Just Ask

by Shirley Bahlmann
I drove an hour and a half to the Cedar Fort author talk yesterday evening. (I went with a writer friend and my writer son, who is 14 and has great ideas but spends very little time actually writing.) When Deen Kemsley got up to speak, I was impressed with his great smile and easy presence. Then he began to tell the spiritual experiences from his book, which were interesting, but I had expected to find the amazing secret to his success of selling 1,000 books before they were even published.
Nice talk, wrong mindset.
Then, in the Q&A portion of the event, I discovered I was not the only one who wondered about his pre-sales success when someone asked, "How did you sell 1,000 books before it was even published?"
Deen gave us a sheepish grin, then said, "I asked a sponsor to buy a thousand books and he agreed."
At first it seemed so deceptively simple, I felt almost cheated. I chewed on his words while he answered some other attendees.
Then, when Deen asked if there were any more questions, I raised my hand and asked, "Will you endorse my next book?"
He laughed, then said maybe, then said he'd have to read it first. When I spoke to him afterward, he asked me what my book was about. I told him about Detours: When life throws you a curve just follow the road, and he said, "You've got me hooked. Send it along."
Well, whattaya know... just ask!

Neil Diamond Said So

By Rebecca Talley

I've admitted previously that I'm an American Idol junkie. Last night, the bubbly and always optimistic Brooke White was sent home. I shared her tears of disappointment. She worked hard and put her heart and soul into her art. Music is part of her and I'm sure she will continue to share her talent because she loves it.

Neil Diamond was the guest mentor for this week. Ryan Seacrest asked Mr. Diamond about retiring and just taking it easy. Mr. Diamond replied by saying that he loves what he does and he wants to keep doing it as long as he can. He then turned to the contestants and poignantly told them to keep doing it if they loved it and to never give up. He knows of what he speaks because he's been in the music business over forty years.

If we love writing, we should keep doing it. It's easy to become discouraged because the writing business is tough. It's impossible to know what publishers want or guess what the next market trend will be. And, let's face it, rejections sting.

But, we have to sit down and pour our hearts onto the paper (or computer screen) because it's part of who we are. Even in the face of rejection, we have to keep at it and never give up. Most importantly, we have to write because we love it and because Neil Diamond said so.