Pink Skies, Beautiful Lakes and Black Dogs

My sister-in-law just emailed me this picture of me and my dh and our dog from our summer vacation in Maine. I thought it was soo cool I had to post it. Is this the most amazing sunset or what? Wowza. This is the same lake Stephen King has lots of property. Needless to say, I spent a LOT of time in the water hoping I'd get some of his success through osmosis. No movie deals have come thru yet (or TV deals, and I don't have over 500 million books in print), so I'm thinking it didn't work... darn it.

Seriously, though, I watched a biography on A&E last night on Stephen King. SO inspiring! Not only is he brilliant, but he had to overcome an unbelievable amount to get his success. Did you know his first book sold for $400k about 30 years ago? At that time, his annual salary as a teacher was $4600, and Stephen and his wife didn't even have a phone because they couldn't pay the bill. Um, wow! It's a ton of money now, but back then? In his situation? Blew his mind. And get this! He'd thought that book was so terrible that he threw it out (and it was written on a typewriter, so when it's thrown out, it's thrown out.) His wife fished it out of the trash, read it, told him he had to finish it and submit it. So he did, sent if off, and that was Carrie, his first book sale. Just goes to show how much of a difference it makes if you have someone to support you. AND it shows you that you never know how close you are to breaking through, and if you give up, you might be walking away right when your Carrie is right around the corner. So don't give up on your dream, even if you can't pay your phone bills!!!

posted by Stephanie Rowe @ 8:16 PM