Bread, Baby, and Six Books

Today's not-so-favorite moments included . . .

. . .  trying a French bread recipe that didn't turn out very well.  I was really excited about it, too.  Oh well--you can't win 'em all.

Today's favorite moments included . . .

. . . playing with Anna.  A friend at church once said that it wasn't until she had her third child that she learned to truly cherish and enjoy their baby phase.  Perhaps that's not true of everyone, but it's certainly been the case for me.   I savor play time and cuddles with Anna, knowing this phase will end all too soon.  Part of me can't wait for my kids to all go off to school so I have more time to Get Things Done, but another part of me wishes I could have a little baby to snuggle forever.

And another thing . . .

. . . this evening I read a short bio on a successful fantasy author named Brandon Sanderson, who has published numerous novels and used Robert Jordan's notes to finish the last three Wheel of Time books after Jordan's death in 2007.  Sanderson began his writing career as a BYU student while manning a hotel desk for five years in the early hours of the morning.  He spent most of his graveyard shift writing, and he had heard that your first five books are usually bad so he determined to write at least six novels.  Sure enough, the first five were rejected, but  the sixth (Elantris) was ultimately accepted after sitting for 18 months on an editor's desk.

As I read this I thought of STM, who has repeatedly sent her books to publishers and kept on writing despite the bitter pain of rejection.  I wonder how many books she's written, and which one will finally be accepted.  The fourth?  The sixth?  The tenth?

We each seem to have at least one thing that we feel driven to do.  My cousin-in-law has to sew to feel normal, some women from my spinning guild feel driven to spin and weave, STM simply must keep writing, and I don't feel like myself if I'm not cooking something new and interesting to me.  At least my husband (and sometimes one or more of my children) eats and likes what I cook, though.  It would be truly dispiriting if my whole family refused to eat anything I cooked, especially if it took me a year to make it.  My hat is off to you, STM.

“At the end of the day if you told me, ‘You will never get published,’ I would have still written the books.” (Brandon Sanderson)