Where I am going from here

Something I've learned about goals over the years is that they may not necessarily be reached as they were initially stated.  Such is the case with the goals I set for myself a little over three months ago when I separated from my employer of the previous twelve years.  The goals I had then had to be adjusted to account for various roadblocks challenges which have come up in the space of those three months.

My original plan is pretty much still on track.

I have commenced my quest for a Real Estate license here in the state of Texas.  The course is on-line and for the most part (so far) a good deal of common sense is dictated as well as an ability to dance around certain legal nuances.  After getting an orientation from someone connected with a large Real Estate company and getting involved in the educational process, I have talked with several other people who have been involved in the business in one form or another who have helped me cut through the obvious hyperbole of the first someone I talked with.  Within the fortnight, I will commence working with a mentor who will help me with the course work and provide me with practice within a framework.  I'm still not certain as to where I will spend most of my time in the selling process, but I'm getting there.

Work on my writing continues apace, but at a slower pace than I have anticipated.  On the other hand, I had a marvelous chat with an entrepreneur regarding my already published book and plans for the next several rounds.  One of the topics which came up was that creativity cannot necessarily be pushed to a deadline or to a business plan.  While I was able to complete one novel, Whatever Happened to Suddsy Watters, in an extremely short period of time, I've been struggling with The Magnolia Chronicles.  After tossing out Suddsy, my initial plan was to have 'Chronicles' ready to go on Amazon no later than the middle of July with Suddsy being released some time in September.

Well, the 'Chronicles' stalled.  I was having trouble with one of the characters.  I thought I had a good handle on the woman, but she just didn't fit completely.  There were elements which fit quite nicely, she just didn't have the right motivation to make the overall story work.  I've spent parts of the last couple of weeks giving that character a make-over which seems to work out a little better than what I had originally written.

So much for making The Magnolia Chronicles available in July.  Even if I complete the story in the next fortnight, I still have to have the story edited and a decent cover to put on the book.

A step I've taken has been to pull my original book off of Amazon in order to re-title, re-format and re-cover the thing.  It should be history as far as Amazon is concerned at some point before the first of August.  My revised plan is to bundle three books for sale all at the same time at some point this autumn - hopefully in time to catch the Christmas season.

Stay tuned for further developments.

In any event, I'm still hanging in there.  I'll be out for a couple of days this week - I will be at Norm Shor's memorial service in Pittsburgh (see the blog "Who's Norm Shor?") on Saturday and using the opportunity to stop and visit a few friends and family on the way up and on the way back.  Until then...

Be Seeing You!

bdharrell