Tuesday, January 05, 2010

Comments

When an email popped up in my inbox informing me of a comment on here four times out of five it would be a spam bot trying to sell male enhancement drugs or spread a virus or something else of the sort (thus the comment moderating). So unless I recognized the name seeing comment mail wasn't that exciting. That is until recently. After the AWESOME comment from Elizabeth Knox (which if you haven't read Dreamhunter and Dreamquake- you should, as in stop what you are doing and go get it right now..oh wait, after you read this though) I got a few more from unknown peeps. Now checking my email is a joy! What is it about strangers that make it easier to listen? Maybe that I expect that most my friends live by the "if you can't say anything nice don't say anything at all" adage.
Now in these comments I noticed one that stood out to me:

Anonymous
said...
Your blog keeps getting better and better! Your older articles are not as good as newer ones you have a lot more creativity and originality now keep it up!

Now this got me thinking. Why is it getting better? Most the time I feel like it is now sadly forsaken for the ease of the one line status on facebook. I have also been known to go months without posting. So why is it better? Did they mean the writing or the content or both?
So I did a little browsing over my blog.
When I started this blog I had only been married a year, I had an infant daughter, and was still trying to figure out how to be a wife and mom. I paid no attention to how I was writing, but more to what I was writing about. It was meant as a way to keep my family updated on my quickly growing little girl. Only I had another baby. So then all the milestones that I had to write about became the same old thing. During this time I had become consumed as a mom and homemaker. I spent each moment trying to keep my family happy, healthy, fed, and CLEAN! It was an exhausting existence. I spent little to no time thinking about myself or any of my dreams, achieved or otherwise.
Then my life changed.
I know lots of people talk about how much they like the Twilight books and even more make fun of the whole vampire/human girl teen relationship thing. I get that. But Twilight changed my life, actually Stephanie Meyer did. I read the books, devouring them the way I do any good read. Only when I finished I hopped online to check out what else could be found about the series and discovered the story of how this book came to be.
Stephanie talked about how she had a dream and was afraid of forgetting it because of her crazy mom memory. I thought "Hey I have a horrible memory too. I know just what she means.". She talked about having three small kids and not sleeping and I thought "Hey, I have two small kids and rarely sleep anymore either.". Then she talked about writing the story of twilight for her, no one else, sneaking away to the computer to type when she could be spared. I thought 'Wow, she found time for herself?".
That was the beginning. I started by trying to write a book. Seven weeks later with the help and coaching of my brother and sister I completed my first novel. I started editing and looking into agents and all the things that go along with trying to get published.
In the end I decided to write a new book and set that one aside for now. I don't regret it, in fact if I am never published I won't regret it. I did something I never thought I could do, I wrote a book! And more importantly I found the time to do something so entirely just for me in the middle of my crazy mom schedule. All of a sudden it was like the scales fell from my eyes! I could do stuff for me! I started doing a lot of things again that I had given up, I have taken back up sewing, and cooking. My housekeeping even improved as I got the rest of my life back together. Now I feel completely different then I did a year ago. I lay in bed dreaming of all the things I could do in life again, much like a younger me. I kept thinking my time for dreaming and conquering the world was over when I had my babies, now I realize that I can just take them along for the ride with me.
So say what you want about Twilight, or Stephanie Meyer, but she woke me up and I will forever be grateful to her for that. With that awakening apparently came a better blog. So I guess the return for listening to me go on and on about Twilight is having something better to read on here?
Agree? Disagree? Discuss...I LOVE comments.

5 comments:

Emily said...

First of all, let me just say this...Do I make fun of Twlight? Yes (that is no secret between you and I). A lot? Yes. BUT I am a teacher and so anything that gets people reading is awesome. And I can make fun of Twilight (a lot) but it has made LOTS of people read. And so I think that is awesome.

Second of all...I think it's wonderful that you have found a passion that you find so fulfilling. Having a creativity outlet is essential for finding out who we are as people. Kudos to you!

Shannon said...

Now Em, did you feel that that was pointed at you just because you are my most outspoken Twi-Hater EVER? Just kidding, for once I actually didn't have you in mind when I made that comment!
By the way have I ever mentioned that your blog is my fav to read? Totally not lying either.

Regina said...

That's really great, Shannon. Thanks for sharing. I know you want to publish your works, but it'd be fun to read a teaser at least. I enjoyed the Twilight series too. I read it after it seemed like every female I knew told me too. Keep on writing! :)

Anonymous said...

I am am excited too with this question. You will not prompt to me, where I can find more information on this question?

Anonymous said...

Amazingly! Amazingly!