A Magical Thing Happened ~ by Linda Boulanger

Ten years ago, something magical happened. I joined Facebook, met up with an old friend, and we did a thing... We wrote a book together! Now, as exciting as that is, this post isn't about my book. It's not even about old friendships or Facebook. What it IS about is having dreams and finding ways to make them come true. This is my journey...

I think about dreams a lot. I even wrote a post about goals and dreams in January for this blog. I think I think about them so much because I'm working on making mine come true. There's a quote that says A DREAM WITHOUT A PLAN IS JUST A WISH. I ran across another one when I was looking for the first. It said: YOU CAN MAKE A WISH, OR YOU CAN MAKE IT HAPPEN. I realized ten years ago that I don't want to wish. I want my dream come true.

As long as I can remember, my dream was to become a published author. Somewhere there is a folder full of stories written through high school and early college. Then came my first "real" job... and my first completed manuscript. Only I didn't do anything with that one, or the handful that came after it. And when another wonderful part of my life took hold, I put my dreams on the back burner to get married and raise a family, and I was content... at the time.

As the years rolled by and my oldest got a little older, I started volunteering at the Middle School Book Fair instead of the Elementary one. Two things happened that first year. 1. The Hunger Games was hot off the presses and the librarian couldn't get them in fast enough for the kids to buy. The fervor sparked something in me. A forgotten desire, though I left it there to kindle and did something else--the 2nd thing, which was to wander over and straighten up the books on the parent section. Low and behold, something blue and pretty caught my eye. James Patterson's Sundays at Tiffany’s. My, oh my! You know what we got paid in for working the Book Fair back then? Books! And I couldn't wait to get home and crack open a bona fide, adult level book! No pictures. Just words. And I devoured every one. Then my niece loaned me all her Janet Evanovich books. It took me all summer, but I read until my eyes hurt, rested them only as long as I had to, then picked up the next book.

Then I realized something. I had forgotten how much I loved books and the weaving together of the written word! How could that have happened?! How could I have traded my romance novel obsession for picture books and Junie B. Jones?! How could I have put aside my desire to write?

Because priorities change and I had been doing the most important thing to me at the time. I was tending to my children, doing my best to instill a love of reading in them, and focusing on broadening their worlds. But that didn't mean my dream had died. If anything, it had gotten stronger.

One day my oldest convinced me to watch the Gerard Butler version of Phantom of the Opera with her. I enjoyed it but was so flabbergasted that it didn't end the way I wanted that I ranted and raved off and on for a couple of days. Finally, she looked at me and said (respectfully, of course), "If you don't like it that much, then write your own version."

Talk about being given a dose of my own medicine! That was exactly what I would have told her. But you know what? I did write my own! And then I wrote another story and another. Notebooks full of woven words tumbled out of my brain, and they made sense! I was so proud of what I'd done, even as I lovingly stacked them away in a file cabinet drawer.

At least another year passed. I was still writing but realized I wasn't willing to subject myself to a publishing house. Potential rejection wasn't high on my list!

That's when I joined FB and ran across a buddy from high school who asked what I wanted to do when I grew up. Without hesitation, I told him I had always wanted to be a published author. He said, "Let's make it happen" and you know what? We did! Suddenly, there was a plan! We researched options...He found a place called CreateSpace that would allow us to print our book and gain access to Amazon for selling. I learned interior formatting. He already knew PhotoShop so designed us a cover... and we wrote and wrote and edited and hashed things out over numerous phone calls... and we got it done! 

That first book, a combination of 23 short stories written by the two of us, changed my life. It didn't top any lists, didn't make a splash in the Amazon book pool (probably not even a tiny ripple), but it opened a whole new world for me. That one book was the first step to fulfilling my dream. It actually did fulfill my dream, to a degree. I was a published author! Only I had so much more inside that needed to be written, characters whose stories were waiting to be told, worlds that needed to be built. So I kept writing and will continue because that's how you make your dreams come true. You find a way and you don't quit.

I've taken some detours on my path. My college and high school aged children still take priority, and I've taken on a cover design business that allows me to help others achieve their writing dreams. But I continue to write and to publish, and each time it is just as magical as the first time.

In June, I will be releasing another book as part of the Between the Tides multi-author box set. It's a part of my Wings & Whispers series. Behind the scenes, I'm also writing on a new Historical Romance series and progressing slowly on the next book in my Paranormal Time Travel series. I'm not as fast as some, but every time I put words on a page, I know I'm working on my dream.

Slow and steady. One word at a time. That’s my plan. How about you? Have you found that magical thing that has been the spark to ignite your dream come true?

I'd like to add a huge THANK YOU to my friend Patrick Sipperly. Thank you for believing in my abilities, for not just telling me I could do it, but walking into the process of writing and publishing a book with me.  Without that chance meeting with an old friend via social media, I feel certain I'd still be dreaming about my dream... It would still be a wish. Instead, we made it happen!