I can look at this in one of two ways: pessimistically or optimistically. My inner pessimist loves this measly pittance of a reimbursement. It says, “See, I told you this wasn’t gonna work. What a waist of time. Why don’t we go hide until all of this writing nonsense is forgotten? I won’t say anything if you won’t. How much income tax do we have to pay on this? Let’s see, there are 76,817 words in that novel, that means you earned 0.0006 cents per word, before taxes. I’m impressed,” says my cynical pessimist.
Luckily, there’s another voice that feeds me a second stream of thoughts. My optimist says, “Right on! A paycheck! That makes you a professional. You are in the game, and you can’t play unless you’re in the game. It’s beautiful, let’s frame it. It’s a ribbon across the finish line. Who else do you personally know who gets writing royalties? Hum…nobody. That would be zero people, zero dollars. You did it! Let’s celebrate.”
Here in Sonoma, we have a great consignment store named Sisters. I found a gorgeous Asian style, mid-calf length dress that fits perfectly for $30. After sales tax, that leaves me with over a twenty-dollars of Lulu balance. Not bad. I’m going to wear the dress next week to my very first bookstore event. Readers’ Books, here in town, is hosting a reception for me and Pearls My Mother Wore. It’s all good.
Here’s something else to look at. This week the Amgen Tour of California rolled through nearby Glen Ellen. It’s a seven-day bicycle event that covers over 800 miles of California, and until yesterday, Lance Armstrong was in it. TV coverage of the event can be seen on the Versus channel. The average age of the riders, the peloton, is almost 29. Many of the competitors will go on to the Tour de France in July:
Levi Leiphimer (local favorite from Santa Rosa)
Andy Schleck (strong, young rider, from Luxembourg)
Mark Cavendish (charismatic, hot head and sensation finish-line sprinter)
Tom Boonen (a powerhouse, from Belgium)
Fabian Cancellare (always a threat for the win, from Sweden)
Stuart O’Grady (strong and almost 38 years old)
David Zabriskie ( he won the third stage of this race)
Yaroslav Popovych, Jens Voigt, and Heinrich Haussler are also exceptional competitors.
Here are a couple of pictures from where Lutrell and I watched the cyclist go by:
We didn’t expect all this rain in May.
Aim a little higher for the mouth Mr. Water Bottle.
This is one big-time fan leading the peloton for a brief moment.
Levi and Lance are in this group. Lance has the yellow Live Strong bands on his sleves. Live Strong is his cancer research foundation.
Have a great week and I’ll post again next Friday.
Royalty dress, I love that! Thanks Rita
Terry – congratulations are in order. I think it’s exciting that you received a royalty check of that amount. My dad was a writer (he died of altzheimers in 2006) and finally published a children’s book – “The Great White Shepherd” – late in life. He was getting little checks every year, from $.60 to $60. I think the publisher must not be very honest, as we have not head from them in years, yet the book is still on e-bay and Amazon. I need to call them. I hate confrontation, but even small checks are worth fighting for.
I hope that wearing your “royalty dress” will inspire you to keep writing.
Hugs,
Rita
Don’t be shy. I enjoy the company.