Greetings everyone!
While hanging out with some of my author friends, a question was raised:
If you could define your career in terms of one of the stages of fire, what would it be and why?
I couldn't answer the group right away. I needed to step away and really process the whole question as well as flip through all I've done in my career.
From the jump, I could eliminate the incipient phase. Ever since the publication of Reflections of Soul, my fuel for publication has been on "go" ever since. I care less about sales and more about getting a message out there. You never know whose life you can touch with the power of words.
Nor am I at the decay stage. Not to say there won't be a time where I will retire from this trade, but I know that time isn't today. Plus, there are so many stories that have yet to be put to paper or to a word processing program.
That just leaves the growth stage and the fully developed stage. In my opinion, to be fully developed indicates that you've gotten as far as you can go, as in reached maximum potential. I'm not in that space either. I see myself as one with a full, tireless dedication to expansion and growth in my craft.
To grow is where I'm at my post comfortable. There are things I still want to achieve in my career. Like, another collection of short stories. Not a follow up to A Scribe's Sentiments, but something that will touch people's hearts all the same. I have not given up on publishing a novelette, novella, or novel, despite the tragedy that happened with Lacross Lane. I want to be known for more than just my poetry and short story prowess. I want to encompass the full gambit so that I'm not pigeonholed as just a poet or just a storyteller.
Just as I'm a hybrid in my personal life, the goal is to be a hybrid in my professional life as well.
Therefore, in terms of fire, I am in the growth stage.
Let it never be put out.
