I have helped a lot of people turn their ideas into books, more than a hundred and I have written
another score or so but I have never had an experience like last week.
In June I began working with a client from California on her book about addictions, and she had
some stories about her life that I felt qualified her to author a book on addictions and give others advice
about how to overcome the challenges they faced. We completed her manuscript and it went off to the
publishers where it is at this time.
Then last week she called and asked if I remembered the homeless fellow she had met when she
was writing in a park, of course I remembered her telling me about the fellow she had met who needed
new shoes and was sleeping in the park and had a few other things go wrong in his life.
Well, she printed a copy of her manuscript and gave it to home to read, that lead to a few
councelling sessions in the park and now she was in her home and the had continued the process via the
telephone.
She was now writing a document for him to take to his court appearance, and he had patched
things up with his grandmother and was moving back in with her.
He credited the book with turning his life around. That is a success story on any one’s measuring
stick.
Her book has made a difference in this man’s life and she has not even had it published yet.
I don’t know if the fellow will get his life sorted and find his way back to his family and a life
style closer to what I consider normal, but he is trying and that is the first step.
Yes, she was excited but not as much about the book as the difference she had made in this
man’s life. Even if her book did not get published it had made a difference in another human being’s life
and that is a really big deal.
I count myself fortunate to have been a part of the process with her developing the manuscript, I
can not take credit for the impact it had on this man’s life but it is just a feel good story. The kind we need
about now, or anytime.
