(Anyone else hearing echoes of CampFire Camp? No, just me?)
For those of you who have been following me for a while, my most humble thanks and boundless gratitude. For those of you who are new, a hearty welcome. This has been a place for me to share stories (finding the funny where I can) about teaching, parenting, grief, and having the audacity to live life in a fat body in America.
I recently completed a memoir during my second run at NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) 2023. And when I say completed, what I mean is that I have written all of the material that will be in this book. It is not necessarily in any kind of order, nor has it been revised or edited with any care or attention. It is in a very rough stage. But glory, hallelujah. It. Is. Complete.
I finished a thing that I started, man. Kinda blows my mind.
So, I have been tormenting other people by asking them what they think of different parts of my book, and I didn’t want to leave you out, so here’s the plan:
I am going to start sharing some pieces of the book (which is a collection of stories about growing up in diet culture in the ’70s and ’80s circa Weight Watchers and Diet Jello.) here as blog posts for you to enjoy.
Here is where you come in, kind readers. Please comment your little heads off to tell me what you think, what you like, what you hate, but especially what made you laugh or tear up a little. That’s the good stuff and I want to make sure it’s in there.
This memoir has been a labor of love and slight insanity. I have wanted to be a writer since I was a kid, like since I could write. I have written love letters, angsty teenage poetry, inspirational skits, play adaptations, and more IEPs than I can count. But this one has been waiting its turn for a long time.
So welcome it warmly, be kind to it, and make it feel at home. It is only and always my story; I certainly don’t claim to speak for any other fat woman in the world. I do know that my story is not unique. So many of us grew up believing that our bodies were too big, too much, too loud and that our work in the world was to make everything about us smaller.
But this time, I am staying big and loud.
