There’s a Person behind the Name

“It is now, at Advent, that I am given the chance to suspend all expectation…and instead to revel in the mystery.”
―     Jerusalem Jackson Greer,   A Homemade Year: The Blessings of Cooking, Crafting, and Coming Together

As already mentioned last week – it’s this time of the year … we’re celebrating Advent – the time of expectant waiting and preparation for the celebration of Christmas.

I prepared my post already last week and even though I wasn’t really happy with it “life happens” and I got too busy to think about something else to say in regards to Advent. And, see the thing is, the topic was my idea.

Anyway, I got this email last night and going along with the theme “celebration” and the American “being thankful” last week, I hope to put my thoughts into order and onto “paper” or screen as it is. This email was for a post on my personal blog to introduce readers to an “author” and her new release. She was writing how she came up with the idea of the story and, may I say again, it was an illness. It was in a way good to put a person to the name “on the cover”. It’s happened so often recently that through my blogposts I’ve discovered the “real” person and it made me read the last book from a different perspective. More appreciating the words.

I was “diagnosed” with histamine intolerance last week, as much as the doctor does a “diagnosis” with something so undefinable like this. It took me a while to get up and “shake” the anger and resentment from me. But then I was telling people and the feedback was heart-warming and truly appreciated. One author checked with a friend, who sat down and wrote me ~ me, a stranger I may add! ~ straight away with as much information as possible. Not only did I feel much better having the info, but I was so grateful for “that” person who I only know the name of, for responding so quickly and thoroughly. It truly was worth more than any money in the world.

But I also deal with “names” in the RWAus “sprinting room”. See, instead of doing the NaNoWrMo (I certainly hope I’ve got this one right), RWAus did a sprint 50k30d during November. Names on the screen, but we’re sprinting together, cheering together, helping out, laughing …. you get the gist and all of a sudden, the names turned into people. I’ll miss it and will make my darn best to do sprints as often as I can, even if it’s just to “share” the sprint room with those ladies!

What am I trying to say? In a way, that even though we deal with so many names throughout the day, week and month, I wonder sometimes what we know about that person except for the books, their blogposts or some of their interviews. Do we know the “person” behind the “name”? In our effort to promote our books, do we lose sight of who we’re talking to?

I hope you all have a wonderful and blessed first Advent week!