In this week in 2014, I gave up a life in conventional employment to embrace the world of writing.  So how have I gone? Well I haven’t made a lot of money from it, but I have achieved a lot more than I thought I would have. For example, I have:

• set up my author website and I am starting to build up social media presence (slow bit steady).
• published four short story e-books on Kindle (see side bar for covers and links)
• completed the manuscript for my children’s story “Pete and the Persian Bottle”
• a publisher currently ‘reviewing’ “Pete and the Persian Bottle” (details to come)
• a first draft of my Murder Mystery, Comedy Novel “The Bird is the Word”.
• a first draft of my second Children’s Novel “Lost Things”.
• a  first draft of my Science Fiction Crime Novel “Better Judgment”. It is need of a serious edit.
• scoped out and started the first draft of my Science Fiction Crime Novel “Better Future”.
• two other novels. a non-fiction book, and a one-act play scoped out and ready to start when my other projects are complete.
• achieved “author” status on GoodReads and regularly post book reviews
• become a registered reviewer on the “Book Review Directory”
• become an “Early Reviewer” for LibraryThing
• produced (and will continue to do so) the monthly newsletter for my writing group “Orchard’s Apples”
• reformatted the posts for my gardening blog, Sarah’s Melbourne Kitchen Garden, and it is now doing very well (in terms of frequency and number of views).
• The Christmas Blog team and I, have reformatted the posts and that too is doing quite well – obviously it has seasonal variations. Cracker of a Christmas Blog

When you write it all down it looks rather impressive.  What I haven’t mentioned in the list above, is all of the other positives.  For example I get to work from home, set my own hours, don’t have to travel on public transport in peak hour (and am not getting sick all the time anymore), I get loads of reading time, and most importantly, I really enjoy my job.

I should also mention is my transcribing work – which I do to gain an income of some sorts to keep those bills paid.  This has been slow but steady.  I hope to expand this side of my working life as I move forward.

Thanks for putting up with my blog post(s), and happy writing. Follow your dream and remember that it is never a good time to write, try and get published, take risks and alike.  Don’t listen to the naysayers.  Give it a go.  Life is just too short for excuses.