Romance Body Positivity and Diversity in 2020: a Short Essay

Let me back up a few years and tell you where it all started, I came out as lesbian later in life. I lived with my internalized homophobia. I lived with these words in my head it’s good for everyone else but that’s just not me. While I choked on my jealousy of others being out and proud. I self-destructed on whatever drugs I could make disappear up my nose or however much alcohol I could get down until I reached the bliss of blackouts. I make no apologies for the past. I can’t change what I’ve done; all I can do is accept it and pledge to myself to do better.

For decades of my life I was too fat, too depressed, too manic or whatever the fuck the weekly stigma was to elicit self-loathing. I wrote my dreams on the lined pages of well-worn notebooks. Swearing to myself that I’d never share the stories I hid. Then one day I started posting them anonymously online. Saving myself from the inevitable trolling that the internet is famous for.

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.

#New #Release The Taming of Violet #Snarky #BBW #Romance

The Taming of Violet

Series: Masiello Brothers Book 1

Genre: BBW Romance

Publisher: Hostile Whispers Press, LLC

Cover by: Morningstar Ashley (Five Star Designs)

Edit by: AlternativEdits (Laura McNellis)

Blurb - 

Giovanni Masiello loved his job as a firefighter. It was the family tradition for three generations, and he and his seven brothers did their job with pride. While his personal and professional life were where he wanted them to be, his love life sucked. And it was all his weird neighbor’s fault. 

Violet Canne thought the best when she blasted death metal and screamed along at the top of her lungs. While she looked unassuming in her flowery dresses and Mary Jane’s, she lived in a constant state of irritation. She smiled all day at her job while envisioning plucking out her client’s eyes. Not the attitude for an event planner. One bad day at work and she went feral taking out her infuriating neighbor and ended up in handcuffs. And not in the fun, sexy way either.