Forgive me, I’m trying to recreate this one from memory because google lost the cache of it. 🙁
I hope I can do it justice again.
My lovely critique partner, Raine asked: The year is more than half over. What have you done? And this is something I’ve actually thought about a lot lately. 🙂
June is the two year anniversary of when I sat down and decided to seriously write. I’ve started a slew of manuscripts, finished four, hired and fired an agent, sold a short story (that’s now in PRINT) and sold a novella. Most of all, I’ve grown as a writer. But I have a more important anniversary coming up.
August 8 will be the eight year anniversary of my divorce. Yes I celebrate it! When I walked out on my ex, I’d reached the point where I wanted him dead–no joke (forgive the TMI). I think the only thing that kept me from killing him was getting caught and ending up a girltoy of a chick named Bertha. Not my idea of fun. 😮 That and the thought of his family possibly raising my children–after all, they did such an excellent job with him. We did NOT have a healthy relationship and I finally decided I could be just as broke, and LORD were we broke, and ten times happier on my own.
When I left I had two kids under the age of three, I was going to college full time and working full time. It took me a year to get a divorce and my ex didn’t pay child support for 26 months. I was on welfare and I finally had to drop out of college and get a better paying job. I lost my wonderful on campus housing and eventually my car was repossessed because I couldn’t afford the payments. There are days it was all I could do to get out of bed, there are days I hope my children don’t remember, because, as hard as this is to say, I wasn’t a good mom. Never mind that I’d actually ended up in a better job, mentally I’d hit rock bottom. I finally got help (and got medicated 🙂 ) and four years ago, I swore off men. My ex wasn’t the only bad man choice I made in my life.
Two years ago I wrote my first manuscript. It took me that long to figure out that I was actually supposed to be writing down all the stuff the little voices in my head were saying 😉 . I spent two months writing it and God knows how much longer editing. I also started another, started a Blaze and wrote a novella.
Then one of those men I’d sworn off popped back up …and I took a trip to Target. Then I wrote a book about it (that nearly sold!). I had to–the real story is too unbelievable 🙂 .
Two years ago I also started looking for a house. To buy. For the kids and me. It took me long enough, but I finally found one I couldn’t live without. And even though I haven’t accomplished much writerly-wise in the last six months, it wasn’t time wasted.
I bought my first house, all by myself, in May.
