As many of you may or may not know, Brett and I live within the realms of Pacific Heights, and while I cherish the boastful scenery of Lafayette Park, since Brett and I have moved here, I have admired that lofty and beatiful home that is accross the park from us, the home of Danielle Steel.
August 13th, 2010 marked the beginning of my journey to write a memoir about my car accident that happened in May of 2003. While there were three things I knew that I wanted to do while lying in the hospital bed during my hospital stay after my car accident, I never knew that within me existed the capacity to follow through with my desires.
Those three desires, premonitions actually based on the happenings of my life pre-accident, were to become a nurse, write a book/memior regarding my accident and the third really coincides with the first two, and that is to help others. In essense, I was awaiting personal transformation. Now, I want to instill in others what I have learned, without others having to go through what I have endured. The hard part, really, will be figuring out HOW to do that, but I hope that through my daily actions, being a wife, a mother someday, a nurse, a friend and through my book that I will inspire individuals to live out their desires, because I know if I encompass the attributes of sucess, anyone can!
Support systems are essential and there have been important people along the way, especially recently that have really amplified the tiping point to this incredible journey. My Husband and best friend, my bestfriends from high school who have known me before and after this tragedy and supported through and through, my Mother-In-Law - really my Husbands entire family, Dorette Franks (who just completed the most extreme endurance event - an Ultraman) and most recently Danielle Steel.
Since the recent mind talk I have had with myself with respect to starting this journey, most serendipitiously have turned out to be the conversations and premonitions (I whole heartidly believe in the mantra of "The Secret")I have had about meeting and/or emailing (I know two completely different things) Danielle Steel. A few weeks back, before I had decided to take this plunge and commit to following through with the long journey of writing my story (especially during my Nursing Master's Program, which is time consuming in and of itself) I emailed Danielle Steel. I know crazy, right? But I thought to myself that I might as well take a chance and email her and see if I can ask for her advice with respect to writing a book. I was not expecting a response, nothing against Danielle Steel, but I assume she receives 1,000's of emails and letters from fans a day asking her questions just like mine. After all, it is Danielle Steel! And if you know me, it is not really like me to do something like this. But I had a gut feeling that I needed this more for myself, than for anything, so I did it. And guess what... she wrote me back!!!
As Brett and I are in beautiful Bend, Oregon on a mini vacation, we returned home from a beatiful day from Elk Lake. I quickly checked my email and found an email address that I did not recognize. I opened it up, and when I read the initial paragraph, I couldn't understand where this woman/ or person had received my email, and I had assumed that it was a reader of my blog, until I read the next paragraph!
It was Danielle Steel!!!!! Not only is her advice is incredible as she pointed to key aspects I never had thought about myself, such as character building down to when my manuscript is ready to send out what to do... to think... Gina is going to have a manuscript! My goal is to be a Julia Julia of sorts and have my story/memior/manuscript turned into a movie! Danielle Steel can be the Julia Child and I can be the ... the Gina Cummings! I know this is bigger than myself, it makes me feel like I am in the right place... and I like it!
Thank you Danielle!!!
I told you! You weren't crazy sooooo happy for you vageeza!
ReplyDeleteHey Gina, I was checking out some pictures of you and Brett and saw your blog so I checked it out. This is really cool stuff! Sometimes I question whether my going back to school for something different is the right idea and although I didn't go through the traumatic event that you did it's nice to know another person kind of starting over as well. After reading some of your blog stories I couldn't help but think of a professor that I had last semester. She's big into writing and has a couple books that she's currently working on. In order to get her name out there, she's been publishing short stories on the website www.selfgrowth.com. It's a site where people can publish their stories and get feedback from other authors. I think she said that the number of people on this site is enormous so maybe you can post some of your blog stories on there to get a sort of following. Here's a story my teacher wrote that we had to read for class. It's kinda funny: http://www.selfgrowth.com/articles/searching_for_dimes_tip_for_the_day_find_a_reason_to_believe
ReplyDeleteShe doesn't have the best writing (for an English professor) but she's really nice. Anyways, hope this helps. Can't wait to make it out there to see you and Brett again.
Best,
Collin
Colin:
ReplyDeleteIt's so great to hear from you!! I checked out that website and try to use it! It's a challenging road to traverse for sure and any direction or advice is so helpful at this point! Thank you so much!!! PS - You and Plotkin Vs Brett "the ironman" Cummings on FB was hilarious! Too funny!