First star I see tonight.
I wish I may, I wish I might
Have this wish I wish tonight."
One of the greatest joys of childhood is wishing. Making Christmas wish lists, dreaming of what we will be when we grow up, wishing we may, wishing we might adds color to our lives. It encourages us to reach for the highest star. We may never achieve that goal but setting our sights high will take us farther than if we simply wish for the closest star. Once that is achieved, we may not have the incentive to keep climbing.
My Three Special Wishes While Growing Up
1. Write "Books You Can Trust" that inspire and entertain readers--books that make the world a better place because I lived. Help others to follow their dream. Heartfelt thanks from fans and former students confirm number one dream has come true.
- "Thank you for writing books both my twelve-going-on-eighteen-year-old granddaughter and I can enjoy without a qualm."
- "I would never have become an award-winning, best-selling author without your help and encouragement."
- The one I cherish most is from an eighteen-year-old fan. "It's so hard being a PG teen in an R-rated world. Your heroines refuse to compromise their ideals. I will too.."
2. Live on a cattle ranch, be courted by a handsome cowboy, marry, and ride off into the sunset to our "happily ever after," This did not happen. I never married. Yet the wish was so strong it motivated me to write numerous western novels. These are set in the untamed Wyoming Territory just after the Civil War,
Wildflower Harvest. Ivy Ann and Laurel Brown are often mistaken for one another. When they leave their West Virginia home in search of love and adventure, the young women's resemblance wreaks havoc..
Desert Rose, sequel. Nate Birchfield feels there is only one man for his spunky cousin, Desert Rose. Unfortunately, Carmichael Blake lives in Concord, Massachusetts. Is the Hand and Heart magazine an answer to Nate's problem?
3. Live in Alaska and ride a dog sled. Another wish that didn't and won't come true. Still, I have many times mushed across a frozen landscape beneath a full moon and sailed stormy seas with the characters in two exciting novels and a novella.
Flower of the North, Snowflake Love #1..Hoping to overcome bitterness and find peace, a talented surgeon flees to a remote village in Central Alaska Territory, after being betrayed by those he trusted. Sasha Anton and her father struggle against evil forces in their beloved village. Bern and Sasha must expose those robbing the Anton fur cache and furnishing whiskey to the once-peaceful Tarnigan Indians before everything they have worked for is destroyed.
Flower of Alaska, Snowflake Love #2. Dr. Arthur Baldwin cannot forgive himself for shattering his best friend's life. A four-thousand-mile journey lies between him, Tarnigan, and the troubled doctor's hope for redemption. Inga Nansen exults in being "First Mate" on her father's ship, the Flower of Alaska. Now Inga must chart her course: continue to sail her beloved seas or spend her life in snowy Tarnigan.
Winterlude, a novella. An out-of-place snowflake in San Diego beckons Ariel Dixon, daughter of Ketchikan's uncrowned salmon king home. Ariel follows the lure over the objections of her demanding
fiancé.
After twelve long years in which Ariel believes a beloved child dead, Jean Thoreau keeps a boyhood promise and returns. Ariel must choose between a life of luxury and one fighting the elements with a swaying deck beneath her feet and Jean by her side.
After twelve long years in which Ariel believes a beloved child dead, Jean Thoreau keeps a boyhood promise and returns. Ariel must choose between a life of luxury and one fighting the elements with a swaying deck beneath her feet and Jean by her side.
What are your secret wishes? What do you long to do or be?
Don't let fear of failure keep you from following your dreams. It is better to try and fail than never to have tried at all. Students in the days before we submitted manuscripts by mail, often complained, "I have enough rejection slips to paper a room." I laughed and replied, " I have enough to paper my house!"
Years ago after I had my first book published, I was at a government training session. They asked us to draw where we were with something important to us. Drawing is not one of my talents, but I managed a reasonable facsimile of a bookshelf occupied by a lone book. We were then told to draw where we imagined we would be in five years. I filled the shelf, not really believing it would happen, but determined to do everything I could to add published titles.
George Eliot said. "It is never too late to be what you might have been." Lao Tzu said, "The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." I didn't start seriously writing until I was forty years old. I have taught fifty, sixty, and seventy-year old students who took that first step and eventually saw their secret wishes become reality in the form of published books. I know retired person who now have time for hobbies, sports, and serving others.
Take that single step. It may open a whole new world for you, as mine did for me.
Wildflower Harvest and other titles) available at
4 comments:
So interesting to read about how the desires of your heart have blossomed in your writing, teaching, and living. Thanks for the reminder to keep our dreams alive--and flexible (:
Yes. I am so blessed. It took a long time but was well worth waiting for! And I learned so much in the meantime.
Beautiful stories that all can enjoy. You've made wishes come true for so many of your students through educating and mentoring them. Thank you!
It is pure joy to watch my students grow, not only in skill, but in discovering the wonder of writing. I get excited when someone I have been able to encourage sticks with writing, whether for the market, their families, or themselves.
Post a Comment