It Wasn't Exactly Writer's Block

 

I’m happy to announce the release of my latest book, The Cottage on Dare Lake, the second book in the Dare Lake trilogy.

Almost three years have passed without publishing a new book. My last book was released in October 2020. Sure, I wrote some new material off and on over the last few years, but I couldn’t quite push myself hard enough to complete a manuscript.

I enjoy the fiction I create. A lot. So what happened? What got in the way of my creative output? Life. That’s what happened.

So a little background. In 2020, I did the work I need to do to reactivate my CPA license, and along with that, my work hours, responsibilities, and workload increased. As I’ve said before, accounting is a skill I learned to support my writing habit. (Which, by the way, includes my traveling habit. Because I absolutely must travel to research settings for my books, right?)

On to what happened. The first big thing that stalled my writing progress was the birth of my first grandchild. I spent a lot of time in 2021 caring for my grandson. He calls me Nana.  No regrets for the hiatus during this time. Spending time bonding with my little buddy is one of the greatest joys of my life. My accounting hours took a hit. I spent less time on the job and more time with the family. No regrets. Though my writing time suffered. It was almost non-existent.

Then in 2022, as the 2021 tax season approached (As a CPA, I always lived in the past), I made a promise to my employer to make up for the previous year’s decreased hours. I worked my posterior off during the 2021 tax season, which officially ended in October 2022. BUT I still spent a lot of time with the grandson BECAUSE his mom was expecting another baby, my second grandchild, and she needed my support as the birth of grandson number 2 approached. What’s a Nana to do? I have my priorities. My writing time was once again limited because I still had that accounting job.

Years ago, I read a book about trimming the excess branches off my tree of life. You know, getting rid of things that don’t add value or meaning to your life. I was in a good spot to do some trimming as I had just reached retirement age. (Sorry, I don’t remember the name of the book any longer and a browser search didn’t help me locate it.)

In September 2022, my husband and I took a much-needed vacation to Washington state to visit Mt. Rainier and Olympic National Park, which included lots of day hiking. It was a good time to reflect on my life and how it had changed, and more importantly, what my life was missing. By the time I got home and back on the accounting job, I’d made up my mind. It was time to retire. I put in my years as a CPA, and I still have priorities that don’t include surviving another tax season.

So now, I spend time with both of my grandsons and have plenty of time to write. I’ve spent more time on my hobbies, like scrapbooking and baking. After nine years of public accounting, I finally feel like my life is back in balance.

A Few of My Favorite Things

Here it is halfway through another year, and I wonder where the months went and what have I accomplished so far this year. It’s been a busy year already. I knew it would be. The first four and a half months were spent doing tax returns for other people. I barely got mine filed on time. As an accountant, I find the thing I like doing least is my own accounting. I hate reconciling my bank account, and I detest doing my own taxes. I can do that for other people, but mine seems to languish. Truthfully, I haven’t reconciled my bank account in months. That’s really bad since I’ll roll my eyes when one of my clients does the same thing.

When I started thinking about all the stuff I’d have to take care of this year, I panicked. Will I have any time to do something fun?

After reflecting on everything I have to get done this year, my head starts to hurt. I need some down time, I tell myself. With a heavy sigh, my mind turns toward a few of my favorite things. (Thank you very much Julie Andrews and The Sound of Music.)

SO here it is. A list of a few of my favorite things (not necessarily in any kind of order):

1.     Tex-Mex food – I could seriously eat Tex-Mex three times a day. Here is a picture of my favorite cheese enchilada recipe. 

You can find the recipe in  my original post about it here.

How an Accountant Becomes a Writer

Seriously? Do I look like an accountant?

How does an accountant become a writer? Well, I never intended to be an accountant. When I was in high school, I never dreamed I’d go to college. It seemed like something my lower middle class family wouldn’t be able to afford. In high school, I took courses with the plan to be an executive secretary. When my father told me he could manage to send me to college only months before I graduated high school, I was stunned. I certainly had no idea what I wanted to be when I grew up.

A general business degree seemed like the closest curriculum to being a secretary, so I enrolled and listed my major as general business. Of all the concentrations in general business, accounting made the most sense to me. At its basic level, it was simple. Asset = Liabilities + Equity. You couldn’t go wrong with a balanced equation like that. Okay, well, trust me, accounting isn’t always that simple. Sometimes we accountants have to get...creative. Accounting seems like an analytical, left-brain sort of thing to do, doesn’t it? One of my friends from high school told me at our ten-year reunion that she always knew I’d do something like accounting because I was so good in math. Uh, no. I wasn’t.

When I graduated from college with an accounting degree, I said I would be the most atypical accountant there ever was. Well, I'm not, but I might be coming pretty close.

