Embracing Change, by Lori Roberts Herbst

“The most difficult thing is the decision to act; the rest is merely tenacity.”— Amelia Earhart

 

Back when I was a high school teacher and counselor, I used to tell my students that change — even positive change — was stress-inducing. They tended to berate themselves for feeling stressed over changes they had wanted and even chosen. I advised them of the importance of accepting and validating that anxiety so they could move through it and embrace the outcome. That meant giving themselves a little grace.

 

What’s the saying? Physician, heal thyself.

 

Over the past six months, my life has been in an almost constant state of upheaval — positive, chosen upheaval, but still... With my husband’s retirement, purchasing a new-build home in Colorado after residing in the Dallas area for a half century, selling our Texas home, living in a series of AirBNBs for three months, and finally rescuing our “stuff” from storage and contending with the moving-in process (along with all the financial aspects), change seems to have become my normal state of affairs. For someone whose nature is to crave stability, it’s been the equivalent of diving head first into a pressure cooker. (A few times, I’m afraid the resulting steam has scalded my ever-patient husband.)

 

So of course this would be the perfect situation in which to begin a new mystery series, right? Why not ratchet up the stress level by adding a big professional change to all the personal ones?

 

It may not make much sense, but so be it. I’m taking the plunge. After three years of focusing solely on the six-book Callie Cassidy Mystery series, I’ve decided to turn my attention to something fresh. I’m calling it the Seahorse Cove Mysteries, and it will be set in a cruise port town on the coast of Texas. (Can anyone else see the irony of setting the Callie series in Colorado when I lived in Texas and now creating a series set in Texas when I live in Colorado?)

 

I’ll be honest, with all that’s been going on, I haven’t made much progress on the project. (And let’s not even talk about how woefully behind I am on marketing and pr
omotion. My poor website will shudder at my reappearance if I ever get around to updating it…)

 

In my mind, I harbor a broad map of the little port town, and I have the main cast of characters named, as well as a hazy vision of each of them. But any notion of plot development has taken a hiatus. I’m excited (albeit overwhelmed) at the prospect, though. Creating a new world and all the characters who will populate it is exhilarating. And now that I have internet, the excuses have vanished…

 

My plan is to write the first book, then polish, revise, and ready it for publication. Next, I’ll get the first draft of book two complete before publishing book one. I’ve come to the realization that for my own sanity, I need that built-in buffer. Hopefully, that way I won’t feel like I’m scrambling if some life change comes along to derail my carefully constructed writing timeline. That stress, I’ve concluded, I simply don’t want.

 

How do you handle change?

 

GRAVEN IMAGES, book 6 in the Callie Cassidy Mystery series, released April 23 and is available on Amazon Kindle, Kindle Unlimited, and paperback.

 

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Lori Roberts Herbst writes the Callie Cassidy Mysteries, a cozy mystery series set in Rock Creek Village, Colorado. To find out more and to sign up for her newsletter, go to www.lorirobertsherbst.com