La vita della scrittrice ... What does it really mean to live a writer's life?

Not being a machine, I seem to require time and inspiration and energy and relationships and pauses and ebbs and flows and swells and emotions and changes ...

The writer, not machine, age 44

Buongiorno! I am not in Italy but I’m having a moment of wishing that I were although I love San Francisco and the life that I have here. So, I sit here with my caffe in my pigiama thinking about la vita della scrittrice. The writer’s life. The life I’ve been living for over two decades if you count it by being paid for it and over four decades if you count it by simply the act of doing it.

I’ve been thinking a lot about this life lately. About what it meant to me when I first started and what it might mean to me now. About whether it is something I am, something I do, something else …

Lately, I’ve recommitted myself to seeing if I can fall in love with the act of writing, if I can romance the writing a little bit, if I can deepen this relationship. As I wrote in a writing group earlier this month:

I don’t want to keep loving writing like I keep loving certain family members just because they are family. I don’t want to love blindly without seeing who my lover really is. I don’t want to love writing out of obligation or habit. I don’t want to feel like “I love you but I don’t like you.”

Sometimes what I want is that honeymoon period but four decades into this marriage with words, that’s not what this is. And yet … I believe in love that lasts for decades, for over a century even, that reinvents itself. I believe you can ask your partner over and over “who are you now and who are you now and who are you now?” and if you’re open to the answer, the love that can flourish between you is so great it creates entire worlds. I am in the process of asking my writing: “tell me, who are you now, I truly want to know.”

When the writer actually was in Italy a few years ago

But the tricky thing about the writing life is that if you want to be honest with it and let it change and evolve and take time like this, you have to figure out a way to support it. So, I’ve been changing up my income streams - taking on gigs that don’t excite me but also don’t sap my energy for creativity, tapping into the last of my savings, applying for grants, applying for food stamps (again, although I was denied because come fall I’ll be a full-time student and in short that means I don’t qualify) …

So, I’m here with the semi-annual request. If you read my writing and believe in allowing it time to develop and marinate, it’s the time of year when financially I need you to support it in whatever way that you can. If each person who is a free subscriber bought an annual subscription at my 24% off in ‘24 rate, it would support this writing through the end of the year. It would support my dreams, ambitions, goals, efforts, routine, imagination, development, commitment, community-growing, research, history, future.

Will you be one of the people who is willing to support that today?

Is there another rate that’s better for you? Pick what’s right for you and sign up today:

• 24% off in ‘24 - The 2024 discount rate on an annual subscription

• Flexible Discount - 10% off either monthly or annual subscriptions

• Grateful for the Gift - 75% off one year

• Gotta Pay the Rent Soon Discount - 50% off one year

• Barely Getting By Discount - $10 flat rate for one year

• Lucky 13 Discount - 13% off forever

Alternative one-time donations of any amount to Venmo @KVercillo

The writer, 40-ish years ago, already reading, wanting to learn to write, ready to take on the world but only moment by moment. This is who you actually support when you support my work.