Naked: Being Seen Is Terrifying But Liberating
When I wrote Queen of the Owls, I knew people would ask me how much was autobiographical, and I prepared various responses to the question, depending on who was asking and why. It’s easy to feel in control of how much to reveal when it’s all happening in written interviews.
It wasn’t until my first time on a stage, in front of a live audience, that I understood that the only way to do this—to launch a novel like the one I’d written—was to abandon any illusion of control. To step entirely outside my comfort zone and be vulnerable. Naked.
I looked around the room, gathered my courage, and told my story to the two hundred people in the audience. How I’d feared and avoided and denied my existence as an embodied woman, taking refuge in my intellect. How that had backfired in a painfully predictable way. How I’d transformed that pain into fiction.
It was a liberating and unforgettable experience, and I never looked back. As I’ve promoted Queen of the Owls in the months since its release, I’ve let myself be seen and known instead of hiding behind an author persona—just as the book’s protagonist, Elizabeth, lets herself be seen. I’ve had to live up to Elizabeth’s declaration on the graphic below:
Nowhere did I do this more intimately than in this article, published in Ms. Magazine. https://msmagazine.com/2020/05/27/naked-being-seen-is-terrifying-but-liberating/
To learn more about my book, please see my website and Amazon page. And if Queen of the Owls resonates with you, please drop me a note. I'd love to hear from you!