Wish - back to the hypothetical - what's the biggest thing you want as awriter? What would happen if you got a couple of steps further?

The biggest things I want as a writer is to write, publish and sell novels that sell well enough to support my family. To be able to know we can drive a decent car, go buy clothes when we need them, pay school fees without needing to drip feed the school, live in a comfortable fashion, which is the complete opposite of they way we live right now. I want to be able to walk into any book store and see my books on the shelves. I want to have book signings where people line up to buy my books and have me sign them. I want to give talks and workshops and be paid for my services. I want to be able to travel to promote my books, preferably overseas, as well as nationally. I want to be interviewed by Oprah, Letterman and Parkinson.

I'm not sure what further steps are there? For me it seems I want too much already. Am I expecting too much?

I could be. Not many Australian writers do live what I've wished for here. In short I want to be an internationally best-selling author. For me that's all I really want. Not so people will recognise me if I'm walking down the street, but so I know the readers have been touched. I'd like to think something I had to say made a difference to them. Perhaps I helped change their world view on some pertinent issue. Or I just made them see a problem in a new way. To be paid for what I love to do is all I'm asking for. I just want to make a living out of writing.

I can write articles, and I enjoy doing so, but in novels I really find a connection with the writing life. It's the place I feel most at ease. I can lose myself in the story, the character or the simple process of tapping out words on the page. I also enjoy letting the pen swirl and curl over the creamy unlined pages of my journal. I love to plan and plot the novels, to let them simmer on the back burner of my mind. The best ideas, endings and character motives come from this practice.

So, how many novels have I written? Last November, for the Nanowrimo, I wrote my sixth novel. I have ideas for several more. Not all these novels are at a stage they could be sent on to the publisher, though. That is what I need to work on.

But I am constantly bombarded with the need to earn money for the family. Hubby has always had low-paid work. It's the fact of our lives. That's probably enough information, though. I don't want to invite the intellectual snobbery I had to put up with on another blogging forum when I revealed details about my personal life. My man is the way he is and I love him. He's working right now towards improving that and he always has. Life doesn't ever happen the way you plan it. I'm glad I didn't end up with some guy who is nothing like my man. We talk and enjoy each other's company and have done for the last 18 and a half years.

Anyway, my time has gone. I need to finish this off and perhaps post it online some time tonight. I don't think I really addressed the second part of the above question today. Perhaps I will face up to it over the next entry.