Please welcome my #BeReal guest today, Ashlei Hawley.

Hi and welcome all. 🙂 I am honored to do a guest posting here at HastyWord’s blog on her awesome #BeReal series. I’m all excited so let’s dive right into it.

For me, to #BeReal is to be an advocate, a creator, a seeker, and a scholar. My drive has always been to learn, and then to take what I have learned and apply it in a different way to a creative endeavor or my life in general. I relish the idea of learning things, the concept of developing new skills, and the cultivation of understanding for individuals who are not like me and are outside my current scope of focus.

My realest self is a creator who looks at every experience as fuel for creative expression. Inside my heart and mind are struggles with acceptance, empathy, and the clash of behavior against spoken beliefs. Because art is truth, I seek it in all manners.

If we’re being completely real, one of the major things that defines me is diabetes. When it comes to this disease–more than anything–I want to be an understanding and compassionate advocate for those who share the burden with me and may not understand it completely. I hope that through exposure to a greater audience with my writing, I can act in a positive capacity to educate and uplift other sufferers of the disease.

Not only that, I seek to strike a blow against the common stereotyping and general misunderstanding that comes with diabetes; in the minds of the sufferers and in those around them. My goal is the truth, as ever, and the truth is that diabetes does not lessen a person, nor does ANY disease, mental or physical. Diabetics can slay the dragons, escape the house of horrors, heal unthinkable wounds, banish scars of the body or heart, and find themselves unexpectedly in a fairy tale romance.

Diabetes is one of the realest parts of me–almost as much as my writing, or the color of my eyes. By embracing, understanding, and uplifting all parts of me, I can #BeReal and be happy to do so, every day of my life; even the bad ones, even the ones that hurt.

I know I need to #BeReal for my cause, for my future, for my loved ones, and for other people who might not know the truth of what they are or what they suffer through. If, when everything is said and done, I have made the fact that diabetics can be the heroes instead of the punchline #BeReal for at least one other diabetic, I’ll consider it a job well done.

If you or anyone you know if suffering diabetes alone or with lack of compassion from medical professionals, please suggest they contact me. I have gone through both sides of this disease (treated and untreated), I am insulin-dependent and I know, as do many, many others, that this is NOT a struggle to face alone.

When I offer diabetes advice and encouragement, that’s me trying to #BeReal. I love the idea behind what HastyWords is trying to do and I hope it encourages every reader to #BeReal to themselves.

Diabetes has made me feel ugly and awful for years now. This year, I’m taking that back. I’m ready to #BeSilly, #BeBare, #BeConfident, and #BeAble to #LoveMyself. As should you, dear reader. #BeYou and #BeReal in any damn thing you want to do! And if you think you’d be interested, take a look at my bio and links to see more about the things that define me: my books!

Ashlei Hawley is a writer of horror, erotica, and paranormal books. She is the author of Out of the Dark, the New Night Series, Between Blood and Beast, All Purpose Exorcisms, Seared, Pierced, Scorched, A Whisper In the Dark, Beyond Our Stars, and the Project Purgatory zombie novellas, Project Purgatory: Phase One and Phase Two.

She has been involved in several collaboration and anthology projects, three of which (Painted Mayhem, Devil Station, and the Sensual and Sinful Cravings Erotic Anthology) have hit bestseller lists on Amazon.

Ashlei lives in close proximity to her amazing family with her son and his father. She awaits the zombie takeover or other apocalyptic event with some excitement; though she feels woefully unprepared for such an occurrence.

Please find Ashlei’s work at amazon.com/author/ashleihawley

She also occasionally tweets weird stuff on Twitter as @AshleiDaylen

Her author Facebook page can be found at https://www.facebook.com/authorashlei