Follow Your Bliss

I'm a lucky girl. I've had the opportunity to pursue numerous passions in my life. I’m happiest when I have a sense of purpose—a pursuit (or two or three) that embodies my values, beliefs, and abilities—that gives me a sense of meaning. 

A bliss. 

My background is a combination of pursuits with obvious interests in biology and psychology. I have a Masters degree in counseling. But I only used it “in the field” for a couple years before we moved and started a family.  

I can't help but wonder... Where would I be if I hadn’t gone that direction? What if I’d followed a different fork in the road at any of the numerous places where it, well, forked. ;)

I love being a writer. The flexibility, challenge, and adventure of it. But sometimes I wonder what I’d be doing if I wasn’t a stay-at-home mother of three and a writer. And if I didn’t have a husband who’s source of income was steady enough to allow me to follow my bliss.

When I look back, everything I pursued was to make other people happier and/or healthier. That was my goal. At one time, I wanted to be a physical therapist. But when I volunteered at a hospital, just to try it on for size, I didn’t think I had the forcefulness to push people past their limits as well as the energy to be a constant cheerleader. It just didn’t fit my personality. 

At another time, I wanted to be a doctor, but the hours and lack of sleep weren't appealing. And then there was the likelihood of incurring financial debt for several more years of school.

A profiler? That was a dream at one time. If I’m honest, it still is, though I know I’d most likely never want to go through that much schooling again. It's not that I feel I'm too old (okay, maybe a little bit), but it would take up a large chunk of time I currently devote to my other passions—family and writing.

A life coach? That’s my latest interest. Apparently there’s a certification process. It’s a career that involves helping people—helping them find their own bliss, in fact. And that sounds pretty awesome. 

But with the kids still at home, I’m thinking writer is still the best choice for me. Besides, in what other job can I explore all of these other careers vicariously, through my characters? Still, who knows what the future will bring? 

If you were to follow a new dream, what would it be and why?

Release Day!

by Janis Patterson

I don’t care how many books you have out, release day is still a thrill. The thought that all the writing, all the revisions and editing and pre-release PR I’ve done has finally culminated with a book still sends a tingle through my heart and a giggle into my throat.

My story is going to be read. The story that has been in my mind and my computer, the story that is mine alone, is going out into the big wide world where anybody who wants can pick it up.

This is all so different from when I sold my first half-dozen books. In those antique days (pre-computer, pre-internet) everything was done on paper by snail-mail. The books themselves were paper. I still remember the excitement of receiving my author’s copies. There would be this big box that came to the front door, and once I opened it I could actually hold my new book in my hands. There were no surprises – I had seen the galleys and the cover art weeks, even months ago, but this was the first time in book form. I always felt as proud as a new parent.

It’s all different nowadays – still very good and full of satisfaction, but different. There’s no box of books to open and coo over, no knowledge that boxes of my books are in trucks going across the country en route to a legion of bookstores… there’s just an electronic file from the publisher. The cover isn’t a stiff paper work of art suitable for framing, only a spray of brilliantly colored electrons across my computer screen.

But my story is still there. The characters I have lived with for months are now on their own, ready to meet new people. Now on release day my book spreads across the world, available in places my paper books would never have reached.

And it’s still great.

On Monday, the first of October, I woke with a thrill of excitement because it was release day for BEADED TO DEATH, my new cozy mystery from Carina Press. (http://bit.ly/SjFrXM)

Written almost a year before, worked on for weeks with my editor, sighed over as we tried to get just the right cover art, it was now going to fly on its own. Lilias Ruiz and Thomas O’Connell and Annie Monroe and Toby Applegate and Patches were no longer my special, private family – they were going out to face the world on their own.

On this release day there was no skywriting, no blare of trumpets, but I knew that my story was Out There. Other people could follow the tale of Lillias’ finding a dead body in her living room, of her entanglement with an FBI agent who may or may not be rogue, and her perplexity in dealing with a 7’3” nephew who is on the run from an unwanted basketball scholarship. After all that, being accused of being a drug smuggler is just icing on the cake!

The thing about release day is that it is just part of a logical progression – write, sell, revise, edit, edit again, and release. Another thing is that it comes late. The book is finished and done with, the cover art and edits approved, and (hopefully!) you’re working on another book. Then, like a revenant from the past, it is there once more, officially leaving your life and going on to a life of its own.

I love release days. No matter how the book is delivered – electronic or paper or whatever comes next – the day your book comes out is still exciting. It is a day like no other.

  Janis Patterson is a seventh-generation Texan and a third-generation wordsmith who writes mysteries as Janis Patterson, romances and other things as Janis Susan May, children’s books as Janis Susan Patterson and scholarly works as J.S.M. Patterson.