Remember the Touchdown Dance

I am one of those people who always neglects to celebrate.  I participate 100% in the lead-up to an accomplishment, 110% in the self-chastisement of not yet reaching a goal, but never stop to tell myself, “hey… awesome job!” when I finally achieve something I’ve worked for.  I just move onto the next item on the list.  So, here’s a deliberate pause to say, “Cool. You did it.”  I encourage you to pause and do a quick touchdown dance for an accomplishment you’ve recently neglected.

So here’s my dance. . . I published a novel, White Dove, on May 1.  It was a long time coming. It was a huge undertaking.  It was an achievement.  (There, I said it.) When I set out to write White Dove I had a few small goals in mind.  First, like many writers, I had a story I wanted (nay, needed) to tell and I wanted it out of me and onto paper where others could access it too.  Second, I wanted to challenge myself to do something that was (a) hard, (b) unlikely, and (c) empowering.  Writing is hard enough as a full-time or even part-time gig.  But it is all the more difficult when you are squeezing it in between other jobs, parenting, and life in general.  When you can’t devote specific time to it every day.  When the only time you can do it is early in the morning, late at night, while on red-eye flights. . . you get the picture.  Lastly, I wanted to eek out just a little bit more of this journey we call life.  I wanted to see if it could be done.

Ready for the verdict? (drumroll. . . )  Yes, it can be done!  The story is out, it was indeed hard (and empowering!), statistically, the odds of me finishing it were slim, and I got the bang for my buck as far as fitting a lot of life into the past few years.  On average, I saw way more hours of the day than I have in a long time.

So, on the one-month anniversary of White Dove, what does success look like?  Again, it all depends on how you measure the elusive concept of success.  For me, I checked off my three goals.  Everything else is gravy.  I won’t lie, I kept a close eye on my sales, twiddled my thumbs as I awaited reviews, and genuinely was in awe as strangers began to buy and read my novel.  (Who are these people?!? I love them!) I even made it to #118 in the Irish Historical Fiction rankings on Amazon.  I’m not sure that means anything, but it looks cooler than the 68,000 overall stat that represents my peak sales day in the month of May.

Ahhhh. . . success feels awesome.  Now what?

Well, like every good touchdown dance, you get penalized if you hang out in the end zone too long.  So, it’s time to move on to bigger and better things, which for me is something by the name of Forever England,  the next book in the series!  Although I will say, the care and feeding of White Dove is a great little hobby that I have been enjoying over the past few weeks.  Stay tuned for more updates.

Until then, keep scribbling!