I think there’s always been a deep well of inclination inside me to be something else, some more. I’ve always had the urge to creatively express myself. When I was in high school, my friend Brenda and I read every Harlequin romance we could get our hands on. Those romances inspired me. The ah-ha moments got to me every time. You know, those moments when the hero and heroine realize they love each other and can’t live without one another. That moment. Tugged at my heartstrings. I wanted to write something like that. So I wrote my first romance when I was in high school. Seventeen pages on school-ruled paper and an obvious rip off of the last romance I’d read. I don’t even have that story any longer. Just as well. It sucked.

When I was in my twenties, I tried writing songs. I can tell you right now that my lyrics never had the depth or complexity that my daughter’s lyrics do. She amazes me. Truth is, I was never meant to be a songwriter. Most of what I wrote will never see the light of day, but there was one song I thought was pretty good. I’ll share the lyrics with you at the end of this post. Once again, I tried to write a novel because I’d read so many Robert Ludlum books that the fast-paced, suspense-filled adventure with a hint of romance captured my imagination. At about the fourth chapter, I realized I lacked the skills to write such a novel and my suspense manuscript digressed into...well, a comedy. A spoof on the action adventure genre. I gave it up, fearing my efforts lacked credibility.

In my thirties, I was too busy being a part time accountant and a full time wife and mommy to do much of anything else. But then, I hit my forties and all that creativity that I had suppressed and the need to express myself just sort of burst in my mind. You see, I had this daydreaming habit. That kind of habit can be a bit...unhealthy if it goes too far. Thankfully, before it became a deep psychological problem, I turned all that daydreaming into a dream. I remembered the writing I had done when I was younger and realized that was a perfect outlet for my daydreams.

Now I call those dreams inspiration and don’t feel quite so guilty about spending my thoughtful times indulging in them. I spent a decade churning out one manuscript after another. I will always have something on my hard drive to edit and polish for the purpose of publication. And I keep coming up with new ideas. I’ll never run out stories. Not in this lifetime. So here I am with six books available for purchase and three more to come by the end of 2014. Seven more planned for 2015. Nope, I don’t plan to stop living the writing dream.

And that’s how an accountant becomes a writer.

Here’s the lyrics to that song I promised you. It’s call Cold December Morning. PS—When I wrote it, it wasn’t December. It was March. And no one has ever left me like that. I’ve been married to the love of my life for thirty plus years. So, no, this isn’t about my life and I don’t know where it came from.

Cold December Morning

Whisper to me softly

the things I want to hear.

Don’t tell me that you’re leaving.

It’s the thing that I most fear.

Don’t tell me that our love is cold

and gray just like the dawn.

On a cold December morning,

don’t say our love is gone.

Can you tell me truly

our love has been a lie?

Do you want to know the answer?

Do you even wonder why?

I keep clinging to the hope

our love’s not made of stone.

On a cold December morning.

don’t say our love is gone

Your bags are packed and ready.

They’re waiting in the hall.

Can you pass the moments of our life

still hanging on the wall?

Can you turn your back on all we had

and all that’s meant to be?

On a cold December morning,

will you come back to me?

Conversations With My Muse (Accounting is Boring Edition) - 0006

Image in Public Domain as a faithful reproduction
of a work of art in the Public Domain.

So I’m in my office at work trying to figure out which one of our members’ dues hasn’t been remitted to national yet when my muse interrupts my train of thought.

Muse: Pssst…Writer person….

Me: * Doesn’t bother to hide irritation. * What?

Muse: So I was thinking—

Me: Not now. Can’t you see I’m busy? I have a lot of work to do.

Muse: But listen to this—

Me: Hold up! You’ve been silent for days, weeks no less, and you want to whisper in my ear now?

Muse: You need to work on your writing, girl. You’ve been slacking. And besides, accounting is boring! So there was this the guy and this girl and she’s been dead for three years, but she wakes up in this other woman’s body—”

Me: Wrote it already.

Muse: What?

Me: Released that story last month. Don’t you have anything better?

Muse: So there was this guy, this gal, and this ghost—

Me: Released that yesterday. You’ve been off your game lately.

Muse: You’ve been ignoring me.

Me: I’ve been working—

Muse: Working smirking. Accounting is sooo boring.

Me: Well, yeah. Accounting is boring. You said that already. Why do you think I write? I gotta have some excitement in my otherwise mundane life, don’t I? And how do you think I’m able to support your habit?

Muse: Point taken…. Hey, you make me sound like an addict or something.

Me: From your own subtle whisper to my ear.

Muse: * Huffs * Well then, I can tell you this later.

Me: Oh, no. You’ve already interrupted me, so what is it?

Muse: Never mind. Go back to your numbers and your calculator and your Excel spreadsheets and your QuickBooks and your—

Me: * Leaning back in my chair and looking all smug * You sound bitter.

* Silence *

Me: Muse?

* More silence *

Me: Well, you don’t have to be that way about it!

Muse: So there’s this guy and this gal and she has problems with other people’s memories—

Me: Current work in progress. If you’re going to harass me, you need to do better than that.

Muse: So if a man wanted to disappear, what better time to do it than after a catastrophe.

Me: Okay, I’m listening.

Muse: So there’s this woman who lost her husband in 911. She goes on vacation and…