Today, September 6th, you can download Eliana-Who-Sees-Us for FREE on Amazon until about midnight Pacific Time. This is in honor of being featured on Pat Daily’s blog for one of his “10 Questions With . . .” posts. He likes to interview authors with non-standard questions and takes the time to learn something about them first, so I had fun, and it made me have to think a bit! Read it at thepatdaily.com.
If you are reading this after September 6th, the last free download day will be Wednesday, September 14th. And please do leave a review after you read it! Even 3 or 4 stars is okay if you give an honest writeup of the book. Books with too few reviews are like Elizabeth Bennet hanging out on the sidelines of a lively dance.
Today is the anniversary of my hire date at my current office job. (All our personnel documents have it at the top, otherwise I doubt I would remember it.) I don’t normally celebrate the day or anything, but it is a little more significant this year. One year from now I will “retire.” I will still have to pay the bills, but my plan is to work at something other than an office job.
Once you’ve done one kind of job, it’s easiest to keep doing it. You have experience on your resume, so your employer is not taking a chance on whether you can learn it. I will have to push myself to Be, Do, and Have new things in my life and not just slip back into the easy and familiar. When I was in my 20’s . . . and 30’s, I kept thinking “I’ll figure it out eventually.” Now I realize I have to live the life I want now, not in ten years.
One thing I’ve wanted for decades is to be a published author. I’m publishing my first book this summer. The learning curve has been much steeper than I expected. Over the next two months, I have a tremendous amount to learn and do, all while finishing up a final edit. Oh, and then there’s the next novel that is nagging at me to write it! All of this has the potential to overwhelm me like a sudden wave pushing me underwater.
I’m going to get into the water and swim, while I’m learning to swim. Reading and talking about swimming got me to this point, and now I have to take it further.
I wanted to find some kind of magic to help me get motivated to write. (Motivation to clean the house, be more productive at work, and exercise more would also be fantastic, but one thing at a time, right?) After reading many self-help articles and a few books on dealing with procrastination, I got the answer more literally than I expected. One of my nieces gave me a “House Blessing Magic Candle.” The part of the instructions I followed most carefully was “visualize the outcome you desire.”
My dream is to publish at least eight novels, preferably in the next eight to ten years. Writing frequently and consistently will be the key to achieving that dream. As I visualized doing the work, I imagined myself enjoying the entire process of writing, not just the finished product. This candle is apparently made to burn slower than a normal candle, allowing plenty of visualizing opportunity. Day after day I lit it and let it burn, thinking “I enjoy the process” every time I looked at it or caught its scent.
It seemed to be helping. I was not transformed into a diligent writer, but I was beginning to look forward to sitting down and writing. I focused on the feeling of pleasure any time the words came easily or inspiration solved a plot issue.
The instructions say “when the candle is done, you’ll find a stone inside that will be supercharged with your intention.” I was eager to see what the stone looked like. Was it just a smooth, plain rock or a translucent crystal? However, waiting was part of the process as the candle slowly burned down, day by day. I was able to see the stone eventually, in the bottom inch of the candle. It had stripes of dark and pale gray. It was still deep in a puddle of hot wax, and I resisted the urge to scoop it out.
A day later, holding the glass candle jar with a cloth to avoid burning my hands while I swirled it around, I saw a second stone. Smaller than the first, it was a cloudy white color. Holding a hot glass jar in your hands to swirl liquid wax around in a still-burning candle is not an image of patience. I still held out at least another day or two before pulling out the stones. Now that I have the stones, I’m not doing anything with them. I don’t have a good place to display something so small although they would be a good reminder of what I’ve learned: the end product is just a tiny fraction of the whole process.
Maybe the candle has magic in it, or maybe it’s simply the opposite of what we put ourselves through every time we dwell on negative thoughts and fear of failure. That only builds up walls between ourselves and what we want. Instead, focus on what you want, over and over. Put your attention on the good feelings and good results that come each time you put in the work. No matter how small or slow the progress is, enjoy it.
