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A New Life for Christmas

by Olivia Cunning

I haven't blogged here at Casablanca for a while. I think the last blog I did (other than my Double Time launch post in November), was when I had just moved to Galveston, Texas. I love it here, if you're wondering. Best move I've ever made. So that was a big change. Wearing shorts and sandals and taking walks along the beach in December. Yeah, that was a BIG change over life in Nebraska.

Well, things have changed a lot more for me in just the last month.

First, thanks to the success of Double Time, I became a NYTimes and USA Today best-selling author. I never aspired to make the lists. Did I want to? You betcha! Did I think it would happen? If you'd have asked me that in June, I would have said never in a million years!

Another thing I would have said would never happen for me in a million years is making enough to support myself and my college-attending son with my writing income. I'm a single mom. I put myself through college and raised a kid on my own for 18 years. I was so far in debt, I never thought I'd get my head above water. But with the success of my self-published series, One Night with Sole Regret, I clawed myself out of debt and quit my day job last Friday. I always thought quitting my day job would be a difficult decision. I went to school for a very long time to become a college professor. I worked hard to perfect my teaching techniques. I was a great teacher. My students will back that claim. They were sorry to see me go, and I'm sure I will miss them. The students were always what made teaching worth while. They were definitely the best part of the job. But when it came time to make the decision to quit and write full-time, I found it was a lot easier than I ever thought it would be. That a dream I held for twenty years could become a reality? You'd better believe I was going to jump on that opportunity. I've never been afraid of change. I might fail and have to return to teaching in the future, but I'm going to seize this chance when I have it.

So I guess I got a new life for Christmas. And I couldn't be happier. And I assume that if you are reading this the world did not come to an end as predicted by the Mayans. That would have really ticked me off! I'm going on my first cruise in January. The apocalypse is so not cool.

What do you want for Christmas this year?

Comments

  1. To spend it with family! Congrats on all your successes, Olivia! I was so glad to be able to quit my day job last August and love writing full time! :) But I was really apprehensive about doing so. I couldn't manage with 80-85 hours a week though and something had to give. The day job, or writing! :)

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  2. Awesome to hear such good news, Olivia! Congrats and enjoy your cruise.

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  3. WOW!! Congratulations on all your success and happy writing full time!

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  4. Congrats on all of the wonderful changes in your life and Happy Holidays to you and your family!

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  5. Congrats! That is great. My Christmas wish, other than spending time with my family, is to finally get my disability settled. It is so much stress and I just want it to be over as quickly as possible.

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  6. Way to go Olivia! Keep writing about those hot rockers & we will keep reading as fast as you can put them out! Can't wait to hear about your cruise! So happy for your good fortune.

    My Christmas is all about my family, my amazing 95 yo gram takes a flight from NY to FL to spend the holiday with us...she is a wonder

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  7. Congrats on quitting the day job! I had mixed feelings when I quit, but I'm still happy I made that choice.

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