It was when I realized that I had decided that Mark and I should be Substitute Innkeepers on Orcas Island for four months next year and that then a whole day went by before I remembered that, oh yeah, there’s this real estate thing, that I finally knew I had to face the fact that, basically, the real estate thing is not happening.
I worked very hard at it for six months, from January to about June–went to meetings and trainings and seminars, did open houses on the weekends and floor time in the office, compiled my list of contacts and added to it, and contacted those contacts, and tried to get clients and tried to get listings–and none of it went anywhere, and it was all very hard for me and out of my comfort zone, and in fact actually got harder the more I did it, not easier.
And meanwhile I sold two novels (and I LOVE writing) and I got a few more freelance clients (and I LOVE proofreading and copyediting) (and if you know anyone who needs an awesome proofreader/copyeditor with GREAT references including BIG FAMOUS WRITERS YOU’VE HEARD OF and WELL REGARDED PUBLISHERS, let me know!), and of course this Substitute Innkeeper gig in a year–and so maybe I don’t need to do real estate too.
So I contacted the real estate office today, and they were of course not at all surprised, because I haven’t been around much lately. But they are very kind and understanding, and in fact suggested a different, transitional status for me, whereby I’d keep my license but just not be active, and could get referral fees if I happened to refer anyone and a sale resulted. So that’s cool.
I know my mom will be happy; she was never excited about real estate. 🙂
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In other news, I brought in the tomatoes before they freeze and rot in this suddenly-no-longer-summer weather we’re having.
And yeah, I know there are wonderful things to do with green tomatoes, but I kind of hope at least some of them will ripen, because this was really what I had in mind when I planted:
But that one was picked green too, and ripened in the window, so we’ll see!
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And in other other news, I made more progress in The Queen and The Tower today: got past where I’d stopped last time, and actually wrote a few new pages. Onward!