“The only way to do great work is to love what you do – Steve Jobs.” Maribel’s passion and creative qualities like writing, singing, or speaking and love of art produces great work. Without a doubt, she has touched many hearts with her marvelous talent. She is an Australian author, speaker, and writer for verywell.com. She is also a peer advisor for VisionAware (American Foundation for the Blind). Her non-fiction articles and essays have appeared in numerous online and print journals and she was recently nominated by Women with Disabilities (VIC) for the ‘Inspire Awards’ for Best Achievement Award in Writing (Non-Fiction and Journalism) 2016.

You are multi-talented - “author, inspirational speaker and vocalist”? Which talent defines you the best?M:  None of these art forms or ‘talents’ define me completely. As in the colours on an artist’s palette, there are a multitude of hues and so whether I am following my passion for writing or speaking or singing, I see these creative qualities as complementary aspects of my personality. My main love is to be creative. Even raising a family as I have done kept me in touch with creativity by doing activities with my children like hand-crafting gifts and cards, baking biscuits, making up stories and songs, and gathering shells and other natural objects to create textural collages.
It’s true that singing was one of my first loves as a teenager since it was at this time that my eyesight began to get worse with a mysterious eye disease and, while pondering my career options, I thought it wouldn’t matter if I couldn’t see because I could become a famous singer. (That was my delightful dream back then.) But I also had a fascination for quotations: how a writer could frame words so beautifully really captured my imagination. These brief inspirational sayings by authors, writers, artists were like pocket-size art treasures I collected and lovingly wrote down in a special journal. To this day, words of wisdom or touching phrases still help to keep my thoughts on the positive when life gets a little challenging.
It is a driven pleasure to write every day which has brought me to my current profession as an author and freelance writer. But sentences and paragraphs don’t always come easily. Working with words and crafting them into a flowing story can be like handling elusive little creatures: they escape your thoughts, they can refuse to mould into shape, they can turn a sentence upside down and leave a writer in complete frustration. But, as every artist knows and experiences, with persistence comes the magic of completion and the joy of accomplishment.
Losing my sight gradually over thirty-five years has given me time to develop a clearer vision of who I am, so I also design presentations as a creative way to share my insights on the journey towards blindness.
Even though I am not able to see my computer screen clearly, I feel very connected to the entrancing visual medium of photography and love thinking up original images that will enhance my presentations (or blog posts). With the love and support of my life-partner who is also highly creative in the arts, we spend many happy hours planning, capturing and sorting images that can be used for a presentation or blog post or even a book cover. I am extremely fortunate to have his collaborative free-flowing spirit which sparks even more creativity in our household!

What does art mean to you? How does art helped you to express your challenges?M: Art is beautiful, art is my life. Mastering the ART of being blind is my work in progress. The words of Henry Ward Beecher, who said, “Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures”, ring true for me.
Art can be any form of self-expression that a person uses to fulfil their artistic desires to express beauty in a form they enjoy most (painting, sculpting, writing, drawing, jewellery making, fashion design, photography, woodwork and landscaping, etc.). The great thing about creating your own art is being able to disappear into your imagination and follow your creative muse!
My chosen art form is writing non-fiction stories which helps to express the personal challenges brought about by living with a visual impairment, allowing me to share the good, the bad and (sometimes) the very funny aspects of life through storytelling. In this way, other people can find connection or resonance in my daily experiences and realise we are on this journey together.
It has taken many years and countless life-reflections to persist and fine- tune my other sensory skills as well as embrace a certain amount of courage to accept life as a person with low vision and its physical limitations. This is why I mention ‘mastering the art of being blind’ – like art itself, our lives are like a work in progress.

How has your experience been writing for About.com network? What is the best compliment have you received from you fans?M:  It has been an incredibly challenging yet rewarding one. Writing for About.com (who have redesigned the site to be called Verywell.com) was an opportunity that came out of the blue one year ago. I could hardly believe I was being invited to write for a top ranking health network but, after dancing around the house with jubilation, came the big thud of self-doubt. All the ‘what ifs’ hit my sense of confidence as a writer. I wondered if I was really up for the new challenge – this is what they call ‘being out of your comfort zone’.
I turned to my family for advice and encouragement, needing that little extra nudge to make me jump at the opportunity. I accepted the contract and allowed myself to ‘feel the fear and do it anyway.”
Many months later, what seemed a huge challenge in keeping up several posts per month has brought a hidden gift in making me a more focused writer with many articles I would never have written if not for the pressure of a deadline. The point I want to make, is how important it is to be persistent in attaining our goals. It can seem pointless and easy to give up when we run out of inspiration but if we really want our dreams to come true, our projects to take flight, then we have to take action and find ways to keep us on track. It is often self-confidence pulling us back but when we silence the inner critic, our artistry and belief in our ability to succeed comes shining through.
I once received an email from a young woman in Latvia to say how much my blog articles had helped her to cope with her own loss of sight. Her reaching out to tell me this, really touched my heart.
As a blogger, you never know who is reading your work, so to actually receive a personal letter from someone on the other side of the world who took the time to reach out and share her story was an unexpected reward for me too.
I also keep a special file on my computer and whenever a reader sends me a kind comment, I place it in the file. On days when I may need a nudge to continue writing, I can re-read their uplifting words to remind me how much my work means to others too. A comment like, “You uplift and give voice to what could be dark. Thank you for continuing to impact my life.” – is one reason why I persevere in writing stories and anecdotes on living with a disability.

