It’s been quite awhile since I’ve posted anything. Between recovering from a brain hemorrhage and documenting that journey in my last book, navigating a global pandemic, building a new house and moving, and life and work in general, writing unfortunately fell to the wayside. I have journaled faithfully over the past few years (including an unbroken daily writing streak I’ve maintained for over a year now), but I haven’t updated this website, my author social media accounts, or worked on any of my writing projects in a LONG time.
Recently, I was invited back into the world of writing by my colleagues from the Owensboro Community & Technical College Commoning Read program. The 2024-2025 book selection is This I Believe: The Personal Philosophies of Remarkable Men and Women. As part of this year’s program, the committee elected to offer a series of spring writing workshops instead of a single guest author. Participants would be invited to hear from several different authors, explore their own beliefs, and write personal essays related to those beliefs.
As you may recall, my book Waverly: A Novel was chosen as the OCTC Spring 2020 Common Read. As a former Common Read author, I was asked to facilitate the first writing workshop on January 31st, 2025.
Preparing for this presentation and then sharing my thoughts and feelings about writing with the attendees rekindled the passion I have always had for expressing myself through writing. I was able to relive the excitement of committing thoughts to paper (or laptop screen), and I remembered the sense of accomplishment I felt after meeting a goal and completing a writing project.
During the session, I shared about my own writing journey and then invited participants to join me as we took a few minutes to jot down our thoughts about several writing prompts sprinkled throughout. My favorite parts of the workshop were these small chunks of time where we all wrote quietly, lost in our own thoughts. I looked across the room and saw participants thoughtfully scribbling in notebooks or typing on laptops, and I felt a comradery with this group, as though through our creativity and allowing ourselves to express it, we were all somehow becoming a part of something greater than our individual selves.
OCTC’s Common Reading Program
I have spent much of my career in education cajoling students to tap into their creativity and use the power of language and writing to share their stories with others. This workshop and sticking my toe carefully back into the waters of the writing world reminded me that I, too, still have stories to tell.
I am not a believer in cliched New Year’s Resolutions, but I do firmly believe in setting goals and working to achieve them. I am making it a personal goal to give myself the time and space to continue my writing journey. I know there will be detours and traffic jams along the way and I may occasionally lose my way, but I hope to always keep moving forward, no matter how convoluted or taxing the path may prove to be. I will keep journaling (writing is my therapy), but I also plan to regularly share posts on this blog and restart the writing projects I had left untouched for the past few years.
I feel like I wandered off a trail and found myself lost in the wilderness for awhile, but now I have stumbled back onto the path. Thank you for supporting me as I take these first few, tentative steps.
Amy Bellamy, Author 