Career change? I think so.

Last week, I registered for a writer's conference. I'm very excited - it'll be my first one, and it's one of the biggest around. I understand that doesn't mean it's the best, but it will be a great opportunity for me to get comfortable pitching my stories and networking with other like-minded folk. And since I'm pretty serious about making this career change, I see this as my first step into that career. I never through I'd want to be a published author - writing for deadlines? Revisions? Won't that take all the joy out of writing?

After years of thought, I don't think so.

I thrive on deadlines. And I love revising. Maybe I'm weird, but those are the best parts of my current job: tightening up the wording, clarifying a point, making the deadline with time to spare. 

I'll be sharing my stories with other people. I've never done that, but I think I should. Because I really, really believe that I'm a good writer. When I was in high school, in my English class, we had an assignment to interview a newspaper columnist. The man I interviewed was so impressed with my paper on him and his musings that he offered me his own agent's information. A high schooler! I should've taken it and started publishing then, but I was a dumb teenager and didn't believe in myself much. Lesson well learned.

Fast forward (mumble) years later and I'm ready. I have read thousands of books, studied centuries worth of literature, celebrated National Grammar Day (march forth on March Fourth!!) with the best of 'em, and I know that all that means little, because I have always been good at writing my own stories, twisting my own words, and creating scenarios in my head that, while I could never act them out in person (too much stuttering and not a quick enough wit), my characters certainly could. And they do.

I'm not looking to become the next great American novelist. I'm looking to give someone a witty, fun, heartwarming, happy-ever-after escape from reality for a few hours.

And if I can make a couple of dollars doing that, while holding a cup of tea, sitting on a windowsill, overlooking some picturesque scene of nature, daydreaming about my next book... well, I will have achieved a life's dream I didn't allow myself to have.  

I'm going to get there. I can't wait.