Hi Rock Stars!
Here’s a question for you,
How do you celebrate your successes?
I was listening to a great podcast yesterday where the host and guest were discussing their fears as professionals, and one of them mentioned the fear of failure. This made me think about my own relationship with that word, and I realized that I’ve had an affair with the word failure for a long time.
Not because it has affected me negatively, quite the contrary. Embracing failure has been invaluable in allowing me the strength and courage to keep writing and pursuing my goals.
Every step in the process (whether I liked it or not) taught me priceless lessons. Lessons that I needed to learn in order to become better. The truth is, we have to be willing to be bad at things in order to be great. No one starts a master.
That’s why I actually love to fail. Failing is simply a way of learning how to succeed.
As long as you stick with it.
My greatest fear as a writer isn’t failure, but finding myself at the end of my life not having ever tried and giving it all I had. My greatest fear is having bucked when I should have persevered.
With that thought in mind, I’d like to celebrate a stepping stone in my journey.
I’ve been a writer all my life. I’ve had short stories rejected, queries rejected, entire books rejected. But I am still writing. And my most recent project, a book that is extremely close to my heart, is making the query rounds since April.
I haven’t queried a ton of agents for this project (about twenty so far). But I recently received a full manuscript request from two agents that I consider my ‘unicorn’ agents (i.e. agents I would not only LOVE to work with, but whom I know in my gut would be a perfect fit). I’ve followed them for a long time, and I admire them as people and professionals.
Of course, getting a manuscript request doesn’t mean they will sign me on as an author. But right now, the fact that they requested the manuscript alone, is reason enough to celebrate. To take a moment, smile, and revel in the prospect.
So, to commemorate this stepping stone, this month’s giveaway will be themed after the book I’m querying.
Set in 1796 Italy, Castle of Wishes and Starlight is a Venetian Carnival fantasy with a strong-willed heroine who finds herself venturing to an enchanted castle in search of her brother, only to discover a vexingly alluring magician with a sinister secret that threatens to destroy all she holds dear—including her soul.
Each item in the giveaway represents an aspect of my story:
- A wooden jewelry box, intricately carved and painted gold for opulence
- Five starry-night stickers to wish upon
- One blue and rose gold ball point pen with crystal casing and charm, because magical riddles can’t write themselves (or can they?)
This giveaway will run until August 31st and a winner will be randomly selected through my VIP Circle by September 1st. Open to U.S. residents only.
And if you’d like to know more about my VIP Circle (or monthly newsletter) before subscribing, just click here.
We should be the first ones to celebrate our own stepping stones. Failure is part of progress. It is not something to frown at, or cry over. It is something to take to heart and learn from. I have failed plenty of times, and I’m sure failure will happen again sooner or later. But let me celebrate this stepping stone in my progress with you, whether it turns into an agent’s offer or not. Enter to win a super cute giveaway and stick around. I don’t spam, or send pointless emails. Ever. There are enough promotionists out there. Let’s just be friends.
Who knows, you may yet discover your new story obsession.
Good books matter. Let’s care about them together.
Did you like this post? Then consider joining my VIP Circle and don’t miss out on all my additional content (monthly giveaways, Digital Swag Bag access code, bookish recommendations, short inspirational messages, and more!). Click HERE.
And if you want to collaborate with me don’t be shy. I love to work with fellow writers, spotlight authors, and host writing challenges. I’ve also been known to swap short critiques on occasion. Reach to me here.
Melissa Muhlenkamp 