Christine Amsden's Blog: Christine Amsden Author Blog, page 28

The Least Important Meal of the Day

Dinner

Americans have their dietary days backwards. I’ve known this intellectually for years but on a deeply ingrained cultural and social level I’m still working hard to know this in my heart. We save the biggest meal, the one with the most calories, for the end of the day. We’re just about to use up our monumental reserves of energy to… go to sleep. Maybe watch some TV first. Yet that is when we are most likely to sit down to a huge 1,000+ calorie meal.

What are we thinking about?

Well, partly we’re thinking that the end of the day is when we can come together to a family to sit down to a meal. Dinner is the meal we cook, whereas lunch is the meal we throw into a bag and breakfast is the meal we grab on the go. Dinner is most likely to consist of the foods we look forward to.

Yet dinner is a big reason that dieters fail. I know it has always been a stumbling block for me. I get so hungry in the middle of the afternoon and even if I’m looking forward to dinner because I have something exceptionally yummy planned, I need the calories sooner. I need them when I’m working, playing, thinking, and exercising.

One thing you may now know about me is that I have binge eating problems. And 90% of those problems occurred in the afternoon when I was depriving myself of food because I had 600 calories left and I needed to use them for dinner. I would already have those calories written into my journal so they were as good as gone and psychologically I’d have no out. I’d try to eat a piece of fruit or even a salad tossed with light dressing, but it didn’t always work. And then came the guilt. Oh, no! I’ve eaten too much. I can’t have dinner now. The day is ruined, I may as well eat a bunch of cookies.

Mindful eating is about listening to your body. It’s about eating when you’re hungry and not eating when you’re not. This doesn’t just mean during snack times. If you’re not hungry for dinner, why would you eat?

Yet we do.

I just ate a peanut butter cookie. I made a batch of them this morning for a family get-together tomorrow and they smelled so delicious! I couldn’t resist having one cookie this afternoon. And okay, I might have licked my fingers a bit while I made the cookies in the first place. Now I’ll tell you the truth, I don’t have a lot of calories “saved up” for dinner at this point. The old me — the mindless one who used journals for permission to eat — would be freaking out right about now. But the new me, the mindful eating me, realized something.

I’m not hungry.

Yeah, I’m not hungry. I just had a cookie, probably closer to 1.5 or 2 if I count the batter-licking. I had a pretty small breakfast because I wasn’t feeling all that hungry this morning, a larger lunch (including seconds after the allotted 15 minutes had passed) because I was, and I ate some cookies. Now, is it the end of the world?

No, it’s not. Because dinner is the least important meal of the day. If I’m not hungry, I’ll skip it. I’ll have to find ways to bond with my family that doesn’t involve food. If I am hungry, I will have a small portion.

As an aside, I hate the ad campaign that suggested families eating dinner together was some kind of magical solution to children’s behavior problems. Do you remember the one I’m talking about? It was ridiculous even at the time, even before I got mindful about eating. Families need to spend time together. It doesn’t have to be over food.

Quick Dinner Tips:

1. Try to eat dinner early. I know it’s tough if you work, but late meals just sit in your stomach while you sleep.

2. Eat half as much dinner as you think is a normal portion. Wait fifteen minutes before deciding you want more. (In reality, dinners should be no bigger than any other main meal. Arguably, they should be smaller.)

3. Be willing to simply not eat dinner if you’re not hungry. If you were looking forward to that meal, save some of it to reheat for lunch the next day.

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The Idea that Started it All

When you’re working on a story concept one of the most important things to keep in mind is that nothing is sacred. You have to be willing to let the story goes where it will. This means, in some cases, eliminating the very idea that started it all.

I’ve both head and given this exact advice before, but until today I had never used it at its extreme. This afternoon as I tried to figure out why I wasn’t connecting with the characters in my new Dreamwalkers novel, I realized the problem: The story had moved beyond the initial idea. Way, way, way beyond it. But I still wasn’t letting go.

