Warning: Bliss-following is contagious!
It's been far too long since I've shared my progress in producing The Miracle in July, my online genre-busting manuscript experiment which has me poking holes in my comfort zones and oozing all kinds of spectacular experiences. Since July 6th I've faithfully, weekly, published one prologue and 10 segments for a total of 35,005 words. It's been unbelievably scary to publish drafts of my very personal, very erotic story so that I may someday see my words bound in a cover, kicking it on the shelf at Powell's Books.
It's been a very scary experience, and also fucking amazing. Here's why: Inspiration. I have inspired people. Yes! Me!
It's so hard to express in words (How is this possible that I cannot express things in words??) how fantastic it feels to be told by your peers, your readers, your loved ones, that blatantly baring your darkness and aiming for what you desire inspires them to do the same. Some of you are painting again. Some are trying your own hand at multimedia storytelling. Some are trying again to follow your bliss, a journey that was abandoned when life got in the way. You have been calling, writing, whispering you inspired me.
What a precious phrase to hear!
I heard a lot of these happy noises of the inspiration that MIJ brings last Saturday at the party I threw at Leisure Public House in St. Johns. About 40 of my closest fanatics gathered with me to celebrate the beginning of Act Two of The Miracle in July. We drank gin and lemonade, ate gorgeous red velvet cupcakes with fondant starlings on them (thanks again @megheroonie!) and I gave away buttons and CDs of music and gift certificates. The much-anticipated and utterly gorgeous MIJ locket line made its debut, and I even sold quite a few copies of my signed, limited-run, newly revised drafts of Act One. (I have like four left…send me a message if you want one!) We all had a damned fine time, as you can see:
We're a beautiful bunch, aren't we? There are a couple of photos that didn't make the cut for public viewing, however, like the one where I am sitting on the couch like a lady and my cotton black and tan animal print panties are clearly visible. Something about the camera angle and the fact that I have acres of legs makes it possible to see my crotch. OMG! I've been Lohan-Speared! My freak-out about this isn't so much the exposure they are clean panties (after all, I've already decided to pose for Playboy if they call) as it is that the MIJ fan base is growing so fast that now I fear I must always wear underwear in public. And shave down there. In case of paparazzi. (Or Aaron Hockley.) Damned pseudo-celebrity status!
Speaking of fans, the word about The Miracle in July is spreading fast! The Facebook fan page adds new members every day, and people have been tweeting, bookmarking, and emailing the hell out of it. I so love the randomness of how new readers find it. "I saw a retweet." "I was looking up the lyrics of a song you embedded in your story." "You linked to me, and I read a little and got hooked." Awesome!
Even awesome-r is that the quality of the feedback has been phenomenal. Advice and suggestions from all of you have influenced my writing and the configuration of the MIJ site. I re-wrote the "about the author" and "about the story" pages and re-arranged the navigation. I added an Amazon store for music featured in my story. I added a "draft" graphic to all the segments, and made it easier for new readers to get to the Prologue so they could follow my bliss – follow the story – from the very beginning.
There are things I still need to work on, like better use of interactive maps in the story, and there are things that I've promised have not materialized, like a members-only section. But I've learned it's OK to not be perfect all the time, a lesson that is a big part of publishing drafts of my memoir. I do my best writing and then I put it out there in its imperfect form, just publish it, and then crank out another segment the next week. And I know the work won't be done even after I post the Epilogue after the end of Act Three! I'll still have lots of work to do on the story and lots more work to get the story out in book form. But as I begin Act Two I find I have so much more confidence then that fateful morning last July when I began publishing my bliss. And I have my readers to thank for that confidence.
I've learned so much already during the production of MIJ, and the most unexpected outcome, the most powerful magic, has been discovering that this story of mine more important than just me. There is something larger at work here. Knowing so many of you are experiencing my story along with me, getting to hear your encouragement, and being told that I've inspired others to try their own hand at following their bliss – all of that tells me that I'm doing something right. I just might be onto something here with this "follow your bliss" thing. It makes the painful extraction of my words to describe my own journey so very worth it.
Thank you all for sharing this with me, and for embarking on your own journey to answer this question: Do you have what it takes to follow your bliss?
There's only one way to find out. '; addthis_title=''; addthis_pub='mediaChick';
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