Skip to main content

Transition is a fickle mistress...

Well, it is official.  I am now a full time authoress.  No more day job to keep me down!  It is exciting, relaxing, relieving, and completely disorienting not having a regular 9 to 5 job like everyone else on the planet.  And already, 9 days into this whirlwind adventure I have discovered some things.

The first thing that I discovered was how "light" life is without the responsibilities I had burdened myself with.  Physically, I have already been able to push my purse down into the back of a closet because suddenly everything I own fits snugly in my pocket.  No heavy bundles of keys, swipe cards, company cards, receipts, worries and cares to haul all over creation with me.  

Sleep has returned to me in just the right amount and I am told repeatedly that I look more alive than I have in years.  Although I am living life without an alarm clock now (for the first time in a decade) I am still waking early, but without the urgent "the world is ending" feeling that I am so used to.  I have been able to ease into my day and have been amazingly more productive than I could have thought possible.

The other thing that has become apparent, rather abruptly, is that it is very difficult for anyone else to understand and support the decision of someone else "quitting normal life" as was so delicately put to me earlier this week.  I am suddenly an outsider without many supporters.  I knew that choosing to make my way in the world from the comfort of my own home and pajamas would be difficult for some to grasp, but I suppose I wasn't prepared for how much the feelings would sting.  

But, ill feelings aside, I know that the decision to focus on my writing and end my career chasing someone else's definition of "success" will be one of the best decisions I have made for myself and my family.  Sure, I probably won't be rich tomorrow; but I will be better prepared to take care of myself and my loved ones with the time and care that we each deserve.

Currently Reading:

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Don't Wait

I awoke Friday morning to a message from someone whose name was only vaguely familiar. Laying in bed, scrolling through Facebook on my cell phone, I opened the message. It was a quick note from a woman who was good friends with a woman who I have been close to for over a decade. I read it, and reeled with shock. My friend, a woman who had been with me through the best and worst of times, is gone. Taken from this life because of a driver who didn't stop at a stop sign on a country road. "Accidents happen," many say. It's true, but it isn't right. We never know when our time is going to be up. Today might be your last day, or mine. There's no way of predicting what will happen tomorrow... this evening... fifteen minutes from now. There are many tragedies stemming from this simple accident. First, a mother with fierce love of her two teenage children was stolen from them. A woman who was a pillar of support for so many has fallen from their list of who to cal...

Proofing.

The first printed copy of A Giraffe in the Room has arrived in my office. The giant "Proof" stamp is wonderful to see, and I am looking forward to picking through the pages to make sure that the novelette is ready to be released commercially. Every time writing takes a step forward - whether it is the completion of a piece, reading through editing mark ups for the first time, or getting a print proof in the mail, it is a wonderful feeling. I hope that everyone who finds their passion gets the chance to feel the pride of taking a step forward.  I will say that at under 50 pages, I think A Giraffe in the Room looks a little bit like a pamphlet that someone would hand you through the open crack of your screen door as they try to tell you about the Good News. Other than the brevity of the thing (it is a novelette, after all), I'm very pleased with the little bit of it that I've had a chance to look over. I hope to comb over it this week, and estimate that copies ...

Missing Deadlines

Life - not only is it the final frontier, but sometimes it is also a whirlwind. These days, I feel an awful lot like Toto in the Wizard of Oz. It is like I've been shoved in a basket and taken through the tornado to a land that looks like nothing I have ever seen before. My husband and I made the difficult decision to close down our retail store and move the whole business back home. That has translated into weeks (or months?) of sorting, selling, packing and storing everything that the business has owned. Right now, there is a mountain of inventory, paperclips, toddler-work-toys and extension cords rising up from the floor of my living room. I have rehomed a fraction of the mountain in the last two weeks, and I hope that eventually I will muster up the courage and energy I need to tackle the rest of it. Add to that weeks upon weeks of birthdays, holidays, the start of summer... and writing has gotten pushed far down the list of priorities. Not that I'd be able to writ...