I don’t blog very often for a simple reason: I’m too busy writing my books.  Pretty good reason as far as I’m concerned. Now that I’ve finally put The Servant ‘to bed’ (except for editing), I have the chance to let me mind wander a bit here.  You are cordially invited to join me.

Here’s what’s been happening on the novel front.  Like I said, The Servant  (previously announced here at The Leviticus Enforcer) is done and I hope to have it out by the end of June/early July in all formats.  In the last three months I’ve also finished the first and second drafts of my next book, Sniper (previously announced as both The Justice Brigade and The Blue Wall).  

Those comments in parentheses are telling me that maybe I shouldn’t make book announcements too early in the process.  I just get so excited when I have my ideas that it’s hard for me to shut up about them.  Of course I have a hard time shutting up about anything.  Ask anyone who knows me.

You may wonder where I’ve found the time to do all this writing.  It’s simple.  I’m out of work—voluntarily.  On March 7 I fulfilled a longstanding dream of mine and quit my job at Wells Fargo.  Now when I did this I thought I had another job lined up but it has since fallen through and in the meantime I’ve been writing like crazy.  It’s given me a taste of my ultimate dream: to write full-time.  As I just said to a friend of mine, I LOVE IT!!!!!

I was talking to my daughter, Josie, yesterday and somehow we got onto the subject of what she wants to do with her life.  Right now she wants to be a veterinarian, one that works with large animals.  Josie’s 10 but this has been her desire for the last couple of years and I think she’s going to stick with it.

Anyway, we got onto the subject and I gave her the best piece of advice I had.  I told her not to let anyone or anything get in the way of that dream.  Why did I say that?  Not to be the great dad who always knows just what to say (I am not that person!), but because it’s a conviction that’s been growing in me for some time.

I spent half my life letting stuff get n the way and I have the regrets to prove it.  My Christian faith has given me the perspective that the pattern of my life unfolded for a reason and I’m okay with that.  What I’m not okay with is letting some things drive me away from what I wanted most.  That’s not going to happen to me anymore and I’m NEVER going to let it happen to my kids.

There may be some pain along the way.  Their dreams may take them far away from me.  That will hurt me but their happiness and self-fulfillment matters more.  I don’t want them to spend years in the doldrums, miserable because they didn’t pursue their dreams with the vigor necessary to make them happen.  I won’t promise them, or myself, that those dreams will work out. Sometimes they don’t.  What matters most is that at the end, you did everything you could to make your life matter. 

Wow, that was deep.  I’m exhausted.  Watch for The Servant, coming soon.