Coffee Cup (c) KostyaKlimenko

The Daily Grind

Greetings, Vallerians!

Coffee Cup (c) KostyaKlimenko
Copious amounts of tea are needed to help me through my daily life.

Today’s post gives you a look at my daily life. I don’t write full time (yet!) so I have to keep the day job while pursuing my dream. I have a lovely day job (I work for a nonprofit) and I can telework (or work from home) a fair amount, which makes it easier for me to pursue writing. How does it do that? It conserves my energy, for one.

Saving time and energy commuting (I live in the Washington, D.C. metro area, which has some of the worst traffic in the U.S.) means I have more energy later. It also means that time I might have spent on the road, instead becomes time I can spend on writing, editing, or other author business after I clock out from the day job.

I also have a great paid leave policy at the nonprofit, which means when I’m up against a writing deadline, I’m usually able to take a day or two off with little fuss. I actually can’t remember the last actual vacation I took with paid leave (2013 maybe???) because since then I’ve used almost every free day to focus on writing and building my business so I can pursue it full-time. (Yes, being an author is a business like any other – more on that in a future post). Even last year, when I was sidelined a lot due to my health, I was still working behind-the-scenes on three different books even though I wasn’t able to publish any of them in 2017.

No two days are alike for me. While the day job might have some monotony, there’s always something different and sometimes exciting on the author side of things. Some days I’ll be writing, others editing, others still I’ll work on design elements (book covers, website updates, etc.), and all of the little bits and bobs that make up being an author. I’ll be sharing a lot of those over the next 90+ days, so I hope you’ll stay tuned and join me.

Having essentially two full-time jobs is definitely challenging, but I LOVE being an author. When you love what you do, it doesn’t feel like work. Have you heard that sentiment or something similar before? It could mostly apply to me. Being an author is hard work and – like any job – there are parts of it you don’t like as much as the others. But, you never achieve a dream or a goal without hard work and determination, and I’m determined to become a full-time writer.

Thank YOU, my lovely readers, who help me inch closer and closer to my dream with every book purchase, every blog post you read, and every kind word you send me. I’d be nowhere without you!

~xoxo Marianne

 

This is Post 2 of 100 as part of the #100DaysofMKAuthorLife.

1 thought on “The Daily Grind”

  1. Pingback: Why Write Romance? | Discover Valleria

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