Membership status: Member
Bio:
Like ‘The Boss’ says, Everybody’s Got a Hungry Heart. It could be for anything – money, love, attention, whatever. I chose the name Hungry Heart because at the time I began posting my stories here, I was in a period of upheaval and change. I felt like there was an empty space in my heart, and I was hungry to fill it. I was looking for peace within myself, a respite from my decades of depression and low self-esteem. I was looking to make something for myself, of myself. At the time, my marriage was shaky at best and I struggled with the effect it was having on my life in so many ways. I needed to take care of myself and I needed an escape. A safe place to explore my thoughts and feelings, my needs and desires. About that same time, someone I cared for passed away unexpectedly, and that passing brought on a heap of unresolved pain from the past. That was when I returned to my first love, writing. At first, it was simply a means to express the pain of so much loss. But as I started writing it all down on paper, it became so much more than that. It was an expression of a deep yearning I’d felt for a long time, but couldn’t name. A need for love, understanding, appreciation, and acceptance. I began to write not just my thoughts, but stories; stories about the kind of love I’d never experienced and only dreamed of. Few people find a ‘perfect love’, fewer still find their soulmate, I believe. Yet the hopeful part of the hungry heart longs for that perfection, that all-consuming love that mellows with time, but lives on in the seat of the soul.
The thing about writing fiction is that you can go anywhere, be anyone, do anything; the sky is the limit. In my stories, I can be young or old, pretty or plain, have everything I could ever dream of and more. All the unrealized dreams of your heart can come true on those pages in black and white. I think I’ve come a long way, found some of what I was looking for during those darker years, but as long as I live and breathe, I’ll still be a work in progress. I buried my dreams a long time ago, exchanging them for a life that left me feeling ‘less than’ for a long time. Yet, in past several years, I’ve grown, my marriage is back on solid ground, and I’ve found my peace, and my passion, in writing. I write for myself; for the joy it gives me and for the parts of me that I never knew existed until they appear on the page. It took me a very long time to pluck up the courage to share my stories with anyone; I am pleased and proud to share them with you now. I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I enjoy writing them. May they give you hope…for more, whatever that may be.