I'm in Business

officially speaking. In another small step on the long journey to launching my book, I drove to the county clerk's office today, paid my five dollars and set up my freelance writing & publishing business.

It was one of those milestones in life that arrive without fanfare. It was mildly reminiscent of the day I walked into that same clerk's office to get a marriage license. That day I was accompanied not by my three-year-old daughter, but by the love of my life. I was awed by the process. As we submitted forms with our place of birth and date and place of marriage, I remarked to future Musing Dad that we were creating geneaological records. Someday long after that, once we'd been personally forgotten, maybe someone would look at those papers and recall the marriage of these two people from whom generations had been descended.

It wasn't as starry-eyed an experience this time of course. The uber-princess let out periodic squeals as she played her GameBoy while leaning against my leg. The clerk had to reinput the data a couple of times. And I got a paper filled with legalese on my next steps to getting my business certificate.

But as I drove home I dreamed of what the future could be for my business. Someday I might be selling hundreds of books while traveling around giving talks. I'd have a healthy portfolio of corporate clients. I'd be a regular contributor to a magazine or two. I'd be getting my kids off to school and going into my home office to work on writing my novel until they arrived home at the end of the day.

And then I pulled my car in the drive, helped the uber-princess into the house and shelved the official business forms so I could move the laundry into the dryer.