Author and intuitive writing coach, Chloe Rachel Gallaway, is the founder of The Winged River Writer and author of The Soulful Child: Twelve Years in the Wilderness, a memoir of her childhood through age twelve in the wilderness of Northern New Mexico. Chloe’s unusual life of growing up deeply connected to nature and spirit has led her to a unique process of intuitively connecting to writing. The writing of this memoir became the foundation for her business and empowered her to become a warrior for helping others to find the truth in their story. A big believer in the power of owning our voice, Chloe is leading the VOICES book series™ movement, helping people become writers who show up with their heart-centered message in the world.
PLUME: When did you know you were a writer?
CRG: When I was 15 years old I wrote poetry to save my life, to breathe love into a broken heart. At 20 years old I took creative writing and poetry in the same year. I had learned the ways of the soul with the arc of my poem, it continued to be a great healer, but I still didn’t consider myself a writer.
What would it take to consider myself a writer?
I was hung up on the many ideas of the world and what I thought it meant to be a writer. One who knows all forms of expression on paper, one who does not receive a lot of red marks on their paper, one who knows the mechanics of writing, the weaving of story. At the time I couldn’t even put this into words, I simply was NOT what I thought it took to be a writer, and at the same time dreamed of being one.
How do we move from a dream in our heart to a reality?
At 33 years old I started to write my first book, The Soulful Child. Twelve Years In the Wilderness. I had a moment right after my first child was born, looking down her, this 3 month old baby attached to my nipple I was overcome with compassion and a deep seeking broke opened inside of me. “I needed to understand my past so that I could become a good parent.” Half way through the writing of my first book I knew I was a writer.
I kept writing, expressing, but mostly I allowed myself to FEEL; feel all of the pain along with the Joy. This being able to feel all things makes the flower of abundance come to life. I’m grateful to, The Soulful Child, in me that kept believing and writing from a place of feeling.
PLUME: Where do you get your ideas?
CRG: I write mostly non-fiction and memoir, which gives me a constant steady flow of ideas. I’m rushed with ideas while in the bath, or feeding my bunnies in the backyard, or watering my peach tree. Ideas come to me in constant flicks and visuals, the main issue for me is keeping up with them and getting them down on paper.
PLUME: How supportive is your local community for writers?
CRG: Being a local author in, New Mexico, and a writing coach I receive a lot of community support from readers. I have quite a steady following and a lot of connection on social media, however, I don’t have connection to other writer’s as much as I’d like. It was really nice to stumble upon your site. With the launch of my book I did a book review from, David Steinberg, from the ABQ journal and had a full page review in the journal. I had 2 book signings at BookWorks on Rio Grande and have a great relationship with bookstores here in town. It’s been about making those connections and developing the relationships.
PLUME:We at Plume have a broad definition of success—-How do you define “success” for a writer? For yourself?
CRG: I love this question and have been defining it in new ways for the past 5 years. I keep asking myself what it means as I go through the many feelings of becoming a published author. I thought that getting published would lend to feelings of absolute success, I did it therefor I have arrived. This is a slippery slope, because once we published, in my case it was my true life story, then we can get real focused on the numbers we sell, and the number’s we don’t sell, etc. About 6-months post my launch I had a coming to heart with myself, the numbers were going to be what they were going to be, I focused on the reader’s heart connected response to my book. I quite regularly receive personal messages from readers on how my message has impacted their lives. That is success right there. I also feel a great deal of success in my own process, my ability to connect intuitively to the writing, my ability to access my voice, to turn water into words that evoke feeling from my reader.
I feel successful when I live closer to my natural state of being. When I spend more time in nature, writing, walking, and dancing in the kitchen with my beloved. To be a writer is to be an observer of life, to feel it, and then transmit it to paper in a way that other’s feel it too. That is success for me. But I’m still holding my big vision for my writing career. I hope to meet Oprah, and some of the greats that have impacted my life.
PLUME: Do you have a writing shero? A fellow woman writer from whom you get inspiration?
CRG: I have met two of my first connections to writing, Natalie Goldberg, and Jennifer Lauck. I studied under the both of them for some time. There is no one particular that is a Shero, for me. I love to mingle in my head with many writers. Anne Lamott. I love her candid humor and philosophical style. Elizabeth Gilbert, I love and hate some of her ideas on writing. I feel it’s good to observe what you connect to and what pushes you away, why? I ask the question of my criticism in either direction. (It’s about gaining awareness.)
PLUME: What are you currently working on?
CRG: I’m currently working on my first publication of my VOICES book series. Co-authored by myself and 11 other women. It is the first of many books that will tell women’s stories of braving it all to become woman they are today. I’m also working on my second memoir, Braving The World.
Find out more by visiting Chloe’s website, ChloeRachelGallaway.com