Writer’s Dream Collides with Lightning. Story at 11.

This weekend I sat in my office in North Carolina catching up on some emails. It was thunder storming outside, great weather for office work. As the sky boomed, the power flickered and my books shook on their shelves. I started to get nervous. The pouring rain became ridiculously harsh, the thunder sounded pompously brutal. Was this going to be one of those deadly storms making the front page national news? My question was immediately answered by a brusque lightning bolt jackknifing into the yard right outside my window, zapping my cable wire in two. 

That dramatic display instantly killed my access to cable, internet and phone service, mocking my efforts to get caught up on work. The incident made me laugh a little. That's because from the day I declared I was going to write my memoir almost two years ago, outside forces sucker-punched my confidence – a frightening health scare, a great personal loss, financial struggle, the necessary sale of my house, even a broken finger. I’m talking a serious TKO.

But it’s two years later now, the book is published and my confidence is killer. So watch out lightning bolt. I’m going to say that your visit outside my window was actually reassuring to me. Yes, I took it as a message that the challenges are still there, but they're getting less harsh. 

When I called the cable guy to fix my line, he said he couldn’t come for a few days, I decided not to get frustrated, but to see this as a well-deserved break. I had been given a great opportunity to read, enjoy the quiet, get out for a few extra social events, and finally sit down to write my first author newsletter (And wouldn’t you know it, just as I finished this article, the cable guy came knocking on my door!).