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The Story Behind the Stories

Guest Post

by Leila Meacham

I’ve often been asked what possessed me to begin writing novels when I was 65 years old.  The answer is simple: I was ordered to.  It happened quite ordinarily. I was drinking my morning coffee.  A long day stretched before me.  I was ten years retired from teaching, a profession I loved, and I had done all those things you wait until retirement to do and never have time for.  I was bored and had run out of everything that stimulated, fulfilled, and enriched.  And so that morning when I looked ceiling-ward and said to the Almighty, “What is it that you want me to do with the rest of my life,” I was astonished to feel, not hear, a small voice in my heart tell me that I was to finish that novel I’d started and put aside twenty years ago.  My first thought was, as we say in Texas: SAY WHAT?  No way, I argued and proceeded to list all the reasons that I should not engage in writing a novel that would have no chance of being published, especially given the age of the author by the time it was finished.  Why would an agent or publisher invest in a writer they thought might already have a foot in the grave?!

But that silent voice said, “You write the book, and I’ll do the rest.”

Sometimes you can have faith without hope.  So I got to work fueled only by the faith that I was doing what I believed I was meant to do but with no hope that my efforts would be rewarded.  The rest of the story has become something of a publishing legend.  After five years, I completed the book that became Roses.  The Monday after I wrote THE END on the final page of the manuscript (one of the best days in my life), a friend called to say that her niece was married to a top New York City agent and he was willing to read my book.  Before I knew it, he had agreed to represent the book, submitted it to one of the major publishing houses in New York, the editor-in-chief read it, called my agent within 48 hours of having read it, and made a deal for the publication of the book.

All I could think of was that small inner voice saying, “You write the book, and I’ll do the rest.”

I share my story with you to express what I believe to be true, and it is that all our talents, skills, artistic creations are gifts bequeathed us by the Giver of such gifts, the Great Creator.  We are not to hide them under a barrel or take credit for them.  Our job is to develop our gifts to the best of our abilities with faith God has a destiny in mind for them, whatever that might be.  I often think how different things would have been if I had ignored that still, small voice.