A Point of View

For me, writing with purpose did not come easily. One hindrance was trying to turn it into a business. I love creating images with words to express feelings and share thoughts, but working to make money at writing was another story, an idea I am yet to develop.

When I finished my first novel, Spanish Doors, I had already been trying to publish for over 10 years with some success, but was so wounded by the overwhelming rejection that I rarely persisted long enough to break through. What I got was lots of practice at fiction, non-fiction, and poetry and very little cash while developing a tough skin.

Working at writing but not getting paid left me uneasy and insecure and the natural consequence was to want to develop a business. (Since I was a stay-at-home-writer-Mom, call it a busy-ness rather than a business.) Not just busy, but crazy-busy to make up for not having an 8-5 job that paid money, that was me.

I read the last chapter of my novel to my writers group on the Monday after Thanksgiving, 1999, right after we found the farm for sale in Ashe County. That same week, one daughter had surgery on her foot and the other had dry socket as a result of wisdom tooth extraction. There were soccer practices and play rehearsals. I had an exam in a Spanish class and helped a friend make Christmas cookies for her children while listening to (and trying to help with) struggles she was having in her life. I was Interim Youth Director at St. Peter's Episcopal Church and teaching a weekly class called, Adult Journey. Yet, I was seriously thinking that by June I would need a new project.

Maybe you've created that kind of busyness for yourself, or maybe you know someone who has, but I continue to learn over and over that it's imperative to close out that busy-ness right now. Again and again I have to stop myself and go back to writing.

Had I stayed with writing practice, really disciplined writing practice, you might know my name by now as a great novelist or short-story writer, but I had to have a business. It's normal to want to bring income to the family and since I knew what writers need (a space of quiet solitude, freedom from minute-by-minute demands, a lack of interruption) I would help other writers achieve that by creating the ideal retreat.

So here it is, A Point of View, with all that nature has to offer in this part of the world plus the work we have added for ourselves, a healthy lifestyle with regular fruits of our labor: grapes, apples, blueberries, cherries, flowers, vegetables. Ten years in the making and though it will never be finished, we can welcome writers and new friends and create family reunions and celebrations for old friends. And I am back to writing, working at writing. There's a sequel stewing and a novel about Roxanne who has me off on an adventure in San Francisco.

And in the end, you are my reason-because there are so many stories! Thank you, my good friend, for reading.