“It’s Never Too Late to Be What You Might Have Been”

I’ve embraced this quote by George Eliot since my twenties, using it as a carrot to keep propelling me forward. I’ve worked in Human Resources in Corporate America, successfully, since I was twenty-two years old, but I’ve always wanted to be a successfully published author as well.

My first novel, Blaze Orange, came out this January, and to say I’m elated is an understatement. I recently finished writing Book Two in this series—coming out February 2026—and have started Book Three—which is due to my publisher in July 2026. I also keep adding to my notes for Book Four and beyond. I have other, older, novels that I’ve written over the past fourteen years, and a couple of these are coming out of the “drawer” for re-writing and editing with the hope that one or two of them will also make it on a bookshelf one day. All of this writing, coupled with the marketing of Blaze Orange, and performing my day job in HR, has created a busy world for me.

It’s been a fascinating time, and I’m documenting the lessons I’m learned. More to come on this in the fall.

Right now, I can finally say I’m an author, a title I’ve sought for decades. I’ve always been a writer—since age seven, but to be an author–by my own definition–I needed a real publication credit. Gaining the pub credit isn’t the end of the goals or the dreams, however. I have many stories in me that ache to get out. My fingers cannot fly across the page or the keyboard fast enough. And who knows where these books can lead?

Over this past year, I’m also reminded of my favorite Jung quote: “what you resist, persists.”  I always thought of the quote in the negative, about the price you pay if you resist changing for the better or if you refuse to see the harsh reality of something in your life that needs releasing.

But, I’ve revisited this quote and my perception of it. I now see it as a positive, as a way to obtain a goal. If you resist giving up and you resist caving into those who say you won’t make it, you will prevail. When we resist giving up our dreams, those dreams persist. Dreams that are alive have a chance of becoming a reality—if you keep working on them. I am grateful I kept resisting and persisting.

Never let the title “Dreamer’ be a negative one.

I’ve also had HR career goals. Five years ago, I decided to return to employee relations, after working solely in the recruitment realm for over a decade. I was told by many that my employee relations skills were too old, yet, through perseverance, I found the perfect ER role. I also had missed managing a staff, and that too has come back into my HR career. The crowning glory, however, came when I was asked to become certified in HR. My Bachelor’s in Business Administration is in Human Resources Management, but the current certifications in HR were not popular when I graduated college. As the certifications grew in demand, I had felt that my work experience was better than sitting for a test. However, it gnawed at me to not be certified, and the job market also has started to favor the addition of a certification.

I jumped at the chance to study and sit for the proctored exam, knowing that only fifty percent of exam takers pass the senior level on first try. I hadn’t studied so late into the night for decades, many decades, but there was no way around it. I still had to hold down my regular work responsibilities and my writing schedule. I passed on first try. Woot! Then I was asked to get a second certification in contracted staffing. I studied and passed that one too. I am grateful for all of these opportunities, and I’m excited to see what happens next with my HR career.

Working in Human Resources and having a fiction writing career sound like two conflicting objectives, but they’re actually connected. Working on issues involving the human condition—analyzing behavioral anomalies—is what I also write about as a mystery author. When I conduct an employee relations investigation, I try to uncover the truth and what caused someone to go off the rails, for example, and lie about another person. I’m always amazed at why people behave like they do. Or, when I’m sitting at my laptop, in the case of a mystery writer’s brain, I ask: why would an ordinary person commit murder? What causes a person to crack?

To run two parallel careers is daunting but satisfying too, and neither is far from over. Where will the next years take me on both paths as I set new goals and dreams. I now challenge you to ask yourself, what have you been eyeing to do? Where do you want your life to go? Plot your path to success…and believe in yourself. Do not say that you’re too old or it’s too late. It’s never too late.

It hasn’t been too late for me to be an author, and with age discrimination alive and well in Corporate America, I also beat those odds with my recent career shift and certifications. I’ve also done it while fully being me. The irony in George Eliot’s statement is she never published any of her own famous novels, such as Middlemarch or Silas Mariner, under her real name of Mary Ann Evans, because she feared prejudice as a woman. Perhaps the accolades for the work, or by allowing the world to eventually know it was her, was enough for her to feel that she too was what she needed to be.

If you’d like to read my essay on my perseverance in writing, please visit on my publisher’s website: https://www.levelbestbooks.us/blog/archives/12-2024

If you’d like to learn more about my writing or to receive a free short story, please visit my author website https://www.akeetonbooks.com

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