Writers Link Exchange Created

On August 10, 2006 I created a Writers Link Exchange on the remaining page of my Joyfulwraps site. One of the work at home moms forums I participate in, had been discussing how to link to each other's articles on Associated Content (where some of our articles are published online). I have seen link exchange pages and have participated in many over the years. Creating one was simple and the idea to help each other draw traffic to our writing efforts a good one.

I will be fine-tuning the page, as I do all of my site pages LOL. My need to constantly improve my art is bordering on psychotic. Yes, I have some traits of a type A personality. Should you, the reader care to follow the link exchange as it progresses; the link is:

Writers Link Exchange

I bet you are glad this is a short post, compared to my first one :)

Getting to know me, the writer

You already know my name :) and that I am a writer. What you do not know about me can pretty much be summed up by saying: I am a MOM and I love our pets, but the most passionate part of me is this insatiable need to absorb knowledge LOL. I love to learn new things about everything that touches my life. I think that knowledge is powerful stuff. Becoming an educated person is an ongoing, never-ending process. This need to know stuff, allows me to enjoy the research part of being a writer. It does not bore me in the least to find out about something I know little about, in order to write a requested article on the subject. I think my family background and my experiences in my younger years (20's and 30's) have made for a well to draw from when writing about certain topics. An example would be my entrance into the United States Navy, the summer I graduated from high school. I was very young, and naive, I grew up during my four-year enlistment. The education I received was top notch. Discipline, respect for authority, adherence to the law, and pride in my country were all values I witnessed and they became imbedded into my personality. I also became exposed to the male species during those four years and although I dated a little during my senior year; the males that were a part of my naval career were an entirely different animal. I experienced a lot of trauma at the hands of males during those years. My first sexual experience beyond kissing was when I was raped right after my 20th birthday, that event and the resultant physical, emotional and mental assault left scars that still haunt me today, to a lesser degree, but they are still there. At the end of my time in service, my boyfriend got me drunk with wine he used in spaghetti sauce (unknown to me) and served with dinner (I sipped one glass). He took advantage of me and I became pregnant with my eldest daughter. That experience embittered me towards any kind of alcoholic beverage and further convinced me that males were pretty much scum. He choose not to see me anymore after I broke the news to him. He has never been a part of our daughter's life, even after she located him and wrote to him. She wanted to connect with him; he wanted to stay out of her life. I say she is better off without him in her life. Pain, grief, sadness, and loneliness; these emotions are powerful and can shape our lives in positive or negative ways. We choose how to react when bad things happen to us. I hope my experiences and how I overcame the terrible impact of them may have a positive impression on someone's life. Maybe my words can comfort, guide or heal someone, or perhaps even keep someone from having to go through what I did. My experiences have meaning, if my words can encourage, heal or educate someone, in a way that creates a positive influence on their life. There were many wonderful events in my 20's and 30's. I became a mom 3 times; each time giving birth to a girl. I longed for a son, but came to love and cherish each of my daughters. The man I fell in love with and married in my 30's was a very deceptive man and my marriage endured more lies and deceptions from him than I can or wish to count. Several years into our marriage he was diagnosed as having Chronic Depression and being Bipolar in thought and in emotion, and as being a Chronic Liar (yes that is a diagnosis). He has taken himself off his medications 6 times to date. Each time he came off his meds he would go into extreme rages, uncontrolled bouts of depression and mania episodes of extreme agitation and anger. The girls and I were not safe during these times. He abused me physically once. Our family endured 9 separations. This last separation at the time of this writing has been a little over a year and is a permanent one. You cannot force someone to want to stay on medications or to seek professional help. I have learned this valuable insight the difficult way. If I could I would make him take his medications faithfully, for he is an entirely different man when he consistently takes them. If I could, I would make him see his mental health physician often and make him find a good doctor. The one he has seen for years encourages him to repeat his habit of going off his meds; because she takes him back each time despite a office policy of not doing so for any of her patients. She does his therapy herself instead of sending him to a more qualified therapist and only sees him once a month even when he is in serious trouble and is suicidal or cycling rapidly through one manic episode after another. He could have searched for a better doctor, but did not because she feeds his ego. She enjoys their talks and he has always had a deep need for people to like him. He stays with her, and our marriage has suffered. Our daughters have suffered because he cannot be a father to them, because he is so wrapped up in himself. I write about being a mom, about being a woman, and about what it is like to have a loved one destroy his life; because he refuses to control his disease, but allows it to control him. I write about education and in particular what I have learned in our almost thirteen years of homeschooling. I am presently attending Kaplan University Online. I should complete my Advanced Start Bachelor of Science in Business Degree in 2007.

At the present all of my articles are published on a site called Associated Content. I have finally started to write a novel, that I have been taking notes for, for years.

Future blog entries will detail how my writing career progresses. I hope to use this blog as a journal of my writing career. Perhaps those reading this blog will be my future clients, or fans of my novels :) Only time will tell.