Recognize Your Paradise

It’s 7:30 am and not a creature is stirring, not even Lu.

I think it’s of ridiculous importance to stop and not only smell the flowers, but acknowledged that we’re doing so. The flower smells wonderful, sure, but stop in that moment and see yourself and set it in stone that this moment is a single moment in time and that you are in your element.

This happened to me this morning.

It’s 7:30 am and it’s 16 degrees fahrenheit outside. The land is covered in a white blanket of snow, the sky is new to the day and I’m writing chapter 31 of The Key to Markree Castle. One issue is that when I’m done with this chapter, I won’t actually publish it, but I’ll hold onto it and put it in the book, but readers will have to wait to get that chapter when they buy the book.

We’re in the middle of a Thunderclap campaign that’s some of the most “risky” fun I’ve had in a long time. Risky because if we don’t hit 100, nothing happens. We’re up 106,246 people on social media reach, but just like those fundraising techniques where a corporation will match your donation, they won’t give anything if you give nothing.

My characters are alive in my imagination and as I write each chapter, they are just before me almost as if they are flesh and blood. I’ve never experienced such deep creativity and I love it more than I love most things. It’s a seemingly bottomless well of energy and power and creativity that is just flowing out of me–and out of my fingers.

Then I move over to promotional campaigns and if writing is a day at the park (fun, creative, and unexpected), then promotion is the evening out with a glass of wine and vegetable korma. In other words, a few moments in paradise.

I have a cup of tea, the weather outside is frightful, but inside it’s so delightful. I’m writing the book that’s going to be live in 5 days and I’m touching the underside of heaven.

Recognize Your Paradise