angelaschmeling

I was listening to a podcast recently and on the podcast, the commentator brought up a story about a well-known author who was writing a new book. Now, this author has had their books be best-selling novels and turned into movies. Pretty much what I would love to say about myself as an author. Maybe someday. But until then, we will continue talking about this particular author, Elizabeth Gilbert.

Now, Ms. Gilbert wrote the book, Eat, Pray, Love. I know many that have loved this book. It wasn’t particularly my favorite, but it definitely wasn’t the worst book I’ve ever read. Well, she was writing a new book and it was set in Russia.

Apparently, this caused some backlash. Some fans got very upset with her writing a book that takes place in Russia due to the current war that is going on with them and Ukraine. Ms. Gilbert’s book had nothing to do with the war in Ukraine, but was actually about a family in the 1930s trying to resist the soviet government.

So, after months of blood, sweat, and hard work on this new book, what does this author decide to do?

Pull the book.

She decided because some people weren’t happy with the location of the book she was writing, she wouldn’t bother publishing it.

And it breaks my heart that she gave up on something she had worked hard on because people weren’t happy.

Newsflash, there will always be people that will be negative. There will always be naysayers that try to get you to fail. Or even get you to believe that you will fail.

As my pastor says, we are a generation of commenting. People always feel the need to add their two cents to everything.

When I wrote Beyond Every Sunset, I had someone, the same day that it was released give me a 1-star review on Goodreads. There is no way they had even read it yet to be able to justify giving that review, but yet they did. Should this have stopped me from writing because someone felt the need to try and bring me down with a bad review?

No!

Don’t give up on your dreams so quickly! If there is something that God has placed on your heart, don’t listen to the negativity because the devil will always be trying to prevent you from doing the calling that God has placed on your life.

I feel bad that Ms. Gilbert felt that she had to pull her book and let others dictate what story she could write. I can empathize with the people of Ukraine, but this story wasn’t about them. This story, from my understanding, sounds like it would be something that they could relate to. Not something they should be upset about.

To conclude, if you have a dream, if you have something that God has called you to do, don’t quit just because of someone else’s opinions. Because everyone’s got an opinion. Instead surround yourself with people that will encourage you and lift you up and give you good Godly counsel and keep moving forward to what you are called to do!