An Encouraging Story

Yesterday I caught part of an interview on the radio with author William Moss. He said he'd gotten an order for 1,000 copies of Finding Inner Peace During Troubled Times for distribution to inmates. He got a second order for 4,000 more. If you go on Amazon you'll see this book was published in 2009. Moss said he's gotten over 100 letters from inmates telling him how his book has changed their lives.

Here's the encouraging part of the story. Moss wrote the book after he became sober six years ago at the age of 85. That's not a typo.

So tell me again how you'll never be free from that thing that plagues you? How you've given up on yourself or on someone else, how you've given up hope? How you'll never get published? How you can't change? How you're too old?

Hmm. Okay. That's what I thought.

Unexpected Surprises

A delightful new book in our public library collection is Tereasa Surratt's A Very Modest Cottage, a Country Living Book by Hearst Books, a division of Sterling Publishing Co., Inc. Ms. Surrratt describes the process of moving a 1920's log cabin she'd dreamed about owning as a child across two states and renovating it. You'll appreciate the authors humor and the ample color photographs. One of Surratt's comments on page 32 made me close the book and smile. I had to think about her observation and mull over it.

She describes what she calls the beauty of low expectations. "You are never disappointed if you predict only disaster." She was talking about a weather forecast during the cottage's cross-country trip. But think about it if you're a reluctant writer. Isn't it true that you are never disappointed if you predict only doom and gloom?

What are your predictions of disaster regarding your writing? You'll never get published, right? You can't compete with all the talent out there? Your writing will never be good enough? The topic has already been covered?

If we don't write and submit what we write, then we'll never feel the sting of rejection. But rejection isn't that big a deal. It's just a little sting. We can face disappointment and still go about our daily business. We're tough.