James Carl Meadows: My Not-So-Overnight Success Story

I used to walk through bookstores as a kid, breathing in as much of the intoxicating smells of coffee and new books as my young lungs could bear.  My eyes would scan each and every shelf, my feet carefully leading me down each and every isle, my mind racing, imagination sparking like a new engine turned over for the first time.  I loved seeing the artwork on each spine and cover.  My fingertips tingled, feeling the unique textures of as many different books as I could manage.  Each one was heavier or lighter than the last, each page a different color, each font seemed unique.  I lost myself in a maze intellectual art, thousands of individual expressions, words in a million different combinations.  What was the old adage?  Put hundred monkeys on a hundred typewriters and eventually one of them will pound out Shakespeare.  I could be at least as good as a monkey, right?

I went home, pulled out my number two pencil and wide ruled paper and went to work, pounding out words filled with imagination against the anvil of my mind; slowly forming and molding my words, my art, myself into something different entirely from the raw materials I gathered to begin my task.  It only took me 35 years, but I am now confident that I have finally achieved the status of literary monkey.  I haven't yet managed to make Shakespeare, but I know if I keep pounding away, something great is bound to eventually fall out.  

Now, at age 45, I have written my first novel.  I have published my first paperback, my first ebook, and even my first audiobook.  It came out of my typewriter.  I held it up to the light, slapped it on the bottom, and called it Coffee, Secrets, Cincinnati.  That newborn babe, that precious innocent child, is what brings me to my next first.  I have now written my first blog post and launched my first website/online store.  I'm proud, tired, but proud, and I'm so glad to be able to share my book, my website, and my journey through the literary world with you.  

I want to stay in touch, get to know you, as you get to know me.  Please, join my email list, send me questions or comments, read a book, leave a review.  I'm loving my view of the world from this little mountaintop.  Climb on up, enjoy it with me.  I plan to stay a while.  After all, it only took me 35 years to get here.