Dear Me, circa 1993

"ARGHH! What is this monstrous thing???"

Dear Anya:

RUN!

Nah, only kidding. Sort of…

So, this is me/you, talking to myself/you from 2013. Yeah, you do last that long, but your ass is starting to go south for the winter, so my first piece of advice is start exercising from now. That ass is going to be in a chair a hell of a lot more than you’re used to over the next years and you’re going to run the risk of getting the writer’s equivalent of a cop’s cruiser butt. If you start working on that now, I’ll appreciate it a hell of a lot.

My next piece of advice—listen to a lot less advice. You’ll be getting it from ALL. OVER. THE. PLACE. If it doesn’t feel right, don’t take it. Everybody has their own path to wherever the heck it is they’re going. Find your own. Stick with it. This is also something I’d appreciate you getting on right away, because if you don’t, we’re gonna waste a lot of time. ’Kay? Thanx.

My next piece of advice is something I didn’t know I’d have to work on and I’m still working on, so, again, if you could just get a jump on it, that would be awesome. Get over that shyness. Forget the dream of being the hermit author in the spooky mansion on the hill who only has to write the book, package it in brown paper, post it off and then write the next book. That no longer exists. There’s this thing coming, called social media, and you’re gonna be afraid…very afraid. But you’re going to have to get over it. Put yourself out there a little. You won’t regret it.

Lastly—Have a little more faith in yourself and your abilities. Re-think selling your soul for that student loan, wasting all that time and money to do something you really aren’t going to be able to use the way you intended. Instead, devote that time to honing your craft and getting ahead. Selling jewellery isn’t that bad. It’ll keep paying the bills while you work at what you really want to do, which is write.

You know you want it, so go for it. That’s the best advice I can give you.