Sometimes It’s Good to Meet Your Heroes
A lesson in perseverance—and kindness—from one of my favorite authors
We were well into the new year, but my father’s Christmas tree was still standing in the family room. Home from New York for the weekend, I sat on the couch, maybe reading or maybe journaling — I just remember that I was moping. I was twenty-three years old and already a failed novelist, or so I thought. I’d managed to finish my first book and sign with a literary agent, but after three rounds of reject-o-rama I was feeling depressed. (And now I feel intensely embarrassed to reflect on the sense of entitlement I had then! But I have written about this elsewhere.)
Then my dad handed me a USA Today books section from earlier in the week, and pointed to this article.
My dad had taken me to see the film adaptation of Daniel Wallace’s novel Big Fish over the holiday break, and we both enjoyed it very much. But that wasn’t his primary reason for sharing the article. “See how many novels he had to write before he could get one published? Five. If he can do it, you can do it.”
