nellewrites

If someone asks me about my life, I can write a book. If someone asks me to write a brief bio, I’ll sit here and agonise over its construction, which is where I am right now, writing something up for BlogHer.

The basics. I’m fifty-seven years old and counting (slowly), a parent of two wonderful adult daughters, a new grandparent of a beautiful boy, unemployed and returning to school, a volunteer for Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, an aspiring creative writer, and a recovering dysfunctional. Reading, music, online participation, being silly, and sports are things that occupy my time. Although I’ve not done them in years now, I love cross country skiing and sailing. My true passion, what occupies most of my time is as an aspiring writer of fiction.

That recovering dysfunctional sounds humorous, and I do joke about it because if I don't the pain and guilt would consume me. I can sum it up by saying I melted down in the early 2000s when I was self-employed and contending with gender dysphoria, and that combination was not a healthy one. The result was 21 months in a federal prison camp, released in March 2011.

I’m a graduate of Keene State and lifelong resident of New Hampshire.

Spiritually, I am a Reiki level two practitioner, and find myself drawn to what Sue Monk Kidd outlines in Dance of the Dissident Daughter.

Music is a passion, not in the playing, but in the listening. When alone, music has every imaginable effect upon me, and without it, I would probably not be around today. Play it loud, raise goose bumps on my old bones.

As mentioned, I am gender dysphoric, crossed gender lines at the height of my meltdown in 2003, and call the lesbian community home, the one place in my life I where I felt accepted by the community and a sense of belonging. The women of this community helped get me through what was a horrific time, and I am ever grateful and loyal in return.

Politically, I pretend to be a practical progressive and an avowed feminist, and once was co-host of the now defunct iVillage feminism board for close to three years.