After my marriage ended last year, I did a lot of soul-searching, and I have to admit that I have been more than a little bit lost. When I didn’t know what else to do, I wrote a memoir. I was seeing so many repetitions and patterns between my 22 year marriage and growing up with the parents that I had. We often marry someone like our parents to heal old wounds. I know I certainly did. And I did, in fact, have an opportunity to grow up. That’s why I left. The relationship no longer had any reason for being.
Ultimately, I think I wrote the memoir for myself, as a kind of clarifying exercise before I could move on.
What I have come to realize is that the memoir I wrote does not add any greater good to the world. It is not a feel-good novel, as my novels have come to be known. It is quite a bummer, to be honest. My life hasn’t all been bad, but it has definitely had some harrowing bits, and I have finally reached a point where I am grateful for the suffering. It has made me who I am: a deeply creative, sensitive soul. So. No regrets. Only. Gratitude.
I don’t want to spend precious years of my life promoting a book that is about difficult times. The thing I want more than anything in my life is peace, ease (if that’s possible), and joy. No more difficult people.
I may release some sections of the memoir here on Substack to my paid subscribers. Not the harrowing bits, but the hopeful content. Otherwise, I’m moving on to Plan B.
My financial advisor says that I need to make five hundred dollars more a month to be able to afford to live into my nineties, as my parents did. So, my plan is to write cozy, feel-good mysteries. I will publish these myself. These will be offered on Amazon in ebook and paperback and they will take place here in Jonesborough, TN.
My amateur sleuth will be a woman named Honey Honeycutt who has moved back to Jonesborough to live on the family farm after her parents passed on. It is all fictional, of course, but that’s what I do best. Most of the sleuthing will take place at the Senior Center here in Jonesborough. They will be light, fun, reads with satisfying main characters, and a good who-done-it puzzle to figure out that changes with every book. I hope to create a series of about 10 books.
Have you had many Plan Bs in your life? Or periods of lostness? I hope they turned out okay. Thanks for sticking with me, and for understanding. This new period of my life is definitely a work-in-progress.
I love you guys. xo
Your decision seems quite insightful! Perhaps YOU needed that memoir for your own healing and sounds like you’re well on the way. Good for you, Susan!
I think all of us need a plan B sometimes! I recently had to do a plan B with a Nature Journal Show that I organized with a small group of other nature journal artists at our local Art Center. It worked out beautifully and the journal art was very well received by the public but not without some sleepless nights! Lol! I look forward to your new books and I know that they will be as awesome as your others. Looks to me that you have a perfectly wonderful plan B! I’m also guessing that you will have a lot of fun bringing your character’s to life in these books!