I am reporting to you on this day, 10.8.18 as a published poet! (click link to check it out on Amazon)
Wow! It’s hard to put into words what this moment feels like because on one hand, it really doesn’t feel like that big of a deal, I’m like yea so what, I put my thoughts on paper and published it in a book and on the other hand, I’m like wow one of my lifelong dreams have come true and here I am holding a book with MY NAME ON IT that you can buy off of Amazon.
This project kind of started on a whim. I had always known that eventually I wanted to publish a poetry book (and many other books…believe me, this is the first of many to come throughout my lifetime) but I didn’t know when or how.
My Journey with Poetry Writing
I’ve always been a writer for as long as I can remember. I used to want to be an author before it changed to actress and now it’s just changed to artist.
I notice I’m more inspired to write poetry when I’m in transition in my life chapters, and I remember more seriously starting to write poetry after I graduated high school.
I continued to write in college and even tried to complete an emphasis in poetry (I never finished the final class because my theater classes got in the way) but I did take an Intermediate Poetry workshop with a professor named Susan Davis where we wrote poems and every week came in and workshopped each others work.
It was a class of about 8 people and was probably one my favorite classes I took in college. The best thing about it was that as part of our homework, we had to carry a small notebook with us everywhere we went so that when inspiration struck, we had a place to write down our thoughts.
After taking this class in my sophomore year, I continued to write, but not so seriously, only turning to it when I really felt I needed it.
For me, it’s a way of processing my emotions and taking the lessons I’ve learned in life to put them in words. I love the way words can take me back to a time or place in my life evoking scents, images, and feelings.
After graduating college and moving to New England, I wrote a lot of poetry. (again, a time of transition)
In January, I heard from a friend that she was self-publishing a book of poems and that’s where the idea really kicked in. Wait, self-publish, you can do that?! I started to look into it and it seemed relatively easy…but I knew I wasn’t ready to publish anything yet, so I continued to write without thinking much of it.
Then, about 2 months ago I really got the impulse to start collecting my poems in a book format. I just wanted to see them all together and have my very own collection of my poems.
I poured through all of my notebooks, current and old, and pulled out the ones I liked best. I went through the blog and pulled out a few poems that I wrote during my 30 day blogging challenge. I even looked at the notebook I kept during that poetry class my sophomore year of college and pulled out a few from there. I looked through my notebook I kept during my time traveling in Europe and pulled out a few from there. Oh, and also the notes on my computer and phone had a lot of material.
Before I knew it, I had over 100 poems.
Slowly, I started to edit, write new poems, and come up with a theme for the book.
The idea of Mermaid Musings: stories of sea, sex, spirituality came to me because that’s exactly what it is. As I explain on the title page of this blog, the symbol of a mermaid means so much to me as a symbol of wild femininity and the poems are truly my “musings” things I think deeply about and learn about and hope to share a message of truth with others and hope that some of it will resonate.
It’s raw and completely unfiltered. It’s an ode to the mysteries and magic of the universe. It’s a devotion to women and their wild beauty. It’s an expression of my heart, soul, and thoughts.
and it’s now available on Amazon and Kindle.
You can buy it here.
Thank you for all your support ❤
Mermaid Musings 