I've been getting some feedback on marketing ideas and what I can do with limited time (and budget) . . . and one of the ideas was to give a day in the life of an author . . . no, it's not quite as boring as sitting at the airport waiting for your flight to board . . . but almost . . . LOL This weekend I renewed my passport. It's a big deal, at least to me. I got my first passport in 2000, when my wife and I were celebrating our 10 year anniversary -- we were going to Italy, a trip I'd dreamed about for many years. We were actually going to do it. It was a trip of a lifetime, we ate amazing food, saw some wonderful things, all of which I'd only seen in pictures. To see them live and in person was so cool. To say my perspective on life and the world had changed because of my trip would not be an understatement. Fast forward eighteen years later. I pull out the old passport, long since expired, and look at the face of the guy just inside the front cover. The hair has almost no gray in it (let's just say I've acquired more 'wisdom' over the years), and it's a face of someone with a huge trip he's excited to go on. I print out my form, fill it out to the best of my abilities (keeping my handwriting as neat as possible), grab my birth certificate (just in case), my old passport and we go off to the passport office at City Hall.
We walk in to a full-house. Even with the government shut-down (come on, guys, REALLY?!), there are bunches of folks wanting passports. We grab a number and an open seat and wait.
And wait s'more . . .
And still wait . . .
Finally, an hour or so later, my number gets called. I have all my stuff in order, so the nice, patient woman behind the counter goes through it pretty quickly. Then it's time for the picture. I stand against the white wall and she snaps it . . .
The hair is greyer, the face a little pudgier (I'm working on that, dammit!), and there's more life in the face. There isn't a huge trip planned, but apparently, Washington State's drivers licenses no longer meet the federal standard for ID's for travelling by air, if that's part of the plan. Go figure. No worries, passports still work, so I'll be good.
Came back home feeling accomplished. I still got some writing in, a few hundred words, not much, but still I made progress. I'll try to get at least 10 minutes in each day this week to continue the process. Steady progress works.
To top it all off, I've had a great idea for another two-three book series totally different from what I currently write. This would be more of a fantasy book -- or at the very least and alternative universe kind of book. I'm intrigued by the kernel of the idea, so I'll do some sketching and see where it takes me . . .
Catch you all soon!
Terry