Off to my "other" job -- Writer

With school on break for a couple of weeks I get a chance to wear but one hat and be a writer for a wee bit. I love it!

And with three books coming out for me in the next 18 months (2 of them already written, one due by the end of next summer to be released a year later) this is really the time to "get ahead while the gettin's good".

However, part of being an author is understanding that so much of the work you do will not see the light of day til well over a year after you actually write it. In some cases it's closer to two years.

That's just the way the world of book publishing works.

Between manufacturing, marketing, copy-editing, cover design, and so forth, there are scores of people that work for extremely long periods of time to get a book from my computer to the nation's bookshelves... and the process ain't a quick one.

This is one reason why I adore blogging: the immediacy. I write. People read. People respond. I respond back. Tomorrow is a new day and the blogging process begins anew. Just as actors talk about how much they love live theater performance over film and television because of the immediacy of the audience, so too do I find blogging to share the same benefit for me as a writer.

And funny enough, I was going to take a blogging break for the holidays. Just sort of shut it down and resume again in January once school is back in session.

But then I realized that I blog for the same reason I write books -- I just love it. It's not a chore to me. It's not "work". I don't wake up and think, "Ah jeez, and today I have to blog."

I mean my holiday should be spent doing the things I enjoy doing -- the things that recharge my batteries and make me feel good about the world.

Family
Friends
Sleep
Exercise
Read
See movies
Laugh
... and write.

Yep, write. See, writing -- both books and blogs -- they "do it" for me. They fill my inner well. And as a teacher, I know that if I do not actively seek to fill my own inner well - especially during my breaks from class - my school will suck it dry... for no matter what I do as a teacher, it's never enough. By that I mean there's always more. Always more kids to help, parents to contact, fellow teachers to support and on and on and on.

We must be our own well-fillers. Thus I write -- with great excitement that I get to do it while only wearing my favorite pair of neon green speedo undies, nipple tassles and pilot goggles.

What, you think I don't have peccadilloes?

LOL!!

What do you do to fill your inner well? And whatever it is, make sure to do it these next few weeks. January will be here soon enough.