Bea's writers and readers pages

"Don't do that," I cautioned the cat, but
since when would a cat listen to a human?

Baily continued climbing up the chair and falling with a soft thud to the kitchen
floor. This preoccupation he had with climbing the chair continued for a couple
of weeks. One day I walked into the kitchen, and there he was, happily hanging on
the top slat, chewing his tail. He didn't wobble, he didn't sway, he didn't
fall. He had tried, and tried again until he succeeded, not letting failure prevent him from success.

Baily's persistence taught me a good lesson. I returned to the manuscript I had revised
so many times I was tired of it, and rewrote it again, and kept at it every day for
a week until I had it the way I wanted it. And finally, I too was able to
succeed as I read my chapter
to my critique group and received a resounding vote of approval.

It sold to Secrets magazine as a romance novella.
While you need talent to be a writer what my cat taught me
was that without
persistence, there is no success.