As writers we have to be proactive to reach our goals, and sometimes our reward expectations don’t match the results. No one wants to launch a book and then disappear into the fog of unknowns. But the truth is, we have a purpose to fulfil, even when we feel we aren’t noticed, or appreciated for our talent and hard work.
Let’s look at a few positive facts about being a drop.
1. We finished a book! Do you know how many people start a book and never finish? You have probably done one of the hardest things you’ll ever do, and will probably do it again. That accomplishment is understated in most circles. Own it for yourself, and consider it an achievement – noticed or not.
2. We learned a lot along the way. Education is expensive and valuable. When you are writing a book, an article, a poem, a short story, you are educating yourself. Keeping up with good writing skills, technology for marketing, and trends in your genre is like going to school. Each time you take your writing to the next level, you will see the benefits. You will get noticed, maybe just not in ways you expected.
3. We learn to be content in our current place in the big picture of this industry. When I first stated seeking publication, the daunting task of trying to be somebody in this huge world of writers, publishers, and agents often got the best of me. I am who I am. And I am where I am because God puts me there when it’s time. I had to learn to be content, and responsible when the time comes to be taken to the next level. It has made me a better writer and person.
4. You absolutely never know when things will change. I am considered a senior, okay, I AM a senior, and I had given up the thought of being traditionally published. Then when God saw I had let go of my ideas of how things should be, He sent me a publisher that was a perfect fit for me. Yes, at my age, I was at last traditionally published novelist. But let me tell you…I would have been okay with continuing as an Indie. But God knew the ultimate desire of my heart, even when I had let it go.
So sometimes we just have to be a Dori…just keep swimming in this big ocean. Being a little fish can still afford you opportunities you never imagined if you stay open minded. Even absent minded Dori served her purpose.
It’s not so bad being a drop, but keep the faith, and see how big of a fish God would have you be. He probably has bigger plans for you than you do for yourself.
Keep swimming,
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The Pruning
Clarissa Wilding and her family have just arrived at the train station in Kennewick, Washington. Their decision to move from the drought and dust storms on the Kansas plains seemed like a good one, until Clarissa sees her husband Frank embrace his half-brother William—the man who has offered them the chance to start fresh on his vineyard.
Clarissa knows this man, but by a different name. And it is obvious that William also recognizes her, though he says nothing of their past together.
The Wilding family settles into a cottage on the farm. Frank is thrilled to be back on a productive farm, having lost their crops to the relentless dust storms back home. He is anxious to rekindle his relationship with his brother, but doesn’t understand Clarissa’s resistance to William. Frank is eager to learn the grape and fruit growing business and hopes his work ethic will please his brother. But he is disturbed to see that William has not held on to the Christian teachings of their mother, but instead is angry and resentful of his drunken father, Frank’s step-father.
Both parents are deceased, but unpleasant memories linger for both Frank and William, even after William explains he changed his name to be rid of his father’s reputation.
Clarissa cruelly discovers that you cannot always escape your past. A clandestine meeting is about to test her faith, and expose secrets that could challenge her marriage.
Will Clarissa and her husband cling to God’s promise for a new beginning? Or be destroyed by tragedies and trials.
Jan Cline is an author and speaker from Post Falls, Idaho, eager to share some American history with you.
I write Historical fiction from events in American History and the lives of those who lived in our nation's past. My debut novel is Emancipated Heart, a story about a family living in a Japanese American internment camp during WWII. My passion for history started when, as a kid, my father would stop at every roadside historical marker and every small town museum as we traveled on vacations. And my love of writing makes a good combination for great stories.
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