Keepsake #13
“God please just help me to stay focused on Jesus, let him be my inspiration and not people's response… having you in my life has brought me so much joy.” Written, August 11, 1997.
After I published my first book, “From Lemons to Lemonade - Faith-building stories from real women”, I was asked when the next one will come. Still working on it, kind of hard with new life adventures sneaking up on me. The nice thing is I began to enjoy brainstorming titles with some friends and here are two titles: “From lemon peels to tea - Stories that show how in suffering, even though you can’t see anything good coming from it, if you give it some time, it can warm your heart”, and “Flavored lemonade - Colorful stories where the first ingredient was sour and then a syrup such as strawberry, raspberry, peach, you get it, was added and combination of sweet and sour turn it into a refreshing ending.” I know, these titles will need to be slimmed down. The fact is I did publish a second book and I am still living the sequel of my first one.
I think back on how insecure I felt to publish that book, the courage it took, and the encouragement from friends to make it happen. Here is an excerpt from the introduction to my book “From Lemons to Lemonade”
“I have tons of writings on what I have learned and continue to learn. Some of the topics include: how to open your heart even if you have to pry it open. How to remember that you are a married woman and not a single mom even though your husband is not around as much as you want. What to do when your adult children make choices that hurt you. How to walk a road that God has clearly marked out for you when all you know is how it starts but not how it ends. How to embrace a child that you did not give birth to while she hurts you because she is so hurt. How to care for the little girl inside you didn’t even know was hurting until you turned thirty.
Those are just some of the things I have written about. Even though there are many topics, I never felt that each one individually was good enough for a book, because I have such a long way to go to be considered wise in any of these areas.” Published 2015.
Similar to how movies have deleted scenes to keep them from being too long, there were many deleted paragraphs from my books. The introduction paragraph I shared has a deleted scene. In the book I wrote: “I never felt that each one individually was good enough for a book” What I didn’t share is that I was so afraid that the only way I was able to move forward was to take my friends along with me. That’s why the book is by “Olivia and Friends”. I didn’t feel good enough to write a book so I took some friends with me.
The thing I learned as an author is that not every person is going to have a positive impression of the material I publish. Even in my circle of friends, some are inspired when they read something I wrote, some don’t get what I am trying to convey at all, and others have a hard time because of all the grammatical errors causes them to not focus on what I am trying to say, (I have friends with all kinds of personalities). A small number will skim through what I write, out of loyalty to me.
I remember how sad I was when someone wrote a review that buying my book was a waste of money. That’s when I was charging $7.99 for it as a debut price. I had so much positive feedback but that 1 star review shook me. I am grateful that God continues to teach me that when I focus on people I will not do his will. I’m so grateful I decided to not stop writing after that review, otherwise I will not be smiling as I write thinking of the many readers who can’t wait to read anything I publish.
To God be the glory!
“And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.” Hebrews 12:1-2a