The odds were the hardest thing for me, the thing that made it take months for me to write that first query letter. I read things like an agent asks to read the manuscript for one out of five thousand query letters. Who knows if that’s true, but it’s pretty scary. But maybe that’s because I wasn’t totally convinced that this dream would ever come true for me. It was something that I thought I wanted, but I wasn’t really ready to put myself out there and commit to being certain that it would happen. And, of course, once I as able to really believe it, I got that book deal as if by magic.
Janine Brown in The Good Luck Girls of Shipwreck Lane by Kelly Harms has a dream too. And she doesn’t care about the odds. They don’t matter to her. Because she KNOWS that those people on the home and garden television channel are going to call her name. She knows that she is going to win that dream house and free herself from the boyfriends who don’t treat her right and the dead-end jobs. And maybe that certainty is why her name is, in actuality, the one that’s called.
And who would have imagined that there could be two Janine Browns of Cedar Falls, Iowa…
This book is like one of the delicious desserts that the other Janine Brown (the broken-hearted one whose crazy Aunt Midge enters her in this contest to give them both a fresh start) cultivates in the kitchen of this dream home. I devoured it so quickly, but, as soon as it was over, felt sad that I hadn’t savored it a little more. It’s light and fun but with a good bit of substance too, the kind of book that takes your mind off of Isis and Ebola and demonic political ads but also makes you feel like you walked away a little bit better, a little bit stronger — and with a much better knowledge of how to cook a duck.
I did a little dance when I learned that Kelly Harms just signed a two book deal because I can’t wait to see what she comes up with next!
If the odds are keeping you down today, tell them to hush. It all worked out for me. And Janine Brown. And I bet it will for you too! Hope it’s a wonderful day!
Good for you, and you’re absolutely right. If you don’t believe in yourself, who else will? Thanks for the reminder. I’m pleased that Kelly will have another book. I just read The Good Luck Girls and it was a fun read. Loved the house descriptions, and Aunt Midge was a quite a character- in every sense of the word!