Adversity by Nancy Goldberg Levine

This morning, I'm welcoming a new friend, Nancy Goldberg Levine. She and I became acquainted earlier this year, and I learned about her personal battle as well as her writing challenges. Her topic today is adversity, and, trust me, she knows too much about the subject.

Who Is Nancy Goldberg Levine?

Nancy writes sweet contemporary romantic comedy, and she has two ebooks available in her Practically Perfect Heroes series: Mr. Short, Dark...& Funny (Practically Perfect Heroes)and Mr. Tall, Tan...& Tasteless (Practically Perfect Heroes).

Presently, Nancy is hard at work on the first book of a new series: Sweeter Than W(h)ine. Nancy is also the author of more than 60 short stories and Tempting Jonah, her first full-length romance novel which was published by a small press but is now out of print.

As you can tell by the titles of her ebooks and her series, Nancy has a heck of a sense of humor. She invites you to visit her blog, Laugh With Me. Find her on Twitter @NancyGLevine.

Adversity
by Nancy Goldberg Levine

Lately, I’ve been reading (or listening to) books where the characters go through plenty of adversity and give their all to finally reach their goal of justice, finding the killer, etc. I’ve also had plenty of adversity myself and have been thinking about it since life intervened, and I got laid off from my day job.

Looking For The Silver Lining

Sometimes, I find that I have to make a negative into a positive. Okay. I’m laid off. I know I’m going back, I just don’t know when. That should give me more time to write.

Since last November, I’ve had to turn a lot of negatives into positives when real life began intervening in a big way. I was halfway through Sweeter Than W(h)ine -- which at the time had a different title, wasn’t a comedy, and the hero had a different profession -- when my computer crashed. I lost everything. I didn’t have a flash drive, or a hard copy. Luckily, my co-workers bought me a flash drive, and I now have hard copies too.

Later, that fateful month, I had knee surgery. The operation was a success. The next day I had a scheduled physical therapy, and I went to sleep. And stayed asleep for five days. I discovered later that the doctors didn’t know if I would wake up. Fortunately, I did finally wake up. I learned that I had pneumonia and had almost died.

Fast Forward

One year later, and I’m doing better. I finished Mr. Short, Dark...& Funny (Practically Perfect Heroes),which began life as 2 short stories that got rejected. (More adversity.) I turned the 2 stories into a book and re-titled it.

Mr. Tall, Tan...& Tasteless (Practically Perfect Heroes)had a similar story. It was originally a novella that had also been rejected. (There's that adversity again.)

After recovering from surgery, I went back to work in May. While I was off though, I had more time to write and explore Indie Publishing. I worked on my existing stories -- expanding and retitling them and in October, published both as ebooks.

But that old adversity just won't leave me alone as is evidenced by the recent layoff. Of course, that means I'll have more time to write. (Looking on that bright side has become a habit.)

What about you? Have you ever had your real life intervene on your writing life? What did you do to turn a negative into a positive? The first 3 people to Comment win copies of Mr. Short, Dark...& Funny (Practically Perfect Heroes).

Takeaway Truth

I hope you'll support Nancy -- and her delightful off-kilter sense of humor. Leave a comment; win a book. Or buy a copy of either of her books.