Lessons learned from a broken arm (don't fall, is one)

Blowing Rock North Carolina, and the mountain that tripped me

I'm back! But I have a very good reason for my long absence. See this lovely picture? Nice, huh? Well, my wonderful yearly vacation to the mountains didn't end so well. I fell at the bottom of this beautiful mountain and broke my arm. Waaaah! That's about the worst thing that can happen to a massage therapist. We can't work with fiberglass wrapped around our arms.

Okay, no, the worst thing would be death and then there are plenty of other horrible things in between a broken arm and death like having a shark bite our fingers off or a flesh-eating virus take out a whole arm or... you get the idea. Fortunately, broken limbs heal and now I'm back to work.

Sooooo, you'd think I would have had plenty of time to write blog posts while I sat around and healed, right? Wrong! After I spent a few days binge-watching Netflix and day-drinking wine (deja vu from March 2020), I went on Upwork and attempted to rustle up a writing job. I could still type, awkwardly, but far better than I could do many other things. (Note to self: Beg doctor for removable cast should I ever break a bone again - showering and soooo many other things becomes sad, frustrating chores with one arm inoperable and covered in fiberglass.)

Fortunately, a wonderful person I'd worked with at Upwork in the past had a book they wanted written, a cowboy romance. Yippee-ki-yay! I got to work. My goal was a chapter a day five days a week. And folks, I did it. Until I went back to work at the day job I plunked my butt in the chair and twisted my lil' old casted hand around and hit the keyboard until I got to 70,000 plus words. I turned in the Epilogue today. Go me!!!!!

Well, I did a lot of the writing via dictation, which I just learned I can do with Microsoft 365. Sweet! That saved me some arm pain though I found it's somewhat clunky to use. But I was happy to have it. I was also happy to write an entire fiction book again, which I haven't done since 2021 due to the insanity of the past two years.

Guys, I love my day job. I love owning a business, keeping people healthy with massage, finding creative solutions to problems, and whole lot of other good stuff that goes along with being a small business owner and a massage therapist. But it's been getting harder and harder to be a small business owner and it takes more of my time and money every year and there is much more bullshit to deal with constantly. I have less time and energy to write. 

The Haiku books I created these past two years were fun and I'm damn proud of those so I might do more in the future. They let me play with graphics as well as words. But...maybe it's time I wrote another fiction book. I had more chapters to do on the cowboy book after I went back to work. I wanted to finish the story and the person who hired me said it would be fine if I worked at a slower pace. I found I could produce 2,300 words a week and still have time to keep up with my day job, enjoy a somewhat sedate-but-still-fun social life, and not be zombie-tired or manically- stressed. I've been both of those and I swear, as God is my witness, I'll do my damnedest never to be dangerously tired or stressed again because I pushed myself too hard.

Is it better to write 2,300 words a day than a week? Shit yeah! I could knock out a book in no time. But I gots to keep the day job so I have to put that first. And now the big question is: What Do I Want To Write?

That's been my dilemma for a while. What I enjoy writing isn't necessarily commercially successful and will be hard to market. But guys, I think it can be done. One thing that got driven home to me while ghost-writing this book: I CAN write about anything. For awhile. I MUST enjoy what I'm writing if I'm going to do it for any length of time. And keep my sanity.

Isn't that true of all jobs? And relationships? And friendships? And...you get the idea.

Stay tuned to see what I come up with.

Me, in various states of screaming about my cast