The writing life (like every life) is full of highs and lows, ups and downs. One week a writer skips both showers and meals to try to make a deadline. The next she gets a great review that sets her world aright. One day a book is in major trouble. Another day it finals in a contest or receives an award.
On Tuesday of this week, I turned in a book to my editor. Now I wait with bated breath to see how much work will be involved to make it better. I am filled with doubt whenever I turn in a new book. I won’t breathe normally until I get the revision letter. That’s the rhythm of writing for me.
Last week I learned that three of my books are finalists in the Faith, Hope & Love Reader’s Choice Award (All She Ever Dreamed, short historical; Like the Wind, long contemporary; and I’ll Be Seeing You, women’s fiction). I have never had three books final in one contest in my entire career. Usually I wouldn’t even have three books in a year, let alone books that fit into three different categories. So getting the news about these entries was a “gobsmacked moment” for me. (I’ll Be Seeing You also reached the finals in the Selah Awards and the HOLT Medallion.)
Getting the calls and emails about I’ll Be Seeing You has been especially sweet because that book had such a bumpy journey. It was written in the midst of lockdowns and isolation. It also started with one editor and ended with another. Expectations from the publisher changed dramatically during the course of the writing. Talk about not breathing normally!
Highs and lows. They are always with us, and God is right there in the midst of them.
Now it’s time to begin another deadline stretch. If you’ve read To Enchant a Lady’s Heart, then you know what I’m working on, the first full-length novel (Book 2) in the British Are Coming series. I am so ready to watch Sebastian, the viscount, interact with the sister of his American friend in the Yellowstone area of Idaho.
What highs and lows are part of the rhythm of your life?
~robin
Robin Lee Hatcher
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I was so excited to see your name THREE TIMES on the list of finalists, Robin. Congratulations! I think we all need occasional validation as encouragement to keep on trudging the writing path. Whether it be a contest final, a good review, a message from a reader, they all act like a shot in the arm to keep me going when I’m in the middle of stress land. 🙂
Thanks so much, Karen. And I always hope readers know just how much their notes and reviews mean to writers. Shot in the arm, indeed.
I would have never thought at this point that you would worry so much over your book being excepted. I grateful you shared that thought, so I don’t feel so alone in my worries. And congratulations on the finalist spots of your books. Bravo!!
Oh, Rebecca. I wish more confidence came with years and more books published. It does for a fleeting moment, but definitely not when I turn in a book. Then I am always filled with doubt because the end product is never quite what I envisioned when I got the idea and I was full of inspiration and hope. But it does help to know I always feel that way, and that others do too.
Congratulations all around, Robin! It is like a warm, affirming hug when your book does well or gets a great review, and I’m thrilled the Lord blessed you with all those affirmations. Well done, good and faithful servant!
Thanks so much, Angie!
Congratulations on your nominations!
Thank you, Betty.