2018 has proven a wonderful year for me. I realized a long-held dream in publishing not one, but two novels! I also spent an amazing spring and summer traveling around BC with my husband in our travel trailer.
We enjoy our home-away-from-home (and my mobile office) so much, we’re already itching to get out in it again–and it’s only been winterized and parked for a month! We’ll just have to make do the next couple of months, until we can pull it out again.
One of the highlights of 2018 for me–besides publishing My Dear One and My Own–was the week I spent with all my children in one place on the shores of the Arrow Lake in BC’s beautiful interior.
It was such a treat to see all four kids (adults) enjoying each other’s company, teasing, harassing, and goofing around together like they used to do when they were children talking over each other at the dining table, or fighting in the rear seats of our mini-van. Adding to the joy for me, was the presence of my grandson. Reminds me so much of his father with his bright, easy grins, and fascination with wheeled and motorized vehicles, and tools. I expect he’ll be a heart breaker one day, too. 🙂
I don’t know what 2019 holds, but as we zoom towards it (hasn’t this year flown by?), I can’t help but feel optimistic. It’s my strength, and my curse, my idealistic desire to see everyone and everything well and happy. That is something I am wishing for you this Christmas season, and throughout 2019, that all is well and good in your life, and that you realize a long held dream–or at least start yourself on the path to it.
It might be a cliche, but the longest journey begins–and ends–with a single step. It’s whether you keep working forward in between, that makes the difference between success and stalled. I know of what I speak.
I let fear stall me for years. Fear, and an abundance of concern and energy focused on other people and activities, held me in a state of anxious inertia, until I made a conscious decision to withdraw from all non-necessary activities and groups, and limit the time I invested in worrying about others, to focus on my career. I won’t lie. It’s been tough. Harder than I thought in some ways–I still lose sleep worrying people won’t like me if I don’t stay active in their lives or associations. It’s also been easier than I expected.
My friends and family haven’t abandoned me. More, they support me, and seem to understand and respect the time and energy it takes to be an Indie Publisher. I won’t get into details, but some days, it’s exhausting. Physically, emotionally, mentally. It’s also hugely rewarding.
It brings me so much joy to do something I’ve wanted to do since I was eleven years old, and couldn’t read my way through the Nancy Drew Mysteries series fast enough; makes me happy to know I’m offering people an adventure through the pages of a book, like my favorite authors do for me. And you’re part of it. Not just a part of it, but THE part of it, that matters most–to me. Without you, there’d be no one to tell my stories to. No one to send me a Facebook message telling me you’re reading the book and “love it”. No one to want to do better for.
That’s my goal in 2019–to make the next book even better than the first two, to keep you, and anyone else who reads the books, entertained, and at the end, teary-eyed with joy. For what better way to end a story, than with a Happy Ever After?
What’s your Happy Ever After, the one thing you’d like to do before time runs out?
Write it on your heart, read it every day, and one-step-at-a-time, let it guide you towards realizing your dream.
Deborah
Time is the one thing that can never be retrieved. ~ C.R. Lawson
