When I started blogging, I was using it to help me along the way in my life-journey as I navigate some new waters in life.  Has it helped?  Yes, it has, and as I sit here today, I can say with some certainty what it has done.

A year and a half ago, I wanted to be a professional writer.  In terms of my identity, however, I was still holding on to the elements of my life that have defined me for the last 50 years.  They have evolved, of course, as I became a wife and mother and parapro, but I never completely gave up any other when the new ones came along.  Yes, I am a wife and mother, but I am still also a daughter and sister.  Yes I am a special ed paraprofessional, an educator if you will, but the roles of wife and mother are still my top priority.

Blogging has helped me see that being a writer is as much my identity as being a wife and mother.  The fact that I want to make money writing may be an aspiration, but to say I want to become a writer is like saying I want to become a woman.

The next issue has been to identify my writer’s voice.  How do I distinguish myself from the millions of other writers out there?  The answer is so simple that I am embarrassed I didn’t realize it before. My voice is unique because it is mine.  No one else sounds like me, nor do I sound like anyone else.  Problem solved.

Ok, so I’m a writer and I have a voice.  What am I going to write about?  That is where this blog has been all over the place, but like a forensic specialist I can cull substance from all the different pieces to come up with a story that makes sense of all the evidence.

I like romance.  I like fantasy.  Thus I write romantic fantasy. That’s the fun stuff. I am also very serious about the importance of literature in establishing and teaching cultural values. My heroes and heroines may not be perfect but they will ultimately make the right choice and do the right thing, because in any world that I control good will always defeat evil.

I appreciate Joseph Campbell’s teachings about the hero’s journey and the role of mythology in culture and how archetypes can unify us on a global level. I believe that in life each of us makes our own hero’s journey, and recognizing the stages can help us identify the decision milestones when they happen. As a writer and a teacher I hope to show all readers and all students that they are the heroes of their own stories.

Finally, there is the extra stuff, the stuff that makes me giddy with joy or overwhelms me with powerful emotion:  the love I feel for my family; the wonder of holidays; the silly humor that features children and animals; the beauty of God’s creation; the beauty Man is capable of creating; the power of well used words; and a great story, well told.  With so many projects on my list, and so many wonderful things to share and learn, I can’t wait to see where blogging will take me next.