How Much Longer Are you Going to Do All This?

That's a question I get a lot--from family and friends who are not writers.

They don't understand why I sit at the computer for so many hours a day, or why I take off on trips to promote my books. After all, I'm old, why don't I just relax, stay home and enjoy myself?

Even my answers don't seem to satisfy them, they don't really understand.

So I'm going to do this here where I know a lot of you are writers and will know exactly what I'm talking about.

I write because I love doing it. I have a great time creating characters and problems for them to solve. I enjoy visiting the ongoing characters in my series and seeing what they're up to. Plus, I'm sure it keeps my old brain working the way it ought to. What else would I do if I wasn't writing?

I'm not interested in joining the social clubs in town and going to meetings to merely take up my time. (Besides, I did plent of that way back when my kids were young.)

As far as being social, that's taken care of when I'm off to an event where I'm talking about and selling my books. Satisfaction comes from meeting readers, those who love my books, and those who are anxious to try one. While I'm doing that, I'm usually in a new place I haven't been before or one I like to visit.

My age has caught up with me when it comes to flying though--I no longer enjoy it and am not capable of running from one place to another to catch a flight. This means that I don't go to many conferences or conventions anymore unless they are in driving distance, or only require one flight with no changes.

So the answer to the quetion really is, I'm going to be doing all this until I can't.

I just finished writing my latest Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery and once I've read it to my critique group, made any changes needed, and gone over it one more time, I'll send it off to the publisher.

I'm only a few pages into the next Rocky Bluff P.D. mystery--and have lots more planning to do.

I've made hotel reservations for two book fairs--yes, within driving distance. (I will admit that I now take my daughter along so she can do most of the driving and help me haul my books.)

Being much older than my fellow members of the Stiletto Gang, I'd like to know if they get some of these same kind of questions.

Marilyn aka F.M. Meredith