Tina Leonard | Fail-And-Succeed Success

I love writing. I feel fortunate that I get to make my living at putting words to paper. It means that I get to indulge my love of doing what I enjoyed when I was a child, which was read every single word I could get my hands on. Now I get to read wonderful works by other authors and friends, and sometimes I feel like I have a front-row seat to the ever-changing publishing world. I see a book make a bestseller list and I think, "Wow! I met that author!" Call me perpetually star-struck because I suppose I am. I root for everybody's careers and the state of the publishing industry because this is my team, the team that allows me to stay at home and do what I love to do most: Write, read, be a mom, a wife, a good neighbor and friend.

There are so many things I'm not good at that I enjoy being able to pull thousands of words together to make a manuscript. I don't decorate well. Goodness knows I try, but instead I employ my tennis buddies and kids' mothers for their various talents. One can do beautiful drapes, one helped me decorate my house when I had a lingering illness over two years that basically left me too weak and pained to leave my bed. She picked me up, took me to stores, carried items to my house and then returned them, selected my new front door. Writing allows me to realize that I can't do everything, and to appreciate the varied talents that my sisters have and that I will never have. I write, and they make beautiful. Or they're wonderful cooks. Know all the best party planners in town, and so on. We all rely on each other for a living and become better friends in the process.

Writing allows me time to do what I was always geared to do, even if I made a D in English in college, given to me by a professor who really hated my work. I'm sure he meant it well, but he said I had no business in an English major, and so my father suggested marketing. It may have been the one time I ever listened to him, but that degree in fashion gave me an insight into promotion and market research. I'm okay with failing at some things and succeeding in others. By this method of fail-and-succeed, I came back to writing. My family loves my career. It's allowed them to travel around the state meeting booksellers and authors and other people in the industry, and they really enjoyed that. One time an author stayed at my house who told really cool lion stories and had a recipe for amazing hot cocoa she shared with us. Another author—Christina Dodd—stayed with us and the kids were amazed by her. She had a really cool jacket they liked. My grandmother was most amazed that Pamela Morsi came to our house one day—one of her favorite authors! And there have been others. My children are all grown up now and about to finally leave the nest, but writing gave us the chance to be a close family. From writing on shoebox lids as a child to watching my own children appreciate the written word and sculpting their own college essays, thank you, Mr. College Professor—fail-and-succeed is a pretty good way of life!

Tina Leonard
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