Woody Allen, thank you…or whomever originally said that “80% of success is showing up.” It’s a truism that has motivated me countless times in my life. If you don’t go for it, your chance of failure is 100%, so trying gives you a chance and sometimes it turns out quite rewarding. That quote literally came to mind and inspired me when I received info on “now accepting submissions to be considered for the Story Circle Real Women Write” publication. Nonfiction, fiction, and poetry were solicited.
While I’ve enjoyed composing poems since I was a child (any wordplay is my definition of a good time), I am not a poet.
Not like the late Nathan Polsky, one of my first author clients, who sought my help putting together and publishing his lifelong collection of poems. And they were good! It was such a pleasure working with him, over 90 years old at the time, and listening to him read a poem out loud for me (obviously gleeful to be asked). 
I published the first volume, Meaningful Sounds, and then it was time to select poems from his type-written papers for the next, and the next. Then, he presented me with several new poems. He had thought his poetry days were in the past, but here he was (calling me “his muse”) creating wonderful new poems. I ended up publishing five volumes of poetry for him, and he was so happy. Thank goodness he didn’t wait until it was too late to leave his legacy.
I wrote a poem (keeping with the designated theme for this year’s anthology) and sent it off. “Eighty percent of success is showing up!” I thought.
A few months later I received a very warm and personalized letter to let me know that my poem, “Mona Lisa Revived,” had been selected and included in the final pieces of writing for the anthology. I was happy. I receive no royalties, only the honor of being acknowledged and the opportunity to share it with others. This is the description on Amazon.com:
Beyond COVID: Leaning Into Tomorrow is Volume 20 in the Real Women Write anthology series from Story Circle Network, an organization that supports women writers and celebrates the importance of women’s stories. In the 2020 issue, Living on COVID Time, authors were responding to the first year of the global pandemic—its isolation, uncertainty, and social fractures. In this 2021 volume, the writers still explore the pandemic—which is not yet under control and dominates life for many—but they also offer up visions of how we move forward through and beyond it. This one-of-a-kind collection significantly expands the…literature of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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