Recalibration

Hello!

After writing here at the Recovering Hopper for a little over seven years, it is time for me to recalibrate.

Originally, the purpose of the blog was to help me establish the daily writing habit.

It did.

In that regard the blog was smashingly successful.

2,500+ blog posts. 

In the past seven years I have completed two novels, one novella, and a whole bunch of short stories.  Some of those short stories were sent out for publication; all were rejected.  But no matter.  I don’t consider any of them failures.  They just haven’t been published yet.

I have also outlined three other science fiction novels and began my fourth.  Additionally, I have extensive notes and an outline on a work of nonfiction that excites me to no end. 

All in good time.

But now it is time for me to refocus my energies. 

It is time to shift priorities.

Recently, I came into some information that has lit a fire under me.  I have long been miserable in my work life and have hinted at it here and there in my postings.  It has been adversely affecting me for a long, long time. 

So now, no more.

We only have one life to live.  (Is that the name of a soap opera?)  We’re granted a finite set amount of years, days, hours, and at some point, they will run out. 

It should not be spent – not one minute of it – in servitude.  Or behind bars in that prison that’s firmly established between the ears.

We all have unique talents and abilities, and the responsibility to make a real, tangible difference in the world.

I’m no longer satisfied living at a level less than my best.

I feel like a new man, and it feels good.

I am now putting one foot forward.

After that, I will put the second one in front.

And on and on, ad infinitum, until I have successfully made the transition to earning a thriving living through my writing.

Whatever it takes.

And after that – who knows?

Thank you all for stopping by over the years.

Thank you all of you who commented.  I appreciated and enjoyed it.

I hope I have provided you with some entertainment and information.

I feel like Cortez burning his ships on the shores of the New World.  Scary but very, very exciting.  Feel truly alive for the first time since I can’t remember when.

Recovering Hopper will stay up, and I do plan to contribute to it with periodic updates, observations, stories, quotes, or other assorted weirdities.  Probably on a once weekly frequency, kind of like a “gut check” type thing to help keep me honest.  Not that I think I will need it (see: recent new information I came into), but it never hurts to publicly – or semi-anonymously, as the case may be – make your promises echo and reverberate.

So, vaya con Dios, my friends!