Dedications

So over the past few years I've written a few dedications and posted them in the front of my books. Some I've liked, some I haven't, but in reality there are just too many people to list, too many people who have encouraged me in one way or another that to list any means I'm possibly leaving out someone who is just as important. I mean, realistically, nearly everyone in my life presently has been an inspiration.

In retrospect, I've also read a few dedications in other books which are either amazingly poetic or astoundingly simple. There's rambling and there's succinctness, but done well. Unfortunately, I'm not poetic. Nor can I spew words which invoke the kind of emotion I truly feel, emotions these people I want to thank will understand and appreciate. This leaves me in quite the quandary.

So,while having a few moments to think, I wrote a more deserving dedication which I will place at the front of A ROMANCE NOVEL, my newest book which should hit the market soon enough. (Too soon to my liking) Anyway, here is it:

Dedication: Thirty years of vividly imagining worlds, of toiling at a keyboard, and of learning that criticism only makes my writing better has pushed me toward accomplishing a lifetime goal. It’s a goal I could not have accomplished on my own, though at times it seemed that way. Yet, for every twisted phrase or tweaked paragraph, for every painful rewrite or gleeful summation, and for every frustrated moment leading toward exhaustive exultation, I have had someone urging me to become more than I was before. In the beginning, I only had thoughts of what could be; the beginnings of an idea. Now, I have fully written and published stories I never would've conceived myself writing. However, this is not a testament to myself or my perseverance, but rather to those behind me pushing me forward, telling me they have read my words and want to read more, who have encouraged me to continue on instead of finding a shelf on which to park my expressive nature. This dedication is for them; for those who never lost hope even when I discouraged. To you I say; thank you. I could not have done this without every single one of you and, now more than ever, I need you to lift my chin and tell me to forge on; that this is worth it. And it’s for you that I will.