Like a phoenix from the fire

It's strangely inspiring to know that you are never too old to have an identity crisis.

Some time ago I posted a short story here that resulted in threatening emails from a male reader. Then abruptly I decided to change the focus of the blog from a sort of personal column reminiscent of the one I had written in local newspapers when my children were small to a political commentary on feminism. I didn't see a connection at the time. (Hahaha!) I completely redesigned the look to a garish yellow background with ugly knife slashes through the canvas that offends me this morning, published two posts, and then abandoned the blog entirely. For two years...

And so, without conscious effort, I made a more cogent comment on the challenges of womanhood than I ever could have imagined.

Because when faced with difficulty, women often submit, or run away, or self harm, or give up, or react in some other passive manner, as I did with this blog. I'm not saying these aren't sometimes good choices, or that only women make them, but just noticing what I see when I look around me, and wishing it were a little different, a little more balanced.

So now I'm back. I'm going off to the back end now, to see if I can get rid of the garish wallpaper, tidy up a bit, and get all my links working again. Wish me luck! And wish me luck in being selected for a writer's residency on Amtrack this summer. I have two novels in progress that I want to finish--both involving kick-ass women. :)

I can totally see myself writing them here: