Turning the page…

I'm coming to believe that the nice people here at Write On The Water are contagious. I could say you're bad influences, or perhaps good influences, but whatever the case, the fact remains that by association several of you are rubbing off on me. Maybe it's the tag-line: So you want to quit your job, move onto a boat, and write. Or maybe it's the posts. I've followed Mike's count down as he and Mary prepare to cast off their lines and cruise aboard Rough Draft. I've marveled at Christine's bold move to let go of her teaching career to pursue her true dream, and I've admired her insight on what true wealth really is. Mike Urban posted about the new wave of e-books and the changes in publishing as he moves ahead, and it's all got me to thinking. What are my priorities? Where am I headed these days, where would I like to be, and how would I ever get there?

For years I've pushed ahead with my writing even as I juggled the demands of a full-time day job, a family, house and the perpetual project boat. Through marriage, motherhood, mortgage, multiple jobs, six years straight of DIY home renovation and a series of boats, if I wanted to write I've had to scrape out the time. That has usually come down to me hunched over the keyboard during those odd hours before the rest of the household was up and moving and after they've all settled back down for the night. Caffeine is my friend. I'm regularly up by 4:30 a.m., and staying up until midnight or 1:00 a.m. isn't unusual. It isn't healthy either. Throw in forty hours of mind-numbing bureaucratic municipal drudgery and you're talking hard-core burnout. It took me years of perseverance to write one book, and at the rate I'm going it would be the same or longer for the next. Time for much else was all but non-existent, and whether I liked to admit it, this was all taking a toll on me.

Earlier this month I learned that due to budgetary constraints there would be a reduction in workforce at my job. This didn't come as a surprise; in fact it had been a possibility for the last year now, which turned the office into a tense and uncomfortable environment as the powers that be met to debate our fates. But strangely, I wasn't all that concerned. It wasn't that I thought I was safe; I knew I was anything but secure. All my coworkers had been there longer than me, several had tenure, and in government jobs that often counts over performance or skills. The truth is, I began to hope mine would be the head to roll, and the more certain I was that I'd be the one getting the ax, the happier I became. People began remarking that they'd never seen me smile so much, and none of them could comprehend how I could be so ecstatic over the prospect of unemployment. But at home we'd already crunched the numbers and figured where and how we could cut back. We agreed; we could quite happily make do with less. And at this point, if I wanted to be serious about my writing and take it further, the day-job was holding me back.

So you want to quit your job, move onto a boat, and write.



That's a statement, not a question, and the answer is YES. While I know it's not exactly quitting my job, getting laid-off is a step in the right direction. And as of last week it became official: I've got until this Friday and I'm a free woman! In three more days, I start a new chapter in my life… one where I can truly concentrate on my writing and marketing… and working on the boat.

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