O is for Optative

optative

1.Definition: indicating an option or wish

2.Definition: relating to a mood of verbs in some languages

Because more than one person has asked me to write about my writer's journey,  here it is from the very beginning. I've always loved books. I've always loved libraries and bookstores. This might not be that unusual.

I've always known that I wanted to be a writer. I started a journal when I was eight years old where I declared that when I grew up I would be a writer. (That might push me into the more unusual camp.) But my childhood writer's dream is very different from my grown up  writer's reality.

This is how I imagined my life.

About 7 miles outside of my tiny home town, Arlington, Washington, there is a beautiful white Victorian house surrounded by an apple orchard where a local doctor lived. In my writer fantasy, I lived in that house with my loving husband, five beautiful children, a dog, a cat, and a few horses. (Although the horses would live in the barn.) Every day while my children played in the orchard, I would sit in the shade of an apple tree and write amazing stories (using, of course, a pad of paper and a pen.) I would then send the stories off to my adoring editor who, along with her publishing house team, would magically turn it into a bestseller.

From my lovely, Victorian home, I would smile happily, play with my five adorable children, romp with the dog, occasionally ride my horse, and live a peaceable life while the world clamored for more of my stories.  

This is not how the story went. Although, looking back I realize that with the equity in my California home that sits on about 6,000 square feet and doesn't have even one apple tree, I could probably buy more than one Victorian house and an apple orchard in rural Washington. But sometimes what you think you want isn't what you really want, after all.

Tomorrow, P is for Pursuit. Stay tuned to hear about what really happened. 

But while you're waiting, you might want to watch this. (Our third Authors of Main Street boxed set will be available in a couple of weeks!)