The End

I recently published my first edited book,  Labor of Love: A Literary Mama Staff Anthology ,  with  Small Harbor Publishing . It's an anthology of writing from  Literary Mama  staff over the past 20 years. It's a beautiful collection and I am proud of the writers and proud to share the book.  It seems a fitting moment, as I pondered sharing about the book here on the blog, to reflect on my life as a blogger, and acknowledge that it is time to officially end this blog.   I started blogging in about 2007, when my baby was learning to toddle, when I was learning how to be a mother and stepmother, when I was just starting to see my way as a writer. I needed it back then. I craved it. I had a variety of blog iterations--family, art, creativity, writing things I delved into. There's a freedom in blogging, a casualness, an easy familiarity that's lacking (for me anyway) in other kinds of writing. I loved blogging and the words came pouring out.  Over the years since then, some
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success?

Today I am wondering what success is. The dictionary says the opposite of success is failure.  Well, we’ve all had that, but have we all had success?  And why is it so hard to come by? Maybe we have all had success, but because we are ever looking forward to something else, the successes don’t stick as strongly as all that time we spend thinking about the failures.  When do you know you have it, and when is it that you have enough?

In reference to writing success…

Success could be having a blog that a few people read regularly.  If your work is being read then isn’t that the point? Does it matter how many people are reading your words?

Success could be winning a contest, where you worked on a story for months and submitted it, to find out that your story was the best of the best of hundreds of entries.  You earned a monetary prize and a publication of your work. If someone else points to you and says Perfect, is that success?
Success could be publishing a handful of essays in literary magazines and journals. Finding your way through the masses to connect with a journal that both inspires you and likes your work.
Success could be writing stories that you share with your family, that your parents are proud of, that tells the history of your family culture. Is a personal story written well a success?
Success could be connecting with other writers, online, in person, at critique groups, and finding a way to help each other through the difficulties and the joys of writing.
Success could be getting a book deal.  Writing something that an editor thought was worth printing. Or perhaps having several reprints of that book, which meant that the society at large liked your book too and stores needed more copies of it. Does published material equal success?
It could be anything from writing every day in your journal, to winning a Pulitzer Prize. But I am pretty sure it is variable and has different meanings based on what your goals are. If you don’t know your goal, or where you are going, then you may never realize it when you get there.
Lots of questions.  Maybe I can write my way into the answers.

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