Sharing My Good News: An Agent for Every Book Project!

For any writers out there, I want to share some really fabulous news. (I know, I usually try to write something thought provoking or that teaches a principle of some sort, but today I just had to share!) I have managed to go from having no literary agent representing me to having two – well…actually three – representing me all at one time! Yahoo! Thank God! Baruch HaShem! And they’ll all be at the Book Expo America in New York at the beginning of June peddling my three current book projects. Can you believe it? I can hardly believe it myself! I am so very, very grateful to them for believing in me, my work and my projects. And they all tell me that they hope to bring me good news come the first week of June, and, God willing, they will.

So, I have found an agent to take on my Jewish celebrity cookbook project, which should have been in stores for the 2006 holiday season…but wasn’t. If you recall, that book had a publisher, but the book was returned to me so I could find a larger publishing house to take it on. Yesterday, I found the perfect agent to take on that job for me, and she feels confident that she will have success in doing so. Yeah! I’m grateful to the 90 celebrities who signed on to that project and offered me their time, support, stories, and recipes. If the book is successful, we will all help MAZON: A Jewish Response to World Hunger help others around the world.

And, as you already know, my other agent is shopping my candle lighting as a spiritual practice book. She has another agent in her firm also selling my book on boys in the dance world, which was inspired by my son’s dancing endeavors.

(Okay…don’t ask how I will write two books at once, handle anything thrown at my by the publisher of the cookbook – which is complete -- and keep up with my client’s editing. I should be so lucky to have that problem.)

Shabbat is nearing quickly…and when I light the candles later this evening I will have so much for which to be grateful and I will celebrate my success by allowing myself to welcome in the Shechinah and to rest peacefully and joyfully in this sanctuary in time. As I work madly on trying to make the changes to the cookbook proposal my new agent requested, I will feel so filled with gratitude and with wonder at how the Universe works. I attribute my “success” not only to my diligence and perseverance, but the powerful energy of my intention and my knowing that I would, indeed, get these works published. I totally trusted…well, I had times of doubt, especially with the cookbook, but I would shrug that off and get back to work and back into a place of knowing it would work out.

Last week I resigned myself to approaching not only two new agents (on the suggestion of the last agent who had just turned down my cookbook project) and three small publishers (one the suggestion of my first agent and the person who brought the cookbook project to me in the first place. That said, when I actually sat myself down to write the letters and put the packages together, I did so with the intention of actually finding an agent. I changed my AOL password to reflect my desire to have an agent of a publisher for the manuscript by 6-07. Every time I typed in that password, I remembered my goal while at the same time I knew that as I had placed the parcels in the mailbox I had released the book and its outcome to a higher source. I had released it. I stopped thinking or worrying about it, except each time I typed in that password and affirmed that I would, indeed, have an agent or a publisher by June.

Now, I do this thing with the password all the time. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. I think so much of what makes it successful comes down to my own attitude. How strong is my intention? Have I released whatever it is I want, thus creating space to receive my desire, or am I holding on to it and filling myself with worry and negative thoughts? Am I trusting that what is for my highest good and the highest good of the project and those concerned with it will come to pass? Am I offering gratitude to God for my desired outcome having become manifest even thought it actually hasn’t yet; in other words, am I trusting that it has manifest in the World Above and will, therefore, soon manifest in the World Below? Am I behaving “as if” what I want already exists in my life and feeling all the joy and fulfillment that would come with that experience?

If I can answer “yes” to these questions, my affirmation works well, because of all these other things I have done. And that’s the “secret” to manifesting what we want, isn’t it?

By the way, my new booklet, Abracadabra! The Kabbalah of Creation, 7 Mystical Steps to Manifesting Your Dreams and Desires will be available in July! It will talk about some of the tools I use to create what I want in my life, and today I realize more than ever how very powerful those tools truly are. If you’ve heard of the bestselling book and DVD The Secret, my booklet (which will one day be a book – mark my words!) puts the principles set forth in The Secret through a Jewish mystical lense. (You can preorder it now in my store.)

So, I will move through today gladly putting my energy into the last thing I personally can do to sell my Jewish celebrity cookbook – finishing the proposal. Then I will again release the project – this time to my new agent as well as to my God. May the perfect publisher take on the book.

Ken yehe ratzon. May it be God’s will.

Shabbat shalom!

Signs of Life After Death and Passover Narrow Places

Okay, so Passover is over. I feel like I missed most of it…and while I’ve moved through a few narrow places and come out the other side of the parted waters, I’m still stuck in a few other tight spots.

