writer – Patti Diener / Author

Life in the Fast Lane

Juggling My Writing Life, Traveling, and Attempting to Appear Normal

I keep telling myself that I’m going to get a little part-time job to fulfill my need and desire to squirrel away some dough for my travel nest-egg. You know… play money. I mean, hubby and I are doing fine if I don’t, but I often feel guilty using our household money for my egocentric, self-absorbed, hairbrained ideologies of world travel, (for which The Mister has little interest in). But at the end of the day, my retired days are filled to the brim with activities that leave little to no room for me to work in a job.

What’s a girl to do?

Recently I went on a roadtrip with my hubby across part of the US on a three week adventure. You can see from the above photo of me that I took this journey very seriously. I figured if they didn’t want me on the dinosaur they shouldn’t have put a saddle on him. The Mister might not be super enthused about world travel but seeing the United States, he’s totally up for. This included fourteen states, seeing friends and family, a total eclipse, dodging storms, and witnessing the complications and dangers of breeding thoroughbred race horses. That’s an education you can never un-see again. As my brother-in-law pointed out, she doesn’t even get dinner and a movie first.

But in small snippets of time along the way, I was able to sneak in moments of solitude to finish up my novel, WILDFLOWER. I will share a draft of the first chapter in a coming blog post. This is a project I started back in September of 2023, and right after I returned home from our trip, within days I had my first draft completed. I cried of course. I usually do whenever I finish my first draft of a novel. Anyway, since I’m now in the editing stages, about to leave again for Arizona for my niece’s graduation, and then will embark on another solo journey up the coast of Oregon to see my first-born, who has the time to apply for a little three-day-a-week jobette?

Not this girl.

Another thing about being retired is the fact that some days arrive and I’m unsure of what day of the week we are on. The weeks driving without my schedule and structure, I seem to have become a bit crazed. Also, my house is now full of things we brought back from Kentucky, (boxes, furniture, and paperwork), that have been dropped off into corners and on tabletops left for “someday when we can get to it.” I try to go through a few boxes a day while returning to my writing schedule and picking up the pieces of business left unattended to after three weeks. But honestly, my house looks like some kind of highfalitin flea market, or an antique store with pieces of the past piled in places you have to weed through. I’m craving some order around here, but that will come in time.

In the meanwhile, my brain has been on some kind of awakening. Call it spring, call it monkey-mind, but my dreams have been crazy weird and seem to take up all night long, so that when I wake in the morning I feel as if I’ve been vacationing in another universe and not been alseep the last eight hours. Wild. I am forcing myself to walk during the day more, drink more water, and probably need to add some magnesium to calm my mind but I never think of these things until I’ve lost my noodle a bit. Either way, it makes for some interesting conversation, these wacked dreams.

I’m looking forward to querying agents about my new book though, so editing has been pretty exciting and fairly pleasureable. Most of the time I dread the editing but this go-around I’m having fun with it. I’ve also connected with some wonderful women in a new writing group. I cannot recommend writing groups enough. Getting that support and constructive critisism has always been crucial for me. I welcome input and have also been extremely fortunate to have had Jennifer Lynn Alvarez, (author of eleven novels, including YA thrillers LIES LIKE WILDFIRE, and FRIENDS LIKE THESE), as a personal friend who gives me honest and helpful feedback. If you are writing, find a group of people to bounce ideas off of. It’s invaluable.

So in the coming months, I will be sharing more about my latest book WILDFLOWER, the quest to find the perfect agent to represent it, and I promise to give you snippets from the early pages. Its another romance novel but moves away from the sweet style I wrote before in THE CLOCKTOWER of MAPLE CREEK. This one is darker and has more drama.

Like I always talked about when I recorded podcast episodes in BEAUTIFUL SECOND ACT, (which is still available to listen to), I encourage you to get out there and explore your own desires. To chase the things that light you up and make you feel excited to greet the day. Plan a trip with a friend. Get to know your community as if you were a tourist. Travel to a neighboring community and find out what fun things can be discovered, or start a new hobby. Life is a journey that is meant to be fully enjoyed. Be grateful for life’s simple pleasures as well as the wonderful milestones of your time. They are equally important.

And please know I truly appreciate your love and support as I maneuver through my own crazy path on this publishing journey. Without you, the readers, who would know about my wild imagination? I’m profoundly grateful.

