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Why My Novel Is The
Number One Squirrel Hors D’oeuvre
Who has ever
read the classic ‘Winds of Change’ by Henry P. Samuels? The literary classic
that has spanned the realm of the last century, won the Pulitzer prize,
generated numerous spinoff series, made into movies and TV series, like ‘The
Changing Winds,’ or ‘The Breeze Blows In Another Direction Today.’ The author
wrote fifteen sequels, although none were as great as the original. That book
alone has outsold all of the Harry Potter novels and made the author a net
worth value of over four hundred million dollars. US or otherwise, doesn’t
really matter in this universe or the alternate that Henry P. Samuels was
published in.
So you meekly ask; who the eff Is he
talking about?
Well, in
this world he gave up on himself and pitched that novel into the dumpster, took
a job as an insurance agent, had three kids and liver failure at 58 due to
drinking too much. His regrets in life: huge for giving up.
Many of life’s failures
are people who did not realize how close they were to success
when they gave up.
Thomas Edison
Ask one of
our great fiction writers, Stephen King. Those of you who regularly read this
blog will already know this story, and with apologies to you for the repetition, I am repeating myself because it is probably
the best example of the word “perseverance” that I am aware of. The story goes
that he gave up after “Carrie” came back from its umpteenth potential publisher
with the usual standard letter that began “Thank you for your submission.
However...” Thankfully his wife didn’t. She took it out of the garbage can it had been
unceremoniously pitched in and slammed it on his desk. “You tell me you’re a
writer, now put it out there, again.” As you have probably guessed (or else
this is not a very uplifting story) the very next publisher accepted it. That
is why King fans everywhere now sleep with one eye open at night after reading
one of his novels. Thanks Stephen.
To be honest
we’ll never know how many great literary classics have been pitched into
rubbish bins, since they all became squirrel hors d’oeuvres or used as fuel to
keep hands warm on the last camping trip of the summer (or maybe even toast the
marshmallow for s’mores!).
So why do I
continue to write?
Because it
keeps firing the passion in my soul.
Just ask young
nineteen year old Godwin’e M Luther living in Jinja Bugiri, Uganda. He contacted me on Facebook, an orphan, no
father, has nothing and asks for nothing, yet he continues to write, struggling
to go to university. Has three novels written on notebooks, can’t afford a
computer. His words evoke sheer eloquence. Ask him what fires his soul. And if
so inclined, send him some money to support his authorship. Yes, this is a real
person.
Some people
are born storytellers.
I remember telling my son Rory bedtime stories. He’d give me two or three characters and off I’d go, usually leaving him in stitches laughing, instead of going to sleep. Maybe where some of my off the wall humour came from.
“Come to the edge,” he
said.
They said, “We are
afraid.”
“Come to the edge,” he
said.
They came.
He pushed them…
And they flew.
Guillaume Apollinaire
You gain strength,
courage and confidence
By every experience
In which you really
stop to look fear in the face.
“I lived through this
horror.
I can take the next
thing that comes along.”
You must do the thing
you think you cannot do.
Eleanor Roosevelt
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