Guest Post by Emma Michaels

Today we are happy to welcome author Emma Michaels (The Sense of Truth series and the Society of Feathers series) to I'd So Rather Be Reading.  Emma's here to tell us about identifying and overcoming your fears.  Welcome, Emma!

Overcoming My Biggest Fears

 
I think to tell you about overcoming my biggest fears I would have to share with you what I fear. Honestly, there are many things that I am afraid of. I don’t like spiders. I don’t like bugs flying at my face, or politics that seem to never change. 

But as to fears? Hmm… I’m afraid of everyone I love dying and being left alone. That one I’m trying to overcome even now. My fiancé is a few years older than me, and I sometimes wonder if he will pass away before I do. It’s a frightening thought, and one that will take a lifetime to not only figure out but to overcome. 

I think my single largest fear is never being able to write or read ever again. It used to be that I was afraid of trying to get my writing published. It took my fiancé encouraging me to go for it before I finally took the plunge. Now I’m published, have three books out and my latest, Owlet, being released. Am I still afraid of rejection? Honestly, yes. Sometimes I wonder if my publisher won’t like my latest book or if my readers won’t like it. 

It’s not always easy to overcome a fear. I’ve talked to my fiancé about such things (he has a background in psychology). He says that most fears are usually just in your mind. What he means by that is not that it’s all in our heads, but that we actually have full control over our fears if we truly believe we do. Do I agree with him? Not necessarily. He has an annoying habit of being right (isn’t that grrr sometimes?) but I know he loves me. 

My finance was right about one thing, we can’t let fears hold us back. Why? Because you get to look back like I do and see that you forged a clear path; that it was worth it! Looking back it wasn’t the fear along the way that mattered, it was what I managed to accomplish in spite of them. 

Read! Write! Overcome your fears and love what you do because when you look back you will be more disappointed if you let anything stand in your way than if you try and fail. Which would you rather risk? The failure or never even giving yourself a chance to get far enough to have a chance as succeeding? 

Visit Emma Michaels' website here.

Read about Owlet on Goodreads here.