State of the Elle

I attended a writer’s conference last week and I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about my writing career, such as it is.  With my full time job, full time family, and full time school, it’s been really hard to find time to be writerly.

State of the Job:  Stable.  I work in portfolio management for a regional bank and I’ve recently been promoted.  If there is an economic turn down, I’m in the right place to be at a bank.  I’m still learning a lot about credit as it wasn’t an aspect of my previous role and credit training isn’t something offered by banks very often.  It’s a long training process and something sought after in the job market.

State of the Family:  Husband has finished school and graduated with his BA.  Although he was the one in school, this is a huge relief to me as I was supporting him in his journey.  Although he doesn’t know what to do with all his free time now, it’s a much more relaxed feeling around the house.  I’ve steered him toward the hobbies he used to enjoy before enrolling in school.

My little guys are about to start school and it wont be any different for us schedule wise.  They were in daycare provided by the school over the summer.  The only difference this year is they will have to ride the bus, I wont be able to drop them off.  They are more chill about it than me, but they are my babies and getting so independent.

State of the Education:  I’m almost half way through my degree program and languishing on Business Law at the moment.  I was excited to read the portion on intellectual property since that covers copyright and trademark, but turns out, I knew it already.  Oh well.  Should make the exam easier.  After that is a Business Ethics class which I have to write a paper for and then officially half way through.

State of the Writing:  I’ve reached the half way point with revisions on Deceiving the Bandit Lord.  I was hesitant to announce that milestone since it’s a moving mark, what with adding quite a few words but I’m confident I’m that far.  I’m not sure I’ll hit my original September release goal, but I’ll get it done as soon as I can.

The aforementioned writers conference was great and I got to meet Cindy Dees and Jade Lee/Kathy Lyons, the presenters.  They spoke about character development, author personality types, and the state of the publishing market.  Very interesting information which I’m not going to get into here but most of the market stuff I knew.  It’s always great to be in a room full of writers, it’s like my clan.  It’s a great way to recharge my creativity and drive, so I can push forward on this author thing.

I’ve emailed a venue about doing a local book signing.  I’ll give you details if I’m accepted.  I drug my feet and may be too late.  Also, I’m not good with people in crowds so my anxiety my have gotten the better of me and delayed things.  It was my goal to do an author signing this year though.  I’ll have to kick my own rear end if I don’t do something this year.

I’ll work on updating this blog more often with things I find of interest.  But be patient as the job, family, and education are going to have to come first right now.  And health, lets not forget health.  We all have to take care of ourselves before we can take care of someone or something else.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I want to get to some revisions done on this lazy Sunday before the storms roll in.  Be safe and chase your dreams, however you see fit.