!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After much deliberation, I settled on the title for this post as a series of exclamation points, because for me, no words can really do justice to the announcement I’m making.

My last day at work will be 12/3.  From that point forward, I will be writing full-time.

Now, for those who have been following me from the beginning, when Children was still called Witch and I thought self-publishing was for nubs, I do feel the need to talk a bit about how I got here.  Alex has made more money than I thought it was going to, certainly, and if I was a single, childless guy living in an efficiency apartment, I’d probably be able to live off of what it’s bringing in.  Thankfully, I’m not.  So if Alex was the only factor, I wouldn’t be able to do this right now.  But there are two reasons I can.

1) My wife, Joy, who is continuing to work full-time for the man and is making the financial sacrifices necessary for us to give this a shot.  She has, by far, the most to lose if I screw this up, but she is not grudging.  She is not worried.  She is eager and excited and wonderful.  Her faith counts more than just about everyone else’s combined.  If you read this, Joy, thank you a hundred times.  I love you.

2) We have been lucky enough in the last year or so to develop a second income stream for the family.  That stream combined with the money Lone Road is making from Alex is enough for me to replace the lion’s share of my regular day job salary.  I don’t want to go into detail about it just yet, but you can think of it as a part-time job that I’ll be keeping as I go into this.  Sometimes, when obligations to it spike, my writing will have to take a brief back seat.  But its demands are nothing compared to the job I’ve been working during the day.

So this is not, “WOOOOO LOOK AT ME I GOT RICH FROM SELF-PUBLISHING.”  It’s more, “Wow, this publishing thing can actually make me some good money; I better refocus my energies on something I love to do that could actually be lucrative.”

In other words, yeah, it’s a bit of a risk.  It’s a big step.  But like so many people at work have told me over the last few days, “You have to go for it.”  I don’t want to ever have to say I missed my chance.  I’d rather try it and be proven a fool than never try it at all.

So what does this mean for my readers?

First and foremost, it means that barring an act of nature, Rebecca will be published January 8th, and Children will follow later in 2013.  My goal is to publish two books a year through Lone Road.  Once I get a feel for exactly how hard I can whip my muse without it going on strike, three books a year may be doable.  We’ll see.

It also means that blog posts will be more frequent.  I’m looking forward to blogging about figuring out how to structure my days, how the full-time writing process pans out, what my muse does once it knows that I’m actually depending on it financially, and all sorts of other things.  I’ve missed blogging.  Though it’s worth noting that my blogging pace probably won’t pick up until after Rebecca is out there.  December is going to be very busy.

Last (and, honestly, least) it means I’ll finally be able to update my website and do all those other little niggling things that have had to take a backseat to squeezing in five minutes of writing here and there.

So, here on the day before Thanksgiving, I want to say thank you to everyone who has read Alex, and who has sent me emails talking about how much they loved it.  I am profoundly grateful to everyone who has posted a review on Amazon, good or bad.  Thank you to everyone who has posted about the book on Goodreads or followed me on Facebook or has recommended Alex to their friends or has pulled me into a book club.  You have made this possible, and I cannot possibly thank you enough.

But starting December 4th, I’m gonna try.