How do you measure success? Or do you?

          Do you have anything that signifies success to you? Do you buy yourself something sometimes with royalties or advance checks? Did you sell or indie-publish your first book and hold it in your hands and cry and think It doesn’t get any better than this? Did you quit your day job as soon as it was feasible and write full time? Do you have contest wins or placements or printed-out good reviews that you remind yourself of when the voices inside your head start telling you to forget it, you can’t write?

          I’m not going to talk about money here, at least not specifically. It’s personal to every writer what money has to do with anything. Some don’t really care one way or another about it because, truth is, they’re going to write anyway. Others only care about the money, because writing’s a job first and foremost. Whether they love writing or just having written, it’s a job.

          No, what I’m talking about is signs of success. For some, it is the money. The renown. The awards. I have no problem with that. I don’t have any of it, but I also don’t aspire toward it. I admire those who have achieved so much.

          For some of us, it is enough that people stop referring to us as hobbyists. Speaking of prejudices—weren’t we?—I despise that word nearly as much as I do the term “bodice rippers.”

          I’m rambling, and I apologize for that, but my point is the one I started with: do you have certain things that signify success? Framed covers? A shelf full of your own books? I’m about to tell you mine.

·         I was working in a food booth at the 4-H fair on Friday night. It was hot and muggy and busy and a good time. An old friend brought me her tray and we talked while I scraped the dishes and got rid of the paper trash. Diane said, “I can’t believe a renowned author is cleaning off my dishes.” We laughed together and I thought that was success to me, that someone knew me as an author (never mind the renowned part—I’m not) but that I’m still good with washing dishes.

·        You’ve all seen my office and heard about it ad nauseum. I love it a lot. A couple of
      weeks ago we were in Menard’s or Lowe’s (it was date night--what can I say?) and Duane says, “That’s what you need,” and bought it for me. I now have my own water cooler. Goofy or not, it felt like a little slice of success to me.

Okay, what are your signs of success ?