Story of my life:
"Be scared and do it anyway."
if you are new to "swallowing diamonds", I've been making magnets and mirrors out of flood-damaged comics & printed materials for years. (now people send them in!)
They are for sale here on the Kitty's Treasures section of the soon-to-be-bye-bye Neverwear website.
The magnets and jewelry will go over to my Etsy page until I get the big website harnessed again.
To bring this to your home, tell me a story of something you were afraid of at first, and then did anyway. comment here or the Neverwear blog.
last night, I sold this beloved magnet to the lovely @cyndaelle:
a batch of 20 magnets are heading to ESCAPE POD COMICS in New York.
among the ones heading there?
Thanks for supporting the arts, and they are all under twenty bucks. affordable!
i was going to do guitar picks today as the diamonds, but Husband intervened, wait, I want that one, and that one, and...
so, maybe tomorrow--
Three or four years ago I decided on a whim to start a small writing group of friends despite being completely terrified of having anyone read my writing. I was sad that I had made it to 40 and still not managed to be brave enough to write and let others criticize and improve it. I am now able to stand back from my work enough to see criticism of it as just that, not a personal attack :)
ReplyDeleteThat one on the right in the pic of three magnets is from the story about the Necropolis Litharge in Sandman. Love it!
ReplyDeleteI moved to LA right after college and ended up working a bunch of terrible jobs. The combination of having my soul sucked out little every day and working literally all the time just to get by (as common as that is) made it almost impossible to write, and made it just as hard to share things that I had already. A couple years into it, after finding a tribe of artists and working with them as an sm, I sent an email to my friend and favorite director, and put together a reading. Small, more actors than audience, and in the grand scheme of things, just about nothing. But it was a big step for me, and I almost didn't do it.
ReplyDeleteI moved to LA right after college and ended up working a bunch of terrible jobs. The combination of having my soul sucked out little every day and working literally all the time just to get by (as common as that is) made it almost impossible to write, and made it just as hard to share things that I had already. A couple years into it, after finding a tribe of artists and working with them as an sm, I sent an email to my friend and favorite director, and put together a reading. Small, more actors than audience, and in the grand scheme of things, just about nothing. But it was a big step for me, and I almost didn't do it.
ReplyDeleteThis is Mr. B's story I am posting on his behalf, because he said it's okay to share with you.
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I chose to leave someone I loved very much and who loved me and wanted to take care of me. I knew it was the right choice, but I also knew I would hurt her and me and I was scared of both, the former most of all. The breakup went worse than I feared, and I am still afraid I was too cruel to her. Every so often, I also feel a pang of fear that I missed something important and hurt her for nothing, but I had promises to keep and did it anyway. Breakups aren't supposed to be easy, but that is the only one that still haunts me with little fears even so many years later.
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Thank you for posting such excellent challenges and for the whole Swallowing Diamonds project. Very inspiring!
After spending my entire life to this point living in the same city and never venturing outside of the United States except to visit Ontario, I just sold off all my belongings, quit my job of five years, and moved to New Zealand. There isn't really an ending to this story as I haven't even been here a month, some days it is still scary to be in this new place with no friends, no job, and no furniture, but most days it is pretty darn exciting and I'm glad I came.
ReplyDeleteeven though now this means i have to pay shipping to NZ, i LOVE your story- WINNER! please contact me with your address: neverwear@gaiman.net
DeleteHaha! Husband cracks me up! Love this glitter magnet but hard to choose a story - so many scaredy cat moments in my life. Here is a Neil-related one:
ReplyDeleteIt was October 2005 and I had just moved to Portland, Oregon and found out about an hour beforehand that there was a reading at some church downtown. I didn't know a soul around, was totally unfamiliar with the city at that time and its various modes of public transportation, but I really wanted to go hear him read. So, I abandoned all fear and hopped on the next bus downtown and just started asking people if they knew where the church was. Eventually, I met some really cool folks who also happened to be going to the same place, and we ended up sitting together way up high in the balcony and listening to the first chapter of "Anansi Boys" as Neil stood in the pulpit and read from it. It was the first and only time I've ever seen him in person, and listening to his great voice fill the hollows of that building was truly magical. Needless to say, we all became fast friends after that and I was so glad that even though I was scared, I did it anyway. Isn't it strange how those little moments become the most memorable of our lives?
Hi
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