DJ,

Life is a funny thing.  I’ve been struggling for such a long time, the last couple of months I’ve even wondered if I’d made the right decision to give up my job and become a starving writer.  No one sees the toil and the anguish, the daily insecurities I’m riddled with.  I constantly wonder, am I good enough to be compared to the likes of Authors whose names appear on the Booker list, or the Orange prize or any literary list.  Who am I to even dare to believe that my name can be mentioned in the same breath as Chimamanda, Kiran Desai, Zadie Smith or Margaret Atwood.  Then on the other hand I ask myself do I care? I don’t know if I do and I don’t know if I don’t.

If I’m completely honest, I don’t think of Imagine This in those terms.  It’s just a simple story of a girl trying to find her way in a cruel and alien world.  It’s a story about surviving the odds, nothing profound.  It’s not a story that will define a generation and change the world we live in for a better place.  It is what it is; a journey through life.

So why is life so funny, because 2wks ago I couldn’t see the wood for the trees, or whatever that quaint expression is.  No one is ordering Imagine This from my website or Amazon, then all of a sudden, Scott Pack writes a brilliant review and my Amazon ranking goes up 600,000 places (don’t ask me how it works) and now I’ve agents coming out of my ears.  Well two to be exact, but it sounds better if I say they’re 20 agents camped outside my doorstep begging to represent me. (I should be so lucky).  

I’m glad he read and liked Lola’s story, I don’t even want to think of what would’ve happened to my dream if he hadn’t.  When I met him I didn’t realise how much influence he had.  Despite this, he seems to me to be down to earth and not the egostistical person some blgos have been describing.  So today, I’m counting my blessings and thanking the Lord for keeping my dream alive.  I’m another step closer to being a respected Author.  I wish my dad was alive to witness my almost success.