Lucky Serendipity: A Newspaper Ad

Hi, folks! I'm continuing my series for the month of March. In honor of Saint Patrick's Day, I'm calling this series: Lucky Serendipity. I have tripped across many moments in life that really direct the whole of my future. I call these moments: lucky serendipity. So here is the story of one of those moments.

When I started out as a writer, I didn't really have any idea what I should write except for journals and "little stories" that only children would read (said my college creative writing teacher). I certainly had no clue how to become published. I had a Children's Literature teacher also tell me that I should write for children.

I wish I could say I took everyone's advice and dove right into children's writing, but that is not my story. Instead, I went for unassertiveness, gullibility, dissatisfaction with the world as we know it, naivety, and a desire for spiritual meaning. I know, rut-ro, and it was bad. But fear not, readers! An ad was placed in the newspaper, and it changed my life. It was a very smallish ad about a meeting for children's writers, a club called the SCBW.

This was perhaps the most spiritual thing that has ever happened to me, except for meeting the love my life.

At this point in history, I had three children, ages 0 to 2. Yes, I had been busy. I decided to go to this mysterious meeting. It was at the College Station Conference Center. The ad mentioned you should bring some pages to share, so off I went to my mother's day out, pages clutched in hand. A group of about twelve sat in a friendly circle. A smallish woman with bright blue eyes and blond hair cut in a bob led the group. Her first picture book was about to be published, and she chatted about the experience.

I listened in wide-eyed wonder. I had never been with a published writer as a colleague before. I read my bit and she had such great things to say: like rhyme needs to really rhyme and it's hard, like stare out the window a while each day before writing, like think about how the words roll around in your mouth --advice I have never forgotten.

I went home and re-budgeted the food so I could pay the fee to join the group. For months, I never missed a meeting. The SCBW leader was so kind to me. She sent me a note, thanking me for voluteering, and she added that a day would come that she would say: she knew me when.  She challenged me: Write every day. Voice is all about the words. Write your best work and send it in.

I sent in my first story to a publisher during this time and received a signed rejection! 1995, baby. She told me it would take ten years to really get things going. (My first publication would land in 2006.)

A day came that I learned that I was moving to some place called Kirkland, Washington, this leader encouraged me to get involved with SCBWI (there was a name change).  She told me to look up Peggy King Anderson and take every class she offered. She had it on good authority that Peggy was a great teacher. (Peggy is beyond great.)

This wonderful leader kept in touch over the years and would always remember me and my writing every time we happened to meet. She still invites me over for writerly shindigs now that I'm back in College Station after my almost fifteen year jaunt. 

So who was this paragon leader, and who placed the life-changing ad? Kathi Appelt.

I know I'm just one of hundreds that have a story just like this. Lucky serendipity had struck. Lucky me. I will be back next week with more lucky serendipity.

This week's doodle: this is a sketch from a project I worked on in those early days -- The Wild Jamboree. I hated that black background but loved the hippos and the bush babies.

Here is a quote from the wonderful Kathi.

They say that lightning never strikes in the same place twice, but the same is not true for courage. As it turns out, when courage strikes, it almost always begets more courage.  Kathi Appelt, The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp

Lucky Serendipity: The Tree House

Hi, folks! I'm starting a new series for the month of March and in honor of Saint Patrick's Day. I'm calling this series: Lucky Serendipity. I have tripped across these moments in life that really direct the whole of my future. I call these moments: lucky serendipity. So here is the story of one of those moments.

When I started college, I thought I would be chemist. It seemed sensible, steady work. I'm not one of those people who dreamed of being a writer since they were five years old.  I was a terrible with the conventions of writing. Grammar and me have never been on the best of terms and back then we didn't even have a dialogue going. I loved stories but I didn't think I could ever put one on the page that would, you know, make sense.

I started journaling in high school, not stories, but just thoughts and feelings. I loved to write but to be honest, when I took writing classes, there was only sort of this "meh" coming my way. It was really discouraging.  As a young person, I needed cheerleaders but all I got were critics. My tender creative heart couldn't take that. I liked journaling because no one could tell me that the writing was just awful. It was for me, and I always gave myself an A+.

In college, there was a tree house out in the wooded area of a park I liked. It was a place where I dreamed a lot. I took my journal up there, and I would write and write. I would pour my heart and soul onto the page.  I didn't think of myself as a writer, how could someone with my skills presume such a thing? But there was magic in those hours sitting up in that swaying tree and pulling the essence of who I am out of me and placing it on the page. I thought of this place as my secret place that had been put in the world for me. I had found shelter from the storms that life could throw at me in that freedom of words.

A few years later, I was finishing up college and choking at the future. I was getting that chemistry degree, but I had learned one thing in college, chemistry wasn't really my thing.  Right at the end of my college days, I met this boy (yes, the love of my life) and he saw me scribbling in my little journal time and again, and he took me by the hand and pleaded with me to become a writer. He'd never seen anyone put so much effort into writing. Then one day we went for a walk, and he took me to that tree house. It turns out that he built the special place I had spent so many hours scribbling. There I knew, even though I was a hoplessly flawed writer, I was one.

All the threads of serendipity, lucky me. I married the boy and from that day on always called myself a writer. That was 27 years ago. My first novel is coming out in a few months: PLUMB CRAZY (Swoon Romance). I hope it is the first of many.

I hope that lucky serendipity comes your way this month. I will be back with more of the series next week.

Here is the doodle. Of course I doodled that spot all those years ago.  "Tree house."

 

 

Psalm 91:6 -- He that dwells in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

Serendipity

Hi folks, summer is sliding away and fall is moving in. I love the changing of the seasons. For one, it reminds me that no matter how much of a rut I'm in, I don't have to worry, I'll get out it. I just will. Seasons change. It's something to count on.

This week I've been thinking about serendipity. You can't make serendipity happen, but you can create a world where serendipity is more likely to happen. It's really about showing up. So many dream, but few make dreams happen. This is the work part of the equation. I honestly believe if you move forward with the work, serendipity will come after you. You step and the universe answers. If you you don't step, nothing is ever going to happen.

So this week ask yourself, what is my next step? I like to write things down. It makes things more concrete for me. Take that baby step. Get in the habit of taking the next step. You will come to big leaps. Take the leaps! Keep moving toward your goal and something you are not seeking is going to come after you, something good but unexpected. After the work, expect serendipity.

I hope you take the baby steps, the regular steps, and any leaps that come your way this week. Serendipity will follow, of this I am sure. See ya next week. Seize the day.

Doodle of the week. I love to doodle cute critters defying gravity. Love it! Here is: "Two Lynx Leap"



Serendipity is the art of making an unsought finding. Pek van Andel