What goes around comes around, and that apparently applies to random thoughts in my head.
The other day as I contemplated my pocket publishing business as we enter the new year, during which I will turn 70, I wrote in my journal, “My goal now is to be Colonel Sanders or Grandma Moses, flourishing in my late years,” a reference of course to the late great business owner and the beloved artist, who both got started after they were 65.
Curious as to how my current frame of mind compared to the year I turned 65, another significant age number, I pulled out a journal from 2018, where I found:
“What is my offering to the world? My Leaves of Grass? My Walden — my Civil Disobedience — my Scarlet Letter …
“It feels yet to come — my best days are ahead as a creator — aren’t they? I will be the Colonel Sanders of wordsmithing … the Grandma Moses phase of my career is yet to come.” There I was, thinking of the same role models.
When 2018 began I had four books in print-on-demand that I authored, and I had edited and published another three books featuring public domain content. In the ensuing time those seven available books have tripled to 21, and blogging has been part of my daily routine since Aug. 1, 2020, so I have some momentum going.
In the back of my mind I always strive to produce novels, something I haven’t done since 2012, so I allow myself to feel frustrated. So my mindset has not been “Over the last five years, I’ve published 14 books, eight as the author. Cool!” Nope, it’s “When the heck am I going to get serious about my novels?”
John Lennon (who I’m confident wasn’t the first to say it) famously said, “Life is what happened to you while you were busy making other plans.” It seems that while I was tinkering with being a novelist, the Sanders and Moses phase of my career has careened along.