Creatives, Let Fear Motivate You To ACT UP
AIDS: Witnessing an Epidemic and Cultural Stigma
I wrote a novel years ago, the paperback has just debuted, about the early years of the AIDS epidemic, the villain so many Americans feared. I’ve borne witness to cultural hate and stigma for decades. Back in the late 1970’s and all through the 1980’s I was a psychiatric nurse practitioner. When you’ve spent as many years as I have on in-patient psych units, you see it all.
Professional Interests and Thematic Focus
When I entered the freelance writing market, most of the content I wrote and published was about something I had a personal interest in. I had a deep interest not only in the growing AIDS epidemic but also in people’s reactions to it. Observing humankind has always been central to my work.
Balancing Voice and Market Expectations
With the rise of social media, I was often warned—like many writers—that sharing personal opinions might scare away potential book buyers. I never fully accepted this notion. Most of my written work in fiction and nonfiction reveals a perspective that would deter certain readers anyway.
My Stories and Inspirations
Deadly Little Secrets is about a community’s reaction to the AIDS epidemic in 1985, the year this story is set and year Rock Hudson’s AIDS diagnosis made global news.
SweetSpot: Now and Then is about the psychosexual awakening of a middle aged woman in an unhappy marriage. I don’t know how to write what doesn’t interest me. Crafting story is too hard. I need roots from my life to grow stories on the page. One of my mentors, Sol Stein, called these roots ‘snapshots’ we take and store until needed. The novel I’m crafting now, Danny Ends Up Dead, has deep roots in my family of origin, Italian immigrants.
Advocacy and Social Media Presence
When I joined TikTok two years ago, I promised myself to confine my videos to writing, a la #booktok community and though I do, too much has happened in this troubled country and I’m one of those writers who ardently believes that if I’m not using my voice and my pen to fight back against threats to our democracy, I’m not playing the long game. In my humble, it’s critical that writers do this heavy lifting. Historically, we always have.
Offending vs. Defending
This video I posted on my TikTok page is about this theme: Offending vs Defending. Consider this writers, if we lose our democracy, we won’t have to worry about selling our books, that is, unless those books are approved by the villains who’ve taken over our beleaguered country.
I write about what I know something about. The human condition/human rights are subjects I know something about.
About the human condition, Deadly Little Secrets, is published by MarketingtheMuse Publications. Another story entirely I will tell soon. Click here for DLS
Namaste,
Marla
@writersmama #booktok #tiktok #authors I admire @Jodi Picoult #freespeech #firstamendment #jodipicoult #stephenking #stephencolbert #merylstreep #robertdeniro #martinshort #stevemartin #chelseahandler #creativevoices #writersmama
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