Cool Coincidences and More Splendid Serendipity

Serendipity: The faculty of making happy and unexpected discoveries by accident. Also, the fact or an instance of such a discovery ~ Oxford English Dictionary

Supper is finished (eggplant and garbanzo beans), I have a phone conference call in half an hour, and I was planning to write this post about introverted writers and the challenge of publicity. It’s been a busy, slightly scattered day, so I was very happy to have logged my sixth (yay!) consecutive day of focused writing this morning. It meant that no matter what else happened today and what else I didn’t get done, I didn’t have that cloud hanging over me that I hadn’t written yet.

That, alone, is reason for me to continue.

Anyway, I’m going to save the post about introversion until tomorrow, because I want to share a couple of coincidences from today:

First, my son, who is home from college this summer, watched Adaption this morning, which features the book The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean (as well as the character of Orlean herself). After viewing the film, he did some research on the book and characters and screenplay, and we talked about it for awhile.

Then, this afternoon, he checked one of his favorite websites, Bloggingheads, and today’s diavlog is with Susan Orlean and Elizabeth Gilbert (who doesn’t love her!), subtitled “A Julia Roberts-Meryl Streep Smackdown.” Here are links to individual segments:

Liz on the film and fans of “Eat, Pray, Love” (05:54)
How to write (09:55)
Finding one’s authentic voice (08:43)
The pros and cons of being gal writers (08:48)
The glory of America’s wacky subcultures (08:52)
Susan on the heartbreak of dog ownership (06:50)

Second, I just read the comment on yesterday’s post by Beth Lowe (check out her beautiful blog and microblog). I’m sharing her words here because I know that others will find them as helpful as I did:

Lisa, there was definitely a wrinkle in the universe today. I checked my twitter account for new followers today, and found you there, along with the link to your website. I’ve just finished day three of going to my desk first thing every morning to write for an hour without logging on to any of my social media outlets or the internet. These last three days have been the most productive and satisfying three days I have had in I don’t when! Right now, I’m working on rejuvenating my blog. Doing that and posting regularly will get me into the habit of writing regularly. Then, I intend to work on my book.

I’ve scheduled my time this way for now:

First hour (with lots of coffee): Straight writing. As I go forward, this will be the time I will often work on new stuff.

Short transition (15 – 30 minutes) Quickly review email and respond to anything “hot.”

Next 90 minutes: More writing and revising what’s already in the hopper.

Cool coincidences and more splendid serendipity! Gotta love it. 🙂