"Happy Holidays!" She said, her Heart in her Throat...

Hello Girlfriends!  I suppose you  noticed the title.  I'm very excited about the holidays in particular this year for two reasons:

1) My super, super short hair from last year, when I ditched the bottle and learned to love the gray, is longer now.  I feel a little more normal.

2) (And this is the big, scary news) I'm quitting my day job December 21 to stay home and write full-time.  (Isn't that terrifying?)

The reason I've combined these two things, is that most women would be terrified of going fully gray, especially when that means (like it did in my case) practically shaving your head to get rid of the old color.  Yes, it was scary, but this had nothing on my second announcement.

I once wrote full-time from home, about 4 years ago.  My husband had a great job, and I had a New York City publisher.  But in spite of my contracts, and producing 4 books in 2 years, I wasn't really contributing to supporting my family.   

My husband left his company and re-joined the military, and I went back to work full-time.  Instead of producing 2 books in 1 year, it took me 4 years to write 2 more.  I've since self-published the books since leaving my publisher and it was a rocky 2 years.

Weirdly enough, I'm now making enough to support my family.  Who'd of thunk it?  Not me, that's for sure.  So I decided that I needed to up production, leave the safety of the day job and strike out full-time again.

And I'm terrified.  Oh, that doesn't stop me...I'm a risk taker from way back.  But it is very daunting.  What if I can't sell new books like I've sold the old ones?  What if my sales drop like a rocket?  What if my fans don't like the new books I've been working on?

The choice to leave the day job was NOT easy.  I loved the job and the people.  It's a nonprofit that does real good in my community.  But, I was exhausted and spent when I came home every day.  There was nothing left in me to sit down and write.

So, we'll see how this goes.  I'll keep you updated, my friends.  Sometimes, you just gotta jump off the cliff and plummet toward the water.  Okay - crappy analogy, but you get my drift.  Right?

Now I just have to turn my son's old Jedi Blue bedroom into an office.  Now THAT'S really scary.

Leslie Langtry