dborys

It looks to me like I forgot to post this excerpt from a guest post I did over at Kathryn’s Inbox in January. If this is a repeat post, I apologize. I’m only showing a bit of it here, but click through to read the whole article if you are interested in hearing about the labor pains involved in Birthing a Book.

Today, I am bringing you a guest post by the wonderful Debra R. Borys whose most recent novel Box of Rain was released in December 2014. Debra is talking with us about the process of birthing a book. I found this post to be quite inspirational and hope that you do, too.

If you’ve ever been pregnant, you know how much work you do beforehand to prepare for the new arrival. You take Lamaze classes, read books, plan decor for the nursery. You pack your suitcase, take the multi-vitamins your doctor prescribes, and faithfully attend scheduled wellness checkups.

When you are anticipating the creation of a new book, there are several stages all writers go through. Methods may vary, but the general framework remains the same: conception, research, development, labor, and the final reward, holding your newly birthed book in your eager little hands.

via Kathryn’s Inbox: Guest Post: Author Debra R. Borys on Birthing a Book.

Sometimes I feel like people don’t understand what I’m saying. Or maybe that I’m not saying it right. Then I find an article or hear a story about someone that hits it right on the nose.

These are the people we live aside, Durkan says. It is important they have a voice and are seen, just as the Amazon techies and well-dressed downtowners that have been getting so much press in Seattle’s boom.

“So often people walk over them,” Durkan says of people living on the streets. “It’s important to get them out in front of people, bring to light underlying issues.”

Homelessness is as diverse as this city, Durkan says. Drug addiction is not the sole impetus for every homeless person. Neither is mental illness or economic hardship, both which he plans to chronicle.

And even more important than getting the stories in front of people is this:

To “be there, in that subject’s life, for a moment.” Just a moment

As hard as it is to pin down an umbrella explanation for life on the street, Durkan says a “cure” or a “fix” for the homeless is, too, impossibly complex. It’s fallacy to pretend a new photo series will do much of anything to eliminate the hardships.
But it’s SOMETHING. A step, Durkan says. For exposing the issue, a call for help. Even if, Durkan says, no one sees his series or cares about a particular photograph, he was there, in that subject’s life for a moment. Awareness, and all its arms, is good.

All quotes via Not all sunsets, rainbows and unicorns: Seattle photographer moves from pretty to gritty in stunning series | Q13 FOX News.

Here’s Tim’s first Street Story. Visit the Capital Hill Seattle Blog to see his stories.