A couple years ago, I had an eye-opening conversation with another writer. She told me her dream was to be a New York Times Bestseller. She wanted to out-produce Nora and JK Rowlings combined. She wanted her stories to be the first thing on people’s minds when they entered a bookstore. She wanted her face plastered on every magazine. She wanted talk shows, and round the clock book signings. She wanted to be a household name. (First name only, thankyouverymuch. Like “Nora.”)

Trust me, Tracy Flick had nothing on this gal.

I’m not as ambitious as my colleague. Yes, I want to see the books (plural) of my heart in print. But all that other stuff? Nope. You can have it. Look, I’m not an underachiever. I’m ambitious, but I value my privacy and my freedom. With that kind of fame, comes A LOT of stuff I’d rather not deal with.

You know what I want? I want to write a damn good book. I want people to enjoy my damn good book. I want people to want to read another of my damn good books and I want to be able to write my damn good book in peace. Is that the goal of an underachiever? I don’t think so. If a publisher were to take me on, they wouldn’t find a more dedicated writer. But I know who I am. I know what I want. And I have, what I’d like to call, ‘reasonable’ goals. Call me a hermit, if you will. Call me one of those “strange” writers who keeps to herself BUT churns out a book faithfully. Yes, call me that. But please don’t call me an underachiever.

So how about you? What’s your goal? Do you want mega fame, or do you just want to see a few of your damn good books get published? Or do you want something in between?

Oh, BTW, in case you haven’t seen Election (with Reese Witherspoon as the irrepressible Tracy Flick) you’re missing out on a great movie classic! Here’s the trailer.