Coincidences Make Life Interesting

Medicine Bow National Forest

When I was thirteen, I used to spend my summers in the Medicine Bow National Forest.  My grandfather had built and run a hunting lodge there, sold it, and then my father and aunt had it return to them in the late 80's.  The buildings were rundown and falling apart.  Our respective families tried--in vain--to get it back into top condition.  No running water on the premises meant we had to drive an hour and a half every couple of weeks into Laramie, Wyoming to do laundry.

As we would drive by the University of Wyoming, I always thought to myself, "I sure would like to go to college there."  I could imagine myself on campus.  It felt "right" to want to go there.

My traditional college attending age came and went.  I spent some time at a college in the Nebraskan town I lived in, and then had to begin working to pay off hospital bills I accrued when I was nineteen.  Time passed, and I figured I'd never go to college, much less UW.  And then, I turned twenty-eight.  I'd paid off my hospital bills, and decided I better get my behind to college so I could earn a decent living and get out of my parent's house.  Guess where I went.  Yep, UW.  When I did finally set foot on the campus as a student, it felt almost preordained.  At the very least, it's a fun coincidence.

My life is full of coincidences like that.  My husband is another one.  My grandmother called him my "mashad" (totally a phonetic spelling, by the way) the first time she met him.  A mashad is Italian for "match," as in "Matchmaker, Matchmaker, make me a match.  Find me a find. Catch me a catch."  We weren't even dating.  I had the same feeling when I saw him walking down the street, before I'd ever met him.  It took a little under ten years, but we did end up married.

Next week, I get to welcome a guest to Motivation for Creation who is another of those coincidences.

In the early nineties, I read, no...devoured...this fascinating book about a woman with red hair who was kidnapped and forced to become part of a harem.  The story is about how she rose (connived) her way to the top of the harem and even the Empire.  I read the entire novel in one day.  Periodically, over the twenty-ish years since I read the book, I would think about it, and wonder who the author was, and what the name of the book was. 

Last summer, I read a post on Writer Unboxed about heroes that resonated with me.  The author was Colin Falconer, and I started following him on Twitter, and followed his blog, Looking for Mr. Goodstory.  I also won his newest release, Silk Road, from Corvus Books.  We have chatted every now and then, through blog comments and twitter, and he is a very gracious fellow.

Sidenote:  One of my embarrassing twitter stories involves him, and if you want to read it, you can go here.

This winter, one of Colin's blog posts was about his book, Harem.  (Do you see where this is going?)  After some discussion, and Colin sending me Harem so I could read it and see if I recognized it, I realized that this was indeed the book and the author I had enjoyed so much twenty-ish years ago.

And now we are exchanging guest posts!  Maybe it isn't a big deal, but when I think about all the changes in my life leading up to me becoming a writer, and then just the happenstance of reading that one post on Writer Unboxed, I have to shake my head.

Those "in the right place at the right time" moments help my optimism stay in the top of the Optimism Register.  They help me believe things can end up right, even if things look so very wrong from my current point of view.  It's coincidences like these and others that make me believe in everyday magic.

Colin will be visiting on June 12 to share about his misadventures on a book tour in Mexico, and I'll be posting over at Looking For Mr. Goodstory on the 15th about my experiences with psychopaths when I worked on the Criminal Justice Unit of the State Mental Hospital.  I hope you will come back next week and give Colin a fine welcome!

Do you have coincidences like these in your life?  Please share them in the comments section.  I'd love to hear about them!

Three Magical Quotes Supporting Writing Regularly (whether you feel like it or not)

Over the last year, I have mentioned in my blog posts, on forums and to pretty much anyone who would listen how writing daily has been one of the best bits of advice I received when I first started writing.  While I was researching this post last night, I read a post-repeat from James Scott Bell about the Ten Commandments for Writers (read it here) where he stressed again coming up with weekly word count goals.  Whether it be writing daily for ten minutes or creating weekly word count goals, regular writing is key to improving your writing skills and exercising your imagination muscles.

Quote 1.  "Whatever you think you can do, or believe you can do, begin it.  Action has magic, grace and power in it."   Johann Wolfgang

By sitting down daily and creating, a door is opened which allows the magic, grace and power of the imagination (or what some call the muse) out for a little exercise.  Each time the door is opened, our muses venture a little further into the creative realm.  Instead of having to wait for Inspiration to smack us upside the head, our muses bring Inspiration to us.  But first we have to act, we have to open the door.

