Birthday post mortem or how I'm moving forward

Just about a year ago – on Mother’s Day and near my last birthday  – I achieved a huge goal. My memoir, Leaving the Hall Light On, A Mother’s Memoir of Living with her Son’s Bipolar Disorder and Surviving His Suicide, was published. In it I tell the steps I took in living with the loss of my son. First and foremost I chose to live and take care of myself as a woman, wife, mother, writer.

In hopes that my story will inspire others to find ways to survive their own tragic experiences, I’ve devoted most of this last year marketing my book. I have become increasingly more engaged in social networking, through Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest, I had a blog tour through Women on Writing (WOW), radio interviews, and many speaking and book signing engagements.

I’ve also embarked on a whole new writing career – writing for the Huffington Post That’s Fit and Healthy Living columns, the Naturally Savvy website as its over sixty expert, PsychAlive, a website that focuses on suicide prevention, and just recently contributing to Open to Hope, a wonderful site near and dear to me that looks to finding hope after loss.  

Since my publisher, Lucky Press, decided to cease doing business this past April 30, marketing my book has become more of a priority for me. But, what has been so encouraging is all the help and suggestions I’ve received from the relations I’ve made through my social networks. I never would have believed how close some of us have become.

Though I suspect that I’ll be involved in making next-step decisions for another couple of months at least – about going the self publishing route or continuing to try to find a traditional publisher to reissue my book – I know I will continue with the mission that has slowing and surely evolved through the years since my son died: erasing the stigma of mental illness and suicide in the hopes of saving lives.

I’ve also had a huge surprise this year. Little did I know that I’d become a published author, poet, and web journalist at this stage in my life. I’ve found that I’m definite proof at age 72 that it is never too late for opportunities to reinvent our lives.

Social network and novel work updates

Social Network Update

I’ve now joined BranchOut and Pinterest – as if I needed more social network connections than I already have, e.g., Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Goodreads. I really don’t know what BranchOut is all about and Pinterest is even more of a riddle.

A recent pin on my Pinterest 

for the home board

According to their websites:

BranchOut makes it easy to search for jobs and see inside connections in your network. Our quick tour will help you discover BranchOut's powerful features.

Pinterest lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and organize their favorite recipes. Best of all, you can browse pinboards created by other people. Browsing pinboards is a fun way to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests.

I haven’t really worked with BranchOut yet because I haven’t been actively looking for a job – but of course one never knows.

And, I’ve seen some interesting and beautiful pin boards on Pinterest. I’ve even joined in with the rest in pinning and repinning and liking existing pins, but I don’t get the point yet. I signed up to take a free 45 minute Webinar about it next week, so maybe I’ll come out with a whole new outlook then. Since my main goal for all of these sites is to get the word out about my memoir, Leaving the Hall Light On, I can’t tell how BranchOut and Pinterest will help me do that.

Novel Update

And, I’m going to take a break from my novel today. I passed the 70,000 word mark yesterday, I’ve begun to create chapters, and next week I’ll probably start pinning the book up on storyboards (not to be confused with Pinterest). That way I’ll be able to see the holes in my content more clearly. Up until now I’ve been scrolling through a big document, and scrolling back and forth through 170 plus pages is not the way to go. I’ve also dropped my stuff into Dropbox just in case I want to work on it when I’m not at my home computer.

Needless to say, my online and writing life keeps getting more and more involved and complicated. Maybe I need to go around for a while, paper notebook in hand, and write some poems – like the good old days.