“Writing is an act of faith, not a trick of grammar.”

I was reminded of this quote from EB White last week when two huge cartons thumped onto my front porch. My author’s copies of Beyond All Measure had arrived. Even after publishing more than a dozen previous books I still felt the surge of joy that comes from seeing the newest book in print. After months and months of  research and writing, rewriting, editing, answering questions about cover design, tweaking back cover copy, at last the book is finished. Hooray!

But then the doubts set in: Is it any good? Will reviewers like it? Will it speak to readers in the way I hoped?  I’m sure Mr. White must have felt much the same way upon sending his books out into the world. But really,  writers have no choice. As Samuel Lover once observed, when the itch of literature comes over one,  nothing can cure it but the scratching of a pen.  So we scratch away with hope and with faith that somehow our books will make it into the right hands, and that we will have the opportunity and blessing to get up again tomorrow and start a new story.  This book hits the stores in another couple of weeks and in the meantime, I am already hard at work editing a second book and writing a third, carrying on my own small act of faith.

As a side note: This coming Saturday, May 28th at 10 am, I’ll be guesting on KSLR’s Girl Talk Texas radio show. If you’re in the central or south Texas region, I hope you’ll tune in.

Next Monday is Memorial Day. Ron has the day off and we are planning a full weekend, as I’m sure many of you  are, too.  I won’t post here next week but I’ll be back the following week. I’m moving my blog post day to Wednesday, so look for the next one on Wednesday, June 8th, which just happens to be our wedding anniversary and the official “in stores” date for Beyond All Measure. Two reasons to celebrate!

In the meantime, I’ll leave you with another of my favorite EB White quotes: I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.

May you find the perfect balance between the two.