Tag: early retirement

Sitting on the Fence

Why did it take me so damn long to figure this out?

I just want to have fun. That’s it. When I turned 50, I told myself I just wanted to follow all the things that made me feel happy and filled me with joy. Writing is one of those things.

Over the past few years, I’ve written three books and published exactly ZERO of them. None. I have had this idea in my head that I was holding onto them to wait for the “perfect person,” (a.k.a. Literary Agent), to find it irresistible and want nothing more than to partner with me and champion it into the world.

With the amount of people out there trying to publish a novel every day, I might have better chances at winning the lottery. Some years ago, there was this statistic that literary agents get an average of over 300 emails a day. A DAY! How is that possible? How could I expect to be picked out of that pile? And that’s only the beginning. An agent has to SELL your book to a publishing house. And even if they love it and buy your book, it takes over a year after their editors get a hold of it and want you to do more re-writes, before it will ever even see the light of day on a bookshelf in your neighborhood bookstore.

So when my lovely writing coach asked me why it was that I was so set on getting a traditional publishing contract, I thought it was so I would get a bigger team behind me and that I’d have my books in more libraries across the country, and in the bigger stores, she smiled. Apparently, most of the marketing and book tours are no longer hosted by the publisher anymore. Also, advances are strung out over a two year period and often, royalties aren’t as much as if you’d have just published the damn thing yourself.

I knew this somewhere in the back of my brain. There was more to my holding back than I was willing to admit.

I needed validation.

If I am traditionally published, I was feeling that THEN…and only then would I have “made it,” in the industry. That self-publishing only meant that nobody worthy really liked my book.

THAT IS TOTAL BULLSHIT!

I have a following. YOU are reading this and you matter. I love you readers that have supported me and YOU deserve to get my book now. Not when some yahoo out there decides I’m worthy. And I have the knowledge and power to get this done. Waiting for outside validation is only my ego talking, and as Dr. Wayne Dyer always said…EGO is when you Edge God Out.

So…I’m going to hire another editor, (my lovely Jen Graybeal is coaching now but no longer editing), I’m going to self-publish my books as soon as I feel they are ready, and will for the forseeable future.

If I decide to try my hand at traditionally publishing again, I’ll do it all on my terms, and not wait around and hold onto something for years again. As of now, I have THE CLOCK TOWER OF MAPLE CREEK, ready to be edited and it will publish in 2025, along with the second book in the series, probably around this time next year. That’s right… two books will launch in 2025 by Patti Diener. I’d imagine the final third book in the series will publish early 2026.

Damn, that feels good.

So if you liked what you read on WILDFLOWER, from my previous blog post, know this; I will do a few re-writes, (as per Jen suggested I do), but if after that, the agents don’t have time for me, I’ll self-publish that too.

I’m in the freakin’ driver seat.

I love you all so much for putting up with my doubt, ramblings and indecisiveness on how to get my books out to you. It’s a journey, learning what and how to proceed in publishing. But I can’t wait around forever, and I have a shit-ton of books in my head I want to write before I meet my maker. And now, I’m super excited I’ve made this choice.

PLEASE…if you want to support me, just share my already published book, AFTER THE FIRE, with anyone who hasn’t read it, and please keep looking out for more of my books in 2025.

Xoxo ~ Patti

*PHOTOS were courtesy of pexel.com, other than my featured photo.

Summer, Sun, Books, & Writing

Trying to Live in the Moment and Still Daydream

I’ve never been accused of being overly patient. In fact, I honestly prefer instant gratification. But in my years of learning to meditate, practicing gratitude for what is, and trying to stay present, I’m focusing these days on the summer season and all that it brings.

Something I wrote in one of my novels that I’m sure I stole from somewhere else, (nobody really has an original idea or thought), is that time is a thief. The lazy days of summer only just began in what seems like five minutes ago and yet we are already starting the month of August. No time like the present to embrace those sunny, tangy margaritas, wear that vibrant sarong and dance! Since tomorrow isn’t promised, we must enjoy everything…even if what you desire most still hasn’t arrived yet and you are already in the late Fall season of your life.

