Why You Must Believe in the Power of Your Writing
How I've built a phenomenal book tour and how you can, too.
Thank you for your interest in Lynne Golodner’s Rebel Author Newsletter! This weekly missive focuses on writing and publishing, and I send it to my audience free as a gift. If you find value here, and want to support a working writer, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. Paid subscribers qualify for monthly book giveaways and bimonthly writing coaching calls. (The next one is March 27th at 12 pm ET.) It’s also wonderful if you choose to comment or share this with others. Thanks for reading!
Ten days in California. Heavy rains turning the mountains the green of jewels or a painter’s palette. Cool winds and calm mornings. I took my youngest son with me for this book tour adventure, and we hiked in the Hollywood Hills, shopped in every independent bookstore we could find and gazed at a full moon over a ferocious sea. Oh, and we met wonderful people who were new to us, and also people I’d known virtually but never in person, and pressed into them the kind of hugs that are lifesaving, or life-giving, or maybe both.
So now I’m back and gazing out on a bright cold winter day in Michigan and missing the lilting topography of a land where steep slopes rise to pinnacles and peaks and descend into the frothing foam of an always-moving ocean.
There is a scent of pine in northern California that I became drunk on. Inhaling that freshness - I couldn’t get enough. And on those southern California footpaths, switchbacking up to a mountain ridge, the heady scent of sagebrush, too, entranced me. I made it to a mountain peak (two, actually) and looked out on an overcast morning. An American flag flapped against a metal pole on the mountaintop. Other hikers sat on the very edge of the summit. There was a wisdom tree at the first summit, a single beautiful tree, its needles heavy with perfectly round drops of dew, and the ground was damp but not as wet as it would be when the rains started and continued nonstop for three days.
Have you ever considered that we are living in a time of extremes?
Everyone in California was worried about the coming rains. Really, about driving in it. I had far to go for two of my speaking engagements - one was at a synagogue in Pomona, an hour or more outside of LA, and another was at Chaffey College, even further from the city-center - so I was already worried about LA driving and distances and being able to focus on the words and my audience. But the rains? I mean, in Michigan, we drive in rain and it’s no big deal and we endure what comes, but there it seemed calamitous.
All was well, we made it through, and the final LA speaking engagement, at Temple Beth Am, featured a lovely room full of inquisitive, smart people, who were eager to hear how I wrote WOMAN OF VALOR and why and all about my personal journey through the spectrum of Jewish observance.
Then, Shaya and I headed north. We had breakfast in Solvang, stayed a night in Carmel at the lip of the crashing ocean, then landed in Half Moon Bay. I wanted to stay outside the city - I am not a city person, but a person who feels at home in nature. I need to breathe the fresh air and the damp of soil and have nights of quiet.
Thursday night was a pinnacle event, hosted by my friend and client Lynda Marren, at a gorgeous venue, Foreign Cinema. It was a book launch talk featuring me on stage with retired literary agent Randi Murray in a smart conversation about how and why we write and where we find meaning.
I wish I’d had a notebook to jot down every name of every person I met. So many wide-eyed, interesting people! So many stories to weave with my own.
That’s what makes life good: meeting fascinating people and knowing you’re not alone.
Every single person I meet has something interesting to share. A place they’ve been. A role they’ve held. A dream they are soaring toward. Gosh, there isn’t enough time to do it all, but I’m trying.
For those of you writers out there, curious about how these events came to be, I simply decided I would go to California to promote my book, and sought out opportunities to do so. I contacted synagogues and universities. Called friends and colleagues. Bought a plane ticket. Made reservations for places to sleep.
Being an author is not just about writing books. It’s about believing enough in your writing and your voice to take leaps. It’s like any entrepreneurial endeavor - you have to spend money to make money. You have to take chances. You have to believe it can happen.
I’ve had two successful businesses, and I never create business plans. Marketing strategies, yes. But I don’t map out all the what-ifs and careful-next-steps. I leap. And there is always a net.
I think entrepreneurs are like that - we believe we can succeed so we do. And I think authors need to become like entrepreneurs - risk-taking, big-dreaming.
A lot of people I didn’t know last month are now reading my book. Some are passing it along to screenwriters and Hollywood producers. Others want to talk with me about their own writing, and I can’t wait to get to know them better.
This past week in California was full and it went by so fast. It was, in a word, wonderful.
Opportunities For You This Week
My next free Writealong is Saturday, March 2 at 11 a.m. ET! If you’re on the list, you’ll get the reminders and Zoom link. If you want to join the list, click here.
My new class, Creative Writing for Beginners, starts March 5. There is room for you! Click here to register.
Last chance to qualify to win a free book in February - become a paid subscriber before end of day Thursday! This month, I’m giving away Alka Joshi’s The Henna Artist.
Thanks for reading!
With love, Lynne