DEBORAH CROMBIE: (Tales from the Road, Part 1) As some of you may know, I've been on tour for TO DWELL IN DARKNESS for a month now (today I'm waving at you from Baltimore,) and while it hasn't exactly been On the Road, it's been fun and I've had some lovely and interesting--and surprising--experiences. Here's one I thought I'd share with you.
If you're a writer on tour in a bigger city and your publisher is very nice to you, you might have a media escort. A media escort picks you up at airports, gets you settled in your hotel, takes you to your book signings and media interviews and generally takes great care of you. Over the years, getting to know my media escorts, and often seeing them on subsequent tours, has been one of the real treats of touring. And on this tour, something unusual happened.
As one of my media escorts delivered me to the airport, she handed me a bound journal and opened it to a blank page, then gave me a pen. "Write down your life philosophy," she said. "Don't think about it for more than a few seconds, and don't look at the other entries before you do it. Just a sentence or two."
I wrote the first thing that came to mind, added the date and signed my name.
Only then was I allowed to look back through the other entries, and some of them were pretty amazing. I'm still thinking about what I wrote and what I read.
So here's my challenge, dear REDS: Write the first thing that comes into your mind. Don't think about it for more than a minute. Don't read anyone else's entries until you've written your own, and I won't add mine until everyone else has chimed in. It will, I think, be very enlightening to see what we come up with, and to challenge our readers to do the same.
LUCY BURDETTE: Work like a fiend and keep learning. Surround yourself with kind, generous, funny people. And fur-coated creatures. Eat what you love but exercise accordingly. Give as much back as you can afford.
RHYS BOWEN: My life philosophy is actually John's family motto. Inter Utrumque tene--steer a middle course. Everything in moderation--that means bacon on Sundays, a little chocolate, one glass of wine. As I've aged I'd add two other thoughts. Take time to smell the roses and only do what gives you joy.
HALLIE EPHRON: My philosophy - Of course you can. And (can I have two?) What goes around comes around.
HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: You never know.
JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Money doesn't matter. Not that it isn't very good to have some. But all my best experiences and most worthwhile decisions have happened when I push the concept of money - getting it, keeping it, spending it - to one side.
DEBS: So what did I write in the book? Give what you would like to receive. A version of the Golden Rule, I suppose, and of Hallie's "What goes around, comes around," but so interesting what first pops into our heads.
I don't know that I always live up to my motto, but it's a nice reminder to try. And I LOVE all of our philosophies.
So, readers, what about you? You'll have read ours, but without too much deliberation, give us yours, in a nutshell, and we'll see what gems you have to share.