Something Interesting Is Happening

It Took Me A While To Get Here

When I retired at the age of 53, most people thought I’d lost my mind. What the hell do you think you are doing? That was the reaction most people had until they realized I was serious, that I was done with public education and being a K-7 librarian just wasn’t what it used to be. Then they changed their tune. At least to my face they did, and there were well-wishers all around, encouraging me to go do my thing.

The first thing I did was dive head first into everything that I enjoyed, wearing all the hats. Truly, I tried to learn everything I could shove into my brain in the alotted amount of time my ass would allow me to sit in a chair each day. Writing my next novel was first priority, or so I told myself it would be. But the guilt of not bringing in as much money as I once did sort of made me feel like I had to build an at home business that might be more promising than banking on the concept of selling my next novel, since I’d only ever self-published. I had lofty ideas.

I started a podcast,…as one does in midlife when they are trying to figure themselves out. It was incredibly hard, super time consuming, and I loved ever single minute of it. I interviewed people from all over the world, we chatted about the incredible changes life throws at us and how valuable, wise, and vital we all still are even though we are past the age of fifty and gravity has long since become a real bitch. Despite the fact that we’ve hit menopause, need therapy, and are struggling to decide whether to color the gray or not, we’ve also discovered the powerful feeling of freedom that aging brings. I for one, have never been happier than I am now in my mid-fifties, (I’m fifty-five).

Along the way, I wrote a book that I queried agents about and proposed as the first in a trilogy. I started the second one, then tabled it for a wildly better idea. In between times though, I’d started a paid monthly membership to go along with the podcast, and Facebook group. I also started a book club, because obviously I didn’t have enough going on already. Did I mention I’m married too? And for some weird reason, my husband actually wanted to see my face once in a while and liked a home cooked meal periodically. This required that I get out of my cave and away from my computer now and then.

I was cruising along, nearing the two-year mark for this community I’d built, when I decided to host a live, in-person event. This went well, if not fairly small, but it was well received. I, along with my co-host who works for The Blue Zones, gave away swag, we each held a talk, and refreshments were served. It was fun. It was exhausting. I never did it again. Not because I didn’t like it, but because I realized I hate organizing shit and would much rather just show up, speak, and drink wine.

Then the most unthinkable thing happened. The person I’d leaned on my entire life and who always seemed to have the best guidance and advice for me, died. My father, my rock, the center pole to our circus in life, left this earth and I was not only shattered, I was in shock. I shouldn’t have been, as he’d been ill for a while, but you never really believe you will have to go on without your father.

But go on I did, because five days after he passed, I was scheduled to go to England, on my first ever trip abroad. I’d never even had a passport until just before this trip and although I told the family I thought there was no way I could go, they all insisted I do just that. “Dad would have wanted you to go!” they all said. Of course I knew they were right.

The trip was magical and surreal all at the same time. The majestic structures that held secrets of ancient times cast a spell on me that made it impossible to feel badly that I was actually enjoying myself, when only days before my father took his last breath. An adventurer himself, I knew Dad was smiling down at me and proud I’d been brave enough to go.

But something shifted over the next few months. Something that slowly, layer by layer started to shift inside of me again, causing me to take notice that my spirit was trying to tell me something. I had to listen.

Part of it was my deeper inner-knowing, and the other part was Dad telling me to stop wasting time doing what I thought I ought to be doing and get going doing that thing I’ve always known I was born to do. Write!

The membership long gone, the book club a thing of the past, I realized that as much as I loved the podcast, it was eating away precious time that I needed in order to be a successful traditionally published author. That has always been my dream. Self-publishing gave me the first taste of success as a writer, as my novel After the Fire, sold really well (before Covid), and the first few months I was an Amazon Best Seller. But I had to pick a lane. All the multi-tasking was not allowing me to be fully successful in either the podcast or with my books.

So I’ve announced to the Beautiful Second Act Community, that it was fun while it lasted, but those doors are closing and I’m stepping into a different place where writing will be the main event. It’s all I’ve ever truly wanted since I was ten years old and started writing stories.

The interesting thing is, after all my mentoring people to live their best life in the second half of life, I’m just now going all in for myself. Maybe the gods or spirits wanted me to create Beautiful Second Act, for the people I needed to reach. To send the message out there to whoever needed to hear it, that it’s never too late to do that thing your heart desires. To take a chance and be brave enough to challenge yourself by getting out of your comfort zone. To not only eat the cake and drink the wine, but grow as a spiritual being and allow yourself to reach higher, dig deeper, and live fully.

