December 14th, 2021

I’m not naive that I had a privilidged upbringing, but researching about the suffering people in abusive households went through, and the lasting impact of that trauma really puts things into perspective. I’m not ‘shocked’ by the stories, but as you can imagine, it’s sobering. One small bright spot in the case of those I’m reading about is many have cut ties with that part of their life and are better for it, but plenty haven’t, and millions of people in the world today have to endure the impact of an abusive upbringing. I wasn’t researching this for book stuff – none of my characters have the abusive parents’ backstory, though Willow has the abusive narcassistic ex-husband – but I’m hoping that learning more about experiences like this helps me be more usefully empathetic. If as a consequence it also helps me portray those scenarios in a more sensitive way to sufferers of abuse, so much the better.

Doesn’t feel right to complain about writing being hard when I just dropped that out of the blue, so I’ll stay neutral and say it’s not been a productive day outside of work. Working from home is the right decision for others’ well-being, but I would be lying if I said it was helping mine. Not about me though. On a positive note, after what is quite a heavy post, and a happier note indeed, the Monkey Island Anthology is ready to ship!