audience, art and gratitude and I am so very, very grateful.

This year, shift.

In the very beginning of the year, my friend Ricardo Scipio talked to me about art. Creating it, offering it, and selling yourself shamelessly in service of it. (Havi Brooks wrote a terrific piece about ‘shameless‘. Shift.)

He talked about audience and the need for an artist to have one.

NEED. Essential.

Exhale. Shift.

I have always written. I am a compulsive journaler, short story writer, wannabe poet – I have held court at many a drunken grad school party with end of night poems and yes, I’m cringing a little (a lot) – essayist and love letterist.

What I have rarely done: shared. Published.

Oh, I share technical stuff – briefs, proposals, applications, marketing copy – on 9-5 basis. Sometimes I even sell a journalist-y piece or two. But my private, creative stuff lived in the shadows.

And now, light.

Ricardo Scipio, just by example, just by the way he lives his life – and that is art, at its most real and profound -  showed me that I needed to find my people.

When I was only tentatively blogging, Josh Hanagarne told me that to reach more people, I needed to guest post. And then, when I clung to hesitation, he demanded a guest post from me for his site. And then he kept nagging/encouraging me to submit to ProBlogger. And, finally, I did. Several pieces later, Darren Rowse offered me a weekly spot.

Danielle LaPorte, six months ago, told me:

you’re hot shit and the real deal and should be getting your ass published as widely as possible.

Sometimes we think we do it all, alone – and sometimes it feels like that – but the truth is that we are all in this, together.

The truth is that a well-timed word, a life lived, love offered, can shift everything.

Danielle offered thanks today. Josh offered it, too, in the most excruciatingly beautiful way. And simple: it has been a good year.

Allow me to sing with them.

I have always written. I will always write. But, for me, the thing that changed everything is finding you. My audience. My people. My co-writers.

You.

I’m so glad we’re in this together.

Thank you.

About the author

Kelly Diels I'm Kelly Diels, I'm a writer|mama|vixen, and I wrote this blog post just for you. I've written a few more, too (okay, several hundred more) on my websites, which include Cleavage (The Lines that Shape Us); Bibi Dublave (How To Be The Sexiest Woman in the World); KR Copywriting (my writing biz site); + my new street-foodie (I'm obsessed!) blog that's coming soon. You can also find me on Twitter and darlin', please do. xoxo, K

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