Inspiration

A belated congratulations to Joelle Anthony, whose book Restoring Harmony, will be gracing bookstore shelves sometime in the near future. Way to go! And truly, hearing a success story is inspiring. It means that maybe all these frustrations and rejections are just part of the normal learning curve. It means that persistence pays off. It means that I still have hope that one of my stories will be published some day. Maybe.

Doubt and uncertainty offset hope and confidence in my roller coaster moods about my writing. I get SO excited about a project, only to be dashed to pieces by an editor or agent. But each time I crash, I learn, so I guess it's worth it. Thank goodness for friends and sisters who put this Humpty Dumpty together again, every time. You ladies rock!

The funny thing is, I woke up this morning with a story bug and couldn't settle to the grant I'm writing right now until I jotted my thoughts down. Sure, on a day I have NO time to write for myself, I can't get going until I do (the grant deadline is in less than a week). No complaints though, it's a cute little story. I was okay after the writers conference and e-mails from Elizabeth. But as the days have slipped past without any blocks of time to write for myself, and really, no idea how to improve the efficiency and quality of my writing efforts in the few stolen moments I snatch now and then, I've become increasingly frustrated. So now that I've had my little release, back to the dreaded grant. I want Jeff to get tenure soon so I won't have to do so much academic writing. It's not nearly as fun and adds so much stress to my life.