I own it, I didn't, not proud that was me, and when I face it, a little dignity, not looking for excuses, I just want to be free from power

weakness head on sea

free free free free free

free free Hi, everyone, and welcome to the bubble hour where real people tell real stories of addiction and recovery.

I'm Gene McCarthy. I write the blog Unpickled. I've been telling my story there of life after alcohol since my first day of sobriety in 2011.

I tell my story there, and I invite you to share your stories here.

Now, before we get to today's guest, I just want to give you a little bit of an update on what's

happening in my world, because a lot of you have been nice enough to write in and ask about it.

So I have written a novel called The Burden Place. And right now I am going through

the mostly terrifying process of what's called querying my novel, which means I've been sending

it out to agents and publishers to try to find someone who would like to partner with me

and publish this book. And I have to tell you, as a 52-year-old grandmother who's been

married for 30 years, I am finding this process. The closest thing to what I imagine online dating

must be in this age because it is a real emotional roller coaster of feeling great about

yourself one moment and terrible about yourself the next moment.

But I'm really, really proud of this book and really looking forward to the day that I can tell you where to buy it.

And hopefully it won't be too long before I can make that announcement for you.

I also have another novel underway.

This one is more directly about recovery.

The other one is kind of historical fiction that's more about the sort of undercurrents of mental illness and addiction in families during, you know, the 1930s.

This book that I'm writing now is more sort of chick lit, as they call it, female fiction and also quitlit.

And I'm using air quotes while I say that.

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