The Great Eight

Jessie: In New Hampshire, feverishly running headlong towards a June 1 deadline!

In keeping with this month’s theme concerning the number eight I found myself reflecting on the past few years of my career and all the things that have happened or that I have learned along the way. I came up with a list of the top eight things I love about being an author. Here they are in no particular order:

• All stationery purchases can easily be justified. This includes notebooks with thick creamy paper, shimmery bottled inks and beautifully crafted fountain pens.
• Reading isn’t an indulgent pastime but rather it is more of a saw-sharpening exercise. After all, if one does not read, how can one possible hope to write with any degree of skill?
• Daydreaming and imagining are all part of a good day’s work. Sitting at the desk staring out the window or stretching out on the floor of the office gazing up at the ceiling are pursuits worthy of being penned into the calendar.
• Life’s unpleasantnesses can be spun into gold on the page. Every time I get cut off in traffic, put on hold by a bureaucraticminion or encounter a service provider who clearly would like to pursue another career path, I make a mental note of ways the experience can be added to a novel. In this way even a difficult day ends up being valuable.
• You can set you own dress code. The pandemic opened this up for a lot of people who suddenly found themselves working remotely. But authors have always enjoyed that particular perk. I know a lot of people have taken to dressing down in recent circumstances but I have derived a great deal of pleasure from wearing shoes that would not be comfortable if I couldn’t kick them off after a while or dresses and jewelry that are generally reserved for conference banquet nights. Such fun!
• Research trips are a business expense. For writers like me who love to travel, this is a huge boon! As soon as conditions allow I have a few trips in mind. I have a stash of frequent flyer miles simply burning a hole in my pocket!
• As a follow up to the previous benefit, sliding down research rabbit holes makes for a better final product. I adore the research phase of any project and enjoy building time for it into my schedule. In fact, next month my work blocks will be entirely devoted to indulging my curiosity on a few subjects that have been on my mind of late. I cannot wait to see just where they will lead!
• And finally, connecting with readers, either in person or in online spaces such as this one never gets old, no matter how many years go by! I am so grateful to all of you who have helped make an author career possible by dint of your interest in reading! Here’s to at least eight more years of fun!