It’s a beautiful crisp fall day here in Northern Nevada. The trees are beginning their normal transformation–changing vibrant colors of reds, oranges and yellows. Hot coffee is steaming in the coffee pot, the fire is roaring in the fireplace and comfy robes are a necessity on days like this. Sitting here, all bundled up on the couch and looking aimlessly outside my window, I began to think back on the time when I lived in a small two bedroom home with three boys all under 5, I was 28 years old and not a clue as to what I should be when I grew up. I have always had dreams, dreams I would be a famous singer or a back-up dancer for Janet Jackson (don’t laugh you know you had dreams like that also) but like many of you who are older with families your dreams begin to slip away from you as time goes on. And lets face it, even though you keep telling yourself every year that, “next year I will start,” life just always gets in the way and you never end up doing what it is that you love.
Up until that point I think in some ways I stopped dreaming a little and just went on with everyday life. Until one day on my oldest sons birthday in October 2008, this amazing idea for a manuscript hit me. For a moment I didn’t know what to think because this idea was way to good for me to think up. The more and more I thought about the idea, the more I found myself wanting to know how the story would go and more about the characters. So the next month I decided I had to begin writing, even if it was only for me. It was my only escape from the everyday motherly duties. Although in-between my writing I still had laundry to do, diapers to change, meals to make and a house to clean. I wrote whenever I could. Most of the time it was early in the morning when the kids were still asleep or really late at night when the whole world was silent. It was something that I wasn’t going to give up on.
I’m glad to say, four years later I am thankful that I never gave up!
I’ve always said that anything worth doing isn’t easy; and I tell you it wasn’t. In the early days of my writing I lost my manuscript 3 times! I literally signed in one day to find that all three chapters where gone! No getting it back. The second time my computer had crashed and I lost everything and the final time was when my laptop froze and I couldn’t grab what I had wrote. It was then on the third time of the almost laughable situation (because at that point its the only thing you can do without going insane) was when I knew that I really had something. Something was telling me that this ms was something to not give up on! So I just took a deep breath and began to write again. I just wrote without stopping.
So for all of you out there with big dreams, don’t shove it in the closet never to be opened. The truth is you will wake up one day old, looking back at your life and wondering, “what if?” We only get one life to live and I want to make sure it’s a full one.
JAIME GUERARD 