The idea that started it all is not the core of a story. It can be, but it certainly is not by default. The idea that started it all is nothing more than a spark that got your creative juices going. Weeks, months, or in this case years down the line you have to be willing to let it go.

Characters Welcome: Michael Sykora

Characters Welcome is almost afraid to present our guest this week…Michael Sykora is, after all, an assassin and.well…I suppose it’s safest for me if I just step aside and let him do the talking.

 

My name is Michael Sykora and I’m a hired killer. Hell of an introduction, right? You’re probably picturing me as a heartless brute; a sociopath without a conscience. I’m not here to argue, though I’d like you to know I don’t think that’s a fair assumption. I was a regular guy once. And I feel things deeper than I’m comfortable admitting to anyone, including my best friends.

A few years ago, my fiancé was raped and murdered by a repeat offender who knew how to play the system. As I stared down at Christina’s battered body on that morgue slab, something in me died along with her. I saw the children we’d never have and heard the stories we’d never tell. After that, all I could think about was revenge.

I eventually got my own form of justice. I’d like to say it healed me and I went back to being the man I’d been. But that man was long gone.

Perception is a strange thing. Not long ago, I could look at the world and find all the good; the woman I loved, a career I excelled at, blue skies, and the smell of orange blossoms in the air. A stranger’s act of rage changed everything for me. Now the world is skewed the other way. I see abused kids living on the streets and women terrified their rapist will return. People shouldn’t have to live in fear of someone else’s fury. I try to balance the scales by ridding the world of serial murderers, rapists, and pedophiles. People whose crimes are far worse than mine.

Earlier I told you I’m a hired killer. That’s not completely accurate. Sometimes I kill for free, because there are people who simply should not be allowed to live.

My best friend, Isaac, is a straight arrow homicide cop. My other best friend, Sean, is a cold-blooded killer. I straddle the middle ground. We’re an odd kind of three musketeers.

I don’t want to give you the wrong impression. My life isn’t all sadness and murder. I hang out with outspoken prostitutes and a comic transvestite whose sex appeal makes me a little uncomfortable. I have the best surrogate mother on the planet. The total amount of money in my offshore bank account has more zeros than I can count. I meet homeless people with hearts of gold and personalities that shine. And, at the end of the day, I’m okay with who I am. Maybe I’m taking a different route than you approve of. But what I do matters. That’s more than a lot of people can say. Right?

Let’s be honest here, just you and me. If your child was beaten, raped, and murdered, would you trust the justice system? Or would you call me?

No Justice

How far would you go to right a wrong? Michael Sykora is a software designer and part-time hit man. He specializes in hard-core criminals; rapists, child molesters. When Nicki, a close friend, gets into trouble, Michael steps in to help. Having lost his fiance to a brutal crime, Michael will do whatever necessary to keep from losing another woman in his life.

Other titles in this series:

Beyond Salvation

Killer Instinct (New release!)

Darcia Helle

I write because the characters trespassing through my mind leave me no alternative.

Words are my addiction. I love to read; fiction, nonfiction, cereal boxes, ingredient labels. If it has words, I’ll read it.

I am originally from Massachusetts and now live in the Tampa Bay area of Florida. I’m married, with 2 sons, a beautiful new granddaughter, and 5 very spoiled animals.

As well as finding me here, you can also find me on my website and

My Blog

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Edits are in for Mind Games

Mind Games is book #3 (of 4) in the Cassie Scot Series. It follows Secrets and Lies, which you’re going to be hearing a lot more about as soon as I receive cover art.

Mind Games is the book that I think is the biggest turning point. For various reasons that I will share later, it was the hardest one for me to write, but after writing it, it was the easiest for me to revise. There was a point shortly before I let these books out into the world when I thoroughly revised the first two books and rewrote (ground up — reused two scenes) the last. But Mind Games stayed largely intact through all of that upheaval.

