I’ve been going through a major life alteration which has kept me from writing and posting here for some time, but things are about to change. I’ve been retired now for 84 days, though it hasn’t felt much like a true retirement as my wife and I have been working very hard to flip our current home. I’ve been doing a tremendous amount of manual labor to get our home in tip top shape to sell it. This has paid off in a offer that we accepted just a few days ago. The plan is to be equity refugees and leave our high tax/expense state of California and move to a lower cost state that is more amiable to our intended retirement lifestyle goals which includes not being house poor. This will allow us to buy a home in our new state for cash, mostly from the equity from our California home sale, with perhaps a little cash infusion from savings to make up any difference. Not having a mortgage in retirement will be a God send and help us to be in a more comfortable situation and out of a state that has been increasingly hard to live in, regardless of the weather.
This process has felt nothing like the retirement that I had envisioned as it was full of work, which is kind of the opposite of what one would expect when they retire. I’d planned on what I would want to do, when retired, which includes being able to write more and complete my second novel. My first novel, Inheriting S.O.F.I.A., took me eight years to complete since I was doing it part time, and sporadically, as I was still working. This is a difficult process, to say the least, as each start and stop added a lot of complexity to completing a novel. With sometimes months between sessions, it was a challenge to get back into the flow of the story, but that’s what my process was as I had no idea if anyone would even appreciate my efforts. Thankfully, with 51 reviews at a 4 1/2 star rating, I feel more confident to continue my next novel that I’d been working on called “Burt’s Bots.”
So with my continuation of writing, as one of my planned retirement life activities, I should be able to do this process in a much more efficient and enjoyable way. Being able to dedicate routine hours to write is an exciting prospect for my future. Unlike my previous profession, which I enjoyed, writing and creating stories is something I can develop a passion for with my new found time. When your writing is going well, it’s quite fun, though challenging. I’m looking forward to this, but I’m not quite there yet.
My wife and I still have a job to do as we have to complete the sale of our current California home and arrange everything to move to another state. This is a logistics nightmare and our living conditions will be anything but stable. We’ll be in temporary extended stay residences in both California and our new state and entering the process of finding a new home as well. So that’s kind of a new job in itself and thus I won’t have a regular life to incorporate writing for a little while longer.
So this is a major change in my life that I don’t think I’ve fully comprehended yet as I’ve been working so darn hard to get so many things done. I’m hoping to get to be retired soon, but for now, it’s still all about our real estate and moving to another state. Truly an exciting and busy process, which has a scary element of the unknown as well, but one that we’ll get through with the help of our all mighty God. We’re getting closer to the end goal, so praying it all goes well.
Progress Report:
“Inheriting S.O.F.I.A.” Novel Progress: 2nd Edition NOW PUBLISHED on Amazon.com
“Burt’s Bots” Novel Outline progress:
Outline: 21.097 words (Getting the story down first)
Novel 1st Draft: 19,532 (Went back to outlining 1st though, and will complete outlining before continuing.)