Here are some of the sites I visit frequently. I've categorized them to indicate why I appreciate them and how they relate to Fontella Arabella.
For a long time, I've been fascinated by the way that language, and stories in particular, affect the way we think about the world. I believe that most of our thoughts exist as manifestations of the story we have written in our minds: the story of everything we know, based on everything we've learned so far. I've heard people say that you cannot change the way you feel, but you can find ways to change the way you think. To me, this means learning a different way to tell the same story. For people with mental illness, particularly those with Major Depression and obsessive disorders, the story is painful, and even worse, it never changes. One of the reasons I've decided to start Fontella Arabella is to see how creating a narrative of a strong, self-reliant, and mostly mentally healthy woman lives in this world. I hope to discover that through exploration of the character. My guess is that this will be therapeutic. If I find that it is, I'm going to try to give an account of how it helped me. My hope is that this will lead me to a career both in business and in a kind of art therapy involving the use of reading and writing as therapeutic tools. Here are some sites I think might be of assistance if using writing and literature as tools for self-exploration and positive mental and emotional change interest you:
I've always loved the f-word. Here are a few sites that make the feminist in me happy.