Annette Blair | Living the Impossible Dream

To Live the Impossible Dream

or

How I’m adapting to becoming a Full Time Writer

It’s been a little over a year since I left my 21 year job as a Prep School Development Director to become a full time writer. You wouldn’t think adapting would be necessary when reaching your dream, but dreams don’t always match reality. No more twice-monthly paychecks. They come twice yearly, now. Then there’s medical insurance. I have to pay it myself. Yikes! I didn’t expect to miss the school as much as I do, nor the creative energy spinning around me there, but the Witchy Chicks have topped off the well of creative energy beautifully.

Really, who wouldn’t want to leave their job for lots of great sex, psychic witches, scary ghosts, hunks who seduce, and kidnapping heroines with fuzzy purple handcuffs? I mean, the best part of a great story is living it, whether you’re writing or reading it.

I don’t set my alarm clock anymore. Gee, somebody’s got to make the sacrifice. I often go from my bed to my computer, because I plot in my dreams, and I don’t stop writing, until I run out of creativity. Sometimes, my pesky muse can keep me going for sixteen to eighteen hours. I’m thinking this muse is female and likes my heroes way to much to let go. The problem is, I might not shower until I’m finished. Yeah. It can get ugly in here. I wear these soft old, but clean, though, let’s call them ratty, L.L. Bean full length t-shirt nightgowns, which hubby calls either my “writing uniforms” or my “anti-Bob devices.” He also tells our neighbors that the porch roof beneath our bedroom window is where I take off and land on my broom.

Creating my own schedule feels decadent. I like decadent. I can now accept speaking engagements all over the country, which I love. And on the days, I don’t feel like writing, which doesn’t happen often, but occasionally, I can meet my sister for lunch or shopping or antiquing. We even went to a gem show, which is her specialty, not mine, but oooh, nice. One thing I can’t shake, though, when I’m out gallivanting in the middle of a weekday: I feel as if I’m playing hooky. What an awesome high.

What did I create during my first year? Well, SEX AND THE PSYCHIC WITCH, the first in my Triplet Witch Trilogy, another National Bestseller and my latest little bundle of joy—yes they’re my babies, except that labor lasts four months. SEX was the #1 bestselling “contemporary romance-humorous” on Barnes & Noble for a few days—fun. And it hit the B&N bestseller lists at #36 for overall mass market sales; #34 for overall fiction mass market sales; and TA DA! #7 for romance mass market sales. On Nielsen Bookscan, it hit #20 for romance mass market, and at Borders: #13 for romance mass market.

I also gave birth to GONE WITH THE WITCH, second in my Triplet Witch trilogy, Storm, the Goth rebel’s story. And I signed a contract to write a series of comedic mysteries for Berkley Prime Crime. Details will begin to appear on my website and MySpace soon.

And since I’m living my dream, I’d like to know what your dream is. What would you like to do for a living—your ultimate day job—if all systems were finally go?

Please accept my huge THANK YOU—picture me riding around the country on my broom shouting this—to all of you who bought SEX AND THE PSYCHIC WITCH and help me hit the overall bestseller lists for the first time in my writing career. Yay you!

Visit my website: http://www.annetteblair.com/ and friend me at MySpace: www.myspace.com/annetteblair. Hugs and happy Reading!

Annette Blair