But most importantly, to stop disappointing yourself for fear that doing what you really want will disappoint others. We must stop betraying our own needs and desires because we are too afraid it will upset someone else. That’s the worst kind of betrayal. Depriving yourself your own longing and not being true to who you are because it suits others. No one wins if we do that.

So jump in the deep end with me my friend. Do what lights you up inside and gives you enthusiasm. When 2024 hit, I promised myself that my word for the year was INTENTION, and I’m focusing all my energy on the intention to be traditionally published. So I’ll be blogging more on this, staying focused on the writing community, author life, and honing my craft to be the best I can be. I appreciate your support.

Xoxo ~ Patti

The Journey Continues

What Early Retirement Has Been Like For This Writer

In March of 2020, when the world stopped turning, I began to spin a scenario in my mind of what my life could look like. When we were all forced to stay home and try to be productive in ways none of us were accustomed to, I decided to dive deep inside of myself to find a new path. One I truly desired. That’s when I realized I would apply for early retirement.

At only fifty-thee years old, early retirement seemed rather rash in the eyes of some of my friends and family. It wasn’t what some viewed as responsible, or advised. After all, who was I to think I could retire when most people worked in their fields until at least sixty-two? I hadn’t paid my dues yet.

Before I could retire, I knew I had many ducks I had to get into their neat little rows. I was working in public education, a school librarian and only in that position for eleven years. My writing had been for the past decade done on weekends, evenings and vacation. I’d managed to publish a book working those hours, but it took me four years of hard determination. Imagine, I thought, what I could accomplish if I wrote full time!

So in the fall of 2020, when public education was dealing with at-home-studies, or hybrid schooling, I worked along those brave enough to go in and do the job, (masks, vaccines, isolation, and angry parents), full well knowing it would be my last school year. Early retirement might not have looked attainable to some, but for me it was the only way I’d survive. The job had become suffocating, soul sucking.

With each month moving along like molasses in January, I soothed myself with the notion that it was the last November, or the last December, I’d ever have to work there. It gave me hope and excitement for my future as a full-time writer. Writing was what I’d dreamed of since I was ten years old, in the fifth grade, when I read my first novel and wrote my first essay in school.

So fast forward to August of 2021, I had to start off the school year, but I got to pass the baton onto a new and more energetic librarian. Someone who wasn’t burned out by the public education bureaucracy. On September 1, 2021, I became a free woman. I was scared, but I was elated by the prospects of living the life I wanted. I became a full-time writer.

The end of anything can be somewhat sad, but I only shed a few tears. In the first few days of my early retirement I felt a bit guilty. It’s like that when you no longer have to do something. I still got up early, although not nearly as early as my 5:30am wake up I used to do. Having my coffee and writing in the quietness of the morning felt indulgent. At first I wasn’t very productive because I didn’t quite know what to do with myself. After setting some goals, I got the hang of it.

Now I travel when I want, I write every day, and I finished my second novel, The Clock Tower of Maple Creek. I’m currently querying agents for representation on this one because I’ve decided that traditionally publishing is the path I want to go. I see a future with a team of folks in the publishing industry in my corner. Although I self-published successfully with my first novel, After The Fire, (buy link here), it was a lonely and difficult road.

In addition to writing, I dove into another line of work. Podcasting has become a great love of mine and this May, 2022 will be the first anniversary of my show, Beautiful Second Act. You can listen from anywhere you get your podcasts but the most popular are Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, or IHeartRadio. It’s about living in midlife or beyond, striving to live our best life in the second half of life. I plan to build on it in this second year. I currently have two seasons. It’s very exciting to interview like minded people who help me to grow, motivate me, and inspire us all. I also have many solo episodes where I share all I’ve learned along the way towards living a more authentic life. I hope you’ll check it out.

The main thing I’d like to share today about early retirement is that THIS IS YOUR LIFE. If you love your job, great. But if you don’t…if you wake each day wondering what the hell you are doing and are stressed beyond your limits, then make a change. You are the only one who can steer your ship. If you feel in the deepest part of your soul that you are meant to be doing something else, then by God, DO IT! Do it now before too much time passes. You cannot put a price on happiness. A bigger payout in retirement won’t buy you back the years you loose in suffering. Do what it is that brings you the greatest joy! You won’t regret it.

Much love, Patti