I know, I know….I have not given you some brilliance lately. For those of you who are new…that means, that I haven’t blogged lately. But don’t worry, once you read ME…you will appreciate my brilliance too!

Inspiration is a funny thing. You need to be inspired to create…so they say. But in the writing world, if you wait for that, a book would never be written. What I am learning from the creative world, is that you need to push yourself to be inspired. In other words…brilliance is WORK!

Doh!

Yup, brilliance is not this lucky thing that just happens to someone. It doesn’t just pop into one’s head, or come in a dream and then you wake up and, “Voila!” Brilliance is work like anything that is good, or important. You need to feed it, tap it, push it, drag it out, and nurture it. You need to create brilliance.

And that, my dear friends, is the truth of it all.

There are people who have high IQ’s. But what they do with it is what transforms that intelligence. Things just don’t happen…they have to be developed. You may a natural gift at painting. But if you don’t work at, learn, practice, etc…you will never create a work of art. I remember sailing for the first time. The person I was with let me take the helm and I did a great job. It kind of came naturally to me. But then he started to teach me the skill of sailing…I sucked. When I had to actually refine my skills and be accurate, timely, consistent, and safe, I flipped the boat, almost ran into others, etc. I wasn’t great at sailing. I had natural talents to learn, but I had no experience, knowledge, understanding, or practice to be brilliant. My ability to be great needed work!

I dare say, my second novel, Chosen Mistress, is better than the first. I know my third book will be better than that. I may know how to write. Well, as a few agents have noted, my writing is, “engaging,” and “charming.” (Shameless plug, I know.) I have lovely stories to tell. But my brilliance is yet to be developed. It is in the process. I am working hard, pushing, pulling, and nurturing my talent to be better. So, one day when someone says, “She is lucky to be so talented,” I can honestly say, “No, it was a lot of damn work!”