Over the past week, I made the decision to let go of something that has occupied my head for over eight years. It was a project I started as part of the NaNoWriMo in 2015, the story of how one incident shapes different peoples lives depending on whether they were the participant or observer. As the story poured out of me in a cinematic fashion, I had a group of friends read and provide feedback in real time. Over the years, the story morphed into something similar but different. As first fictional works go, it is raw and rough.

The act of letting go symbolically is for me to publish it and set it free to chart its own course. To that end, I reached out to a friend in the UK, a talented illustrator for cover art. I am early in the process of going back and forth with her on what this cover should look like. I am weighing how much effort and money I should pour into this vanity project to set it free. As I do it, I realize this is something I am doing purely as an exercise that gives me joy, to let my characters free from my brain so other characters can now inhabit this space.

For over three years now, my brain has been in a state of limbo unable to write or read. Suddenly, this week, it feels like the blockade has cleared and the juices are flowing again.

Wish me luck as I navigate this self publishing path.

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