Oh, folks, I am not in a very good mood today. I have a toothache. It’s not as bad as it was yesterday, when the hydrocodone wasn’t even touching the pain, but nonetheless I had a doozy of a toothache.
Then there’s the fact that my husband got 500 likes on a picture of a cat. Five Hundred Likes.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad he got — no, I’m jealous. I’m jealous of my cat.
If I sold 500 copies of a book, I would be ecstatic. If I had 500 people visit this blog, I would be doing cartwheels in the living room (Do not mentally envision a 55-year-old overweight woman doing a cartwheel). I’m jealous of my cat (and by extension my husband) for effortlessly managing what I’ve been busting my butt trying to do.
That is the nature of serendipity. We can’t predict the capricious nature of audiences, nor the dominant culture references that fuel the next big thing. We can try to sell our stories, our ideas, our art as the next big thing, but audiences will balk if they feel you’re selling too hard. But so much of success is serendipity — writing about the right thing, being in the right place, stumbling across the right feeling.
I could use a bit of serendipity right now.
Words Like Me 
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