Earning $1.75

With our annual garage sale thankfully behind us (I worked on it for a week, sold probably 150 plants plus accumulated rummage, and made over $400!), it is time to get back to writing.

I told word-guru Gretchen that I missed my book the other day. She surmised, "I can imagine. These people (my characters) are like friends now."

That Gretchen. She's so smart. I hadn't even thought about being connected to my characters, but she was right. I'm just getting to know these people, and of course I have some vague idea of the journey they are on. But the bits and pieces of these creations are still coming together; as the book is built page by page, so the characters develop in my head, changing, growing. And as the small ideas I have for each of them begin to roll around in my mind, waking me up too early each morning, I can't wait to start putting them down on paper so I can build on who Tom and Finely and Mary and Bernice are, showing their strengths, uncovering their weaknesses, turning them into interesting people, people you would like to get to know.

I just read a a short blurb from Garrison Keillor in this week's Time magazine. He said there are 18 million authors in America, "each with an average of 14 readers, eight of who are blood relatives. Average annual earnings: $1.75."

I think it was a good sign that this information made me laugh.

Of course, since I am in the midst of writing a book, I did ask myself if all this work would be worth $1.75, and the answer was "no." In and of itself, the agony of finding the right words or coming up with the next plot turn or giving up time with my family or putting off my happy-time in the garden is not worth just $1.75. That's why it is key that my earnings will also include the pleasure I have experienced getting to know and like these quite interesting, quirky, fallable people and seeing them come to life. It may not buy me a cup of coffee, but in other ways, the payback is incalculable.

Besides, I've got one humongous family who will all be loyal enough to each buy a book. I see my earnings easily topping $2.00! This should be a piece of cake.