With January almost in the rear view mirror, the annual "Best of 2024 Indie Book Awards" submission season is in full swing.

What is most exciting about these opportunities is that just submitting my 2024 book "Sundays with Jenny" enables the Haiku Milieu-Universe to expand in new directions.

I've gotten to talk with fascinating people: journalists, radio hosts, podcasters, bloggers, and more. These folks are artists in their chosen fields, and I never would have met them if not for the book. This makes me feel like I've already won.

In all of these conversations, one question keeps coming up: what is your definition of success?

Today's version came via email, and was "what is your definition of literary success?"

Here's what I sent back to them:

"To experience good writing is to feel you have a friend in this world.

Once you trust yourself
to the arms of a good book
it won't let you go

To me, success is writing a song or poem that leaps from the mind to the heart to the "soft animal of your body," as Mary Oliver puts it.

It is writing that animates a visceral connection between you and what you know to be true, making it impossible to live the ordinary life in anything but an extraordinary way. 

All worldly success grows from this." 

Have you had that experience with books or music? I'd love to hear about it. Drop me a line and let me know.