GUEST BLOG POST #2

HOW EMBRACING SIMPLE LIVING GAVE ME CLARITY AND INSPIRATION ON MY WRITING JOURNEY

GUEST BLOG POST BY DENISE D. YOUNG

My journey toward simple living began with a surprising wakeup call. Like many people, I found myself up to my eyeballs in stuff, baffled by how the sheer quantity of what I owned.
My husband and I were long-term renters before we bought our cozy townhouse. Unfortunately, our townhome wasn’t ready when we had to move out of our apartment, so we had to move all of our stuff into storage and stay with my in-laws for a few weeks.
The trouble came when we moved into the townhouse. I had at least six bookcases, all of which were massive, yet I still couldn’t house all of my books on them. We had boxes and boxes of stuff.
That was it. I started, bit by bit, getting rid of items. Marie Kondo’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up lit a fire in my spirit to declutter. I did a deep-dive on simple living.
What I found inspired me to forge a new path for myself: simple living isn’t just about owning less. It’s about removing from our lives many other types of clutter. We eradicate the time-sucks and the energy drains, the wasted time and the wasted space, to focus on our purpose, our passion, our vision, our values.
As I released the physical clutter in my life, I was also forced to examine the calendar clutter as well. I’ve been able to streamline everything from my writing workflow to my cleaning routine.
And despite the fact that I’m in the first year of my indie author career launch, I make it a point to add in a few other creative outlets to fill the creative well. Playing the guitar and listening to music provide me with inspiration for my stories (and you’ll notice that, in my Tangled Magic Series, music, especially folk music, plays a recurring role).
There are other creative outlets that my simplified lifestyle makes time for: a daily tarot reading, a morning cup of coffee amid the silence, long walks with my puppy.
Owning less means there’s less to clean, meaning that I can focus on writing, bringing the stories and worlds in my heart until the world one word at a time.
And a streamlined home has yielded a surprising result: a greater sense of clarity about what I want in life. I’m not overwhelmed by stuff, and I’m less attached to stuff. For example, I’ve learned I can love literature without owning hundreds of books. Today, I have a small three-tier bookcase that is my “keepers” shelf, and another small bookcase for books that I move in and out but that haven’t yet earned a place in my permanent collection.
That clarity infuses many aspects of my life. Knowing that I want to be a full-time author, knowing that I want to walk an indie path as a writer, and many other aspects of my life…all of these realizations came to me much more easily than if I was still battling clutter.
Our home is not-quite-minimalist, in my opinion. But some of our cumbersome bedroom furniture is gone. I now keep my minimalist wardrobe in the closet. The six or seven bookcases have vanished, replaced with those two small bookcases that can be carried by a single individual.
I’ve learned that I can part with physical objects and find joy in the parting. I’ve found joy in less. Cooking, reading, writing, strumming a guitar or listening to music…These are all rituals in simplicity, celebrating the simple joys on my life journey.
Clarity. Creativity. Freedom. I gave up clutter. And I found these things instead.

Many thanks, Denise.

ABOUT TANGLED ROOTS (TANGLED MAGIC BOOK #1)

A beautiful witch lost in time. A brooding farm boy with magic in his blood and a chip on his shoulder. Dark secrets and shadowy magic. Paranormal romance with a time slip awaits in the first book of this new series. Cassie Gearhart casts a spell in the forest in the summer of 1974. The next thing she knows, she wakes up to find the world irrevocably changed. It’s 2019, for one thing. For another, all of her coven members have vanished, leaving behind only one man who holds the key to their secrets. Nick Felson has sworn off magic, until a confused Cassie knocks on his door in the middle of the night, somehow missing forty-five years’ worth of time. But Nick knows falling for the captivating witch means letting magic back into his life—and that’s one line he swore he’d never cross. Can Cassie unravel the mystery that transported her decades into the future? And can Nick resist the powerful magic and heart-pounding passion that swirl in the air whenever he and Cassie are together?
The Tangled Magic Series is intended for readers 18-plus who enjoy fast-paced reads, wild and witchy magic, swoon-worthy kisses, and small-town charm. The series is best read in order.
Tangled Roots is available at most major ebook retailers and in paperback from Amazon. Get your copy of Nick and Cassie’s story: https://books2read.com/tangledroots

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Equal parts bookworm, flower child, and eclectic witch, Denise D. Young writes fantasy and paranormal romance featuring witches, magic, faeries, and the occasional shifter. Whatever the flavor of the magic, it’s always served with a brisk cup of tea–and the promise of romance varying from sweet to sensual. She lives with her husband and their animals in the mountains of Virginia, where small towns and tall trees inspire her stories. She reads tarot cards, collects crystals, gazes at stars, and believes magic is the answer (no matter what the question was). If you’ve ever hoped to find a book of spells in a dusty attic, if you suspect every misty forest contains a hidden portal to another realm, or if you don’t mind a little darkness before your happily-ever-after, her books might be just the thing you’ve been waiting for.