The first part of this post is about me and my books. If you are in need of creative encouragement, skip on down.

Good news! A number of my titles are now in KindleUnlimited and can be read for free if you are subscribed to KU.

Update on my current work in progress: The working title is According to Carley Love, however, that will change. I just have not yet chosen from the list of titles that I am still creating. Yes, this book is taking for-ev-erh. I am grateful to report that I am in final edit stage. This is requiring intense attention to detail. One difficulty that I have had to overcome is the urge to keep ‘improving’ the story. I kept getting off kilter by everyone’s advice and opinions. I have had to get firm with myself about making my own decisions, as well as to curb the urge to keep making changes.

Nothing I ever write is ever good enough for me. But there comes a time a writer must move on. I know I was supposed to write Carley Love and Jackson’s story, which is that of many long-married couples keeping love alive, but now I must accept the story as it is, with all it’s weaknesses and strengths, and push it out of the nest and move on.

There is help for me to do that in the form of new stories clamoring to be told. I’ve begun blocking out two short stories because I can’t wait! I have also begun editing the Breen series of western romances written in the 90s. I’m quite pleased with what I have read of the originals.

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Now for the writing encouragement

Your Definition of Success, by Curtiss Ann Matlock, reblogged from November 14, 2019

Recently I came upon this bit of wisdom:
“Everyone has their own reasons for writing and their own definitions of success. I think it’s really important to figure out what those are for YOU as you move into the future. It’s the only way to pick your path. ~ Brenda Hiatt, bestselling author

Brenda Hiatt’s words struck me because I am at the point of finding my writing path forward. Some famous person has said that life has to be lived looking forward but can only be understood looking backward.

I began writing when very young, elementary school into high-school, and back then I possessed a vision of a writer as a VSP: Very Special Person. I rather had the idea that a writer was likely born one. I thought so much of writers that I did not believe that I, as ordinary as I was, and from my, shall we say, poor and chaotic family could possibly be a writer.

Yet something within me wanted so badly to be a writer of the sort who wrote all the books that I loved to read. I thought them terribly clever and certainly wise, and I dared to believe that possibly I could work very hard and become one. Thus in the beginning my reason for writing was to become a writer. I definitely enjoyed having written far more than the actual work of writing.

I can look back now and see clearly that during the first fifteen years of my writing career, twenty-some published books and numerous awards, writing nearly every day, I kept wondering when I would feel like a writer. The feeling was my measure of success, thus success eluded me.

It is only now that I can say I have achieved that feeling. I know myself as a writer today. It is laughable but knowing myself as a writer has less to do with publishing (not discounting that) and far more to do with being able to look back at myself and see how I am, and have been since childhood, an incessant scribbler. I journal daily. I write books and blog posts and emails and notes and prayers. I even write lengthy Facebook comments.

When I search for my reasons for writing today, I find it is as simple as I have a renewed desire to write. I still have something to say. This is reason enough.

While I do not discount being published as a measure of success, today’s modern publishing opportunities provide me that guarantee. It is a large measure of success that I understand how to get my work into ebook and paper, too!

In the main, I think, success for me now means showing up and doing the work.
I am a little surprised to realize that fact. Where does reader reception, good reviews and earning money factor in?

Those things do factor in to a sense of success, but the actual showing up and doing the work is the only thing within my control. Showing up and doing the work is doing the best I can with what I have. Doing the work is, not to sound lofty, speaking my truth. This, for now, is important for me to know. Show up, do the work. It is my path forward.

No matter what your endeavor, you will find strength in taking a look at your reasons and your definitions of success. When you look at these things, you are finding yourself. And you will likely find yourself far more successful than you had imagined.

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Show up, do the work. It is my path forward. ~ Curtiss Ann Matlock

I was grateful to have come upon this past post today, as I press on to finish this novel that for a myriad of reasons I only partly understand is important for me to finish and have published. I also learned that I have posted a total of 524 essays since 2009! And again today, I showed up and tackled getting my thoughts written and shared. I can celebrate success in doing what is mine to do as a writer.

Darling friends, keep showing up, keep creating what is in your heart, listen to the still small voice within and follow, and you have success every day.

Blessings,