Octavia E. Butler must have been a sensitive soul. I’ve convinced myself that her writing of Lauren in Parable of the Sower, a character who feels the pain of those around her as well as their joys, was based on Octavia herself. That is why Octavia was a recluse in her life. She felt too strongly the emotions of those around her. That invisible underlying current of electric expression that would raise the arms on her hairs and snap her to alertness with its raw expression. The distraction it must have been to be ever present in a room of feeling people and taking every emotional shift into yourself. To channel that would’ve been exhausting. Trying not to make eye contact so that you could numb the sensation and block the unspoken communication running unchecked in your mind. Then, channeling this into writing so you had some way to express what was happening. Locked away in isolation because you’ve felt enough for a lifetime of expression.

Who we are as people always bleeds into our art. So in truth, when I speak of putting my blood, sweat, and tears into something; I am saying, in there somewhere, between all those little letters, amongst all the punctuations, and in every intentional pause is every experience I’ve lived directly and indirectly.