That, combined with the PA horror site, had me down in the dumps for a day. But then I thought, you know what? This is my life. This is my book. Just because PA has a bad reputation with some people, doesn't mean my book is a bad book. I put a lot of work into it; people who have read it, liked it. It contains a great story and many potentially life changing ideas. This is my passion. Who is anyone to tell me that what I do doesn't rate a story in a local paper, or a national paper, for that matter. If they don't want to do a story, that's their choice. If they don't like PA, that's their choice. It's not my choice. I choose to move on, and I will set the record for most books sold by a PA author.

       I submitted my manuscript to a few established publishers who sent back nice rejection letters. "We liked your book, but aren't looking for new authors, At this time we are not looking for something in this genre, etc." An acquaintance of mine, John Yamrus, had a few books published by PA, so I approached them and got a contract. John is happy with his relationship with PA, so there are happy stories about it. He told me it is tough getting into bookstores, but I think that would be the same story for any new writer.

        On to the main point. I feel in my heart that my book is a good one, and it will do well for me. My heart, my passion, my dreams. I can't let anyone take that away from me. Strike that. I WON'T let anyone take that away from me. Dreams and passion are the ingredients to make a life worth living. Look around you sometime and see the people walking around the mall, or down the street. How many of them have goal driven passion filled lives? How many have settled instead of reaching for the stars? Who did they let steal their dreams? Was it a teacher, or their parents, a spouse or a co-worker? Have you told anyone of your dreams and they laughed or said "get real"? Don't let them steal your dreams. Your dreams don't have to be walking on the moon or being president. Maybe your dream is to graduate from college and you are 50 years old and don't have a high school diploma, or you want to take ballet and you are a 40 year old with two left feet. Only you can stop you from achieving your goals and dreams.

       I will have a best selling novel. I will run a marathon. I will be a millionaire and use my money to help people. I will travel the world and step on all seven continents. I will have a house on the beach. I will support other people's journey to achieve their goals and follow their bliss.

       What are you dreaming about? What dreams did you have that you should never have given up on? You probably don't have to quit your job to follow your bliss. Take small steps, big steps, huge steps, leaps of faith, jumps for joy. Don't ever give up. Life is too short to settle for less.         Here are horror stories of PA. (I'm tired of typing out Publish America, bear with the abbreviation) People not getting paid, book stores refusing to carry PA books, etc, etc. Mostly sour grapes, I think, but I'm sure some legitimate gripes as well. I have run into some of the same things. The local paper was going to do a human interest story on me. I quit my corporate job after 14 years to pursue my dreams, I got published, yada yada yada. They even went so far as to say even if it was self-published (vanity press), it was still a good story. But then they found out it was PA and suddenly, no story.  

Post script. At least I got mentioned in the local paper this Sunday. Although they won't give me a story, I will give the other authors some on-line exposure.