I can’t wait to share the entire series with the world. It’s driving me crazy to be working ahead, all the while biting my tongue about the exciting new things to come. Eventually people may start talking about which book in the series was their favorite. For me, I think I liked each one a little better than the one that came before.

Secrets and Lies Cover Art News

Secrets and Lies, Book 2 in the Cassie Scot Mystery Series, is still expected to be released in a few short months. As some of you know, cover art was the big delay for the first book. I was sure it would be available before Christmas but it took until early February to complete. As pleased as I am with the results I can’t complain too much. If time is what it takes to create beautiful artwork, then so be it. But it has imbued me with a bit of pessimism regarding the timeframe for this process.

This morning I received an initial sketch from the artist who will continue painting covers for this series. I can’t show it to you (those of you who are artists or who have worked with artists before know that these sketches are rough and not meant for the public eye). I will say that I am very excited by the concept and approved it almost exactly the way it was with only a couple of minor color adjustments.

Now comes the part I hate — waiting! I’ve had a glimpse of what can and might be but it will still be a few weeks before the final cover is ready. Hopefully it won’t be months. I might tear my hair out.

At this point I feel like the release date of September 15 for Secrets and lies may slip to October. I’m not saying anything with certainty, but basically this is how it works: Once the cover art is ready we create print ARCs that can be distributed to early reviewers, some of whom like as much as three months prior to the release date to review a book. Other promotional opportunities sometimes require a few months of lead-in time as well. So unless the final cover art is ready in a week (and it won’t be), we may have to push things back a month.

The eBook version will almost certainly come out sooner for those who are reading the series that way. In fact, if you absolutely can’t wait to read Secrets and Lies, my publisher is selling electronic ARCs (advanced reader copies) through her website. The ARCs have a temporary cover (a simple view of the lake from the first book, but in daytime instead of night — we’re looking at a daytime view for the final cover of Secrets and Lies).

Fair warning: Secrets and Lies ends on a cliffhanger and book 3, Mind Games, won’t be available until early 2014.

The Most Important Meal of the Day

You know what’s coming right?

Breakfast!

It’s not just a cliche, it really is the most important meal of the day. Yet overwhelmingly dieters trying to save calories have no breakfast or have a pitiful scrap of a meal that barely counts.

The studies back me up on this — go look it up. Overwhelmingly people who eat breakfast have an easier time losing weight. They are less likely to be obese. They are more likely to exercise.

Why do dieters skip breakfast? I have at least one answer because I’ve been that dieter. I want to eat. I want to eat big meals. If I skip breakfast I can have big, satisfying lunches and dinners. Plus, I have more willpower in the mornings than I do later in the day.

Well, no wonder I have more willpower past early morning! I’m starving by lunchtime. When I wasn’t skipping breakfast entirely I was skimping breakfast, eating under 200 calories if I could. This usually involved a sugary cereal (nutritious cereals have more calories in them) and half a cup of milk — just enough to get it wet. Might as well not have eaten, really.

Most Americans, when they do eat breakfast, eat almost entirely carbohydrates-based cereal. Now, I am NOT advocating a low-carb diet! But it is a fact that carbohydrates are good for quick energy — easy come easy go. By mid-morning (if you’re lucky) that energy is used up and you’re hungry again.

WebMD has some good information on a healthy, balanced breakfast, including the importance of including lean protein. Protein takes longer to break down and keeps you feeling full longer. Healthy eating is about balance, which is why you’ll never hear me advocate cutting carbs. Carbohydrates are great, especially right before you exercise. But a breakfast full of only carbs is as unbalanced as a breakfast consistent of just bacon and eggs.

These days, my typical breakfast is about 400-450 calories and consists of four food groups (I tend not to have veggies for breakfast).

If you’re eating mindfully this number shouldn’t strike you as a problem. It’s a reasonably sized filling meal consisting of all the things my body needs to get me through the morning.

If, on the other hand, you’re dieting you might balk at it. But..but…if I eat 400 calories at breakfast, then I only have 800-1200 calories left for the rest of the day and it’s only 7:00 in the morning! How am I going to get through the rest of the day?

