The Year of Body Positivity and Diversity and Beyond

This year marked three years of sobriety, and six years of being off drugs. My mental health has taken hits left and right, but as the years progress I learn to adapt to my brain’s needs. We work together like a dysfunctional team and at this point in my life I couldn’t be happier with where I’m at. Yes, things could be better. Yet I won’t complain because it could be so much worse. While I still think about alcohol and drugs daily, my darker thoughts are fewer and farther between. Days can pass without thought of self-harm. Again, I have adapted to my brain’s, shall we say, eccentricities.

2018 has turned into an amazing year. I lived my dream of writing full-time and while I believe my time is limited in that aspect I enjoyed the months with nothing but words to toil away upon. There is no way to thank my readers enough for reading my stories and embracing bodies in all their shape and sizes, shades. When I branded myself as a body positive author to describe the characters I wrote, but it was a label I always wore no matter the tales I told.


There’s nothing shameful about shades of skin. Cellulite and rolls. Body hair. There’s nothing shameful in loving someone. We’re more than the façade we portray but we’re all judged on something and first impressions are everything. I believed in honoring all differences. Our bodies are worthy of self-care. We can’t control the judgements but we can control how we take those criticisms. Either we can wear those labels or we can turn them into strengths, be who we are in spite of what others think of us.

Body Positivity and Diversity as nothing to do with acceptance we earn from others and is all about how we accept ourselves. Self-care is more important than anything even the shaming we receive for handling out shit. I found I loved myself more when I was happy with my mental health and the body I existed in. Loving ourselves the ultimate in self-care. There’s things I would change, we all have improvements we’d love to make and if that’s the number on a scale or continuing education, or even taking the step closer to following our dreams.

And while I’d love to make this about my stories. How amazed I am for all the people who take a chance on my stories of loving ourselves beyond our bodies being societally acceptable. It’s so much more than that to me. I find beauty in all forms. Strongly believe that love has nothing to do with how our forms are shaped, what gender or non-gender, or shade we are. This year was all about showing people that love is not impossible. That we can be accepted and loved beyond our so-called flaws.

Our weight doesn’t denote our health. I’ve known women and men who exercise every day and they were blessed with larger forms. Body hair on men and women isn’t shameful, it’s as natural as the hue of our eyes. A belly roll, some dimples in a person’s thighs makes them less than. We’re shamed for the size and shape of our genitals, if we possess hair on said genitals or on legs or in pits. We are shamed based on the newest trend.

A very long time ago, I watched a documentary where people stood in front of a mirror and listed all the things they hated about themselves. Yet they never mentioned the parts of themselves they loved. They didn’t mention their talents. The accomplished they made. This year I wanted to be loud and proud of the stories I wrote. To give readers an outlet to show the things they loved by reading about people who loved the parts of themselves that other reviled.

As someone who loves women, I want to list all the parts of them that could be physically and mentally loved. A beautiful heart. The curve of a belly. Men are no less worthy of being made to feel attractive. They are told they’re not masculine enough. Abs are the only way to be sexually attractive. A dick that could be considered a third leg. We’re so mired in the superficiality of our societies that we never stop to acknowledge that love know no boundaries. Physical perfection doesn’t make someone more than another. Humans are not pieces on a chessboard to be moved about to fit some construct of what is acceptable.

I only hope that the tales I weave conveys that to the person who picks up one of my stories. I know that my MM Romance does better than my books containing ladies. That in no way causes me to not write my ladies. Women are no less worthy of having their happily ever afters and I will write the lady bits, celebrate the forms of people in all their uniqueness.

Until I type my last word, I will craft words into tales that show Every Body is Worthy. I will write Transgender stories where they accept their bodies because parts DO NOT equal gender. I will write women who embrace those dimples. I will write men who have bellies and hair. I will write people who find love but more importantly love themselves.

The last two years have been amazing, more than I ever hoped when I wrote my first story to share with the world, but 2019 will be no less than spectacular. I will embrace and accept the storyteller that I am because words are the only gift that I have. When the day comes that I publish a story I hate, where it’s dependent on heat level and parts is the day I give up. I started this journey with one goal to write love that transcends the physicality of the individuals. That acceptance isn’t hindered by a flaw.

I will write all the stories about people who love beyond adversity. I want to thank you all for taking this journey with me through the last few years. And thank you all in advance for continuing it with me. I wrote for the love of flaws, the ones that show our humanity and that even the broken are beautiful.

Happy New Year, I’ll see y’all on the other side.