Dream Building

Let’s do a little January dream building. Making a reality out of a dream is in the doing. That’s an obvious. We can talk about what we want it to look like forever but once I have the general outline and I’m sure I want to do it – time to get going. My big dream has always been to be able to make a comfortable living as an author. It’s been a 30-year walk and it turns out – that’s the point.

In all the years I’ve been scribbling I’ve written for the Washington Post, had a nationally syndicated column on politics and had a few books published traditionally along with a lot of really nice things written about me and my books. But not a lot of money. That bothered me, as if it proved I was missing something.

Years of trying without crossing the finish line of real financial reward only added to my frustration. Something was missing, right? Yeah, but not what I thought it was.

Midway in the journey a good friend, Jesse Garza from Visual Therapy told me to GO LOCAL. Make sure I was enjoying the journey and stop staring so hard at the destination. Get to know the people around me and value the relationships as much as the goal or the dream. Do a lot of fun things that had nothing to do with writing or journalism or books. That piece of advice changed everything.

Based on that idea I made different decisions. Getting to the goal was no longer as important. Being a good mother, good friend, good member of my community rose in importance – and I started having a lot more fun. I still kept taking steps to move my writing career forward but I was no longer willing to devote all my time and if things didn’t work out, I was okay and could let go faster.

That was going to turn out to be crucial when I was diagnosed with terminal cancer in 2010 and had to put everything aside to first survive and then learn how to walk again and then learn how to run. Living in the moment became the point. Spoiler alert – I went into spontaneous remission (battled cancer four more times) and still here, having a great time!

By the way, that financial part of the dream finally CAME TRUE IN 2017 with 5 BESTSELLERS on Amazon. More on that to follow in future posts. In the meantime, join me on Facebook and in our FAN FACEBOOK GROUP and tell me about your big dream. We can help each other build on that dream in 2018. You will also hear about giveaways, meet other fans, win stuff and get dates for the Veterans Book Tour the Offspring and I are putting together. Lots more adventures to follow.

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2 Responses

  1. Have you got a new book I’ve read all eight books ,please continue this series.loved all of them.

    1. I do have a new book coming out! Leira 2.0 will be under the series – Rewriting Justice and the first book will be out May 23rd. Now that you’re signed up for the newsletter you’ll get email notifications too that tell you about fan pricing on release day of .99 cents for 24 hours. Thanks for the shout out!

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