Who wouldn’t want to try scaling a mountain, walking across coals, eating insects, scuba diving in the ocean?
I am doing this every day! And most of the time, I don’t appreciate it. I quit my job to start a business, publish a new novel, and sell original art pieces. But all I can see are the need to budget, acquiring another job, and struggles to release my next book.
Taking the Leap
Let me back up this entire blog by stating that yes, I have eaten insects (crickets were my favorite), scaled a few mountains, and still haven’t visited Hawaii yet, so it’s just a dream deferred. Even though I love to travel and plan to continue in the future, I’m at a time in my life where those are “later” plans. My goal is to keep writing, and it takes work! I am improving my writing and art business on a monthly basis, but it takes time—and more time. At the moment I am a one-woman show, so I do all of the socials, calling, emailing, budgeting, traveling, and setup, not to mention writing the books and creating the art. Did I mention that I have a day job right now, too? When traveling from one city to the next on a journey, there are still the in-between moments, the waiting spots, and the quiet points. These are not insignificant.
Does any of this sound familiar? I know that I am not the only entrepreneur out there, but sometimes it is hard to step back and enjoy quiet moments. I’ve even embraced this in my pop-up studio. When I go to artisan markets to share my books, commissions, and live art, I often want to share everything with everyone. Well, that’s not how everyone works. So I’ve developed a new setup. I (finally) got a six-foot table so that I can spread out my books and prints of my art, then still use my easel for live work and commission questions. I will have creative quotes scattered around, inviting people to share their creative journey or just enjoy the art pieces in quiet.
I am not the only one who needs a break. Often the creatives who visit my pop-up studio are looking for beauty, creativity, and imagination. I don’t want to scare them off by too much yabba yabba.
Step-by-Step
For those of you who already follow my socials, you are aware that a huge graphic novel project I had projected for being released for November 2025 just isn’t ready, so I put the publishing date off until early this year. I thought it was at the point of being published, but there are still some consistency details and foreshadowing issues that I am needing to work out before releasing it. There are many things that I hope for this first graphic novel of mine, and being delayed is not one of them. But just like I must be flexible when traveling in a foreign country, I also must be flexible when even my creativity doesn’t meet my expectations.
In the meantime, I am journaling and even working on little puzzles like crosswords, physical puzzles, and figure drawing again! As my Voices project concludes in the next couple months, I’m anticipating that it has not sucked out all of my ambition for trying new things! I do want to glean from this season that wandering in life is not a spiral. It means that I am finding out new things about myself, discovering how other people communicate, and soaking in all of the beauty of a new place that I’ve never been.
So am I…
Traveling? No.
Wandering? Absolutely!
To the wanderers,
Hannah Marie.
