Blocking Blessings
I'm on deadline for two manuscripts, so blogging will suffer.
It's the end of the year and that makes me (and everyone else) reflective. I'm also right in the middle of Brown Bookshelf research. And having to decide what books deserve a spotlight has required me to strip away my competitive veneer (hard to do) and give each and every author/book their fair shake.
As I ask myself, "Is this book under-recognized?" I'm having to define "under recognized" for each and every book.
There's one contender that's been a National Book Award finalist three times! Surely she can't be classified as under the radar.
Yet, I'd never heard of her. And unless I'm totally alone, it's likely there are actually plenty of kids who may not be exposed to her book, as well - maybe because of her NBA final status. After all, how many books do kids clamor for merely because the book has some sort of national acclaim?
It's an odd position for a writer to be in - to be a critical darling and a commerical question mark. Part of my mission with The Brown Bookshelf is to help - what little I can - to balance that out for the authors we'll select.
And by turning off my competitive voice, I'm better able to think through these things. But until I did, I found myself thinking about "recognition" in terms of my own place in the publishing market. Bad idea.
Because some of the contenders are not so under the radar. And I found cattiness creeping into my thinking as I thought - Well they don't need this recognition.
Since I'm an author who's having to choose some of my peers to uplift, there's a very thin line I'm walking between unselfish support for a deserving author and blocking my own blessings by summarily dismissing someone who, in my opinion, has already gotten their fair share of influencer attention.
So as I go over my list, I'm reminded of hearing the comedian, Tommy Davidson, doing a press junket about seven years ago.
He was saying how, toward the end of In Living Color's run, he often found himself looking around at the success many of his fellow castmates were experiencing. Keenan Ivory Wayans, the show's producer, had ventured off into movie making, Damon Wayans was about to get his own sitcom, Jim Carrey had straight blown up on film and was even getting Oscar love for his more serious portrayals.
Davidson found himself spiraling into bitter jealousy wondering when his time was going to come. He wanted commercial success, not to have to hit the stand-up circuit again. He had the good fortune to be frank about his envy to his grandmother. And she told him that by holding on to that bitterness he was blocking his own blessings. That he'd never experience any real success of his own until he stopped sitting around hating on others as he waited on it.
Like all good grandchildren do, he heeded her advice. Soon after, he got the voice over gig with Disney's The Proud Family. During the interview, he marveled at his grandmother's advice and confessed that, while it had still been a challenge to rejoice in his peers success as his slow-mo'ed its way to him, he no longer looked at things from that angle.
As much radio and TV I listen to, that interview stayed with me as things that touch on a personal note often do.
At the time, I was still a PR flack for a tech company. I was successful, if corporate status and a certain salary are any indication. So I couldn't relate directly to what Davidson was saying. But, 1) his grandmother's advice sounded like something my own would say and 2) it just made sense.
When you dwell on the negative, you're not doing anything to make positive things happen.
Now, as my book competes in the YA market, I'm constantly reminded that to stay the course, I can't block my own blessings.
I'm even more aware of that, as I look to uplift authors for the 28 Days Later Campaign. In a way, for me, The Brown Bookshelf is about good karma.
I know what type of success I'd like to have. And what little of that I can control, I work hard at. But in the end, I can't help but feel that I'm racking up a lot of good karma points for focusing some of my attention and what little free time I have on putting someone else on shine.
I'm not sure how or even if it will ever connect to my own success in the book market. But I do know this - no blessing blocking going on over here.
In case I don't blog anymore this week, Happy New Year!
It's the end of the year and that makes me (and everyone else) reflective. I'm also right in the middle of Brown Bookshelf research. And having to decide what books deserve a spotlight has required me to strip away my competitive veneer (hard to do) and give each and every author/book their fair shake.
As I ask myself, "Is this book under-recognized?" I'm having to define "under recognized" for each and every book.
There's one contender that's been a National Book Award finalist three times! Surely she can't be classified as under the radar.
Yet, I'd never heard of her. And unless I'm totally alone, it's likely there are actually plenty of kids who may not be exposed to her book, as well - maybe because of her NBA final status. After all, how many books do kids clamor for merely because the book has some sort of national acclaim?
