Taste of Success

This year I tasted those drops of sweet success when I received my first writer's paycheck (a $100 honorarium) upon publication in the Travelers' Tales anthology The Best Women’s Travel Writing 2009: True Stories From Around the World. Yesterday I read an excerpt from my story, "Rite of Passage", participating with several other contributors in an 'Author Talk' at my local independent bookstore.

There is nothing like the enthusiastic response of an audience (laughter in all the right places, questions and book signing) to boost the fragile author-ego. Like many other writers, especially the fledglings, I've often gone to battle with the inner demons of self-doubt and denial that threaten a creative life and keep me from taking my work seriously. I repeatedly ask myself: Is it any good? Does someone really want to read this? Will anyone benefit from my writing?

Even when I feel deeply inspired I often convince myself I must feed the worm bin or attend to a myriad of other tasks before I can sit down to write. Meanwhile those wild geese, shaped like paper silhouettes against a thick orange sunset, keep flapping their wings toward dusk.