A Week of Dreams Coming True

The past few days have reduced me to tears of joy a number of times. The good karma shared by this online community of writers is spilling over onto everything and fills me with hope and optimism.

Among the pieces of great news I’ve been honored to share in this week:

Amy McKinnon, dear friend and inspirational blogger from The Writers Group has a book deal for her first novel, Tethered. Amy’s posts and her gentle support and encouragement have helped sustain me since my first day of blogging. This is wonderful news for a woman who has worked so hard, dreamed so big and been so generous with her fellow writers.

Carleen Brice at The Pajama Gardener, new terrific friend and fellow Denverite has just been informed that her upcoming debut novel, Orange Mint and Honey will also be released as an audio book. Orange Mint and Honey will be released in February. Congratulations and I’ll be imagining Angela Bassett or (dare I say it) Maya Angelou reading your words.

Therese Fowler at Making it Up, author of Souvenir, also debuting in the US in February and already available in the UK, has just sold rights to her book in the 10^th foreign country! I’m imagining what Souvenir will look like printed in Japanese. Congratulations Therese!

And my latest bit of vicarious happiness was delivered by our neighbor, Marti Reid this morning. Marti is a jewelry designer who has recently rented studio space in one of the Denver arts areas. The studio is a cooperative gallery and this weekend the foot traffic from Denver Arts Week has been phenomenal for the Grace Gallery.

Marti stopped by this morning to invite Scott and me to see the gallery and to share a story. The gallery is adjacent to a small courtyard and one of the people working with Marti and her partners this weekend also does volunteer work with homeless youth in Denver. The man asked if he could borrow an easel to set up in the courtyard to display the pencil drawings of one of the young men he’s worked with. Marti began to help him set up in the courtyard and realized that the pencil drawings would blow away outdoors and offered to hang them on some open wall space inside.

Later on, David, a young man who’d been homeless and on the streets at fourteen came inside. Marti thinks David is probably in his early twenties now, and he’s found a place to live and has a steady job. David was stunned to see that Marti had hung his work inside the gallery. A while later, David stopped in again. Tears filled his eyes when he saw a “sold” sign next to one of his three drawings. Later still, he cried again when he saw that another of the three pieces had also sold. He looked Marti in the eyes and told her that after this weekend, he knows what he wants to do with his life.

There was not a dry eye in our kitchen.

Dreams come in all shapes and sizes. What a privilege it is for me to share in so many.