by Peter Leavell, @PeterLeavell
Summer 2022 is the year I will remember I almost cracked my skull. Here’s what happened. One day, I decided that I would wake up at 5:00AM, make coffee, and write until my other duties strangled my creative time. However, 5:00AM is dark, I don’t wake easily, and I tripped over something warm and fuzzy and barks when he’s stepped on.
I caught myself inches from the table’s corner.
The second day I awoke at 5:00AM went more smoothly.
The third day was amazing. Tiring, but I wrote.
I want to quit rising at 5:00AM. Yet, the moment is mine and mine alone.
A few buddies, both men and women, have asked how the writing is going, so I’ve told them what I just told you, and something odd happened. For some reason, they’ve all tried the exact same method.
As you can imagine, there has been varying levels of production and sanity.
The point here is the resonance created by my decision to work hard. They tried to do the hard thing because I am doing the hard thing.
Writing books isn’t solely about publication, fame, and money. Rather, dedication to your craft creates a legacy around you, one of hope for better things—that if we build castles and put imaginary people in them, we might become a published author. And even better, if we don’t publish, we become better people by learning to work hard through delayed gratification, and the ones we love are the beneficiaries.
As writers, we have created a legacy that shows how to follow a passion, how to love the craft, how to explore this world more deeply than any other person who has come before or will come after.
Because you write, you have told the world you will not simply ride the waves of what comes. You don your uniform (pajamas or something comfortable), affix your armor to your body (braces to prevent carpal tunnel), and slay the dragons that plague the world, one story at a time. You, my friends, aren’t simply trying to write a book. You are this world’s champions. And the resonance from your efforts instructs others how writers get work done.
To the warriors who write, I salute you.
Philip Anderson keeps his past close to the vest. Haunted by the murder of his parents as they traveled West in their covered wagon, his many unanswered questions about that night still torment him.
His only desire is to live quietly on his homestead and raise horses. He meets Anna, a beautiful young woman with secrets of her own. Falling in love was not part of his plan. Can Philip tell her how he feels before it’s too late?
With Anna a pawn in the corrupt schemes brewing in the nearby Dakota town, Philip is forced to become a reluctant gunslinger. Will Philip’s uncannily trained horses and unsurpassed sharpshooting skills help him free Anna and find out what really happened to his family in the wilderness?
Peter Leavell, a 2007/2020 graduate of Boise State University with a degree in history and a MA in English Literature, was the 2011 winner of Christian Writers Guild’s Operation First Novel contest, and 2013 Christian Retailing’s Best award for First-Time Author, along with multiple other awards. An author, blogger, teacher, ghostwriter, jogger, biker, husband and father, Peter and his family live in Boise, Idaho. Learn more about Peter’s books, research, and family adventures at www.peterleavell.com
Comments 1
Thanks for this lovely, encouraging piece, Peter. You inspire me to appreciate my own passion for and tenacity with my current, huge-for-me, project. I hadn’t thought about how talking about my work (and asking for lots of prayer) may have impacted my friends, both writers and not.