Dear FabFitFun,
If you know a little about my journey as an author, you might have drawn one conclusion: I was very lucky. At least, that’s something I’ve heard once or twice, and something I’ve even thought of myself more than a couple of times. It wouldn’t be a lie. The truth is that I was in the right place––or in this case, the right app––at the right time.
When I self-published The Spanish Love Deception, I did with no expectations or future plans. Did I hope for the book to sell and go as far as making writing my full time job? Sure. If I ever was so lucky. Because dreaming, hoping for success, is unavoidable when you’re pouring your heart into something. And I was doing exactly that. I had been a book lover since I could remember, a book blogger for years, and now, for the first time in my life, I had somehow managed to finish a manuscript. A complete one. I had typed those two words “The End”, had it edited, a cover designed and I was letting the world read it. And as much as I was extremely realistic about my possibilities, by clicking on the publish button looking at me from the screen of my laptop on that February twenty second of 2021, I was daring myself to wish for something. Something crazy, something scary, something exciting.
Cut to a year later, and I’m now sitting in my home office. A shelf is against the wall and copies of my debut, now re-launched with a traditional publisher, are lined up behind me. Beside them, there are a few proofs of my sophomore novel, The American Roommate Experiment, which is coming out in a few weeks. Today’s a Monday, and I don’t need to rush out to avoid getting stuck in traffic on my way to the engineering firm I work for. Instead, I’m looking at a to-do list that includes things I used to dedicate my free time to, like snapping a few shots of a book for instagram. Things no one prepared me for, like updating my own accounting books. Or things I never imagined were in the hand of cards I picked by choosing an Engineering degree, like making sure I pack everything I need for the book tour I’ll embark for in less than a couple of weeks. Should I bring a sharpie with me? Will people show up to every stop of the tour? Will they love my second book as much? What happens if they don’t? What if nobody does?
I wake up every day to this new life I am now leading. I now write the romance novels I used to devour and talk nonstop about in my free time. Writing and having your work published is as exhilarating as it is terrifying. It’s a dream come true. Ethereal but real. Fragile yet rock solid. Some days are bad, filled with anxiety I never knew I’d ever experience. Some are great, making my heart so full, I think it might explode. Some are ordinary days. And some others, I surprise myself thinking how happy I am. How good my life is. How lucky I am. Will this luck last? Am I more than a right-moment right-place hit? Am I more than just lucky?
Someone told me once that those who don’t work hard, those who don’t put themselves out there and dare to be vulnerable, are never very lucky. And hearing that was like opening a window to a new world. The truth is, I have learned, that luck is never simple. It isn’t black and white. You can’t expect luck to change your life if you don’t back-up those dreams with actions. Effort. Courage.
Most times, luck is merely a part of the equation. Luck is the extra mile.
Love will rarely manage to find you if you’re sitting at home every day. Or well, in the updated version of that, love will rarely find you if you don’t dare to download the app, swipe right, open that chat, spit out some graceful opening line and go on a date. In other words, we all know that one will never find love if one’s heart is not open to it. Luck is not very different.
I was very lucky, but I often forget that I dared luck to fall on my lap.
So I dare you to do the same. I dare you to open yourself to luck. I dare you to dare. To work hard, to challenge yourself and change your life if that’s what you hope for. Dream big, put yourself out there. Persevere. Be courageous and take risks.
Be lucky.
Who knows, one day you might find yourself writing a letter to the FabFitFun community and wondering, wow, how did I even get here?
P.S. Can’t wait to read this book? Get your copy here!
