Recently someone asked what success looked iike to me. This was on a blog following an amazing book launch to Texas Hill Country, the setting of my latest work.
In the process of collecting Christmas stories from the Hill Country, an area where pioneers had to work extra hard to eke out a living, I met four other authors–or would-be ones. And this connection revealed the answer to the success question.
Success doesn’t mean entering a contest and winning, even one held by a large writing organization. Success doesn’t mean a huge check coming every month. Success means far more than either of these.
The satisfaction gleaned from two new authors thriled at seeing their names in print equals success. Honestly, this parallels the joy of releasing another novel.
Here is the purchase link for A HILL COUNTRY CHRISTMAS/Hope for Hardscrabble Times: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B9WL6WTP/ref
Success is all about connecting with others and helping make their dreams come true. It’s about working together to produce a quality read that will encourage and delight and cheer readers, all the while showing what we can learn through the incredible history woven through these stories.
From the lady seated next to me on the flight to Texas to my seat mate on the way back, I found history lovers (: Now, back to this north country bedecked with autumn beauty! (Asters picked in our back yard.)
Gail, I learned to my chagrin that my idea of success, based on my childhood vow that someday I would write books like the ones I got at the bookmobile, was so far off base as to be on another planet somewhere. One afternoon, I had a real pity party going until a little bird showed me the error of my ways. When he didn’t find food in one place, he went to another. That prompted me to look at my loose leaf binders–note the plural–in which I keep my publishing clips. I have two medium sized binders filled and quite a few in a third one covering more than a 30-year span. Anthologies, nationally distributed magazines, ezines, newspapers–but no books like the ones I enjoy reading so much. I now have a book of fiction all my own writing (Silver Shadows, Stories of Life in a Small Town). Did that make me a successful writer? No, I already was a successful writer, all through God’s graciousness–I just didn’t recognize success when it stared me in the face.
Sure is interesting how confused we can get!
Wonderful thoughts Ms. Gail. Our greatest success is not measured by what material trappings we gain (checks, awards, etc.), but by the lives of those we’ve touched, guided, and helped along the way. As a Christian author, I remind myself often that my “paychecks” are being direct-deposited into my Spiritual Retirement Account (SRA) in the Bank of Heaven. While I don’t exactly have, or need, an ATM card to make a withdrawal, I only need to ask. In some cases, God blesses me before I even realize there’s a need. He did that with your friendship ma’am.