It's an odd position for a writer to be in - to be a critical darling and a commerical question mark. Part of my mission with The Brown Bookshelf is to help - what little I can - to balance that out for the authors we'll select.
And by turning off my competitive voice, I'm better able to think through these things. But until I did, I found myself thinking about "recognition" in terms of my own place in the publishing market. Bad idea.
Because some of the contenders are not so under the radar. And I found cattiness creeping into my thinking as I thought - Well they don't need this recognition.
Since I'm an author who's having to choose some of my peers to uplift, there's a very thin line I'm walking between unselfish support for a deserving author and blocking my own blessings by summarily dismissing someone who, in my opinion, has already gotten their fair share of influencer attention.
So as I go over my list, I'm reminded of hearing the comedian, Tommy Davidson, doing a press junket about seven years ago.
He was saying how, toward the end of In Living Color's run, he often found himself looking around at the success many of his fellow castmates were experiencing. Keenan Ivory Wayans, the show's producer, had ventured off into movie making, Damon Wayans was about to get his own sitcom, Jim Carrey had straight blown up on film and was even getting Oscar love for his more serious portrayals.
Davidson found himself spiraling into bitter jealousy wondering when his time was going to come. He wanted commercial success, not to have to hit the stand-up circuit again. He had the good fortune to be frank about his envy to his grandmother. And she told him that by holding on to that bitterness he was blocking his own blessings. That he'd never experience any real success of his own until he stopped sitting around hating on others as he waited on it.
Like all good grandchildren do, he heeded her advice. Soon after, he got the voice over gig with Disney's The Proud Family. During the interview, he marveled at his grandmother's advice and confessed that, while it had still been a challenge to rejoice in his peers success as his slow-mo'ed its way to him, he no longer looked at things from that angle.
As much radio and TV I listen to, that interview stayed with me as things that touch on a personal note often do.
At the time, I was still a PR flack for a tech company. I was successful, if corporate status and a certain salary are any indication. So I couldn't relate directly to what Davidson was saying. But, 1) his grandmother's advice sounded like something my own would say and 2) it just made sense.
When you dwell on the negative, you're not doing anything to make positive things happen.
Now, as my book competes in the YA market, I'm constantly reminded that to stay the course, I can't block my own blessings.
I'm even more aware of that, as I look to uplift authors for the 28 Days Later Campaign. In a way, for me, The Brown Bookshelf is about good karma.
I know what type of success I'd like to have. And what little of that I can control, I work hard at. But in the end, I can't help but feel that I'm racking up a lot of good karma points for focusing some of my attention and what little free time I have on putting someone else on shine.
I'm not sure how or even if it will ever connect to my own success in the book market. But I do know this - no blessing blocking going on over here.
In case I don't blog anymore this week, Happy New Year!
posted by Paula at 11:02 AM
4 Comments:
Amen to that. I completely agree. Not only do the negative feelings toward peers block your blessings, the ill will only increases theirs even more while you remain stagnant. So from the words of somebody who said it first; don't hate, congratulate!-LOL
Congrats on your 2 releases. I'm just glad there is more YA fiction out there for our teens to enjoy.
Have a wonderful and BLESSED New Year!:)
-Laurel
I'm just glad there is more YA fiction out there for our teens to enjoy
Me too. Here's to yours joining their ranks next year...well, we know how slow publishing is, so to '09.
I've been experiencing some of the same feelings as I research authors and books. An added challenge for me, being on the PB selection committee, is in separating the books and authors from the illustrations. I fell in love with picture books not because of words, but because of pictures. I didn't fall in love with words until later. And I am still affected by pictures. Over the past few weeks, I've read some nice books whose illustrations I did not like at all. But I can't allow myself to be affected by the art -- particularly considering that the authors most likely had no say about the illustrator.
Don, that's really interesting. And it wasn't until meeting you that I began to truly consider the partnership between author and illustrator. For me it's really about the mix of the two - illustration and words.
I never even knew, until a year or so ago, that authors often had no say in their illustrator.
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