Letting the Leaves Fall
Ream Stories, Career Changes, Home Hunting
As a September baby, I know from firsthand experience how important the process some trees go through really is—and I am revisiting that lesson now more than ever. For the last three years, we've spent September, October, and November moving. Renting is what it is. We can afford rent that costs more than a mortgage, but… yeah, we're in that boat. However, let's not put the house before the light in this lighthouse and, as they say in We're Back: A Dinosaur Story, “turn back the clock to the dawn of time" on this conversation. Be a good little writer, Jenna. Follow the outline you gave in the subtitle, and forget being classy and demure. Not this Lady Nerd.
Some of you whom follow me here and over on Ream Stories know that some changes are happening on that platform. Many of us authors are deciding to take our memberships elsewhere for various reasons. For me, there is a concern with spicey and erotic content being promoted to the wrong audiences.
Yes, I write spicey—look at what my characters go through darkness wise, too? Combine the both… yeah. Therefore, I do have a problem of it being promoted to the wrong audience. If you are of consenting age in your country, mature enough to handle the content of spicey/more texts, and so on… you should have the option to go looking for it. It's called “opting in" for a reason, right? Right. However, the way I've seen the Ream Stories platform let such items splash openly to readers the moment they join in does have issues—and as a former teacher of teenagers, trust me. These are not books that they need exposed to openly and routinely as soon as they sign in or without, as mentioned, having to opt into it. Legally, that is a liability I had to weigh the pros and cons of.
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Hence, I will be relocating my early access memberships to another arena while moving. There is a post on my Ream Stories community of where to find me, so if you navigated the map of Merna to here from there: WELCOME AND THANK YOU!
This also allows me to open up something from Ream Stories to all of my viewers. My reader Facebook group. Click here to join The Merna Private Collection at Amaranth's Library. This is also where you will find the most up-to-date information about The Tiara, our book box that launches March 6, 2025 (3 6 9, dang Tyri, Ian thinks your dancing is fine—blast that battle music for Season 2!). I've also been building our presence on TikTok, too. Do you want a YouTube channel where I do all the chapter reads? Let me know!
This journey to change my career into one that is my JOY OF BEING (my job) full-time has been a wild one. I've learned so many skills in such a short time. Mind you, before becoming a teacher, I went to college for a degree in business office management, and I worked in call centers as a manager for many years. I've since run a classroom for twice that long. Now, I am back to doing what sent me on the teaching career journey in the first place. Now, I am back to doing what sent me on the business management track so long ago. Heck, even my skills from studying to be a stage manager in a theater and doing Shakespeare and more for fun. All of it rolls into one place.
The business I am actively building. I've been forced to look at my successes and my losses hardcore during quarter three this year. I am okay with doing that during July and August. As Mel Robbins mentioned in one of her podcast episodes, a lot of us are used to doing the “back to school" vibe during that time of year. Yup, you got that right. Teacher Me screamed and cheered. Yes. It does feel kind of genetic, as she mentioned. At this point, generations of my family have done the back to school schedule, even before it was a law. Why? Farm family. I've mentioned it a few times, but that is the stock I come from on both sides of the family. My mother's parents worked fields as much as my father's parents did when they were both little, and they both ended up in Baltimore by their thirties. I love the city and the bay I was born in and next to respectively. Do not get me wrong. That body of water has affected me deeply as far as having a love of being near water and nature goes. What drives me more?
I love living in places that are near nature. Mom is a West Virginia girl. Dad is a Virginia boy. Those rural trends of their youth run wild into my blood. As we are home hunting in the coming months, I am grieving the beauty of the view beyond my patio. Like the tree that grew outside of my first office two years ago. Like the glen of trees that surrounded our apartment last year. The line of trees separating us from the meadow and cornfield beyond? Yup. Grandmother Willow effect, my fellow Disney Geek An old, wise friend that I can go look at and enjoy while life's thoughts run through my brain. Birds and squirrels make me giggle and feel lighter in their innocence in joy. I am okay and can adjust to my now huge studio downsizing back to something akin to where I was in our apartment last year, but I need to be able to see the trees out of a window while in it.
I would love to be a homeowner for so many reasons. Given how high rent is where we live? I could afford a mortgage that is around the same cost as the $2k plus a three bedroom house can be for rent a month where I live in Maryland. Twenty minutes west, south, or north? The same house or similar is about $800 less. I have some searching to do hardcore in the next thirty days. I hope to know by Samhain / Halloween. Another new start is ahead.
I look forward to finding a new home from which to run my business and serve my clients and readers. If you want to join me for an update about that journey, my YouTube channels are likely the better place to keep track of me. Yeah, I have a third and fourth one in the making. Shhhhh. Very nerdy. Very geeky. Very loving what I do. Doing what I love. Right? Right. Dork, yes.
I am literally letting the leaves fall this season. I'm not giving up. I am returning the leaves to the earth as the Virgo I am, so they can sew into the roots and heal into amazing things next spring. I look forward to finding a new place for merna, us, and me to live and enjoy these journeys. I'll be doing Book 4 right in time for Christmas—and Vouvry is so happy to have an excuse for Maria to make the house smell so good.
Thank you for going with me on this journey. I cannot wait to share more ahead with all of you.
All my love,
Jenna OM
Your Soul Writer
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