Disability
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The rise and fall of NaNoWriMo, and a disabled author’s take.
NaNoWriMo? More like NaNoNoMo. At least, that’s what a lot of people seem to be saying this November. If you’re just now finding me, let me take a moment to give you a quick rundown on why this is so important to me. Short version? “Hi, I’m Erin, a fantasy romance author, who also happens to be a Christian, disabled, and weaves romantic themes into her stories!” Long version? Read on, my dears. For the uninitiated, I’m a 10-year veteran participant of the writing event known as National Novel Writing Month, aka NaNoWriMo for short. The goal of NaNo is to create the rough draft of a “novel-length” work (50,000…
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True Thanksgiving: Gratitude in Spite of Challenge
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Faith Fest 2024
Back in September I traveled to Wilkesboro, NC, with my mom and two of our dear friends from church to attend Faith Fest. For some reason, this post has been sitting in my drafts for a while. For those who’ve never heard of this event, Faith Fest is a multi-day outdoor concert. There is also the presentation of the gospel by a speaker in the middle of things. They manage to get some pretty big names, and Jason Crabb ( a two time Grammy award winner and Christian artist) is often closely associated with the event and performs. As great as it was to be at a Christian concert, I’m…
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The benefits of rest
Sometimes, we all need to slow down and take a break. Recently, my disability reminded me of this the hard way – by causing a problem with a sore on my foot that became infected. One of the downsides of my disability is that I don’t have a lot of feeling in my feet. This often causes me to have sores or other issues without being able to feel them, or know how bad they really are. To my detriment, I’m also incredibly stubborn. I hate going to the doctor unless I absolutely have to. So when my mother dragged me to urgent care a few weeks ago, I was…
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True Thanksgiving: Gratitude in Spite of Challenge
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Maybe It’s OK (If I’m Not OK)
Trigger warning: Today’s blog discusses mental health issues and suicidal ideation (albeit without a plan to follow through). If you are struggling, please reach out for help. Resources are available at https://988lifeline.org . https://www.focusonthefamily.com/get-help/mental-health-resources/ also has help available. With apologies to We Are Messengers, I’m borrowing one of their lyrics for this week’s blog. “Maybe It’s Ok” was released in 2019 on We Are Messengers’ debut album, Honest. Darren Mulligan, the band’s lead singer, has talked about the story behind the song, and especially about how the song was written from a place of understanding that not everything will be roses as we follow God. In living with Cerebral Palsy,…
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True Thanksgiving: Gratitude in Spite of Challenge
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Creating Space
You get to build your perfect space for reading and writing. What’s it like? My perfect space for reading and writing would be hard to imagine. As it is, I live at home with my parents due to my disability. I do most of my reading and writing in my bedroom in their home, simply because I feel comfortable there. But okay, here goes. I’m ashamed to admit that I’m a very messy person. My room is currently filled with piles of clothing, papers scattered to the floor and a desk right beside my bed, so I have my computer near on days when it’s difficult for me to get up.…
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True Thanksgiving: Gratitude in Spite of Challenge
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“Make us truly thankful.”
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. As people around the world celebrate a day of gratitude, I pause to reflect on the things I am grateful for, and what is to come. One of the things I often struggle with as a person with a disability, is finding moments of joy in the times when I am at my lowest. I always tell people that I know things could be much worse. There are varying degrees of severity that come with Cerebral Palsy. They also come with a host of other medical issues. I know people who were born prematurely, like me, who struggle with worse health issues than I have. I’m grateful…
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True Thanksgiving: Gratitude in Spite of Challenge
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Reflex and Reflection
Sometimes I wonder about my own body. Dealing with Cerebral Palsy, I have a lot of issues with reflexes and muscle pain. There are days when it’s all I can do to get out of bed, something I struggle with anyway because it’s nearly impossible for me to flex at the ankles. I also have a lot of other health issues that are unrelated to my CP. I’ve often wondered why it’s so hard for me to write characters that are like me. I question if I shy away on impulse because there is something I’m terrified of “getting wrong”, since there are so many variants of Cerebral Palsy, and…
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True Thanksgiving: Gratitude in Spite of Challenge
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Questions and answers
One of the things I often deal with related to my disability is how to answer questions asked of me by those who don’t know what it’s like to have cerebral palsy, or even what it is. There’s a lot of discourse happening around disability now, and the labels that are put on people who live with disabilities. According to attorney Kenneth A. Stern, a lawyer who claims to specialize in cases related to cerebral palsy, often abbreviated as CP, it is estimated that there are 764,000 children and adults living with Cerebral Palsy in the United States. Another set of attorneys, Miller and Stois, provide studies stating that in…
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True Thanksgiving: Gratitude in Spite of Challenge
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Self-investment is a risk worth taking.
Today’s daily writing prompt lends itself nicely to the wrap up of my first half of involvement in my writing courses. Deciding to invest my time in myself as an author has come with many ups and downs and it’s led me to do some soul searching. This is an answer that I think will only get better as I take further steps to establish myself and my brand. Right now, I am heavily invested in a paid writing course to help me write and market myself as an author. As someone who relies on funds from disability to live for the moment, investing in myself has been something that…
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True Thanksgiving: Gratitude in Spite of Challenge
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A Lot Can Change in Seven Days
I’m switching thigs up a bit for this week’s blog post. As a Christian and an author, one of the things that fascinated me about the life of Christ was how quickly people changed their minds about Him in the course of one week, which we now know as “Holy Week”. Most religious scholars agree that Jesus was on this Earth ministering to the people for three years. Many hold that he began his ministry around the age of thirty. But for me, it’s always been the final week of His life that was fascinating. I’ve always wondered about what happened during that week. How many people heard Him speak…
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True Thanksgiving: Gratitude in Spite of Challenge
