“Don’t believe everything you hear”

                                      

 

            What can I write that’s interesting the day after a prince, an heir to the British throne, is born?  Well, I love the British royals and feel that most everything else is mundane today, but I will attempt to get something down.

 

            My brother has spent his life in the restaurant business, either working at, running, or building a place.  He often hears grandiose comments from people about how many people want him to build a restaurant, how much money it will make, how much they personally would invest, how many people would support it, etc.  He believed all that hype for a long time but finally realized words are cheap—not an original expression I know—but very true.

 

            I can commiserate.  In my case, my play about my book, They Called Them Angels, was performed three times to standing ovations.  I was told that perhaps my future lay in playwriting instead of novels.  I was handed many business cards and told how terrific the play was and how “so and so” knows “so and so” who will get it performed at such and such theatre.  As you can imagine, I was on Cloud 9 for awhile then came to realize that nothing else was going to happen.  My brother and I still think the play is terrific and should be mandatory viewing for high school students, and I continued to publicize the play for awhile, but it seems no one else is listening.

 

            Like wise, when I submitted my novel, Lily’s War, to my agent, she went nutty for it.  “Did you laugh at this part?” I asked her. “Did you cry at this part?”  She had, she loved it all.  I went to work the next day and told everyone that it wouldn't be long before I’d have a novel published.  I was flying high for weeks; nothing could get me down.  Finally, my agent had to give me the bad news: no publishers wanted it.  How could a reputable agent be so wrong about a project? 

 

            I put Lily’s War on amazon and plan to do the same with my other manuscripts. I get frustrated as many writers do but I still believe in my projects and if I don’t support them, who will?