I was speaking last night to an author friend and as we wove our way through the dangerous roads of Doha, it brought up (naturally) conversations of near death experiences while driving in Qatar. Actually, it reminded me of greater dangers. As we walk through this earth, we’re never quite sure when our time on it is going to come to an end. Will it be tragically cut short, or will we go peacefully in old age? The impetus for my earlier self-publishing forays came as a result of this question, “If I die tomorrow, what will I regret the most?” For me, the answer to that question was always publishing at least one of my many manuscripts.
So I did.
And I kept going.
However, as I published each novel (1 a year since 2007), I looked at the pile of books that hadn’t made it into the public yet. I am fortunate enough to have a very dear friend who is a voracious reader and champion of my work. When I lived in Dubai, she also used to cat sit for my two crazies. On our first trip home after moving abroad, it occurred to me, that if our plane tanked over the Atlantic, then numerous books could be lost. Well, needless to say, I wasn’t having that. So, I told my friend, “This is going to sound crazy, but…” And I sent her the 7 or so manuscripts that were at that point unpublished. As the years passed, the files of manuscripts grew smaller, but now sending updated copies of my books to her is part of traveling. Of course, I could die any time, not just on a plane, but as I travel around 3-4 times a year, these seem like good milestones to check in. It’s not particularly fun to think of the end of your life, but I like to know if things happen that there is a file called ‘Publish These’ that will continue on after I’m gone.
P.S. I feel it necessary to point out, that while Hubs and I have a growing pile of dosh we’ve made no such effort to create a will – that probably makes a lot more sense!
Are you morbid like me? Do you have a legacy you want to share if you meet an untimely end?
annbenjamin 