For about seven years my wife and I were stuck in a situation that prevented us from doing anything meaningful. I don't want to go into too much but will share that it was a family member that, in effect, held us hostage by means of manipulation and forced us to work toward her own ends. Nothing illegal, just a terrible person and a narcissist with a mixture of psychotic and sociopathic traits.

We've been free from it for about a year now but are still trying to get our lives sorted out to provide for ourselves with a seven year gap in meaningful job experience.

I have a part time job but I feel that God is strongly calling me to write, so I've been pounding away at finishing a fantasy novel as fast as I can so I can send it to a publisher that I have a working relationship with. It is a quality one that has a wide distribution network that also handle marketing while leaving me with all of the rights and a good share of the sales profit. Only, they charge for the first print run which would be another matter due to novels costing $20K to get started.

My wife felt led to seek employment to take some financial burden off of me and allow me to focus more on writing, but she was just informed that she didn't get what she applied for due to others having more experience.

It's been a rough eight years and I could really use some prayers from my fellow anons as we continue to try to sort things out. Encouragement and helpful advice would also be nice.