If that’s your mindset then you’re not going to get through the rest of the day. You’re setting yourself up for failure by your very belief system. You’ve set yourself a max number of calories (whatever it is) and your body instantly starts to rebel at being forced into doing anything. There’s a calorie shortage coming…impending starvation….must fill up while I have the chance!

I’m not telling you how big a breakfast to eat. I’m telling you to let your body decide how big a breakfast you need.

If you’ve gotten exactly what you need at breakfast an amazing thing happens. You’re not as hungry during the rest of the day. The temptation to snack goes down. You don’t look mournfully at your lunch thinking how pitifully small it is before you even start eating. (And if you think something looks pitifully small before you begin eating it, you will make that a self-fulfilling prophecy.)

The worst part of eating a small breakfast and lunch to save up calories for a big meal at the end of the day was that by the time I got to dinner, even my 800-calorie dinner looked pitifully small to me. It’s still not exactly restaurant sized. But worse, I knew that when I took that last bit I was done eating for the day whether I wanted to be or not. There were nights when I cried because I couldn’t have anymore food and I so desperately wanted it.

Is that real hunger or a psychological reaction to strictly controlling my food intake? When you spend your life dieting I swear you stop being able to tell the difference between real hunger and psychosomatic hunger. The results aren’t pretty.

Eat breakfast. Eat a good, balanced, healthy breakfast. It gives you the energy you need to get through the morning and the entire day, it cues your body that you are not being starved, it helps maintain blood sugar levels, and psychologically it means it is okay to eat. It is. It really is.

Book Review: Dream Eyes

Yet another fun paranormal mystery from Jayne Ann Krentz. In this story, Gwen is still messed up from confronting a serial killer two years ago when she finds an old friend murdered in a way that stirs it all up again. But that killer died. She watched him go over the falls. So who is killing people now?

Judson, a psychic investigator, joins her to help figure it out and things between them get hot in a hurry. Neither of them does long-term, but that’s because they each have issues that somehow made it impossible for relationships to work with other people.

There were several levels to this mystery so that in the end, even though I thought (correctly) that I’d figured it out, I hadn’t figured it all out. There’s also a thread running through this book that is a part of the Copper Beach Trilogy (and part of a bigger story). There also seem to be connections to Krentz’s Arcane Society series, aside from the fact that they are both set in the same sort of psychic world.

As a mystery and as a paranormal I thought this was fantastic. As a romance, it was okay — but that’s a pretty small part of the story. I’m still left cold by a romance that is practically over before it begins because of the sizzling energy in the room the second they meet. There’s not much tension there because I don’t really believe anything can or will keep them apart.

I highly recommend this to paranormal mystery fans, and to Jayne Ann Krentz fans.

Rating: 4/5

Title: Dream Eyes

Author: Jayne Ann Krentz

ISBN: 9780399158957

Published January 8, 2013

Characters Welcome: Stagger

Characters Welcome is proud to bring you Stagger, a fantasy hero from James Maxey’s latest adventure series. Stagger himself will be telling you the story of how he first met the woman he falls madly in love with. And really, who can resist a woman capable of tearing a man’s arm off?

Trouble has a way of finding Infidel. On her first night in town, a mercenary named Crusher gets a little too friendly with her in a bar and she rips his arm out of his socket. In the aftermath, Stagger introduces himself and offers to buy her a drink. It’s the beginning of a long and beautiful friendship….

Greetings, miss. I notice the rest of the clientele of the Black Swan are giving you wide berth at the moment, but I personally never liked Crusher. He was a bully and, as he demonstrated the second you came through the door, an incorrigible lecher. You hadn’t been at the bar five seconds before he had his paws on you. No fair-minded judge can blame you for ripping his arm off. He thought he was a lady-killer, but we all knew it was only a matter of time before some lady killed him.

