THE NOVEL // THE ILLUSTRATED DIARY // THE HAIKU SERIES // THE LETTER EXCHANGE
MJ Masters The Universe
This story began as a novel, then came the Illustrated Diary, the Haiku Series, and the Letter Exchange. I'm sharing some of the process here just to show how important it is to trust the process––and enjoy it!
The Illustrated Diary
Take a peak...
MJ Masters is sixteen and struggling in a world where her conservative father votes against her very health and wellbeing, and blames her liberal-activist brother and Wild and Witchy Aunt for the moral demise of his family. Things get so bad that death seems like the only way out.
The she meets a friend who introduces her to mindfulness through camp at a Zen Buddhist monastery. Maybe there is a way to live a life of joy with an open, peaceful heart? And maybe, if enough people find the courage to live that way, we can keep the country––and the world––from descending into complete madness?
The Ebook shared here is MJ's Illustrated Diary, telling her story in her own words and pictures.
The Novel
Before the Illustrated Diary, this story began as a novel––well, a very rough first draft. Which is just what first drafts are supposed to be.
Read the draft
Listen to the audiobook
(Links coming soon.)
The Letter Exchange
After the Illustrated Diary, the story became a series of Haiku, and continued on as a Letter Exchange through a newsletter.
Trusting the Process
Just as things start to turn around and make sense again, tragedy strikes in MJ's world and she's left alone to deal with the stress of her family falling apart, and the rest of the world along with it!
Falling in love with building a life around making the art to uplift my community, is––I'm pretty sure––the real secret of success. It helped me fulfill a promise to myself from long ago, and fueled my strength to start rebuilding my health.
This was a helpful reminder...that set backs can be gifts.
Which is an essential part of the mindset of a Sacred Warrior.
So, write your "shitty first drafts", and have fun experimenting.
The world needs your kindness, passion, vision, and VOICE.
The Earth and all her children, need all of us, working together. For PEACE.
It's worth doing the work of deconstructing the conditioning of patriarchy.