One Year Later

A year ago I said I was stepping away from the classroom, where I spent fifteen years, to try writing for a year. Times up and it’s time to check in on that decision.

In this year I have written 396,109 words. This accumulated into 3 full length manuscripts that are now in editing and a lot of small ideas that didn’t really go anywhere. It’s also been a lot of short stories and poems right here on this blog. In fact, the blog got an entire make-over and now includes a store.

In this year I have edited 659 chapters. This proved to be enough editing to get 2 more books publishing ready. Redeeming Jordyn and Projection are available now. In addition, of the three finished manuscripts, 2 of them have already had at least one full editing pass.

In this year I have read 142 books. Reading books is something I have always done. Now I feel privileged that I can count this as research. It’s also lead to me to start monthly book review VLOGs over on YouTube, which you can check out on the last Tuesday of every month.

Breaking Eselda has sold over 150 copies. That may not seem like a lot to you, but to me it really, really is. Those are all people are paying their hard-earned money to read a story I wrote, which is amazing.

I’ve been substitute teaching off and on during this year of break. During that time I think I’ve had a lot of fun but ultimately reminded myself that my heart really isn’t ready to go back to the classroom yet. Nothing is giving me as much enjoyment as writing stories and selling those stories to people.

I’m going to borrow a paragraph from an earlier blog post that is still relevant. “Thanks for being a part of this crazy journey. Thanks for reading my blog. Thanks for believing in this little dream. You’re amazing. Thanks for knowing me as something other than a teacher, something other than a mother. Thanks for letting me say the sentence that started this entire blog: I’m a writer.”