Can you tell us about your book “My Mother’s Harvest”?M: Sure. My Mother’s Harvest is a collection of family recipes and short stories which I self-published in 2012. I wrote it as a surprise for my family as a Christmas gift but what happened was that other friends and the general public were also eager to buy a copy.
Publishing my own book brought benefits I hadn’t expected. It opened other doors where I was invited to speak and write on the topic of being a visually impaired author: what technology did I use, how do I write if I can’t see the computer screen? The book launched my career as a writer that put me as a little dot on the radar of other writers and editors, mentors and publishers.
I was invited to write my first guest post to help a wider community of readers understand how those without sight can also write and publish their work. Currently, I am drafting a second book with a different focus. It is a book of 25 creative essays exploring the many ways we can continue to live a fulfilled and meaningful life with a visual impairment.

Who is your favorite writer? Which of his/her book you like the most?M: Boy, this is a difficult question to answer. It depends on my mood. Sometimes I like to read historical fiction that carries my thoughts back in time to other eras of humanity and at other times, I like to spend time reading memoirs and biographies because it is fascinating to discover other styles and true stories.
For fiction, one favourite author is Kate Morton. She is a brilliant writer from Australia who weaves her words with artistic flair. Her use of English to paint portraits of her characters and how she develops complex plots is one reason why I love her writing and why she is an award winning writer.
For nonfiction, there are too many authors to mention. Biographies of people like Frida Kahlo, Marie Antoinette, Georgiana McCrae, or the 3-book memoir series by Carol Drinkwater (on moving from England to run an olive farm in France) have been some of my favourites.

What are your other hobbies?M: Writing is a passion I find hard to ignore and it can also be a relaxing hobby, where I like to keep a journal of our travels to distant shores or to take notes on plants in our garden. So my other hobbies include travelling, either overseas or going out to new places in our home city of Melbourne, discovering places that heighten my other senses. I enjoy going to art galleries with my partner where he does a wonderful job of audio describing the artwork. Another hobby is knitting in the winter months or listening to an audio book while cooking or gardening. It is great fun getting together with friends to do a little improvised singing or to stroll through a botanical garden or just go shopping to touch my way around beautiful things!

What is your favorite place to visit? What do you like about that place?M: There is a very special little cabin I go to with my partner in the Australian bush. When we both have a gap in our busy schedule, we love to escape city life to allow our senses to be fully immersed in the sounds and smells of bush life. So far away from the city, the landscape is fresh and crisp, with a different kind of busyness of nature we love to observe: bees buzzing on flowers, flies whirling past at great speed, cockatoos and other parrots screeching in the tree tops at sunrise, lizards scooting around in the leaf-litter in the bush and cheeky possums on the roof at night. We sometimes hear the odd koala bear grunting in a distant tree and at dusk wallabies (small kangaroos) bounce in mobs to nibble on grass shoots in the meadow near the water dam – where frogs can be heard in a croaky chorus of love calls. I often rise early just to sit on the wooden verandah with a cup of tea to listen to the amazing sounds of the bush as she awakens to greet a new day. It is truly an inspiring place to be.

Do you have any advice to special kids who are interested in becoming a writer?M:  Oh yes – follow your heart and do it! Find a special time every day if you can, and write down any thoughts and ideas for stories that don’t want to leave you alone. Make friends with words by collecting those ones you really like that you come across in books or online articles by keeping them in a file or pretty journal.
By practicing as much as possible, you will see whether you have a flair for fiction or nonfiction writing. Try to write in both these genres to discover your natural writing talent as one style may come easier to you than the other. One great way to start writing even if you are not sure what to write about, is to find an online writing competition for your age group. This often helps to give a theme, a word count and a deadline!
One other tip. When you have written your piece, either read it out loud or have a friend read it to you – this is a clever way of taking note of where some words appear clumsy and where you might have to make shorter or longer sentences for your story to flow. Above all, start with a topic you love, write, for example, about a pet or a travel experience or special hobby or fantasy world of your own making. Whatever really makes you feel passionate can be the beginning of your ‘career’ as an emerging writer.

Do you have a special message for our community?M:  I think it is a wonderful concept having this website as a resource for children, families, educators and artists to connect through their love for the arts. There is nothing that disables a person more than their doubts and indecision when confidence to progress with their artistic expression is sometimes difficult. It is very important to find a place of belonging and I encourage everyone here in this unique online community to continue supporting and encouraging each other in our artistic ventures.
I thank you for the opportunity to share my thoughts and life as a writer and hope this quote by Michelangelo is one you may embrace on days when persistence with the love of art is essential: “I saw the angel in the marble and I carved until I set him free.”