Writing/Publishing

In the past, I wrote a post about writing/publishing  a book. Well, I wanted to give you an update on how that has been working out. I do not think this is a good time in my life to start a novel. I have made several good attempts at making time for myself to write, but it has been too sporatic. Everytime I get an idea and form a mental picture in my head, I sit down to write out what I have pictured. If I take too much time in between writing sessions, I lose the picture and idea I have formed and it just becomes a bunch of words. I do still want to write/publish a book and I have an idea I'm knocking around, but I don't want to say what it is just yet. I need to do a little more research and thinking (which includes looking at similiar books). In the meantime, I have been calling  several newspapers in the area, but have not had any luck getting on as a writer. It seems that they already have a long list of people writing for them. My next move would be to contact magazines. I hope to make writing  my work-from-home job ,but so far it has proven to be very difficult. If anyone has any ideas or advice for me, I would love to hear them.