THE SPIRIT GUIDE BAR AND THE YEAR OF ACHIEVING THE IMPOSSIBLE DREAM

I suppose I should tell you about my novel. It’s called The Spirit Guide Bar. The main character is a beaten down high school teacher, not so loosely based on me. Unsure of his place in the world, he makes a conscious attempt at transcendental meditation and finds himself in the midst of a full blown vision, bellied up at the Spirit Guide Bar, having a beer and a shot with the Scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz, Ernest Hemmingway and Ulysses S. Grant. And no, there were no psychedelic drugs involved in the development of this book.

When the beaten down teacher mentions that he is experiencing a vision – an illusion, the scarecrow responds with, ‘The illusion you’re experiencing right now is more real than anything that ever has happened to you or ever will happen to you because it is happening to you - right now.”

It’s my favorite line in the book.

I know precisely what’s going through your mind. What right thinking agent wouldn’t bust his tail to represent a book like The Spirit Guide Bar? I also know why you’re thinking this. It’s because most of you are friends and family that I have talked into visiting my blog. Then again, you could be sitting there feeling incredibly embarrassed for me, shaking your head and saying to yourself, “This poor schlep has been pounding away at the keyboard for more than four years, and this is the kind of crap he's writing?”

I’ve already sent out 155 query emails.

Here is the first of my thirty-five rejection emails for The Spirit Guide Bar.

We are fully booked but thanks for trying our agency and good luck elsewhere.

I don’t know about you, but I like it. It’s understated, short, and strait to the point.

Don’t let the self deprecating humor fool you, I will publish my writing. At times this goal of becoming a published writer seems impossible, but it’s not impossible I’ll find a way. As John Wooden said, “Goals achieved with little effort are seldom worthwhile or lasting.”

Do you have a seemingly impossible goal? I don’t know about you, but as far as I’m concerned, 2009 is going to be the year of achieving the seemingly impossible dream – darn it.

Thanks for reading