories.  I can still feel the pain of my first encounter with death from him, then my Dad and Mom and all the others who are gone.

So many of you might recognize bits and pieces of yourself in my characters.  Or maybe I've done such a good writing job, that you can't tell if it's you or not.  :-)

Dig deep and enjoy the writing process.  I sure am.  "Dark Secrets has received really good reviews and I'm currently working on two new novels right now!

Till,
Judi.