When Preparation Meets Opportunity
When preparation meets opportunity...these words still ring in my head. These are the words that my agent, N'TYSE told me the day that she explained that she was able to secure a three book major publishing contract for me with Urban Books/ Kensington. Like any author, I was beyond ecstatic. In fact, I was every gleeful emotion I could imagine. But there was one thing I wasn't...surprised.
Now that is not because I am the type of person who is laced in cockiness and drizzling with arrogance. I can't even pretend it's because I was always confident in myself or my abilities to achieve this feat. It was simply because I was blessed with a vision, and I had enough faith over my fear to trust the vision and go for it.
Let me back up, because right now there are several people who see this as a broken record. I want to explain what I mean by having an honest vision. I've written since I was 13 years old. Back then, it was only poetry. My mother, rest her soul, told me when I was a teenager that my writing will take me far in life and even told me that I should write a poem for then First Lady Hillary Clinton. As a teen, I laughed at this. Seriously? I was writing poems about black history, boy crushes and heartbreaks. I was in no way thinking of writing a poem for the president's wife. What I didn't understand then was that my mother was doing something called, "speaking life". She spoke life into me that day that I wouldn't appreciate or realize until well after her death. The appreciation came the day I had to write poems for her funeral and my daughter. You see, they died together in a horrible drunk driving crash in 2004. But that's not the time that I realized it.
Fast forward to 2009, after years of writing poetry and short stories and three novels for my entertainment, I began getting this nagging in my spirit to become a published author. This wasn't an easy decision. I wrestled with it. Why? Opening yourself to the world is scary and that's putting it mildly. Would people like my work? Would they like me? Could I actually do this? Those questions plagued me for months. After wrestling with the idea, I decided to go to God in prayer. I simply asked him, "should I become a published author and if so, please reveal it to me so plainly that I have no choice, but to know that this is your plan for my life."I didn't have to wait long. Tyler Perry was accepting an award and he said, "you know something is meant for you when you try to leave it alone, but it won't leave you alone."Confession. I wasn't even watching the awards show. I was only walking through my living room while my husband watched and that is the only portion I heard. Immediately, I turned to my husband and said, "I'm going to be a published author".
The next question was what am I going to publish? None of my previous work was sufficient. That answer came by the same means that I began writing when I was 13...an ex. After a conversation with my ex, my story was set in motion. I mean "ten chapters in one night" motion!
Remember when I told you my mother spoke life into me? I didn't realize it then, but all of my literary victories would come because someone spoke life into them.
In 2010, when I was writing my first book, "Never Again...No More", I had the opportunity to go to one of my favorite authors booksigning which was happening right in my own city. My sister-in-law came with me and we ended up not only taking a picture with the author, but I was able to get valuable advice from the author. Later, I posted the picture on Facebook and my best friend told me, "frame this, you'll need it later in life." She followed it up with the caption under the photo on Facebook that said, "FRAME THIS".
When I was first published in 2012, I was under an independent publisher and at our first author banquet in 2013 the speaker asked a question to me, but she kept calling me the wrong author name. After a few moments of everyone trying to determine who she was speaking to, she finally pointed at me and said, "Yes, I'm talking to you."Then I said, "Oh, I'm Untamed." She immediately apologized and said, "hey you may work with her one day." Of course, we all laughed and took it as playful banter.
Besides, I was fresh in the industry still trying to find my way. And I knew that my journey would not be an easy one. And it wasn't. The up and down of sales, the departure from my publisher, the time and money devoted to publishing made me question the vision that God had given me. Even with all the success that I did have, the small victories, I wondered if this is truly what I was meant to do. Yet, I kept pushing through. I kept writing, kept studying, kept publishing.
After 10 books and 3 anthologies, starting my own publishing services company, several features and interviews, I still questioned myself. In fact, I almost gave up. Then 2017 hit and the bottom fell out of my life once again. I lost my grandmother, my sister-in-law was killed in a car accident, my daughter was ill and then I was hospitalized. It was then that I had the foresight to know that life was throwing me too many curveballs. It's always darkest just before the sun rise and I realized now was the time to buckle down and go harder. To accept that the vision for my life was real and that I was about to enter into my DUE season.
Not long after my release from the hospital, everything around me began to improve. My husband got his dream job, my daughter healed and then I received a phone call. One of my dearest supporters and rave reviewers, Diane Rembert told me about an opportunity because she believed in me. I knew at that very moment that this was the moment that was spoken over my life. It only takes one YES to turn things around. So I said, yes. See the reason I knew this was my opportunity was because remember in 2013 when the speaker called me another name and jokingly spoke of us working together? Well, the name of the author she called me was the infamous, N'TYSE. And guess who I was given the opportunity to work with? N'TYSE! After submitting my information and a meeting, I am happy to say that N'TYSE the author and literary agent, accepted me as her client and became MY literary agent.
The excitement doesn't stop there. Remember the author I saw in 2010 and my best friend told me to frame the photo? Well, after one month of being signed with N'TYSE, she was able to secure me a 3 book publishing deal with none other than Urban Books owned by New York Times Best selling author and one of my favorite authors, Carl Weber. And yes, Carl Weber is the author whose book signing I attended back in 2010.
To this day, I am not the most well-known author. I may not be the best author to some. But when life is spoken into you and you trust the vision, the current circumstances don't matter. All it takes is one YES. Sometimes that 'yes' has to come from inside of yourself. I realized in that moment how powerful it is to trust the vision given to you, to speak life into your life and to push through regardless of how things look in that moment. I never knew what my outcome would be, but I know I never gave up. I know that I remained persistent, I kept pushing, I remained patient, and I prayed and praised God through the good and the bad. It's because of that, as my super wonder-working agent, N'TYSE said, that "when preparation meets opportunity" the possibilities are limitless. Ask yourself are you prepared and putting yourself into the position for your possibilities? Speak the seeds of life into your goals and watch your vision blossom.
Remain Untamed
~Untamed