Episode 5) Interview with Naomi Gold

This is my second interview on "The Shrug". I have to say leading up to this interview, I was nervous. I have so much admiration for Naomi Gold, and I was not ready to find out that this person was so genuine and lovely. I was also not prepared to see such a beautiful smile and amazing eyebrows. I decided not to edit too much of the conversation, I loved the humanity of the conversation and that she is just like us. Therefore, this is mostly the raw audio of this conversation.

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This conversation was one I had thought about for weeks. I was ready to talk to Naomi about bullying, and harassment on Vocal. As I am sure we were all very interested in what she did next. Whether you were on her side or not, the receipts were interesting and the story was poignant. See her story below.

Next, I was so excited to explore why writer's block doesn't exist, and Naomi's advice on how to overcome creativity block. You might just need to get into nature or do some shadow work. Please don't spend money on a writer's block cure.

If everyone likes it, nobody will love it. -Naomi Gold

You might be surprised to know that Naomi writes consistently, and has been since 1993, however, she was only publishing around 5% on Vocal. 75% of her writing doesn't see the light of day. Sadly, since Naomi has chosen to remove herself from Vocal (we will miss you Naomi) quite a few of her stories are gone, so the story that I wrote a response to is not posted, called "Vocal Etiquette", my own response is called "Screw Vocal Etiquette" which I linked below. I was so worried about how she would receive this post and I am happy to say she was not offended. So in its place, I will show a poem she wrote that won one of Real Poetic's challenges.

"A lot of the writing I do is just trash, and that is just me warming up for when the real writing is going to happen." -Naomi

This was one of my first stories to make a top story when I returned to Vocal, and I was so excited when Naomi commented.

This story is her first prize in the Painted Prose Challenge. Which I can't believe took me months to read. I thought I read it, Forgive me, Naomi, I truly thought I had.

That means when people are watching you with ill will, you’ll be blessed before their eyes. -a quote from Thru the Eyes of Ruby

I'm sad her other stories are not on the site, they were very good. This creator will be sorely missed here on Vocal. She was so great at leaving comments and making someone feel like their story was great.

"I don't want you to ever feel like you have to earn my reads." -Naomi

Naomi is gifted in haiku, as well as other forms of writing and poetry. I loved this haiku.

Real Poetic if you are reading this far just know that I have gotten a lot better at my artist profiles for the interviews and I owe you a better profile. Just saying.