How do you define success in life?

I think if you’d asked me this 20 years ago I would have said a corporate job behind a desk. Now, I prize my mental health above all else.

Being stable & functioning is more important to me than having a 9-5pm job. I find that being stable for the past 14 years means more to me than everything else.

My writing has become better & what I do with my day is important. I get up  before 8am during the week with my husband. I try to get into town & see friends & acquaintances & run errands. I recently got told that my anemia has gotten really bad because my body doesn’t soak up iron.

It’s gotten pretty severe so I’ve to watch what I eat when I eat. Otherwise I feel dizzy & woozy. Sometimes it gets so bad I feel that I’m going to faint. Not a good feeling.

Success for me is my stability with my mental health. It means more to me than having that full- time job. Being healthy is number 1 for me.

How do you rate success?

What’s a book or movie that genuinely scared you?

I read the whole thing cover to cover in college & it shook me to the core. Margaret Atwood is a great storyteller. It’s just sad that things in the US started to turn that way. She predicted the future many decades ago.

The men in the society were gruesome & scary. It really scared me in the fem lit class. I think it made me a bigger feminist than I ever thought. I learned societal control & what that entails. Something that still scares me terribly.

The Handmaid’s Tale is a cult classic for a reason. There’s a reason why it’s banned because of what it teaches us about a patriarchal society & women’s role in it. Or how the women’s role is purely to serve men in reproduction & nothing else.

If you haven’t read it, I highly suggest it. It may just change your life.