Day 22, 47,256 words.

I am so close. So, so close. My story is actually nearing its end, unexpectedly. I guess when I threw in that almost final breakup, then the final reconciliation had to come fairly soon, right? There is so much more that I thought would be in this novel but didn't make it yet... so while I might just finish (tomorrow??!), I might take a couple of days break and then start in adding in pieces that fell out of the plot but that I think would still be worthwhile.

Thanks for all of your suggestions re "all the Emilios." You were thinking along the same lines as me - so Seth is now starting up her own business in which she gets to explore her many talents.

This isn't the most exciting excerpt (for example, there is no mention of Chad Kroeger or Avril Lavigne) but with my novel winding down, I'm in an expository section. That's what you get.


I was back in Oakland the next morning. It was a relief to see Laura and Mr. Mittens again, to sit out in the backyard and feel the weather begin to turn. Northern California’s seasons may not be as prominent as in other parts of the country, but they’re more real than LA. I liked feeling the weather begin to get colder. It was time to nest, to focus on me and to build up a new life. 

I didn’t have a lot of money saved up, and my last-minute trip to Maui had eaten up about half of it. If I was careful, I could survive and pay my bills for three months. So I took a government-sponsored course about writing a business plan and threw myself into developing my new corporation: You Can Be All the Emilios. I wasn’t sleeping too much, and so most nights I spent hours lying in bed, thinking through my vision of the Emilios and trying to make sense of what it could mean for my life.
 
Most people try to choose one life. One spouse, one job, one house, one country, one personality. What I had realized was that didn’t have to be me. I had never planned on the husband or wife and two point four kids and white picket fence kind of life, but I had still fooled myself into thinking I had to survive on other people’s terms. Maybe, in the end, I’d find out that was true. But for now, I wanted the courage to try things my way.
 
Emilio had played a repo man, an athlete, a cowboy, and a garbage collector. He hadn’t been pigeonholed into only one role. Those weren’t the jobs for me, but I thought long and hard about what I wanted to do, who I wanted to be.
 
I wanted to keep working with queer youth. How could I do that without being tied down to one place or one job?
 
I wanted to do something creative.
 
I wanted to help other people find their Emilio paths as well.
 
So I came up with this: You Can Be All the Emilios, a hybrid life coach, anti-oppression training, and fashion styling service. You could sign up for all, or just some of our services. I’d be self-employed, and could travel around the country, even the world, wherever my services were needed. I was more terrified and more exhilarated than I’d ever been in my life. 

 Emilio just wants you to know that you can live your dreams.