As I gear up to start editing The Last Nanny and begin writing a new book, I’m shaking up my planning routine for Q3 with The 12 Week Year by Brian P. Moran and Michael Lennington!
I Quit My Career to Travel the World and Write Books: My Midlife Crisis
Five Days Off…but not from writing
I have five whole days off. Monday through Friday and I’m so excited. If you follow me on social media, you likely know I’ve had a few changes these last two weeks. I posted a short video on TikTok about quitting my job as a school psychologist.
And since then I have been busy working my flight attendant job, working back to back to back trips to Maui and twice to Lihue. It’s been nice to jump back into flying, especially since I was lucky enough to have such great trips! Rod even came with me on the last one since we’ll be celebrating our 26th anniversary tomorrow. Here are a few videos and pictures.
So yes, a lot has been going on, and it’s all good stuff, but I’m staring down these next five days and feeling enormously grateful to have some time off–but it won’t be from writing. The funny thing about deciding to be a writer is that you never, not really, have time off from it. Because even if you’re not actively typing away, you always seem to be thinking about writing. Every day is the question: Will I write today?
I never have a day where I’m not either thinking about my current project, next projects, or the logistics of getting my writing done that day. I once read that someone somewhere said that being a writer was like having homework every day for the rest of your life–it’s the most true statement I’ve heard about this life.
Not to say it’s a bad thing, necessarily. Only that it never seems to matter if you’re on vacation, or watching television, or reading someone else’s book…the thoughts, obsessions really, about writing are obtrusive and always there. It’s the first thing I think about in the morning and the last thing at night. Every day. I have no idea if that’s normal, but it is true.
Anyway, I’ll be at home catching up with friends and enjoying my anniversary for the next five days.
And writing, always the writing.
You Won’t Escape Critique, So Don’t Worry About It
Once you decide to create something, anything, and send it into the world it will be judged.
There will only be a handful of responses to your efforts.
People will either love it, hate it, or feel completely indifferent.
Of course, we always hope that our work will be enjoyed and appreciated. And if we’ve done our best, and ensured we’ve sent out the very best we were capable of at the time, we can at least stand beside and feel proud of that work. When we’ve done all we can, the chances are good that at least some people will resonate and love it.
But that’s only some people.
Which means, other people will not love it. Other people will hate what you’ve done.
It’s okay, I promise. Remember the old adage, you can only ever hope to please some people some of the time anyway.
I actually think there is something worse than those other people hating your work. At least you made them feel something! And with those feelings, they may my inclined to leave you a terrible one-star review.
Other people read one-star reviews. They are curious about those strong feelings of hate. So curious, one-star reviews can lead a new reader to investigate for themselves what all the fuss was about.
I’d argue there is something much worse than single stars and hatred when it comes to our creative works.
It’s indifference. When a reader either didn’t engage with the work at all, or if they did, they came away feeling nothing.
When a book or movie or any form of art makes you feel nothing, you never bother to say anything at all about it. Why would you? You barely even remember the experience.
No matter who you are, or how amazing your work is, once you put it out into the world it will be criticized and critiqued by others.
Accept that this is true, there is no escaping it, and that it will absolutely happen. Then, do whatever you have to to release any worry fear, or care about it. You can’t control or avoid it, and it happens to everyone brave enough to put their work out into the world.
You Can’t Accomplish What You Don’t Show Up For
It’s easier to imagine what we want and what we’d like to do than to physically do it.
Imagining, visualizing, can be fun and it’s an important step in the creation process.
But it’s only a first step.
If we want our thoughts to eventually become our reality, imagination will require the follow-through of physical acts. You can dream about yourself winning a race all day long but if you don’t actually do the running, you’ll never cross any finish line ever.
And you can’t start running if you don’t first show up to run with your shoes laced up.
Do you imagine yourself accomplishing your goals? Yes? Great!
Now show up for them and take action.
You Don’t Need Their Permission To Create
You were born with your unique ability to create.
You don’t need permission, support, guidance, or blessings from anyone to follow your creative instincts.
Humans are, by nature, highly creative beings. All of us.
Some of us are drawn to words, some pictures, others form. Some are drawn to creative concepts. Wherever your innate creative drive takes you, follow it. Indulge it. Get dirty with it.
You will never regret the minutes you spend with your creativity.
You will likely very much regret walking away from it.
How I Manage My Time
I’m busier than ever and still feeling joy. How I manage my time and beat feeling overwhelmed while having three careers.
My 2024 Planner Lineup Video
I have a lot going on right now and that trend will continue for at least the first half of 2024. I needed to rethink my entire approach to planning and staying organized. Here is my 2024 planner lineup! Thank you for watching and please don’t forget to subscribe to my Youtube channel .
Getting Ready for Christmas
I spent the day finishing up with all the decorations for Christmas. I try to get them up pretty soon after Thanksgiving because December just seems to fly by and it never seems worth all the work to only have them up for a couple weeks. In the last photo, you see my darling, Pepper, Who absolutely loves all the decorations. I just splurged and bought all new strands of warm, white LED lights so that I can leave them plugged in all the time without worrying about wasting too much energy or the bulbs getting too hot. I tend to wake up pretty early in the morning and it’s still dark outside, I love to see all the lights and decorations shining in the dark as I come downstairs to make my morning coffee.
This next week is going to be an especially busy one for me unless someone happens to pick up the trip I have scheduled on Tuesday. Even though I said I would never do it, I was asked to help out at a school with some school psychology work, and I said yes. I know better than to ever say never. So starting tomorrow, I’ll be heading down to Colorado Springs to work at that school for two days before flying out Tuesday night for a four day trip. If another flight attendant doesn’t pick up that trip, at least I’ll have a nice long layover in Lahui. Which, of course I will need, because I’m sure to be bone weary exhausted by the time I get there.
I’ll be working on my November newsletter over the next couple days. So you can expect to see that in your mailbox, if you’re a subscriber, by the end of the month. In it I’ll do a quick wrapup of my time spent in Las Vegas for the 20 books conference and I’ll share some more details about how the new book is coming along. Which reminds me, I haven’t posted the cover here on my blog yet, but if you’re curious, you could head over to my Instagram or my Facebook page and see it there. I’ll try to post it here by the end of the week, along with the blurb and my plans for publishing.
I hope all is well, and that you are enjoying this holiday season. Wishing you all the best.
Book Review: Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter
5/5: Finished Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter. Yes, this is a very, very dark read. Reader beware of what you’re getting yourself into. Masterfully crafted and addictively compelling, I read this one straight through over the course of two days. I was shocked and saddened and repulsed but this is what you’re supposed to feel when reading thrillers that fall into the ‘very dark’ category. No spoilers from me, but if you’re the type of reader who isn’t squeamish about the deplorable underworld of humanity, Karin Slaughter really delivers with this one.
From the publisher:
Sisters. Strangers. Survivors.
More than twenty years ago, Claire and Lydia’s teenaged sister Julia vanished without a trace. The two women have not spoken since, and now their lives could not be more different. Claire is the glamorous trophy wife of an Atlanta millionaire. Lydia, a single mother, dates an ex-con and struggles to make ends meet. But neither has recovered from the horror and heartbreak of their shared loss—a devastating wound that’s cruelly ripped open when Claire’s husband is killed.
The disappearance of a teenage girl and the murder of a middle-aged man, almost a quarter-century apart: what could connect them? Forming a wary truce, the surviving sisters look to the past to find the truth, unearthing the secrets that destroyed their family all those years ago . . . and uncovering the possibility of redemption, and revenge, where they least expect it.