My Writing Journey by Dianne C. Braley

September 8, 2022 | By Women Writers Women Books | Reply More

Unwrapping the thick silver paper sprinkled with snowflakes, I stared at the pink leather book trimmed with gold edging. A large ornate heart-shaped lock and key hung from the side. I knew what it was immediately because I asked for a diary in my letter to Santa after watching the Brady Bunch episode where Marcia writes about Davey Jones or Desi Arnaz Jr. every night in hers. It was one of these 1960-70s icons the teenagers then swooned over; I can’t recall which. After all, it was almost forty years ago, so I am cringing showing my age, but that’s when my writing journey began before it stalled some years later.

I’d write in the usual “Dear Diary” way recounting my day, but I found this mundane and boring and retired my journal for a time. Ever inspired my music; it was the 80s; after all, and feeling I needed a creative outlet, I pulled the little book out from under my mattress and began to write again, but this time, I wrote lyrically. I wasn’t entirely trying to write a song but attempting to connect more with my feelings and the world. Of course, I didn’t know it at the time, but what I was writing was poetry, and I continued writing poetry for years to come.

Growing up in a hardscrabble blue-collar city just north of Boston with my truck driver father and nurse mother, writing and the arts weren’t something nurtured, at least not for my friends and me from what I observed. We did have one creative soul in the family, my aunt, an artist I was in awe of, but she moved away when I was small, and that was that. Where I’m from, you didn’t hear of many writers or artists emerging. Phrases like “food on the table” and “job stability” were standard in our household. Of course, they told my brother and me we could be anything we wanted as parents do, but when it came down to it, if I took a risk, there might not be “food on the table,” so I steered toward stability and went on to become a nurse. It was what I knew, and the thought of making a living helping people warmed me and felt right.

I started on the surgical floor at a Boston hospital and went on to practice in many other aspects of the field. My writing slowed naturally at the time, only writing here and there after a bad breakup or a glass of wine and a crumby day. Soon I realized I needed a change and some inspiration to breathe some life back into me. On a whim, I called Martha’s Vineyard Hospital, having fallen in love with the island years earlier on a trip. Sitting on the sandy patch of beach overlooking Vineyard Sound, it was then that I told myself one day I’d live there, and soon I was. In the beginning, I worked at the small hospital that looked like a giant summer cottage at the time. It’s a lot different today.

Sometime later, I transitioned to private nursing for the Pulitzer-prize-winning author William Styron arguably best known for his book Sophie’s Choice. At this time, something awakened in me. Although he was a man of few spoken words nearing the end of his life, he was my patient and became my friend. He also became my motivator.

Reading his books across from him as I cared for him for his last few years, I admired greatly how this literary legend took the darkness of the world and himself and channeled it into something more, a book you could physically touch and share with others. Being around my novelist patient, his family, and friends immersed in a culture, I felt something budding inside me, getting more comfortable with the calling I had always had. Being older, I didn’t have as much fear that went along with the unknown of attempting to write and putting yourself out there. And that’s what I did.

I started again with poetry and journaling, then went on to write some nursing articles and things of that nature regarding healthcare having a few published pieces. I started a nursing blog that was soon named one of the top nursing blogs of 2018, but I still felt something was missing. I liked to write creatively, and I also had a story burning inside of me that came together in my head for the years after I left my beautiful island. Although it was too painful to write for so long, I knew I would one day. I began taking notes for a few years while still writing in the healthcare universe, along with some poetry here and there to quench my creative thirst. Soon after that, I was ready, or as ready as I’d ever be, and I began to write every morning; getting up between 4-5 am, I wrote for two years. The story rerouted me a bit and took some unexpected paths as I channeled my darkness and reflected on a time long ago that was both beautiful and heartbreaking. Then my debut novel, The Silence in the Sound, was born inspired by actual events. It’s been a roller coaster ride, and I wouldn’t change anything.

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A raw, gritty New Englander, Dianne C. Braley found love for the written word early on, reading and creating stories while trying to escape hers, growing up in the turbulent world of alcoholism. After putting her pencil down for a time, she became a registered nurse finding strength and calm in caring for those who couldn’t care for themselves. While living in Martha’s Vineyard years ago, Braley cared for ailing Pulitzer prize-winning novelist of Sophie’s Choice, William Styron. He and his books helped her realize she missed crafting stories, and she had some of her own to tell. The Silence in the Sound, Dianne’s debut novel released on August 23rd 2022.

THE SILENCE IN THE SOUND

Finding inspiration where she least expects it, one woman’s life is about to change forever.

Life has not been kind to Georgette. Growing up with an alcoholic father and an enabling mother, she clings to the loving memory of a childhood trip to Martha’s Vineyard to help see her through the bad times; and now, as an adult, she returns to the island to start her life over. Soon she becomes the private nurse for a prize-winning novelist. As the two become friends, he opens her mind to new possibilities.

But everything changes when she encounters the mysterious Dock. Georgette isn’t quite sure about him but finds him irresistible. She quickly loses herself in her relationship despite the inherent dangers that come with him. Torn between her own future or spiraling into a life she tried so hard to leave behind, Georgette must make her most important decision ever.

Sometimes escaping the past isn’t as easy as it appears.

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