My Daughter's Eyes

Every month I celebrate the effort it took to write My Daughter’s Eyes and Other Stories, and to writing in general. Even writing here takes time and faith. Writing is both a joy and an effort, I have to make time for it. I have to nurture it, and believe in it. Art is the same way. I have to have courage, but my life is forever enhanced by the creative effort.

“I can shake off everything as I write; my sorrows disappear, my courage is reborn.” — Anne Frank

It takes a lot of persistence and determination to continue to any creative project when you have a full life filled with committment to family, four legged loved ones, full time and part time jobs. So, if you are like me, a writer, and creator of any type of art, music, stories, poems, please continue. Do not let anyone or anything stop you. Art nourishes your soul and heals what is nameless.

“Read a thousand books, and your words will flow like a river.” ― Lisa See

I love the creative process be it creating art, a blog, a lecture, a story. I pray that I continue to share my art and my stories with you, but I am slow, I take my time in the mist of the forest of my life. Every year, I focus on one or two stories I have written and I edit them. I edit them and try to find a homes for them with time given if any.

Sometimes, I am lucky, like when I wrote “Butterfly Kisses”, I read it at the Hudson Valley Writer’s Center at their Friday’s Open Mike, and an editor liked it and asked me to submit it, and Viola!!! it was published in a beautiful anthology. The same happened at another reading, and it was translated and published in spanish in an anthology as “Besos de Mariposas”

“You don’t start out writing good stuff. You start out writing crap and thinking it’s good stuff, and then gradually you get better at it. That’s why I say one of the most valuable traits is persistence.” ― Octavia E. Butler

In the winter months I write lots of stories, whatever comes. In little black notebooks, and then I return to them to find one or two I can type, and then in the summer, I edit. I edit and then I try to find a home for it, when I find the courage. Rejection can paralyze me, yet rejection is what strengthens my resolve. Mostly, I try to sit and write. Yet, I never stop writing. Writing and breathing are equal to me. I breath therefore I write.

“Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on.” — Louis L’Amour

What is your creative process? How do you manage your life and your art? How do you find your balance?