Tenacity

“Lord, give me the determination and tenacity of a weed.” — Mrs. Leon R. Walters

I don’t know who Mrs. Walters is, but in a few short words she voiced one of the elements of becoming a published writer. When the hubby came across her quote in a book he was reading, I jotted it down on my bedside notepad, knowing I’d use it in a blog post at some point.

That tenacity of which she speaks is important for writers, particularly ones who don’t publish their first books right out of the gate. We have to keep going, no matter how many rejections hit our mailboxes. That “sticking with it” attitude has paid off for two of my Wet Noodle Posse buddies this month. Both Kiki Clark and Lorelle Marinello sold their first books — and by that I mean they made their first sale, not that they sold the first book they wrote. They stuck with it through rejections, self-doubts and frustrations with the market and its gatekeepers.

Kiki’s and Lorelle’s sales bring the contingent of sold Noodlers up to 21 of 33, or 63.6 percent. All those sales have come since 2003, the year we all finaled in the Golden Heart contest. Here’s to our group reaching 100 percent published before 2007 is over.

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