I started a new job this week, having experienced a scare. A couple of weeks ago, my roof started leaking and my car needed surprise repairs. I realized my pool of funds could fast become a puddle and something had to happen. This wake up call came like an alarm erupting in the middle of a wonderful dream, grating and unignorable.

I look back on all the time I had to write, avoiding reality by burying myself in the next paragraph. What a gift that time was and how unappreciated. It’s truly amazing how you can’t see your blessings when you’re in the middle of them. I took my time so for granted, working steadily toward getting a book published. Accomplishing that didn’t put me on easy street, or even give me an income, other than sporatic sales, but I proved to myself it was doable.

I did meet my goal of publishing a book, and I continue to write. Thanks to those productive years, I am awaiting coverart for my next ready-to-publish book. It is a middle grade fantasy, The Collector’s Apprentice. I’m spending my free time working on The Last Straw (a fantasy involving pixies) and editing A Source of Dragons (a YA epic fantasy). I also have the first draft of the second book in my Hub World (a dark fantasy) series.

So, I’m staying busy or, as some writers know, avoiding the things I dread. Looming over me is the tedious work of marketing and social media promotion that is essential to self-publishing, if you hope to break through. Some love that part of it, but I huddle over my computer, writing to escape the need to toot my own horn (and housework). Avoidance, of first this and then that, is truly why I have written so much.

Now that my time isn’t all my own, I am striving to be grateful for what time I do have. I count myself lucky to avoid reality through my writing. This is a habit that will serve me very well, even if my writing remains a hobby. Gratitude for laundry is next on my list of thankful challenges.