In anticipation of my upcoming book, Sometimes The Wind Blows Sideways: Our Lives With A Special Needs Child, I decided to take part in a public reading down at the River's End Bookstore will some fellow writers within the community. As always, the bookstore hosted a wonderful evening and we heard from many talented authors.
When it was my turn to share, I took out a piece that I had written, and read during the SUNY Oswego Summer Writing Institute. It was not a story that I could share without shedding a tear back then, and it seems that time has not changed things for me. By the last paragraph, my voice was fighting to come out and the words were lost through the sounds of my tears. It was not a sad story that I was reading, yet one very dear and close to my heart. You see, it was the story of how my doctor advised me to abort my daughter, and instead of listening to his advice I listened to my heart. Over the past fifteen years I have watched my daughter struggle, grow, and become a beautiful loving human being.
The reason I shared this particular piece was simple. I wanted to show the community what kinds of stories they will find in my upcoming book when it is realesed this December. I want to show that just because somebody is labeled with a disability doesn't mean they can't become a valuable member of society. And with this anthology we will show the world how the word 'unique' can also be defined as 'spectacular', 'amazing', and 'inspiring'.
Asides from the fact that I was almost too chocked up to finish reading my work, that night was a huge success. Some people took my information to pass along to families that they knew who may want to contribute stories to the book and I got to mingle with the other writers who bravely took center stage to share their own precious words.
I'm sorry there is no picture to post with this blog. I had my video camera running so that I could post the video to my blog, but when I finished my reading and went to click the stop button I realized that it froze 42 seconds into taping and I ended up with nothing more than me introducting myself to the audience. Then when I came home to download the pictures I took with my camera, of course that did not want to work either. But as you all know things happen in threes and the best part was that my last name had accidently been printed wrong so I started out the evening with a new identity. Ce La Ve...what else can you do but laugh? I had a great time and that's all that matters !
When it was my turn to share, I took out a piece that I had written, and read during the SUNY Oswego Summer Writing Institute. It was not a story that I could share without shedding a tear back then, and it seems that time has not changed things for me. By the last paragraph, my voice was fighting to come out and the words were lost through the sounds of my tears. It was not a sad story that I was reading, yet one very dear and close to my heart. You see, it was the story of how my doctor advised me to abort my daughter, and instead of listening to his advice I listened to my heart. Over the past fifteen years I have watched my daughter struggle, grow, and become a beautiful loving human being.
The reason I shared this particular piece was simple. I wanted to show the community what kinds of stories they will find in my upcoming book when it is realesed this December. I want to show that just because somebody is labeled with a disability doesn't mean they can't become a valuable member of society. And with this anthology we will show the world how the word 'unique' can also be defined as 'spectacular', 'amazing', and 'inspiring'.
Asides from the fact that I was almost too chocked up to finish reading my work, that night was a huge success. Some people took my information to pass along to families that they knew who may want to contribute stories to the book and I got to mingle with the other writers who bravely took center stage to share their own precious words.
I'm sorry there is no picture to post with this blog. I had my video camera running so that I could post the video to my blog, but when I finished my reading and went to click the stop button I realized that it froze 42 seconds into taping and I ended up with nothing more than me introducting myself to the audience. Then when I came home to download the pictures I took with my camera, of course that did not want to work either. But as you all know things happen in threes and the best part was that my last name had accidently been printed wrong so I started out the evening with a new identity. Ce La Ve...what else can you do but laugh? I had a great time and that's all that matters !
RSS Feed