I’ve wanted to be an author since I first read Judy Blume’s book, DEENIE, when I was ten years old in the fifth grade. Mr. Albertson’s class was full of creative kids buzzing around our papier mache’ projects and talking in Pig Latin. But the one thing I remember most about that year was that’s when I decided what I wanted to do with my life. I was going to be a writer.

After discovering V.C. Andrews, FLOWERS IN THE ATTIC, it solidified my notion that telling stories for a living was exactly what I wanted to do. I started writing that year in my spiral bound notebook, and with cramped fingers resembling gnarled tree limbs, I wrote diligently in pencil for two years on a story that went nowhere. I copied and most definitely plagarizing my favorite authors until I found my own voice, and even wrote some horrible poetry in my high school years.

Throughout those years, summertime was full of melting popsicles, bike rides with friends, and halter-tops. It was a time to daydream, reading scary books of Stephen King, swimming in the lake, and bonfires with beers we confiscated from our parents. We thought we’d be young forever.

Before I knew it, I looked up and I was married with children of my own, and summertime became days of hosting sleepover parties, barbecuing hotdogs and hamburgers, and setting up the slip-n-slide in our front yard. Writing seemed like a luxury I didn’t have time for. It became a one-of-these-days fantasies.

Raising a family was something I thought I had to be one-thousand percent in or I wasn’t a good mother. Time for myself and my own dreams was put on hold, largely because of my own ideologies on parenting. Summers came faster and faster, blurring like I was on a speeding train looking out the window. Before I knew it, the kids didn’t need me as much, and I didn’t know how to find myself anymore.

I still dove into books for comfort though. Margaret Atwood, Dean Koontz, and James Patterson, gave way to me later discovering romance novels of Robyn Carr, Elin Hilderbrand, Brenda Novak, and Nora Roberts. I loved the idea of complex characters that got happy endings. Let’s face it…real life is hard enough. I decided that I wanted to give writing a try again.

If you’ve been following me at all, you know I wrote and released as a self-published novel, AFTER THE FIRE, in 2019. I’ve since written a few other books but want to traditionally publish now, so I’ve been querying on two different novels, not stopping my writing process in between. Writing for me is like oxygen. I can’t stop myself from doing it. And since I am fifty-six, I know I’ve started late in the game. I don’t like the small amount of summers I have left to celebrate, but I plan to make the most of the ones I have.

Today, instead of fretting about what I haven’t accomplished, or worrying that I’m not ever going to be the next Nora Roberts, I embrace what I have, and that’s freedom. I am lucky enough to be able to write when I want to, (I retired as a public-school librarian three years ago), and Monday’s don’t give me the blues. Everyday is the weekend, summer is here, and if I want a glass of chilled rose on the beach on a random Tuesday, I can have it! Everything gives me inspiration to write. Just being alive is a good day.

Looking forward, I will also add that just because I think I want to traditionally publish, doesn’t necessarily mean that’s what will end up happening. I’ll still querying agents about my books, but my summers are coming and going faster than ice cream melts on the sidewalk. I might not wait for someone else to give me the green light. Colleen Hoover didn’t wait after all, and look how well that turned out for her. Like I said, I’m not the most patient person, but I’m trying. Maybe I will become some kind of hybrid author. Carve my own path at times and get some help with other projects. Either way, I’m going to soak up the sun while I can. If I learned anything at all on this planet, its that you have to smile more, and worry less. Life has a way of working out.

I hope you enjoy what is left of your summer, (if you are in a summer zone), and I hope you embrace your life to live fully. Be silly. Take chances. Plan a trip. See your friends. Daydream. Above all, be happy with yourself. We are all just doing the best we can.

Xoxo ~ Patti D.

*All photos are by me/Patti Diener, except the people swimming which is courtesy of pexels.com.

