A new chapter in my life

You may be thinking, "Uh oh, here he goes again. Saying that this time he will commit to writing, and then disappears for a year." Well, 3 years in this case. But, I am honestly making a return. Certain events in my life have steered me in this direction. I can't avoid this calling any longer.

First, I ask that you please bear with me. I know this post may be lengthy, but what your about to read is background of what I'm doing now, so you can understand the incredible journey I'm about to undertake. A journey that begins with this blog, a platform that has already been established, to hopefully gain an audience and further my pursuit of a career in writing.
 
About six or seven months ago a friend of mine expressed his desire to write. As most of you know, I have always had that desire. He challenged me to get back into it. We both read a book titled, Success is Not An Accident by Thomas Newberry. This book changed me. It evolved how I looked at my writing career as well as my personal life. The book is essentially about goal setting. It helps you determine what you want out of life and how to get there. Newberry does all of this with a Christian theme and putting God first in all that you do.

At the end of each chapter Newberry extends a challenge. Setting goals, writing a Mission Statement for my life and continuous evaluation were some of them. I followed along every step. I chose the goals that were most important in my life and narrowed them down to 5 main goals. One of which is to be a full time writer. I want to, by the end of the decade, retire from the oilfield and driving a truck to be completely supported by a writing career. I know God has given me a passion to write as well as a gift of delivery. I want to use that gift to affect lives for Christ.

Before I continue, I'd like to explain what I mean by 'what I'm about to undertake'. I plan to take you on my journey.  I feel that my experiences can help you develop a passion you may have. I want to challenge you to set goals and to do whatever it takes to accomplish the dreams you have for yourself. My plan is to use this blog to do just that. I will talk about what I am going through. The highs as well as the lows of what I write, how its going, the submission process, and other aspects of this journey to become a known author.

I have a lot of support. From the man who began with the challenge, to a fellow writer who is my accountability partner, to friends who continue to push me toward that goal of moving beyond a Freelance Writer to a full fledged Author. The biggest, and most important support is from Carolyn. She gets the behind the scenes view of the struggles I go through when a paragraph isn't working or I just cant find the right words. And I'll be honest, some of the words I come up with are hers. So I must put a footnote in every piece I write that some of it comes from her. She is my life partner and my true inspiration in keeping me going in my endeavor.

Over the last six months I've developed some of the things I have written. I think I have told you that I journal. (Journaling is a guys way of saying he writes in a diary...plain and simple..its a diary) I have written in a journal since I was in Junior High School. I was given a small diary with Bart Simpson on the cover. I wrote that day about a trip I was about to take to Disneyland.  I would write in it practically every day. Once it was full, I moved on to different journals. About 90 percent of my Jr. High and High school years are recorded. I still have every journal I've ever written.

Lately I have been writing in an app I have on my phone. I make an attempt to write everyday. I journal in the morning and also at the end of the day using a technique I learned in the book I referenced earlier. It helps me to reflect on how I felt my day went, what I could have done differently and how I will change for tomorrow. All in effort to accomplishing the final goal of furthering my writing career.

I don't remember if I have written here about my dreams. I have dreams. Extremely vivid dreams. Details and colors (yes, we do dream in color) and feelings. I began to journal my dreams last year. It wasn't until recently that I began to use those dreams to create stories. While in most cases the entire dream wont become a story, some aspect of it will. This birthed 'Waiting'. My first short story. It is based off a dream I had about 25 years ago. I never wrote it down, but its impact on my life forever stuck with me. I have been working on it for several months now. Writing and revising, sending it to an editor friend for her to work on and then me revising it. I finally reached a point to were it is completed. Last week I submitted it to a literary magazine for publication. I wont find out if they accept it for another month or so, but it's submitted. Accepted or not I will learn from the experience.
 
Finally, I hope you will feel challenged by my blogs. My desire is that you will get excited and want to pursue your dreams and embark on a personal journey of your own. Let me know about them, we can celebrate together. Meanwhile, I will write and blog to gain experience, and as accountability to keep on pressing toward the goal Christ has called me heavenward to....sorry Paul, I don't mean to plagiarize, but your Christ inspired words are apropos to my situation.

Thank you for your patience. I do not plan for future blogs to be as long as this one, but I had to lay down the ground work so you can understand where I am coming from. If you are still reading this, I pray it is a blessing to you and I hope to hear your thoughts in the comment section of each blog I am to post. I don't promise to write every day. That would be crazy. But well see how it goes. Perhaps a weekly entry.

God Bless!!