This month, Keith and I celebrated 49 years of marriage and on the same day, 49 days to retirement. I will be a full time writer and Keith will be my editor. We sure are smiling!
On the Nellesen family Facebook, someone said that Grandma never smiled. She was a stout German no-fuss woman that probably didn't see a need. My mom used to say that I was a happy baby; I would just sit and smile and I didn’t talk or walk for a long time. Sure enough, my baby book says that I smiled at 4 weeks when most babies don’t smile until 8 weeks and laughed at 7 weeks. I was almost 2 years old before I walked and talked. I sure made up for that! Most days, I walk 5-6 miles every AM on my treadmill and then go to the Disney Parks on other days and walk 4-5 miles.
I will be even happier in 49 days. That is when I retire from a long career working in the car industry; first as an accountant, CFO, and then owning a software company that provided software to the car industry. I sold that company over three years ago to a guy from my hometown of Escondido. It is an amazing coincidence; one of my early investors suggested in 2015 that I talk to a young man that was also a software developer. After staying in touch for few years, we decided to meet and he mentioned that he was going back to his hometown for his grandmother's birthday - Escondido! With his unusual last name, I realized his father was a good friend of my brother. We agreed to fly to Rancho Bernardo and take the meeting. We were so impressed that a few months later we sold the majority interest in our company and agreed to stick around for a few years. They merged the two companies at the end of 2021 and we set a retirement date of April 2022 since Keith would start drawing Social Security in May and for me, the next April.
I have been testing various new occupations since I figured out the end was near; yoga instructor, writer, YouTube vlogger (Owen the Giraffe,), screenwriter, spinach grower, software developer (yogaiteach) and have settled on the one that I wake up the most anxious to start doing for the day; writing. Please visit sandijerome.com to see more and click on Books or my Author page on Amazon.
As a "hobby" I have been writing screenplays for decades with some small successes; but to actually be a screenwriter is a different story. Screenwriters have to take meetings, make revisions suggested by trust fund kids who call themselves “producers.” I don’t ever see us being a part of the Hollywood scene. But writing is there in me; it is my passion. I have settled on two areas; “how to” and middle school fantasy fiction. I enjoyed learning how to write novels while working on Princess Quest with Chandra during her forced lockdown in Hawaii. Poor Chandra, she arrives in Hawaii after being in Europe and Asia for almost 5 years and immediately goes into a lockdown. I think Chandra was a good teacher and hopefully I’m improving with my next book.
I am also learning from a KitLit expert (which is what Middle Grade and Young Adult is nicknamed) a former Literary Agent and Editor. One of the things that she recommends is that the protagonists be the same age as the readers. That meant that I had to rewrite Princess Quest. My main characters, Kira and Henry they needed to start out at 10 years old and go on the Quest at 12. Makes more sense with them playing hide and go seek at the beginning. The other is to make it appeal to both boys and girls. I changed the cover to feature a map that appeals to boys…go figure because they certainly don’t like to use them as adults. I added myself as an author.
During our past five years after moving from the Treasure Coast of Florida (Port St. Lucie) to the Central Orlando area (Clermont) we have been Florida Resident Annual Passholders. That meant that every free moment, we could to to my favorite park, Disney's Animal Kingdom. It is actually a zoo. I started sketching the animals to use the other side of my brain and learning more about them. Eventually I had enough for a book. I'm busy handing out free copies to Disney cast members and guests to get input and make any corrections. Then I will create the final version and "publish" it on May 1st when I have more time after retirement.
My dad always said, if you love your work, you never need to retire. I love this new job and I'm already working on two more books in my free time. I am smiling and happy. If you visit our "company" website, www.smilingeagle.com - you'll see how I got the title of this month's blog.
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