LitHub: The Merits of Silence

I wrote an article for LitHub about how the process of penning The Silent Treatment helped me overcome my fear of silence.

Here’s the opening:

‘Every year since I’ve been old enough to ask my Dad what he wants for his birthday, Christmas, Father’s Day, he has given me the exact same answer: “A quiet life, darling.” It would take me over 20 twenty years to understand why that was a gift worth giving.

See, for just as long as I have been asking that question, I have lived in fear of silence. As a child, it was synonymous with boredom. I dreaded the drawn-out days of the school holidays, filled primarily with the company of my own thoughts. Then, as a teen, silence morphed into a state that was to be avoided at all costs. The popular crowd were surrounded by noise, invigorated by the sound of their own voices as they shrieked in-jokes to one another outside the local record store. Quiet kids were viewed with suspicion. Often, contempt….’

To read the full article, click here.