June has loved writing and journaling from a very young age, often writing poems with one of her best friends, Becky, and journaling about rainbows, sunshine, boyfriend crushes, or whatever was going on at the time. In grade school, she had fun writing skits and performing them for class. June thanks her high school freshman English teacher, Mr. Sandoval, for recommending her for Advanced Placement English class, but she often wondered how she got there. But even though other students may have had more extensive vocabularies or higher grades, June still loved her English classes, especially reading the classics such as The Odyssey and poetry by ee cummings.
She’ll never forget winning a poetry contest with a poem she wrote in five minutes the morning it was due, having forgotten it was due that day. She was shocked when it won an award! She had written about something from her heart, and it got noticed. That’s when she began to wonder, “Does writing have to be hard? What is writing truly about?”
Later in college, even though June continued to love her English classes, earned A’s in those classes, and helped many students with their term papers, she never became an English major. She now knows the reason why: she still had the clutter of “not good enough” contained within her consciousness. She still believed good writing was only about correct grammar, proper usage, and BIG, smart words. Also, upon deciding to become a serious journalist, she was dismayed to discover journalistic writing did not come very easily to her, as she found it very difficult to write a story with just the facts.
Now June knows that the kind of writing she loves is the kind that allows her to express the truth of her heart and be emotional. One methodology June stumbled upon at an early age was to not try so hard and allow the words to flow through her hands to the page. Stream-of-consciousness writing and poetry had always come easily to her. Writing letters to friends and “game plans” for clients, which included her “insights gained” while working with them, finally convinced June that she, indeed, did possess a gift for writing when she was honoring her unique voice. June finally cleared out the “clutter” of not being good enough, and the result was the publication of her first book, Behind the Clutter.
She has many more books inside of her wanting to come out, and she can’t wait to get started on the next one.
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