After the Big 3....the path ahead

It's been awhile since I've been on my blog! So much has happened since too.

I competed in Las Vegas as Mrs. Virginia, roomed with both Wisconsin and Utah, made lifelong friends with both of them (Tiffany and Lauren). I crowned my successor Andrea who just concluded a reign equal to my own in terms of working her title, my daughter the same year as mine won Miss Virginia Collegiate America 2015 so we traveled together most of the year enjoying a once-in-a-lifetime experience and the chance to go to Disney. She has since graduated VCU and is heading to dental school in her quest to head into oral surgery.

I produced 4 state pageants and took my girls to Nationals, two placed top 15 and one won the Overall Evening Gown award making a great debut for my first year directing in a large franchise. Sadly the franchise was sold and the scoring and requirements changed from the many years I had competed (50% interview) and due to that, became unprofitable so I will be focusing on Atlantic Shores instead. I've gone on to have won Mrs NC Pickle Festival in 2015 and am now the 2016 Mrs. World Elite Woman (40 and up) queen. I still represent my Pink Queens For Life Ambassador Lifetime Title with pride and will be going into my 6th year in October helping run the Miss-ter Fall-BRAzaar fundraiser pageant.

I had a close call with a return of the breast cancer, finding out after 5 biopsies that I have atypical hyperplasia instead and just have to maintain a much closer monitoring of my health than I had been doing before. Just the diagnostic process was grueling enough and I lost a job and a few friends over it but my life is a lot lighter without the dead weight. I teach Primary (sunday school) to the 6 & 7 year olds in my church and am embarking on what will be a very big project, a writing career.

I have been published off and on for years under another name in a totally different genre of writing but after much pushing and encouragement from my husband and close friends who have all read my works, plus my followers of fan fiction, I have decided to finish my goal of getting my first full book published. Not myself either but with a publishing house. I began formal work on the first of three books earlier this week and expect to turn out a completed project before fall, one that will be equally fascinating and intriguing to the industry insider and the curious alike. Won't take you three guesses to figure out what the book will be about but I've had parts of it written in various areas for over four years now and have decided to finally put it together.

G-Grandpa Oliver Chitwood 

My grandmother published her first book at 90, my great grandfather Oliver Perry Chitwood was a prolific history & textbook author, PhD and lived to be nearly 100. Grandma Libby is now 101 and still talking about her second book LOL!

So writing is clearly in my genes and now begins the journey to becoming a published author. This quote captures a lot of "why now." Which can only be answered with, "why NOT now?"

I went for years not finishing anything. Because, of course, when you finish something you can be judged.– Erica Jong