My publishing career took a huge leap forward when I began publishing, both with KDP and WRP. (Kindle Digital Publishing) and (Wild Rose Press). The Paris Notebook, a stand alone, published by WRP’s “Champagne Rose” category. I was reading lots of chick lit at that time but I also wrote short stories that were more literary than genre fiction. Trying to figure out where I fit in the 2012 market was not difficult. Nor was it my problem. That was a publisher’s job.
By the time I found my publisher I was 56 years old. I’d had one book published. I had a ten-year-old blog. I was still teaching part-time. I signed yearly contracts with both Oakland University and Macomb Community College. I only taught at both places/same year for one year, then I said, enough. They had different spring breaks and holiday vacations. Each had its own perks and drawbacks. OU paid better but the courses I taught were dull. MCC loved me teaching Creative Writing as they had nobody to do it. I taught lit as well. I taught Shakespeare and Jane Austen.
So I did more time at MCC. And they gave everyone a state pension. And my vacations were aligned with my boys’. I worked in summer for a while. Six week courses that paid very well. But really I liked summers off with my family. I also wrote a rough draft of at least 30-40k every summer. Married to Al, I was able to take five years off just to write. I was reviewing regularly and that paid a little. Then one day Al asked if I was ever going back to work. I had no plans to do so. But the boys lived on their own and were in college by that time. So I went back to work at MCC and was able to help a bit with some of their expenses. Al bought them each a used car. I always bought their books.
*hand in stop position*
I am breaking the fourth wall. I did not want to. But I must. Sigh. I have not posted for a while here because I am still finishing the last act of the last book in my Jane in St Pete series. I had to spend some time on that. No deadline from my publisher but I still zoom with my Michigan writing partner once a month and really this “book” isn’t up for revision. It’s really more for me in case I forget anything about my writing life. I want to get it all down before that happens. I have a few months of grace where I can just carry on and try to sharpen my brain with working on a website.
(there are problems, maybe you noticed, my images are not sticking, for one thing.)
I want to finish this memoir by October when I will have more info on my short-term-memory loss. It’s a crazy thing. I can remember most things but not everything. Writing fiction is going.so.slow. I forget what I said on the page before. Memoir is much easier. For now. Most of the time. I know I was writing about 2012 and then I forgot when I retired. I forgot when we moved to Florida. I bet those things are in my archives!
I am pretty sure I did not publish anything except the writing handbook while I was teaching. I will have a look in the archives then be back tomorrow or the next day to write more because I mailed my five pages for the Zoom tomorrow. It is so close to done. I could finish it in one day if I had all my wits about me. As it is I only have a few. Wits I mean.
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