I'm glad you're here! This is just the prototype of my web presence, so feel free to offer suggestions for improvement and be sure to check back often. For now, feel free to learn more about me by clicking here, or click any of the links to the right to venture off to my favorite places in cyberspace.
I've recovered well from the election. Grace
and I got 43,032 votes, or 2% of the total votes, according to
the Boston Globe. That's pretty good, I think.
Now I'm working on completing National Novel Writing Month.
So far, I've written 1257 of the 50,000 total words I'm supposed
to write in order to be declared a Nanowrimo winner. I've got 13
days to go. This is my third Nanowrimo attempt; I haven't won yet.
This year's entry is chick lit (not my usual genre) novel called What the **** Else?
It features a PhD candidate named Kimberly Camilla Anderson who
has Cerebral Palsy and ends up getting accidentally pregnant by her
able-bodied boyfriend first year Southern law student Paul Sanders.
In the course of this drama, Paul is permanently disabled by a
drunk driver. Kim can't deal with her own medical issues around
being pregnant, Paul's issues around becoming disabled and impeding
parenthood at once. What's a woman to do? People will
probably be able to buy the book on Lulu at some point, after much editing.
I’ve also got a job interview on Monday. It’s at the
Center for Independent Living of the North Shore and Cape Ann in Salem,
MA. I’ve applied for 2 jobs there, one as a peer advocate
and one as person who gets people out of nursing homes and helps them
transition into community living. Talk about your dream job and
the money’s not bad either, not that I’d be doing it for
the money. This is my life purpose; I wouldn’t care if they
paid me a cent to do this work. Honest to God! Keep your
fingers crossed!
My life has been crazy busy. I wrote a novel over this past Labor Day Weekend. It's called "The Healing of Lara Ryan". It's about faith healing and features a woman with Cerebral Palsy who decides that she's fine the way God made her. I’m just waiting to here about the contest results.
I am also running for Lutenenent Governor of Massachusetts, under the Green-Rainbow Party label, as a replacement for my colleague Wendy Van Horne, who withdrew for personal reasons. God knows how that happened but I'm having fun and making a difference, I think, so who can complain?
I am also helping my friend Owen Broadhurst with his campaign for State Representative in the Third Hampden District of Massachusetts (that ‘s Russell, Southwick, Gilbertville, and Agawam). I’m still his disability issues coordinator, despite all my other work.
I enjoyed ADAPT in DC this past week, before which I visited my family in Pennsylvania (with no fireworks or fighting which is unusual), and I got to attend a few hours of the Pennsylvania semi-annual independent living conference. I learned a lot and saw old friends. We went to the casino, we didn’t win, but my aunt had a nice birthday there.
In DC, we took on a lot of housing people and got meetings with all of them, even HUD. We were even on NPR. I’ll write a poetry book about the action that will be out by Christmas! After DC, I took a plane to Boston for the Green Party State Convention the next day. I slept about one and a half hours in 24hours!
Hi, everyone! I've been really busy and have neglected this site. I can't believe it's been almost 3 months since it was updated. I got my integrated dance teaching license in July, after taking a month long intensive course with Alito Alessi. In August, I attended a weeklong economics training course at the Center for Popular Economics and had the pleasure of speaking to a roomful of awesome young women at the Sadie Nash Leadership Project in New York City. In September, I attempted to complete the Annual Three Day Novel Contest but had to abort that due to a problem with my new voice recognition software. Don't worry I plan to try again next year.
As I mentioned, my life is gotten really busy lately. I've contacted three magazines about submitting work to them (I let you know how it goes). I'm making plans to attend the 10th Annual International Women and Health Meeting in New Delhi, India, The International Conference on Accessible Tourism in Nairobi, Kenya, and the New England Regional Gathering of War Tax Resisters. Wishme luck!
There's a new set of facts on the "Did you Know?" page, check it out!
Added lots of new things! Minor additions include a guestbook, counter, and the Reach-Out Magazine webring hub. Also, a new article is up on the "My Writing" page, and the "About Me" page has been updated. Please feel free to look around!