People call me Stagger. Not my original name, of course. It’s a rule of Commonground that no one here reveals their old names. The whole economy here is built upon illicit activities. Many of the denizens of this port have nooses waiting for them if they venture back to more civilized lands. It’s the ultimate rudeness to ask someone why they’ve come here. Our motto is, what happens outside Commonground, stays outside Commonground.

So, while I’m curious as to how a slender sprite of a girl like yourself came to be strong enough to tear Crusher’s arm right out of the socket, I’ll refrain from asking. Still, I’m sure we could find some neutral topic of civil discussion. Since you’ve improved the atmosphere of this bar considerably by freeing us from Crusher’s trademark loutishness, I feel I should reward you by buying your drinks.

Don’t drink! Is that… is that even an option? How can… I mean… I mean, of course, it’s absolutely forbidden that I should ask how it is you don’t drink, but…

Oh. Hmm. I suppose that makes sense. If you have the strength to crush a man’s skull like an eggshell, I can certainly understand the importance of maintaining careful control. But, I fear that you’ll find very little else to drink in this port. You seem robust, but I assure you the local drinking water is unsuited for the guts of us longmen.

Longmen? That’s what the natives call us. The original inhabitants of this island are all pygmies. The dragon who lives in the volcano has destroyed every attempt by longmen to colonize this island, but he doesn’t mess with the pygmies. Probably for the same reason that men don’t hunt mice. Not enough meat to make it worth the effort.

Milk? Not a chance. Greatshadow—that’s the dragon—loves livestock. Cows have very brief life spans on this island. The lava pygmies do keep a few scrawny goats higher up in the mountains, but fresh milk never makes it to Commonground, only cheese.

If you wish to keep your wits about you but still slake your thirst, might I recommend a cider? You’d have to drink a gallon before you even feel a buzz.

Wonderful. Battle Ox! Bring the woman a bottle of your finest cider. Put it on my tab. Don’t give me that look. You know I’ll be paying my tab next week. I’ve ascertained the location of another lost temple and… what? Really? My tab’s gotten that sizable? Well, then, think of the percentages. Adding another bottle to that sum is the merest fraction of a percent.

Thank you. You’re the finest bartending minotaur in a hundred mile radius, and don’t let anyone ever tell you differently.

So, miss. I’m not so uncivil as to ask why you’ve come to town, but do you plan to reside for long in this area?

I see. I wish you only the best in your goals, but I must warn you the job options for attractive young women in a rude port such as this are rather unpromising.

No! Of course I’m not suggesting your only option is prostitution. And, yes, under ordinary circumstances, I agree, someone with the strength to rip off a man’s limb in one clean pluck could make a good living as a mercenary. But… I say this meaning no offense… you just don’t look the part.

I mean, if you take a look around, you’ll spot some of the most successful mercenaries in Commonground make this bar their home on their off hours. Crusher, boastful as he was, wasn’t among the truly elite ranks of swords for hire. See that brute over there? The guy who’s face is just one big mask of scars? They call him No-Face. He’s a big one, ain’t he? Being big is part of the game in the mercenary business. It’s not enough to be formidable. You’ve got to look intimidating.

Hah! You’re right. I’m certainly not capable of intimidating anyone. I spent my youth lifting books, not swords. Books and bottles.

Believe it or not, I was raised in a monastery. My father was a monk. Obviously, he had trouble with his vow of chastity. I’m told my mother was a prostitute. She dumped me at the monks’ doorstep the day I was born. It’s not a lot of fun growing in such a cloistered atmosphere. My one escape was books. One book in particular was my favorite: The Vanished Kingdom, by Judicious Merchant. Merchant came to Commonground to make his fortune in the pygmy slave trade, but wound up instead getting seduced by tales of lost cities hidden in the jungle. I used to dream of running away from the monastery and making my fortune as a grave looter. Did I say grave looter? I meant as an antiques acquisition expert.

