“There’s no room at the inn...”
My advent booklet suggests that if we get hurried and
harried and blue as we struggle to meet our holiday season obligations, we should
pause and reflect on the difficult journey the biblical characters undertook
leading up to Christmas day--and take heart. For despite the grueling trek, it all ended rather nicely.
It certainly could not have been an easy trip for a very pregnant Mary. And the shepherds risked their livelihoods to go visit the new born Prince. The Magi travelled far with no GPS or smart phones. No twitter to guide them.
I liked the advice so much I began to think of other journeys I am on and how rough the route sometimes is, how distant the goal....
“There is no room..." the rejection letters from every major publishing house said. "No room on the publisher’s desk."
"No room on my client list," said every major agent. "No room."
Yet there I was, my labor of love waiting to be delivered. I’d traveled far, through writing and revisions and beta readers and manuscript evaluation services. Contests. Editors. Research.
"Here, look what I have," I said.
“There’s no room. No space for your kind. Go now."
About then, I settled on the stable, the humble manger, the smallest of publishers--myself publisher. Surrounded by lowly shepherds and a few friends. Family perhaps. At times receiving welcomed rich gifts of encouragement, suggestions and reviews from my Magi mentors.
No room, yet that debut novel is born, given life, set out in the world... (Could it have been any other way?)
It humbly influenced six people at the library, fifty in a high school auditorium, five juveniles at a young offenders facility. Thirty at-risk teens in the alternate education classroom. A northern radio station audience, blog followers, virtual social network buddies.
Few. Just a few followers, a small influence...for what more can one expect from something that was born in a manger because there was no room at the inn?
Yes, indeed. We do know what kind of influence is possible from the weariest of journeys and the humblest of beginnings. What influence our books may have is unknown and if we don’t tell our stories, they will never, ever get told. Never influence a soul.
Follow that star....
M E R R Y C H R I S T M A S !
Brought to you by THE TRAZ – my debut novel that was
originally self-published and subsequently picked up by Imajin Books, along
with the sequel FATAL ERROR. Imajin Books also published a School Edition of THE TRAZ.
It certainly could not have been an easy trip for a very pregnant Mary. And the shepherds risked their livelihoods to go visit the new born Prince. The Magi travelled far with no GPS or smart phones. No twitter to guide them.
I liked the advice so much I began to think of other journeys I am on and how rough the route sometimes is, how distant the goal....
“There is no room..." the rejection letters from every major publishing house said. "No room on the publisher’s desk."
"No room on my client list," said every major agent. "No room."
Yet there I was, my labor of love waiting to be delivered. I’d traveled far, through writing and revisions and beta readers and manuscript evaluation services. Contests. Editors. Research.
"Here, look what I have," I said.
“There’s no room. No space for your kind. Go now."
About then, I settled on the stable, the humble manger, the smallest of publishers--myself publisher. Surrounded by lowly shepherds and a few friends. Family perhaps. At times receiving welcomed rich gifts of encouragement, suggestions and reviews from my Magi mentors.
No room, yet that debut novel is born, given life, set out in the world... (Could it have been any other way?)
It humbly influenced six people at the library, fifty in a high school auditorium, five juveniles at a young offenders facility. Thirty at-risk teens in the alternate education classroom. A northern radio station audience, blog followers, virtual social network buddies.
Few. Just a few followers, a small influence...for what more can one expect from something that was born in a manger because there was no room at the inn?
Yes, indeed. We do know what kind of influence is possible from the weariest of journeys and the humblest of beginnings. What influence our books may have is unknown and if we don’t tell our stories, they will never, ever get told. Never influence a soul.
Follow that star....
M E R R Y C H R I S T M A S !
Brought to you by THE TRAZ – my debut novel that was
originally self-published and subsequently picked up by Imajin Books, along
with the sequel FATAL ERROR. Imajin Books also published a School Edition of THE TRAZ.