Free Digital Photos

Quote 2.  "Love and magic have a great deal in common.  They enrich the soul, delight the heart.  And they both take practice."  Unknown

I am a firm believer in practice making things better, if not perfect.  Two of the toughest things I am trying to teach myself in my life are how to love well and fully, and how to write engaging stories that bring magic to my audience.  I don’t think it is possible to ever reach the pinnacle of either pursuit.  The joy is truly in the journey.  In the case of writing, continuing the trip each day allows progression down the road.  With regular practice, we will find success much sooner than if we sit on the couch and wait until we feel called to write.

Quote 3.  "And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places.  Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it."  Roald Dahl

Have you ever written something, felt it was totally uninspired and dull, and then when you re-read it the next day or the next week, you were able to take the sentences, polish them up, and they turned out to be crucial to your story's next steps?  That happened to me this week.  I was feeling terribly dried up last week when I hand wrote about three pages of my novel in a notebook.  I was totally convinced it was crap, and I was dumb to think I would ever write something other people would want to read. 

At the beginning of the week, I pulled out the pages and grimly started typing them into the computer.  (Because, dammit, I’m going to finish a novel!)  As I typed along, I added some things, took out others, and suddenly I was kind of digging where the story was going.  A cool idea how I might incorporate a dragon arose from the unlikely place of those dried-up, uninspired words.  Charles de Lint says it perfectly.  “That’s the thing with magic.  You’ve got to know it’s still here, all around us, or it just stays invisible to you.” 

The Magic of Star Wars and Writing

I’m feeling a little empty today.  Bereft of thoughts that are interesting or engaging, even to myself.  While I’m writing this, I sound so depressed!  I’m not.  I think I have just hit overload, is all.  The pressure to be witty (which certainly is work for me!), to tweet, to blog, to write, and then all the demands of my non-writing life has just come to a head.

Yesterday I went to the Denver Zoo with my family to attend a six-year-olds birthday party.  It was Boo at the Zoo, and there were tons of people, children, costumes, candy and fun.  The fall day was cool, and we actually saw more animals outside than we have ever seen before.  For the record, I’ve been to the zoo dozens of times throughout my entire life, so it really was quite amazing to see the tapirs outside and standing up.

One of the best highlights for me, though, was the Star Wars troupe.  I love Star Wars.  I was five, I think, when the first Star Wars: A New Hope came out.  Different stages of my early life have the different movies imprinted in my mind.  Harrison Ford as Han Solo was one of my first Hollywood crushes.  My first date was going to see Return of the Jedi when I was about thirteen years old.  The magic of the movie wasn’t ruined, fortunately, by the immaturity of my date.  He crunched spilt popcorn and laughed about it right when the duel between Darth Vader and Luke was occurring.  How rude of him!  We didn’t have a second date, by the way.

Back to the zoo.  There were Storm Troopers, a Tatooine family, and even a Tusken Raider.  I was delighted!  They had full-sized, accurate weapons, for goodness sake.  It was like being at Comic-Con.  Or maybe even on Tatooine.  I tried to get my sons –- who are Darth Vader and a Clone Trooper (Captain Rex, according to the zoo’s train driver) for Halloween this year—to get a picture.  They refused.  They love Star Wars, too, but they were scared to see Storm Troopers in their real world.  But I wanted a picture with a Storm Trooper! So, with a rush of excitement, I gave my camera to their handler, and got my picture with the Storm Troopers.

That’s me, in the teal shirt.  Can you see me?  I can’t, hardly.  But my friend took some closer pictures, so I’m hoping to get one of them from her.

What does all this have to do with writing, you may be wondering?  Well, it was a magical moment.  I was seven again.  I felt excited, and happy. 

That is what writing does for me, too.  The magic of creating, seeing what my subconscious comes up with, and sharing that magic with others is what makes writing enjoyable.  And we all need magic in our lives.  I think I'm going to concentrate on that part for a while, and not worry so much about the other stuff.  I have to believe the platform will come along.  Worrying about it isn't going to make it grow any faster, right?

For the record, I did make my kids take a picture with a Storm Trooper.  We caught them on the way out of the zoo.  This morning my eldest asked to see the picture, and told me he was glad I made him take the picture, because “I like storm troopers now.”  In the picture, we all look very happy.

What creates magic in your life?