Thread by @MRR_author

Good morning #writingcommunity #amwriting & #amquerying friends. I owe several threads. I’ll try to do today between chores, edits for a friend and my own writing. I’ll try but my life is nuts. lol
Today’s 1st sage advice is regarding the Jimmy Thomas incident. On Fat Shaming: 1/

Mandatory:
@authorkayn @AuthorPrime01 @authorMAF @BSommerland @CKnightWrites @ChuckRothman @jpdailing @DaedalDahlin @drslayton @darklordjournal @ellelinderbooks @mj_engels @FallonDemornay @AGoddardwriter @MyWrite19 @kpoet1395 @IAmLordUnicron @LizzyStevens123 @Nichol_DeCastra 2/

I am fat. I know it. It’s hard to not know it when I’m 5’1” and weigh 200#. It stares me in the face daily. But I’m not dead and I’m usually very happy so I’ll take fat over dead and sad any day.
Let me back track a bit so you understand why I’m totally fine w/ myself and 3/

completely irritated w/ a certain gym fit cover model.
My dad is the son of Serbian immigrants. First generation American on his mom’s side. My mom’s listed as full blood Ogalala Sioux but I have blue eyed siblings (long story). Both sides of my family produce human bodies 4/

that don’t fit a particular height/weight ratio chart. Both sides of my family produce people w/ bodies that will survive extreme life experiences. I look exactly like what would happen if you took a blond Serbian dude and mixed it with a black-haired native woman. Seriously 5/

50/50. And that goes below the surface appearance. I ended up with hybrid vigor EVERYWHERE. While my dad has a pretty good bone structure and so does my mom. I have one that’s insane. Aside from 2 accidents (1 car and 1 horse) I have never broken a bone in my life. Not even 6/

fingers and toes. Because it takes immense force to break my abnormally dense skeleton. And yes I know how abnormal my skeleton is. Forensic anthropologist here. I love looking at my own xrays.
So I really am that short, stocky peasant woman who can have a baby in the morning 7/

and be plowing by mid afternoon.
Seriously.
I was back to work 3 days after my daughter was born. And only because they kept me in the hospital for 3 days because Minnesota is awesome people.
So I actually am “big boned” though not huge fat bones. Just insanely dense ones. 8/

As a scientist I know that because when I attempted self-amputation-by-horse (I do not recommend that BTW) I asked to keep the pieces of my shattered tibia. I wanted to see and test my own bone. Because science. And face it scientists are a bit creepy.
Those tests told me that 9/

my skeleton has a tensile strength 2x more than normal and a strain failure rate 50% better than average. They’re stronger and more flexible than normal. Go team hybrid vigor!
But I pay for it in a couple of ways. Dense elastic bones are heavy and the muscles that attach to 10/

them are also denser. Which means I weigh more than your normal 5’1 woman.
If I were at the weight Jimmy’s chart said I should be (100-130#) I would be skeletal. I would look like a resident of a gulag.
I also know this because in my teens I freaked out about my weight and 11/

dieted and worked out to the point of near anorexia. I was a size 8 150# and tried to force my body down to 115# because that’s the average weight for my height. I didn’t know that my skeleton weighs the same as a MALE skeleton a foot taller than me. I thought I was fat. 12/

Yes Jimmy this is what your charts do to girls. And yes Jimmy the US has an obesity problem. No you can’t judge women without understanding them.
In my case my ideal weight is 150-160#. About the midpoint between a 5’1 woman and a 6’1 man. I’m strong peasant woman. Built like 13/

ox. Will plow all day. (Family joke)
I weigh ~200#. My BMI is edging into the scary numbers (currently 27%). I know that. But you don’t know me Jimmy.
You don’t know that six years ago I nearly tore off my right leg below the knee. It took a 1400# draft horse to do it but 14/

I almost succeeded. (Still don’t recommend trying people trust me)
You don’t know that I couldn’t walk for a year and only after 12 surgeries, 2 of which were so experimental that they said I could still lose my leg, 2 years of intense physical therapy and beating every 15/

recovery milestone my orthopedic surgeon gave me (this is the guy that Kong’s fly in to Mayo to be seen by BTW. I was his science project) that I walked again.
But I didn’t just walk Jimmy. I learned how to walk, climb, run, kneel, ski, skate and work again. I taught myself 16/

how to live with a permanent disability. And how to live well. I gained weight. That’s true. I’d love to take some of it off but if I never do it’s ok.
Because this strong peasant woman can work all day.
I wake up and start my day by hauling 2 59# feed sacks on my shoulders 17/

50 yards to feed my chickens and sheep. Everyday. Twice.
I then load 40 gallons of water weighing 340# into a sled and pull it half a mile from my well to my livestock. Twice. Every day.
Then I haul hay 100# to feed them. Twice. Every day.
By this time I have been doing hard 18/

physical labor for 2 hours. But my day just began. I then go home and make my family breakfast. A good hearty one with eggs and pancakes and butter and syrup because life’s short enjoy it. After that I clean up pour 10 gallons (85# lifted over my head) of water into my solar 19/

powered water heater and get back to work. I do greenhouse chores, hauling 50# bags of soil and fertilizer to plant more plants, moving 30# trays of growing plants and hauling rotten seed and old soil out to compost. Then I train my horses for a few hours. Catch and medicate 20/

and livestock that needs monitoring. And finally go in for lunch. Because Jimmy my day just began.
I eat another hearty lunch packed with energy and go back out again to build fences, chop wood, haul water, and enjoy my life. Sometimes I fix machines. Sometimes I consult on 21/

an old case. And sometimes I get really lucky and all this manual labor is done for the day by 4pm and I have extra writing time.
Because Jimmy. I’m your worst nightmare. I’m a fat romance author. And I’m one who can work circles around you despite my funky leg.
I don’t 22/

know how much I can bench press and frankly don’t care. I know that I can calm a spooked horse. I don’t waste time doing leg extensions or butterflies. I squat enough every day picking up 50# sacks thank you very much.
I don’t waste my time in a gym. I don’t have that time to 23/

waste.
I’m a fat romance writer with strange bones who loves to work on my farm, eat and laugh. I’m everything you fear.
But remember this Jimmy when they casted the Amazons for Wonder Woman they didn’t go to gyms. They casted two types of women. Olympians (which you are not) 24/

and farmers. They casted women who break your little weight chart to pieces. Women with thicker thighs and muscles built by a lifetime of work. Women who could ride horses. They casted women like me.
Remember that Jimmy.
I may be fat but I’m worthy of the Amazons.
I’m done 25/

talking to Jimmy now #writingcommunity. I’m talking to my #amwriting and #amquerying friends. Because I wasted too much time on him in this epically long thread.
Don’t listen to people like him. You are beautiful. You are valuable. You are strong.
And you have something the 26/

Jimmies of the world will never have. Talent.
So go out there. Write your books. Eat your food. Live your best life.
I will have your back.
Be happy. Happy writers write more books. And that’s what this world really needs. /Fin