As fate would have it, the other thing the monks taught me aside from how to read was how to drink. They had vineyards to produce sacramental wine. I’m not certain if the wine is actually sacred or not, but I know that drinking it made me feel like the Divine Author was smiling upon me. There was some… unpleasantness… when the monks discovered I was the thief tapping the casks in the dead of night. I was only twelve when I departed the monastery with a belly full of wine and the contents of the poor box lining my pockets. I jumped a ship heading to Commonground and never looked back.

Dreams, my dear girl, do come true in this wild and wonderful land. My scholarly skills make me the preeminent authority on the ruins that lay buried beneath the roots and vines around us. I’ve carted from this jungle fortunes enough to last a more prudent man ten lifetimes. Alas, the fortunes seldom last me long. As you may have gathered from the astronomical number discussed regarding my bar tab, I have a bad habit of shouting, “Drinks are on me!” whenever I have even a single moon in my pocket. I’m also, and I say this with all possible modestly, the absolute champion in this world of being unlucky at cards. There is no surer guarantee of someone else getting dealt four queens than for me to be dealt three aces.

But, even with my intemperance and poor luck, the real reason I can never hold onto my money is that I’m a sucker for any poor sap with a sob story. Catch me when I’ve been drinking, and I’ll give you the shirt off my back if you need it. Alas, as you may surmise, I didn’t come to be called Stagger by a reputation for frequent… or even occasional… sobriety.

So. You’re new in a strange and dangerous port. Penniless, from the looks of you. You need money and you need it fast. I know you came here thinking you’d make a living with a strong arm and a sharp sword. But, might I suggest that a shovel would be a better tool to translate your physical prowess into a fortune? I meant it when I told Battle Ox that I’ve learned the location of a lost temple. It’s on the most dangerous part of the island, the northern slope, where a single misstep can send you tumbling a mile down sheer cliffs into a violent sea. And if gravity doesn’t get you, there are lava pygmies who still hold some of the sites dug into the cliffs as sacred and protect them with poisoned darts. If you’re lucky enough to avoid the pygmies, the local fauna features three kinds of poisonous snakes and nine different species of spiders that can drop you dead in your tracks. And don’t forget, there’s a dragon.

Yeah, it’s dangerous. But, what of it? Everyone has a final page in the Great Book. I’d rather meet my end running from a tribe of angry pygmies than sick and worn out from age. And think of what we might accomplish! If we navigate all the dangers and become the first people to step foot into a lost temple in two thousand years we’re likely to find… well, usually, just a lot of dust and some broken pottery. But, sometimes, there’s gold, or jade, or dragon bones.

You interested? Of course, I don’t mind if you think it over, but, if I may be so bold, I think you’re being coy. You already know your answer. I can see it in your eyes… you have treasure fever. It’s a common ailment in these parts. The only cure is to risk life and limb on a grand adventure. Help me get to this temple, and we’ll split all the treasure fifty fifty.

That’s the spirit! Stick with me, my girl, and I’ll lead you to wonders beyond your wildest dreams.

********Greatshadow is the primal dragon of fire, an elemental evil whose malign intelligence spies upon mankind through every candle flame, waiting to devour any careless victim he can claim.

The Church of the Book has assembled a team of twelve battle-hardened adventurers to slay the dragon once and for all. But tensions run high between the leaders of the team who view the mission as a holy duty and the super-powered mercenaries who add power to their ranks, who view the mission primarily as a chance to claim Greatshadow’s vast treasure trove. If the warriors fail to slay the beast, will they doom mankind to death by fire?

Greatshadow is the first book in an exciting new adventure series.

 Buy Now at Amazon

Fear of Food

Whenever you start talking about dieting, there are always a series of questions that come up…

What do you do when you eat out?

What do you do at a party?

What do I do when I’m on the road?

How do you avoid all the foods people bring in to work?

How do I handle feeding my family when I’m eating diet food?

There are other questions, but they all follow along those lines… The issue is that you have a strictly controlled dieting environment and the second you step out of it you’re not sure what to do. I’ve been there myself!

