It happened again yesterday. Someone asked me that hard-to-answer question that defies explanation: “How do you write to a deadline when your chronic illnesses flare up?” My standard answer has become, “I just keep writing.” But there’s so much more to it than that.
JUST SAY NO
There can be a hundred reasons for rejection. As an author, I’ve dealt with rejection for years—and still do. But rejection isn’t reserved for authors. Perhaps a friend of yours has been too busy to have coffee…the last four times you’ve asked. Maybe your husband isn’t home for supper…again. Or we could talk about every parent’s rejection nightmare—teenagers. Oy-vay!
PAUL—GOING VIRAL
Are you familiar with the phrase going viral? I’m not talking about the swine flu or some other icky illness. Going viral is a techy-generation term referring to social network marketing on sites like Facebook, Twitter, etc. But going viral can also include word-of-mouth publicity—describing any product or concept that is taking our society by storm.
LEGACY SCHMEGACY
Do you want to leave a legacy? Amazon.com lists just under 13,000 books with the word “Legacy” in the title, so I’m thinking legacy is some sort of magical word in our society.
COLD-HEARTED OR SINGLE-MINDED
I’m not very sentimental. I think I used to be—I think. Seems like a million years ago. Perhaps the sheer volume of life’s activity has sucked the sentimentality out of me. I think I lost that oozy-goozey-fuzzy-wuzzy feeling when our second daughter was in elementary school. Baby books are filled out completely, but somewhere around Emily’s fourth grade year—WHAM! Oozy-goozey …
Is Like Or Unlike Likeable?
Relationships. Ugh. I’m certain in the Garden of Eden they were—like everything else—perfect. But in their post-curse condition, I believe they’re the single-most-used character-refining tool in God’s tool chest. Why do we pick the friends we pick? The spouse we choose?
