It's a new life for me . . . and I'm feelin' good

I don't think I'll even try to cover all the changes that have happened since I last blogged. Amazing. My life and the life of my family is so different now. The really short version is that we sold the business and moved to a new house (same town). I am no longer employed. Taking care of the new house and my family is for sure something that could occupy every minute of my day, but I have another venture in mind . . .

On the morning of Friday July 24th, I woke up in the middle of the night with an idea. It was kind of an idea for a young reader book. Something my pre-teen kids would read, but they would call it a “chapter book.” Basically it was based on a dream I had. I got up and put the first chapter in a document and lay awake in bed continuing to write in my head. By the time morning came I was sure it was just silly. I had MWD read the chapter as soon as he was up and he went crazy for it. He was way more excited than I was and he insisted I had to finish the story.

Later that day we went to look at houses with our realtor. We had looked at quite a few houses and nothing really hit us. I pulled one out of the pile that had never been convenient timing for us to look at (per the owners) and asked her to try again.

The outside of the house was nothing exciting, but I had a feeling that we needed to go inside. Even though the décor was not anything like my taste (very French cottage), almost immediately I was attached to this house. As I looked through the kitchen and opened the pantry, my jaw dropped. I had written about this exact pantry and it was a crucial part of my story. I told MWD – “this is James’ pantry”. Not sure he believed me. But I was so pumped. When we got to the last room the owner was in there working. The room had torn out carpet with paint all over the subfloor and the lady was hunched over a giant art desk. When I realized what she was doing, it was kismet. She was a children’s book illustrator. No Way.

We live in this house now. And I am writing my book. My husband is the real writer of our house, but he is incredibly supportive of this project that he keeps trying to spend my first advance check before I even get through the first 10 chapters. He proofs and discusses and remains interested in the story. I’m a lucky gal.

I am going to try to write something here every day that I can manage. It will be my warm up time. My practice so to speak. Staying home is busier than I thought. I have a big house to keep clean and a family to care for. But I hope to write at least 5 days a week.

Here I go new life. Wish me luck.