This has been a year of coincidences for me, but the most amazing one happened this evening, at Thanksgiving dinner.
I was eating at my pastor’s house and she had invited her new neighbors, who’ve just moved into town from the other side of the US. All was going well when, amid the jollification, I heard one of the new neighbors mention the MLA.
Now you must know that, reasonably or not, I view the MLA attendees as my target market. A gigantic conference full of creative writing, literature, and humanities academics! But I have no legitimate business at a humanities conference, so I am always on the lookout for people who do and who might be so kind as to distribute promotional bookmarks there. I immediately launched into my elevator talk. As I did, my new acquaintance began to look more and more surprised.
“Wait a minute,” he said. “What’s your last name? — I’m X—-! I emailed you about your story in Year’s Best Fantasy! And I reviewed the novel on Amazon!”
I’m sure best-selling authors have this sort of thing happen all the time, but in my case we’re talking about a book that has sold mighty few copies, and one of three Amazon reviews. What are the odds that one of the three people in the world who had reviewed my book on Amazon would move across the continent to land across the hall from my pastor, and across the table from me at Thanksgiving dinner?
I know it’s a small world, but that is too small to believe. And of all the things I have to be thankful for this year – and they are a tremendous list – right now I’m most thankful for coincidences and happy surprises.
