{"id":33,"date":"2012-04-30T16:14:37","date_gmt":"2012-04-30T16:14:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/onfire\/?p=33"},"modified":"2012-04-30T16:17:59","modified_gmt":"2012-04-30T16:17:59","slug":"excuses-excuses-grandmas-got-a-book-on-amazon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onfire\/2012\/04\/30\/excuses-excuses-grandmas-got-a-book-on-amazon\/","title":{"rendered":"Excuses, excuses–Grandma’s got a book on Amazon!"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Grandma's book<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My mother’s paperback fiction book<\/a> is for sale on Amazon.com. Consider this: she was 85-years-old when she published it, this was her first book, and she doesn’t use the Internet!<\/p>\n

We live in a very special world. Susan Boyle, an unknown Scottish singer in her 50\u2019s can enter a talent show, be viewed 20 million times on youtube.com, and go on to be a vocal sensation. My mom, a retired grandma, can author her first book and make it available to everyone in the world. It’s “power to the people” now.\u00a0 Anything can happen and often does.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I know mom faced discouragement while writing. There were months when the book didn’t make much headway. Recalling some of my own self-limiting thoughts, I made a list of excuses I use and perhaps she used too:<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0 I’m too old.<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0 I’m not an expert.<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0 No one will want this.<\/p>\n

4.\u00a0 These days you have to be famous to get published or recorded or find an audience of any sort.<\/p>\n

5.\u00a0 Other people are already doing this and doing it better than me.<\/p>\n

6.\u00a0 No one else is doing this.\u00a0 There must be a reason.<\/p>\n

7.\u00a0 I’m too busy.\u00a0 I keep getting distracted and won’t finish–ever.<\/p>\n

8.\u00a0 I don’t have the money.<\/p>\n

9.\u00a0 I don’t have any help or the right connections.<\/p>\n

10. I keep changing my mind about it.<\/p>\n

11. This is just a pipe dream…a fantasy.<\/p>\n

12. They (family, friends) will think I’m full of myself.<\/p>\n

13. What if it flops and I’ve wasted my time?<\/p>\n

14. I need to spend my time on more important things like surviving, making money.<\/p>\n

What kept mom going?<\/p>\n

What keeps any of us going?<\/p>\n

It is our desire to give something of ourselves to help someone somewhere.\u00a0This is a universal desire and we must keep it alive.<\/p>\n

What about you–what thwarts your dreams?<\/strong><\/p>\n

What keeps them alive?<\/strong><\/p>\n

– – – – –<\/p>\n

Dear Reader: this is a new blog on Beliefnet. I need your help to make it a success! Would you consider subscribing (see bar above on the right) plus forward this post to a friend who may enjoy it? Also, I appreciate your comments.\u00a0 Thank you, Gloria<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My mother’s paperback fiction book is for sale on Amazon.com. Consider this: she was 85-years-old when she published it, this was her first book, and she doesn’t use the Internet! We live in a very special world. Susan Boyle, an unknown Scottish singer in her 50\u2019s can enter a talent show, be viewed 20 million…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":493,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[13,12,11,8,10,9],"class_list":["post-33","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-creativity","tag-amazon","tag-excuses","tag-help-someone","tag-publish","tag-self-limiting-thoughts","tag-too-old"],"yoast_head":"\nExcuses, excuses-Grandma's got a book on Amazon! - On Fire: Finding Your Gift And Using It<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onfire\/2012\/04\/30\/excuses-excuses-grandmas-got-a-book-on-amazon\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Excuses, excuses-Grandma's got a book on Amazon! - On Fire: Finding Your Gift And Using It\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"My mother’s paperback fiction book is for sale on Amazon.com. Consider this: she was 85-years-old when she published it, this was her first book, and she doesn’t use the Internet! We live in a very special world. Susan Boyle, an unknown Scottish singer in her 50\u2019s can enter a talent show, be viewed 20 million…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onfire\/2012\/04\/30\/excuses-excuses-grandmas-got-a-book-on-amazon\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"On Fire: Finding Your Gift And Using It\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-04-30T16:14:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-04-30T16:17:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/onfire\/files\/2012\/04\/Grandmas-Book-185x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"grose\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Excuses, excuses-Grandma's got a book on Amazon! - On Fire: Finding Your Gift And Using It","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onfire\/2012\/04\/30\/excuses-excuses-grandmas-got-a-book-on-amazon\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Excuses, excuses-Grandma's got a book on Amazon! - On Fire: Finding Your Gift And Using It","og_description":"My mother’s paperback fiction book is for sale on Amazon.com. Consider this: she was 85-years-old when she published it, this was her first book, and she doesn’t use the Internet! We live in a very special world. Susan Boyle, an unknown Scottish singer in her 50\u2019s can enter a talent show, be viewed 20 million…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onfire\/2012\/04\/30\/excuses-excuses-grandmas-got-a-book-on-amazon\/","og_site_name":"On Fire: Finding Your Gift And Using It","article_published_time":"2012-04-30T16:14:37+00:00","article_modified_time":"2012-04-30T16:17:59+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/onfire\/files\/2012\/04\/Grandmas-Book-185x300.jpg"}],"author":"grose","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onfire\/2012\/04\/30\/excuses-excuses-grandmas-got-a-book-on-amazon\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onfire\/2012\/04\/30\/excuses-excuses-grandmas-got-a-book-on-amazon\/","name":"Excuses, excuses-Grandma's got a book on Amazon! - On Fire: Finding Your Gift And Using It","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onfire\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onfire\/2012\/04\/30\/excuses-excuses-grandmas-got-a-book-on-amazon\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onfire\/2012\/04\/30\/excuses-excuses-grandmas-got-a-book-on-amazon\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/onfire\/files\/2012\/04\/Grandmas-Book-185x300.jpg","datePublished":"2012-04-30T16:14:37+00:00","dateModified":"2012-04-30T16:17:59+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onfire\/#\/schema\/person\/70a44f42f4bc2a726685f1b85285acba"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onfire\/2012\/04\/30\/excuses-excuses-grandmas-got-a-book-on-amazon\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onfire\/2012\/04\/30\/excuses-excuses-grandmas-got-a-book-on-amazon\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onfire\/2012\/04\/30\/excuses-excuses-grandmas-got-a-book-on-amazon\/#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/onfire\/files\/2012\/04\/Grandmas-Book-185x300.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/onfire\/files\/2012\/04\/Grandmas-Book-185x300.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onfire\/2012\/04\/30\/excuses-excuses-grandmas-got-a-book-on-amazon\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onfire\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Excuses, excuses–Grandma’s got a book on Amazon!"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onfire\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onfire\/","name":"On Fire: Finding Your Gift And Using It","description":"Beliefnet Voices","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onfire\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onfire\/#\/schema\/person\/70a44f42f4bc2a726685f1b85285acba","name":"grose","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onfire\/author\/grose\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/493"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33\/revisions\/37"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}