Carmel Magazine

I want to tell you something I promised to tell you years ago, if it ever came to pass. Which, to my surprise, it did. I'll just say it: I finally published my novel. Yes, I mean the novel I planned to write (off and on, mostly off) for most of my adult life. Over the years, I sometimes mentioned in columns that being married to a coach, with three children and a full-time job, left me little time to breathe, let alone to finish a novel I hadn't even star ted. Then I'd hear from readers like you who'd tell me: "Never give up!" "Follow that dream!" "Write that novel!" Readers can be tough on a writer. But I was grateful. Encouragement is the oil that keeps the wheels of a dream turn- ing. It didn't give me more time for writing. But it gave me hope that someday, somehow that time would come. Have you ever noticed how dreams often seem to come true at the end of a long hard road? In 1998, my husband lost a four-year, hard-fought battle with cancer. After he died, it took me a while to figure out who I was without him. My kids were in their early 20s. We were close, but losing their dad drew us closer. I'd also lost my parents, and had felt it draw me closer to my sister and brothers. I realized that while grief brings pain, it also brings gifts. I wanted to write about both. Soon the story that I'd been writing in my head—about the bond between a woman and her grandchild—began writing itself in my heart, growing deeper and truer than anything I had imagined. That fall, I rented a cabin on a lake near where I was born and spent four months writing like a house on fire. At the end of those months, the story wasn't finished. But neither was I. I took a break from the book to marry my former editor and we moved to Las Vegas, where he worked for a newspaper and I wrote columns. Meanwhile, our kids (his two, my three) were getting mar- ried and having babies. Eight babies in nine years. So my hus- band retired, and we moved back to California, to take on full- time careers as Nana and Papa. My life was so good I almost forgot about the novel. Then, out of nowhere, I heard from Heather Lazare. Long ago, when I was a reporter and Heather was a bud- ding writer in sixth grade, her mother asked me to meet with her to talk about writing. So we met and talked, hugged each other and said goodbye. Twenty-five years later, Heather emailed me to say she'd grown up to be an editor at a publishing house in New York. But she had recently moved back to California, to start her own editing and publishing business. So I hired her to edit my novel. Then I hired her as project manager to publish it. I wish I could hire her to run my life. We all have a God-given ability to pull for one another, to bear each other's burdens and rejoice in all the joys. I'm grate- ful to all of you who nagged me to finish my novel. You don't need to read it. Unless you really want to. What's your dream? Share it with someone who'll nag you to finish it. Nagging helps. But in the end, I think you'll find, just as I did, it's mostly up to you. "The World and Then Some: A Novel" by Sharon Randall is available on amazon.com. Nationally syndicated columnist Sharon Randall, a longtime fan and resident of the Monterey Peninsula, can be contacted at P.O. Box 416, Pacific Grove, California, 93950, by email at randallbay@earthlink.net or visit www.sharonrandall.com. 48 C A R M E L M A G A Z I N E • W I N T E R 2 0 2 1 POSTCARDS FROM HOME S H A R O N R A N D A L L p e s p Yes I mean the novel I p What's Your Dream? s f w u " o g i w i m B s t h t o f b h while to figure out who I was witho

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