It’s been a little more than a year now since Not Alone on the Voyage saw the light of day. It’s been an interesting journey, one that I had begun to think would never happen. And perhaps it wasn’t as exciting or successful as it could have been, but the fact that my book was published at all is an achievement.

Is it enough of an achievement for me? I think the jury is still out on that one. I know it’s a big thing to be able to call oneself a published author – even if self-published – but there remains a part of me that still kind of has the daydream that it could have been done the old-fashioned way. It was always a dream of mine, and maybe the fact I still have a big dream in the back of my head is a bit of a challenge to recognize what it is I have managed to do.

But I have always been my harshest critic, and that isn’t about to change any time soon. I will always want to do better, to achieve more, to get a little bit further every time. And that, I think, is the way I need to look at this milestone; as simply another brick in the wall, another important leg of the journey.

Fortunately, I still have a desire to write, and to share something with people. I still see stories in my mind, and still have bits of writing scattered all around my new place (I’ve moved since I last posted). It’s still enjoyable, fulfilling, and still drives me.

I’m sure most writers would tell you the very same thing. Because writing, as any writer can tell you, isn’t an easy thing to do. Sure, sitting in front of a computer all day coming up with tales about imaginary people seems like something that anyone could do, but the reality is the writing process isn’t as simple as sitting done and putting something on paper. For me, it’s something that reveals a piece of me, and that’s not something with which I am 100 percent comfortable. Not that the characters I write about reflect my experience in any specific way, but my own life experiences do colour the lives and stories of my characters. That’s something I cannot avoid – even when it comes to the writing I do for my work.

We all have an agenda, whether we recognize that reality or not. We are all the products of the things that happen to us, and that ultimately influences the choices we make and the paths we walk. The characters that make their way to the page are not me, but there are bits and pieces of their story that are my story. Their choices are affected by the choices and perspectives I have in my own life, and in some cases provide me the opportunity to dig down and relive those experiences – to find out if I would still have made the same choices with the luxury of hindsight.

One year on, I still like the story I wrote in Not Alone on the Voyage. I still get bits and pieces of ideas for the continuing story – if I ever thought about doing a follow-up book about those characters. I don’t think that is in the cards, but I cannot rule it out completely. If the characters start speaking too loudly to me, I may find myself returning to that universe and putting words to paper (even if it’s for my own sanity).

Bumps in the road aside, I’m not sorry I took this journey. And I will continue on this road, regardless of where it may take me.

Because who knows where I will be in another year from now?