Spies Don't Make Wishes

In case you don't know...hurricane weather has descended on my part of the world again. It's been an extremely rainy month. A deluge, more like, and the worry here is that the ground is already so saturated that it can't take another couple of huge hurricane downpours. And that means--flooding and trees falling over if the winds get too rough.

A couple of years ago, everyone was praying for more rain because it was so dry and the water table was getting low from being consumed by too many new residents moving to Florida and growth in the area. Your prayers are answered, folks....

Ironic, isn't it? You get what you pray for and then you complain about that too.

From watching the news, you would think Florida is such an awful place to live in. I hear it all the time, from friends from other states and during casual conversations: why do people move down there anyway? It's hurricane alley!

And people do flock down here by the thousands every year. The weather is very nice--no snow, folks, except maybe light flurries in North Florida once every twenty years, LOL. Where I am, we get down to the 20s once in a while but it only lasts two or three days, so nothing to complain about.

The housing used to be very cheap...so cheap that northerners come here to retire so they can have more money to spend. Those days are about over, though. The houses are still cheap compared to up north, but man, are they priced out of many young buyers' bracket.

As for the hurricane visits, it really isn't like it's depicted on television. There had been some horrendous damage wrought by hurricanes the last ten years, but mostly, during the last dozen years, it's been rain, rain, rain when the storms skirted up the coast. Usually, we see one major hurricane that blows through with some damage to older homes and coastal areas. Except for last year, of course. Going through four hurricanes in a month and a half was quite an adventure, and the damage they caused was felt from one end of the state to the other.

So now everyone lives in fear of the next big hit. And there is fear that the housing market will cool off. Not to add to the fear that insurance costs will go sky high.

An uber-spy would have anticipated these problems, of course. He would have Plan B and Plan C in the wings. Can I add here, as an aside, that Florida city councils, with the old fogeys, are definitely NOT SPIES? But that's another
topic. ;-)

As a writer, be careful what you wish for. You wish to be published some day. Is it for one book or are you hoping to make it a career? Do you wish to write because you love it or do you want to be published because you want to share your stories? There is a difference.

And when you get your wish, are you going to complain? There will be things that are unexpected, you know, because a wish coming true doesn't mean it will be a bed of roses with bottles of champagne. There are thorns...like a final version of your story missing sixty pages or a title so embarrassing that you can't even say it out loud.

Of course you will still say YES, you want that wish to come true! What writer doesn't want those problems? Sure there are hurricanes in Florida, but the houses there are affordable. And there's sun before and after the season.

Metaphorically speaking, being published is just like that. Every book is a hurricane with a title. The impact it makes can change your life. Are you ready for it?

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