Do what you love, and the money will follow.  Have you ever heard that?  It's true.

Jennifer Brown, of www.jennifunny.com, just got a book deal with Little, Brown after 3 pub houses participated in an auction to get her upcoming young adult novel, Hero. Right now, she's living a waking dream, and I am so inspired by her; she is a colleague of mine at Mom Writer's Literary Magazine, www.momwriterslitmag.com.

I don't know how important money is in the process of dream-making to Jen - I'm hoping she's booked a fabulous vacation for her family and is possibly at a car dealership eyeing something with the highest NHTSA rating - but I do know that Jen has to write. I do know that Jen loves it. And I can imagine, recognition and making a living doing what you love is in itself a waking dream. So when the money follows, it gives you the means to keep doing what you love.

What a beautiful work of non-fiction.

Lightning strikes, wonderful things happen. The fairy tales we create as adults - once we know what it really is we want - do come true.

At a price, I know this - I took a break from the laundry and postponed my daughter's nap because I had to write this blog. If I want to write, something else is sacrificed. But if I don't write, I'm intolerable, and I feel like I'm ducking out on destiny. There is no perfect formula, only a proven alchemy of hard work and magic. As novelist Bob Mayer said at the SDSU Writer's Conference this past January..."Striving for excellence improves you. Striving for perfection demoralizes you."

There is an intersection somewhere in between excellence and fairy tales.  An intangible balanced point where art breaks through obstacles and shines brightly.

Do I believe in my own fairy tales? I do, I do.

Thanks and congratulations to, Jen.