“Don’t reinvent the wheel, just realign it.” Anthony J. D’Angelo
I had deemed the year 2016 as the year of my reinvention. I
had motivation signs – dream big, it’s never too, etc. I had received most of
the right back for the books I had published (for various reasons) so I needed
to do something if I was going to continue to be a published author.
So I hung the signs, made plans, did some market research
and braced myself. This was it, I would be an author first. The time was
prefect. The kids grown on their own. Rumors were the crazy day job was being
phased out.
Like Anthony J. D’Angelo said, I basically just had to
realign my wheel. I had completed novels to submit, novels that could be self-published.
Author life it was.
2016 did turn out to a big year of reinvention…but little
had to do with my writing. Life through a curve ball so instead of embarking on
the path of author life, I found myself gaining custody of my four-year-old
grandson and reinventing myself as a parent.
Now it’s May 2017 and I’m still trying to reinvent myself as
an author….and well how to keep up with a very high energy five-year-old. The
publishing world seems to change as often as my grandson’s favorite toy.
The key thing I forgot to incorporate in my grand scheme to
reinvent myself as super author is that my wheel is turned by more than writing….I
still had to be a wife, a grandmother (who became the sole parent), and mother
to grown children who would still have hiccups.
So as I move through the remainder of 2017 instead of
reinventing myself, I’m trying to realign myself so that writing has the focus
and time it needs to move from ‘hobby’ to ‘career.’
2017 – the year of realignment!
2 comments:
Lyncee, I can so relate. My youngest granddaughter came home from the hospital to my house. My oldest granddaughter when she was not-quite-five. And then my youngest granddaughter came back for a year with her six month old daughter. I now have my house to myself for the first time in forever. Even when my son went to college, he still had 'his room' and until my youngest granddaughter moved out this past October, most of her belongings remained here. Not now!!! And, I'm in a purging mood. I've a whole empty shelf in my office (we will not mention the bags of books waiting to go to a new home).
I will tell you it can be done, but the timing has to be adjusted. You won't have days to write but you can find a time each day or each week to write. Your priorities in publishing have changed because you cannot do it all like you might have done but you can still do some of it.
Being a parenting grandparent is a fast growing moniker for parents as their kids run into challenges and obstacles that block their ability to be parents. Your grandson is very lucky you stepped up because the foster care system, while better than being with a parent who cannot parent, is not the best answer. From my perspective, 6 months out of that role, I can say when I look back now (they are 27 and 21) there is a deep senses of satisfaction and it was worth it.
Thank you Judith for the words of encouragement. I just hope I'm up to the task the second time around. As a young parent the first time, I find myself wanting to do the same but the body isn't always on board ;-)
Post a Comment