If you read last week’s post — the one about circling, and grief, and painting turbulence in the water — you already know this book has been living in me a long time.
There is something deeply moving about watching a long-carried vision finally step beyond its creator and enter the world.
What makes this invitation compelling is that you do not promise an easy route. There is a swamp of sadness, a canyon of things unsaid, and difficult terrain to cross—but there is also warmth, reflection, a mountain, and a Council Fire waiting farther along. That feels honest and hopeful at the same time.
Mary’s description of being guided with “compassion hard won” may be the book’s strongest recommendation. It suggests that readers will be accompanied by someone who knows the landscape through lived experience rather than theory alone.
Congratulations on releasing what you have carried for so long. The book is ready, you are ready, and somewhere a reader may be discovering that she is ready too.
Thank you. I must admit when you reflected 'swamp of sadness, canyon of unsaid..' I had a flash of 'did I just talk people OUT of buying it???' yikes! but if I did, then it isn't for them ... not yet anyway. Life's journey isn't easy breezy (in my experience) but that's what makes it so rich and rewarding. And when you can navigate the journey consciously, it's a much more meaningful and fulfilling trip, again - in my experience. Thank you. I love how you've brought yours to the world via community and chapters - that is brilliant and offers the readers various levels of engagement, not only with the book but with other readers, writers and you. So very valuable!
Suzanne, I don’t think you talked the right readers out of buying it. I think you gave them an honest trail map—and perhaps warned them to bring better boots.
The swamp and canyon do not make the journey less inviting when readers also know there is warmth, meaning, and a Council Fire waiting farther along. They make the invitation trustworthy. Anyone seeking an “easy breezy” trip may not be ready for this particular trail yet, but the people who recognize that terrain may feel as though you wrote the invitation directly to them.
Thank you, too, for your generous words about Timberline. Sharing the chapters has taught me that a story can become more than something an author delivers to readers. It can become a place where readers and writers meet, exchange experiences, and help keep the fire going.
You carried this vision for a long time. Now you have opened the trail and invited others to walk it with you. That is worth celebrating.
Thank you and yes, it is worth celebrating. The idea (or reality really) of "place where readers and writers meet, exchange experiences, and help keep the fire going" is a type of community that I can get on board with. When I started painting, fairly recently, a whole new world opened up for me. Writing publicly and these types of interactions are yet another incredible world I hadn't opened myself up to. Now seems to be the time. ;)
Now does seem to be the time, Suzanne. Painting and public writing may be different doors into the same room: both ask you to look closely, make something honest from what you find, and invite others inside.
The conversations that follow become part of the creation, too. I’m glad our paths have met near this particular fire, and I look forward to seeing everything you bring to it—in words and color.
There is something deeply moving about watching a long-carried vision finally step beyond its creator and enter the world.
What makes this invitation compelling is that you do not promise an easy route. There is a swamp of sadness, a canyon of things unsaid, and difficult terrain to cross—but there is also warmth, reflection, a mountain, and a Council Fire waiting farther along. That feels honest and hopeful at the same time.
Mary’s description of being guided with “compassion hard won” may be the book’s strongest recommendation. It suggests that readers will be accompanied by someone who knows the landscape through lived experience rather than theory alone.
Congratulations on releasing what you have carried for so long. The book is ready, you are ready, and somewhere a reader may be discovering that she is ready too.
Thank you. I must admit when you reflected 'swamp of sadness, canyon of unsaid..' I had a flash of 'did I just talk people OUT of buying it???' yikes! but if I did, then it isn't for them ... not yet anyway. Life's journey isn't easy breezy (in my experience) but that's what makes it so rich and rewarding. And when you can navigate the journey consciously, it's a much more meaningful and fulfilling trip, again - in my experience. Thank you. I love how you've brought yours to the world via community and chapters - that is brilliant and offers the readers various levels of engagement, not only with the book but with other readers, writers and you. So very valuable!
Suzanne, I don’t think you talked the right readers out of buying it. I think you gave them an honest trail map—and perhaps warned them to bring better boots.
The swamp and canyon do not make the journey less inviting when readers also know there is warmth, meaning, and a Council Fire waiting farther along. They make the invitation trustworthy. Anyone seeking an “easy breezy” trip may not be ready for this particular trail yet, but the people who recognize that terrain may feel as though you wrote the invitation directly to them.
Thank you, too, for your generous words about Timberline. Sharing the chapters has taught me that a story can become more than something an author delivers to readers. It can become a place where readers and writers meet, exchange experiences, and help keep the fire going.
You carried this vision for a long time. Now you have opened the trail and invited others to walk it with you. That is worth celebrating.
Thank you and yes, it is worth celebrating. The idea (or reality really) of "place where readers and writers meet, exchange experiences, and help keep the fire going" is a type of community that I can get on board with. When I started painting, fairly recently, a whole new world opened up for me. Writing publicly and these types of interactions are yet another incredible world I hadn't opened myself up to. Now seems to be the time. ;)
Now does seem to be the time, Suzanne. Painting and public writing may be different doors into the same room: both ask you to look closely, make something honest from what you find, and invite others inside.
The conversations that follow become part of the creation, too. I’m glad our paths have met near this particular fire, and I look forward to seeing everything you bring to it—in words and color.