More Thoughts on "Closure" - Slammed Door or Gently Closing Gate?

One of my first realizations when I began to ponder what "closure" might mean for me in this stage of my career as writer and scholar is that "closure" is akin to "enclosure" - not just what is fenced OUT, but what is fenced IN, enfolded, protected - not just what I DON'T want anymore from my career, but what I DO. 

I do NOT want to give up everything I love most! But I need to find a new way to love it, appropriate for this season of my life.

I have wanted to be a writer from the moment I could first hold a pencil or a crayon. 

I even included an "ad card" at the end to publicize future titles - precocious marketing maven that I was.

Sixty-two published books later, I'm certainly not ready to say farewell forever to writing - and not just writing for myself, but for others to read - and yes, writing for publication.

And yet... I can't help but notice how much the world of children's book writing is changing. There is a rightful demand for and appreciation of new and diverse voices telling new and diverse stories - hooray for that! But I'm neither new nor "diverse" in the ways diversity is commonly understood. There is an almost insatiable demand on the part of young readers for graphic novels - an exciting literary form, but not "me." Stories for young readers are becoming ever more filled with (fun!) murder and (fun!) mayhem, but I'm not a murder and mayhem kind of person. My idea of a gripping survival story is a shy seventh grade girl surviving the middle school dance. And authors are increasingly expected to become adept self-promoters on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and platforms I haven't even heard of yet. 

My beloved Stoic philosopher Epictetus tells us, in so many words, "If you want to go the banquet, you have to flatter the tyrant. If you don't want to flatter the tyrant, then don't go to the banquet." It's as simple as that. But of course, what we want is for what worked for us forty years ago to continue to work for us now. Ain't going to happen. I have no right to expect it to happen. It's so good in so many ways that this is NOT happening! 

But still...

So I need to figure out how to keep on writing the way I want in a world that may or may not want what I write. Can I find a way to change while still being true to who I am as a writer? Am I willing to do this? (Tentative answer: not really!). Or can I find a way to gain sweet satisfaction from writing with altered expectations (I think this is the more promising route!). 

I don't want to slam the door on my writing life. But on some parts of it, I think I'll be closing a gate... gently...