I use to use google reviews as ways to check out new businesses. They aren’t scammy like yelp. But right now my company is trying to get google reviews. And boy are they pushing it.
“Look at this as an opportunity to practice promoting yourself” said my boss. He knows that I’ve published books, and that I’m struggling with getting noticed, reviews, and basically anything that says ‘hey look at me, I wrote this, you should read it’.
And he isn’t wrong.
It’s incredibly difficult to draw attention to myself, or anything I do. It goes against everything I was trained… stay unseen. Stay unheard. Your opinion isn’t valuable. No one cares. You’re not worth it. No one likes you. No one will ever love you.
So I find myself confronting all these things I heard for all of those years. And some days I make little breakthroughs and I can say ‘see, I did this and I think it’s good.’ (Well, mostly I say I think it’s ‘okay’ because I don’t want to disappoint anyone.)
And other days I freeze. The words get stuck on my tongue. I want to run, hide, cry, and just get everyones attention off of me somehow, anyway possible.
I recognize that this was caused by years of abuse. I recognize that the whispering in my head telling me that no one cares, and no one wants to hear what I have to say isn’t right. DEPRESSION IS A LYING BASTARD!
Half the struggle is recognizing this. Before I knew why this was happening I let my fight or flight system kick in and I would retreat. Get quite. Go unnoticed. After 30+ years of practice I’m really good at it.
But I don’t want to be that person anymore. I want to write, and I want to share my stories with people. I want to know that my words will live on even when I’m gone. I want to inspire others to follow their passions, and their loves.
And really… I don’t want to be broken anymore. I don’t want what he did to me to be what dictates my life from here on out. This is my life, and I am worthwhile, and I have something amazing to say. People do want to listen to me. They do want to talk to me.
So… I wrote a book. And I’m really proud of it. I hope you read it some day.
Author Crissy Moss 
I’ve said this before, but I’ll reiterate. You’re an excellent writer, Crissy and should be proud of all you write. That jerk-off did the world a disservice by running you down.
A small comment: I pressed on the picture expecting a link to Amazon. If you make the picture a link, I reckon most people will press there and grab a copy 🙂
Oh, I never thought of that. I will do that tonight when I get home.
And thank you for the compliment. When I’m really in a funk I go back and read all the nice comments and keep repeating “depression is a lying bastard”. It helps a lot.
Found you on wordpress! Sweet. I spend a good bit of time around here. Yes, speak up! Be proud of it.
Big fan Crissy….Please never give up! Keep up the great work!
Thank you. It’s nice to hear that people appreciate what I write.