As you may have noticed, it appears that I have a lot to say about myself these days. When I started this blog, that wasn’t really my intent. I wanted this to be a safehouse for my fiction and/or poetry until I found someone willing to publish it—or just in case it didn’t get published at all.
In the event that my work did find a professional home, I’d then use this blog to provide updates for book releases or story publication dates… and any unusual or intriguing anecdotes about that process.
Foresight. I do have it, sometimes.
But when I don’t, we get events like the one I’ve begun to write about now, events that often prove rife with potential for prolific, inelegant, honest work. As I begin to mine that work, I wonder if this it would have life in the “market,” which is already pretty oversaturated with pregnancy and single mother hood tales.
This leads me to poll below.
If you haven’t already, read the posts that have inspired it here, here, and here, then come back and weigh in. If you’ve already been reading, just weigh in. I’d really appreciate any and all of your feedback.
Stacia L. Brown 
14 responses to “A Question Awaiting Your Answers.”
Woo! Go team! 😉
Stacia, I love reading you juggling this aloud and with your characteristic liquid language, your amazing ear. I’m thrilled to hear about the journey you’ve begun, honored you asked my opinion on the writing part of it, and want to express my total and enthusiastic support for your path on pre-motherhood and writing! And if you ever want to talk to another incubator of a total surprise, I’m here!
Thanks, Nicki. 🙂
in general, i’d say no. i’m not a breeder and, as a blanket sentiment, i don’t really care about the trials and tribulations of motherhood / parenting, single or otherwise.
however, i would probably buy your book because you interest me as a person. my favourite writers always write from a clearly honest and (semi-)autobiographical place and so even when a particular moment in their life doesn’t resonate with me, i am interested in it because i like to see people exploring the whole of their humanity.
henry miller (my supreme favourite) said something like the point of life is to become more and more of yourself. i love him because his books are clearly an expression of someone trying to live that philosophy to the fullest. they are clearly an exploration of his whole self, in all the dirt and the glory. so, if you were to continue to write in this honest vein, i would buy the book on the strength of an interest in a human beings becoming. 🙂
i don’t self-identify as a “breeder,” either, nor do i have much interest in children or child-rearing. that’s kind of the point of the writing. because i have no idea how i’m going to make myself any more invested in this than i am. it’s also the point of the poll, because the whole subject has been exhausted and my experience with it hardly seems unique.
however, i’m glad to know the writing itself would compel someone with such disinterest to read. i’m still not sold on selling it, but this informal research has helped.
thanks for weighing in.
I voted ‘other’ but I should’ve voted ‘yes.’ I probably wouldn’t buy it for myself, because, like Tank, I don’t much care about kids in the abstract, and I’m not really into reading about pre-motherhood or motherhood. But I would buy it for a few women I know who are pregnant or want to be, or have been — just because I love your writing and your voice is incredibly unique. I’m actually going to point my sister to your blog because you remind me of her in a lot of ways.
Anyway, not for me, but yes, I would.
I never read the word, “breeder,” before in connection with childbirth. At first I thought, “Ouch,” then thought that was an interesting counterpoint to the use of the word, childless, and the expectation that everyone should want children and produce them. I consider myself somewhere in the middle along the spectrum. I’m intensely interested in, um, breeding once. I like kids one at a time. I was once an assistant in a kindergarten class and swore I’d never, ever teach a whole group of kids again. I imagine myself picking up the kid from pre-school and cringing at the extreme kidness going on there. I’ve never baby-sat and honestly never wanted to, but I think that’s mainly because finding things in other people’s homes is intensely hellish for a blind person. So as a one-on-one kid person and educator in training, I’m interested in the unfolding of your motherhood journey, because I know you, because I find the journey to be fascinating given that I want to take it, and because your writing is so beautiful. I love the second-person vein going on right now.
.
Absolutely, I would. I adore your writing no matter what the subject, but this–reluctant motherhood–is one that I can personally identify with.
I said yes, simply because I love your writing style and there’s always something I feel that I can take away from reading your words. Go for it, if you’re thinking about it, you’d be surprised at how many people are willing to read what you have to say.
I’m with Tank. I’m not too into books on motherhood (because I don’t plan on having children), but I try to support good writing.
yes, but there is so much more here than a tale of pre-motherhood or reluctant motherhood.
+ the lessons of not letting go of a relationship well past its expiration date
+ the honesty of that on again/off again relationship
+ what a woman learns about herself, not only as an expectant mother, but as as a family member, a lover, a teacher, a writer
i think it would be unfair to stick this collection of essays in the “parenting/family planning” aisle.
I vote yes. I’m just catching up.
I think there is an internal thought process you are showing that i’ve wondered about with my mother and friends. Its a privilege and comfort to read though i’m not a mother, not famous, not ‘successful’ in that measurable list your accomplishments kind of way. It appeals and relates to me as a reader on a human…um…humane level which few stories tend to these days.
thank you for sharing
I say yes. I don’t know if I’d read them from another writer, but I really enjoy your writing.
I voted “yes”. I appreciate great writing, regardless of the topic.