The person who risks nothing, has nothing, is nothing.

So I have another opportunity coming  up this weekend to go sell my books at the La Veta Holiday Crafts Fair. Yes, I never thought of writing books as a craft, but apparently it is. In the dictionary, crafts are defined as “an activity involving skill in making things by hand.” Synonyms are occupation, profession, line of work and pursuit. I don’t make my books by hand, but I do make them “by brain,” so I guess that counts.

By producing a book, I feel like I do put myself out into the world. There are certainly many expenses and risks. I share my life and hope others can relate on various levels. No, I don’t write fiction, I write real life, and cannot imagine writing fiction at this point in time.

I have focused thus far mostly on the many emotional gifts of midlife, a rite of passage no past generations of human beings have ever experienced. I had no awareness of this gift when I experienced a number of personal crises starting in 2001. Being an academic librarian, I read up on this subject, learning about the essential work I would need to do to improve the rest of my life. I learned how midlife change works, and then I got to work changing everything I could.

Most importantly, I learned there really are do-overs BEFORE it’s all over, and I chose to share that knowledge with anyone interested in transforming themselves.

Unfortunately, I have quite a love-hate relationship with selling my work. I love getting out and meeting new people. I love explaining what I write about and why, but whenever money comes into the equation, I become uncomfortable. I suppose I am not alone in that feeling. Nobody likes to feel like someone is selling them something, do they?

But I will attend this new crafts fair and stay as long as I enjoy it. Perhaps I just need more experience in “selling” my ideas and words. Perhaps some day this will begin to feel good…

“Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.” – T. S. Eliot

I’m a newcomer to rural southern Colorado.  After two years I decided to compile a short journal about the ups and downs of moving from a good-sized city to rural America to build a passive solar retirement home in the foothills:                                         A Memoir of Retirement: From Suburbia to Solar in Southern Colorado

Please share this information with your friends if they are considering similar life changes. Feel free to contact me directly to discuss any of these challenges, and to order your own signed copies of any of my books!  Cheers, Laura Lee  (email me: MidlifeCrisisQueen@gmail.com)