Life in the Fast Lane

Juggling My Writing Life, Traveling, and Attempting to Appear Normal

I keep telling myself that I’m going to get a little part-time job to fulfill my need and desire to squirrel away some dough for my travel nest-egg. You know… play money. I mean, hubby and I are doing fine if I don’t, but I often feel guilty using our household money for my egocentric, self-absorbed, hairbrained ideologies of world travel, (for which The Mister has little interest in). But at the end of the day, my retired days are filled to the brim with activities that leave little to no room for me to work in a job.

What’s a girl to do?

Recently I went on a roadtrip with my hubby across part of the US on a three week adventure. You can see from the above photo of me that I took this journey very seriously. I figured if they didn’t want me on the dinosaur they shouldn’t have put a saddle on him. The Mister might not be super enthused about world travel but seeing the United States, he’s totally up for. This included fourteen states, seeing friends and family, a total eclipse, dodging storms, and witnessing the complications and dangers of breeding thoroughbred race horses. That’s an education you can never un-see again. As my brother-in-law pointed out, she doesn’t even get dinner and a movie first.

But in small snippets of time along the way, I was able to sneak in moments of solitude to finish up my novel, WILDFLOWER. I will share a draft of the first chapter in a coming blog post. This is a project I started back in September of 2023, and right after I returned home from our trip, within days I had my first draft completed. I cried of course. I usually do whenever I finish my first draft of a novel. Anyway, since I’m now in the editing stages, about to leave again for Arizona for my niece’s graduation, and then will embark on another solo journey up the coast of Oregon to see my first-born, who has the time to apply for a little three-day-a-week jobette?

Not this girl.

Another thing about being retired is the fact that some days arrive and I’m unsure of what day of the week we are on. The weeks driving without my schedule and structure, I seem to have become a bit crazed. Also, my house is now full of things we brought back from Kentucky, (boxes, furniture, and paperwork), that have been dropped off into corners and on tabletops left for “someday when we can get to it.” I try to go through a few boxes a day while returning to my writing schedule and picking up the pieces of business left unattended to after three weeks. But honestly, my house looks like some kind of highfalitin flea market, or an antique store with pieces of the past piled in places you have to weed through. I’m craving some order around here, but that will come in time.

In the meanwhile, my brain has been on some kind of awakening. Call it spring, call it monkey-mind, but my dreams have been crazy weird and seem to take up all night long, so that when I wake in the morning I feel as if I’ve been vacationing in another universe and not been alseep the last eight hours. Wild. I am forcing myself to walk during the day more, drink more water, and probably need to add some magnesium to calm my mind but I never think of these things until I’ve lost my noodle a bit. Either way, it makes for some interesting conversation, these wacked dreams.

I’m looking forward to querying agents about my new book though, so editing has been pretty exciting and fairly pleasureable. Most of the time I dread the editing but this go-around I’m having fun with it. I’ve also connected with some wonderful women in a new writing group. I cannot recommend writing groups enough. Getting that support and constructive critisism has always been crucial for me. I welcome input and have also been extremely fortunate to have had Jennifer Lynn Alvarez, (author of eleven novels, including YA thrillers LIES LIKE WILDFIRE, and FRIENDS LIKE THESE), as a personal friend who gives me honest and helpful feedback. If you are writing, find a group of people to bounce ideas off of. It’s invaluable.

Me at Elton John’s Piano

So in the coming months, I will be sharing more about my latest book WILDFLOWER, the quest to find the perfect agent to represent it, and I promise to give you snippets from the early pages. Its another romance novel but moves away from the sweet style I wrote before in THE CLOCKTOWER of MAPLE CREEK. This one is darker and has more drama.

Like I always talked about when I recorded podcast episodes in BEAUTIFUL SECOND ACT, (which is still available to listen to), I encourage you to get out there and explore your own desires. To chase the things that light you up and make you feel excited to greet the day. Plan a trip with a friend. Get to know your community as if you were a tourist. Travel to a neighboring community and find out what fun things can be discovered, or start a new hobby. Life is a journey that is meant to be fully enjoyed. Be grateful for life’s simple pleasures as well as the wonderful milestones of your time. They are equally important.

