Your Comfort Zone

What's your comfort zone?

You wake up at a certain time, day in and day out after having been to bed the night before at the same time night in and night out. You eat the same thing for breakfast, use the bathroom at the exected tiime, maybe exercise, shower up, dress, head to work, come home, Netflix, bed. Rince, repeat ... until the day you don't wake up. Unless of course, you get hit by a bus. Metaphorically speaking. Oh the drama.

No one's more guilty of adhering to the daily scheduled comfort zone than I am. I need it as a writer who's required to put out a certain word count everyday. It's all about the content.

But there are times where the comfort zone has to turn into the uncomfort zone. Times when there's no coffee, no hot water, no sleep, no decent food, no TV and for God's sakes, no internet. You eat somel eafy greens or you do something really stupid like brush your teeth with tap water or choose to use ice cubes in your your Coke and you end up you spending some quality one on one time with a fly infested roadside toilet. Don't forget to bring your own TP. But you can always get a Coke. No matter where you go in the world there's Coke and Pepsi. Talk about the comforts of home.

Some people need the seadside vacation. Some people go to Paris only to shop in the same stores they shop in back home. Nothing life changing in that. But who am I to knock it?

I'm presently in the uncomfort zone pounding out this blog awaiting what I hope is a decent cup of coffee. I have entirely zero expectations.

I love it. My writing will too.

www.vincentzandri.com

Making a living or make a life...

...That's the dilemma isn't it?
How did Thoreau so aptly put it?

"If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours." 

Okay, in all candor, I'm no Thoreau expert and the only reason I can reproduce that quote is because it came to me in a bit of digital spam yesterday. But its message hits home, because it nails my philosophy entirely.

So I wanted to make a life of writing, traveling, adventuring, fishing, eating, drinking...all those things that seemed like the stuff of well, fiction, way back when, when I had worked a real job (I say real job with the tongue stuffed in cheek). But the real job meant security, a health plan, a 401K, and more. In my case, it might have meant real wealth since I was in line to take over the company. But the 9-5 and 9-noon on Saturdays, two weeks vacation per year felt like a trap (especially on Sunday night...You all know that feeling).

I wrote my first sports piece for the Times Union Newspaper in summer 1991, received a $50 check in return and realized I might be able to do this for a living. That check was the only validation I needed.

And so I went to writing school, got the agent, sold the first novel, and so on and so forth. The writing life has seen many valleys and peaks since then. Editors, agents, and fellow authors have come and gone. I've won a few awards that collect dust. There's the divorces and the heartbreaks, and the loaded bank accounts and empty ones too.

The life has been magnificent and continues to be so.

But get this shocker: Recently, I actually toyed with getting the real job again, since the business of putting out book after book was getting to be a bit overwhelming. But when a good friend said to my face, and I quote: "You would never last in a real job," I slapped myself out of my spell, and decided to spend at least half the summer fly fishing, which I proceeded to do. No regrets.

Over the course of the next two years, a new book, boxed set, and/or novella will be published, by at least two different publishers including my own Bear Media. This does not include anything else that comes along, and there will be plenty of opportunities. Just the sheer number of products in my store should guarantee I will be making the living while continuing to the make the life...

---According to Thoreau's philosophy, that is.

Damn the torpedos...
Onwards...

Oh, and Primary Termination is FREE today only. There's been a lot of chatter about this one. Grab it up if you want.   

WWW.VINCENTZANDRI.COM