Broke Girl Relocated

I decided to publish The Autobiography of Anita Analiza in May of 2009 because I had to have something to do. I had just quit teaching (for the second time in four years), and I withdrew all of my retirement from the state of South Carolina, about $6000 total, just so I could say “take that” to the system and have a good time.

At the time I was in graduate school completing my M.Ed. in Education Administration, wondering what I was gonna do with my eighteen-thousand dollar experience now that I wasn’t teaching, singing in clubs on the weekends to push my music and praying every night that God would send me some sign of what I was supposed to do next.

And then, it occurred to me that I should take about $2000 and publish Anita, since—after all—she was about ten years old and there was a story that people might love to hear. What did I have to lose? My bank accounts were emptying, my bills still had to be paid, and I had to bring in some money from somewhere.

It actually took me about seven months to get a product I wanted to market, so it’s a good thing that all my destiny eggs weren’t in one basket. With some encouragement from a friend, I pulled up my roots and moved to Grand Bahama, hoping to get some rest for a couple of weeks and sort out who I wanted to be next.

It didn’t hurt that my long-distance beau (and now husband) lived on the island, and it certainly didn’t hurt that I would have my OWN PERSONAL SPACE for two weeks in paradise. So, I gave away all my work clothes, drove my 2009 customized Nissan Versa to Florida and took the Discovery across the water, one suitcase, $100.

That’s the truth. And broke as I was, my long-distance beau still decided to either help me find a job on the island as an expatriate or marry me to keep me forever. The Ministry of Education was kicking out all the immigrants, so my baby bought me a ring and we jumped the broom.

Now, here I am, working in private schools, promoting my first novel while working on three more.

And that’s for real.