Monday Musings 12-5-22

It’s December already, and things are a little crazy around here! We’re getting ready for the holidays when most of the kids will be home, we have an out of state wedding to attend before Christmas, and we have to be moved into the RV and on the road by December 28th. In addition, there’s still all the everyday work stuff to contend with. Don’t get me wrong, theses are all great things and I’m thrilled about every one of them, but I’m also exhausted, and it’s only Monday.

I won’t spend this post whining though. Instead, I want to focus on how excited I am about this next phase. For years, our lives were big and messy and full. We built careers, raised kids, hosted holidays and parties, traveled the world, and were fully engaged in our community. They were wonderful years, and even the challenges contributed to the rich experience. Now, I look forward to the simplicity ahead.

Our RV home will be small but our backyard grand. We will have less stuff to manage and more time for experiences. Since we aren’t rooted to one place, we will have the ability to go where we want, when we want, for however long we want. There is tremendous freedom in this version of simplicity.

Ironically though, the road to get here has been somewhat frenetic. Sorting, organizing, clearing out, and donating stuff, while at the same time turning our new RV into a home and tending to day to day operations in our lives, has been time consuming and complicated. As I push through the final days, I tell myself that it will all be accomplished in a just few more weeks - one day at a time, one step at a time, sometimes one breath at a time!

“Simplicity is making the journey of this life with just baggage enough.” - Charles Dudley Warner

Monday Musings 10-3-22

I can’t believe it’s October already! If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you know that the fall is my most productive time for creating new content. This year is a little different, however. Last week, Ray and I drove our new RV home from Tampa, FL, just in time to avoid Hurricane Ian, and we should close on the sale of our house in a little over a week. There’s still a lot to do around here before we go, so I’ve had to adjust my expectations a bit.

I really want to be present for the last season in our home of nineteen years. I want to enthusiastically celebrate the coming holidays, appreciate the process of sorting and simplifying, and enjoy the remaining book events for this calendar year. That means I likely won’t have as much time as I usually do to write.

My tendency is to pack my schedule and force myself to overdo it, or spend time that I should be engaged in other activities stressing over my lack of writing progress. This year, I’m choosing to set realistic goals instead. This is a unique season for my family. Our youngest left for college, we’re selling our home, and we’ve decided to embark on a grand adventure - full time RV living. While I’ve preached that writing is my job and needs to be treated as such, even if I had a different career, I might take a guilt-free sabbatical.

So, what exactly is happening with my writing this season? Well, my agent has a book on submission as we speak, which I hope will sell and help determine the direction of ‘Tabitha’s’ next project. Meanwhile, ‘Maggie’ just released Moving Target, the latest in the Tactical Solutions International romantic suspense series, and I’m planning to outline the stories and create a timeline for the final three books in that series. At the same time, I’m finishing an episodic story on Kindle Vella. I’ll also continue with my dual blog posts on Monday Musings and Dear Maggie, and I’ll be reviewing some great books over on Book Club Babble. If I accomplish more, that will be a bonus, but I’m trying hard not to pressure myself too much!

“There are two ways to be happy—improve your reality or lower your expectations.” – Jodi Picoult

IN OTHER NEWS…

If we met at The Big E this past weekend, it was a pleasure! I hope you enjoy my books and would love if you’d consider leaving a review on Amazon or Goodreads.

Save the date! My next event is Rhode Island Comic Con November 4-6. I’ll be there with a great crew of local science fiction and fantasy writers all weekend signing books and moderating panels.

Monday Musings 9-19-22

At the end of the week, Ray and I are flying to Florida for a wedding, and then we are driving our new RV home. If all goes as planned, we will close the sale on our house in October, and leave for a grand adventure after the holidays.

When our last child left for college, our house no longer really felt like a home. We essentially use two rooms - our master suite with the home office and the kitchen. The rest of the space even sounds empty, if that’s a thing. This is a house that needs a family, and so, I am ready to let it go.

When we leave, we will have lived here for nineteen years, almost to the day. Our youngest came home to this house after she was born, and all the other kids mostly remember it as the house they grew up in. There were birthdays and barbecues, holidays and celebrations, music lesson nights and Halloween parties. We laughed and cried and played here. We opened our home to family and friends when they needed a safe place to land.

It will be strange to wake up somewhere that isn’t here, but living the RV life will enable us to see the country, check off some bucket list items, drop anchor near our kids for a while, and figure out where we want to make our next permanent home.

We will be thrilled to hand this beautiful space over to a new family. They’ll make their own memories and create a home for themselves here, I have no doubt. Change is in the air! It’s exciting, and bittersweet, and exactly right.

Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. To keep our faces toward change and behave like free spirits in the presence of fate is strength undefeatable. - Helen Keller

IN OTHER NEWS:

I’ll be at The Big E on Friday, September 30th all day signing books in the Rhode Island building. Come say hello!