“Perseverance, the secret of all triumphs.” ~Victor Hugo

I’m a sucker for come-from-behind stories, the underdog who perseveres.

Fiction is fine, but it’s the “based on a true story” that gets me every time.

First time I saw the 1993 film, Rudy, I cried like a baby at the ending.

Only Notre Dame football player ever to be carried off the field. He played two plays. Two. After years of committed consistency.

And how many “over-night stars” laugh and say, yeah, after twenty years of auditions, and classes and shitty jobs, I’m now an over-night breakout.

Brian Cranston comes to mind.

Over-night, my ass.

Perseverance pays. Period.

“Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races one after the other.” ~Walter Elliot

My father, an Episcopal priest, used to say that the most difficult part of writing a sermon each week was applying the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair. As a writer myself, I agree with him: it’s always the starting that takes the most energy.

As I undertake co-writing a book this winter, I am reminded that like any discipline, it is doing the thing to which you have committed, every day, even when you don’t feel like it—especially when you don’t feel like it—that you must do it.

Because that is what commitment is: making a choice each day to keep moving toward a goal.

Do it long enough, and true enough, and you, too, may become an over-night sensation.

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I don’t do this often, plug something, but here I go, because I read an advance copy of this book and loved it.

My friend, Karen Black, is an example of commitment—there’s no such thing as over-night anything—who’s written a beautiful follow-up to her award-winning debut novel. Karen’s prose is as caressing and liquid as the water about which she writes. Back to the Water moved me deeply. To learn more or order an e-copy (print to come in the spring) click on the title.

Back to the Water: A daughter’s tale of truth, love and letting go

Using interconnected true stories and a rich, sensory style, Back to the Water unravels the secret history of Karen’s perfect family entangled with elusive truths about herself. If you’re the different one in your family, or ever felt like the odd duck, or are wondering where to go next after a transition, Back to the Water will pull you, carry you through dark waters, delivering you – changed – to a bright, promising shore.