Time Turner Magic - An Anniversary Blog
Wow. Where does the time go? My blog is officially 3 years old today! I started this blog in 2012 on National Indigenous Peoples Day (also called, National Solidarity Day) because I wanted to have a place to talk about all of the positive initiatives I saw happening in my community (Six Nations of the Grand River) and because I knew there were seldom positive stories about my people in the news. This is changing though—there are a lot more positive stories out there and it’s my hope we only see more and more.
The blog became a place where I could share what I was learning, what I was reading and what I was writing about. Over the years those topics have ranged across the things I am most interested in: Indigenous education, languages, Treaties, water and physics. Over the last year, my greatest passion and focus has been on storytelling, writing and learning about publishing—especially since I decided to become an independent publisher. Learning about publishing has been a very different process for me than learning to write or being a writer. It requires a bit more of an organizational/business lens. The whole area is absolutely fascinating to me. And as I’ve been reading book about publishing I’ve been learning to plan and piece things together and get excited about developing editorial plans and profit and loss statements and define marketing goals and budgets. I feel a similar kind of excitement when I’m writing too—a thrill, a sense of adventure, a feeling of being swept along by the story.
Of course, there are downsides to all of this happy, excited energy as well. For instance, every once in awhile, I’m gripped with this fear that I’m not a good enough writer. That I’m too edgy or not edgy enough. That it’s all been done before and better by someone else. That I don’t know what I’m doing. And the beautiful thing is—I don’t. I’m simply putting words down one after another. Telling the stories I see unfolding in my imagination the best way I can. Maybe not everyone will like the stories I have to tell. And that’s okay. That happens sometimes. I suppose this is why we have to write the stories we love. The stories we believe in. The stories our characters trust us to tell. Because it’s not easy work being a writer. But it gets easier when we stop telling ourselves we can’t and showing ourselves we can.
I hope to spend a lot of time this next year showing myself that I can. There is a lot of help and encouragement available to writers and independent publishers these days. By far, one of the biggest pieces of advice/wisdom coming from every book, blog, article and podcast I’ve read/listened to about publishing is for writers to do one thing—write what we are most passionate about in a way that only we can. I look forward to another year of doing just that!
Anyways—today is also Father’s Day and so I will be spending a quiet day with my darling love and father of my daughter. But I wanted to take a quick second to mark this special day for the blog. Knowing that when I started writing it—I’d never imagined it would become this living document of all these awesome moments on my journey towards my dream of being able to write, publish and share books. Of being able to read more stories told by my people now and hundreds of years ago. Of working with and learning Ogwehoweh languages. Of becoming a parent. It’s been wonderful. I’m so grateful for all of it and I’m definitely looking forward to the next phase of this adventure. Nya:węh for being here for parts of it! Happy writing! Happy Solstice! Happy Solidarity Day!
S.