While at my annual Edisto Beach retreat recently, partially to work and partially to get away, I picked up the local newspaper. It’s published monthly and is sort of informative, sort of gossipy, and partially public service announcements. It provides me a flavor of the beach and its people, though, I’ve learned I have to take it with a grain of salt since it has a tendency to get opinionated. But that’s one of the joys of small town living.

They posted my book signing wrong. The bookstore posted October 25 when I was scheduled for October 10. The book listed was Edisto Tidings versus Lake Murray Money. The day was Friday when signings have always been on Thursdays. The bookstore owner had no idea the why and how of it. All I could do was sign for those who came per the signage at the bookstore, and then I signed all the remaining stock so anyone showing up on the 25th would at least have a signed book.

Two weeks before I left for Edisto, when all this happened, I was scheduled to appear at the Newberry Opera House. Hurricane Helene killed that.

The day I arrived home from Edisto, a women’s club told me they’d cancelled an upcoming appearance.

Then as fate would have it, the latest release, Lake Murray Money, comes out on the day my husband has open-heart surgery, October 18. Yes, while you are reading this, the date of this article release, and the book release, I am in a waiting room in Lexington Medical Center. He ought to be okay, but this is no little procedure.

I could throw in a couple more issues around my writing, but you get the point. Sometimes things don’t work out as planned. Some of them are disappointing. Others are necessary. Others you look back on and are appreciative things turned out like they did. But the point is to proceed. Ninety percent of the time these things are not personal. They are not directed at you. They just happen. How you handle them says a lot about your character . . . and your tendency to focus on success downstream, not setback you can do nothing about.