I recently had the great pleasure of being invited to write a guest post for Joanne Guidoccio’s blog, On the Road to Reinvention.
Let me regale you with a bit of Joanne’s story, which I blatantly stole from her About page 
In high school, Joanne dreamed of writing the great Canadian novel. Instead, she gave in to her practical Italian side and got degrees in mathematics and education. She planned to teach during the day and spend her evenings, weekends and holidays churning out best-selling novels. That was the dream. Reality, as it often does, turned out to be different. Teaching is a demanding profession. In 2008, Joanne took advantage of early retirement. Slowly, a writing practice emerged and her articles and book reviews started appearing in newspapers, magazines and online. She toyed with the idea of writing a fantasy novel for boomers. Her debut novel, BETWEEN LAND AND SEA, a paranormal romance about a middle-aged mermaid, was released in September 2013. She currently lives and writes in Guelph, Ontario.
Joanne runs an ongoing series called Second Acts, where women describe the ways in which they’ve gotten on with the next phases of their lives. If you follow the link, you’ll find dozens of these inspirational stories.
My guest post, entitled, Is There Life After Three Career Attempts and an Unfinished PhD, is the story of my second act as a writer. I can only hope this second act will be divided into as many sections as my first. Diversity has served me well.
disappearinginplainsight 
Oh well done you, I must check out the site.
Thanks, Rosie. I hope you enjoy learning a bit more about my journey to living my second act.
Hi Francis, I was honored to feature your inspiring story. Thanks for the shoutout! 🙂
You are most welcome, Joanne. Your idea for a series on women’s second acts in life is a great idea. I was honoured to be invited to write a post.
Fran, it was such a pleasure to read your piece over at On the Road to Reinvention. It’s always wonderful to know a bit of the story behind the author, because every fragment of life experience leads to the stories we as writers eventually bear.
When you wrote about others warning you of flushing all the work you put into pursuing your PhD, it reminded me of a Hollywood celebrity who’s been accused of doing the same. I have to share with you a link to a video on YouTube. It’s one of the coolest commencement speeches I’ve heard, and it’s given by Mayim Bialik (a/k/a “Amy Farrah Fowler” of the Big Bang Theory), who decided to return to acting after receiving her PhD. The video is nearly 20 minutes long, but if you have the time to watch it, I’m sure it will speak to you.
🙂 Gwen
Thanks, Gwen. This is on my list to get to as soon as I can. And thank you for sharing the link. Anyone else with a few more minutes than me can tune in. Summer is gouging away my time like I can’t believe.
Awesome guest post Francis it resonated with me as I sit in the belly of the beast fighting finish my dream projects.
Oh those great being in the belly of the beast moments. It’s like the fire that burns everything down to the essentials. Good luck with the journey to your dreams. Whatever will be, will be.