Conincidence? I'm becoming confident of it.

I have heard it put in mathematical terms that a coincidence is when two things intersect or occupy the same place or are happening at the same time. That's a loose definition. In fact, in looking the word and its roots up there were a lot of different but similar definitions. I had to agree with the guy who said it was hard to use the term without getting into philosophy (he was a mathematician and of his whole article, that was one of the few sentences I actually understood!).

So philosophizing we will go! The particular coincidence, the thing occupying way too many points in my life right now is a lot like the term coincidence, it's the encouragement to "be confident". Confidence. Hmmm. Not my strong suit. Not as a person, a mom, a writer.

I'm more the - "Well, here it/I is/am. Sigh. I tried my best. I know it's not everyone's cup of tea. If I can just get enough feedback to keep at it, that would be fine" type. Some people might call that humility, others reality. I think in my house we'd have called it 'not tempting fate'. But as fortune cookies, devotionals, year end advice, even sermons kept hammering home the message these last 2 weeks - go forth in confidence, be confident, speak what you want with confidence, be confident in the Lord - I have decided to give it a try.

Oddly enough, just deciding to act from a place of confidence has colored my outlook. I am less worried the last few days. More of a mind that I can figure out the solutions if things don't go the way I hope. It feels like the world is more full of options than obstacles. It's a small thing, but it demonstrates the power words have over us. To chose to move forward with a new watchword can change so much. I have no concrete results to share but as I wait for word on the book of my heart, I am confident it will sell. It will be a book that others read. It will have a chance to reach others. It will be a good experience financially, editorially, and for me and my family. And it will lead to other opportunities. Just writing that makes me want to work harder to make that happen.

Coincidence? Yes, it is. The messages may have been out there the whole time but they finally intersected with me being ready to hear them, being open to applying them. Wishing you many purposeful and happy coincidences... and the confidence to act on them!

Staying Up in a Down Industry

It seems like everywhere you look around on line the news about publishing is a real downer. Numbers are down, reading is down, agent responses are down. Writers are finding it hard to keep up with all that's going down!

So what's a writer to do? What else? Keep writing, baby.

Okay, so you may have to do it with a new aim, a new direction, a new medium but if you think about it, that can be exciting too. It may not have the opportunity for the kind of financial gain many of us have dreamed of but there is still that whole - I write because I have to, I write because I can't NOT write factor which, as much as I love the day the check arrives, is the big takeaway for most writers in the long run. People will still be using words for at least a little while now ;)
and words are your domain. Use them. Keep stringing them together. Keep honing your craft and keep your eyes open for opportunities to apply all that.

The way to keep up is not to slow down. The way to Stay Up is to Never Give Up!

Words Is Sneaky

I don't mean the way words sometimes say things we didn't intend, or that we DID intend but thought we were so clever that we had tucked the meaning down deep inside but it came shining right through anyway. That would be tricky. Make no mistake -- words is tricky.

But they are also sneaky. As in they sneak up on you. Usually when you are doing things that make it hard to catch them. Like when you send a note to an editor and say "I have this great idea for a book that would be a great idea for a series, would you be interested?" and the editors says "yes". That's when the words -- not necessarily the words you expected -- will start swirling, and stewing, and simmering and brewing. Glug. Glub. Blub. Surprise!

They have formed themselves into a whole 'nother story and climbed from the primordial ooze that is the writer's mind fully formed. Well, as formed as words ever get, which is pretty loose. Sometimes they stand there demanding attention until you crawl into your chair and decide to get them in shape. Sometimes the take off and carry you right along with them. Sometimes they growl at you and snap and slither under the porch and you know those words and their story will be with you a while before you can poke them enough to get them out and onto the page.

Writers talk about books being like children? Well, they are (not that my children ever slithered under the porch but as teens, they did scurry into their rooms for extended periods of time) Words, like kids, keep you up nights, thought. They make you laugh and cry and doubt yourself. They don't always behave the way you'd like.

So be warned. Words is sneaky. They may be lurking around you right now, waiting for a moment to start ganging up on you.

Annie sighs and thinks of that great idea she pitched the editor that she can't seem to write the first scene for then at the book that she IS working on that is SO NOT what she wanted to do in so many ways.

Sneaky, I tells ya.