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A Side Gig Writer

Today, someone put it out there: “You could make it writing and speaking.”

Thank you so much to the 160+ people (many real life friends) who made it for the reading/signing.

Thank you so much to the many many people, especially real life friends, who made it out for the reading/signing.

Meaning, you could ditch your day job and hack it in the industry.

I’m not entirely sold.

Maybe I could. At some level anyways.

Or maybe, just as likely, I couldn’t.

My goal is to never know.

Because writing, and especially speaking, is my side gig.

Its a tangent to my real life, where I’m loving being ordinary: trying my hand at being a momma, groping my way to goodness after getting bumped to the alternative school, nurturing real life friendships marked with heartwarming highs and sucky lows. Learning and growing, falling down and getting back up. Being human.

That’s my thing.

That’s where I belong.

IMG_4816At the end of my life, I don’t believe I’ll look back and wish I wrote one more page or did one more speaking engagement.

I believe I’ll wish for more time with the people I love.

So I’m going to live in that hindsight wisdom now.

Besides, I can only write about life…or speak about life…if I’m busy living it same as you. :)

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On that note, a side gig writer is only as good as their support system.

I don’t invest a fortune in my marketing. My only plan is to be myself, and love my readers like I love my friends.

I try to do at least two simple things every day that help get my writing out there. Its not always fun to do the backwork behind the book, but I don’t want to be guilty of kicking back and thinking that a book promotes itself. In an era where Amazon alone boasts 7-8 million titles, it doesn’t.

But I keep my to do list at two because I sleep in a house with two way more important things.IMG_4824

My husband, who I celebrated my seven year anniversary with yesterday.

And my little boy, who is ten months old.

That being the case, I am even more dependent on the rest of the pub world.

My book is in their hands.

Thanks to their support so far, Picking Dandelions has already had a few great moments in its tiny (three week old) lifespan. I get to hear them weigh in once a day, when a pretty cool internet program emails me an alert containing all the instances where the book title was mentioned on the web (which is way healthier than obsessively searching and checking amazon over and over for yourself).

Here are some of the nifty people who generously gave me some space in their arenas:

Thank you, each and every one of you – bloggers, web mags, readers, and most of all, friends. Love to you all.

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