T is for Traveling Home

I’m sitting here at the Kansas City Sheraton reflecting on the last week of meet and greets, craft workshops and meals with friends. Some of these people I’ve known for years on the internet. Some are new friends in every sense.  What a remarkable week of expanding my boundaries, and keeping some boundaries in check.

It won’t be hard for me to go back home. I miss my husband, my writing corner, my gardens, the sunshine and that beautiful space that I call my sanctuary, where all the beautiful stories are created. I’d forgotten how much my routine, my sense of place and belonging was to me — and I’m not complaining. Just noticing how I miss the things I have and do every day. That great old country song comes to mind, How Can I Miss You When You Won’t Go Away?


My travels have exposed me to people I would not ordinarily sit and talk to. And we’re all storytellers, so the stories are rich. We have new projects planned and this year will be a first for me with hopefully three nice collaborations. I’ll be in three collections. More to come.

I’m reminded about what I do because of all these fantastic posters plastered around the lobby, the Mezzanine, and wrapped around the elevator doors. but I miss the two story living and dining room at my house, with the windows reflecting sunsets, and the three beautiful ledges of hand blown glass we’ve chosen. I am very much about the place. And my place feels like a church. The music I play echoes throughout the house, especially when I am all alone. If I’m not brought to tears every hour, my writing isn’t good enough.

I need my fix of the familiar so I can bring all the great success and ideas home and tend them in my writing garden.

It’s only been eleven months since I’ve been able to really call my writing income enough to live on. And last night I got to sit with and talk to people who have done that ten, maybe thirty times over. Wow. Not about all the money. I think about all the fans, the people who got to read such compelling stories. I got to talk to another Indie writer this week who actually has sold 100,000 copies a day for almost a whole month. Excuse me while I bow.

One day, I’ll have one of these cool elevator wraps. I’ll be flooded at a bookstore signing. I’ll have a fan page with 20,000 people on it. But I’ll still be the same lady who likes to get dirty in her garden, who writes the kinds of stories I would like to sit down, cuddle up with, and fantasize about. The reality of what I do during the day gives me this fantasy I’ve earned.

I’ll be finishing the A-Z Challenge and, just like Vince Lombardi said it, “I never lost a game, I only ran out of time.” My A-Z Challenge will end sometime this week.

And that’s okay.

I think this link still works:  Don’t forget to catch the other A-Z Blog participants by clicking here.