Mailing list
Recently, I got a really great and inspiring e-mail from my college friend Miranda. Miranda is generally pretty great and inspiring. She's a writer with two novels already published and a third about to come out. Entertainment Weekly recently named her one of their 14 Rising Stars to Watch in 2014 (it's about time, I say!) and she's got a very cool and exciting web project about to launch as well. Anyway, about a week ago, I got this e-mail from her that basically said "hello friend who used to be on my mailing list. I'm going to send out a mailing list again. Would you like to be on it?" And it was so gentile and genuine and of course I wanted to be on it! (You should too! Go here and sign up!) Then, a day or two later, I got a great e-mail update from my friend Kevin (who really needs to keep up the updates because he always has so much great stuff going on) and THAT was so great because of course I want to know what Kevin is up to!
And that was the one-two punch - Miranda! Kevin! Bam! - that inspired me to dust off my own mailing list (which has not seen action in at least a couple of years). Last year, in spite of some pretty significant obstacles, I had a GREAT year and, in retrospect, I wish I'd been letting people know what I was up to and where they could see me or how they could cheer me on.
Several years ago, not too long after Miranda's first book had come out, she and I and a few others were gathered at the apartment of a mutual friend. Miranda was talking about how a number of her peers had treated her shabbily - clearly jealous of her early success. On the one hand, Miranda understood because she's smart and we all know that feeling - that "I want that!" bitterness - but on the other hand she was a bit baffled. She said "if it's good for one of us, it's good for all of us." She was talking about how the success of one in the group contributes towards the success of the group as a whole, and I've thought of her words often since.
Anyway, if you'd like to be on MY mailing list you can sign up by clicking here. If all goes really well for me, you can expect an e-mail every 4-6 weeks, so I promise it won't be overwhelming. Have your own mailing list? Post a link in the comments. We can all follow along and celebrate each others successes!