Another Year Older

My birthday is New Year’s Day, so I just turned another year older. The last couple of months leading up to the attainment of my 58th year were fraught with awareness that I am definitely on the downhill side of the slope.

It wasn’t pretty. I had a good many moments of feeling as if there wasn’t time left to achieve my life goals – which are actually pretty simple; get at least one book published and see the world.

Something knocked me out of it. I’m not sure what it was, but I thank the Universe for it. Since the rounding of the corner into 2010, I find I’m energized and ready to fight the fight.

Getting published is hard work, but I’ve got a tough skin. Before I gained an agent when I was screenwriting, I had collected 127 rejection letters. But I kept plugging away and finally made some headway. Ultimately, that didn’t turn out to be what I really wanted (of course, I would have happily jumped on board the Hollywood fame train if I’d been offered a ride.) I tired of never writing description; of writing so concisely that my own vision couldn’t really be seen, even by me.

I’ve struggled, giving up making a pretty decent living to become a reporter and then an editor for a small community newspaper, neither of which pay well. I turned out my second novel a year ago and sent part of it out to an agent, who rejected it but advised me not to give up; instead try to find someone who would love it as much as I did. I reread it and decided that it wasn’t one story, but two and needed to be separated and each story re-written.

I knew I had to take a break from that project and happily one night I was struck by creative lightning and given a story and the incredibly fun character in the novel on which I’m now working to finish. Yippee!

I had a couple of months where my character, Lydia, left me and I was in a fog of indecision and fluttered through all kinds of creative ideas – something, anything to feel connected to my muse. I got exactly one picture frame made – and believe me, it was nothing special.

With great joy I welcomed Lydia back one night, when I put a Michael Buble CD on and she came rushing to me. She really digs Michael. What can I say?

As for seeing the world, I’ve decided I will take a trip by myself this year, somewhere out of the country, to whichever part of the world offers an incredible deal. I will squirrel away a fund so that I can leap at the opportunity when it arises.

So, that’s it. A brand new decade awaits. Yippee!