Pursuit 365 Day 83: T.J. Corman

T.J. Corman is living proof that you can start a new career after fifty. Her debut novel “To You, From Me – A Story of Seduction, Love and Lust” hit the FriesenPress Best Seller list in its first week of publication and is available worldwide.

Advice to my past self would always be to trust my gut feeling. Each time I’ve ignored my “little voice,” my venture has turned out to be a disaster. When I place my trust in my intuition, it works every time.

For example, several years ago, I experienced a bitter divorce. I rebuilt my life by packing my bags and moving to Australia. I had always dreamt of living there and decided there was no time like the present. People asked me if I was afraid to make this change in my life. I wasn’t scared because I knew that everything that would happen that year would be good. It’s the same with my novel; I could feel that writing and publishing it was the right thing to do. I’ve learned so much, and it’s been such an exciting experience.

I have always been a writer, but it has only been a hobby until now. I have written children’s stories, travel blogs, food blogs, poems, songs, etc., but I had not written a full-length novel, nor had my work been published.

“To You, From Me” is the result of my book club’s idea to write a novel together. We thought it could be a fun project to try. As a group, we quickly abandoned the idea. But I knew I was ready for the challenge when I discovered a big story was asking to be told, and it was flowing out of me almost faster than I could write it down. I could hardly wait to get to my writing each day, and the words just fell onto the page.

I wanted to write a novel for and about older women. We are an under-represented demographic in romantic literature and are often generally overlooked in the media. My book has a well-developed storyline where sex is an essential narrative element. Older women have much to offer and, contrary to popular belief, in our youth-oriented culture, we live on as sexual beings. Young people think they discovered love and romance, but older women have been fine-tuning it for years.

I knew this story had to be told because many women have had to rebuild their lives (sometimes more than once), recreate who they are and transform into what they want to be. We can feel alone and helpless, like life has thrown us too much adversity, but somehow we find resilience.

My favourite thing about being an author is developing a world exactly as I envision it. You, as the author, are the creator. Your characters act the way you decide and do things you make them do. You may disagree with their actions, and it may not be what you would do, but as the author, you make it happen. It’s a powerful feeling.

My mantra is, “There is no coincidence.” I don’t believe in coincidences. Everything happens for a reason. We are right where we are supposed to be, doing what we should be doing at all times. Life experience fits together like a massive puzzle and gives to us and takes from us precisely as we need. Hopefully, if we pay attention, we can steer ourselves in the right direction.

My number one priority in life is creating and maintaining balance in everything I do. I can be very driven and focus all my attention in one direction. Being motivated to succeed can be a positive attribute, but not if it takes away from another valued feature of life. I am a mental health advocate, and I believe that keeping myself centred and focused on all aspects of good living helps me find peace, happiness and reward.