I have just self-published my third book in 15 months, and although there has been a great deal of satisfaction in writing those books, I know I need to take a breather--but my "purpose" in writing them won't allow me to do so!
I self-published my first two books, MORAL INFIDELITY and DOUBLING BACK TO LOVE, at the age of 59. Yes, quite a late age to start a career in writing. In this, my 60th year, I published Book 1: HE'S JUST A MAN: Making the Most of Your Womanly Power.
All of my books embrace the concept of women standing in their own power. The escalating assault on a woman's reproductive choices, especially her right to an abortion, compelled me to publish MORAL INFIDELITY, a book about a hypocritical pro-life governor whose mistress becomes pregnant, and the choices he is forced to make when an unintended pregnancy threatens to ruin his life. Choice takes on a whole new meaning for him.
DOUBLING BACK TO LOVE is about a woman who asks the question, "Why does it have to come down to choosing just one man, when no one man can give me everything I want?" She won't be shackled by conventionality and duplicitous morality in seeking love.
Both of those books are works of fiction.
HE'S JUST A MAN is a non-fiction, self-help book for women. It is intended to help women build their self-esteem so that they can approach men and relationships from a position of strength, versus an unhealthy position of perceived need.
I am working hard to write these books that explore concepts and actions that empower women, because we are at a critical time in the history of women's rights. Those rights are being assaulted by right-wing politicians and religious fundamentalists like never before. Women's Choice is in danger of being extinguished, and that is something I want to fight against--and my best weapons are my words.
None of my books have reached a wide audience, though they have garnered many five-star reviews and ratings from those who have read them. I have yet to "move into the black"'in terms of making more money than I have spent in self-publishing them; but I feel compelled to keep writing about the issues that matter most to me, issues which I feel should matter to all women: The right to control our own lives and to have control over our own bodies.
I don't have delusions that my books will change the world, but I do wish for them to empower and embolden women to fight back against the assault on their rights to social, political and economic equality to men.
So I'll keep writing and hoping that my 60 years of living--during which I have accumulated knowledge, experience and information--will find ears to listen, and hearts to follow, in the quest to put to rest, finally and forever, the idea that women are not as deserving of equality in all areas of their lives as men are.
Is that an impossible dream? Perhaps, but then, I always was one to tilt at windmills!
