Autum Is Falling

This is a picture of my back walkway. We haven't had cold weather until recently, but the leaves fall continually.

There is a lesson here I think. The leaves need to be cleaned up before Winter sets in. When Spring comes we clean out our gardens of the Winter debris to get ready for planting.

As we go through the seasons of our life, we should try to do a clean-up of the detritus left behind as we enter a different part of our lives.

For instance, for most of my adult life I was a High School English teacher, and now I am a published novelist. Although the two careers might seem closely aligned, language based and story centered, that seems to be the most I could carry into my new life. There is a small overlap of the jobs but the learning curve is steep.

In my fantasy about being a published author, I imagined myself dashing off a new novel in record time and then toasting its birth with Champagne while the royalties rolled in.

This was the detritus I needed to weed out of my expectations. What I found was a system where I had to market my book whenever and however possible.

I confess to a long history of being a poor salesperson. Even selling Girl Scout Cookies which should have been easy, was a trauma. In those days, you went door-to-door and tried to get people to order tons of boxes from you. People were nice, but I hated having to ask strangers to buy from me. We didn't have stands by the grocery store or a system to recruit your mom to take the form into work with her. It was your "job" to sell enough cookies to keep your little group afloat.

Now in my present incarnation, I ask people to buy my book and as if that's not enough; I ask them to review it on Amazon or Barnes and Noble after they have read it. I can feel the Girl Scout cold sweat break out.

There is a saying my husband uses which applies to golf, "never up, never in" which loosely translates if you don't try you don't win.

So I clear my old, unhelpful Girl Scout Cookies memories, and determine to enjoy the process. I have met some of the most wonderful people at book signings, libraries, and bookstores. My readers have been universal in their enthusiasm for my book, and I am incredibly grateful. I have raked up my debris and I feel lighter for it.