Cherries and Whipped Cream

This is Dynamo Boy JUST after he ate the cherry on his fried ice cream at our favorite Mexican place. Dynamo Boy LOVES cherries. In fact, he will call his father at the bar and ask him to bring home an entire container of maraschino cherries at night.

But after the cherry on the fried ice cream is gone, there's still LOTS of good stuff. Honey. Chocolate sauce. Whipped cream. It's all good.

Which generally is how I try (try . . . don't always succeed) to approach my writing career. I was pondering what each of us strive for. It's intensely personal. For one person, they want "legitimacy"--they want to be published by NY. For another, it might be publish--and sell enough to make one of the big lists. Still another might be content with publishing with a small e-pub and if it sells well see it go to print. Whatever your cherry is, once you achieve it . . . it's gone. Eaten. I thought the world was going to somehow stop on its axis the moment I held a BOOK with my name on the cover in my hands. And it's cool. But the fact is, the world didn't stop. And soon I was plotting Book II. I paused. Enjoyed it. But then . . . picked a new goal.

When Spanish Disco (my first book) was published, I was stunned to discover--and I blogged on this once before a long time ago--that some creepy guy, someone I have no idea to this day who it was, had gone onto a very popular writers' site and written truly offensive sexual comments based on my picture. I'm an easygoing gal . . . I don't ruffle all that easily. But these comments were sick and so far over the time. And he was promptly taken down and I guess blocked from the site. I've had other "downer" moments in my career, unexpected things, times when I just wanted to quit the biz, whatever. And I suppose if I ONLY concentrated on the cherry, on achieving the goal, then maybe I would have.

But look at all the whipped cream.

I learned to view my writing career not in terms of reaching a goal--solely--but all the mostly wonderful stuff that comes with it. The friends I've made. The fact that I am writing this blog post in my pjs. The fact that if I feel like sitting outside on this beautiful spring day and watching Dynamo Boy dig for worms, I don't have a boss I have to explain myself to. Every day I hear from readers. Kids write me amazing emails and send me mail.

Goals are great. But I always think it's good to pause and reflect on the other good stuff.

What's your whipped cream today?