I was jumping around like a schoolgirl this week after I emailed a best-selling UK author whose novels were endorsed by Marian Keyes then devoured by me in the first week of the school holidays, and she (the author, Mhaili McFarlane) responded within five minutes. Not only that, she gave me her address, so I could send her a copy of my own novel.

Man, the fan-girling! I called my mum, I called my sister. I posted about it on Facebook. I was just so excited to see her name in my inbox and be chatting (briefly, in her case, as she’s neck-deep in the edits for her third novel, and over-effusively in mine) about writing and editing etc.

I have this thing where I have no shame. A friend described it as ‘tenacity flirting with audacity’ (she should be a writer too) but really it’s just an over-developed sense of optimism and a complete letting go of ‘what will people think?’

When Audrey and I put together the My 15 Minutes Speaker Series, we contacted Julia Gillard. We contacted Ita Buttrose. I spoke to someone at the Danish Embassy about contacting Princess Mary. In the end none of those people participated in our series but wow, we had a fabulous line-up of speakers who gave the audience tears, ideas and smiles. It’s one of the career-highlights of this year so far.

One of my friends commented under my post about getting a reply from Mhairi, something along the lines of me having a ‘storybook life’. That’s true, in so much as any good book is peppered with tragedy and hilarity, highlights and depths. But the ‘glam’ parts—the bits where I’m conversing with cool authors (while in my PJs, surrounded by the pig-sty that is my study after my three-year-old has given it his cyclonic touch) are pure luck. Pure timing. Pure chance—and when I say ‘chance’, I don’t mean the type that falls into your lap. I mean the chance you take.

For every risk that ‘pays off’, I could name about twenty or more times that I throw a line out into the universe with some bait, and reel back an empty hook. For every acceptance, there’s a rejection or two. For every successful idea, there’s a failed one. For every fan-girling moment, there’s another time crying in disappointment.

The novel that I’ve just published has attracted some great reviews, and sitting in the drawer behind it are three or four stalled stories and a completed novel that’s been rejected at least four times by major publishers. On my website, there are some well-regarded workshops and seminars listed. There’s an equal number of workshops and seminars that didn’t ‘gel’ and that I deleted from offer.

I’m happily married, and was amicably divorced. I absolutely adore the work I’ve done in the last five years, which followed a decade of feeling like a square peg in a round hole in my previous career, which at its worst saw me crying in the toilets. There are some very serious illnesses amongst our family and friends, and there’s a lot of good health.

I was so sad to read about the tragedy of Flight MH17, and particularly interested in two stories that emerged out of the disaster. One described a family who had been devastated twice by losing family members on both Malaysian Airlines flights. The other story was about a man who was booked on both flights and later changed both bookings for mundane reasons that saved his life twice in the space of a few months.

These are the stories of our lives, aren’t they? Yin and yang.

A friend lost a colleague this week, unexpectedly. She explained that losing him suddenly has made her re-think her approach to everything. She realised she’d been holding back to stay safe, and to protect herself from things potentially not working out.

There’s no ‘potential’ about it. Lots of things won’t work out. That’s how it is, and at the end of the day I’d rather have a bag of failures and a couple of ‘straight to the pool room’ highlights, than a swathe of regrets and ‘what if’s…’

Approach that ‘out-of-reach’ person. Try that new thing. Take a chance on love and career and family. Risk spending days fruitlessly reeling in nothing—because one day you’ll land the catch of your life.

Have a storybook life.

Image of woman reading book in park from www.shutterstock.com