Resa’s Pieces

“You do get to a certain point in life where you have to realistically, I think, understand that the days are getting shorter, and you can’t put things off thinking you’ll get to them someday. If you really want to do them, you better do them.”

From the great Nora Ephron who accomplished many “things.” She was a writer, director, and a filmmaker. You may have seen “Silkwood,” “When Harry Met Sally,” or read her humorous essays on the highs and lows of being a woman.

I have always written because I have always read. I grew up on an isolated Iowa farm in the 60s. I even wrote a book about it, Farmer’s Daughter and I Can Prove It.

Despite their limited education, my parents owned a number of books we would call classics. Imagine Chaucer, Shakespeare, Melville, Dickinson amidst 600 acres of corn! I never knew how they acquired them. Now there is no one to ask about their small library. I watched them read, and my father taught me to read before I was in kindergarten. He also had a small blackboard and wrote out letters and numbers for me. No wonder I became a teacher and a writer.

When I retired, one of my goals was to write. Free from teaching responsibilities, I had plenty of time. So, I set to writing a romance/ghost novel. My plot centered on a Southern lady ghost from the Civil War era in love with a contemporary man, a veteran of the war in Afghanistan. It took place in a haunted hotel in the tourist town of Branson, Missouri.

I imagined myself giving speeches and signing books at various clubs, schools, libraries, festivals just as I had done with previous works. Well, the publishing world had changed because their audience had. The manuscript, while praised, was rejected again and again because of the era of my ghostly heroine.

Publishing is a business. I have always understood editors “buy” (their term not mine) titles they believe will make their company a profit. Sometimes just breaking even is enough for agents, editors, publicists, printers, and all those involved in the business.

You don’t write to become rich. Even J.D. Salinger, who sold many books, stated, “Every writer should write for their own reasons…for themselves alone.”

My reason has always been that I like expressing myself, sharing what I’ve learned, playing with words. Things had changed. I couldn’t find an outlet for my words, my ideas. Then something came along no one could have ever imagined when I was growing up in Iowa—the internet.

The internet has become a place to publish, to find an audience. I thought of Ephron’s advice. I couldn’t put off “things” I “really wanted to do.”

Now, along with many others in my situation, I’m the writer, editor, publisher, publicist, and when necessary, also the reviewer/critic. That’s a lot of hats to wear! Maybe, I will ask for a raise!