Again, I am combining my prompts and link-ups. I am nearly through the month and
Just Jot It January, #JusJoJan.
Also, I was lucky to get in first to get to co-host with a couple lovely blogger ladies on another weekly event I’m starting out with, as I liked this week’s sentence starter a lot after my enjoyment with last week:
Hopefully, by combining these two very different blogging projects, one a weekly and the other more of an every-day-for-the-entire-month kind of a thing, perhaps I can introduce two separate sets of writers and bloggers to each other’s work.
The word today is “serendipity” and I can say I learned something that fits that. I learned the true meaning of the word in the year 2015.
I didn’t much like the film of the same name, not sure if I believed in fate, but if you want to call what happened to me an act of
I would go with that.
What did I learn in 2015?
Hmm.
I learned what it felt like to have one of my dreams come true. I learned what it felt like to be able to cross off one of the top items from my bucket list and it all started off rather by luck and coincidence.
I had it all ready and waiting. I’d joined a group of indie writers on Facebook in the idea to write short stories and combine them in a charity anthology. I had a story written by the end of 2014 and I was going to get it published with the rest of them..
As 2015 began things took a turn and I no longer found myself included in the project. It wasn’t the right fit, but what to do with the story I had all ready, written, and waiting?
I guess you could call all the time I spend on Facebook a bit of a time suck, or else, in this case, it became a surprise and a timing thing. I just happened to follow a writer on Facebook who was an author for a small press in the UK. She was put in charge of getting a group of writers together, to submit romance themed stories for an anthology.
I saw the call on her page, messaged her, and in less than a month she was accepting my story. I knew what I was likely lucky enough to have found for myself when I arrived at my thirty-first birthday and first blogging anniversary. I was dying to announce this. I didn’t. I held back because it was so fresh, yes, but also because I was afraid something would happen, again, and nothing would come of it. I was unable to let myself go there.
I was getting my story published, in more than a small group’s idea on Facebook, but backed by a publishing press.
It’s been my dream to be published and to see my words in print, in a book, for a long time. Was this real?
By the summer it was really happening. Little Bird Publishing would be publishing the anthology.
If I had gotten my story published with that first opportunity I would have missed out on this one. If I had already given my story away, promised it to a book, I wouldn’t have had a story ready for this publication.
I call that positively serendipitous.
So, perhaps you thought I might get to the end of this and say that actually I learned that being published would turn out to be not all it was cracked up to be, that I would learn how things you dream of for so long aren’t really usually as wonderful as you think…well, you’d be wrong.
🙂
I kissed the book, held it close, couldn’t stop smiling and even possibly slept with the book next to me for weeks. Possibly.
I am co-host with two bloggers, hosts of the prompt “Finish the Sentence Friday” this week:
Kristi Rieger Campbell of
&
Vidya Sury of
Vidya Sury – Collecting Smiles.
If you want to join and find out about the prompt for the coming week, the place to go would be:
Finish the Sentence Friday on Facebook
To read more fabulous posts, to find out what other writers and bloggers learned in 2015, visit the linkie here:
http://www.inlinkz.com/new/view.php?id=602928
Finally, the blogger to come up with the final Thursday’s prompt word for the month is:
and rules of which are found
Thanks JT for going with “serendipity” as the word because it really fit with the biggest thing I found out/learned from the year 2015 and maybe the story will be made into a movie itself one day soon.
Hey! You never know.
Her Headache 
Lovely! I loved reading about how you anthology came to be published. It’s a wonderful feeling to see your name published. I need to kiss my next book, maybe it’ll be good luck. Welcome to FTSF!
Thank you.
🙂
Glad to be here and happy to begin as a co-host for the week.
Yes, kiss for good luck seems appropriate.
Congratulations on the publishing, feels great doesn’t it?
Thank you and yes it does.
Serendipity… I have a story about that movie. My grandmother was John Corbett’s godmother, so I decided I needed to see that movie for that reason alone. Well I hate romances, like my idea of a good romance is Troy (it’s a romance). So I watch this movie, single, pessimistic, and when it got to the scene where the guy was reading his own obituary he wrote, I decided I didn’t want to see the happy ending. I wanted to leave that as the ending because that’s how all my romances end, and so I stopped my VHS tape at that scene and told myself, “Let’s do some Serendipity. The guy I watch the ending of this movie with is meant to be.” So fast forward about 7 years, and I meet Rafael in the military. I dragged him home to meet my family one Christmas break, and we stayed at a hotel on our way back to base, and I walk in the hotel room and Rafael was watching that movie at the scene where the guy was reading his obituary. We watched the rest together, and we’ve been married almost 11 years. True Story.
Hahaha, Troy. Nice choice for a little romance.
Wow, what a story! Love that. Congrats on being married all that time. Here’s to many more.
Sounds very serendipitous to me! Congrats! Jan (JT Twissel) Hope this year continues the winning run!
thank you. Me too.
So glad to read about the serendipity that led to you being published! That’s so very exciting! Thanks, too, for hosting Finish the Sentence with me this week. Such fun!
Oh the dreadful ache of thinking you’re going to be published and then … POOF … all gone, not the right fit. Ouch. I’ve had that happen to me as well. I am beyond delighted that the piece was published and in a better situation for you. Serendipity, indeed.
Exactly. It didn’t feel very good at the time, but it just cleared the way for something more suited for me to come along.
I am so very happy for you, Kerry! Truly, when one door is not the right one, there’s always another, possibly much better! I have the image of you hugging your book. I’d so love to see a pic! So wonderful to cohost with you! 🙂 Serendipity is a beautiful thing! Unexpected happy events always become so much more special!
Wow. You are right and thank you. I was going to include a photo of me holding my book, but I couldn’t find it and I ran out of time. I do have one.
So glad your story found a home! There is something pretty amazing about being in a book…I can’t imagine how awesome it must be to be the author of a whole book, all by yourself. I don’t think I’d every let go of that book!
Well I am just one short story in an anthology of stories, but I never would let go if I didn’t have to.