And please know I truly appreciate your love and support as I maneuver through my own crazy path on this publishing journey. Without you, the readers, who would know about my wild imagination? I’m profoundly grateful.

*All photos are mine / Patti Diener

The Journey Continues

What Early Retirement Has Been Like For This Writer

In March of 2020, when the world stopped turning, I began to spin a scenario in my mind of what my life could look like. When we were all forced to stay home and try to be productive in ways none of us were accustomed to, I decided to dive deep inside of myself to find a new path. One I truly desired. That’s when I realized I would apply for early retirement.

At only fifty-thee years old, early retirement seemed rather rash in the eyes of some of my friends and family. It wasn’t what some viewed as responsible, or advised. After all, who was I to think I could retire when most people worked in their fields until at least sixty-two? I hadn’t paid my dues yet.

Before I could retire, I knew I had many ducks I had to get into their neat little rows. I was working in public education, a school librarian and only in that position for eleven years. My writing had been for the past decade done on weekends, evenings and vacation. I’d managed to publish a book working those hours, but it took me four years of hard determination. Imagine, I thought, what I could accomplish if I wrote full time!

So in the fall of 2020, when public education was dealing with at-home-studies, or hybrid schooling, I worked along those brave enough to go in and do the job, (masks, vaccines, isolation, and angry parents), full well knowing it would be my last school year. Early retirement might not have looked attainable to some, but for me it was the only way I’d survive. The job had become suffocating, soul sucking.

With each month moving along like molasses in January, I soothed myself with the notion that it was the last November, or the last December, I’d ever have to work there. It gave me hope and excitement for my future as a full-time writer. Writing was what I’d dreamed of since I was ten years old, in the fifth grade, when I read my first novel and wrote my first essay in school.

So fast forward to August of 2021, I had to start off the school year, but I got to pass the baton onto a new and more energetic librarian. Someone who wasn’t burned out by the public education bureaucracy. On September 1, 2021, I became a free woman. I was scared, but I was elated by the prospects of living the life I wanted. I became a full-time writer.

Last days in the library.

The end of anything can be somewhat sad, but I only shed a few tears. In the first few days of my early retirement I felt a bit guilty. It’s like that when you no longer have to do something. I still got up early, although not nearly as early as my 5:30am wake up I used to do. Having my coffee and writing in the quietness of the morning felt indulgent. At first I wasn’t very productive because I didn’t quite know what to do with myself. After setting some goals, I got the hang of it.

Now I travel when I want, I write every day, and I finished my second novel, The Clock Tower of Maple Creek. I’m currently querying agents for representation on this one because I’ve decided that traditionally publishing is the path I want to go. I see a future with a team of folks in the publishing industry in my corner. Although I self-published successfully with my first novel, After The Fire, (buy link here), it was a lonely and difficult road.

In addition to writing, I dove into another line of work. Podcasting has become a great love of mine and this May, 2022 will be the first anniversary of my show, Beautiful Second Act. You can listen from anywhere you get your podcasts but the most popular are Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, or IHeartRadio. It’s about living in midlife or beyond, striving to live our best life in the second half of life. I plan to build on it in this second year. I currently have two seasons. It’s very exciting to interview like minded people who help me to grow, motivate me, and inspire us all. I also have many solo episodes where I share all I’ve learned along the way towards living a more authentic life. I hope you’ll check it out.

The main thing I’d like to share today about early retirement is that THIS IS YOUR LIFE. If you love your job, great. But if you don’t…if you wake each day wondering what the hell you are doing and are stressed beyond your limits, then make a change. You are the only one who can steer your ship. If you feel in the deepest part of your soul that you are meant to be doing something else, then by God, DO IT! Do it now before too much time passes. You cannot put a price on happiness. A bigger payout in retirement won’t buy you back the years you loose in suffering. Do what it is that brings you the greatest joy! You won’t regret it.

Much love, Patti

*All photos by me, Patti Diener