LUCK
We all know what luck is, right? It’s the random events that either help or hinder us in our pursuit of our dreams. Some of us feel that we have good luck and some of us believe our luck (ok I just can’t resist) sucks. I have heard people say, “If it weren’t for bad luck, I wouldn’t have any luck at all.” Other people tell me, “I can’t lose. I’m hot, hot, hot.” But for most of us, luck seems variable. Sometimes it’s good. Sometimes it’s bad.
Sometimes it’s hard to know if luck is good or bad. It all depends. I heard a great story once about a farmer who told his neighbor that his son had been injured. “Oh no” the neighbor replied, “That’s terrible luck. He won’t be able to help with the harvest.”
The farmer answered, “Maybe bad, maybe good. When the army came to conscript young men, they didn’t take him because he couldn’t walk.”
“Oh, so it was good luck after all.”
“Maybe so, maybe not. Because he couldn’t walk…”
I don’t remember the rest of the story, but the point was that for everything that seemed good or bad, there was another way of looking at the situation that changed the meaning of it.
When something happens to us, we often don’t know if it’s good or bad. I published my debut novel, Water Dreams August 2015 with a small publisher who had been around several years and who I thought would be a great fit for me. Ten days after the release date, the publisher declared bankruptcy, closed their doors and my book disappeared from the world. I didn’t even have a chance to buy a print copy for myself because the print release was scheduled for about six months later.
It was bad luck. A completely unforeseen circumstance that impacted me in a negative way.
But here’s the thing.
On June 6, 2016, my book was released again, by another publisher. I spent some time submitting it to publishers and fixing some problems they pointed out to me. When I found Foundations, LLC, I knew this was the publisher for me. They are new and provide tremendous marketing support to their authors, something most traditional publishers do not do. I was able to keep the original cover, which I loved, because my cover artist is working with the new publisher. Less than a year later, my book is back in the world and I have a print copy with more to come.
There’s one last thing I would like to say about luck. Finding a four leaf clover is traditionally considered a sign that you will have good luck. Since four leaf clovers are rare, when you find one, it means your luck is good. However, four leaf clovers are actually not that rare or hard to find. Everyone thinks they are, because that’s what they have heard and so no one looks for them. Because no one looks for them, no one finds them and that makes everyone believe all the more that they are rare. They are actually pretty easy to find. Try it. Most of the time, if you look, you can find one in a matter of a few minutes of concentrated searching. The same is true with our cherished dreams. We think we will need extraordinary luck to find what we wish for and that it is rare and hard to find. We think events work against us and hold us back. The truth is that whatever happens is neither lucky or unlucky. It all depends. It depends on how we look at it and how we react to it. When we hit what we think is a rough patch, we can give up and quit, or we can shrug, think “maybe not” and try again.
I hope you all find your clovers and never give up on your dreams. A lot of luck is what you make it.
Water Dreams is available from Amazon, Foundations, LLC (www.foundationsbooks.com) and most on-line retail sites.
Please come and visit me at: katheineeddingersmits.weebly.com
We all know what luck is, right? It’s the random events that either help or hinder us in our pursuit of our dreams. Some of us feel that we have good luck and some of us believe our luck (ok I just can’t resist) sucks. I have heard people say, “If it weren’t for bad luck, I wouldn’t have any luck at all.” Other people tell me, “I can’t lose. I’m hot, hot, hot.” But for most of us, luck seems variable. Sometimes it’s good. Sometimes it’s bad.
Sometimes it’s hard to know if luck is good or bad. It all depends. I heard a great story once about a farmer who told his neighbor that his son had been injured. “Oh no” the neighbor replied, “That’s terrible luck. He won’t be able to help with the harvest.”
The farmer answered, “Maybe bad, maybe good. When the army came to conscript young men, they didn’t take him because he couldn’t walk.”
“Oh, so it was good luck after all.”
“Maybe so, maybe not. Because he couldn’t walk…”
I don’t remember the rest of the story, but the point was that for everything that seemed good or bad, there was another way of looking at the situation that changed the meaning of it.
When something happens to us, we often don’t know if it’s good or bad. I published my debut novel, Water Dreams August 2015 with a small publisher who had been around several years and who I thought would be a great fit for me. Ten days after the release date, the publisher declared bankruptcy, closed their doors and my book disappeared from the world. I didn’t even have a chance to buy a print copy for myself because the print release was scheduled for about six months later.
It was bad luck. A completely unforeseen circumstance that impacted me in a negative way.
But here’s the thing.
On June 6, 2016, my book was released again, by another publisher. I spent some time submitting it to publishers and fixing some problems they pointed out to me. When I found Foundations, LLC, I knew this was the publisher for me. They are new and provide tremendous marketing support to their authors, something most traditional publishers do not do. I was able to keep the original cover, which I loved, because my cover artist is working with the new publisher. Less than a year later, my book is back in the world and I have a print copy with more to come.
There’s one last thing I would like to say about luck. Finding a four leaf clover is traditionally considered a sign that you will have good luck. Since four leaf clovers are rare, when you find one, it means your luck is good. However, four leaf clovers are actually not that rare or hard to find. Everyone thinks they are, because that’s what they have heard and so no one looks for them. Because no one looks for them, no one finds them and that makes everyone believe all the more that they are rare. They are actually pretty easy to find. Try it. Most of the time, if you look, you can find one in a matter of a few minutes of concentrated searching. The same is true with our cherished dreams. We think we will need extraordinary luck to find what we wish for and that it is rare and hard to find. We think events work against us and hold us back. The truth is that whatever happens is neither lucky or unlucky. It all depends. It depends on how we look at it and how we react to it. When we hit what we think is a rough patch, we can give up and quit, or we can shrug, think “maybe not” and try again.
I hope you all find your clovers and never give up on your dreams. A lot of luck is what you make it.
Water Dreams is available from Amazon, Foundations, LLC (www.foundationsbooks.com) and most on-line retail sites.
Please come and visit me at: katheineeddingersmits.weebly.com
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