Congratulations to Johnny Law, Esq. (I know, I know, that's more an East Coast thing.)
Here, Sammy, a new box of Kleenex just for you.
Fire, my thanks for the perspective. Woe is me (or as I see it online so often,
Whoa is me [snicker]), I don't have a string of books out which are making me rich and famous and beloved by millions. But I have a place to live, a stable family in good health, know where my next meal is coming from, and other luxuries not everyone has. The things we take for granted, huh?
I'm officially jealous of Caleb, because I just got the
Dumb Ways to Die video and
I was going to share it. You young people are just too fast for an old woman like me.
Click through if you haven't yet. It's really cute, safe for work, and runs about three minutes.
About writing as a career: Obviously I'm well below many of you on the curve, and it can be extremely discouraging to see how much there is yet to scale. About three years ago, I decided I was going to quit beating myself up over my failure at mountaineering, after The Kid's insightful remark.
I'd talked to my in-person critique group, and shared with The Kid, that I was weighing the option to stop writing. And she said, "But you like writing. What's wrong with doing it because you like it?" And the answer which I hadn't really seen before was, "Nothing at all."
Since then, I write for the pleasure of seeing a story or book come together. I'm slow, and that's fine; my income or career aren't impacted. Sometimes I sell something. Often I don't even try. And this is working for me.
Not that I don't still dream of getting an agent, selling a book, getting a fan letter, or having my bank account tell me I'm good, but I'm still enjoying writing even if none of that happens.
Maryn, at the age of reason, finally