And So It Begins...

For years, I thought I was going to retire when I turned 65. I mean that's the stereotypical time to retire (even if you have to wait until 67 now for "full" social security and there is a movement to push it to 70). But as the old quote often attributed to John Lennon goes, "life is what happens when you're busy making other plans."

What happened is that my employer suddenly offered a buy out package. And it was even better for those of us near retirement age. When even your financial planner says, "that's a very good deal for you," you take the buy out.

So, in a matter of weeks, I went from worrying about all company meetings and making my billable rate for the next year and a half to suddenly retired. It was what I had been working towards all my life, right?

But then I started getting the question - "So, what are you going to do during your retirement?" Hmmm. Good question.

At first, it was easy. "I'm going to sit in my recliner and read all of the books I've been meaning to read." But then, inertia set in. Since I had spent three decades as a college professor, I was accustomed to having summers off and that's what this felt like. I was having problems adjusting to the whole "retirement" thing.

It wasn't until a month later when I landed on my plan. Years ago, I had started noodling on an idea for a book. I thought about it quite a bit actually. I bought a journal and would spend time writing down ideas while we were on various vacations. I even tried doing NaNoWriMo one year and ended up with 14 pages of a what can only be called "a good start." (November is a terrible time of the time for a college professor to attempt something like that. And now NaNoWriMo is no more.)

Now was the time to take that idea and try to turn it into a reality.

The purpose of this website is to accomplish a few things. First of all, it makes me more accountable. I worked for years in media and I am very deadline driven. By giving myself a word count for each week day and posting about it on a publicly available website, I'm giving myself that deadline I need.

Second, I've been doing lots of research over the years on writing cozy mysteries (and writing in general). I wanted to create a place where I can keep all of that information together and also make it available to others who might be interested.

On the website, all pages (linked at the top), all book reviews, and a few other posts will be available to anyone who happens to stumble upon them. No subscription needed.

If you subscribe to the free plan, you will have access to all of those items, be able to comment on publicly available posts, and will be emailed when new content becomes available.

If you sign up for the paid subscription, you will have access to all of the above plus updates on how the writing process is going, reviews of available resources for writers (especially cozy mystery writers), be able to comment on all post, and have a warm place in my heart.

The cost is $1 for a one month subscription or $5 for a year. (That’s the lowest amount Ghost and/or Stripe will let me set it.) Why a charge at all? Because AI and other content scrapers are evil. And I don’t want to feed those heinous trolls if I can help it at all.

And so my journey begins. And fittingly enough, this song has been my musical accompaniment as I wrote this: