Nailing Jell-O to a Wall.
I consider myself one of the luckiest people on earth for a
lot of reasons. I may go into some of
them another time, but not now. Suffice
to say, one of the things I consider myself lucky about is to be doing what I
have always wanted to do and that is to write.
I graduated from high school Derma cum Denta. For those of you reading this who don’t speak
Latin, that means “by the skin of my teeth.”
I never took the SAT’s or talked to a college recruiter. That was not in the picture for me. All I wanted out of school was ME.
A lot happened over the years to include a career of some 26
years in the Army, two combat tours during Viet Nam, a recall to active duty in
2004, my wife receiving a kidney from our youngest daughter and my realizing a
life-long dream of writing. First it was
short stories and magazine articles and a newspaper column and publication of my
first novel while I was on active duty.
Shortly after I retired (the first time) I watched my first screenplay
produced and made into a feature film.
Like an addict with his or her first pipe full of crack, I was hooked.
I wrote a second novel and couldn’t give it away. Nobody wanted it. No publisher. No agent. I don’t think my mother would have liked it if
I had shown it to her. But I didn’t let
that stop me. I was hooked,
remember. I loaded my pipe and fired it
up again. Novel number three. No takers.
Nada. I set it aside, fired up
the pipe again and inhaled. Number
four. Success!
I found a publisher who liked the book and wanted to publish
it. To make it seem even more like a
fairy tale, he called me on my birthday to tell me. He published that one and asked for the second
in a SERIES! I was on a roll. I had a series going. I was going to be rich and famous and then
the call came. “Sorry to tell you the
publisher passed away last night and the company is folding. You can have the rights to your novel back. Good luck selling it someplace else.” Now I really did need a crack pipe.
But wait…. there’s more.
I did find another publisher who liked what I wrote and now I have two
mystery series in print and they will publish as many more as I can write as
long as they sell, after all, it’s a business and they have to make money.
What’s the point of all of this? Don’t give up. Writing is like trying to nail Jell-O to a
wall. At first it looks like it won’t
work and for most people it won’t. But
you’re a writer. You’re not a “most
people.” You’re special. You don’t give up. If you are sitting at a
computer, a typewriter or a stack of yellow legal pads wondering if you can
ever get published, the answer is probably yes.
It’s not definite. Few things are
and those are not something we look forward to.
But keep at it. There is someone
out there who is looking for what you have to say. All you have to do is find them. They’re not going to come knocking on your
door.
Fire up the pipe, take a deep breath and go for it.
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