I missed a good bit of Passover this year, because my father-in-law passed away on Friday, March 30th at about 8:35 PST. I know the approximate time, because my kids and I were in the process of doing Shabbat blessings (a little late, I know…). We had lit the Shabbat candles and said a special prayer for their grandfather, Miles, to have an easy transition and each in our own way said good bye to him – let him go. Some time after the candle blessing and before the blessing for the challah, one of our candles went out, and I checked the time as I wondered if this was a sign that Miles was gone. About 15 minutes later, my husband, Ron, called to tell me Miles had died. I knew then for sure that my father-in-law had heard our prayers, come to say goodbye and then had felt released. Granted it was not just our prayers that released him. His wife had just gone to bed. My husband had already voiced that he was ready for his Dad’s suffering – and his own – to end. Still, it provided me and my children with evidence of the non-local nature of the soul and of life after death. It proved to me once again that prayers have tremendous power.

So, we cancelled our first-night seder and boarded a plane on Monday morning to go to Missouri for a funeral. We had a hard time observing the dietary restrictions while staying in my mother-in-law’s home, but we finally opened out boxes of matzoh on Thursday upon returning home and had a seder on the seventh night of the holiday rather than not at all.

As for narrow places...well, my father-in-law’s illness and passing definitely constituted one. There has been my search for an agent, which is over, but I am still waiting for a publisher for that book and literary representation for my cookbook...and that feels like a narrow place (widening a bit but still tight). Time continues to feel tight, and my work load feels crushing. Financially, my husband and I are in a tight spot as well, but it should be opening up soon as well. So, some freedom has been achieved, but I don’t feel totally on dry land yet.

Is it possible to be totally on the other side of the Red Sea, dry and free? Or is there always another narrow place? Is it like one birth canal after another? Can we be sure the waters will always part when we find ourselves trapped on the edge of the ocean? Will there be life on the other side?

I suppose life often presents us with narrow places. More than that I see that when we keep putting goals in front of ourselves – like writing a book…and earning more money…and getting in shape…and losing 10 pounds…and proposing another book – we continually create new narrow places. And if we keep moving forward with faith – like Nachshon entering the water of the Red Sea up to his nose – the waters do, indeed, part. We aren’t always sure what we will find on the other side, but with faith and perseverance we do end up on the other shore, closer to our goal, a little bit more free, changed a lot or a little, still alive.

So, here's to Miles, who lived a good life and lives on in the memories of his family and friends and whose memory is a blessing. And here's to narrow places, rebirths and life itself. L'chaim. To life. To Living.

"Birth is God's Way of Saying 'You Matter'"

Last week I signed up for a class at Chabad by the Sea (Don’t you love it? Only in Santa Cruz, CA, can you find Chabad by the Sea) called “The Kabbalah of Character.” As I was reading the additional material for the second week of class, I was struck by the essay by Rabbi Simon Jacobson, the author of Towards a Meaningful Life. In this essay – and in his book – he says, “Birth is G-d’s way of saying ‘you matter.’ In other words, each of us matters simply because we were born. Or, we were born because we matter.

According to Jacobson, “This means you are absolutely necessary. You are indispensable to G-d’s vision of the world, chosen to fulfill a mission in this world that you and only you can accomplish. Like musical notes in the grand Divine composition, each of us has our unique music to play.”

As I was driving to class that morning – prior to reading this essay, I had been having a conversation with God. I had asked what I should do if my book proposal was turned down by the agent currently reviewing it. I was ready to just throw up my hands and go back to writing articles. (Well, not totally…but I was feeling a bit lost, like another rejection might be telling me I was not on the right path.) The Still Small Voice I heard told me to keep moving forward, keep moving towards my goal, because this was my soul’s purpose. I listened, but I was still a bit unsure. After reading Rabbi Jacobson’s words, however, I was convinced.

In fact, he shed a new light on my feelings of self doubt and my lack of self worth. First, I thought, “It doesn’t matter what I do or if I do anything at all. Just being born is enough to show that I matter.” Then, I thought, “Well…we do each have a purpose, and I am pretty sure I know what mine is. So, I should, indeed, keep plugging away at getting a book published. I don’t have to worry about how good I am as a writer or speaker or how much I know or what my credentials are. I need only do what I am supposed to do here.”

What freeing thoughts! If I stop worrying about what others think of me and of what I write and say and instead simply remind myself that I am fulfilling my mission and that is all that matters, suddenly I don’t need approval from outside. It’s enough to just do what I know I am meant to do.

That said, I am still struggling with the need to have an agent or publisher approve of my writing and what I teach through that writing. I still need to have people ask me to come speak and teach to them. Despite this, I realize that I need to just keep plugging forward. Whatever I do that allows me to fulfill my mission here in this life I was given, is all that is expected of me. I just need to keep working towards the goals that are aligned with my soul’s purpose.

Somehow, that perspective helps considerably. It gives me permission to be me, to do what I do, to simply keep moving forward. It stops me from judging myself against some external scale. I can rest more peacefully knowing that God is well pleased with me. I’m doing what I came into this world to do. And, the fact that I am even alive at all means that who I am and what I do matters. So, even if it seems like I’m taking small steps or dealing with obstacles or road blocks, the truth remains – I’m making progress. I’m making a difference.

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