And so this week’s moment of happiness despite the news.
If you follow me on Facebook or Twitter, you’ve likely already guessed what this week’s Moment is. It’s a moment about the Moment.
On Tuesday morning, I found out that my publisher wants to make a book out of the entire 2017 year of Today’s Moment Of Happiness Despite The News. He wants to do this despite the length (when I put it in manuscript format, it was 620 pages!), despite the fact that all of the Moments are raw, unedited writing, despite the fact that I never ever intended these for publication in any form, whether individually or as a book.
Well, how about that? I’m still flabbergasted. But there’s a story behind this Moment, of course.
On March 27, 2017, I put down the very first words, the first sentences, of my novel-in-progress. That was five days after I signed the contract for the publication of my novel, In Grace’s Time, which was released last September. On March 27, 2018, I woke up and immediately felt blue. It was exactly one year since I started the new book. And for the first time ever, I did not have a first draft done within a year.
Why? Because I was derailed last summer with breast cancer, of course. At one point, I actually quit writing – which was another “first time ever”. I was beyond exhausted. There really has to be a new word created for the fatigue that comes from cancer treatments. It was a tired I’d never felt before. Eventually, I began writing again. But I had to start over from page 1 – another “first time ever” as I always just plow straight ahead through first drafts – because I’d lost the thread, the flow, the desire. It came back, but at that moment, it felt like I was digging my way out of a six-foot grave that I thought I’d escaped.
And so, on Tuesday morning, I was sad. I wondered if I was ever not going to feel the effects of breast cancer and its treatment. I wondered if I was ever going to catch up with my life from where I left off.
And then I checked my email. Where there was a contract from my publisher and a note saying, “Let’s do this.” For a book I didn’t know I’d written.
Well, crimeny. It was like the universe just reached out, whacked me upside the head, and said, “For heaven’s sake, woman. You never stopped writing. You wrote a book, even when you didn’t know you were writing a book. You. Never. Stopped.”
I never stopped.
One of my most common messages to my students is, “Don’t give up.”
I didn’t give up. I didn’t give up when I thought I gave up. I didn’t stop when I thought I stopped. I wrote a book when I didn’t know I was writing a book.
Sorta makes me wonder what I’m doing when I know what I’m doing.
So. Book #8, Today’s Moment Of Happiness Despite The News; A Year Of Spontaneous Essays by Kathie Giorgio, will be released somewhere in September or October.
And one other thing. I was having a rough morning on Monday too, until I got on the phone and arranged an event where I will be teaching a workshop called The Labyrinth and the Creative Spirit. While I was talking with the person who wanted me to come teach this, she suddenly burst out with, “Oh, I just love you!”
And my rough morning was gone. Sometimes, we just need to hear that we’re loved. And somehow, Kim knew that was exactly what I needed.
An unintentional book under contract. And someone loves me.
Oh, yes, that helps. Despite. Anyway.