Call me crazy if you like, but I was a little afraid of food. Or maybe of my ability to control myself around it.It might have started with the latter, but eventually the two blend together. I created an external locus of control. It wasn’t me who failed. What was I supposed to do when I went to an amusement park one day, a birthday party the next, then went out for dinner with coworkers?

Food isn’t the enemy. For some, the enemy if self-control. For others (like me) the enemy is that very control. Isn’t that the most confusing dieting advice you’ve ever heard? Sorry, but it’s true. Psychology is the biggest part of dieting and to find a strategy that works for you, you have to know yourself. Do you need to count and record every calorie so you won’t be tempted to touch that piece of chocolate cake? Or do you need permission to eat that piece of cake so that suddenly it doesn’t sound as appetizing?

There was a psychological study done years ago in which a group of dieters and non-dieters were asked to eat way too much food at dinner. Afterward, they were offered a choice of also eating dessert. Dieters overwhelmingly accepted the dessert even though they were stuffed silly. Non-dieters turned it down.

Hmmmm…interesting. It sounds like a lot of dieters out there need to give themselves permission to eat the cake. If I can have it tomorrow, then it’s not the end of the world if I don’t have it today. Especially if I’m not hungry.

So what do you do when you go to a party or go out of town, or when your coworkers bring in donuts?

1. Give yourself permission to eat it if you really want it.

2. Decide whether or not you really want it and only eat it if you do.

3. Have a small serving of whatever it is you want.

4. Wait at least 15 minutes before deciding if you want something else.

5. If you do decide you want something else, don’t eat another piece of cake. If you were eating the cake because it’s delicious, it has already filled that goal. If you’re eating it for any other reason, it will never work. You know it. Let yourself have another treat tomorrow. Know this isn’t the last time you’ll ever be allowed something you really want. But also know that right now it isn’t going to fill any holes in your life.

Why We Write

There are a lot of reasons to write. Most of us who spend any length of time learning the process, going through draft after draft, and ultimately turning out finished products dream of career success and recognition. Yeah, I want to sell a million books. I want a movie deal — not because I think the movie will add anything to the book (The book is my life’s work, not the movie!) but because Hollywood interest would mean I’d sold enough copies to claim a measure of success.

That’s the dream. My goal is to develop a following of dedicated readers who truly enjoy what I write. If I can count sales in the thousands of copies, I’m happy.

Most writers never even get that far. There are over a million books published each year — most self-published. Most books don’t even sell 100 copies.

So why are we doing this? Why do a million people put books out every year only to sell a handful of copies? And why do they do it again?

I hope it makes them happy.

There are some careers you get into for the money but writing isn’t one of them. I am amazed by how many people think, when I say that I’m a published writer, that I’m comfortably well off or moderately rich. Most think my books will be stocked at Target or Wal-Mart, as if the tiny book sections in either of these stores represents 1/100th of the books published through MAJOR publishing houses, let alone smaller presses.

The dream is fun. Dreaming is a big part of fiction writing, after all! I would never discourage such a practise. But if the dream is why you write you’re in for a world of disappointment. My suggestion: Go do what you love and dream of ultimate success in that area. Dream of being a rock star or a football star or a movie star or a high-powered lawyer or the best cardiologist in the country.

In the meantime, if you still want to write begin from the love of what you’re doing. Here are a few things to love about writing:

1. Research — Some people really enjoy the challenge of putting information together. If this is primarily what you love, nonfiction may be for you.

2.Story telling — If you love to tell a good story then enjoy writing fiction.

3. Using words to create beauty — This may mean you’re really a poet at heart, although some prose can be beautiful as well.

4. Leaving behind a legacy — There’s nothing wrong with telling your own story for no other purpose than to leave it for your children to read.

Whatever you love, find joy in the process of doing it. You can dream fantastic dreams while setting reasonable goals, but you’re going to spend too much time working toward that goal not to be in love with the moment of creation.