April 1, 2018. Easily one of the most monumental days of my life. Why? Well ... let's see ...
It's Easter Sunday. For Christians, Easter is sort of like our Super Bowl. It's the biggest, most exciting, most important day of the year. It's the day Jesus is resurrected. He beats death on the cross and comes back, bringing new life for all of us.
It's the Release Date of Restoration. The second book in my Murrells Inlet Miracles series.
My eighteenth book in all. The book that will push me past the 1,000,000 word published mark.
It's my retirement date. For close to 34 years I've had a day job, and it's been a doozy. The entire time I've been writing, I've been in leadership positions in a big Fortune 50 company. I've lived, breathed and sweated out my day job. It's one of those career-level jobs that is so demanding, so prestigious, so rewarding, so challenging, so dang hard. It formed me into the
confident businesswoman that I've been for a long, long time. It provided me with a generous income with which to raise my family. It allowed me the chance to grow and learn and stretch my capabilities. And on April 1, I'll be putting a wrap on it. I'll be done. Finished. Complete. It's so hard for me to believe, actually, because it's been a huge part of me for so long. But I feel great about how my career is ending on a high note, and I feel awesome that I can retire at an age young enough that I can now spend my fresh, wakeful hours on the thing that I'm most passionate about ... my writing.
It's the second anniversary of closing on our beach house. Two years ago, my husband and I bought our Happy Place, a beautiful little house in coastal South Carolina, not too far from
Pawleys Island and the fictional Waccamaw Trails property from my books. I love it there, and get there as often as I can. Now, I can be there as often as I want! If you had asked me when I was eight years old what I wanted to do when I grew up, I would've said, "I want to live at the beach and write novels." And now, I will be making that long-term dream come true.
It's the assigned birthday of my new grandpuppy, Buster. My son and his girlfriend adopted an adorable little puppy from a rescue shelter. He's half beagle and half Rottweiler. He's got a sweet disposition and he knows he hit the jackpot of homes. When they took him for his first veterinary appointment, the vet determined he was between 8 and 10 months old. So he said, "Let's put April 1 as his birthday." Considering how meaningful that date is in our family, I'd say it was a great choice!
It's April Fool's Day. That one makes me a little nervous! I'm just hoping my grand employer doesn't tap me on the shoulder on April 1 and say, "Surprise! It was all a big joke! You don't really get to retire after all!"
