I never know what to say about myself

So I will just dive in head first. This is going to be a blog about my attempts to become a published author (and probably whatever else is inspiring me on a given day). I don't know how useful or entertaining it will be, but nothing ventured, nothing gained, right? I have found that working on posts for my model horse blogs seems to get the mental juices flowing, so I'm hoping this blog will help keep me motivated to write. (And besides, all the cool writers have blogs.)

How I got to this point of finally knowing what I want to do is kind of a long and convoluted story. Ten years in the real world post-grad school working a job that is not in my field and that I do not enjoy has taught me (with a vengeance) what I don't want to do with the rest of my life. I have an expensive education (BA and MA in Celtic history FTW...), but I don't really want to teach or restrict myself to just that subject as is typical of most academic jobs. I also have no desire to continue living in a big city or working with the public. I am an artist, but I'm not good enough to make any sort of living at it. I'm a horse racing fanatic, but alas, no universities seem to employ a Dean of Horse Racing History. (It's a shocking oversight, I know.)
                                      
After a week long trip through western Colorado and bits of New Mexico and Arizona two years ago, I did at least confirm what I had suspected for several years---that I had to move to Colorado to be happy. (More on that later.) That trip changed my life irrevocably. I know that sounds cliche, but that's the plain truth of it. I fell head over heels on love with the mountains and the desert and the high plains, and I every time I visit now, I can't wait to go back again. Permanently.

Other pushes to write have come through the encouragement of friends and colleagues, especially in the last few years. In fact, they've been pretty hard shoves rather than pushes. I tried NaNoWriMo last year, and while I ended up with more words than I expected, I ultimately wussed out after about 2 weeks. With November looming again and several major projects out of my hair this year, I'm determined to give it another go. These things, combined with a lifelong passion for writing, general job unhappiness, a desire to express myself creatively in some fashion (with the ultimate goal of being my own boss), and the need to Make-Something-Of-Myself, I finally got to that light bulb moment when I realized, "Aha! I get it now! I'm supposed to be a writer!"*

I don't have any delusions that I'll be the next Dorothy Sayers or Tony Hillerman. I'd be thrilled to achieve even a quarter of the popularity of my fellow University of Chicago alums Elizabeth Peters and John Scalzi, but realistically, I'll just be happy to even find a publisher.

So anyway, this is me smashing the wine bottle on the side of the blog to launch it and hopefully a new career as well.

* (The "Oh shit, writer = starving artist" realization comes later.)