Guaranteed Success


                                                                                     

Guaranteed Success

What’s a good question to ask when you want to get to know someone? You know the kind of question that once you hear the answer, you’ve learned a little about them? I've decided starting a new blog is kinda like meeting someone for the first time. Now granted, in this situation, the someone new is the entire internet public but I believe in being friendly and personal regardless of the situation. So, in the interest of becoming acquainted with one another, I thought I would ask a question, give you my answer and hopefully receive one or two from you.

What would you attempt if you knew you could not fail?

Now for some reason my first answer to that question was Olympic diving. Bear in my mind I’m not an athlete or even a good swimmer but there the idea was anyway. I’ve always admired Olympians and their dedication to their talents.  Diving happened to be one of the only events I watched during the last Olympics. After witnessing the precision and grace with which they executed their dives, I guess a bit of envy was planted in my head. Can you imagine the thrill of twisting and flipping high in the air before slicing perfectly into the pool? Super cool!

Diving is great. Gold medals would be awesome. But really what would I, a working mother of six kids, do with a gold medal? Sure I could display it with my collection of glass frogs and fairies but in the end it would collect dust.  My mind kept spinning.  What would I do if success was guaranteed? What would I have after I had accomplished it?  The answers would ultimately lie in the satisfaction level of achieving said goal. So then what accomplishment would give me the most satisfaction?

Writing a New York Best Seller is the obvious choice of course.  But as I’m currently working my butt off to that end, I won’t take any short cuts. I want to earn that thrill on my own. No genie magic for this one!

While I chewed on the question, the fine arts keep coming to mind.  It hadn’t occurred to me just how much I’d love to create things, until I made the list. Painting a beautiful portrait of a mythical woman, sculpting something bizarre, carving a piece that could have come from Middle earth, taking a picture when the light is just right, playing classical music on the piano, viola, harp, my list grew quite lengthy. All of it was artistic but I finally narrowed it down to two ideas. And in a pinch I’d choose the second, if I could only have one.

First, I’d love to give someone a beautiful tattoo. Wouldn’t that be the ultimate test of a steady hand, knowledge of shapes and shading and absolute perfection? No room for ‘oops’ with that one.

Second I’d love to save someone’s life.  The knowledge that I could not fail and be there for someone when they truly needed it most, would be incredible. I’m not sure I really know how life changing that would be, only that I would love to do it.

So there it is. My answers and a little about me. My name is Beckie, by the way.  I’m starting this new blog with two of the best critique partner’s a girl could ask for.  We’ve known each for almost two years and three novels. We share our stories, thoughts and a big dream.  The dream of being published one day. And with this one, there is no chance for failure!! (I'm more optismitic than realistic but that's the only to make it a reality so there you go.)

At the end of each of my posts, I‘d like to report the status of my projects.  More for me than you but I’ve decided if I have to post where I’m at each week, maybe it will push me to make sure there is progress made.

Writing Status: First novel about five sisters in the Old West who have been cursed by an Indian spell and have magical abilities  – done. It’s in the Beta-read stage. Chapter Four of a story about bears, forest witches, princesses and overcoming internal demons – submitted for critique. All of my work is YA fanasty, a genre that I read, write and love!