I can’t remember what triggered the thought…..OHHHHHHHH Yes I do. It was Jordan’s post on having a writing plan. Anyway so after I read her post, I started thinking…see I had a five year plan to quit my dayjob (which I love but I’d love to also be a full time writer). Ambitious maybe to say I can do it in five years, but there you go. Then, I freaked out because I couldn’t remember how long I’d been writing :doh:

I had to backtrack and it went something like this…..

8/2007: New K contract for 2 books AND New agent (who I adore)

7/2007: First RWA Nationals

6/2007: First print book released.

5/2007: Broke up with last agent (spent two months moping until K kicked my ass)

3/2007: Agent rejected second proposal (the feeling of DOOM sets in :pirate: ).

3/2006: Signed with second agent

2/2006: Sold to Aphrodisia

1/2006: Decided to quit writing. Took down website and blog.

(here’s where things get hazy)

9/2005: Subbed to Aphrodisia

1/2005: Came up with idea for Aphrodisia –thank you Bill Engvall and friends. :evillaugh:

8/2004: Fired first agent (moped for months and months and did very little writing)

6/2004: Hired first agent (with fourth manuscript). :bounce:

Which means sometime in 2003 I started writing my first manuscript…I THINK it was June–and I was in heaven.

I remember entering my first RWA contest in October 2003 and FINALING with it. Go figure. I nearly fell out. I definitely didn’t final more than I did but I entered a lot of contests between 2003 and 2006 and queried a lot of agents and editors, racking up well over 100 rejections.

When I started my kids were 10 and 8 and honestly, it was easier to write. They left me alone more–I don’t know why. I had more writing time, the words came easier and faster and by damn it was FUN! It’s still fun (sometimes) but it’s more like work now. At least I get to work at something I like though, right? Right!

I also stopped watching TV for like a year. I totally blame Law and Order: SVU for sucking me back into the black pit of TV watching despair. How did I ever live without that show? Oh well, now I have a DVR that will tape four shows at once :nener:

What would I do different in hindsight? I dunno. I might have made some different choices. I definitely never would have turned that TV back on again. There were opportunities I turned down in favor of other opportunities (that I sort of regret), but if there is one thing I’ve learned it’s that we all walk our own walk. I have a few regrets…but life’s too short to waste your time and energy on something as negative as regrets.

So what about you? Is there anything you’d do different? Any regrets? What was your walk like?

And I’m going to leave you with this quote:

“Finish every day and be done with it…You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can.  Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it…serenely, adn with too high a spirit to be cumbered with your old nonsense.”

~Ralph Waldo Emerson